SUNDAY MAY 24

Another pleasant day.

We had been seeing some advertising about the place, for the annual Opal Fest, late July/early August. After a little discussion we decided that, since we have had “beach” weather here, without the sand and sandflies, it might be enjoyable to come back here at that time – if we could get in here. For me, the greatest joy of beachside stays is long walks in the shallows; with the current ulcerated leg, doing that would not be possible. So the attraction of the coast had waned.

I visited the office and enquired about site availability. The very nice lady there did some juggling and managed to get us twelve days, back on the en-suite site we are currently occupying. How good was that? I’d asked if fourteen nights was possible, but very happy to settle for twelve. So we would be back at the end of the row of en-suites – wonderful. Now we just had to hope that the weather would be as nice.

John went to the Sunday morning markets in town, to buy some more of the lovely fruit cake.

We walked across to the park’s fossicking area, off to one corner of the undeveloped part of the grounds. Just wanted to have a look at their set up. We’d had some discussion over whether the heaps of mine dirt had been brought in, or came from shafts right there. To me, they seemed too extensive to have been trucked in. The park was located right at the extremity of where there had been diggings, so there might have been some mining here.

Fossicking area

A sign over the gate to the area named it as Ratters’ Flat. On the fields, a “ratter: is someone who sneaks around and steals opal from other miners’ claims.

There were definitely shafts there. Plus the full assortment of equipment usually found on claims, including an agitator made out of an old cement truck.

All the gear of a mining claim

Gave dog some exercise while we were over there.

 Great place for chasing the ball…

 Had heard some talk that the park owners were planning to add more sites, across in the area where we have been dog exercising. There was certainly the demand, at this time of year. When I took dog walking around the park, in the late afternoons, and mornings, it was rare to find an empty powered site, and there was often overflow into the unpowered parts. They even often have a van parked in the central access road – which is wide – plugged into one half of the double power point on the side of the septic tank. Prime location?

Did a little organizing of Bus, for tomorrow’s travel.