Blog 20 - Moulamein - the oldest town on the Riverina. Benalla - Ned Kelly and Costume museum - Saturday 1st August to Tues 4th August 2015

Saturday 1st August 2015

I’m feeling a little home sick today. It’s a quiet day in Moulamein, rain is softly and continually falling on the van. But it is a busy day for the Ford clan. In Perth, the Swan valley to be exact; Yak is on the starting line for the Avon descent with Watty standing by as a big piece of his support crew. In Rockingham the craziness of organising a birthday party is upon Pickles and Scott as today is Harri’s 8^th birthday. While Tomas is in Edinburgh Scotland to perform in the Fringe festival with Eleesha supporting from afar in her new job and looking after Preston.  My phone is running hot with updates via texts and photos so I’m feeling the love.

Moose and I spent the morning watching the series “Banish” then headed into our new favourite café for a lunch of bacon and eggs. We continued with the lazy mood of the day and pre booked our pizza for dinner then headed out on a tour of the towns tourist attractions.

Edward River

First stop was the Edward River followed by crossing the foot bridge over Billabong Creek to see the old court house. It is actually a restoration of the original building which operated from 1890 to 1968. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1890 and rebuilt the same year. The rain started to fall heavily as we returned to the car.

Foot bridge & Old Courthouse

There’s a couple of signs in town proudly declaring that Moulamein is the oldest town in the Riverina. Then another pointing to the Big Tree so we headed out to have a look at it. It really is a “big” tree said to be over 300 years old and over 11 metres wide. It stood in the edge of a forrest of River Red Gums which were made up of beautiful rich red tones as the rain washed the dust away. Bonnie wasn’t too impressed with the heavy rain, she ran ahead of us and waited under the car.

Moose keeping dry!

The Big Tree

Shearing shed

We then followed the signs to Mooloomoon which is a beautiful old property that has a heritage listed shearing shed on it. We returned to the van with the rain well and truly set in.

Harri's cake - note the zombies on the cupcakes

My friend Terry made a “Zombie” cake for Harri from us. I wanted us to be at his party in spirit if not in person and she did an amazing job. Another girlfriend was visiting Perth from Tasmania and as our place was empty I suggested she make use of it. Today was the day Sally and Dez arrived. 

Sunday 2nd August 2015

The sun is up and the sky has returned to a brilliant blue. There is a slight nip in the air as we head to the local IGA for supplies.

Yak makes the local paper

A bit of cooking, a bit of washing, a bit of reading and that's about it while Juanita kept us updated on Yaks progress in the Avon Descent. At the end of the day he came in 2nd in the single ski section. Caught up on Tomas with a phone call from Tomas who’s shows are going really well but doing two in a day leaves him little time to see other shows or to sleep.

Moose, Bonnie and I went for another evening walk around the lake.  Followed by a BBQ for dinner.

Monday 3^rd of August

A bit of cabin or should I say "cabbage ban" fever has taken hold making it a very quiet drive to Echuga. We stop for lunch in Cohuna then drive through Gunbower before arriving in Echuga which has one of the  widest main streets I've seen yet. We discussed whether to stay in town and decided a one night stay in a free camp near the river would be enough.

Tuesday 4th August 

The sky is grey but the wind has ceased so although it's cold, it is not freezing. Any thought of checking out the Main street was dashed as the GPS took us through suburbia onto the main highway. Farmland and horse studs line up alongside the road. 

Next we are driving through Shepparton - looks like we have hit the suburbs. The Main street is a huge double lane road divided with a tree lined car park in the centre.

Moose's latest obsession is Toll weight bridges. We are hunting another one down, it's like an overweight person not happy with what the scales say so finds another set of scales  He pays the fee and we are all weighed together. The car, caravan, ski, sewing machine, Moose, Bonnie & me plus all the other incidentals inside the van and Ute. It a whole new reason to diet and exercise when we look like being close to the combined weight allowed. 

Costume museum

One of the murals in town

Some more morals

Next town is Benalla.  Huge gum trees hang over the road leading into town and fantastic murals adorn several buildings as we drive through. There is a second Main street with a bridge across the river and parking nearby. There seems plenty of cars but very few people. We park and take Bonnie for a walk through town. Moose points out a costume museum which is in a building shared with the Ned Kelly museum. This is Ned Kelly country, well he was trialled here. Any way Moose decided to take Bonnie off for a run in the park while I checked out the costumes. 

I was thrilled to see the array of beautiful dresses on display and samples of lace and fine embroidery. Then as I was leaving a lady asked me what had brought me into the museum. I explained my interest in costume and textiles and she called another lady out to meet me. We discussed a particular garment which was made out of an unusual fabric then I was shown into the store room to see where they repaired the garments and how they stored them. I was buzzing with excitement as I came out.  The gentleman now on the reception desk had over heard us talking and approached me to suggest I visit the art museum tomorrow as there is a contempory embroidery exhibit. I just about floated out the door to meet up with Moose.

 

Just a few pics from the museum

 Moose did his usual amazing job of removing me from the temptation of shopping by making sure we stayed at a camp site a long way from them. Once again alongside a river.

Bonnie investigating

Red Algae 

While Moose set up the van, Bon and I went off for a walk. Frogs croaked, cockatoos screeched and moor hens squeaked. At one part of the river red algae covered the surface of the river. Bonnie mistakenly thought it was a solid covering and leapt onto then through it. 

Moose had a campfire going by the time I got back so she dried off pretty quick though wasn't happy about the cows on the other side of the river so sat on the bank staring them down.

Billabong Moose and Costume lover Moz signing off x

Blog 19 –Swan Hill - day trip to Lake Boga – then onto Moulamein Thurs30th July

Its bloody freezing. Like I mean really bloody freezing. So clothing is layer upon layer upon layer and I’m still cold.We are off for a drive to Lake Boga. As we head to the car Moose’s new best friends gather for a chat. They obviously are either used to the heat or have a few extra thermals on. Even the Pelicans are huddling together for warmth. 

As we pull into the odd town of Lake Boga which seems pretty absent of housing and shops as well as the relaxing ambious advertised in the brochure which shows a beautiful lake with reeds nestled around it changing colour as the sun goes down. Instead I see a large pump thing under a pavilion with a tourist sign posted near it. Moose asks me what it is, I say I don’t know. He hops out to have a look braving the cold in a t shirt – idiot. I sit in the warm car and take a photo of him near this not so amazing tourist attraction. It was built in the early 1800s and used in the irrigation channels.

It is a strange town, large but falling down. The lake, when we find it, is as stated huge and I'm sure beautiful in summer but today it is grey, reflecting the grey sky and the wind is causing choppy little waves across its surface.

The reeds don’t so much nestle as annoy it. 

We try to hunt down a coffee shop but all we can find is a newly built block of 4 shops in awful brown brick. We have seen signs for the “ Catalina Flying Boat museum” but can’t seem to find it, in the shabby streets of the town so we google it. The website has all the info including photos which may explain why there has been no work done on the many heritage type buildings in town as it looks like the money has been spent on the museum. There must be coffee there

Yep a very impressive amount of money spent on hangar. We didn’t go through the museum but did pick up a coffee. I can’t work out why an instant coffee is $3. While for a $1.00 more I could have a real coffee. I purchase the real coffee and head back outside to Moose and Bonnie who are trying to find somewhere out of the wind. The wind is so cold it tears into your soul so we downed the coffee very quickly and jumped back into the car to follow the signs around the scenic tourist drive which had us laughing at how non scenic it was.

Moose complaining about lack of scenery

I did point out to Moose that if the grape vines had leaves on and the trees were in blossom it could be a lot prettier drive. We followed the sign on “Drive 51” as best we could, the challenge being that a lot of them had faded in the sun to white so there was much stopping and doing a U turn to get back on track. 

Not very scenic

Much better

Moose was complaining again about the lack of scenery so I put the positive suggestion forward that Willunga SA looks great when the almond trees are in blossom, covering the hill from top to bottom in pretty pink flowers but that when not in flower it can look quite bare so if there were to be some almond trees out here it could be really pretty and wallah, turn a corner and there they were!

So at this point we figure it’s time to check out somewhere else. Moose points the car towards Lake Charm.  You could be mistaken that we are back on the Nullarbor plains but no, we are still here in sunny but freezing Victoria. The landscape has gone from orchards and grapevines to either flat farming land or low scrub. It's quiet in the car as we both float off with our own thoughts and Bonnie sleeps

Kangaroo Lake - another huge lake, sneaks up on us. It is used for water sports including sailing and fishing.  Moose who is hungry comments that the vehicle which just passed us in the opposite direction, came from a shop. I asked how he knew this amazing fact. He answered “It’s a Pepsi van therefore would have been to a shop to drop off an order” – he really does make me laugh.

He's following the GPS in the opposite direction to the direction we were originally going. I commented that she (GPS) is often wrong. Nope he says the Pepsi van came from this direction so we are heading to its drop off point. We arrive at the end of the road at a little place called Mystic Park and the GPS says “do a u turn” - I said nothing! There was a closed Pub so I’m guessing that's where the mysterious pepsi van came from.

Charm Lake general store should have been closed. It had ovens, pie warmers and alot of empty space but no food. We asked what was available for lunch as we figured there must be something and we just couldn’t see it.  The Lady behind the counter declared loudly "nothing" 

Back in the car we drove down to the actual lake, think moose was planning on driving into it to catch a fish.

We eventually had lunch at Lake Boga then home to the van and packed up the studio in preparation for moving on tomorrow. Once that was done I head off for facial while Moose picks up shackles for the van apparently they have to be rated and ours weren't.  He then took Bonnie on a marathon walk. As the sun went down Moose picked me up along with some Chinese takeaway. Returning to the warm cabbage ban

The news has just confirmed I was right saying it was cold – It’s been Coldest July in 10 years

Friday 31 July 2015

One small group of Cockies

There seems to be a Cocky party going on outside. Lots of cackling and screeching as they decide where to settle. I have often said moose isn't romantic. How could I say that when moose makes comments like "okay, that does look good on your face " this beautiful comment was made this morning acknowledging that my eyebrows and eyelashes look nice after my facial last night

The caravan park is sparsely occupied but today we learnt there is a 5 year waiting list for our van site in summer. Yet another plus of travelling in the off season.

With the van hitched up, we headed out through the town but had to pull over as we both completely forgot where we were heading! I was convinced it started with a T, Moose thought it started with a P. We pull over, both madly googling. Moose says it was on one of my brochures so I jumped out of the car and walked the length of the van, unlock the door, climb in and hunt down my envelope of brochures - sometimes the old fashion way is best. Sure enough there it is in all its glory, a brochure on Moulamein – we were close!

The sun is shining as we cross the bridge into NSW. For 70 kilometres there is nothing but flat sheep country. We arrive at Moulamein, it’s a little town made up from 2 pubs, one supermarket, a gallery and two cafes. Picking the country looking cafe over the trendy looking one, we enjoy our lunch sitting in the sun. Every local in town stops and chats to us. Bonnie collects a pat from each customer Including a 78 year old man and his best mate who is 70 year old. They are off for their annual skiing trip. Funny guy with lots of stories. Referred to his wife as the “Cheese and kisses “(the Mrs), a saying I hadn’t heard before. Our caravan park is small but is right next to the lake with only one other caravan taking up residence.

Bonnie enjoying the sunshine

The afternoon was spent reading and taking a walk around the lake where the sunset, water and sky supplied a few great photo opportunities. Bonnie earnt herself a wash after rolling in something very smelly. It was time to cook dinner and I used the new skill I seem to have required of setting off the smoke alarm even with Moose’s fantastic remedy of putting a shower cap over it so this time he disarmed it! 

Moose rubbing Bon on the grass to remove smelly stuff!

A beautiful sunset over the lake

I pointed the camera and got this!

   

who would of thought a beautiful sunset & a blue moon!

Fire chief Moose & Photographer Moz  signing off x

Blog 18 - Swan Hill - Pioneer village, Paddle boats & Billie goats - Mon 27th, Tues 28 & Wed 29th July 2015

Monday 27th July

A train chugged by earlier not noisy just a quiet rhythmic chug although the siren going off at the minute, (8.45 am) is noisy and annoying.
I am in bed with my book sipping the coffee and munching the toast supplied by "the Mr Wonderful" moose. He always sings that tune when he does something he thinks worthy of it. You know the one, goes like this : “Do you get that feeling? Do you get that glow, every time I’m near? Mr Wonderful …… That’s me!“ He's wanting to start on his wiring project so suggests I sit still while he lifts the bed up to get his tools out from under it! Cheeky sod. A raised eyebrow and a strong "don't you dare has him off sorting something else out"

While he was out I hopped into the shower thinking to myself how lovely it will be to put some conditioner through my hair not like the quick wash when free camping. I manage a shampoo followed by putting conditioner on before the water, becomes cold. Not luke warm, but bloody freezing. I am now a soaped up mess. I call out to Moose – “are you working on anything that affects the water heater?” He answers with a “No ….. It can't have gone cold.” In he comes to show me I'm an idiot that doesn't know hot from cold. He manages to not laugh at me wrapped in a towel, conditioner running down my face and my skin turning blue. Standing in the bathroom he places his hand under the shower jet while turning the tap to hot and explaining to me, I’m not to add cold water. He stands waiting for it to warm up - gee why didn't I do that? When it is starting to become obvious that the water isn't warming up he casually comments "I don't know why it's doing that, I had a good shower yesterday" – that’s really not helpful. He turned the booster on and went back outside. I wrapt my conditioned hair in a towel threw on a jacket and climbed back into bed. Knocking my coffee cup over on the way, so now have sheets to wash too. I feel I should stay in bed the rest of the day. I eventually tried the shower again and it has heated up. 

The day was spent reading, waiting for clothes to wash. Reading. Getting more coins for the driers plus a much needed warm coffee.  Waiting for clothes to dry and more reading. Moose was refitting a thicker wire to replace a wire that was getting too hot, somewhere in the towing connection to the car. 

The Generator will be ready tomorrow for pick up. It turned out to be a known fault with the wire loom. I enjoyed a long chat with Yak and text updates from pickles while clothes dried. After I had put a mountain of gold coins in the driers I still returned to the van with damp clothes. The sun may be out but the air feels like you've opened a very large freezer door so I hung them up in the annex to finish off and managed to book Bonnie into doggie day care for tomorrow before heading off to my much needed physio appointment. Returning to the van with my shoulder all strapped up.

The Cockies are making a racket while they pick a branch to settle on for the night. Eventually all is quiet. We turn the heater up and settle ourselves in for the night.

An excited Bonnie

Tuesday  28th July.
Mist rolls across the river across the banks right through to the town. It's a very cool 4 degrees.  I'm up a little earlier today as we are dropping miss Bonnie to doggie day-care and being romantic – huh, or rather tourists for the day

We started at the Pioneer settlement just down the road from the caravan park. Moose was in heaven looking at strippers of the machinery kind and harvesters. I tore him away to the warm cafe for a hot coffee and home-made lemon slice from Beryl and her offsider Shirley before he was captured by the steam engines which after 15 minutes I decided to go look at the shops rather than stand in the freezing cold watching him drool.

I chatted to the lady in the sweet shop, checked out the drapery shop through it's windows and worked my way up the main street of the Pioneer village ending at the Printers where a passionate Dutchman proudly showed me around his printers filling me in on their history. I have worked near some ancient presses in my time as a temp in the early 80s so was able to share some stories with him as he printed “wanted” posters for the boys. 

Printer running the boys posters off

Moose finds me and tells me he has organised a car ride for us but first my Danish friend has to show him his print presses too. When we step outside there is the car I thought Moose would end up with instead of the Hot rod we have today. It’s a lovely car and soooo comfortable.

Meet Millie & Billie

We head out into the real world to pick up the repaired generator then on to lunch before returning to Pioneer village for a cruise up the river on the Paddle boat. 

We say hello to Millie and Billie goat as we pass by. The captain of the crusie is filling us with all sorts of interesting information including that the Murray river is classed as being in New South Wales even though our caravan park which sits right on it is in Victoria. It is under the control of New South Wales until the South Australian border where they take over, poor old Victoria don’t get a look in. So if you own a boat in Victoria and want to float it in the Murray you have to get a New South Wales boat license as well as a Victorian one. If you want to go fishing in it, you need a New South Wales fishing license too.

The Victorian Government operate an Environmental flows regime which isn’t just the amount of water that is allowed to flow through the river system but also how often it flows and for how long. It is claimed that these are vital for the rivers ecological processes like, for example: high flows for trigging fish breeding and enough water for them to move up and down the river. Low flows in summer help keep fish alive and connect their habitats. The flows also affect the shape of the rivers. Now if you hear this from an official it would be told as a “good” thing. But we get the impression that the general public don’t always see it the same way. The heavy erosion along the banks has been blamed on the flows being too frequent and to heavy.

Exhausted Bonnie sleeps by the heater vents

After our cruise we headed off to pick Miss Bonnie up and some how ended up at a craft shop. When I eventually came out of the craft shop we grabbed some fish and chips for dinner and headed back to the van for the evening.

Wednesday 29th July 2015
Wow we have been away 4 weeks. Time is flying in so today I decided to slow it down a little. We slept til 8.45 which is major sleep in , in the Moose household.

Then a bit of reading followed by some art journaling using some glitzy ink spray I bought at the craft shop yesterday. Moose spent this time taking Bon for a walk to town to pick up some more caravan bits from the hardware store.  He took ages as he stopped to chat to all the other men who bought gadgets for their vans.

My afternoon was spent in the annex studio with my heater on and machine buzzing. I'm on my way to making one of the kids crap Xmas gifts - look at me getting organized. Plus a long chat with Pickles about everything and nothing.

Moose catches the captains attention

Moose moves to the back of the boat

Moose gets cheered on by a bunch of school kids

Moose headed off to play with a paddle boat then a long paddle afterwards. Much to the concern of our neighbours when she realised he wasn't wearing a safety vest. I assured her he knew what he was doing. 

 On his return he set up the BBQ and dinner appeared. I played in the annex until 9 pm then popped inside to make our Horlicks and grab our books again.

It has been a very long enjoyable day!

Paddle boat racer Moose & Pioneer Moz signing off x

Blog 17 - Swan Hill - Sat 25th & Sun 26th July 2015

Saturday 25th July 2015
I faintly hear some banging around. It becomes louder as I wake up. Then the raah, raah of the water pump. Teeth being brushed. Yes Moose is up early again - I class early on holidays as any time before 8.30 am which quite frankly I feel is generous.

Usually I have warning we are hitting the road early but all I had last night was "if we get to town in time maybe we can put the generator in to be fixed".  I must have been in relaxed holiday mood as I did not pick that up to mean "we will make sure we are there in time" so after my usual broken night’s sleep, the banging of water pumps and splashing of water was not how I'd planned to start the day. What is it with moose Saturday means GET OUT OF BED!!! Doesn't matter where we are home or away and yes I am writing this to stop me beating him to death with or I don't know ANYTHING!  Oh hang on he did say "you don't need to get up, I'm just packing up outside" which is a code I did understand to mean – “don't rush for 6 or 10 mins cos I don't want you angry but do think about getting up as I want to get moving”.

I am in the car at 8.33 am. As we drive along I cannot keep my eyelids open so alternate between napping and looking out of semi closed lids. Looks like Miss GPS stuffed up again, its 10.45 and we've still got 89 Km's to go. Considering most places close at midday there’s a good chance we won't make the Generator place in time. The early start could well have been a rude waste of time.

We are definitely in the Riverland, Mandarins for sale every where I look. Large sprinklers chug over the orchards as we drive past them. Then suddenly the orchards end and scrub land returns. Every so often we come across farms, even a couple of small townships but there's no stopping we have a generator to fix.

We manage to arrive in the industrial area of swan hill and park outside the Honda shop at 11.45 that's with a whole 3min stop thrown in for me to get out and stretch.

Goat Island - across the river from us

Lucky for Moose the caravan park saved the day. It is a beautiful site right next to the river and there's s cafe īwithin the park. Once set up we enjoy lunch there and Moose manages an apology for the rush. I took the opportunity to walk Bonnie while Moose put my studio up. 

The tooting of a whistle brought my attention to a Paddle steamer coming up the river.

The couple in the van next to us were sitting enjoying a glass of wine and happily chatted about what we all do to pass the time. The ladies eyes lit up when I said I bring my machine. Her hubby instantly said "no you’re not bringing your sewing machine "I did share how unreasonable that was.

After his generator emergency drive, plus putting my studio up Moose and a well walked Bonnie fell asleep. I took this opportunity to do some art journaling.

While we ate dinner, Moose put Bonnie out in annex to eat hers. When we went to take her out for a walk, there was no Bonnie. She had burrowed out of the annex and done a disappearing act. Lucky for her she heard us calling and came back. We headed out for a walk around the park next door. We returned to a warm van for the evening enjoying the last recorded “Peaky Blinders” while munching our cheese, fruit and biscuit platter

Sunday 26th July 2015
I woke up to moose chuckling to himself about one of his own jokes. A lazy lie in catching up with news on fb and looking at all the pages in the art journal challenge that I have missed seeing because of lack of signal started the day on a nice slow pace.

Moose headed up the "little Murray River " on his ski while I feeling inspired and excited with my studio up , got out of bed thinking “I'll pop down to the cafe for s good cup of coffee” then realized I was on a powered site so the nespresso machine could be hooked up. Happy days

Busy typing my blog. Moose comes in uttering between blue lips "cold, very cold. I need a hot shower. My feet are freezing". I said " nice paddle though?" He replied as he got into the shower "yeah until I ran out of water"

Moose is sitting staring into space. I asked what he was doing "warming up" was his answer. He's even got his brand new Grandpa slippers on.  Sssh don't tell him I told you that.

Couldn't have a better view

The paddle steamer has passed by our site twice this morning with a merry toot toot and the swishing of water through the big wheel. Moose is starving (again) so we went on a bakery hunt. This place is huge so the GPS was called into action. Sure enough we found bakeries but none of them were open. Victoria you have disappointed us. We eventually found an open café – honestly people go on about Perth being shut early evening and weekends, as far as I can see we are open far more than other states. We sit outside as Bonnie is with us but it is too much to handle, the icy fingers of wind dig through our jackets, jumpers, thermals into our bones. Even Bonnie isn’t impressed so Moose puts her in the car, she gratefully curls up on her mat while we go inside the shop to eat.

Oh Moose is funny, even when he doesn’t mean to be. We have found a supermarket so I’m going in for a quick shop while Moose heads off to pick up some electrical wiring down the road. I haven’t brought my purse so suggest Moose grabs some cash out of the ATM for me. He gets a few notes out and says I can “have a note any note”– the man has no idea how much food costs, I tell him if he’s lucky he’ll get some change. I do my shop then try not to laugh out loud as the checkout lady (about the same age as me) greets the lady in front of me. On being asked how she is, she answers “I’m recovering from tonsillitis”. The checkout lady goes on to tell her, she should try marihuana – much better than that crap the doctor gives you.

We return to the van where I set up my machine and cutting board and do a little sewing including the first sample for my upcoming workshop in February. Moose was busy reading up on his wiring problem and being a social butterfly on the phone. Bonnie kept me company in the studio. The cold air started seeping through the annex and the poor little heater didn't stand a chance so Bon and I stepped back into the van.

When it came time for Bonnie to go out to eat her, she ate fast then  wanted straight back into her warm mat sitting in front of the gas heater jets.

         Electrical Moose & Nespresso Moz signing off X

Blog 16 - Red cliffs near Mildura - Thurs 23rd July and Friday 24th July 2015

Thurs 23rd July 2015

Contented Moose outside my window

Kookaburras laugh in the old gum tree - and they laughed and laughed and laughed. Moose was up and out of the van early. He had made the campfire he has wanted to make, since we left home. He's just popped in to tell me how good it is and that he's making me a coffee - boiling up the water in the billy. 

Bonnie is insanely running from one side of a sandbar to the other or rolling on dead things.

He's poked his head in again - Coffees ready - I ask him to bring it in. He's was planning it as bait to get me outside. I am tucked up in bed (8.30) with a TENS machine doing its thing on my hip. When that's finished the other side is getting a session. Then I might hobble out. This is one of the many ways Moose and I are dissimilar. He is a "get out of bed at the crack of dawn and fall asleep after dinner kinda guy" while I'm a "slow get out of bed and stay up half the night kinda girl".

Pop. That's the sound of a “serene setting” bubble bursting. The scene as I step out of the van is Moose sitting by his campfire watching a billy boil. The river with trees casting shadows across its glasslike surface is not far away but I do not hear the beautiful song of birds as I close the door behind me, instead there is the distinctive sound of duelling chainsaws along with the reverse warning beeping on trucks and the bang of the odd explosion. It's doing my head in, my eyes tell me one story while my ears are telling me something completely different.

I'm just not that into camp fires.  I love an open fire in a house but to leave a perfectly warm van or tent, to sit in front of a fire that toasts your front while your back deals with the cold just seems pointless. Then of course you have the joy of the smoke dance. This is when everyone is comfortable and the breeze/wind changes direction moving smoke straight into some non-deserving eyes, so everyone moves to one side of the fire and repeats with each puff of wind. Toasting marshmallows is all a campfire is good for in my eyes. Moose on the other hand, thinks there's nothing like a camp fire. He will sit for hours staring into its depths, declaring it a worthwhile activity - I'm not quite sure how this differs from me missing out on a spectacular morning (his words) by lying in bed with a book. He gets great joy out of poking the fire with a stick or boiling a billy on it. Again Princess Moz says what's wrong with the kettle?  

My office

The buzzing is still happening and making me cranky so I've stepped back into the van where it doesn’t seem as loud. Moose is trying to entice me out by hunting down a good sewing spot. He's found a picnic table on a flat service but I may need industrial earplugs before going there. 

Moose paddling past

Moose is setting up for a long paddle something he's been waiting for since Streaky bay. Hang on I do have industrial ear plugs I bought them in Kalgoorlie for locking out Moose’s TV choice 

Bonnie watching Moose paddle

Bonnie and I are out walking and all is quiet. Several different birds have picked up where the chainsaws left off. Moose dropped his ski in the water and set off. I stood watching beside a large gum tree.   

Suddenly an almighty ruckus came from down the river where I could see hundreds of birds swarming across the sky, they looped and turned as one, as they changed direction, following the river as a guide they came screeching towards me, landing in the tree right beside me. The racket is to be heard to be believed. They carry on like a bunch of noisy kids fighting over the last biscuit in the tin.

So much to investigate

After taking a pile of photos and watching Bonnie run around in her crazy sniff and run way, I headed back to the camp site to sit and write my blog. The sun is out but I'm sitting with a hat scarf gloves and a blanket on. It is freezing.

It's 12.30 pm and the quiet I was hoping for, has finally fallen around my ears. A quiet Lark is singing. Moose is back from his paddle warming his bones near the fire while Bonnie is getting stuck into her chew stick. I am sitting in the shade of the awning, wrapped up like a mummy as due to my wonderful Irish heritage I can't sit in the full sun all day and need to hide either indoors or in the shade - yes even with sunscreen. I have paid all the bills Jess has texted through to me so now a bit of blogging and polishing off my short story for Rockingham writing comp

Moose resting his eyes

I returned to the comforts of the van to sit and type. Moose took his TV outside to watch the Tour de France. It was time for afternoon tea so I popped out to see of moose wanted some. He said he was right, he was about to put the camper oven on for dinner. I thought it was too early until he pointed out that my computer clock was on WA time.

Once the Tour de France was over (for the day) we headed off for a stroll, Moose asks "how long do you think we should stay here" at that moment two dirt bikes came speeding out of the bush. I had already suspected with all the tyre marks on the sand that this was a motor bike heaven. So they helped us come to the decision that we would head off on Saturday morning before the weekend bike riders came out to play.

We walked back to our dinner cooking on the camp fire with the Kookaburras laughing merrily from the trees.

Friday 24th July 2015

The sky is dark and strong winds are blowing around the van, flicking the annex like it's an annoying rag. This is not encouraging us to rush outside. Bonnie is out being a wild dog. 

View out the kitchen window

View out the bedroom side window

Every so often she appears in view of one of the windows. Sniffing, pointing then taking off at a gallop on a hunt of what, we do not know.

Moose has been out to change gas bottle and to turn on the generator. He's been having troubles with his phone due to burns on his finger. His finger print security won't work. He burnt it with a hot log he'd picked up from the fire. It goes with the hand he burnt when he was soldiering.

We are having a quiet morning watching Telly sipping tea and nibbling cheese and crackers. Moose is having problems with the generator so while he looks at that, I pop into the bathroom for a very short hot shower.

A quick tidy and I look at my phone, how is it; ten past one already. Guess I best go for a walk. I headed off with Miss Bonnie rushing ahead of me.  Once I got to the trees overlooking the river I spent a good 10 minutes watching 2 Hawks soaring in the wind thermals. Walking a little further brought me closer to the river’s edge where I could see a flock of ducks swimming from one side of the river to the other, looking up again I can see the hawks are above them so maybe it was ducklings not the joy of soaring on wind thermals that was keeping the hawks here. 

The tree roots look like they are hanging on for dear life. While at regular intervals there are irrigation pumps running from the river to the crops nearby. 

Irrigation pumps

I arrive back to the van to find Moose on the phone to a generator workshop in Mildura. It's not good news. He needs to take it to workshop and of course it's Friday and they close at 12 tomorrow.

Thankfully running the car for an hour or so charged the vans batteries enough to give us all the power we needed for the rest of the day and through the night.

The cook at work

My art studio

Once that was sorted Moose decided it was too windy to paddle so headed off with Bonnie to collect fire wood. Built the fire back up and put dinner on to cook - steak and veg while I tackled another art journal page.
We ate dinner by the fire which was lovely except I needed another fire on my other side as it was freezing

Birds chattered as Bonnie waits patiently for Moose to share some steak.

Dinner for two

Campfire Moose & Princess Moz signing off X