25th - 31st May

Monday 25th

It is a bit miserable today but we didn't let that stop us. I worked in the morning while the others played with their bows and arrows - don't worry about me guys - I would only snap the bow again anyway!

We were supposed to leave this morning but we are having such a great time here we decided to stay another day - it gets $1 cheaper per night every night you stay here.

We had a great day, wandering around setting fishing lines all over the place - there are certainly plenty of fish to be caught here. We went canoeing again and found another great waterhole where we reckon there will be plenty of fish so we set 8 set lines overnight and will see what we have in the morning!

Tuseday 26th

Well, so disappointed with our new fishing hole - there were only 7 fish on our 8 lines - hehe. One obviously got away!! There were 3 carp and 4 yellowbellies - cool bananas!

We said goodbye to our new friends, Barb and Bill at Bindara Station with a promise that we would return and do some work for them in exchange for board and lodging after we finish our current project, which involves going back to Brisbane for several months to do some property developing with Ross' mate John. John contacted us a couple of weeks back and asked if we were interested and we made the decision to go ahead and go up there and go partners with him - hope we are doing the right thing! Ross has to go back to work full time to get a job and I will do extra work with my work - not really looking forward to going to live in he city again but hopefully we wil make a tidy profit and can earn some extra cash so we can hit the road again.

We took the back road to Menindee which was a fabulous drive, really interesting country, lots of wildlife and just a generally good fun drive (we almost got lost a couple of times too which made it more interesting!). WE stopped and looked at the Kinchega Woolshed which is a big old woolshed from the 1800s. It isn't used any more but you can just imagine the huge numbers of sheep that used to go through it - it's pretty big! After the woolshed we moved along to have a look at the ruins of the paddlesteamer Providence, which is not much to look at because there isn't much left, but it has an interesting story.

We got to Menindee and looked for somewhere to camp and ended up at Pamamaroo Lake, near Menindee Lake, where the only water is still in the area, all the other lakes are dry - pretty depressing driving past dry lakes - guess they could do with some of that rain down here that they have been having up Brisbane/Lismore, etc.

We camped near the weir and played cards but it was FREEZING so we didn't last long!

Wednesday 27th

The only things we managed to catch overnight were four yabbies - hardly worth the effort! Nevertheless, we cooked them up for a snack and left the bucket on the ground with the cooked yabbies in it - much to Boris' delight - luckily he didn't get far before he was accosted!!

We moved on to Broken Hill and Ross and I headed to the laundromat to do some washing. The others were a little bit behind us as they had stopped to help Carol and Des change the fuel filter in their bus along the way. WE all ended up at the information centre and then decided to have some lunch at the The Demo Club which was a bit of a mistake as it wasn't all that crash hot!

We then all went our own way for awhile before we ended up at Norma's place - dad's sister. We had been sending some parcels to her place so we could collect them when we got there and she was telling us all about the troubles she had collecting them, especially since she didn't know how Ross Thomas was as she had never met Ross! She finally worked it out and got all the parcels under control but there are still a couple that haven't arrived yet - hopefully they will arrive soon! We had scones and jam and cream for afternoon tea and watched "Thank God You're Here" and then headed to bed as it was freezing again - apparently it's only going to get worse from here on in - brrrr!!

Thursday 28th

Everyone chuffed off and did their own thing this morning while I worked - I am having tomorrow off so we can go out to Silverton - can't wait for a day off!!

We went and did some sightseeing, including going to the art gallery and seeing Norma's painting she has on display, as well as some other family member who I have never met had a painting on display as well - never knew I had such a talented family!!

After that we went to dad's old neighbourhood and had a look at his old house where he had grown up. I had always wanted to go back there with him to hear all of his memories of the place. Unfortunately the house is an abandoned wreck, but he still had lots of stories to tell, I really enjoyed that. We also went to look at Norma and Bruce's first house that they built, from the ground up, they even made every brick in the place. We also looked at dad's first house he bought. After that we went to "Bell's Cafe" which was there when dad was a kid and he reckons it hasn't changed much, we went in and all had drinks for nostalgia's sake. Ross and I then went up to the lookout and sat on the big chair that overlooks Broken Hill.

Friday 29th

We set out early (for us) and headed to Silverton - what a great little town with a fabulous history. Silverton was the original settlement in the area but when better mining was found at Broken Hill, everyone packed up (literally - they picked up their houses and moved them) to Broken Hill and left nothing much left at Silverton except a few old buildings and the famous Silverton Hotel. That's a great place to visit, they have made heaps of movies in Silverton and all of the memorabilia is on the walls in there. They have made movies like Mad Max II, A Town Like Alice, Razorback, etc, etc. They also have one of the Mad Max cars (replica) out the front. There are donkeys wandering all around the place and we went to the coin place where the guys cuts out old coins which was a pretty fascinating place, and he is a bit of a have a chat!! He is also looking after a baby joey at the moment - apparently he does it all the time and he said this is number 110 and his name is Smoky - very cute!!

WE also went out to the Mundy plains lookout for a look - pretty awesome!!

We also went to the park at Silverton, once on the way in and once on the way out for lunch. They have camping there and they also have a bunch of animals including Sarah the pony and Jack the little Corella who is a toatal maniac and kept us entertained for ages with his singing and dancing.

After Silverton we decided that we might go to the Painted Desert and look at the scupltures. Being the cheapskates we are we were wondering whether it would cost us to get in and while we were discussing it on the radio, a local guy cut in and said that you don't have to pay if you walk in, so we drove there and arrived at the sculptures ready to walk up, only to be accosted by the Ranger telling us that it is $10 per head no matter what!! Grr - we all decided it wasnt worth the money so we headed back and went and looked at an old mine instead that was free to look at!!

Saturday 30th

Dad has an old friend in town called Mickey and he was really excited when he heard dad was in town and as they share birthdays (a couple of days apart), he invited us all around for a BBQ lunch at his place today. Unfortunately, Mickey has Alzheimer's and when we got there he wasn't there - he had obviously forgotten that he had invited us around!! Not letting that deter us we set out to find a park to have our lunch at seeing as we had all the stuff with us. We ended up at Twin Lakes park which is just beautiful and we had a lovely picnic and stroll around the lakes afterwards.

Mickey rang later nearly in tears because he had forgotten all about us so mum and dad went around to see him but didn't stay long because he had to go out for the night. We rounded off the day by playing cards in Norma's back sunroom with the heater going flat out - it's freezing here!!

Sunday 31st

Dad's birthday. We all ended up going out for lunch at ?? can't remember name of club as the weather has turned nasty so we couldn't really have a BBQ or anything. After lunch most of us trooped back to finish our "projects", which is a challenge Brian set for us all to give us something to do and you had to pick up stuff off the ground and make it into something and Norma will be the judge to see whose is the best. Brian is always doing that sort of stuff so we reckoned he would be pretty hard to beat but we gave it a good try. Over the last few days I had been picking up all sorts of different stones and bits of broken glass and even a big piece of bark to make a "stone garden" scene. At the last minute we also bought some pipecleaners to make some people in the garden. When it was eventually finished it, Ross had ended up making a Broken Hill mine as well as a 4wd and a boat on top towing a caravan and I put in two people and a dog and "Twin Lakes" and it ended up being a scene of Broken Hill - we were pretty pleased with our effort.

Brian had made a woman out of bits and pieces, she was pretty hilarious with the ends of shotgun pellets for boobs and a cut up tin can for hair and a broken pair of sunnies, etc. Colleen had made a "Lime Man" out of two limes picked from Norma's garden and some hair curlers for arms and she even knitted him a little beanie - pretty cute! Mum made a weird concotion with a cardboard box and bandaids - supposed to be abstract art??!! Dad had cheated and bought a model plane from the Reject Shop for $3 and Des and Carol put in a miserly effort and came up with nothing!

After long deliberation, Norma awarded first prize to us!! Yay!! WE all had a ball doing it - onya Brian - can always rely on Brian to make things interesting!

18th - 24th May

Monday 18th

We arrived at Graham and Margaret's about 3 ish and the boys went straight to work trying to figure out how we could make a bike rack to carry our bike somewhere on our rig. Margaret had been away at her son's place all week and had just gotten back and was pretty tired so we just had a light tea and let them go to bed.

Tuesday 19th

The boys decided that there is no way to make a bike rack for the bike so we are just going to keep tying it on the front of the caravan for now until we sell the boat somewhere along the line and we will then make a bracket for them to go on the roof. Instead, they made a bracket for the jerry can on the back of the spare wheel which turned out pretty good!

The others (mum, dad, Colleen, Brian, Carol, Des) arrived late in the afternoon and we had a big fire going and we cooked chili con carne and damperfor dinner and lemonade scones for dessert - fantastic!! Some friends of Margaret and Graham joined us for dinner too (Lyn and Geoff) and we all sat around the campfire and had a great night. We are going to Lyn and Geoff's tomorrow night and they are going to put on a campfire and try and outdo tonight's one - should be good!

Wednesday 20th

Well, Geoff certainly outdid himself - what a great fire we had tonight! We had so much food we could have fed twice as many people as were there - we had a great night!

Thursday 21st

Mum, dad, Colleen, Brian, Des and Carol all took off this afternoon and Ross and I will be following in a day or two and will catch up with them somwhere along the line. We are having a great time here and are helping Graham and Margaret with some of their stuff they are getting ready for an exhibition they are having in a few weeks' time. They do tin sculptures, etc (using old rusty stuff found lying around old farms etc) and they do a fantastic job and will be displaying them at an exhibition in Mildura coming up. We also are going to make mum and dad a Christmas present while we are here using Margaret and Graham's tools and materials.

Friday 22nd

Ross and Margaret managed to get a whole bunch of work done yesterday and today to help her get a bunch of stuff done for the exhibition, he loved helping her as he really loves that stuff and she really appreciated the help.

Saturday 23rd

We hit the road by about 8 am and caught up with the others by about 9:30 am ( they had camped by the river near Pooncarie and had put out a white shirt on the road that they had driven down to let us know where they were). We all drove in to Pooncarie and had a cuppa before heading off again.

We drove about 50 km north from Pooncarie before finding a camp next to the river to stay for the night. It is really desolate and harsh country and, having never seen the Darling before, was quite disappointed in it. There is very little flow (only a few feet deep), it is very muddy, it has really long, steep banks with lots of dead trees littering it, but Brian did manage to catch another Murray Cod, so it can't be that bad!

Sunday 24th

The others headed off at about 10ish while we stayed behind for me to finish my work for the day until 11. By the time we got underway the others were ahead of us by about an hour and a half but by the time we got to Bindara Station where we were heading for. Their excuse was that they stopped to smell the roses on the way, had morning tea, had a flat tyre, etc, etc, but we reckon they are just slow.

WE got to the station and were introduced to Barbara, the owner who is a lovely lady and we hit it off right away. The station is a lovely oasis in the middle of some pretty harsh country, the fire was burning, the kettle was on, tea and coffee were supplied. They have a fantastic fireplace with plenty of room for everyone to fit around and chat and cook their meals.

Brian, Colleen, mum, me and Boris went for a walk to the old woolshed - it was a bit further than we thought and I think we ended up walking about 4 kms round trip - phew!!

Ross and I went canoeing in the afternoon with the canoe that they supply for campers while Brian went fishing and got a couple of carp, a Murray Cod and a yellowbelly. We all sat around the fire at night and cooked our meals and then Barb came out and made golden syrup dumplings for everyone! Not bad for $10! There are also hot showers, hot running water for washing up and a sink, a laundry, but no power other than to charge laptop batteries, etc as they are only on solar and wind power out here. They don't have town water either and have to bring drinking water in from Mildura.

11th May - 17th May

Monday 11th

Ross and I rode the bikes in to Lyrup to check the mail this afternoon while mum and dad took the Disco into Renmark for appointments.

The boys are still catching plenty of yellowbellies - we are getting to the stage where we have nowhere else to store them and can't eat them fast enough to keep up - tough life!

Sunday 17th

It has been a great week. For some reason the fish have gone off the bite so Brian is getting bored so he decided to make bows and arrows from the stand of bamboo nearby and we had an arrow shooting competition - girls vs boys! For some reason the girls ended up with a crappy, dodgy bow and the boys had a lovely, nice one - go figure! Anyway, once we wrested control of the good bow we had fun shooting at the barrel and we all did pretty good until it came to my second turn and I must have exerted just a little too much pressure and snapped the bow!! That was the end of that - looks like Brian will have to go back to the drawing board and make new bows!!

There is a pizza oven here too so we made pizzas in it on Tuesday - yummy and we also had a roast done in the camp oven on Wednesday - tough life!

We left after playing cards Sunday night to head to Renmark as I had a hair cut appointment booked for the morning and we will go on to Graham and Margaret's after that. The others will follow on Tuesday. We are going early because Graham has a full workshop and Ross wants to do a couple of things to the car.

4th May - 10th May

Monday 4th

We decided to try and look for a better place to stay than Thiele's sandbar. It is quite a nice place but it is very sandy with nowhere we can park the car/caravan that is not on the sand and sand is getting everywhere in the caravan. We were just about to head off when Ross looked at the places we could drive out and one was really sandy and the other wasn't so much so we decided to go for the sandy part!! (Just for a challenge). We did manage to get temporarily bogged because Ross forgot to put the diff lock on, but after that we were away - it was good to know what the 4x4 is capable of when it comes to towing the caravan.

We found another campsite only a couple of kilometres up the road that wasn't sandy and settled down there to wait for the houseboat to come past tomorrow.

We buggerised around most of the day doing little jobs, etc, waiting for mum and dad and at about 4 pm we decided to ring because we thought they should be here by now. Mum still didn't know what we were up to so I didn't want to spoil the surprise. Well, I reckon I was more surprised when I rang and she told me they were in Loxton already!! How did they get past us?? Well it was all blown by then so I had to come clean - it was pretty funny and we had to try and work out how they got past us. It turns out that when we were moving they passed the spot that we are camped at now and parked about 300 m down the river around a bend overnight where we couldn't see them!! Gah!! Nevermind, we will catch up with them tomorrow in Loxton. We will leave the caravan here and go in and meet them. So much for the surprise!




Tuesday 5th

I did my work in the morning and then we headed for Loxton to catch up with mum and dad. They have Colleen and Brian visiting at the moment - they are going to be travelling with us+mum and dad up the middle of Australia in a few weeks' time when Carol and Des arrive (we will all go up together). We were sitting down having morning tea when we looked up to the carpark and saw Derrick and Robyn pull up who we had last seen at the Yorke Peninsula! Small world! Anyway, we invited them down to the houseboat and the boat needed to go to the "pump-out" station so we took them for a drive - they thought it was wonderful! They are from Tasmania so they said if we get down that way next year we can come and visit them.

Wednesday 6th

Ross and Brian went to check the set lines this morning and came back with a Murray Cod!! They are so rare these days it was a real surprise to catch it. Being so rate they would have put it back excpet that it had already half drowned itself and wouldn't have survived. Most of us had never seen one before so it was a real treat and we ate it for lunch - YUUUUUUUMMMMM!! Heaps better than the yellowbellies we have been eating. Brian has been catching quite a few yellowbellies so we have heaps of fish to keep us fed for quite a while!

Ross decided to try to learn to throw the casting net today and mum and dad had it on video when someone showed them how to do it so he watched then went out to the back of the boat to practice. After several throws he had it pretty much down pat and on the last throw he threw it out and brought in a carp! Pretty hilarious - that would have to be the world's most unlucy carp!!

Thursday 7th

The boys caught another big carp so we decided we might try and cut some fillets off, mince it and make it into fish patties. It was soaked in vinegar for a little while after it was minced and then made some patties. They actually tasted quite good! We made sure we put plenty of other seasoning in it :). So you can eat carp!!

Friday 8th

Mum and dad moved on this morning to go to Berri - they want to go to the markets on Sunday morning. They will stay somewhere near Berri tonight and we will probably go to Martin's bend and stay the night there and then Ross will go to the markets in the morning and meet up with them some time and we will have lunch together later.

When we got to Martin's bend , about an hour or so later a couple of people that we met at Port Parham turned up - sure is a small world! It was fun catching up with them and working out what they had been up to in between here and there.

Sunday 10th

MOTHER'S DAY

We moved on to Lyrup this morning and we all had morning tea with Melva, Tom, Paul and Zager on board as well. We had a lovely morning.

Ross and I cooked lunch as a treat for mum - we cooked chilli con carne. She loved it - yay!