India leaves home in style

8.1.2013

Happy New Year everyone. We are off to an interesting start here. On Monday Edd and I borrowed Bo’s car and drove India to Woolangarra up near Licola where she is starting her new job. It is a three-hour drive to get there but the fun bit came at the end. Luckily we had advised India to make sure she had exact instructions about how to find the outdoor education centre. These made interesting reading. Apparently we had to find a gate after two creeks and undo the padlock using a hidden key. Then they said there was a 20-minute hike down to the river where there was a flying fox. At this point we were to Cooee for help.

These instructions proved surprisingly accurate but did not mention that we would find a wooden cart for luggage that had to be dragged along a goat track on a crag face beside the river. This worked fine until it became too steep and we had to carry things by hand. We had to fetch two cartloads anyway, so Edd and India went back for a second load whilst I stood on the flying fox platform and cooeed as instructed. The river was very wide but not full, so that it was mostly a river of rocks. At the other side the gorge rose steeply with trees clinging to the rise but no sign of habitation.

Eventually two figures appeared dragging another handcart. It was impossible to see exactly who they were, or hear them, but they both got hold of a seat that hung from the wire and ran flat out towards the river before letting go. This energetic performance resulted in a wooden seat shooting out to the centre of the river. It did not stop there because the figures had by then started running with ropes to pull it up the sloping cable to the platform where I could catch it. I had found a rope anchored into the bank behind and I also found a point on the seat that I could hook it over to prevent it sliding back again.

It was not a very large seat, but we got India on with two of her boxes and a bag. I was not sure boxes with wheels are the ideal thing for these conditions but we released the seat and India shot off to the centre of the river and then was hauled to the other side by our helpers. I went over with the next set of luggage and Edd came holding on to the guitar and the final load. The helpers turned out to be two very nice young men and they helped India put her luggage onto a hand cart that looked as if it had been made from old bicycles so that it could be dragged up the bank, through the trees into a clearing on a flat area. We then reached a wooden cabin and India was introduced to the rest of the team and given a room.

Every thing seemed Ok so Edd and I had a drink of water and then everyone helped us go back across on the flying fox. India will work for a year with various groups of school kids. There is no electricity, computers or mobile phone contact and they cook on a wood stove so it is really back top basics. India was worried that she had left her phone in the car but we could not find it and going back was not an option. By the end of the year I think she will be very good at not forgetting things!