Oh yeah, I'm a mortal.

I laugh a lot about my near death experiences here, finding scorpions and venomous ants in my room, nearly being mauled by rampaging cattle and starving to death. But in all reality I actually almost died about an hour ago.

But first.

This morning we had one more truckload of cattle to take from one of the yards to another to be branded. So Tom and I hauled out the cattle truck and drove off to the yards. All was well and good until…. THA GUMP THA GUMP THA FUMP FUMP FUMP. OH CRAP. One of the tires had completely exploded and shredded itself and another had gone flat and popped off the rim. And with no spares and everyone in the yards away from the radios we were stuck. Working out here there is a lot more time spent sitting not really doing much than you might think. There is a lot of waiting around getting ready, waiting for customers to show up, lots of flat tires in the middle of no where, that sort of thing. I have decided that when I get back I am going to write a book called: 101 Great Places to Sit and Do Absolutely Nothing in the Outback. On that list luckily the place we were stuck this morning was about a 7 out of 10. We had water, we were near the yards and we had a decent view. It could definitely have been much worse. Also luckily after about an hour one of the girls checked in on the radio and we let her know we were stuck. Afterwards we had to go finish going over to the nearby yards and get the cattle water and back into their holding areas. Then we drove over to where the branding was going on just in time for a much needed lunch. This brings me to today’s near death experience. No my sandwich did not spontaneously combust in my face. This morning I was taught how to drive a manual and I drove myself and one of the girls an hour across really bad roads to the yards. I think I did pretty well especially considering how bad the roads are here and considering that it was my first time really driving a manual.

After lunch I was told that there might be some painters showing up this afternoon and that I should drive myself back to Delmore to meet them. ALONE. I did very well for the first part of the trip I think. I was driving very carefully and making sure to go extra slow around turns and through sand, or near the nearly meter deep trenches that run next to and through the road. About halfway home there was a patch of road that had two deep ruts in the road where someone had probably driven through when the road was muddy and it dried that way. I was driving with the ruts in between my wheels and I think that one of the tires slipped on some sand and I lost control of the ute and spun off the side of the road knocking into some of the short dead trees that are everywhere. The weird thing is that while I was spinning out of control the only thing that was going through my mind was,

“Wow, I’m actually crashing this car.”

Thanks to adrenaline, primal instinct, and probably some divine intervention, I managed to avoid the larger trees and stop the car. But all I could bring myself to do was get out and shove my face in the dirt for a minute or two, and thank whatever deity brought my foot to the brake in time. Even when I was directly charged by those huge cattle or nearly drowned by my dog when I was a kid or any car accident I’ve been in I have never been that in shock that I am actually still alive. I don’t even think that fear is really much a part of it. It’s like you know deep in your instinct brain, that you really probably shouldn’t be alive right now, and yet you are. So what I was feeling was an odd mix of relief and confusion. Even now probably an hour and a half later my heart is still racing.

I think what really saved me is that I wasn’t going that fast. I was probably only going 50 kms an hour (about 30mph) where earlier I had been had been going faster. It wasn’t really a matter of not knowing how to drive manual well, I’m pretty sure the same thing would have happened even if I were driving the automatic that I have at home. The sand and the deep ruts in the road threw my wheels all crazy and I tried to correct myself but just ended up going over the edge of the road.

As for the car, it’s hard to tell if I’ve done much damage to it or not. The utes here take such a beating and are so beat up and scratched and bent that I can’t tell what dents are new or not. The glass part of the right side rear view mirror definitely popped out but it’s not like we really use those much here anyway. There isn’t any traffic to look out for. If any of the damage turns out to be new I’ll post about it later. I won’t be able to find out until everyone gets home.

Also no painters have showed up today making the whole affair for naught. Except I guess for me to learn to be even more careful than I think I need to be on these roads.

But for now: WHEW. Thank god im alive.




Side note: I have found out that there was no new damage to the car except that the tire had a small hole in it. but now the tire has been replaced so all is good except maybe my ego.