A long drive to work

Echidna in the car park.

Tonight I am 250 kilometres away from the caravan in a cute motel room in a small town on the Stuart Highway. I drove 120km to one school this morning and the rest of the way here after school.  I'm doing two days teaching in the two-teacher school here giving the staff time off to plan. (I used the word school lots of times in this paragraph didn't I? Editing skills are not so good tonight)




Since we have made our dry season home here I have worked mostly in two schools within driving distance. Ok,  within a 150 radius but out here that is close..

The classes here have mostly indigenous students for whom English is a second language (ESL)
I have come to love these classes.

For eight weeks last term I went much further afield and worked in fourteen remote indigenous communities to provide release time or non-contact time to teachers. Over that time I did 8,500 kilometres of outback driving, some of it on dirt or gravel unsealed roads.

River Ford. This one has a concrete base

I wish I could show you some of the classes, but professional conduct and privacy rules prohibit publishing photos of the students.



But I can hit my personal highlights.


Now I was pretty nervous about dirt driving. K does all the hard driving normally and is not a very good passenger at the best of times. I have therefore, out of consideration for his nerves, not done much dirt driving at all. However these schools can't be reached without gravel road travel, so armed with the skills learned in a "4WD on dirt roads" course last year I ventured off. Fortunately the roads were ok. Corrugated, rough but ok. No dramas.

Creek bed crossing.

But I can  boast of crossing/fording four rivers twice each. Alright, they were more like creeks at this time of the year but there was water and rocks on the river bed and everything.

 

The outback loo stop... Nup not gonna go there!

Magnificent scenery. Reds and golds and the most brilliant dark greens.



Baby salty croc in a terrarium.
On loan to the class from Wildlife park

I could rave about the wildlife; kangaroos. wallabies, donkeys, wombats, echidnas, eagles, hawks, wild pigs, brolgas, bullocks and goats on the road.  AND a baby crocodile in a classroom terrarium. Only in the Northern  Territory of Australia!

Brolgas on the road as I fill up with diesel.

But the great highlight of  all continues to be the generosity of the people in town camps and tiny settlements who welcome me into their school with kind words and grins. Who ask about my family and my country and "where is your camp miss Sue?"   And who great me by name whenever and wherever we bump into each other again. I love my life!

I need to prep for tomorrow's classes. Catch you soon.



Cheers Sue

A Ferg on the Move