It's not like I haven't been here before. Hang on! I haven't been here before. In the literal sense I have been to where I am going before. But metaphorically speaking I haven't been here before.
In 2014, I posted Travel Is An Extreme Sport, which captured the journey to a very remote project area in Queensland where it took essentially three days of travel to spend one day on site. In context with the journey/s I am about to undertake, that trip now seems like the equivalent of meandering out to the letterbox.
All too soon Animal Plant Mineral and I are heading to remote far north west Queensland, the Buccaneer Archipelego in the Kimberley (twice) and central western NSW to the greater district of Bogan (yes..really! Watch the famous Bogan Gate Tour). Thats about 24, 000 km of travel and no fewer than 10 flights and a few thousand kayems on the black top (that is bogan for 'driving' - when in Rome/Dubbo/Mt Isa).
Field biologists know all to well that there are good times to do a survey and bad times to do a survey. In the tropics, the best times are just after the wet season. So it is not unusual to find oneself spilling the same blood in the same mud (literally) at the same time each year: March/April. We are at the behest of mother nature: we work when the weather tells us it is time to work, no matter what we have on or where else we could be or should be.
Standing side-by-side Mother Nature, the other deity that calls us to arms at the same time of the year is Mr/Mrs Taxman(er..woman). His/Her decree also seems to be all surveys must be done in March/April, with reporting and billing to follow prior to June 30.
Collectively, this means that there is a heck of a lot of work to be done and very few weeks in which to do it! And hence, here I sit, at 3 am on any other Thursday morning in early March contemplating the enormity of the journey ahead.
I have been here before, but never have I been there when I should be here preparing our family house for listing on the market whilst trying desperately to get approval for, and commence building our new home.Anxious? Yes I am.
Lucky for myself and my family, behind this everyday average family man is a very far from average woman.
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