June the 1st

Saturday the 25th of June
What a frustrating three weeks it has been with no computer to carry on our diary of our travels this year and even now at this point of time I can not access my upload programme. I am really pissed off. I have spent this morning just loading a few photo's and then home for lunch and this afternoon we are going out to the bush to get more wood for our main camp fire. Then just relax for the rest of the day before going inside later in the night to watch the St Kilda V Geelong AFL football game.

Sunday the 26th of June
We sat by the fire last night enjoying a cappuccino and finally enjoying the lovely sunset and its many facets over a short period of time. We were to enjoy the company of many happy camper's around the fire. What game of football it was until I was annoyed in the way St Kilda surrendered the lead in the last quarter. So much so that I turned off the computer and went to bed. What a pleasant surprise to see that St Kilda had finally won by just three points.

Hopped out of bed this morning at 7am and the sky was overcast with the hint of rain to come. The clouds had a blue sheen about them and it was cold at 7 degrees and would only rise to 10 degrees with a few spots of rain at 2.30pm. On my walk this morning I went past Val's park where I was to see Val amongst the kangaroo's who were waiting by her gate wanting to be fed. Val took them over to the park where she was to feed them pellets of course around 20 bush pigeons dropped in and had their share of the pellets. Val then fed them Lucerne and that was their feed this morning for they have another feed of Lucerne in the evening. All the feed costs come out of Val's pocket and she talks to the kangaroo's and most have a name. Tourists walking past with dogs soon get Val's attention very quickly and told to keep their dogs under control.
Back to camp and cooked toast for breakfast and washed down with a cup of tea. As it was cold we stoked the fire up so it was warm to sit by and then after breakfast we went down the area where we cut the wood yesterday and picked up small branch's etc for our own fire.
A couple of happy campers were leaving this morning so we bid them farewell and safe travels and then sat around the camp fire and had a chin wag.
We were to have a late lunch and there was sprinkles of rain which we expect to get heavier late in the day and hopefully we will not see the flooding of the area as we did last week. Liz has made a large pot of chicken soup with plenty of chicken in it for our meal this evening and I expect that will warm us up. If the rain is not to bad we will sit by our fire and probably with an umbrella. Who knows?

Sunrise this morning

Monday the 27th of June
Rain again last night and this morning awoke to a cold dismal day, which is abnormal for this area at this time of the year. Normally the temperature at night would be around 11 degrees and during the day as high as 24 degrees. Of course during summer it rises to 40 degrees celsius plus. The sunrise this morning was heavy cloud blocking the sun though during the day it broke through several times to help charge the house batteries by solar power.
I spoke to several walkers this morning exchanging information on travels etc and then walked by the old original Yowah cottage which was made basically of concrete walls and a brick frontage. This would take a lot of restoring. Then by the Caravan Park which had many visitors more so than the free stay area where we are.
The advantage for us is that you can have huge community fires and there is plenty of wood available close by. It is mostly Gidgee wood and boy doesn't it blunt the chains on the chain saw very quickly. It burns to a white ash and next morning a few sticks pushed into the ash and it is away again.
Then past the artesian bore baths which is in addition to the bore water showers. Each bath has its own distinctive colour and of course there is no roof. The whole town survives on the bore water from the Great Artesian Basin. For those who are not aware I will quote from the publication "Yowah home of the renowned Yowah Opal Nut.
The Great Artesian Basin provides water for much of inland Australia, Yowah being one of these towns. Stretching over 1,700,000 square kilometres and covering 1/5th of Australia. The Great Artesian Basin is the largest aquifer in the world. With a temperature of water throughout the basin varying from between 30 to 100 degrees celsius the basin makes a great resource for fresh baths and spa's
A bore drain meanders through the centre of Yowah and you are encouraged to follow the Bore Drain Walk. Underground pipes provide the Artesian water to the town. This bore is essential to the Yowah's existence.
Past the bore drain and then stopped to talk to Val who was feeding her beloved wild kangaroo's and then into camp to get the fire going and then it was time for breakfast. The morning was getting colder and the gauge on Lens caravan was only registering 7 degrees though the sun was trying to poke its nose through the clouds. One of our happy camper mates left this morning bound for warmer climes, or so he believes for the lower part of Queensland is experiencing very cold weather for this time of the year and snow has been falling in some area's.
I started the computer and it froze again so again I had to place the windows disc in the d drive to get it going again. We read our books for awhile and then decided to go up to the Library and exchange books with others. The surprising thing is they have a very up to date range of books considering there are only 150 people residing in the town. Then I had the another go at copying the windows disc and it appeared to work, in case one becomes corrupted.
We then visited the Yowah Nut Cafe where we had three steamed dim sims and a plate of wedges with cream cheese and chilli sauce both were very nice and we washed those down with a cup of coffee each for the cappuccino machine was not working.
We had a drive out to the public fossicking area though there was no one there doing the usual dig and we did a bit or Emu Bopping to no effect.
Back to camp and sat around and had a chat with our happy camper mates and then decided due the there being nice red hot coals in the fire that we would have potatoes done in alfoil for our meal tonight with the usual condiments.
A pleasant day after the rain and the temperature at 2pm had risen to 20 degrees hopefully tomorrow the clouds will disappear and a nice sunny day will prevail.

Tuesday the 28th of June
Out of bed early this morning and stoked the fire up for breakfast. Its marvelous that the hot coals are there still from last night fire though we did sit out by it until after 10.30pm.
After breakfast we went for a drive and had a look at two opal shops. One was called the Opal Bus Stop and is an Opal shop located in an old bus from the early 60's. The other bus is called In the Dust Opal Bus and again it has displays of the Yowah Boulder Opal all for purchase. We then went and had a another look at the Yowah Artesian Bore and where it actually comes from the basin by pipe to supply water to all of the town. It is surprising how much run off to the bore drains takes place.
We were to set up the washing machine for it is a nice sunny day for the clouds early this morning dissipated. We lounged around the fire for the rest of the morning.

We had lunch and read our books for awhile and then decided to go get another load of wood for our fire for we are burning plenty. First to sharpen the chains and off we went to fall a couple of Gidgee trees and cut them into suitable lengths for our fire. The day had gone quickly and before we knew it it was happy hour so we all gathered around the fire and had a few more than usual for a group that we had known for some years are heading off early in the morning to go back to Victoria to celebrate Les's 80th birthday. We had our meal cooked on the fire spuds again in the hot coals and the rest cooked on the camp stove. Then the rest of the evening was spent by the fire before going off to bed.

Wednesday the 29th of June
Very cold last night with the temperature this morning at 7am being Zero degrees. The terios was covered in ice and would not dissolve until the sun hit it at around 8.30am. By the end of the day the temperature had risen to 24 degrees and it was typical Queensland weather with the sky absolutely blue with no clouds at all and would remain that way all day.
We had breakfast by the main fire and relished the sunshine having to shed our coats quickly. The happy campers gathered once again and we all commented on the weather and it was great to see the ground drying given all the rain we have had in the last week or so. It was amazing how quickly the camp grounds are emptying though the local caravan park is pretty full.
Again this morning we had a visit by many family birds (Apostle) and also kangaroos and two rabbits. Later in the morning we were to see two large yabby's in the bore drain immediately behind our camp. If the weather is the same tomorrow I will set my yabby nets out at my favourite spot a few kilometres out from Yowah.

Les & Dawn were leaving this morning heading back to Victoria so they finally packed up and we all bid them farewell in the early model Bedford Motorhome which is really well kept. We had a morning tea and then they were gone leaving a large gap in the camping area. We sat around reading our books in the brilliant sunshine until lunch time, we had raisin bread toasted on the main fire.
Brian & Dianne arrived from Victoria and set up near us and it was good to see them for it was last year when we saw them last. We had a good chinwag and then happy hour arrived and we had a few more drinks than normal. We were to cook our potatoes and pumpkin in alfoil on the fire and steamed the rest of the vegetables and then cooked our ham steaks on the hotplate for our evening meal. Plates were washed and we came out and sat by the fire which was well stoked up. I can say we have not done a lot today other than read and chat. The only thing wrong was that Liz's voting papers arrived in the mail this morning and mine did not so this may cause a few problems.
We will go inside later and either read our books, which we borrowed from the Yowah Library or watch a bit of television

Friday the 30th June
We sat outside last night by a beautiful fire for there was no wind and the evening was warm. The morning was a little chilly with the temperature at 6am being -1. I stoked the fire before going off for a walk and it was divine with the dawn breaking and the horizon was tinged with many colour's and you could still see stars before the sun rose above the sky line.
Again we had our breakfast by the fire and the day was warming though it became a little overcast clearing away to brilliant sunshine around 2pm. We had sat around chewing the fat with our fellow happy campers in the morning and before we knew it lunch time had arrived. Again we had lunch by the fire and I do think that even if it was hot we would still sit by the fire for it is so memorising. We went for a drive out to Mitre 11 and obtained a few goodies that we could use in this camp and then over to the public fossicking area. There is plenty of ground to for people to dig and some holes were quite deep. Today there was no one fossicking so we had a good drive around and inspected the diggings though we never bothered hopping out of the car to do some Emu Bopping. Back to the RTI and had a chin wag with a few of the locals and then onto do this diary for the day. Then onto the Yowah Artesian Bore Baths which we are yet to try out, it was closed though we are informed that they are very popular. It would true to say we have done very little other than relax. We are finding it so easy to do especially reading our books in the sunshine. Liz was to wear shorts today though I have not been all that keen as yet.
Happy hour arrived and Liz and I have elected to have a dry day and only have a cappuccino, we had a few of the local townspeople come down and it lead to interesting discussions about the people of Yowah in a good vein of course.
Cooked our meal on our own fire again and then retired to the big fire later before coming inside to watch the West Coast V Essendon AFL match then off to bed to read for awhile another relaxing day.

July 2016