Day 397 Freycinet NP Tuesday 28th February 2012
Hi Folks,
Our last full day at the park today. We headed off to the Mount Amos walk at about 11. We started the track but once we arrived at the big sloping boulders Susan's knees precluded any further progress for her. I proceeded a bit further and took some snaps about half way up and returned. We then walked down to Parsons Cove a very pleasant little pocket of privately owned land inside the park. After enjoying the surrounds we journeyed back to camp for a late lunch of salt and pepper chili squid prepared by myself. It wasn't to the standard of the Hilltop Restaurant in Adelaide but it was pretty good.
We spent the rest of the day pre-packing and talking about options to make the camper trailer life more efficient. We will probably go fr a large slide out drawer next to the kitchen which we will reorient lengthwise. This will require a bit of rethinking of our packing but will be a bonus although to be of greatest efficiency we would probably leave the bikes and bike rack home.
Anyway lots to think about. Tomorrow morning we pack and head north. Hopefully we will be out well before the 11am curfew for departure.
Night folks
cheers Simon
Day 396 Frecyinet NP Monday 27th February 2012
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| Click on image to read Orange sign |
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| Chef Simon |
Hi All,
The Tasmanian weather we know so well has returned, yes rain, well a reasonably steady drizzle overnight, enough to make the morning smell fresh and the plants to look greener. That is one of the downsides of dirt roads it distorts the true colour of foliage, many a road we have travelled would look more picturesque if the plants weren't covered in bulldust.
The mountain walk did not eventuate today "Might be too slippery for your grandmother knees" Simon is now sporting a bruise!
A couple of days ago (25th Feb) we started reading back on our blog of a year ago. This started a few days ago when we received a message from Rebecca who commemorated her first day at Parsons Bay with such a recollection. As we looked back on our day 31 we noted that Giacomo was bitten by a Jack Jumper ant. As coincidence would have it later that day a year later I was bitten by one also. Now the bite is looking nasty and is really painful. Thank goodness for the Itch Ease cream we got in Cairns for sandfly bites. Hope this isn't the start of some belated deja vu!
We toodled into town to buy tartare sauce and crumbing mixture for tonight's feast. Then we drove to the Friendly Beach camp and around the roads. On the road in to Coles Bay one passes 2 resorts Edge of the Bay and Saffire Freycinet. The Saffire looks like a magnificent building from a distance, but does not encourage visitors (see photo) I entertained the thought of suggesting a luxury treat (still waiting for B/day gift) until I looked at the brochure. Obviously we are not in their marketing selection. Rooms between $1400 and $2500 a night! The massage price was comparable to the one at Cradle Mountain, but the sign did not encourage me to enquire further. Simon can spend his $ elsewhere :-)
We did however have a magnificent dinner at Chateau Campranger of fresh Squid cooked by chef Simon.
One thing about life on the road - we eat well.
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| The third helping of squid rings! |
Day 395 Freycinet NP Sunday 26th February 2012
Sleepy Bay
This new camera is so cool!
Guppy rock
Squid!
Tomorrow's chef
Morning at Richardsons Beach adjacent the camp ground. Picture with cool new camera! (click for big)
Hi All,
Another scorcher for Tasmania today 36.8 according to Simons wiz bang thermometer, so our trek up the mountain was postponed. All the walking tracks were closed anyhow, due to high fire danger. No fires near us, but there were fires close to Mount Field where we stayed only a few weeks ago. After agreeing on an alternate outing we drove up to Cape Tourville lighthouse returning to camp by way of Sleepy Bay which has a wonderful gravelly beach of pink, white and grey granite. There are also some interesting weathered rocks some like oversized guppies.
I talked Simon into massaging my back with the smooth granite gravel - most relaxing, I found the "sand" quite comfortable and soon found myself doing "sleepy breathing" and dozing in the shade - it sure is Sleepy Bay!
We had a quick drive in to town - Coles Bay to buy milk, and that was pretty much the day or so I thought.
Back at camp Simon was looking through his fishing gear and anounced at 1800 he was going fishing - back to Sleepy Bay, and he would be back by 2000. I did what I could to start dinner, which wasn't much as all the food was in the fridge in the car! I couldnt even have a wine!!
Successful fishing 4 squid cleaned while I cooked mmmmm looking forward to tomorrow nights dinner.
Cheers Susan
Day 394 Freycinet NP Saturday 25th February 2012
Hi Folks,
The story of the day was the weather. It touched the 37-38 degree mark here! The hottest day we have had in our time here by about 8 degrees and not before time. It is now 1030 and a tad over 22. The temperature was not a huge problem although it did curtail us walking up to Mount Amos. The wind was more of a problem lifting the awning and making a couple of poles fall. As mentioned before the rock hard ground here makes it impossible to stake so I have been using granite boulders, a large log and length of chain which have now been added to.
We said goodbye to our neighbours Gloria and Peter this morning as they winged their way down to Port Arthur.
Since we didn't walk we lounged. Susan did the washing, talked to the new neighbours, knocked up some nice food and read books. I investigated the mysteries of why the photo stitching has fallen off the rails. I read the manual (partially) for my new camera and found it has a couple of panorama functions plus some software on the disc. The results you see on the blog tonight are from my Wineglass Bay return visit this afternoon in the heat.
On my return Susan and I had a very pleasant swim on the beach here.
The showers here are $2 per 4 minutes. There are only 3 in the campground but there is never any problem getting one. The pay for time system works very well. The sites here are $16 per night which is pretty cheap for powered sites.
As for tomorrow not quite sure yet. If it is not too hot too early we will try Mount Amos. It is rated a hard walk with lots of warning signs which say "not recommended for red headed grandmothers with wonky knees" or words to that effect.
Fingers crossed for gentle winds else we might disappear into the sky like Mary Poppins.
night folks
Simon
Day 393 Freycinet NP Friday 24th February 2012
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| Coles Bay |
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| Wineglass Bay |
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| Wineglass Bay |
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| Pancake size fungus |
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| Live shell Susan found on Hazard Beach |
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| Susan's urchin |
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| Teetering Boulder |
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| Teetering Boulder from further away |
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| More precarious boulders |
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| Susan of the rocks Wineglass Bay Wineglass Bay beach View across to Hazard Beach and Mount Freycinet |
Hi Folks,
A warm sunny day so we chose to do "THE" walk here, which is to the Wineglass Bay lookout. We travelled beyond the manicured path to the lookout and down onto Wineglass Bay beach, across the Isthmus track to Hazard Beach and then back to the car park. Total distance 12.5km in 5.5 hours. The walk is dominated by the granite rocks with of course the highlight being the view from the lookout. I will let the pictures and videos speak for themselves. They are all from my new "hiking" camera, which had an unceremonious journey in an old bum bag. I need a case so i can either carry it around my neck or preferably on my belt.
Tomorrow the plan is to climb Mount Amos a short hard walk assuming we are not too sore from today. Dinner tonight was from the camp oven albeit cooked on the gas stove.
The funny moment of the day was travelling back to the last campsite to search for a dessert spoon since we could only find one this morning. I had to explain this to the people on the site. I did find the spoon. I obviously chucked it into the bush with the washing up water. At least we don't have to have breakfast in shifts now. We used to have 4 and are thinking we may have left 2 at Woodbridge. The compose mode for the blog has lead to this rather odd looking layout. I do have some panoramic shots to add but the stitching program is not co-operating at the moment so a couple of hiccups to overcome but not tonight.
Cheers Simon
Day 392 Freycinet NP Thursday 23rd February 2012
Hi Folks,
From beautiful Freycinet. An interesting day. We packed up this morning in no great hurry since we only had 10 km to travel and a nominal 11am check in.
We did some planning with pen and paper and a tape to work out how best to align the camper in the tight powered space and made sure we knew which side of the trailer the camper comes off. We didn't want any more Laurel and Hardy moments. We had to push the camper into position which included running it up onto the garden bed. As you can see from the pictures we used all the space width wise. The ground was pretty hard so we scrounged some granite rocks to hold the ropes and put our storage boxes inside on the floor to act as internal pegs. Despite the closeness of the neighbours i am sure judging by tonight the main annoyance will be the possums. I have had my blackwood stick out and commenced the reducation campaign.
After setting up camp we went 100 metres down the track and had our first open water swim in Tasmania. The water was quite pleasant and the backdrop stunning.
Before and after tea i resumed my repair of the spreader pole for the awning. I put a bit more thought into it this time so fingers crossed i will give it a try tomorrow.
The weather improved from a concrete sky to glorious sunshine by mid afternoon and more is on the way. Tomorrow we will do the scenic walk so there should be some good pictures tomorrow night.
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| On the site. The rock under the tree marks the boundary. |
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| Parked in the garden |
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| The view at tea time |
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| View at Richardsons beach where we swam. |
Hi Folks,
From beautiful Freycinet. An interesting day. We packed up this morning in no great hurry since we only had 10 km to travel and a nominal 11am check in.
We did some planning with pen and paper and a tape to work out how best to align the camper in the tight powered space and made sure we knew which side of the trailer the camper comes off. We didn't want any more Laurel and Hardy moments. We had to push the camper into position which included running it up onto the garden bed. As you can see from the pictures we used all the space width wise. The ground was pretty hard so we scrounged some granite rocks to hold the ropes and put our storage boxes inside on the floor to act as internal pegs. Despite the closeness of the neighbours i am sure judging by tonight the main annoyance will be the possums. I have had my blackwood stick out and commenced the reducation campaign.
After setting up camp we went 100 metres down the track and had our first open water swim in Tasmania. The water was quite pleasant and the backdrop stunning.
Before and after tea i resumed my repair of the spreader pole for the awning. I put a bit more thought into it this time so fingers crossed i will give it a try tomorrow.
The weather improved from a concrete sky to glorious sunshine by mid afternoon and more is on the way. Tomorrow we will do the scenic walk so there should be some good pictures tomorrow night.
Day 391 Coles Bay Wednesday 22nd February 2012
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| Triabunna camp |
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| Tonight's camp |
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| New camera wide view |
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| New camera same scene full optical zoom |
Hi Folks,
We set an alarm at 7 this morning sort of intending to go on the ferry to Maria Island. However in the end the cost was $90 for both of us return with our bikes which we considered too much. Instead we opted to tidy our kit up which wasn't overly exciting. We dawdled and left after I had a shower in the pay shower at the visitor centre $4 for 3 minutes. Not a bad idea a few more of the towns with free camps need to invest in them. We also had some good value fish and chips before we left from the van next to the pub. Triabunna is doing it pretty tough with a lot of people out of work with the mill closure. I got an ear bash about the "bloody greens" from an otherwise pleasant lady at the visitor centre.
Travelling north we stopped at Swansea for coffee at the Onyx Cafe which is where we had coffee on our last visit. Speaking of coffee our plunger pot is now broken after several years of stirling service. Looks like it got squashed in the cutlery box. While on the subject of broken my bodgy repair on the awning stay failed so i shall have to rethink that.
We drove into the National Park at Freycinet to get a feel of the campsites. Susan rang them this morning and they had no powered sites until Friday. We enquired in person, inspected the 2 that were available and a good one that wasn't for "ages" We chose one which is actually available tomorrow night so we paid for 6 nights. There are many unpowered sites that are tent only and a handful for camper trailer unpowered but being quite shady i don't think we would be able to keep up with our power needs using the solar. Besides it means we can also run the coffee machine! The powered sites are $16 per night plus you get a shower too! In our time there I might have some time to read the 297 page manual for my new $290 Nikon camera. Tonight's pictures are courtesy of it. The pictures aren't as good as my Canon $1000 dollar SLR and the video not as good as my Panasonic $1200 video camera. Funny that. However it will be much better for hiking. I just need to get a case for it.
We drove out of the park and are now in a little NP campsite called River and Rocks next to Moulting lagoon, quite popular with a fair few people here. There is one long drop dunny and a few wood BBQ's. It is actually not a bad site.
We have had continuing discussion about our mode of travel without being any closer to a decision. We need to actually try out some different campers. However none of them will be cheaper and i take the view you could have bought a hell of a lot of fuel with the money you spent. We have three modes of travel. Residential stays, overnight stays in the swag and extended camps in the trailer. What we need is to make the overnight stays much more efficient. Maybe we just need to rethink our packing again. We certainly could get rid of some more stuff and make more space. However we have things we left at home this time that would also be nice to have along, i.e. boat and motor, water heater, chain saw and they might jump into that space. Anyway my brain hurts now so it is bedtime.
Night folks
Simon
Day 390 Triabunna Tuesday 21st February 2012
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| Susans dessert based on elderberry flavours |
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| Lavender icecream sandwich topped with blueberry sauce |
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| Bahai Centre |
Hi folks,
Tonights blog comes to you from the darkness behind the pub at Triabunna. It's a free camp with a gold coin donation to the Royal Flying Doctor. It has been a long day. After breakfast at Nubeena i packed the camp up while Susan caught up on some educational video. After saying our good byes we left about 25 to 11 which was going to make the time tight for Susan's appointment at Bellerive. We made it albeit a few minutes late. Good news is she has the all clear on her nose.
We journeyed to the Bahai Centre in Hobart for lunch in their cafe. The building is quite stunning and of a highly energy efficient design. Keen readers will remember that we went on a Saturday a couple of weeks back and it was closed. Lunch was excellent the highlight being the desserts. Pictures of which may appear on here tonight depending on how the batteries hold up. From there we drove back down the peninsula so Susan could have her Providore book signed by people at Grandvewe cheese people who have just won an award for the best cheese in Australia. We are nibbling on some of the Sapphire Blue now. Susan says it is the best blue cheese she has ever tasted but then she think i am a handsome brainy guy!
We drove back up the road to see if my camera had arrived at Anns. The new Helpexers were unpacking so i parked the rig down the bottom. Ann then drove in followed by the courier with the booty.We had a quick cup of tea and headed back through Hobart to Cambridge to purchase some replacement glues then on to Sorell for food shopping and fuel. The day was getting long in the tooth when we decided to stop here. There are a lot of vans around parked over the other side of the inlet indicating many tourists in town. Two passenger ferries are running to Maria Island tomorrow so hopefully we will be organised enough to catch one of them before 930 and be able to take our bikes.
We shall see.
Grr light rain is starting to fall so blog writing is curtailed. Typical Tasmanian summers evening!
cheers Simon
Day 389 Nubeena Monday 20th February 2011
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| Susan and Lola yesterday |
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| Phils mussels at the cafe last night |
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| Goat milking at the resort today |
Hi Folks
A slight change of plans today. Susan's appointment is now tomorrow at 12. After the surgery rang we decided to stay put here for the day (and night). We did have the swag packed up although it was slightly damp from the rain last night. I don't think i mentioned that a fitting on the awning broke yesterday afternoon probably as a result of the strong winds lifting the awning even though it was staked in the night. I took the opportunity to repair it today. It has been semi successful however with a bit more araldite it may be ok.
After enduring some moderate rain this morning and having a shower in a used motel room we spent the day pottering. Ilan asked me to have a look at the heater in the sauna as it needed an element replacing. After a bit of a recce i decided it was beyond my level of competence. With the fasteners and the whole casing generally rusted and since one element was still working i declined.
The next job arrived. A public computer in the cafe had been infected with one of these fake programs that asks you for money to cure a whole host of viruses you do not have. These can be a bit of a pain to remove especially when no one knows the windows administrator password. After a couple of hours of pain i managed to crack the password. I won't bore you with the details but someone who knew what they were doing probably would have done it in half an hour. It was then another couple of hours to finish the job. In between we had a pizza and coffees at the cafe for lunch and went to Lucky Ducks for tea since the cafe was full. Lucky's food was good and we returned to the Resort where I left virus scans running on both computers and adjourned for a catch up session on various things including fruit cake and chocolate before we leave tomorrow.
The weather is improving so hopefully no problems drying the swag to pack in the morning.
Night folks
Cheers Simon
Day 388 Nubeena Sunday 19th February 2012
Evening folks
We awoke to the sound that this camper fears. The pitter patter of rain on the swag. Fortunately it was short lived but did return in the afternoon with a vengeance. After breakfast we strolled down to Lucky Ducks for coffee and a chat with Grant and Kelly catching up on their news. They have changed the layout giving them more table room. A definite improvement and their coffee is still good. We returned to the resort and did some minor house keeping before heading to see Amanda, Phill and baby Lola. Susan gave them a present for Lola, a cross stitch she has been labouring over for some time. We/I also consumed our first alcohol for the day. I needed it to calm my nerves as the rain bucketed down and my concern grew for our swag back at camp. Oh did i mention a fitting on our awning broke in the wind last night. At first glance it doesn't look to be repairable but the good news is the awning is still functional although we will know more when i have had a chance to investigate further.
We then popped up to see Lynne also a former resort employee. We had a good chat and a glass of wine or two before heading back down the hill for tea in the motel restaurant.
Phill knocked up a great custom meal for us and as usual was generous with the service of alcohol and food. At the end of the evening Susan was insisting she wasn't being charged enough to go along with refusing the free motel room offer from last night. She also committed us to copying some cd's before we leave. Looking at the schedule for tomorrow I would like to know when that is going to happen. Although as per usual it will get slotted in somewhere.
After some imbibing with dinner we visited the helpers in unit 7 where we scored some nice desserts made by Katherina.
I am now sitting in the car typing. Consequently any pictures relevant to today will have to wait until a later time. I am off to bed with a belly full of fine food, wine and beer and some nice memories of some lovely people.
night folks
Cheers Simon
We awoke to the sound that this camper fears. The pitter patter of rain on the swag. Fortunately it was short lived but did return in the afternoon with a vengeance. After breakfast we strolled down to Lucky Ducks for coffee and a chat with Grant and Kelly catching up on their news. They have changed the layout giving them more table room. A definite improvement and their coffee is still good. We returned to the resort and did some minor house keeping before heading to see Amanda, Phill and baby Lola. Susan gave them a present for Lola, a cross stitch she has been labouring over for some time. We/I also consumed our first alcohol for the day. I needed it to calm my nerves as the rain bucketed down and my concern grew for our swag back at camp. Oh did i mention a fitting on our awning broke in the wind last night. At first glance it doesn't look to be repairable but the good news is the awning is still functional although we will know more when i have had a chance to investigate further.
We then popped up to see Lynne also a former resort employee. We had a good chat and a glass of wine or two before heading back down the hill for tea in the motel restaurant.
Phill knocked up a great custom meal for us and as usual was generous with the service of alcohol and food. At the end of the evening Susan was insisting she wasn't being charged enough to go along with refusing the free motel room offer from last night. She also committed us to copying some cd's before we leave. Looking at the schedule for tomorrow I would like to know when that is going to happen. Although as per usual it will get slotted in somewhere.
After some imbibing with dinner we visited the helpers in unit 7 where we scored some nice desserts made by Katherina.
I am now sitting in the car typing. Consequently any pictures relevant to today will have to wait until a later time. I am off to bed with a belly full of fine food, wine and beer and some nice memories of some lovely people.
night folks
Cheers Simon
Day 387 Nubeena Saturday 18th February 2012
Evening viewers,
We have returned to our old stamping ground at Nubeena for a couple of days.
The day started off at Woodbridge with drizzle and a 6 oclock alarm so we could say goodbye to Ann and Kevin before their departure to the market. By the time we had packed and Susan had cleaned most of the house it was about 2. We toodled a well worn route into/through and out of Hobart to Sorell where we did a little shopping and bought some snacks for lunch. We arrived at the Resort and touched base with the various occupants. We put up the swag out the back paddock and Susan put on a load of washing which i hung. Community dinner was as usual a good spread. The helpers were a bit late arriving which was a pity since i enjoy the banter.
The rest of the evening was spent pottering with Susan completeing her cross stitch. We were offered a motel room for the night however Susan declined preferring the swag. I didn't feel like a sleep in a comfy bed anyway!
Fingers crossed for a dry night without hurricane force winds.
cheers Simon
Night folks
We have returned to our old stamping ground at Nubeena for a couple of days.
The day started off at Woodbridge with drizzle and a 6 oclock alarm so we could say goodbye to Ann and Kevin before their departure to the market. By the time we had packed and Susan had cleaned most of the house it was about 2. We toodled a well worn route into/through and out of Hobart to Sorell where we did a little shopping and bought some snacks for lunch. We arrived at the Resort and touched base with the various occupants. We put up the swag out the back paddock and Susan put on a load of washing which i hung. Community dinner was as usual a good spread. The helpers were a bit late arriving which was a pity since i enjoy the banter.
The rest of the evening was spent pottering with Susan completeing her cross stitch. We were offered a motel room for the night however Susan declined preferring the swag. I didn't feel like a sleep in a comfy bed anyway!
Fingers crossed for a dry night without hurricane force winds.
cheers Simon
Night folks
Day 386 Woodbridge Friday 17th February 2012
Hi Folks,
The weather had a relapse today. We toiled under grey drizzly skies this morning. I tidied up the last bit of mowing while Susan hung a trellis wire and staked the raspberries. Because of the weather she couldn't finish her last bit of painting which was disappointing.
I took on the task of trying to get Ann's 2 digital cameras working. The first only required finding the charger which we did and charging it up. The second had a fault in that the video/still photo switch would not change out of video mode. To cut a long story short i ended up dismantling the whole camera with Ann's permission and with my "all care no guaranty that it will ever work again" proviso. The was fiddly work but to my great surprise i fixed it. Looks like the switch inside was stuck and moving it manually freed it up. Miracles never cease.
We drove to Kathy's house after 3. Kathy is a lady who works for Ann. We went to admire their garden and house and were not disappointed. It showed the hallmarks of 30 years of care. We stopped for a cup of tea and a chat before heading out into the drizzle and driving up the road to Woodbridge Hill Retreat. We were scheduled to arrive after 4 and we did at 515. Fintan was still out on the road but a call from his resort manager found him 3 minutes away. As she was calling him we could hear his tip truck laden with logs heading up the road. He showed us around the property in the light rain with a trek up a newly carved track covering out soles in mud. This is another impressive work in progress with 4 luxury cabins, a pool heated by a wood fired boiler, a nursery growing rhododendrons, a portable saw mill, a two story house/restaurant under construction plus lots of workshop area. An interesting chat.
We returned to Woodbridge for a delicious roast lamb tea topped off with some Shiraz from the cellar. Chateau Tahbilk 2008 very nice.
We said our goodbyes tonight but it is our intention to arise at 6 to say them again before Ann and Kevin head to the market.
Tonight is a late one as we burn pictures of our time to CD for Ann.
Tomorrow packing and cleaning up my favorite tasks. Actually i don't mind it as it is a portent to travelling to a new location.
Cheers Simon
The weather had a relapse today. We toiled under grey drizzly skies this morning. I tidied up the last bit of mowing while Susan hung a trellis wire and staked the raspberries. Because of the weather she couldn't finish her last bit of painting which was disappointing.
I took on the task of trying to get Ann's 2 digital cameras working. The first only required finding the charger which we did and charging it up. The second had a fault in that the video/still photo switch would not change out of video mode. To cut a long story short i ended up dismantling the whole camera with Ann's permission and with my "all care no guaranty that it will ever work again" proviso. The was fiddly work but to my great surprise i fixed it. Looks like the switch inside was stuck and moving it manually freed it up. Miracles never cease.
We drove to Kathy's house after 3. Kathy is a lady who works for Ann. We went to admire their garden and house and were not disappointed. It showed the hallmarks of 30 years of care. We stopped for a cup of tea and a chat before heading out into the drizzle and driving up the road to Woodbridge Hill Retreat. We were scheduled to arrive after 4 and we did at 515. Fintan was still out on the road but a call from his resort manager found him 3 minutes away. As she was calling him we could hear his tip truck laden with logs heading up the road. He showed us around the property in the light rain with a trek up a newly carved track covering out soles in mud. This is another impressive work in progress with 4 luxury cabins, a pool heated by a wood fired boiler, a nursery growing rhododendrons, a portable saw mill, a two story house/restaurant under construction plus lots of workshop area. An interesting chat.
We returned to Woodbridge for a delicious roast lamb tea topped off with some Shiraz from the cellar. Chateau Tahbilk 2008 very nice.
We said our goodbyes tonight but it is our intention to arise at 6 to say them again before Ann and Kevin head to the market.
Tonight is a late one as we burn pictures of our time to CD for Ann.
Tomorrow packing and cleaning up my favorite tasks. Actually i don't mind it as it is a portent to travelling to a new location.
Cheers Simon
Day 385 Woodbridge Thursday 16th February 2012
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| Ramp 2 |
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| Ramp 1 |
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| BBQ |
Hi folks,
Another productive day today. Susan did a lot of tidying and replacing of the deck furniture and fittings. I built 2 little ramps to enable the rideon mower to exit from around the vegetable garden with less bucking and excitement. This morning was also marked by a breif heavy shower of rain.
We then prepared for the inaugaural firing of the BBQ and use of the refinished setting. I lit the fire early to burn the paint off and managed to burn hairs off of both arms. Suan helped with the food preparation.
The BBQ was beset by howling wonds that died away as soon as the guests arrived which was a blessing. The food was superb reflecting Anns restaurant background.. The only problem was the BBQ was a bit hot although once i put the grid on top of the frame it was a bit less searing. There wa a fat fire in one of the cooking trays that burned while the pan was on the ground. I managed to splash the hot oil on my leg. i did manage to get through the rest of the evening without any more mishaps. Apart from sunbmerging my left foot in the swamp next to the creek. It was a good evening, We met Fintan and Ruth from Woodbridge Hill Retreat. Fintan is also the local grave digger for the southern district. After the guests departed we sat around the brazier. Susan fetched torches so we could examine the splashing in the vcreek. We did see some good sized eels as well as the galaxias feeding on the surface. After 5 hours the wood fire had subsided enough to be a good BBQ cooking fire!
The four of us returned to the house to do the dishes and tidy up. Susan and i had several glasses of cheer so no doubt i will be feeling it in the head in the morning and Susan in the fingers.
Our last day at Woodbridge tomorrow. It has been a lot of fun.
Cheers Folks
Simon
Some better pictures from Susan below
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| Ann our host |
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| Gee that flash was bright |
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