Wed, 5th Dec, 2018 Tarmoola Station homestead, north-west of Leonora to 10 Mile Outcamp, Tarmoola Station, 60km north of Leonora, WA (Samuel’s birthday)

The rooster crowed bright and early then Mr Donkey rubbed himself against the van and brayed loudly.

6am 27 degrees and clear sky with a nice breeze. No sleeping in with the bright sun these day.

Message from Rob that he is stuck in Perth with more meetings so he asked Kym and Glen to take us up to our ‘home’ for the next 3 months.

Packed up then followed Kym and Glen up the track past the King of the Hills Mine which was originally the Tarmoola Mine. Spied lots of sheds but didn’t see anyone as it is an underground mine. Out onto the Goldfields Highway for a while, past another mine, Round Oak Minerals, which is on this pastoral lease then we turned east onto a track to 10 Mile Outcamp.

Kym and Glen gave us the run down on the generator, pumps, wifi etc then they headed back home. We also got a Hema Navigator, an Epirb and Spot locator (to use when checking bores etc or if we are broken down etc it sends a message to the nominated emails). Robert is bringing up a vehicle for us to use.

We decided on where to park the van and got set up.

The little cottage has a big fridge in the small kitchen, a stove that Steve needs to install and a washing machine, a TV but no TV reception so only good for hard drive movies, and a few beds and shower. The toilets are in another block near the old shearer’s quarters. We will stay in the van but will make use of the fridge and washing machine. The heat is not making our fridge happy so will be good to have this one to cool things down first in. Everything is run off a generator so will have that rumble all day but there are plans to put solar power here.

Walked over to the old quarters where there was a great old Coolgardie Safe.

It is hot but there is a good breeze blowing that is nice and there is plenty of bore water if I need a cool down. Got the sprinkler going on the grass to keep it green.

Midday it is 37.5 degrees and the sky is clear and blue.

A Bungarra (goanna) slowly wandered across the red dirt heading to the water tank area.

Robert rang to welcome us. Hopefully we will see him on Saturday if all goes well in Perth.

I decided to give the floor of the van a clean and pack away the carpet bits for a while. Steve got the shadecloth out to protect the fridge side and to hang down off the awning to help keep the heat off us.

We moved the old trailer away so we could enjoy the view better from the verandah and had a general tidy up. Up to 39 degrees in the van but it is fine to work in as long as you don’t stand still in the sun for too long. Drinking a lot of water of course.

Put our my solar lights and dug out my Christmas lights and hung them between the two trees.

Walked down to the old shearing shed for a look.

Steve cleaned the cattle’s trough for them.

Checked the water tank on the way back and we have friends in there – glad we are triple filtering the water!!

The well is nearby where our water comes from – amazing how they dug those holes.

As we drove in we noticed a lot of floodways and creeks so we might get stuck in here if it rains too much!! Lots of nice trees in there.

There is a chook pen which Kym said I might want to get some chickens to put in and get eggs.

Back for drinks on the verandah watching the cattle come in for drinks and something to eat.

Nice breeze and the flies aren’t too bad. Won’t get any good sunset photos as the sun sets behind all the trees. A crested pigeon wandered in.

7pm 30 degrees still in the van and very still. We put our chairs out on the grass and sat under the beautiful sky to eat dinner. We don’t do 5 star, we do million star!! Unfortunately the mozzies liked it too but we used the ‘fogger’ that Mickey gave us and that did the trick. We both spotted a satellite. The Southern Cross is gone now but the big and little dippers are back and the A constellation – should find out what that one is called.

Rang Margaret as they were heading to Port Headland today. They messaged back that they were in Carnarvon and would ring us tomorrow.

8.30 went back into the van to watch a movie and have a cold shower. Got out the evaporative cooler we bought after the 45 degree heat we had in Mildura (only the 2^nd time we have used it since we bought it). I had the water in the freezer so it was very nice as we sat and watched a movie.

Turned off the generator, all quiet except for one cow having a moan.