SUNDAY 28 MAY     OPALTON

It was a lovely day with a clear blue sky.

We noodled for a while in the morning – on the same heaps behind the camp area. There was an extensive area of these to choose from.

M brought round a bottle of washing up detergent that L sent us from the store – I’d mentioned yesterday that I’d forgotten to buy some in Winton and had asked if there was any at the Outpost. I was just about out of same.

L came round later and I paid him $2 for the detergent and $22 for 11 nights of camping here. We had already decided we really wanted to linger out here, but that this was the longest period we could manage before moving on.

This would be a good period for the budget! Though the fruit and veg shop up at Winton had been costly – almost $50.

John drove out again to put in the yabby nets – he also had a loan of one from S, of the overseas camping couple.

Later in the afternoon we both drove back to the Sandy Creek waterhole to retrieve the nets, one had about 17 in! John was SO surprised. He let out some little ones, risking his fingers to do so.

Back at camp – by which time it was dark – we cooked and peeled the catch. Hard work!

So, it was a late tea, but they were nice with seafood sauce. There were enough bits of claw meat left for a small “cocktail” with tomorrow’s tea.

It was an extremely cold night – due to the clear skies. We sat by the fire after tea, all rugged up, even with our wool beanies.

John had been checking the solar power monitoring meters through the day. He wasn’t sure that the Hydra-lec one was working and found one part inside it melted/burnt. He thinks that someone must have rewired it in Melbourne – probably J – the man who installed the solar panel.

This was not good. Because the solar status panel was not working properly, we could not tell what was happening with our power inputs and storage. It was a worry.