Fri, 19th June, 2015 ‘Waanyarra’, Dunolly State Forest

8am 8.3 degrees in the van and 5.3 degrees outside. Clear sky but the sun is so low that it didn’t shine on the solar panels till 10am.

After a cuppa I headed off on the 7km ‘Waanyarra’ walk. Steve of course went detecting. Some galahs kept me company.

Nice walk through the box and ironbark forest with the sun shining.

The creeks are dry and the ground has been worked over well over the many years.

Stopped to check out a wall that looked like a dam.

 The creek was blocked off with this concrete area – can’t work out what happened to the creek then.

Up and down hills till I came back out near the main road to Dunolly. Saw a sign so went across the creek to read it. The site of the Waanyarra Township.

Big black cloud has come over the sun and it is quite cold again. Only getting to 12 today for forecast said.

A bit further along from the township sign someone had dug up a bottle dump.

Back to the van – took me 1 hour 30 mins for 7km. 13.4 degrees in the van and 10.8 degrees outside with a cold breeze. Made some lunch then Steve came back unfortunately with no gold!! Lots of lead shot etc. I connected the laptop dongle to the aerial on the TV in the van and got enough reception to upload to my blog etc.

Steve headed off again so I settled down outside with my book about identifying Jack the Ripper. The cold was creeping in – I have thermals on and big coat and then got my little blanket. At 5pm I got the fire going.

Steve came back freezing but he had one more little bit of gold. 

Poured a glass of port for us then enjoyed the warmth of the fire. All the clouds have gone and the stars are out. Steve made me a marshmellow cooker so tried it out. Worked well.

Temperature down to 5.8 degrees while we had tea by the fire at 6.30pm. Had the heater on so it was lovely to get into the van. The weather forecast said 1degree overnight!! Glad we have our heater. Last check of the temp outside at 10.30pm was 3.2 degrees.