Mon, 27th July, 2015 Spring Creek Nature Conservation Park, Graytown to Greens Campground, Whroo Historic Reserve (exploring Graytown)

Cold night. At 7.30am it was only 5.4 degrees in the van and 0.5 degrees outside but the sky is clear and the sun is shining. As we don’t have good reception the phone is connected to the aerial so I had to get out of bed to ring Wendy for her birthday. Loyal friend I am standing there in 8.5 degree temperature (that is what the heater had got the temp to by 8am) to wish her a happy birthday. Had a great chat and glad to hear she has been chatting with Sarah and she is having a ball overseas. It is Matthew’s birthday too so will give him a call tonight.

Kerry sent me a photo of the snow on the Great Western Tiers.

Lovely day here so I headed off for a walk back into Graytown (about 2km down the dirt road). Only one car passed me. Lots of birds keeping me company along the way.

There are a few houses still here on the other side of the main road. Stopped at the World War 2 POW camp to read the information.

Not much left.

This might have been the latrines or the shower block.

Must have been one of the main buildings with the big steps going up into the building.

Headed down the track to find the cemetery. Very interesting reading.

There are old diggings here and I read that at one time the Cemetery Trustees considered opening up the cemetery to the miners!!

The few people restoring it have done a wonderful job.

Miller is Steve’s mum’s maiden name but not a relative of ours.

Some more graves.

I wonder if they had planted the tree when he was buried.

This one has Welsh writing on it.

So many children died.

A plaque for this area says ‘In this area lie an unknown number of Chinese miners – Nibbana is the highest peace.’

One grave is marked though.

As I was heading back I heard a loud boom noise which sounded like a big tin water tank being rolled then it did it a couple more times. After 5 minutes it did it again. It sounded like it was coming from over the other side of Graytown. The next lot of booms then had a distant gun shot sound so I headed back to the van. I stopped and videoed the sound so Steve could tell me what it was. Didn’t pass any cars this time and got back to the van and found Steve in the bush.

He said it was a firing range and then I remembered Puckapunyal Military Training Area is just south of us. At least we weren’t being bombed by someone else!!! The clouds have moved in and it is getting colder by the minute.

Steve found another little 0.2 nugget which looks like a turtle. Can’t wait for one that fits in my palm rather than on the tip of my finger!!

Texted Pete & Penny and they are nearly at Whroo so we headed off to meet them. The road had just been graded and was a little slushy but we just trucked along slowly. Saw a dead roo hanging from the fence he tried to get through and got hung up in – so sad. Then there was one dead on the road and further up was a vehicle in a ditch. We pulled over as he looked like he had veered into a tree. In fact he had hit the roo and it had gone under the truck and bent his steering arm. He was trying to straightening by using the snatch-strap around the tree to bend it back in place. He used to drive trucks to Cairns – everyone knows Cairns. Steve gave him a hand and then he was on his way again.

Got to Whroo and could see them in the campground but we turned the wrong way and headed down the wrong track. Had to turn around and head back to find the entrance to the campground. Helen and David from Phillip Island are here too. Got set up and had a chat.

Collected some firewood with the others and made a big fire in the middle of our area. Nice afternoon around the fire chatting – showed them our ‘lovelies warmers’ which we needed tonight. Back to the heated van for dinner.

Tried Matthew for his birthday but no answer so left a message – probably out for dinner. Tried Mum – no answer so they must be out for dinner with Greg. Then tried Dan and Jon and no answer there so just settled down to watch our new TV and work out the new remote control. We can record programs but can’t watch and record but it will be handy at Bathurst – we can watch the TV broadcast later!!