This Adventurous Age

Adventures travelling and working around Australia.

Monthly Archives: February 2018


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2002 Travels April 15

MONDAY 15 APRIL     LEOPARDWOOD

The skies were quite cloudy through the day, which did not help with our power problem!

After breakfast, on the way back out to dig, we stopped at Mike’s house. He was starting to get the broken ‘dozer bucket ready to load on to his Toyota, and John helped him with that.

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Getting the broken bucket ready to load

My private thoughts were that he is really too old and ill to be living out here on his own. The work is so hard. He told us his wife was “not back yet” – not from where, or for how long she’d been away. Mike said he had phoned the nursing sister and she thinks he might have an ulcer. He is going to the doctor tomorrow – in Cunnamulla. From the way he looked, I suspected there might be more wrong than an ulcer.

We put in a couple of hours of digging, without much result, it seemed.

Spotted a new bird to us, on the track – a wedge bill, a kind of arid lands relative of the whip birds we have on the coast.

When we got back to camp, for late lunch, there was an old camper van there, with an elderly couple, who hailed from the Sunshine Coast. They were just camping for the night. We chatted for a little while.

John cleaned up his stones, then went back up to Mike’s to help load the bucket onto the tray back of the Toyota. It seemed a rather heavy load for the vehicle, to me.

When we’d left the diggings, at lunch time, there was a built up area of dark cloud, and some thunder as we drove back. The cloud built up more during the afternoon, and there was lightning too. Late in the day, it began to rain – at times it was quite steady rain. It cooled things down and was quite pleasant.

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Storm coming to the diggings

John had to run Truck a few times during the day to try to keep the power up. The fridge did not seem to run as much once it had cooled down outside.

We decided to head east tomorrow, to sort out the power. John had the idea that he might try to find out who does the power systems for Bushtracker vans, which are built in Queensland.

Tea was lime chilli chicken breasts and corn cobs.


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2002 Travels April 14

SUNDAY 14 APRIL     LEOPARDWOOD

It promised to be a hot day again. The most pleasant part of the night was actually the relative cool of the early morning.

I was up about 8am – feeling a bit stiff after yesterday’s mining efforts.

I tilted the van roof to try to get more charge into the battery system – that seemed to boost the amount of power going in, a bit.

After breakfast, we went out to the diggings again, and worked until lunch time.

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We found some more opal material – a bit scrappy seeming, but at least with colour. But it was nothing that got us greatly excited.

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A small seam of opal

The knees and crouching muscles became unhappy, again.

We noticed a group of the very pretty Major Mitchell cockatoos, out at the diggings. They seemed very curious about our activity, and sat on the low branches, watching closely.

After lunch, just sat around at the van, relaxing and enjoying being in the bush. I did some sewing. I was visited by a kangaroo, that hung about, watching me.

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Camp visitor

A couple of times through the afternoon, John ran the Truck for a while, to boost up the power levels in the van system. It is definitely continuing to fade. This is a real worry, as it is getting down close to the cut-out point, which would then mean the loss of all the stuff in the fridge.

About 4pm, we went for a walk – escaping without Hannibal noticing us. We crossed the ironstone flats, to a low rise about a kilometre away. Saw some babblers, but couldn’t identify which variety they were as they were flitting about all over the place. Also saw a crimson chat – beautiful. It was still hot at that time, and we were accompanied by the usual hordes of flies.

There was quite a cloud build-up later in the afternoon, and it looked like there might be rain, away to the south. That might go part way to explaining the persistent stickiness of the flies – always worse when rain is coming.

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Gathering clouds

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Rain falling to the south

I had another shower – with the spiders.

Tea was tinned fish and salad.

After tea, we discussed the power situation. Couldn’t see how we would be able to continue with our plans, which were to head up to Duck Creek opal fields, from here. We needed to go where we could get some decent advice on what to do about the system, and why it was not doing what we were promised it would. That may mean going to Brisbane.

Through the day we had seen no sign of life or activity up at Mike’s, but our concerns were a little allayed when some lights went on at dusk.


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2002 Travels April 13

SATURDAY 13 APRIL     LEOPARDWOOD

I got up about 7am. John slept until after 8. I sat outside with my mug of coffee and watched the bird life, of which there was quite a bit about. There were also quite a few flies!

Leopardwood is presumably named for the tree of the same name that is found around these parts, that has a mottled bark pattern.

It was about 10.15 before John was breakfasted and ready to embark on the day.

We went up to Mike’s place. He was busy doing something but, after a short delay, we followed him out to the diggings, not far beyond his house and the camp.

We learned that his pit digging machine had broken down. That meant that we could not do what had been talked of when we met him, last year. That would have involved him digging a pit, us paying $300 and doing the fossicking in the new pit, and then sharing finds with him.

Instead, we could pay $10 a day, and fossick on the surface, or in existing pits. Technically, Mike was not allowed to charge fees for camping on his place, because he does not meet the standards for camping, but he could allow free camping. So the $10 a day for fossicking rights was really a camping fee! Fair enough.

I was really disappointed by there being no proper dig, but John seemed to take it in his stride, which quite surprised me.

After a rather cursory sweep around the diggings, and a brief explanation of what we could do, Mike left us to it.

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The Leopardwood diggings

John did some surface scratching around, then we both gouged about in a cut, in the walls at its base. It was hard to tell if we were really doing it right, but we both found some opal “shows”. Nothing really jumped out at us as being worth cutting, though.

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John gives an idea of the scale of the cut where we worked

We had no idea whether the cut we’d chosen to work in had been left after one of Mike’s $300 deals, when the people had moved on, or if it was one that Mike had abandoned as being no good. In other words, whether we were wasting our time!

It got very hot down in the cut, and by 1pm I was feeling a bit ill, after working in the heat and the full sun. The kneeling/crouching was also very hard on the knees.

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Looking the part?

We went back to camp for a late lunch.

Then, I sat outside, in what shade I could find, sewing – amid what felt like millions of flies. John had a sleep, inside the fly-proof van.

In the late afternoon, we walked up to Mike’s place, about 300 metres from our camp. We had intended to go for a walk in the bush, the other way, but got waylaid by Hannibal, who was a bit aggressive, so we went where Mike might distract him.

Mike said he was not feeling well – he certainly did not look good.

Back at camp, I went for a shower in the rather ad hoc set up. The daddy long legs spiders inhabiting the dim area were a bit close for comfort. A frog under my foot startled me when it jumped away. Just too many critters! Because the water comes from the bore in a black plastic pipe, it was rather too hot to begin with. It was not a long shower.

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Willy willy near camp

Unbelievably, our power set up was causing concern. The fridge seemed to be running rather too frequently – was it the heat or was it malfunctioning? The battery power reading was dropping steadily under 12.

John fiddled about with running Truck and checking connections, and seemed to get some power going into the system. But as soon as Truck was disconnected, the power readout dropped fast, again. This was NOT the remote area, self sufficient system J had promised us. It actually seemed worse than when we were at Opalton, back in 2000, and we had only one panel and battery, then.

We had only been here 24 hours, and there had been steady sunshine. Not good at all.

It had been a hot and sweaty day. We seemed to attract millions of flies.

Tea was scotch fillet and mushrooms.

After tea, John briefly turned on his laptop and plugged it into the inverter, despite the low power reading, but he soon turned it off again.

It was a hot night.

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2002 Travels April 12

FRIDAY 12 APRIL   NORTH BOURKE TO LEOPARDWOOD   390kms

The grumpy worker in the tent behind us left, very noisily, at 5am. I was very tempted to get up and call out to him to be quiet because some of us had to sleep!

We were away before 9am.

Before we left, managed to make phone contact with our house sitter, which we had tried to do, unsuccessfully, the previous two nights. She said she had been out playing tennis, that all was well and that one cat was sleeping on her bed! It was a relief to contact her. This house sitter thing is new for us and it is still easy to imagine all sorts of problems.

It was another hot day. We are somewhat earlier in the year than most tourists visit these parts, because of this sort of heat.

The country north of Bourke was not particularly interesting, and we’d been that way before. Semi-arid mulga type country and much red dirt.

We reached Cunnamulla, in southern Qld, at lunchtime. Had not been into the town before. Last time, we turned onto the Charleville road on the outskirts of town. We walked around, having a look at the place. Looked at shops. Bought a magazine and a postcard, lotto tickets, milk and bread.

Whilst we were in mobile phone range, cleared the accumulated messages. One was from cousin K from Tasmania: they will be passing through Melbourne in early May and he was hoping to catch up with us. He’s out of luck there!

We ate our pre-packed lunch in a park in town, watching some little kids on a school outing, in the playground.

Then it was west on the Thargomindah road, through Eulo, where we stopped briefly, so John could check the price of diesel there. He bought us an icy pole each – nice, in the heat.

Then it was on, past the sealed road to Yowah and Toompine, that we took last year. There was not much of interest along the way. The road was narrow – basically a single width of bitumen. There were occasional floodways – dry – though there was a bridge over the Paroo River at Eulo, and there was water in that. The country was either lightly timbered scrub land, or grazing country.

Then we took the “back” unsealed Black Gate Road that goes to Yowah. Leopardwood was only about 4kms along this, and we turned and drove the track to some buildings that could be seen. It was about 3pm by then.

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Turning onto the Black Gate track

At what seemed to be the house, we could not find anyone around. But there was a billy goat and a goose on guard – quite effectively, too. The goat seemed to want to bail John up, so I distracted him with a bread crust, so John could get back in Truck! It was fortunate that I’d put the shopping bags from Cunnamulla inside Truck, behind my seat, rather than open up the van, so I was able to reach the bread to get the crust.

We followed the signs that were there, to the camp area, and began to set up, in a spot that looked alright, between some mulga trees that might provide a bit of shelter and shade.

Then Mike, the owner, came down, in an old, white, small wagon type of vehicle. He confirmed that it was alright for us to camp here. The goat – Hannibal – had followed the vehicle down, so Mike showed us how to handle him. In theory, at any rate. Hannibal gave us a head-butting exhibition against the spare wheel on Mike’s little ute. I decided I would prefer just to give him a wide berth!

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Hannibal being aggressive

We arranged to meet Mike up at his house, in the morning.

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Going home

We spent some time getting our camp set up.

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Leopardwood camp

There was a primitive shower and a long drop toilet, a water supply and a shelter. It was sort of a lot of oddments cobbled together. The water came from a bore and we thought it might be a bit sulphur-y – but alright to clean and wash with.

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The camp kitchen and the bathroom

Overall, we could be quite comfortable here, I thought.

We sat outside the van, watching the sunset. There was enough cloud in the sky to make it fairly spectacular. It was enjoyable to be out in the mulga country again, though round there the mulga was fairly sparsely scattered amongst areas of bare ironstone covered flats, and the like. It was not thickly wooded country. But the camp was in a somewhat better vegetated patch.

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Dusk over camp

It was a beautiful, balmy evening, with a bit of a breeze.

Tea was warmed up corn cakes and ratatouille, left over from the other night.

The night was silent – no urban noises out here. Wonderful.

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2002 Travels April 11

THURSDAY 11 APRIL   NARROMINE TO NORTH BOURKE   340kms

We left the park about 9am.

The day was somewhat hotter, as one would expect, heading north and inland. It was even a bit uncomfortable for travel, by the time we reached Bourke

There were a lot of trucks on the road, between Narromine and Nyngan. This stretch is part of the main route from Broken Hill to Sydney, so I guess that explained it.

Mostly, it was an uneventful drive.

We stopped briefly at Nevertire – a tiny village – for me to take a photo. The name symbolizes my attitude to travel, but apart from that, I thought it featured in a bush poem – maybe one of Paterson’s?

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Nevertire

Morning tea was at Nyngan. I used hot water from the thermos flask I carry in Truck, to make our tea and coffee, and cut a slice of fruit cake – not home made – for John.

Nyngan had obviously declined from the town it once was; some rather nice old buildings were now semi-derelict, including an hotel. But the town had created a very pleasant rest area in its centre, and there was a second one, too, just on the edge of town by the Bogan River.

Until after Nyngan, we had been passing through a mix of cultivated and grazing lands, but after this, gradually, the crop lands decreased. Closer to Bourke the country was clearly more arid, with areas of mulga scrub appearing and occasional bare red earth patches. Although, on the map, the road from Nyngan looked straight and potentially dull, it was in fact slightly undulating and with little hamlets at intervals – and thus, interesting enough. It was a rather narrow road, though.

We had our lunch of sandwiches I’d made this morning, in a rest area in the bush.

In Bourke, went straight to the fuel depot and got diesel – 90cpl. Having been here a couple of times before, know our way around the place, a bit, now.

We went then to the supermarket. It is now a new IGA one – with a heavily fenced carpark. There was a security guard manning the entrance. The new building had no windows – only a pair of doors, with a roller security screen that comes down and covers these, after hours.

I found the shelves were very sparsely stocked, with many open gaps. But they had the frozen battered, oven bake fish that I wanted to get for tea. John selected some indulgences – crisps and the like!

Later, a fellow camper was telling us that he had witnessed a ruckus there, involving a local girl, who was yelling that she had been cheated at the register. The camper had gone in to get some alcohol, (it was a licensed supermarket) and been surprised to find that the public was not actually allowed inside the alcohol section. One had to ask at a cashier’s window for what they wanted, and it was passed through, after payment. He seemed to think that this arrangement revealed much about the nature of the town.

Business completed, we drove out to North Bourke, across the bridge over the Darling River.

Booked into the Kidmans Camp caravan park. This was a relatively new park that we hadn’t tried before – mainly because we didn’t know it was there, until we passed it, driving north, in 2000. Our powered site cost $16.

Kidmans Camp was a very pleasant place to stay. The guests seemed to be a mix of tourists and short term itinerant workers, here to work on the orchards or the cotton farms that have grown up around Bourke, reliant on irrigation water from the Darling.

It was a hot afternoon, and after a minimal set up, John needed an afternoon nap. I went for a wander around the park. Then I had a shower – the almost new bathroom was very nice.

I cooked fries to go with our fish – all cooked in the electric frypan, outside the van.

After tea, we got talking to a man in a camper van that was set up next to us. He was travelling on his own. His talk indicated that he’d had an interesting life, having been n engineer and a helicopter pilot, who lost much of his wealth in the ’87 share market crash. We were not talking at all loudly, but a man in a tent, two rows behind us, demanded that we be quiet, because he had to get up and work in the morning!

04-11-2002 to bourke


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2002 Travels April 10

WEDNESDAY 10 APRIL   CANBERRA TO NARROMINE   410kms

We were up about 7am. Saw S and SIL off to work.

We got away about 8.40. Had no issues hitching up, but took it very cautiously driving back out of the narrow driveway.

It was the busy morning traffic time through central Canberra, but it was just a matter of getting into a lane, then following the car in front. That was after we’d negotiated the systems of roundabouts around Parliament House and then City Hill. I’d planned the route carefully in advance – past experience had shown me how easy it is to go astray on these roundabouts, and find oneself merrily sailing back the way we’d come!

We stopped in Yass to do some banking – easier than trying to find both the right bank and a place to park the rig in one of the Canberra shopping localities. Refuelled there – 85cpl.

From Yass, we travelled via Boorawa, Cowra, Gooloogong, Eugowra, Parkes, Peak Hill, turning at Tomingley to head to Narromine.

It was pleasant driving, for much of the day, through farmlands, rolling hills, and the Lachlan River valley. We were mostly on minor roads with little traffic.

We lunched by the Lachlan River at Cowra, in a park area – very pleasant.

We were on the Newell Highway for only some 66kms. There were many trucks on it, heading south.

Topped up the fuel again at Peak Hill – 87cpl.

We arrived at Narromine about 4pm. Our site at the Rose Gardens Caravan Park cost $16.20, after Top Tourist discount. We were able to stay hitched up. The park was pleasant enough.

After a minimal set up, John had a nap. I sewed.

I made corn cakes and ratatouille for tea – very nice.

John’s usual, big, TV aerial produced no picture. He hooked up the little Tandy one, wedging it into the folding bar of the poptop roof, and it was brilliant! Work that one out!

04-10-2002 to narromine


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2002 Travels April 9

TUESDAY 9 APRIL     CANBERRA

We slept in a bit more than usual and didn’t get up till 9.30.

I did the washing, using S’s machine.

John fixed a batten to the van floor under the bed, to stop stuff sliding over the floor and touching the inverter that was recently installed there by the solar man – with no protection!

John played bowls from midday till about 4.30pm.

I walked to the Deakin shops – bought bread and a lettuce to replace the one that had frozen in the Chescold, outside the van. I remade the bed after washing the sheets. I cut out the “holes” in the Hardanger placemat made for S – and gave it to her. She seemed pleased with it. One down and seven to go! I had to admit that the embroidery had hardly been touched in the sixteen months since we returned from the long trip.

I made a zucchini slice for tea and cooked it in their oven. We had it with the bread stick I’d bought. They hadn’t gotten home until 7.30 and seemed to enjoy having a meal made for them.

We talked, then watched The Bill, which was on TV later than usual because of the earlier coverage of the funeral of the Queen Mother. Some of our talk centred on overseas postings that S is considering applying for – the pros and cons of each possibility.

John stayed up until 1.30am – playing computer games. He could not get his new game to work.


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2002 Travels April 8

MONDAY 8 APRIL     CANBERRA

I was awake from about 4am on, for some reason, but didn’t get up until after S and SIL had left for work at 7.45am. S works long hours – 8am till at least 7pm.

John did some more pottering about and got the phone message service working.

We drove to the Woden shops where I put a film in for processing – mostly photos I’d taken at home. John went to a Telstra shop to try to get a cable that would link the mobile phone to the internet – he found that same is no longer made for our phone model! We would have to buy a new phone and forfeit our current plan – and number – at a cost of several hundred dollars. Not going to do that! It was all very frustrating.

John bought himself a new computer game, for consolation!

We went to Dick Smiths at Fyshwyck where John bought a 12v-240v inverter to be used in Truck – to charge the torch battery, run a laptop, charge phone etc.

Then it was to Queanbeyan, where I knew there was a Safeway I was familiar with (from 1998). There, I stocked up on some foodstuffs for the more remote parts we will be heading to. We bought some chocolate for S and SIL, to have after tea.

They said they would be cooking a BBQ. I made a Greek salad to go with the chops and sausages they cooked – and volunteered to cook the tea tomorrow night.


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2002 Travels April 7

SUNDAY 7 APRIL     CANBERRA

Again, we were up earlier than the family.

After breakfast, John pottered about, tidying up the paperwork he’d bundled together and brought from home. We keep an expanding file folder under the bed, for storing essential documents and papers.

I walked to the Deakin shops for the Sunday paper and some bread for lunch.

S and SIL did their house work and some gardening.

We found we couldn’t make access to our phone message bank work.

S and SIL were going to do their shopping at the Fyshwyck Markets. We followed them there – by vehicle – and joined them in browsing some of the stalls. I bought some fruit and vegies and paid for the fish that S bought for tea. It was an excellent market for produce. We bought a bottle of verdelho for them, too.

Later in the afternoon, we went for a walk with S, around the Royal Golf Course perimeter, through pine forests mostly. There were plenty of birds about. It was a pleasant walk and some more worthwhile exercise.

A couple of S’s friends called around. They have bought an ex-rental campervan to go travelling, and wanted to talk solar power and the like with us. I don’t think we know much more than they do! Then they stayed to dinner too. SIL BBQ’d some steak, as well as the fish and made a couple of vegie dishes to go with it all.

All were good company and so it was a pleasant evening.


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2002 Travels April 6

SATURDAY 6 APRIL     CANBERRA

We got up about 8.30am. It was good being in the van because we didn’t disturb the others, and we could look after ourselves as needed.

We breakfasted in the van.

John went off to bowls at 9.30am.

I walked with S and SIL to the Yarralumla shops to get the papers. S set a brisk pace!

Soon after that, S went off to a hens’ party for a friend. She got home about 7pm. SIL headed off for the matching bucks’ party.

I read the papers.

John came home about 2pm. He’d been beaten at bowls!

We went for a walk then, down to Lake Burley Griffin, where we sat for a while, looking at the scenery and the water birds. Then we followed the Lake shore around for some distance, and made our way back via Hopetoun Circuit. It was a walk of several kms and good exercise for us both.

I cooked barramundi with salsa for us, in the van, and we also had the last of the roasted pumpkin soup I’d brought from home.

After tea, we went inside and watched The Bill on TV, with S. SIL came home as it was ending. We chatted for a while, then it was back outside to the van, and to bed.