Thurs, 18th August, 2016 Bush camp, near Black Shepherd Mine, 60km N of Nullagine, WA (Stephen’s birthday)

7am 21 degrees, very windy – coming from the south. There was a big front coming across the bottom of WA again so we must be getting the top of it.

Wished Stephen a happy 57^th birthday. Amanda’s birthday too, sent her a text and will ring her later.

Erica and Terry rang and said his birthday doesn’t start till 8.25pm which is 6.25pm here!! Mum and Dad rang too.

I made him scones with jam for morning tea.

As we were enjoying it a car drove up and a chap introduced himself as the mining lease holder of the mine we were near. He also has the exploration lease we are camped on (where the other couple were who had the 40E) and asked if we had a 40E. Steve said no, just checking it out for next year. The chap was nice and said will we should move on though but gave us his card and said to ring him next year when we want to come in and he will let us know where to camp and find gold!! Seems too good. Thinking about it later he probably wants a caretaker, as the other couple said there was a couple here caretaking when they arrived. Will keep his card – you never know where it might lead.

As the wind was getting stronger and the boys figured they can’t really go detecting I decided to get the washing done. Even took the flannelette sheets off the bed as it is quite warm and put the cotton ones on. Steve and Jeff worked on Jeff’s hot water again and did some maintenance. Steve modified his outdoor shower so we can use the van cubicle but pump water from a bucket outside so we can heat the water on the fire, saving gas.

Jon and Dan rang to wish Steve a happy birthday. We rang Amanda to wish her a happy birthday then Dave chatted with Steve for his birthday.

Took a photo of Jeff with his beard to put on Facebook for Lyn to see.

Cooked a roast chicken dinner in the camp oven – good coals here, got too hot but dinner was still yummy even though it was a bit crunchy. I baked a sticky date pudding for dessert (in the van’s oven) and we all had that around the camp fire for our last night together. Full moon tonight – no wonder we didn’t find any gold!!

The wind hasn’t settled so we took the awning down so we can sleep tonight. The new shower set up is great, especially as it would have been too cold outside tonight with that wind blowing!!