A Land of Sweeping Plains and Flooding Rains (Part 2)

Have you ever dreamt of driving across Australia? Seeing her vast open plains, massive wheat fields that spread as far as the eye can see over the horizon. Watching kangaroos hopping iconically alongside your car as you whizz along the highway.

I was born and raised in Sydney (on the east coast) and now live on the outskirts of Canberra, but my son and his wife live in Perth, (on the west coast). We have flown over to visit many times. The flight takes about 5 hours, but to have the opportunity to take the time to drive across was a dream come true. To drive across comfortably, you need to prepare for at least a week. Last week I began the story of our journey across this magnificent vast country of ours. If you missed it, here is the link to catch up -

http://www.sandrabennettauthor.com/a-land-of-sweeping-plains-and-flooding-rains-part-1/

We had just left the clear blue skies over Mildura and were headed directly towards South Australia and the biggest storm they had faced in decades! Of cause, I didn't believe it. That is, until the clouds inevitably rolled in across the plains. It grew darker by the minute. Eventually the rain hit. Thunder and lightning struck. The rain became so torrential it was almost impossible to continue to drive.  We did manage to drive through some gorgeous old country mining and wine growing towns, their architecture dating back to the early settlers of the 1800's. Not old in terms of most overseas countries I know, but great to see here. The plains and grazing lands gave way to rolling hills and winding roads.

Eventually the weather appeared to calm down and we came unexpectedly across an incredible find. In the middle of a farmers field was a natural wonder! A rock formation aptly named 'The Haystacks." Visitors were invited to walk around them after leaving a gold coin donation in the box at the gate. Mind you, we could still see more storm clouds on the horizon, so decided upon a brisk walk rather than a meander. The wind howled and buffeted our path but we had fun among the natural standing stones non-the-less. Then it was a race back to the car as the rain began to pelt down once again. I did make a quick stop on the way back to purchase a jar of the farmer's honey by leaving $5.00 in the box in place of the jar. I love the honour system of doing business in the country.

On reaching Port Augusta, our destination for the night, we discovered that the entire state was now in blackout! 'Don't worry" the hotel manager assured us. "it will be back on in a couple of hours. In the meantime we have the restaurant still open for dinner for our guests only." On the menu for the evening was curry and rice or curry and rice. They were only able to cook one dish on the gas burner. At least it was a romantic candle lit dinner for two.

By morning, still no power. a candle lit breakfast for two of bacon and eggs or bacon and eggs. Not even any cereal as they could not provide fresh milk, which also meant black tea or coffee! What a start to the day! Then the realisation hit, no power statewide, meant no petrol station open. Fortunately we were in our 4WD with two petrol tanks. Hubby assured me we had enough to make it to our next pre-booked destination. It was a bit of a gamble but we decided to give it a go!

We made a quick detour into the old mining town of Iron Knob. Very remote! Population of less than 200. It seemed like the entire town (6 people) were holding a meeting about the lack of power, in the General store. Couldn't offer us any hot food or petrol, (and it was rather cold, so a hot cuppa would have been nice.) Even the local museum was closed due to lack of power. We were offered a free tour on our return visit. Thank you very much, but I think we'll give it a miss!

A bit further down the road we encountered the tiny town of Kyancutta. To say the local business owner was not happy is an understatement. In fact, he pretty much summed up the feelings of most South Australians at the time. It is amazing how a power blackout after a storm can bring an entire state to its knees.

Fortunately we did find a small country town where the service station had a generator, so as long as you could pay with cash, he had a working petrol pump. He was doing a roaring trade. Cars, trucks and caravans were lined up the length of the street. The local bakery was also doing great sales, probably the best they had done in years. They were rushed off their feet unable to keep up with the demand. No sooner were meat pies out of the ovens they were all sold. It's amazing how successful a business can be if it has a backup power system and word of mouth.

Finally, we reached the coast and made our first sighting of one of many long jetty's that appeared at every coastal town along the bottom of South and Western Australia. Streaky Bay was a really pretty spot, very well looked after, obviously quite a holiday destination for South Australians. I'd be happy to have a quiet holiday there one day. It would be easy to fill the day with fishing, walking, reading and of course a bit of writing. 

We made it into Ceduna that evening to once again stay in the only hotel with power. Our room directly overlooked the jetty, which was amazing! Fortunately, South Australia awoke to electricity the next morning so it was back to business as usual. After topping up the petrol tank once again, and a visit to the visitors information centre we were finally on our way heading across the Nullabor.

Have you ever dreamt of driving across the Nullabor?

Or have you managed to fulfil a lifelong dream like this?

Please leave a comment in the box below, I'd love to hear about your experience or dream.

Next week : - an unusual museum, golf on the Nullabor? and in search of whales at last!

Inspire Kids to Read and Write Together.

November is a great month to encourage writing, (as is any month). It is Picture book month and NanoWriMo (National Writing Month). Why not combine the two with your class and enjoy a reading and writing session using your favourite picture books as stimulus. Reading and writing go hand in hand. One is always helped by achieving the other. Reading is improved when children read something they have written themselves just as writing improves the more they can read. Kids succeed with both these skills when brought together to share ideas, inspire, encourage and work as a team.  

There is no need for a child to struggle alone in the classroom. As part of a team, they can develop their strengths as each member brings significant individual qualities to the group. One may have amazing creative ideas as a story starter, while it may take another to bring the story to conclusion. One child may be a great reader but need inspiration for ideas of their own.  Teamwork can supply the support and encouragement for all to succeed. Together they can find the confidence to write and read a story that they may not be able to imagine individually.

This is particularly useful with multi-age groups where younger children have amazing imaginations but need the help of older kids to read and write. In turn, older kids who struggle with the lack of creativity or imagination are stimulated by their younger group members to develop ideas further, therefore together they are able to create a much more interesting story.

When put to work together it is surprising what ideas a group of children will come up with to produce a diverse range of stories taken from the same stimulation.

Take for example a group of children in varying ages from 6 to 12, brought together to write a Fractured Fairy Tale.

We began by reading aloud together the very familiar story of The Three Little Pigs. Everyone loves a fairy tale and all the colourful pictures that go along with the book. As you read together, even those who can't yet read along, can still participate with the well known repetition. "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down!" 

After the initial story, we discussed the characters and stories of a few more rather familiar fairy tales - Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood. Again, this allows all age groups to participate, it is not necessary to read all the stories as they are so well known.

We discussed the possibilities of what might happen should all these characters come together in one story.  As a guidance I helped structure a beginning and middle of their stories before sending the groups off to work and discuss how they might bring their fractured fairy tale to a conclusion. They drew story boards for their ideas to help reach a satisfactory ending that they all agreed upon. This requires a lot of chatter, but it is busy, happy talking as they draw, read, discuss and write down ideas.

Here is an example of a story that one group worked together to encourage each other to read and write. 

The Wolf Attack.

In a little cottage in the woods lived three bears.

One day they invited Goldilocks and her Grandmother for lunch. Little Red Riding Hood was also on her way to visit.

Meanwhile, the Big Bad Wolf was hungry. He was trying to catch the three little pigs for his dinner. They ran to the house of the three bears for safety.

The big bad wolf found some other evil wolves to join him and they followed everyone to the cottage in the woods.

The wolves banged on the door but they could not get in. So they disguised themselves as pigs and tried again.

But their growly voices gave them away and unknown to them, the pigs also had security cameras  on the outside of the cottage.

The Three Little pigs, the Three Bears, Goldilocks, Grandmother and Red Riding Hood could not be fooled.

The bad wolves gave up and went away leaving everyone to enjoy their lunch.

What picture books would you use to help bring a group of students together to read and write?

We Drove A Sunburnt Country Part Three

Three days and 2068 km after saying goodbye to Darwin we finally reached Winton, dinosaur capitol of central out back Queensland. It had been three days of dry hot flat desert and I was keen to reach the museum first thing in the morning. Twenty minutes out of town we reached the turn off, an unsealed road not really suitable for our car. Now I admit that when one is travelling in the outback you really should be in a four wheel drive as we had learnt previously with our unexpected flat tyre, but we had come this far, I was not going to let this minor obstacle make me miss out on something I had anticipated for many years. We agreed to continue on, slowly and carefully, four wheel drives overtook us, billowing up great gusts of dust in their wake as they rushed to reach the museum to start work for the day. The Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum did not disappoint! We booked into both tours. Firstly the tour of the working laboratory which is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. Here we were told, believe it or not, that they only go out on digs for three weeks a year. They find and collect so many bones that they now have a backlog collection to clean up and classify that will take at least ten years to work through! They now house the worlds largest collection of dinosaur bones and we were able to walk passed most of them! Throughout the tour the guide gives a wonderful and thorough explanation of how the first bone was discovered, plus the reasons behind why the area is prolific with dinosaur bones and why it was so important to build the working museum on the site. You are even given time to watch them clean debris from bone fragments.

During the second tour we were able to watch a film explaining the topography and changes in geology of the area from the dinosaur era to today. We were shown fragments of bones found in the area of the two main dinosaurs, Banjo and Matilda, that put Winton on the map and made fossil hunting so significant to Australian scientists. Research into these amazing creatures continues to fascinate adults and children to this day and at this facility everyone can come together to share their passion.

The museum stands atop a rocky plateau that overlooks the dry open plains where all the dinosaurs are dug up among the farmers cattle stations. Hard to believe that 65 million years ago this was once a lush rainforest and swampland. The view however, is spectacular.

Next stop was Longreach. A fabulous old country town and one not to be missed. Plenty of character and charm and of course the Stockman's Hall of Fame. An amazing museum in itself, too big to go into great detail here. Suffice to say if you ever want to know anything about the outback way of life, from stockmen, pioneers, shearers, pilots, teachers, miners, and the Royal Flying Doctor Service, it's all here. Plan to spend hours meandering through the galleries as there is so much to look at and learn. My favourite part of the exhibition would have to have been the swagman that came to life to tell a bush story of life in the saddle. His facial expressions were magnificent.

While in Longreach you can also visit the School of the Air. Our son assumed I meant a school to learn to fly. I didn't realise I had never taught him about this important place in Australian history. The school of the air teaches school by radio to children all over the outback that are isolated and cannot reach a school classroom. Unique and iconic in its day it is now taught through Skype. There is also the museum for the Queensland And Northern Territory Air Service, yes QANTAS was born here.

The drive from Longreach to Bourke the next day was a long one. Broken by capturing the odd shot of an emu or two that ran along the side of the road at sunset. One last day on the road and we finally drove through meandering country roads that rose through the mountains until we felt like we had reached home. Somewhat green rolling hills and rising eucalypts bent to greet us and present a little cool shade. As we turned off the highway and rolled through our valley kangaroos stopped grazing on the side of the road and stood to gaze in the window of our car. I gave a huge sigh, home at last!

We had driven nearly 4,000 km in 6 days. Seen some amazing sights. My conclusion, Australia really is a harsh dry wide brown land but I love her.

We Drove a Sunburnt Country Part One.

For six days, three states and over four thousand kilometers we drove across a sunburnt country from Darwin at the top end of the Northern Territory south/east to outback central Queensland and down through the back of NSW to Canberra and home to our quiet little cosy country estate.. Along the way I couldn't help remember and recite a famous Australian poem that we were all taught at school (and loved) when we were young :- Dorothea Mackellar's "My Country."

I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of rugged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror- The wide brown land for me!

We packed up the car and said goodbye to our view of the jewel sea, in this case the Arafura Sea as it enters Darwin Harbour. Within minutes we were in the harsh dry outback of the Northern Territory. Flat sweeping plains as far as the eye can see broken only by the occasional rugged mountains and an abundance of termite mounds so numerous it is impossible to count. First stop, Pine Creek, a tiny old gold mining town with nothing much open on a Sunday morning, so it was non-stop then to Mataranka for a promised legendary Mataranka pie. Another really tiny outback town, it's main claim to fame being the autobiographical novel "We of the Never Never" by Jeannie Gunn and immortalised in the 1982 movie with Angela Punch McGregor in the leading role. Set in Mataranka, the book was written about the authors life and experiences moving to such a harsh and isolated area in 1902 when women, albeit white women, were not seen to be on the land or help their husbands on outback cattle stations. If you spend an afternoon swimming in the local thermal springs you can then partake in a cool ale at the local watering hole while watching the legendary movie. We didn't stop long enough to do this as we had previously experienced the Mataranka hot springs in all their glory on another occasion. Over 1,100 km and and 12 hours after saying goodbye to Darwin we finally pulled in for the evening at Barkly Homestead, and yes, believe it or not, we were still in the Northern Territory! When travelling in air conditioned comfort it is easy to forget just how hot it is outside, (particularly as we approach the summer months in Australia and the "build up" in the NT) that is until you open the car door and step out into the furnace. It was 7:00 pm and yet still 45 degrees C with a formidable burning hot wind.

Day 2 we set of bright and early before the heat set in and began our journey well. We planned to cross the border into Queensland and reach Mt Isa in time for morning tea. Should have known all good plans always go astray. As the sun and heat rose and we cruised through the sweeping plains gazing at the wonder of the far horizon, we came around a sweeping bend in the road and over a "flood" bridge only to find a pot hole in the middle of the road almost the same size as our car. Too fast and too dangerous to swerve we hit the pot hole and hoped for the best. Sure enough we blew out the front right tyre. Not a problem! Just pull on over to the side of the road, unpack the bags from the boot, lift up the flap and look inside to where the spare tyre should be. Were my eyes deceiving me? We have a brand new car and NO spare tyre! Who would have thought? It may have seemed naive of both of us not to check before leaving Darwin but we both assumed a new car would come equiped with a spare tyre! There we found ourselves in the middle of the outback, heat rising every minute, and not a soul in sight for miles. "Not to worry" said hubby, "I'll wave down the next truck driver that comes along and get him to radio for help."

That was real successful! Turns out in the heat of the outback CB radio signals don't reach futher than 10 km at most. The nearest small town was 70 km away and Mt Isa was still 300 km ahead. Not to worry, don't despair, believe it or not, just 200 m further up the road was Avon Downs Police Station! Who would have believed it! In the middle of absolutely nowhere stood a police station! We limped the car up the road and found the local policeman just opening up shop for the day. His response, "So the pot hole has got another one has it?" He helped us organise a tow-truck into Camooweal, 12 km east of the NT border into Queensland, population 300 (on a good day when all the indiginous folk are in town to do a head count) so the tow truck driver told us.

What do you get if you cross a kangaroo with a buffalo? A buffaroo of course!

It stands proudly outside the Camooweal Roadhouse. The story goes that one evening a couple of truckies were having a drink at the local pub and began to discuss who were tougher, Queenslanders or Territorians! The more they drank, the more vocal they became, the Queenslanders insisting their kangaroos were tougher than the territories buffalo. It didn't take long before the idea came to pass that the strongest of all would be a cross between the two. It just so happened an artist was listening to the conversation and drew a sketch on a coaster. Before he left he showed the bartender and asked if they would like one? A few weeks later to the towns surprise a special delivery arrived. The Buffaroo now stands pride of place for all to see as you arrive in the sleepy outback town.

Instead of reaching Mt Isa by the intended morning tea break of 10:00 am we finally arrived at 5:00 pm, just in time to call it a day.

Beware of Drop-Bears! A Short Story

As Aussie kids we all grew up hearing tales of the mythological creature the "Drop-Bear." A mysterious and ferocious man-eating koala that would drop from the top of gum trees to attack unsuspecting bushwalkers. We tell the story to overseas tourists as they embark all excited on hikes through our countryside and warn them that their only form of protection is vegemite smeared behind their ears. Vegemite being that all Australian favourite spread that we have on toast for breakfast that only a true Aussie can appreciate the taste of. With my new book "Alien Shenanigans,"due to be released next month, I wrote a short story with our reluctant hero David Bradberrie and his brothers, Brian and Simon. I put them camping in the bush one night just to see what might happen?

Below is the result. Hope you enjoy. :)

"Beware the Drop-Bear" was awarded First Place in the We Write For Kids Contest - Mar 2015.

Beware the Drop-Bear!

David yawned, reached for the roll of loo paper, the small shovel and torch, turned from the campfire and headed towards the line of gum trees not too far in the distance. He hadn’t walked far when his younger brother Simon, called out.

“Beware the drop-bear!’

David stopped in his tracks. He really needed to go. Was Simon teasing or should he ask what he meant? David chewed a fingernail, inhaled a deep breath and shuffled back towards the warmth and light of the fire. With a huff he sat back down beside his brothers.

“Need some company?” Brian, his older brother sniggered.

“I'm ten Brian, I can go to the loo on my own! I don't intend to go too far into the bush. Just tell me about the drop-bear before I go anywhere,” David glared at Simon. “Make it quick though, I really need to go.” David squirmed on the log where he sat. Brian handed him a stick with a toasted marshmallow and winked at Simon.

“Haven’t you heard of drop-bears? They’re kind of like giant koalas but scary man eating ones that drop down from the top of gum trees at night and attack when you least expect it.” Simon’s eyes popped as he raised his hands to gnash at the air. “People say they have really sharp fang-like teeth and razor sharp claws.”

“Best to spread some vegemite behind your ears before you go. Drop-bears don’t like vegemite.” Brian added.

Simon and Brian rolled on the ground laughing as David took a deep breath and crept back towards the trees, torchlight shining as wide as he could high into the treetops. He wasn’t prepared to walk quite as far in amongst the gum trees as he would have preferred, nor was he going to give them the satisfaction of needing Brian to go with him. The further in David crept, the darker it became. Privacy was optimal, but then again so was safety.

He chose a spot, left the torch shining upwards against a tree so that he could see above into the branches and began to dig his hole. He whistled a tune to try to calm his nerves.

When David reached to retrieve his torch it was no longer where he had left it. Light still lit the area, so where was the torch? He scanned the ground around the bottom of the tree but then realised the light was coming from above him. The tree branches swayed but there was no wind. He heard a scratching, clawing noise along with a low growl. David stepped back careful to watch where he trod and slowly raised his eyes to peer high into the branches. Sure enough a furry koala-like monster with pointed fang-like teeth sat huddled near the tree trunk and grasped within its jagged sharp claws was David’s torch.

The monsters beady eyes stared down at David with a ferocious glare. They seemed to glow in the torchlight as the monster shivered and made a loud groan that sounded to David like the noise came from deep within the pit of the monsters stomach.

David reached for the shovel and went to run but something made him stop and turn around for another look. The monster cuddled the torch as it spread a glow around the bush. The growl had changed to more like a hum.

David wasn't sure, but he thought he could see a hint of a tear trickle out of the corner of one of the monsters eyes.

“You don’t look so scary.” David took a step closer. “You do look a bit bigger than a normal koala and those claws do look awful sharp, but you don’t look like you wanna hurt me. Do you?” David reached out a hand to try to encourage the monster koala to climb down. There seemed to be an eternal pause while the monster stared at David. It refused to move.

David placed the shovel back on the ground at his feet. "See, I'm not gonna hurt you. It's ok to come down." He held his breath and glanced at the shovel to make sure he could grab it if he needed to.

The drop-bear didn’t drop on David’s head, instead it simply climbed down the trunk of the gum tree and stood to stare at David. “Can I have my torch back?” David asked as he tried to reach for the torch. The drop-bear shook its head and held the torch high and tight away from David.

“Are you afraid of the dark? Is that it?” David crouched and tried to reach for the bears paw. It nodded and cradled the torch close to its chest.“Would you like to come and sit by our fire where there's more light?” David continued to hold out his hand and took another deep breath. The creature blinked but refused to move. “You don’t want to hurt me,” David crossed his fingers behind his back. “And I promise not to hurt you. We’re all afraid of the dark sometimes, in fact I admit I don’t like it much myself. That’s why it’s good to have family and friends to keep you company.” David gave the monster a hesitant smile. He hoped the creature felt safe to join him. Again it didn't answer, or move.

“Ok then. “ David stretched and slowly turned away. “Tell you what, I’m going to walk back to camp now. If you like you can follow.” David took a few cautious steps forward.

He smiled as the torchlight began to follow all the way back behind him.

When David made it back to the campfire he sat on the log without a word. A little monster sat beside him and snuggled close.

Brian and Simon’s jaws both dropped. They jumped up and moved to the other side of the fire.

“Who’s afraid of drop-bears now? Have you got your jar of vegemite?” David laughed. “He’s just a bit scared of the dark that’s all." David reached for the stick he had used earlier and placed two marshmallows on the end of it. Happy to have made friends with a creature just as scared of the dark as himself he leaned forward to point the stick into the fire until they were both toasted nicely. He smiled at the drop bear beside him and handed him a toasted marshmallow.

A Renovator's Delight

On my home page I mentioned I would be posting some of my short stories for you to enjoy. So I thought it was about time I shared the first one and what better story to begin with than the story  that won first place in a Halloween Contest and ended up in an anthology alongside some other amazing scarey writing. A Renovator's Delight came about after hearing a ghost story in the perfect setting, arounf a bon fire one cold winter evening. I mulled it over in my head, added a little twist or two, shortened the time frame and before I knew it a spine tingling tale was born. So sit back with a hot chocolate, be prepared for goosebumps up your arms and whatever you do, don't forget to leave on a night light. 

Bill was the one who insisted we buy the old English pub. 'A renovator's delight,' he had said. 'Just a little TLC and we would be making money in no time.'  It stood deserted on a lonely corner at the edge of a tiny country town. Run down, it had been empty for many years.

We moved in on the morning of All Hallows Eve, so again, Bill had the brilliant idea to invite the townsfolk to a Halloween party that very evening. Afterall he argued, 'What better place to get to know the neighbourhood than in a spooky looking old pub before we begin to fix it up?'' There were already webs and spiders aplenty. The curtains were faded and shabby, the shutters broken and worn. The floor boards all creaked. The carpets were covered in mildew and stank of must. Not to mention the paint was peeling from the walls both inside and out. Lichen grew all over the broken tiled roof and moss grew through the cracks in the concrete floors in the downstairs bathrooms. Other than supply the food and drinks we only had to add a few candles and pumpkins and the scene was set for a perfect spooky Halloween night. I handed invitations out around town and posted a few on the shop windows.

Darkness engulfed the countryside quickly that evening as thick grey clouds swept across the plains leaving no hint of the moon or stars to guide our visitors down the street. Bill hung a lantern on the pub's verandah  and watched with eager anticipation to greet our first guest's arrival. Gradually they began to file up the stairs, shook hands and entered the bar, all eyes ablaze with curiosity. There were ghosts, ghouls, vampires and witches galore. A mummy and even a zombie or two, it was great to see everyone had come prepared for the occasion.

The party was in full swing when I noticed a group whispering in the corner. I grabbed a plate of chocolate coated noodle spiders, jelly frogs and other assorted treats and wondered over to join them in the pretext of offering them something from the platter. A young girl dressed in the cutest devil's costume stood looking quite horrified as she listened to a tall man in a vampire's outfit.

'Is there anything wromg?' I asked feeling somewhat concerned by the expression on the faces of the entire group now that I glanced at them all.

'You do know the reason why this pub was such a bargain, don't you?' the vampire replied. I shook my head, I assumed it was because it was so run down. The tall vampire figure leant closer to my ear and whispered, 'It's haunted!'

'Don't be ridiculous!' I laughed.

'No, it's true,' he nodded.  'People who stay here overnight hear doors slamming and someone screaming, then there's the constant flooding of the sinks for no apparent reason.'

'Bad plumbing is all,' I offered, after all, what other explanation could there be?

'Just you wait. You'll see!' He grinned, turned and walked away. Either he was a superstitious fool, or townsfolk were playing tricks as they didn't want outsiders buying into their local businesses. I was just about to go and find Bill and discuss my thoughts on these turn of events when I first heard it.

A blood curdling scream came from somewhere in the hotel rooms above us. Everyone suddenly froze. You could hear a pin drop. Another door slammed shut and the piercing scream shrilled out again.

'Stay here!' demanded Bill as he raced up the stairs towards the hotel accommodation that was attached to the pub. No one moved. The only sound we could now hear was Bill's footseps overhead as he ran from room to room. The silence was deafening. Time seemed to stand still.

Gasping he evetually came rushing back down. 'There's nothing up there!" he sounded surprised. 'Someone's playing a very good joke, well done,' he laughed in an attempt to calm everyone down. I looked around at the crowd huddled together at the bottom of the stairs, none of them were laughing. They all looked terrified. 'Come on!' Bill encouraged. 'We're all here to have fun. Start the music back up, let's get this pary rocking!'

Slowly our guests began to relax and enjoy themselves once more when Bill burst back into the room and rushed over to me quite annoyed. 'Damn kids are playing more tricks.'

'What's wrong now?' Although I needn't have asked as he dragged me towards the main bathroom fascilities I could see the problem. Water was spilling out over all the sinks onto the floor, out the doors soaking the already musty carpets.

'Someone stuck all the plugs in every sink in every bathroom of the hotel and turned on all the taps full blast!' Without another word or hesitation we ran through the building making sure all the taps were off and collected all the plugs. Bill locked them away in the safe in the office. 'Let's see them try that again,' he said triumphantly rubbing his hands together rather smuggly.

We rejoined the party and tried to calm down but it wasn't long before the blood curdling scream returned. Doors banged and water poured from the bathrooms once more. 'This is ridiculous!' Bill was really getting annoyed now. While I ran to the main bathroom to see what I could do, Bill raced back upstairs to try to catch the culprit in the act. The screaming and banging grew louder and more persisitant uptairs. Whenever I heard Bill at one end of the building, the screaming would start at the other. It seemed no matter where he was the noise harrassed us from the opposite end. Our guests had obviously reached the ends of their limits, they also started screaming in terror and began to pour out the front door.

I found the bathroom sinks had all been blocked again but this time with toilet paper and rags. Shaking somewhat I cleaned up the mess as best I could then staggered back to the bar to collapse. Bill also returned exhausted.

'Nothing,' he shook his head. "I just don't understand. Who could have done any of this or how?'

'Well,' I hesitated. 'I hate to say it, but I was told this evening that this place is haunted.'

'I think I need an energy drink,' mumbled Bill. 'I put a box down in the cellar. Come on. I'm not going down there alone.'

When we reached the bottom of the cellar stairs, Bill stopped and looked around. 'You know, this room doesn't look big enough.' He started to pace it out across the floor. 'The room above is twice the length of this one. Most pubs this age had a cellar the same size as the floor above.' He stepped it out again to confirm his suspicions. Then before I knew it Bill had picked up a sledge hammer and begun slamming into the brick wall in the middle of the room. A thick dusy cloud billowed around us and engulfed the room as brick after brick crumbled at his feet.

It was strange, I hadn't heard anyone come down the stairs behind us, but all of a sudden a young girl stepped up beside Bill. She wore very old tattered clothes and no shoes. Bill saw her at the same time I did and stopped breaking down the wall.

'I'm sorry love,' he gasped a little out of breath while he looked her up and down. The party's over and you shouldn't be down here. It's a bit dangerous. Did all the noises you heard tonight frighten you?' She didn't reply though. Instead she simply stared for a few moments as Bill wiped the sweat from his forehead. Then she turned and to our shock she walked right through the brick wall as if it wasn't there.

'What just happened?' I whispered unable to believe what I had just witnessed. Bill shone a torch to gaze through the hole he had just made. We could see the rest of the cellar stretched out in front of us, racks of old dusty wine bottles lined the cobwebbed walls.

'You're not going to believe this,' he said as he pointed the torch towards the floor. 'There's a skeleton lying on the floor on the other side of the bricks directly opposite where we watched the girl just walk through!'

We put the pub back on the market the next day. We may have found the ghost's body, but we weren't prepared to share the pub with a restless, mischievous spirit.

Note:If you enjoyed this ghost story you may like to read the others in the anthology, however unlike this one, most of them are not recommended for children.

http://www.amazon.com/Satans-Holiday-Yvonne-Mason-ebook/dp/B00FJOYLRK