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