Tour de Oz by Bret Harris

Author:Bret Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperSports
Published: 2017-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

Their remarks would need to be heard to be appreciated. They were men of all ages – short and grizzly, long and tanned. The one who located next to me seemed to have his face in bad repair, but apologised for same by saying that an alligator had bitten him when getting a drink.

Just as we were leaving the table, one, who said he was a vocalist, asked if any of us could play the piano, which I noticed in one corner of the room. Unfortunately, White accused me of being able to do so. Vainly declining, I was escorted to the piano. There was nothing else for it. So at 3.00pm the concert started. After each song, drinks! By 4.00pm drinks were being brought in at the middle of songs. In fact, it became about a three-minute service between the bar and parlour.

By 4.30 things were very merry. I had not been able to keep up the pace. And now the top of the piano was stacked with drinks, not counting many that had been spilt over same – also, over myself. But I was now entering into the show in earnest. As the firewater splashed over me, I was refreshed. The evening was hot. Under any circumstances, external application would be preferable to internal! The pace had been killing, but with frequent intermissions. For instance, when a performer was thought to be singing out of tune, he had to pay the penalty with a hit under the ear. It would then generally take some minutes for him to prove he was correct. Although much of the furniture got upset, it was a welcome respite.

In the evening it was proposed that the party should have a swim in the river to freshen up for tea. It was a magnificent stretch of deep water, shaded by the overhanging branches of giant trees on the bank. They all dived into the water without any clothes. One bushwhacker, though, did not join in, instead sitting on the bank. Suddenly he sprang to his feet and shouted, ‘Alligators!’ There was a mad dash to reach the bank, but there was no sign of any ‘alligators’ or the practical joker. Cursing in the ‘startling lingo of the NT’, the bushwhackers decided to return to the dining room for tea before adjourning to the bar.

‘After a smoke, during which many tall adventures were narrated, mostly bearing on horsey subjects and shooting blacks, it was considered time to again start the concert,’ Donald recalled.

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