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CHAPTER 4
Ben always knew where the
4WD was. Like one day I had parked it along the coast behind a
dune, went for a walk, met up with some people and after chatting for a while we
decided to get back to the PC as it was getting dark and we still had to make
supper. Well it was not behind the dune that I thought it should be. First
instinct was panic and the thought it was stolen. Then I thought No there's no
one here in the desert aside from the folks I spoke to earlier. This
was the first time I realized Ben Knew where the car was cause he kept wanting
to carry on so I said Ben CAR and followed him.
Back over the sand hills to the beach we went and Of course he ran off and left
me and Sheba who was happy to be lost so long as she was with me. Well
I just stopped and waited and eventually he came back and realized that he has
to wait for us to catch up so he ran ahead, stopped waited for us then ran off
again this time keeping us in view so we could follow and there it was the PC
still intact. By this time it was dusk and I was SO relieved to have found it. I
reckon we had walked about two kilometers from it without realizing it. Fun
thing too was that I had noticed Ben had basically followed our footprints
back (which I could not find) and boy it was like following a drunk.
Amazing how one does not realize it but you don't walk straight on a desert
beach.
Well after that I used to
take them to Gangara lakes which was at that time unspoilt by humans and
we would walk through the bush each time a different way to try get him
lost and I would eventually say Ben Car and off he would go to find the
4WD which he always did no with problem. This was useful for when we
would once again go into the uncharted deserts or bush tracks of the
North.
When we went bush I did not
worry about taking note where I parked as Ben would know where to come
back to. Whenever we
went to the farm Ben would stay in the 4WD until it was supper time or if
we went to the dam he would follow and stay foot deep in the water and
wait for Sheba to get close enough so he could grab the stick she had so
they could play. When
I started the motor bike, well you should have seen it, Out of the 4WD
came this charging Shepherd, all exited and first thing is bite the front
tire. Trying to ride it was also a art as he would grab the front wheel
and hold on. He taught this bad habit to Sheba who still does it, he
stopped when he got older and she took over. At
one time he grabbed the front tyre and I ended up driving over his neck.
He went rolling down the stony hill and I thought he was injured, but up
he got, came running back and then ran next to the bike all nicely. Well I
thought, he has finally learnt not to bite it, but alas, about 5 minutes
later back to normal lol.
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