FRIDAY 22 MAY     LORNE STATION

Today was fine. Through the day the ground began to dry out really quickly.

One Econovan left this morning and apparently got out without needing a rescue. Later in the afternoon, a camper trailer made it in.

John was able to borrow a ladder to undertake roof repairs.

He took off one of the rear solar panels and re-attached it. Said it was definitely better attached now. He put fresh silicone on some old screw holes he found, as well as on all his work. Where would we be without silicone? Hopefully, that had done the trick. The way this trip had been going, to date, there was bound to be some more deluges along the way! Later, this observation was to turn out rather prescient….

I did some cleaning up in the van, which was showing the effects of our muddy feet of the past days.

John spent the afternoon having a pasty making session – all twelve of them! Four turned out to be vegetarian, because he ran out of meat. The van oven, which we hadn’t used for ages, lit immediately and worked perfectly. The surrounds got rather hot, as happened whenever the oven was on for any length of time, and was one of the reasons I didn’t use it often.

The pasties were excellent. D was invited to dinner with us, and given a couple of extras to take away for tomorrow. In return, he gave John some chips of opal.

We had a camp fire tonight – the first since Monday, though it was hard to find dry wood. Out little woodpile had gotten very damp.

Today was the start of our third week here. It was certainly a much longer stay than I had envisaged.