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.