Portland Roads

Beautiful calm morning- watched the local croc float lazily up and down in front of the house.

The mothership had arrived so I bravely went out where no Seamus had ever trod before. Used Alan’s penis err outboard extender for the first time. This is a clever device (a bit of plastic tube) that fits over the throttle thingy of the boat so one can stand up towards the centre of the boat and thus keep the nose of the boat down a bit on solo trips. Works quite well, although I did nearly throw myself overboard at one stage. So I loaded up an empty gas cylinder onto the trolley, wheeled it down in the water to the boat and put the cylinder in the boat.

Then out to the mother ship, where I had to wait in queue (ya know there’s no fucken handbrake on a boat!) – anyway bounced off a few boats, talked to Ian from Wattle Hills then moored and asked what to do? I had to go up to the captain’s quarters, introduce myself to Gavin, ask about my account and what the usual protocol was. He did not have our account on his computer, but was happy enough to write it down on a post-it note and give me a new gas cylinder.

This all got sorted and I headed back to shore – and actually went fast – I think I even had full throttle for a second or two!

The tow major rivers on the road in are the Pascoe and the Wenlock. These are impassable for much of the wet. The Pascoe is longer and often deeper than the Wenlock.

Pascoe River crossing on the Lockhart Road on the way in to Portland Roads

We visited Lockhart on the way in. I couldn’t work the diesel bowsers, so had to ask some aboriginal kids. The local store wasn’t too bad and did have quite reasonably fresh vegies. Cate talked to the manager, who knew Alan quite well.

We then thought we might try the local doctor/medical centre. We parked on the road outside and were immediately accosted by a woman who basically told us to fuck off – until we said we were about to start care-taking Alan’s place for a year. Then everything was OK.

We were told later by Alan that she was a very nice person who was the head nurse (and I think administrator) but that she was very protective of her medical centre – it has been set up for the local aboriginal community and apparently tourists do often become a nuisance there.