Tom finds fault with the Flying Doctor radio

Day: 30

Bad weather camp – 10.06.2000

The weather on Saturday is even worse. It rains almost non-stop. Tanja works on the campfire first. Then she sits next to the hissing flames and waits for the rain to finally stop. Only when she is terribly cold and the raincoat has become leaky does she retreat into the tent. I sit under our mushroom roof and write about the events, also freezing. I also try to get the radio working without success. Although I have charged the battery all night, the meter’s pointer does not go above 10 volts. The battery is probably faulty, I think to myself and give up trying to establish a connection with Jo and Tom.

Around midday, farmer Jo and his lovely wife come to visit us. They invite us to eat and offer us a hot shower to warm up our bodies. Unfortunately, we have to decline their extremely friendly offer, because we can’t leave the camp with all the equipment unguarded. It’s clear that hardly anyone comes out here to steal anything, but you can’t guarantee that either. We’ve put too much energy into getting all the equipment and just wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving it unattended. The friendly farmer couple understands our explanation and they say goodbye to us a short time later.

Tom visits us in the afternoon. He came all the way from Goomalling to see what was wrong with the radio connection. “Let me see, maybe I can find the mistake,” he says in his usual friendly manner and gets straight to work. In fact, just a few minutes later we discover a faulty fuse that makes it impossible to charge the battery. Among other minor issues, we notice that the earthing cable is located above the antenna cable and therefore interferes with the connection. After eliminating the errors, we call Jo in Goomalling in good spirits to see if the connection works. “I can hear you clearly,” the loudspeaker says.

At 7pm, Jo and Tom are sitting around the campfire. Tom went home to pick up Jo after the radio had been repaired. They will spend the night here at the camp in their car tonight, because Jo will be walking with us again tomorrow. Before we go to bed, we eat the delicious chicken breasts that Jo has marinated in a wonderful marinade and brought as a surprise for us. In good spirits despite the cold wind, we tell each other stories that never seem to run out.