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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Earlier in the year……

We had realized, back on our extended trip, that we did not really have enough solar power capacity to run the fridge and lights for an extended period.

When we had the van built, in 1997, and even now, solar power installations in caravans and motorhomes were a novelty, very new on the scene, and there were few people who seemed to know much about the field.

Now, John had become fixated upon being able to run a breadmaking machine, when we were not on external, 240v power. My research had suggested that these draw too much power to be feasible for operating via an inverter, but…..

John contacted J – the “expert” in 12v solar systems for caravans – who had installed our initial solar panel. He, of course, agreed with John that it could be done!

So, early in the year, after being serviced at Trakmaster, J collected the van and took it off to his factory in Alphington, to have another solar panel fitted on the roof (as J advised), a second battery and an inverter installed, and associated other bits and pieces fitted.

Truck also got some attention, with new batteries being put into that. This was done by J at the Trakmaster factory.

The work on the van was only supposed to take a couple of weeks to be done – in amongst other jobs – but we became increasingly uneasy when we had heard nothing, after some 5 weeks. On the phone, John was assured that the van was almost ready! It took a few more weeks, and another couple of phone calls, but eventually J arranged to deliver the van back to us.

He duly arrived – in teeming rain – with the door to the battery compartment swinging open and the van door likewise – only held from totally swinging open by the hook. I also noticed that the poptop holders were not fastened down, but fortunately the weight of it had kept it down! I was quite horrified by this slackness.

We had previously heard, at great length, about J’s woes because his wife had gone off with his best friend and how he wasn’t coping well with this. Looked to me like the not coping might have extended to his business as well.

We went into the van to get a demonstration of how the new system worked. It didn’t! No 12v power at all. J protested that it had all been working alright at the factory – it had been tested. He wanted to immediately take the van back to his factory. No way was I letting him have it again.

After some messing around, he thought that the batteries had not been charged, and that leaving the van plugged in to 240v power overnight, would see everything working tomorrow. So much for his “factory testing”.

All up, we were to fork out some $3,700 for the work on the van and Truck.

John went out and bought a Panasonic bread maker, that was supposed to have the lowest current draw of those on the market.

I’d turned my attention to finding a house sitter to live in, look after the cats, mow the lawns, forward our mail. I was not really sure how to go about finding someone reliable, then happened to see an ad in the Age newspaper, put in by a lady looking to house sit. A phone call gave me the information that L was in her 30’s, had given up a career in finance to go to Uni, where she was studying Fine Arts, and that she hoped to continue on and complete a Masters degree. Obviously, she needed to conserve funds, hence the house sitting.

We arranged that she would come and meet in person, and also inspect the place. We liked her, she liked the set up – and the cats. John and I had already decided that we would make the three back bedrooms and bathroom available for a sitter – to enable them to settle in well for the five or six months that we envisaged being away.

All settled – L would move in just before we planned to leave, and receive all her final instructions then.

MONDAY 10 MAY     WILPENA

John wanted a rest day, today, since we have been active every day since getting here.

It was another beautiful blue sky day. Yesterday, U had commented on the unusual clarity of the air and the views – so it is not always like that, here.

I did the washing.

Basically we just lazed around for much of the day. Read some accumulated newspapers and some travel guides. I did some knitting.

I walked to the office and paid for another week’s accommodation here. There is still so much that we want to do.

After lunch, we went for a bike ride, as far as the old hut and the Cazneaux Tree. We detoured to the solar farm lookout. The solar farm consists of rows of solar panels generating electricity that can be used at Wilpena, which is not on the main power grid, and has relied on its own diesel generators. The SA Govt had the solar farm installed, to demonstrate what can be done with this technology. It only started operating a few months ago. The rows of panels are in a slight valley, so they are not really noticeable unless one goes to the lookout. The experimental work that is being done on a solar power supply, here, is impressive. The way of the future?

Our 15.5km bike ride was very enjoyable – such a great setting for cycling.

The camp area was nice and peaceful in the morning, but by mid afternoon it was filled with vans.

John went to the public phone at the office (no mobile reception here) to make some calls. He contacted our sharebroker to check on some share prices. Phoned Hayman Reece to ask about the advisability of taking off the weight distribution bars on rough roads – we should! He also phoned and booked us to do the SkyTrek tomorrow.

A park worker, whom John had encountered somewhere about the place, came by after work to talk to John about web sites and his plans to set up a business offering abseiling and climbing, here. He did not seem to have much idea, though, about things like liability insurance, so I think he has a lot of learning to do yet.

Tea was late – due to our visitor. Pumpkin soup, Hawaiian tofu stir fry and rice – was ok.

We are having a good run of early nights – must be the unpolluted air here.