Day 12, Monday 25th Feb. Iron Knob Hotel

Day 12

Monday 25th Feb

Iron Knob Pub

Rest Day

 

So good to sleep. The sun woke us up in a mad sweat, but we felt better for getting some sleep. I sat down on the computer and finally started catching up on the tour diary. The bloke named Brian who ran the pub gave us a knock at the door for a bit of a chat, and let us know he was going to have a bit of a heart starter soon, so we said we’d come and check out the pub. It was early, but we headed off into the seduction of the bar.

The Iron knob pub is massive. A turn out the property is an old school that Brian and his wife Michelle converted into a pub about 5 years ago. The town used to be the richest grade steel mine in Australia, until that ended a few years ago, due to a bit of a story.

We ordered a couple of drinks at the bar, and started having a good chat with Brian. Early afternoon soon rushed upon us, and with quite a few drinks under our belt, we let the bar to check out the town for a little bit. There was no-one around. The towns looks completely empty, with old rusty, run down properties, each with a yard full of old cars and bits and pieces. We found a public phone and made a few phone calls before returning to the bar.

Now in the bar there were a few more characters. We met a couple called Bill and Shirley who were travelling round Australia in a caravan, and it just so happened that Brian was an old mate of their sons. Small world ey?  We spoke to them for a while about what we were doing, and Shirley asked me about my leg. I told her what had happened, and shit started to tell me about a gel that she uses for her sore shoulder from playing darts, and Bill uses it for his sore back. Shirley headed out to the van and grabbed the gel, so I decided to give it a go. I’m not sure how well it worked but Im sure it did something. The gel was some kind of anti-inflammatory gel that is to be used on Horses, and other animals, but Shirley swore by it. So I gave it a crack.

Later on we met some of the locals. We met Gaz who has a ripper of a moustache, and he was also a guitar player, so he went home and grabber his guitar, and an amp and we had a bit of a jam. Althought for some reason all Gaz wanted to do was play house of the rising sun.

We also me a character called “Caveman.” Apparently he got the nickname because he told all the girls he was fooling around with, that he lived up on the mountain, in the caves, so that they didn’t know where he lived. He looked quite old, but was only 50years old, and had lost half the use of his body due to a car accident. He sat mostly in the corner of the bar, and just smiled and giggled.

For dinner Harv and I hopped into a steak each, followed by two extra plates of hot chips for some reason. Its obvious that its not good to eat that much food, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

After Bill and Brian taught us the ins and out’s of playing darts, Harv and I played a match against each other. We spent at least 15 minutes trying to end the game on double 1. Bed time called for everyone, so off we went.

We headed out to the tents to go to sleep, but Brian came out, and insisted that we both sleep in some beds that he showed us to. I didn’t mind the tent, but the beds looked better, and Brian would have been offended it we turned it down. So what a great sleep it was. Massive thanks to Brian and Michelle for everything!