Continued from Part One

Tom’s Amazing Adventures continued the next day. After walking all morning, Tom had picked up a ride to Dubbo with a lovely old lady in a Vauxhall. She regaled him with stories of her childhood during the Great Depression of the ’30s and the hardship of the ’40s with WW2. It particularly offended her that people were protesting their current “hardship” with the lockdown. “pfft”, she said. “They have no idea what hardship is. Have any of them ever had bread and dripping sandwiches or eaten Tripe?”

Dubbo

More than a bit shamefaced with her words, Tom remained silent. After being dropped off in Dubbo, Tom decided to take a couple of days rest from the road and picked up some casual work repairing burst pipes. So it seems with all the excess eating of desserts. The cream was building up and causing the old pipes to crack.

Tom had been in Dubbo for three days. With work on the pipes done, he spent a day relaxing. He had been sleeping rough under the bridge alongside the Macquarie River in Biddybungie Reserve. Wandering alongside the river, and through the town’s parks, he indulged his hobby of birdwatching.

 This was also a good cover for keeping an eye out for checkpoints and police roadblocks. Next, Tom stopped off at the local Salvation Army Op shop. Taking a leaf out of his hero Jack Reacher’s life on the road, he purchased a change of clothes. He then discarded his old clothes in a bin. He would simply wear them until he needed to replace them. He then sneaked into the NRMA Dubbo holiday park for a shower. He planned to head up the Newell Highway the next day, hoping to get a lift as far as Walgett.

On the road to Walgett

Tom set out as the sun was coming up and started walking along the edge of the highway, thumb out. After about half an hour, he was picked up by a cattle truck heading north. Grateful that the wind was blowing south, Tom accepted the ride. He chatted with Bluey, the driver, all the way to Walgett. Walking into town, Tom found a café and ordered a coffee.

Chatting to a local, he found out that Walgett had artesian bore baths, naturally heated to a temperature of 41.5°. Even better, the baths were free.   Having been on the road now for almost two weeks, a good soak sounded perfect.

Tom’s goal of getting to Walgett was based on it being a quiet little town but a stop on the Great Inland Way. This was a tourist route that travelled 2,956 kilometres from Sydney to Cairns, through inland NSW. He surmised that he would have no trouble picking up a lift from travelling tourists. And camping in the national parks along the way would be easy. The border to Qld was also only an hour and a half away by car, though he planned to cross by foot. Again under the cover of darkness in a day or so. In the meantime, he would camp at the free campsite in Walgett to rest up and be ready for the night crossing.

The giant Cos tree

After a comfortable night, Tom made himself a billy tea – and decided to go for a hike through Cos Valley. He had heard other campers talking about the valley in glowing terms. It had plenty of birdlife and the tallest Cos tree in Australia. So after a breakfast of sausages in bread, cooked on his campfire (god, he missed Bunnings), he packed his backpack with a few supplies and set off.

He hiked through Cos Valley and ate his lunch under the shade of the Cos tree. Tom enjoyed the solitude before he headed back to Walgett via an ancient Celery Forest, Where much to his surprise, he encountered Bill and the scout troop Bill, behaving as he didn’t know Tom, gave him a brief nod and said ‘afternoon sir, enjoying your walk?” and kept going.

Rendevous

Back at camp, Tom put the billy on and sat down. Then, realising it was Bill who had been watching his last night, he sat and waited. It wasn’t long before Bill ambled over. They greeted each other warmly, and Bill said to Tom, “you made good time then” “Yes, said Tom, I had some luck on the trip with picking up rides, But I didn’t expect to see you till I got to Lightning Ridge”.

“My dear old mum always said you were lucky bloke,” said Bill, “she said you would always land on your feet. But, mind you, I don’t see how that’s good. If I landed on my feet, I’d snap both ankles” They hung by the campfire and talked quietly. Bill explained with the good weather; he thought he had time to get an overnight trip in with the scouts before Tom arrived.

“Everything on your list is ready at the house,” Bill said. “Beryl was a bit annoyed at the start, but she’s come around and is looking forward to seeing you,” They said their goodbyes for now, and Bill headed back to the scouts’ Tom settled down for the night as he had an early start in the morning.

Lightning Ridge

The camp was still quiet. With most still sleeping in their tents, Tom packed up and left in the morning. He wandered through the sleeping town and hit the Castlereagh Highway just after 7 am. Walking along with his thumb out, he got his first lift from a truck as it pulled out of the Walgett Wheat Siding. He rode with the driver as far as the Gwydir Highway junction. From there, he was on foot again until he was picked up by a fossicker who took him all the way to Lightning Ridge.

Beryl had been thinking about Tom. Was he having a fantastic Adventure? However, she had to work that afternoon, so no time to think about Tom Beryl was a caddy at the Lightning Ridge Golf Club Tom and Bill decided to go with her and have a drink at the clubhouse while she worked then they would all stay for dinner “Not looking or smelling like that”, said Beryl “You,” she said, pointing at Tom, “are going to take a long, hot shower, WITH soap AND shampoo, and throw those clothes out the door into the hall You will find clean clothes and shoes in your room, because Bill, you are going to burn what’s he’s wearing They aren’t going in my washing machine, and aren’t fit for the oppy”.