Jennifer King is a retired OR nurse who has taken up a career in journalism, specifically broadcast journalism working for ABC. That's not our ABC, it's Australian Broadcasting System, but it's their public, PBS style station.
Jen works out of Brisbane, and lives in a nearby suburb. I met her once in Penn Station when she and her husband were traveling through the states and leaving New York for a Washington D.C. tour. Through her press credentials, she got to be photographed in the White House briefing room. She stood where Sean Spicer was then running the show from; now Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Australia has always been intriguing to me ever since I saw the Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr movie the 'Sundowners.' in the 60s. I always liked the music of ' Waltzing Matilda' and completely know what all the bits in the song refer to.
My daughter visited her college friend who was teaching in Sydney one year. The two of them hooked up with some others and climbed the Sydney Harbor Bridge, a bridge that is a replica of the Hell Gate railroad bridge that connects Queens with the Bronx and services Amtrak trains headed north from Penn Station. It was a sanctioned climb, not a stunt, but did require head gear harnesses and safety ropes.
When Susan left for Australia it was the day after Christmas, and when she finally got there and settled a bit, she sent us photos of everyone on the beach. It was of course summer Down Under.
When I met Jen and her husband for that brief time before they got on their D.C. train they had been staying in the Flatiron, or Chelsea area of the city with friends. They got a kick out my telling them atop Penn Station is Madison Square Garden and later that evening 20,000 hockey fans were going to be watching a Ranger game over their heads. Steve looked up. New York is a vertical city.
I love seeing the photos Jen Tweets with. I get constantly amused and scared at the animals that insert themselves into even urban, or suburban life. There have been photos of kangaroos hopping down their suburban street; photos of very long snakes that have slithered out from under refrigerators, and of course spider and reptiles that sit on cars in the parking lots.
Jen likes to make me especially aware of the more outstanding examples of the incursion of Australian wildlife. Just recently she Tweeted about camels in North Western Queensland where she is currently on a brief assignment.
Camels. In Australian. Do they race the camels? Yes. Two years ago the NYT racing reporter Joe Drape was at the Northshire Bookstore in Saratoga Springs where he was discussing his latest book 'American Pharoah,' the horse that in 2015 had just won racing's Triple Crown, the first winner in 37 years.
Joe gave the audience a little of his verbal CV telling the audience that he has been to, I don't remember, perhaps hundreds of racing venues all over the world, including camel racing in the Middle East. I don't remember Joe mentioning Australia, but he did tell us he bet on camel racing.
Jen linked me to a story someone in the newsroom had done about the camel racing in Boulia, a dot of a town in north western Queensland. Australia is the only country to be also classified as a continent, and a good part of it is sparsely, or not inhabited at all. There are deserts. Most of the population rings the coastline of Australia. Jen writes that Boulia is three hours west of where she in currently working, in Mount Isa, Mount Isa a comparatively larger town north of Boulia that doesn't look like it should take three hours to get to—until you look at the terrain. There must be a lot of Range Rovers in the Antipodes.
An Australian atlas shows a direct road from either Rockhampton or Townsville, two north Queensland coast cities. The first part of the road looks like it might be a four lane highway; but the final approach is on something that looks to be two lanes—at best. But you can get there. Eventually.
And apparently the camel racing is so popular that when it is being held, the tiny dot of Boulia swells with tourists. The photos from the link show how desperately hot it must be in these outback regions.
The outback is something else, Jen has retweeted photos, with quotes from the locals, that a 9 hour drive to go to someone's party is not a big deal. When you go to the store you better have a good list and forget nothing.
I suspect camel racing doesn't come with past performances and a great deal of informed analysis. I doubt there is a tote board, or even instant replay. I'd love to hear Maggie Wolfendale try and tell us in a paddock report how good a camel's coat (pun very much intended) looks, I have to say, I doubt I'll ever get to Australia, but the place does look like a good deal of fun.
http://www.onofframp.blogsplot.com
G'day, Mate! Some years ago uSLines carried a half dozen camels from Australia to New York - stowed in a lower hold on twelve inches of sand - upon arrival someone had to clean that hold! One hump or two?
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