Day 429 Nowhere Else Saturday 31st March 2012

The inside of the hedge (about 3 metres high)

Zap your bottom alley

Hi Folks,
Once again the day started off with some showers. Susan helped Kay in her greenhouse while I researched warranty repair options for the screen on this laptop which has a faint but annoying pattern of lines the screen. I shall await until we are on the mainland in a week or so since more options are available.
The main task of the day was cutting the hedge down the side of the house. The hedge trimmer is a fairly hefty Stihl two stroke made in Germany. It had the habit of stalling every time I let it idle and was difficult to restart. I ended up getting Susan to drive the ute that I was using as a work platform since every time i hopped down to move the ute the trimmer would stop and i would have to try and start it again. I managed to do the other side of the hedge by doing the vertical limbo between the hedge and the neighbours electric fence wires. In the end i almost finished the job but starting the trimmer became nigh on impossible. Susan was chiding me for the pithy epithets I was using and my shoulder was hurting so I called a halt. The hedge doesn't look too bad but with a better tool it would be easier to concentrate on straight lines rather than keeping the engine running.
This evening i copied all of the "new" Doctor Who episodes onto Kayes computer. so that should keep her busy for a while.
I suggested the other day that to draw more greenhouse gate customers Eric should build "The Big Capsicum" I don't think there is one of them in Australia! I haven't seen any concept drawings, yet(grins)
Observant readers will have noted a picture behind the blog title. Susan is looking for a better one with dust and red dirt to signify "on the road" and to represent the harsh oppressive living conditions we face every day!  There are some other options that blogspot gives you especially in the area of a dynamic page layout. Susan was showing me them this morning so we might give them a try.

I shall enjoy the extra hours sleep tonight.

Night folks

Simon

P.S. keep clicking on the google adverts when you are done. I have a cheque on the way. Mind you much of that was earned on my old web page.

Day 428 Nowhere Else Friday 30th March 2012

Susan's nice sunrise shots at Nowhere Else from recent days

Hi Folks,

A fairly lacklustre day. Constant interruptions due to showers. A slow start to the day after a late night last night. Tonights blog will be short due to a mixture of accumulated tiredness and Berri Estates traditional dry red $14 for 5 litres at the Sheffield pub.

I demolished two brick square pillars in the garden. The bricks were easy but the foundation concrete much more problemamtic. The first one succumbed relatively easily to large sledgehammer blows and the crowbar. The second one was a different kettle of fish requiring considerable bashing for the base to succumb. However it is done now and the holes filled so one more job off the list.

Susan did a fair bit of weeding and prepared a lamb chop curry for tea.

My antenna is finished apart for a mast extension, pictures to follow when it is up on the roof rack (try to contain your excitement). I also took the opportunity to top up the charge in the new battery and also to confirm the power requirements of our coffee machine which matched the sticker 1300W. I can't see cheap way of supplying anough power to run it so we will rely on our percolator pot.

Night folks

Simon

Day 427 Nowhere Else Thursday 29th March 2012

Scarlet Robin at Yorktown perched close to the camera

Patersonia Occidentalis (the signboard said so)

What was M D McCrostie doing with this?

Miners memorial: turn of the century water pump relics

Grundelwald

Fleeting glimpse of Cataract Gorge

"Dearly Beloved" A lookout on the highway above Scottsdale

Hello Loyal Readers aka Is Anybody Out There?

Today we proved we can get going before 9am, sort of! We were up by 0730, showered, dressed and breakfasted by 0830 and finally out the door by 0945. By the time we got to the highway turn off we had settled on our touring plan, deciding to leave Mole Creek for next week. We headed toward Port Sorrell, a spot Kaye and Eric like (not to be confused with Sorrell, or Lake Sorrell) on the Rubicon estuary. We arrived at low tide, high tide is some several metres higher judging by the marks on the piers of the floating pontoon. We drove to the end of the road a pretty place by the name of Hawley Beach, the esplanade having the appearance of one of those gated retiree villages (minus the gates) road speed 40kms with speed humps, and an abundance of facilities, parking bays, electric BBQ's and public loos (2 in less than 1km).

Our exercise for the day was a meagre 15minute walk around the historic settlement of York Town, where not a single building remains. The walk was quite peaceful with a lot of effort to remediate the surrounding bush and rid the land of the gorse weed. History boards identified that the convict population was almost double the free settlers. A small hut has been constructed to approximate the housing for soldiers and their families, our camper trailer is larger!

Simon noted a German field gun and a tank in the memorial gardens at Beaconsfield. The tank obviously a new addition as there was no information plaque. Our lunch stop was just before Grindelwald Swiss Village established in 1980. I had the open burger and Simon the steak sandwich. It was then off to Bunnings after the scenic tour through Launceston, where Simon did some research on generators for the camper. It was then on to Scotsdale to buy a new deep cycle battery (what ever that is... I did get an explanation...but) Simon had picked up a flier in the loos at the free camp 3 or so weeks ago when we passed through, it was apparently a bargain worth a 100km + round trip. It turns out the owner is a South Aussie who has relocated to Tassie for reasons not determined, apparently they had the largest battery business in SA.

We headed for "home" and stopped for dinner at Restaurant Red in Deloraine, I had Calamari stuffed with prawns, scallops and mussels on a bed of rice and tomato sauce, Simon had wood oven pizza - Tandoori chicken washed down with a wheat beer.

Cheers Susan

Port Sorell

Day 426 Nowhere Else Wednesday 28th March 2012

How to build a carport

Stirngs and braces!

Hello all,
Today Eric started the carport erection. I am watching and learning. I am also helping as it is a job that needs extra hands to hold spirit levels and mix concrete etc. Susan did a heap of weeding in the garden and then headed inside to sort out the fridge and the pantry.
The green house here has a boiler fired by compressed brown coal pellets.There is a lot of left over dust here i.e. tonnes which is not useable. I googled up this video and made some bricks today. I am not confident as they seem a bit crumbly but I will wait until they set  before I declare it a failure. If it doesn't work i will have a think about different recipes.
Susan replaced some broken zips on a pair of my shorts and trousers tonight with velcro. Should be good for a laugh the first time i have to "unzip" in a public toilet!
I finished my antenna to useable status but i need to make it look a bit more asthetic before i publish the picture. We are also in a very good signal area at the moment so it is hard to gauge how effective it is.
We are having a day off tomorrow so i think a visit to the caves at Mole Creek then through Launceston to the West Tamar is a good plan.

night folks

Cheers

Simon

Day 425 Nowhere Else Tuesday 27th March 2012

Flame Robin in the garden this afternoon

Flame Robin

Dorpers and Wiltshires shed their wool and produce great meat

Wiltshire (they have tails)

Hi folks,
Another sunny day in Nowhere Else.
Today I dug weeds, cut the grass and sprayed the weeds in the raspberry patch to be. Susan weeded, planted plants, picked pumpkins and helped with tea.
After work i went to Sheffield to the small engine/hardware shop and they exceeded my expectations with stainless nuts and bolts, pipe fittings, and step drills. My antenna is slowly taking shape.
Tomorrow looks like we will be concreting the carport posts in. Should be a good learning day.
Night folks

cheers Simon

Sheep! (12mb)

Day 424 Nowhere Else Monday 26th March 2012

Looking over the back fence at a forestry burn off today.

If you look closely you can see the Telstra phone tower just to

the right of the smoke. The big powerlines in the foreground

are from "The Hydro" Having checked the Map it is actually an Optus
tower methinks.

Hi folks,
through tired eyes with last nights late night and wine catching up with me. Eric and Kaye headed off into Devonport for a day out this morning leaving us to do our thing.
We decided that I should start on converting the last bay of the old dairy into a pen that the sheep can use. Susan helped me move the pile of old fire wood stored there before returning to her tidying of the garden shed. I then set about demolishing the old entrance (or was that exit) shute/doorway. It struck me as ironic that something that looked so rickety and decayed was actually very solid. It probably had to be with dirty great big cows leaning up against it at milking time. I took down the frame which conveniently had two doors and broke up some concrete on the floor. I can use one door as the new entry door and the other to block a gap in the side of the pen. I have an idea about how to mount the door which should work as long as we can drill a hole in the 20cm of concrete that makes up the lower wall. While i was working the sheep came over to check me out since they probably though i was bringing capsicums for them. They mooched around before one of them knocked down a lump of wood with a clatter causing them to run away to the other side of the paddock. I don't know whether we have mentioned they are sheep that shed their wool and don't need shearing. Dorpers and Wilshires. Must take some picture for you tomorrow.
Susan knocked up a sheperds pie for tea with some pan fried brussel sprouts.which was good fare.
Our chuckle for the day was when she was using a rather large axe to make some kindling. She was chopping it flat fashion rather than the traditional end on way. I encouraged her to do it properly end on, which she did while saying, "I don't want to do it this way because..." and as if to demonstrate missed the wood and hit her finger. Fortunately no damage!

night folks

cheers Simon

Day 423 Nowhere Else Sunday 25th March 2012

Hi Folks,

Happy Birthday Kaye

Another fine sunny day in Nowhere Else. We continued on with our tasks today although the apple tree chopping was curtailed because the chainsaw was incredibly blunt. I used the hand saw for a while until my shoulder said stop. Susan made some cup cakes in the afternoon with help from Peiling to take to Kayes birthday tea tonight.

Very interesting

We went out to tea at T's chinese restaurant in Sheffield. The food was pretty good and it was a fun evening. They had chinese soaps playing on the big screen TV. The acting and general production was hilarious with lousy wigs and and punches into thin air. Another nice touch was it was BYO with no charge.

Birthday tea

We returned home and Kaye was able to watch her favourite show My Kitchen Rules which by some miracle I had been able to record for Kaye  on my laptop.

The weather forecast is looking excellent for this neck of the woods for the next few days so it will be good for outside activities

Cheers Simon

View from Nowhere Else Road.
That was a good cold front we had the other day

Day 422 Nowhere Else Saturday 24th March 2012

Hi Folks,
Quietish day here with improving weather.
This morning  I tidied up the moved fence and took down the leftover bit while Susan packaged  capsicums.
It was then onto moving the freezer from the garage inside. All the meat and there was plenty was removed. I helped with the brute force while Susan did the cleaning and restacking of the meat.
Lunch was reheated potato and leak soup and some excellent damper.
I then started lopping off the smaller branches of the apple tree that is being removed. The tree that I originally thought was the apple to be chopped out was in fact the greengage plum which was the one Susan indicated had to go. Just as well we checked! Very pleasant working conditions gazing out towards Mount Roland, watching the colours change with the clouds and sun angle. All the small branches are gone from the tree and it awaits the chain saw. Susan continued on with painting the carport poles and then some weeding and tidying of the garden. .
After "work" I started on my antenna project and with a bit of luck i might get it finished tomorrow.
I tell you we eat well here. Kaye knocked up a chicken and vegetable pie for tea with sweet corn and baked truss tomato's fresh from the garden.
It's a good life and we get to do it all again tomorrow.
cheers Simon

Day 421 Nowhere Else Friday 23rd March 2012

Evening folks,
A cold evening here with a piercing Antarctic breeze. Just as well we are inside!
Susan tripped into Sheffield this morning while I dug the last two foundation holes for the carport. The last hole was somewhat shallower than the others due to a piece of plastic with "danger electric cable buried below" on it. It is nice when people do things properly makes life so much simpler.
On her return Susan painted the carport poles in their sungold livery. She then moved inside to make some potato and leek soup for tea. I shuffled out into the paddock and moved the vegetable fence to make a larger garden area for a raspberry planting. I had to dodge the dark clouds that rolled in regularly depositing cold heavy showers. At one stage I left it too late and had hail stinging my face before i could hide in the little garden greenhouse. The fence is just about finished. I need to tidy it up and take down the bit I didn't use.
I took the opportunity at 4 to journey into Devonport to try to buy the bits for my 3G antenna. I was waylaid at Supercheapauto since they had 50% off all 3M products. Weighed down with bargains I proceeded to the local Home and Mitre 10 stores. It was hard work but I finally got most of the bits I needed. Oh to be near a Bunnings!
I returned to Nowhere Else and we enjoyed the delicious soup and garlic bread prepared by the kitchen whizz.
I ventured out to the camper trailer after dark to put the battery and charger back in the box. I had them out to determine the current draw of the charger for the purpose of sizing a generator to possibly add to our kit. Looks like a 700 watt one will do the job. I will think on this for a while.
Anyway that's about all the news apart from the Lyell Highway between Queenstown and Derwent Bridge being restricted to 4WD vehicles only due to snowfalls! As I type this I can hear a gale ripping across the roof.
Night folks

Simon

Day 420 Nowhere Else Thursday 22nd March 2012

Carport location

Destroyer of angle grinders. Pole number 1 of 9

Airflow face shield and Ozito angle grinder (RIP)

Hi folks,

Today Susan worked in the greenhouse tying up capsicums 3 rows worth. I spent the day with an angle grinder and wire brush cleaning off steel poles for the new carport while Eric dug the holes. The first angle grinder i was using an old cheap Ozito bit the dust. Eric supplied his 3M face shield / respirator which has a forced air feed. This made the job much more pleasant. After lunch it was on with the rust converter. Once dry I started the painting which was going well until a shower of rain caused a flurry of fisheyes in the paint and the cessation of painting. Tomorrow the weather forecast is pretty dirty so i think i will paint in the shed.

That's about the activity for the day work wise.

We had a discussion about using the waste coal dust from the boiler pellets here. I found a recipe for making new bricks from the dust which we should be able to try this week seeing as we will be mixing concrete for the carport.

An interesting day.

night folks

cheers Simon

Day 419 Nowhere Else Wednesday 21st March 2012

Evening folks,
Well our timing was good. We have arrived at Nowhere Else and the threatened rainy weather has materialised with us safely quartered inside.
First off the good news. Susan has recovered almost fully from her back problem and required no drugs and heat rub today.
As mentioned last night all the helpers departed this morning with one returning, possibly, on the weekend.
We started off with Susan bagging a few capsicums for the roadside stall. At $2 for around 530 grams they are pretty good value for passing customers.
Susan headed outside for some tidying of lawn edges and weed removal. After a walk around looking at the jobs on the list I decided to find out why the grey water discharge was making a swamp adjacent the garden fence. I dug around the area, found the pipe and was greeted by manky water with manky bits in it bubbling up. I hopped around the other side of the fence and dug a channel to get the worst of the water away. I found a T junction with a discharge pipe at the fence line which was a bit odd. Eric managed to find a plastic 100mm cap and I banged it on after locating the real end of the discharge pipe in the paddock and cleaning it out. Whilst tapping the cap on I managed to splash the 'orrible water on my visage. Once the job was finished I washed my face and changed my clothes including my boots.
Eric suggested we adjourn to the green house since the weather was getting worse. We did this and pottered away twisting capsicum leaders around the support strings using the work platforms that run on the boiler heating tubes.
After knock off I ventured into Sheffield without any great hope of picking up some aluminium tube to build my 3G antenna. My pessimism was well founded and a trip to Devonport is in order. I have plenty of other projects to occupy my brain at the moment although they are all in the feasability study/planning stage.
Hopefully the weather will be good tomorrow so we can get on with a few more jobs outside. There is snow forecast down to 700 metres later in the week as a vigorous SW front comes through.
I shall try and remember to take some pictures for tomorrow nights epistle.

Night folks

Simon

Day 418 Nowhere Else Tuesday 20th March 2012

Large stainless steel tank. Probably going to the Frontera (dairy)
factory at Smithton where construction work is evident. 

Evening viewers,
We departed Arthur River around 11 this morning. Susan is still suffering with her back.
The highlight of the morning was when I emptied the left over dish water from the bucket. I could see a dark shape and it was indeed as i suspected and Susan suggested, a mouse, very drowned and very stiff. It looked a bit smaller than the one we saw yesterday so maybe we need to set a trap in the trailer.
We drove along the Bass Highway stopping at Burnie which is the hub of the NW. I shopped in the Jaycar agency for a few must have bits and we took the opportunity to fill a street rubbish bin with our garbage from Arthur River. Since they charge you to park every where in the business district I figured this is to cover the cost of rubbish removal! Honestly they are parking meter crazy in Burnie and Devonport. We also stopped at Coventry Fasteners to obtain a locking pin for the bike rack. None in stock but reassuringly there are 300 of the size i want in Kilburn, SA.
We travelled to Ulverstone where i picked up a bag of chips for lunch since i couldn't find a bakery. On to Devonport for a quick visit to Woolworths for milk to feed our voracious coffee habit and a pretty decent coffee in the cafe adjacent Woolies.
We arrived at Kay and Eric's around 430 and after saying hello to Eric went to examine the garden plantings and to see the progress from our last visit.
There are with us 5 helpers here at the moment but 2 leave tomorrow and one is staying here but working away. Susan has instructed that i have to work longer hours to make up for her current infirmity. We shall see!
After the requisite unloading and a good pasta tea from Kaye and Susan followed by yummy desserts we are now tucked up in bed and eager to do some jobs tomorrow. I shall have to watch my meal portion sizes else i will be stacking weight back on!
I intend to spend my evenings here planning our camper trailer modifications. The water tank is now back on the agenda.

Night folks

Simon

Day 417 Arthur River Monday 19th March 2012

Qasimodo at work in the open air kitchen

Luxury after 13 months we can now open the lid properly!

Evening folks,
From a very windy camp site. Today's blog once again starts last night. Susan slipped and fell on her bottom while we were out walking yesterday. Once she got into bed last night she had a lot of back spasm pain and a very poor nights sleep.
This morning after some heat rub and copious amounts of nurofen she was able to walk around still in a fair amount of discomfort. However since it was camper pack up day she had no choice but to battle on. We got there in the end and will sleep in the swag tonight. As mentioned above it is very windy here at the moment and it was a fairly unpleasant day with my estimate being winds gusting to 60-70 kmh.
However it is a rare day when something good doesn't happen. Today was no exception. Talking to our neighbour who was asking about our storage in the Pajero the subject of fridge slides came up. To cut to the chase his slide which was exactly the same as ours extended about 15cm furthur. I took ours out and examined it but could only deduce that the bottom slide was not extending. The only choice was to perform percussive maintenance. I can now report that we can enter our fridge by lifting the lid not taking it off as we have been doing for over 12 months.
I also managed to effect a repair of our car awning. this was a bit more agricultural in that i replace a light weight aluminium pole that would not lock with a tent pole. A couple of hacksaw cuts and adrilled hole was all that was required. 2 things fixed in one day!
I shouldn't laugh but to see Susan in her condition shreiking and dancing when a mouse popped from the kitchen into the camper twice today was also a bit of a highlight. Although I was taken aback the first time as i thought something really serious had happened like a snake bite or amputated finger due to the volume of the screaming.
However even in her debilitated state she knocked up another terrific tea from left overs.
Tomorrow back to Nowhere Else. Let's hope we don't get blown away tonight or rained on before we have packed although it is 90% complete.
We also hope Susan has a good nights sleep and  a rapid recovery.

cheers Folks

Day 416 Arthur River Sunday 18th March 2012

Granite outcrops

Not a good picture but these are Devil prints

Ruddy Turnstones Arctic migratory birds

There were plenty of them

Hi Folks,

It's 11pm on a clear crisp night in the park. I am sitting in shorts under the awning typing. We have just had the blood curdling squeals of Tassie Devils in the bush. The fire is bubbling away in the fire pot but too far away to do much good.

Today was remarkable for the fact it was almost cloudless all day. We ventured up the road to Bluff Hill Point and parked adjacent the lighthouse. We walked down some rough old tracks in a circuit along the beach pausing to examine what we thought were aboriginal middens and take in the general ambiance. we journeyed a it further up the coast to West Point State reserve. This has a natural boat harbour and more importantly we found some gum kindling to light the fire with here tonight.

On our return to camp Susan cooked some scones using egg rings to support the baking platform in the camp oven. Yesterdays ones were a bit burnt and the egg rings were a suggestion from our neighbour. Susan's comment which i omitted from last nights blog was that yesterdays scones "tasted better than they looked" Today's scones looked and tasted good.

We spent some time talking to new arrivals Steve and Sharon and looking at their Ultimate camper. Steve is one of the few people who had heard of former employer BV mainly because he works for the opposition in Newcastle.

We had a latish simple but tasty tea finished off with scones. The weather looks kind for tomorrow but rain on Tuesday so we will pack the camper tomorrow and swag it tomorrow night. Well that's the plan anyway. We have paid for 7 nights for $50 as opposed to $13 per night so we might as well get our moneys worth.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Bluff Hill Point

Day 415 Arthur River Saturday 17th March 2012

Our camp. The shadow on the solar panelis from the car!

"What's this thing called?"

Balfour Track

Yes it does look a bit deep

"Or use an amphibious vehicle"

Charcoal cooking, except the charcoal was inside the pot

Nelson Bay (click for the big picture)

Evening folks,
A relatively calm evening for this neck of the woods. We have a fire going in the elevated metal fire place cut from an old pressure vessel, not that we are sitting around it but it does add to the ambiance.
Today started with a fairly heavy prolonged shower of rain when we were asleep. However it passed and we were soon into the familiar broken sky of cloud and sun. Just out of interest I checked the rainfall figure for Marrawah just up the road for Thursday/Friday, which was 46mm so the canvas didn't do too badly. We decided to drive down the coast today and have a look at a few of the shack settlements and the general scenery.

Of the places we visited i though Nelson Bay was probably the prettiest. There was a wedge tailed eagle cruising up and down but it easily eluded my camera. Most of the houses have wind generators as well as solar which is indicative of the prolonged westerly breezes that blow here. There is a wind farm at Woolnorth in the NW corner just up the road. Funnily enough South Australia has 50% of Australia's installed wind power capacity whereas i would think Tasmania has the most wind. After visiting Temma the last of the shack/shanty towns we decided to go to Balfour an old mining town. Unfortunately the pools of water on the road were too deep for the "road angel" who started tweeting "turn back, turn back"  The pictures on the blog are from the track heading in the other direction not the track to Balfour.

On our return to camp i fired up the fireplace to cook our pork shoulder in the camp oven. Tonight's meal was not one of our finer efforts gaining a bare pass since it was edible. The problem was the fire was far too hot. It seems we need to relearn our skills in this area and make sure that the coals have died down before  we cook. I detest carbon on my food. Just as well we had claret to cleanse the palette!

Night folks

cheers Simon

Day 414 Arthur River Friday 16th March 2012

View down the "main" street

MV Arthur Robinson

Dead wood

Hi Folks,
Tonight's blog starts last night after the blog was written and Susan climbed up on the bed to discover wet bedding. Unfortunately the mattress was pushed against the "wall" and a small leak had been soaked up by the sleeping bag mainly and the quilt and the sheets and the foam. Had there been a gap it wouldn't have been an issue. If we spent more time living under canvas this time out we would have sorted a lot more of these issues by now. I need to apply Seam Grip where the PVC is stitched to the canvas. It can be a bit hard to find in the shops so if your local camping store has some let me know, seriously!
Onto today. The weather gradually improved after a few showers early as did my humour. Once the sun came out we were able to dry the wet stuff in the tent. With the sun on it and the windows closed it reached a heady 31C inside. Taking advantage of the warm sun i reproofed the dog pee leak and sealed one of the vinyl seams with "Tarzan's Grip" which is urethane based glue with more volatile solvent than Seam Grip. There endeth the chemistry lesson. Camping is so much easier when the sun is out.
Happy that our equilibrium with the universe was restored with dry bedding we walked into town.
Susan successfully paid our camp fees via her card. We strolled over the river bridge which is barely one car wide. Passing motorists drove respectfully past us at low speed. After taking in the views we returned across the bridge where some young ladies in a Yaris did not show the same care and attention towards this elderly pedestrians as he videoed.
On our return to camp i took the car down to the river mouth to collect firewood. This is the only collection allowed here but there is tons of wood on the beach that is washed down the river. We need it to cook our pork roast in the camp oven tomorrow night.
We had a light tea and are looking forward to some sunny days with less breeze.
Looking forward to a pleasant nights warm sleep free of rain, thunder and lightning.
Night folks

Cheers Simon

"Careful!" (windy audio muted)

Arthur River (windy audio muted)

The runout at the mouth

Day 413 Arthur River Thursday 15th March 2012

At the accident scene

Are they eating the road?

Hi All,

We awoke exhausted after last nights’ antics, well I did.

I was kept awake all night while Simon slumbered blissfully on. Now I know thunder can awaken you but I have now discovered that lightning can also. All was in darkness then a flash of light through the dense canvas not once but over and over, then the thunder.... I was calculating whether thunder can get to the peak for instant deafness 140dB, I reckon it was about 110dB a clap.

Actually Simon did wake a few times and was buzzing about checking the watertight capabilities of the canvas and our pegging and lashing erection earlier during set up. I reckon we have graduated from the Laurel and Hardy school, the tent stayed up and we stayed dry. After finally awakening at some unknown late hour, Simon checked the tent again and did find some minor leaks, corresponding to joins where vinyl meets canvas and dog piddle met canvas at Riana. We also noticed some staining on the top of the canvas and wondered if that was from the possums at Mt Field... how does one research such a subject hmmm?

The weather radar showed it would be overcast, showers and generally miserable all day, so we decided to drive back to Smithton and explore the town further – read get a Latte somewhere. We detoured to Marrawah and noticed that there had been some upgrades since we were there in 2007, we muttered that we were glad we had not camped there last night, a rather exposed site. Further up the road Dismal Swamp a favourite destination from our 2007 trip about 15kms before Smithton was closed, reason unknown.

We were delayed by an accident which the SES and CFS were cleaning up a camper had run off the road down a steep embankment. We tuned in to the radio but did not hear any further details on the news. Later skyping with Kaye she revealed the accident was on the news and when she heard it she thought of us, but when the reporter indentified the accident had occurred at 10am she relaxed “they wouldn’t be that organised” haha thanks Kaye.

We lunched at the Smithton bakery, had coffee at another cafe pottered about and headed “home”. This time I got a picture of a curious sign just before Christmas Hills, Simon reckons this is why the road is so bumpy.

A couple of other items of note. A dairy farmer has an underpass for his dairy cows, wonder how much that cost and did he get assistance from the highways department, the second was a couple of paddocks full of deer, what else would you farm at Christmas Hills!

We stopped off at the ranger station for the second time to pay our fees, but their machine is still malfunctioning, at this rate it might be cheap accommodation. The camp here is filling up with 5 groups adjacent to us 3 lots in their large motor homes which looked very precarious as they negotiated the road in.

I am quite attached to this old camper, basic but comfy, and even better when I have a drawer. Ahhh.

Night folks

Susan

YESTERDAYS PICTURES BELOW

Looking through the grass

Almost daybreak

Here comes the sun

Streetscape in Stanley

Church in Stanley