5th October – Raven Camp, SK, Points North

It was cold this morning. In fact minus 6 at around 8.00am.

The lake behind us started to freeze again. It will probably do this a number of times until there are enough consecutive days for the lake to be so frozen we can start ice skating on it (watch out Torvil and Dean!)

We headed over to Points North which will be our new residence for the time being. Points North is around a 30 minute drive on a gravel road from Raven Camp and is located at the airport. The office is actually right next to the tarmac and no more than 20 metres from where some of the planes park up. No such thing as airport security here. When the plane is ready to leave the pilot simply comes into the room where the passengers are waiting and asks “right, we’re all ready to go then”. Dan had a man knock on the office door and ask if he would be opening the canteen once to which he replied “do I look like I run the canteen”. (note: there is no canteen here but he did have a belter of a moustache then). It’s kind of cool with the seaplanes, planes and helicopters coming and going all day and you can look out the window and see them. Again, very different from any place I’ve ever worked.

It’s a little cooler here at Points North as the wind blows straight off the water so the wind chill factor is, well, cold! Meaning of course, that the everything is freezing quicker including the puddles on the ground. The Australian fascination with frozen water continues with the boys taking great delight in picking up the ice and smashing it on the ground (or with their head - Brendo).

We are staying in a rather dodgy room at the moment. We share the block of rooms with lots of other men here. There are no showers or toilets for women, so Dan has to go in, check there are no men and then I get to come in. The boys decided to crack the 1.2 litre bottle of Bacardi we bought with us. They made it home around 12.30am from the office much worse for wear and there wasn’t a whole lot left of the bacardi either, but they had fun. They may have even squeezed in a little work in between.

Zorro come out for brief moment, though it was a poor impersonation.