Tues, 13th Mar, 2018 Niagara Dam, near Kookynie, WA

7.30am 20.8 degrees, clear sky and still windy which is quite chilly first up in the morning.

Explored another pending area.

Wind settling. 3pm 31.4 degrees.

Steve went for a walk/detect while the rest of us rested in our vans in the shade – we’re not silly!!

I heard a voice yell out ‘hello friend’ so I called back hi then I realised it was Les from the other van but in fact a ‘local’. He had spotted Bob so I left him to it. He told Bob his sad story of just being out of jail and trying to get back to Warburton with his wife and baby and they were selling a woven bowl for $40 so he could get his family some food. Smart Bob was polite and declined and after a big hug the chap moved on as Bob said we were out and his wife was asleep!! He looked towards Les’ van but Bob said he was away so not to bother there either.

I was actually reading ‘Kidman : The Forgotten King’ which Margaret lent me. About Sid Kidman who ended up owning a large area of the centre of Australia (1880s on) to create a route to get his cattle and horses to ports for sale etc. Very interesting as we will be travelling through that area.

Steve came back – getting a lot of exercise. His GPS tells him how many kilometres he has walked. The wind has stopped so it is quite hot now but luckily we have good shade.

Another van arrived and they came over to join us and Les for drinks. Cam and his wife, missed her name, were from Brisbane but have lived in a lot of places with very interesting jobs. They are heading back to Burnett Heads to help his brother build an RV Lifestyle Village there so we might see them when we head back across to Woodgate. Recently they had been working on building up a piggery they bought in Tiaro – this is where some of Steve’s relations are from (The Meyers) and we had a reunion there years ago. Anyway they bought it from TPG who was the company that bought out Inghams Enterprises. What a small world. Bob and Jack had bought the piggery as they had seen in America the combination of piggeries and chicken farms but only the chickens took off here. They kept this piggery all this time because it was their first venture. Cam said they turned it around in three years because of the good genetics in the pigs there and they have just sold it to his niece and her husband to run. They were over the smell!! Will have to ring Mum.

Still had a little fire to sit around for dinner.

NO PHOTOS TODAY.