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Welcome to my occasional blog. Click a post title to see that entry with larger images or click an image for a larger version of the image. Outback Camping Trip Day 4 - Mitchell to MungallalaMonday 7 Sep 2015 We are going to stay a couple of nights with Bev's cousin John Ford, who has a sheep property near Mungallala, just west of Mitchell. We were going to buy some groceries in Roma on the way, but it was Sunday and we couldn't find an open shop, so we do some shopping in Mitchell and stop for a coffee at the bakery. We also have a cup of tea with John's sister Minnie, who lives in Mungallala. John has a lot of new lambs and is having trouble with dingos, so he intends to sleep out with the sheep to prevent losing any lambs. He invites us to join him, so we set up camp in his sheep paddock. John is having a new electric fence built to keep the dingos away from his sheep and the kangaroos away from his grass. It's a long fence.
This is John's woolshed.
This dam is beside our camp with sheep coming in for their evening drink.
That pretty pink glow is the setting sun shining on a rain squall that's about to hit us and our partially erected tent. Not a lot of rain but enough to get mud over everything.
It takes us a while to get organised after the wind and rain but go to sleep with the sound of the sheep in the distance. The dingos don't put in an appearance. Outback Camping Trip Day 3 - Lake Broadwater to MitchellSunday 6 Sep 2015 Our mysterious neighbour finally appeared this morning - a man in his sixties or seventies. We exchanged pleasantries but nothing more. We are taking the time to stop at the Miles Historical Village as we see it every time we pass this way, but are always heading for somewhere else and reluctant to stop. It has a huge number of exhibits. You know you are getting old when you visit a museum and find familiar items from your childhood. I remember using hurricane lamps on the farm.
Kerosene refrigerators were still being used in the late 60's in the cabins on North Keppel Island.
Who remembers pounds, shillings and pence? Here's a manual pre-decimal currency adding machine. I used something similar, although a later model, at work in the mid 1960s. The keyboard is interesting with "10" and "11" keys for pence, and a shillings column that only allows values up to 19.
Butcher shops have certainly changed from the days they had sawdust on the floor and wooden chopping blocks.
My mother's uncle had a printing business and I remember a hot metal type-setting machine like this. A bit different to today's computer software page layout systems.
I sat at desks like this in primary school.
Here are a few other items I found interesting.
We stopped for the night at Mitchell Caravan Park. We did look at a couple of free camping areas - the Weir and Fisherman's Rest - but there were too many people and too few toilets. Outback Camping Trip Day 2 - Lake BroadwaterSaturday 5 Sep 2015 Sunrise on our first full day was pleasant although a bit uninspiring due to the lack of clouds.
After breakfast we went for a walk along the lake shore to the bush camp, although we never actually found it. The cockatoos and corellas were noisily active in the trees.
The walk was pleasant with small signs identifying some plants and points of interest but some of the signs were unreadable. This is the remains of a dingo fence from the 1800s. We heard a few bird calls, but didn't actually see many apart from the cockatoos. These are Little Friarbirds.
We had asked the caretaker about the number of visitors on the weekends and were told that numbers were small until the ski season started. We heard the boat engines while returning from our walk, so sat and watched some skiing while we ate our lunch. Note the colour of the water. There were only a couple of boats and they didn't stay much after lunch. Mid-afternoon we returned to the bird hide but didn't see much activity. We sat on a log in the shade for a while and enjoyed the quiet and watched a few birds. A pair of black swans with young, out on the lake, chased away an intruding swan. This Striped Honeyeater found a meal.
and a crow foraged along the shore in front of us. Later in the afternoon, I left Bev resting at the tent and went for a walk looking for photos in the afternoon light.
We still haven't seen the mysterious inhabitant of the neighbouring tent - only heard coughing and a radio playing quietly. A relaxing day. The sun was quite hot and Bev got a little sunburned as her hat doesn't shade the back of her neck. We will have to buy a hat for her tomorrow, although we might not find many shops open on a Sunday.
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