Sat, 6th Apr, 2019 Malcolm Dam, east of Leonora, WA

7.30 19 degrees, clear sky and cold wind from the east which is blowing hard. Closed up the van and had the blanket on.

Went detecting but no joy.

Home for lunch, 34 degrees and still windy – opened up the van again.

Played a couple of games of Skipbo – one game each.

I received a long text from Bernie who we met two years ago at Kulin with Heidi and Mark. Very sad to hear she lost the love of her life, Jim, September last year. I rang her back and we had a good chat about everything.

3pm the wind has stopped. Got out with the 12 volt fan. I worked on my blog and got onto the internet and did my internet stuff. Steve pottered about while I started a new book.

Drinks with Heidi and Mark at our camp in the shade – the flies are still bad, so glad I have my flyswats. Another camper, Don and his dog Tim called in for a chat. He is from Longreach and is travelling and doing a bit of prospecting.

6.30pm 31 degrees and no breeze. Had dinner then enjoyed another good movie.

All the windows open tonight and no need for any blankets though there is a light breeze now.

NO PHOTOS TODAY.

Fri, 5th Apr, 2019 Malcolm Dam, east of Leonora, WA

7am 19 degrees, clear sky and cold wind blowing from the south. That cold wind blew all night – had to close the windows and pull up the blanket. What a change from the heat yesterday.

Took Heidi and Mark to where we had been detecting but Steve was the only one who was lucky. He found a tiny bit using his little Sadie coil.

Home for lunch, 26 degrees, the cool wind is still blowing but mostly in gusts. Rang Margaret to see if Bob can locate the little fuse for the van’s battery charger for us. They might head up soon or wait till Bob has his cataract done on 30 April then come up.

Got Mark’s hard drive and I downloaded some of his movies and gave him some of the TV series I had downloaded. Steve went wandering with his detector again.

I started a new book. Nice cool day for reading and relaxing.

A motorhome and car with caravan pulled in near Heidi’s camp. It is a chap they met a couple of years ago where they were detecting on their 40E. He is heading there again this year.

Joined Heidi and Mark for drinks at their camp as they had put a pork roast in the camp oven. Steve came back empty handed then got our fire going for our roast chicken and vegies dinner in the camp oven too. It is the first time we have used the camp oven in over a year as we didn’t take it on the desert trip. Steve parked the truck near the fire to try and block out the wind which was still blowing well.

Nice cool evening to be sitting out under the stars – spotted 3 satellites.

7pm 24 degrees. The wind has settled down to a nice breeze but it quite chilly so I have closed up the van again.

Lovely dinner and another movie based on a true story – seems a lot of the movies in the last couple of years have been based on true stories.

NO PHOTOS TODAY.

Thurs, 4th Apr, 2019 Malcolm Dam, east of Leonora, WA

7am 26 degrees, clear sky with a cloud band still in the south and no wind. The wind blew all night but stopped at 6.30am. Forecast is for 39 degrees today – thought we were over summer.

8am and the wind is back and blowing harder from the north. We went detecting but it was hard with the wind whistling through the trees. The wind has gotten hotter too.

38 degrees in the van at lunch. The fridge is struggling a bit – no frozen blocks to put in it like we had at 10 Mile.

We drove into Leonora and I got onto Telstra online at the Resource Centre. The ‘help chat line’ was good and the lady suggested putting my sim card from the dongle in the phone to see if it worked. It did and I even made a call to Mum on it – strange as I thought it only had data on it not phone calls. Put the sim back in the dongle and it worked. Must have just had a shut down from not being used for so long. Uploaded my blog etc which was good. Erica had said there were some photos of her eldest sister Maree’s 90^th birthday on Facebook so I was able to get a copy. We celebrate the same birthday just a few years apart and we share the same name as my second name is Maree.

Went around to an auto electrician’s to try and get a fuse for the van’s battery charger but he didn’t have any. Will ask Bob and Margaret to try and find one as they are much smaller than the normal glass fuses. I rang Mum and Dad while Steve was at the electricians. They have had a lot of rain but haven’t checked the rain gauge.

Back to the van, the wind has swung around to the north west and is still hot and very strong. 3pm 39 degrees in the shade. Played a few games of Rummykub.

The wind hasn’t let up. Had drinks with Mark and Heidi in the shade of our van. The flies can still fly even though the wind is blowing so hard. Mark’s awning peeled off the van so they will have to try and fix that when the wind stops blowing. It was 8pm when we finished chatting – the stars are beautiful but I didn’t see any satellites. The wind has swung around to the south now so hopefully that will cool things down. Forecast for tomorrow is only 27 degrees – such a change from 39 for today.

Wed, 3rd Apr, 2019 Malcolm Dam, east of Leonora, WA

7am 24 degrees, clear sky with a bit of cloud still in the south. The wind is still blowing hard from the south-east.

Went detecting – lots of atmospheric interference making the detectors ping all the time so we were forever rechecking in case we had missed a target. Steve found me a nice golden birthday present.

Had a nice morning then home for lunch, 32 degrees.

We sent Rick Mitchell a birthday text for today. Valerie had sent me a text for my birthday so I checked when Kirsten was getting married. 13^th April in Perth. I hope they have a beautiful day and a wonderful life together.

I wrote my blog so I could upload it but my internet dongle wouldn’t work. I haven’t used it in months as we have had internet supplied. Will have to get onto Telstra – most annoying.

Hotter afternoon but luckily the van is shaded well by the big tree so it is quite comfortable.

Heidi gave us some garfish fillets to have for dinner. They have a shack at Edithburg, SA so we will look forward to meeting them there one day and doing some fishing.

A strong wind from the north started about 8pm and continued to blow strongly into the night.

NO PHOTOS TODAY.

Tues, 2nd Apr, 2019 Malcolm Dam, east of Leonora , WA (My birthday)

56 today – don’t feel it thank goodness. Birthday texts started coming through at 5.30am as people in Qld forgot about the time difference but I was chuffed to receive such lovely messages.

7.30am 25 degrees, no breeze and cloudy.

Mum and Dad rang – raining again in Cairns.

Headed back to yesterday’s spot and I got two more specks – speck is the word as they don’t qualify to be called nuglets even as they are so small but they are gold and that is all that matters. Poor Steve didn’t find any so yesterday’s one has become my birthday present, ha ha.

Tried another spot but only found rubbish.

Home for lunch, 35 degrees. A cloud band is coming up from the south.

Jon and Wendy had rung while we were out so I returned their calls. Jon is very busy with work which is great and Jess is doing well. Wendy and Dave are still planning to see Sarah in USA/Canada in September so I might miss seeing them this time. Wendy’s Dad celebrated his birthday today too.

We went for a drive to check out more pending ground and found what we think was an old mining camp. There were lots of bottles and rock lined areas where they would have set up their tents. There was a mine marked on the map called Pig Well Mine (Pig Well was further over on the map).

We then found heaps of open shafts – presuming each person had their own shaft. Amazing to think they wandered out here, found some gold and started digging.

Further along we found a fireplace and lots of old tins.

More birthday texts came through and I got a call from Daniel but we only said a couple of words and I lost reception.

Meandered along and came across an open area where we noticed some big quartz rocks which looked out of place. They were marking Gnamma holes.

Followed a track to find Pig Well but only found this pile of rocks instead.

Back home and more birthday texts came through and I missed a call from Erica. I rang Daniel back – flat out at work and he and Fran are looking forward to their trip to Melbourne soon. Rang Erica – her eldest sister, Maree, turned 90 today too. Had a chat with Sandra then Suzanne too.

The clouds kept coming and covered the sky and we even had two raindrops while we were having our drinks by the fire with Heidi and Mark. Lovely sunset colours.

The wind has picked up from the south-east which has cooled things down a bit.

Mon, 1st Apr, 2019 10 Mile Outcamp, Tarmoola Station, 60km north of Leonora to Malcolm Dam, east of Leonora, WA

Lovely sunrise colours at 6am – nice temperature now too, not as chilly.

7am 22 degrees, blue sky with a few clouds and a light breeze.

Did the final packing and gave the cottage a final clean then headed off back out to the highway and down to Leonora.

Topped up our water at Leonora and got a map of the pending areas around Malcolm Dam where we can detect legally.

Pulled up at Mark and Heidi’s van to say hello. They parked closer to the dam which is very low.

We parked in our spot under the big tree. Steve’s fireplace needs fixing up and others have been leaving heaps of old bottles, tins, little gold crucibles etc that they have found around the area.

The wind has stopped so it is warming up quickly. 34 degrees at lunch time – in the shade of the tree.

Went out detecting. Found a creek which has been dug out to make a good sized dam and it has water and fish in it too. We drove over the causeway.

I found 5 cents so we are in the money already!!

We both found a little bit each so we are on the board to start our 6 month detecting season. Steve marked his with his smiley face while I kept with the little rock cairn as my marker.

Rebecca rang to wish me happy birthday for tomorrow – lovely to hear from them both. They are heading over to NZ soon to see their granddaughter again.

Late drinks with Heidi and Mark and lots of chatting as it is 2 years since we were last together in this exact spot. The mozzies are very small but boy can they bite. Steve got the fire going and the billy on to heat some shower water. Not that we need it too hot as it is still quite warm.

Pretty sunset colours on the cloud band to the west.

Lovely evening – the sky seems to have even more stars in it.

Sun, 31st Mar, 2019 10 Mile Outcamp, Tarmoola Station, 60km north of Leonora, WA

7.30am 20 degrees, clear sky and wind still blowing.

Continued with our packing – giving everything a nice clean with some rain water I had kept.

Rang Anita for her birthday. The boys are well but Brian was diagnosed with stomach cancer in October so life has not been nice for them both since then but he is doing ok.

The wind settled down – Steve getting his last fix of detecting videos on the tablet while I did the last loads of washing.

Lunch 28 degrees.

Hooked up the van and turned around so we are ready to go tomorrow morning. 

We have had a wonderful time here but it is time to get into some serious detecting for the next 6 months.

Farewell 10 Mile – we will call in and check it out if we come back this way again.

Last drinks with the cattle – lots coming in this afternoon.

Heaps of shiny ‘xmas’ beetles have been flying around lately.

Clear sky though not as cool tonight.

Closed the windows though by bedtime as it is still a bit fresh.