Friday, Feb 25, 2005 at 00:09
Hmmm,,,,,,,,,a heap of the story went missing there??? So here's the full version.....
Just for Gajm -"The Honda Genny story."
Firstly Gajm, in summer the wind can get that hot that you'd swear you were close to a camp fire. It's like standing in front of a blast furnce with the door open. Anyway,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I was out prospecting with 2 mates at a place called Duketon. That's approximately 100 kms NE of
Laverton in WA. I'd had the very reliable 2 stroke Honda genny fer years, never had a prob with it except for the odd clean out of the muffler. The usual 2 stroke thing.
Anyway, one evening I went back to camp early to get some tucker on the go. The others stayed out and we're gonna be guided in by the light from the genny. It was getting on about 7.30 pm when the fuel ran out in the little genny. So I refuelled it from a 5 litre can of petrol mix and put the cap back on the genny and the can. Went to pull the starter and it 'no-go'. Pulled again and again. Still no go & by this time it's flooded. So as usual, pull the spark plug out and pull the starter rope to blow out the excess fuel.
Unfortunately, I left the spark plug connected to the HT lead and it earthed as I was pulling the starter rope. PLUS, I'd spilled some fuel over the engine as filled it in the dark. And WHHOOMPAH,BOOPMPHA, FLASH, BANG!!! and I was on fire, the genny was on fire, the grass was on fire. The bush was lit up like Baghdad on fireworks night!!
The base of the fire was underneath the genny, so I pulled me jumper off and wrapped it around the genny to extinguish that fire. Only to see that the 5 litre can was right next to the genny and the grass was on fire! First thing – get rid of that can of fuel. GRAB, RUN, DROP CAN, RUN BACK. Bugger me – I’m on fire as well!! Hairs on fire, eyebrows stinging, hands are burnt – I had petrol residue on my (apparently). Put me beanie on, that put out me hair, grabbed me Bluey jacket from the truck – that put out me hands ‘n I started on using the Bluey to put out the grass fire. I was flapping me arms like it was an unpowered attempt at the first flight by a human being!! A lunatic I was!
By this time I was fully cognisant of the fact that the breeze was blowing the grass fire right towards 3 camper vans – mine and me 2 mates. My thoughts at this time were along the lines of “If those campers go up, yer burns won’t me a thing – yer dead meat ‘cos yer mates are gonna lynch ya!”
Me mates returned about 20 minutes after it was all over. The place was in total “bush darkness”. No light, no campfire, no dinner with the just the dull glow of a lone cigarette bein’ smoked by me and the odd smell of burnt grass. They took the wrong turning 3 times ‘cos I didn’t have the floodlight on. I was surpised they didn't see the bloody fire!! They were cold, hungry, tired and almost lost. They weren’t happy little prospectors. But neither was I. I was hurting bad, I’d lost me favourite genny and I’d let me mates down.
"Where's the genny, where's the tea? What'sa matter with your hair? What happened to yer face? What's that smell? You bin smoking ganja?" etc,etc.
"Beans on toast fer tea" was the reply and off to bed I went.
The following morning, we had a look around the area and we were all amazed at the amount of grass that had gone up and the amount of grass that I'd put out in what seemed like 10 seconds!
In
Laverton hospital 3 days later - 2nd degree burns WITH an infection. Learned a lot from that little episode I did.
And there's another short story about lighting camp fires with petrol,,,,but that's another story.
Bilbo
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