Thurs, 11th July, 2019 Bush camp near Upper Mosquito Creek Mining Centre, east of Nullagine, WA

7.30am 16.6 degrees, overcast and breezy.

Did the washing as we are going to town today as the fresh food should be in so we can fill the buckets there with good water. Wind got stronger blowing away some of the clouds so the clothes are drying quickly.

After smoko we headed into town. The sky is getting darker now, glad I got the sheets and towels off the clothes line.

Apparently the food order arrived on Sunday so there weren’t any carrots and limited other things. No silverside or roasts to make lunch meat with and the ham packs they had are very small and very expensive. Will just have to have a sausage or leftovers for lunches. There are vegetable packs for $12 so I got one with a bit of broccoli, cauli, two potatoes, an onion and 3 carrots. Will make that stretch till we go to Newman in a couple of weeks.

The wind is quite cold too so sat in the sun to warm up while we had lunch then I did my internet stuff while Steve filled the water buckets and truck. Erica posted photos of the Guinness Record they were involved in.

Left a message for Erica as she didn’t answer. It will be her birthday on the 24^th so let her know we will be thinking of her and will ring when we get phone service again.

Rang Mum to say we won’t have phone service for a couple of weeks now. They are both ok, her chest is better.

The wind settled as we headed back. Stopped at the pending area 6km out of town for a cuppa and to detect. So many people have been over this little area but it is worth trying. Amazingly I found a nice piece then another and then 11 more bits in a small area on a slope. I called Steve over as he only had a couple so he worked the slope above me and got a couple more. Kerry and Brian wandered back with 8 little bits. Brian was working the detector and did very well to hear such tiny bits. We suggested they come here for a bit when we leave tomorrow and see how many more bits they can find. We will probably stop here again on our way back south.

Back home as the red glow from the sun peeked through the dark clouds in the west. The gusty wind is back again as we had a late drink around the fire. Paul had tried to ring so I texted him back. He had rung Dale and he was well and heading over to see his granddaughter. Paul forgot to find out who was the mum so will give Dale a ring some time.

Kerry and Brian gave us a bottle of Kahlua to thank us for our help – it was a pleasure and we are so happy they were able to take home some WA gold. At one point I looked straight up at the half moon overhead and it was surrounded by a perfect big circle of cloud. Bit eerie – felt like we were going to get beamed up to the moon. Celebrated our last night together with a glass of the lovely port they gave us back in Leonora.

We chatted on till 8pm then went inside for dinner as it is getting quite cool. Will miss our fireside chatting.