13th to 31st August, 2022 Bush camping east of Nullagine, WA

Sat, 13^th August, 2022 (39^th wedding anniversary)

6am 13 degrees so not as bad as yesterday but we waited till 7.30 to get up when it was 19 degrees - sooks!

39 years married - wow. It was on this day too. Next year we will celebrate our 40^th two weeks after Jon & Annalise get married.

Still cloudy but there is blue sky around the edges and the wind comes and goes.

During the day the sky has cleared and there is a nice breeze. Lots of birds sounds which is lovely.

Roast chicken and vegies for our anniversary dinner and ice cream of course. Perfect temperature outside too so we were able to stay out and spot satellites for quite a while.

 

Tues, 16^th August, 2022                    

8 years ago we said farewell for friends and family on the Esplanade in Cairns and started our new life of travelling Australia. We loved every minute and are still loving this free roaming life now we are back on the road again after the two year Covid stint in Cairns.

 

Thurs, 18^th August, 2022 (Steve & Amanda’s birthdays)

Steve turns 63 today, he is happy to be out in the bush doing what he enjoys. I managed to find him lovely birthday presents that nature provided. Will have to send Amanda a belated birthday message when we get phone service again.

Strong wind blew all night but at least there is no dust here. Temperatures are 17 to 32 degrees so quite comfortable.

Spotted a little snake near the tree by the camper. Will have to keep the door closed.

Sun, 21^st August, 2022

We moved to another spot and dropped the camper off as we will do the washing and then go into Nullagine and fill up the water bladder and buckets so we can stay out longer.

We plugged in the washing machine to the big inverter and it started beeping so looks like that needs replacing - cheap Kings chinese junk Steve kept muttering as he connected the washing machine up to the smaller inverter inside the camper. All good so I got the washing sorted.

While I was doing that Steve checked some things on the truck and noticed a wire spark so he wriggled it and it started to burn and he had to quickly cut cables then it kept burning towards the battery in the back of the truck for the fridge. He yelled for me to help get things out of the truck and there was smoke pouring out. Luckily it didn’t burn anything, except for the wire and Steve’s fingers but he didn’t tell me about them straight away. And to top that off the second battery under the bonnet died (2 year old) so not a good morning.

Steve had met a chap, Ray, on his walks and he came past on his 4 wheeler for a chat and to show us a photo of his prize. A lovely 3.5oz nugget he found on a hill side a bit further on! Hopefully there will be one for Steve somewhere. He is camped further around with another couple, Ray & Julie and his brother-in-law Mick.

After lunch Steve fixed the wiring on the truck so we are all good again. Had an early cuppa then headed into Nullagine to top up with water. One hour drive back in (57km).

As we came into reception I got a message from Geoff & Virginia asking if we drove past the common on the 12^th. We had looked across and remembered stopping and seeing them the last time we were out here with Ray and Carol a few years back. Fancy that they were there and happened to see us but of course we had no phone reception after we drove past. I sent them a message to say it was us and they replied that they were still in town at the van park.

Into the park first to do my uploads, make phone calls etc as Steve filled up the water bladder and buckets. Then we drove around to the van park for a quick hello as it was now 6.30pm and we still had the hour drive back. It was great to see them again and they will be around for a while so we will catch up with them next time we come into town. They are staying at the van park for internet etc as Geoff is still working via the internet so they can’t camp remotely like us.

We got back about 8.30 and had a bit of fun trying to find the camper in the dark! We forgot to mark it on the Hema and our snail trail had disappeared too.

 

31^st August, 2022

Valerie’s birthday - hope she has a great day. Great news, her daughter Kirsten is pregnant. We were planning to see her in Perth so it will be nice to see her and her baby bump. 

After 6 days of very windy weather the clouds have come over and the wind has settled.

We moved camp and enjoyed a beautiful sunset to finish off Autumn.