Chapter 3: Hospitality

I went for a hike.

I’d not been out to the Isa for ages, and you still didn’t have to go far out of town to be in the bush. Most of the area was cattle stations and mine sites. I bummed a lift to the airport with a bloke heading that way from my hotel and then hiked out to the man-made dam they called Lake Moondarra.

It was about 14km in, and I had packed my small backpack for the day. Making sure, I had plenty of water in my two belt canteens and steriliser tablets. I had a box of my favourite energy and protein bars that I’d picked up the night before.

I had a small army style pannikin that doubled as my billy on the belt. A bag of ground coffee beans, some bricks (squares of a paraffin wax mix you lit that burned long enough to boil two cups of liquid). A torch, a Leatherman utility knife and my one lolly weakness, a bag of jellied snakes, had also gone in.

My lift said being this close to Christmas the canteen would be open if I made it that far. I slapped on the new cream coloured Akubra I’d purchased and headed down the road. You can’t camp overnight at the lake, but it has plenty of barbeque areas.

It had clouded over for me, as it did tend to rain around this time of year. I was enjoying stretching the muscles. For fun, I extended my wand and found it did make an excellent walking stick. I had worked out that if I pushed it to my side, it disappeared. It was still there when I told it to reappear.

I didn’t really push the pace, as I was enjoying my day off. Well, I didn’t think I had. I expected it to take me about three hours give or take, to cover the almost 14km trip, as there were a lot of hills to navigate.

I was surprised it was still only mid-morning, and it had taken just under two hours. I was starting to realise that the bling was affecting me, as I could not come to any other explanation, as to why I had covered the distance so fast at a walking pace.

I found the canteen open and bought a steak pie and a cup of coffee. I put my wand away in my pack out of the way. I found a picnic table and somehow attracted a heap of kids. They asked me a pile of questions, and I ended up in their cricket game, as the wicket keeper. I hadn’t played in years.

One of the kids bounced down a real wobbly that went wide, but it somehow ends up in my hands. “Geez mister you sure move fast,” the kid said.

I grinned at him and returned the ball for his next go. The batter managed to collect this one, but it went up and back. I back peddled to get under it and then jumped to catch it. These kids were giving more of a workout than the hike in.

I went to return the ball to find a dozen kids just staring at me. “What’s up?” I asked.

“Mister, I ain’t never seen anyone jump that high,” the bowler said.

“How high did I go?” I asked, tossing him the ball.

“I could see sky between your feet and Jimmy’s head,” he said. I looked back the kid with the bat. He was probably about 1.5m tall.

I shrugged. “I useta do high jumping,” I explained. The kids all looked at me sceptically. We played for about another ten minutes and then the kids decided it was time for a swim.

I agreed. I’d worn my budgie smugglers under my jeans, just in case. I stripped off with the kids. One of them had his arm in a sling, and I asked him to mind my gear for a tenna. I then headed for the water with the others. I soon became the diving board.

I had noticed that several of the mothers had moved their towels closer to the water, as I was happily tossing the kids. I’d get the kids to place their feet in my hands and then toss them up and out so they could dive into the water.

I was amused when one of the women said loud enough to her friend and for me to hear, “Who’s the hunk?”

The friend replied, “Don’t know, but he could toss me anytime.”

She received several agreements, and there were lots of giggles, as they discussed my assets, loud enough so I could hear them. I think my ears started to glow in embarrassment.

One of the older girls, whom I guessed was in her late teens and nicely built on top, fronted up for a toss. I dutifully cupped my hands for her to step into them. She turned and held onto my arms and placed her feet in my hands.

She seemed to be having a hard time getting her balance and kept rubbing her arse on my chest, as I tried to steady her. She being taller, I’d stepped into the deeper water, and I was thankful my crotch was under it.

“Maybe I should go backwards?” she said and turned in my arms to step back into my hands. I now had a face full of very nice firm young breasts and two knees in my chest. As soon as she leant back into my hands, I hoyed her up and tossed her back into the water, so she landed arse first.

I then dived under and headed for deeper water to give my poor cock a chance to go down. The little minx had been deliberately stirring me up. I surfaced a good 50m from the kids.

I rearranged Junior, as budgie smugglers aren’t the best item of clothing for containing a hard-on. The girl was standing in the water pouting at me. I didn’t care, there was no way, I was getting tangled with that can of worms, I was twice her age.

I swam parallel to the shore for a while just enjoying the water. A speedboat cruised up beside me. “Want a tow, mate?” the young guy said to me grinning.

“Sure,” I answered taking up the challenge.

He tossed me a life jacket and a ski rope and idled away from me. I slipped the jacket on and grabbed the rope. Placing my feet in front, I hoped I remembered how to get up. I’d only ever bare-footed it once and remembered it could be bloody hell on the feet.

I was now starting to think I should have asked for a ski as well. I felt the rope tighten and the boat started to pull me along. I got the feet about right and signalled I was ready.

He gunned the engine, and I felt the familiar pull on my arms and repositioned them, so they helped pull my arse out of the water, and not my head over my arse. I popped up and wiggled the feet into a better position as the boat increased speed.

Hot damn! I’d not had this much fun in ages. I hot-dogged out of the wake and was soon cutting clean water. My feet felt fine, and the guy swung to go around the island. I slalomed out, bending my knees to pick up the whip. I came up almost beside the boat, the guys started to straighten out, and I felt the pull again.

We crossed another boat’s wake, and I jumped, so it didn’t pull my feet out from under me. I landed well and happily settled back on the left side of the boat. We rounded the island, and he headed back to cut close to the beach. I whipped around, and when close enough, I signalled I was dropping and let go of the rope.

I happily sank into the water and waited for him to come back around so I could give him the life jacket back. “Crikey mate, how long been you skiing for?” he asked as they pulled up beside me.

“I haven’t since I was a kid. I wasn’t even sure I’d get up, it’s been so long,” I told him happily. I was trying to remove the jacket, and he and his mate put out their hands to pull me in instead.

“She’s right, my gears on the picnic table,” I told them. I was still a good 50m off the beach.

“Who yah with?” the young man asked.

“No one, I hiked out to the lake for the day, I’m just visiting,” I told him, as I leant on the side of the boat.

“Well, yah got people now,” he said and they hoyed me in. I grabbed a seat, and one of the girls tossed me a towel. The boys idled over to the beach, and I jumped out to grab my gear.

I thanked the young bloke who had agreed to guard it for me and patted him on the shoulder. I handed him the tenna, and he happily scooted off to the canteen to spend it.

“You sure I’m not imposing?” I asked the two young couples in the boat.

“Nah, theirs a heap of us up on the other side of the ramp, the more, the merrier,” my host informed me. So I climbed back in the boat. I soon found myself included in a group of about thirty people ranging from about seventy down to seven months and every colour of the human rainbow.

The main family group that my host was part of were the Watson family. The rest of them were mates, girlfriends and in-laws. I was soon handed a beer and bombarded with polite questions.

I found a burger being pushed into the other hand and a fresh beer in the first. I scoffed that burger down real quick. I was surprised by how hungry I was. The beer chaser went down well too.

I spent the rest of the afternoon with them. They were an excellent bloody group of people and made me feel welcome. They wouldn’t hear of me hiking back to town, and Doug’s older sister said she was going my way, so she’d drop me home.

There were a few sniggers, and I did feel a bit uncomfortable when she offered. She’d been giving me some interesting looks all afternoon. Andy, as she was called by her family, was twenty-eight. She was a divorcee and had no kids from what her family had told me. She was a florist and had her own business.

If I didn’t mind leaving a bit early, she was happy to drop me. I thanked her and said “No worries.”

I told her I had had enough sun for one day and I had work in the morning, which I did. We happily talked about our jobs and my planned holiday on the way back to town. She was a lovely lady, and I got to appreciate the dress riding up her firm brown thighs, as she drove.

I’d gotten dressed after my second ski. This time, they had lent me a single ski, and I’d a tonne of fun and even went backwards, showing off my skill. They had also fed me again, for which I was grateful.