Not a lot of time
to settle in, but after quick introductions to Dave Cox (owner), and to Brian
and Kirsten (workers like us), Stuart and Candice (stranded travellers), it’s
straight into helping with dinners, twenty-eight a-la-carte meals altogether on
our first night.
Our home for the
next ten weeks is in an old three bedroom house on the property which we will
share with Brian and Kirsten. It has very squeaky floors, probably as a result
of floods (more about them later).
It’s on-the-job
training, learning to deal with meal sales, bar sales, souvenir sales and fuel
sales. We quickly settle into the rhythm of Mt Dare Hotel life, sharing the
duties, as well as hotel, toilet and cabin cleaning together with camping
ground maintenance. Bet and Kirsten are soon joined by a new staff member,
Elise, and together they organize a roster around themselves for hotel cleaning
and servicing the cabins. I get together with Brian for rubbish collection and
trips to our own tip where anything that can be burned is fired using a mix of
petrol, oil and diesel as an accelerant
 | |
| Brian and his apprentice |
The dinner
travellers’ menu is a choice of scotch fillet, chicken breast, crumbed fish and
fisherman’s basket, with chips and vegetables as accompaniments. The scotch
fillets are some of the best I have ever seen, and are sourced from a wholesale
butcher in Alice Springs. Naturally being so far from the source, food is
generally frozen or is long-life product. Staff have a more varied choice, and
arrange their own meals from whatever produce is available. Additional to this,
we bake fresh bread in breadmakers which is served with dinners.
Most of the
cooking is done by Dave, with Brian as a backup. At the same time, I am serving
my apprenticeship to these accomplished chefs.
Stuart and
Candice have been stranded here for six weeks, while Stuart repairs his Navarra
after damaging the engine after losing all his coolant when his radiator was
holed. It’s a quid pro quo relationship with Stuart and Candice working around
the hotel for accommodation and meals, and use of the workshop to effect
repairs to their vehicle.
Power to the
property comes from two diesel powered generators, a 50KVA unit powered by an
Isuzu diesel engine, and a smaller unit powered by a Hino diesel engine. By day
we run the smaller unit which is adequate to keep all vital components, such as
fridges and freezers, operating. Late afternoon we switch over to the bigger
generator to support the additional load required for the operation of water
heaters and kitchen equipment, before reverting to the smaller unit for
overnight running.
That’s it. Time for a bourbon.
