Food (Or No Food)

I spent the day commuting between far-flung Fairy-Wren territories, and, by afternoon, had hiked 4 kilometers off-trail and biked an hour and a half on 4×4 roads, getting progressively dustier, sweatier, and generally grimier as the sun climbed scorching overhead. In the afternoon, with the temperature over a hundred degrees, I hit a patch of red sand on my bike and flipped over the handlebars; luckily, the sand was soft (though very hot), and so was my landing. Just another day at work!

I’ve been at Mornington Station for 20 days now and haven’t been resupplied with food. My stocks have dwindled quicker than I thought, and I’m down to basically empty shelves: a couple boxes of bread mix, one can of baked beans, three wrinkly onions, and a bit of cereal. For breakfast today, I ate cereal; also cereal for my mid-morning snack, and more cereal for lunch; for dinner, I think I’ll stir-fry the onions with the beans.

Handyman Paul departed in a truck this morning for the 12-hour round trip to Derby’s isolated grocery store, and should be back tomorrow with heaps of supplies carefully ordered by each person at Mornington (the grocery store pre-organizes the orders into crates for a small fee). No transportation here is guaranteed, though; last year, this food run was delayed four days when the truck broke down in the middle of nowhere. If that happens, I might have to start eating dirt – not that I haven’t had enough sand in my teeth already! I suppose it would fulfill my daily dose of iron, at least. But a nice, fresh tomato sounds much more appetizing…