We lost our caravan leg winder at the Cania Gorge Tourist Retreat, (a beautifu tranquil caravan park I recommend to anyone) & a kindly nomad couple Viv & Kieth from Airley Beach lent us their winder so we could raise our legs before leaving which I was grateful for, then a little while later Keith turns up saying he found a spare winder buried somewhere in his van & offered it to us to keep. You really do meet salt of the earth people when travelling.
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Home is where we hang our hats - Home now in Yamba NSW
Jon I am not surprised any more by the kindness distributed by all manner of folk, I am occasionally surprised by the ignorance of some folk
the last time we seen it was Kangaroo Island, we were watching a japanese couple trying to put up a tent, hilarious, they had no hammer and were trying to hammer a clothes hanger into the ground with a rock
well we finished our cuppa and I dug into my "spare parts bag" and grabbed an old hammer and a dozen pegs, I always carry 10 or twenty spare pegs and a couple of hammers as we come across folks who have none all the time, I make them myself out of left over concrete reo bar so they cost nothing but I get good payment with all the smiles and freindship
we wandered across to these fellers, and found they couldnt speak a word of english, they had bought the tent from a garage sale in adelaide and this was the first time they had tried to put it up, we gave them the pegs and an old hammer and helped them put the tent up, which is another story, hell we had some laughs none of us knew what the thing was supposed to look like and had no idea of what we were doing, first one I had seen that had a "flysheet" I thought it was another tent
anyway this german lass came over wanting to borrow the hammer, we said sure as soon soon as we finish this one, she left with that and we could hear her going off her face over at her camp, she came back and basically demanded the hammer, we said as soon as we finish she could have it, she got very irate and tried to take the hammer away from the little japanese girlie
it got quite heated over a damn hammer, this is what I find astounding not the kindness of strangers but the sheer ignorance of some!
we had a cuppa with the jap couple and enjoyed a half hour with each other not understanding a single word but having plenty of laughs anyway
Enough quackery you lot. Back to the subject if I may bore you for a moment. The story you related Dave reminded me of the film "Pay it forward". I think that is a great thought, the pay it forward principle. Now getting back to non English/Australian speaking people have you noticed that we tend to get louder in the hope the message will get through? As for the Germans, to quote Basil Fawlty, no not our one, "Don't mention the war, I did but I think I got away with it". Keep up the kindness it will come back too you.
Terro.
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Rosemary and Terry08 Patrol, Galaxy Odyssey Pop top He who laughs last is late getting the joke!!
"pay it forward" I like that!! I just got into the habit of when I dropped off sharpened saw blades to a building site that I would pick up the off cuts from either reo bar or concrete reinforcing mesh, it is a simple matter of bending the end over in the super jaws and voila you have a tentpeg
we visit garage sales and there is almost always old ratty hammers in amongst that lot for a dollar, we buy them and just keep the hammers and spare tent pegs in a smallish bag beside the cupboard, there is nearly always someone who is strife
every now and then, like milo did, you come across a drongoe, but there are for more "good guys" out there than drongoes
I see the good guys all the time helping someone out, nothing special it is just a common courtesy and should be expected, but also should be noted as has been done by this post!
we only had the one left and the japs were using that, we had our main one but with her attitude she wasnt getting it! simple matter of common courstesy!