where's julia

Birds - Yarn Bombing

FYI
have met 2 different campers who commented that the piece at Cactus Beach is still on the rafters-this was a recycled piece..

This is my latest piece inspired by the colours of birds in the Mt Remarkable National Park

libraries - photos - port pirie

sports equipment that can be borrowed

To market to market to buy a loaf of bread….

Superman writes….

We needed a loaf of bread so Murray suggested a trip to a country town and lunch at the oldest hotel in the Southern Flinders and a look at Murray Town – the round trip approximately 125kms from our campsite.

Wilmington – our first stop; the general store was closed (completely!), so we popped into the toy museum-this is mentioned as a must see – if only for the cobwebs and dust! So0000000 dusty-$4 entry to look at a collection of spiders and dust – there were toys somewhere…… so I believe-Julia found a clean bus…

No bread at Wilmington so another 30kms and we came to Melrose – lunch at the oldest hotel. Another couple were also waiting for lunch – they told us the barmaid had gone to ask the cook if there was any food to cook!  Nothing on the menu that day. Off we headed to Murray Town to buy a pie.

Now there should be a sign on the main road to say this town is closed! Yes the butcher, the post office, general store, garage were boarded up, closed no sign of any life here.

Fortunately we had some nuts and muesli bars to eat.

We arrived back to our campsite to find Muldoon climbing the tree.

Muz and I met some lovely campers Mayan and Tuval from Israel. Mayan has just completed her masters in winemaking-they are doing a quick trip to WA, then flying to NZ to work at Martinborough for the vintage season, returning to Israel next winter.

Muz and I have been observing children and camping. When is the best time to introduce children to camping?

Do you send the dads out with 2 toddlers, new tents, rum and coke for the dads, bottles for the toddlers, 2 tents – one for the kids and 1 for the dads, the kids cry and cry, they are hungry, thirsty wet and cold. Not to worry a bit of the old rum and coke into their bottle and they are quiet in no time, they wake crying again at 4am, when Muz and I woke at 8am they had gone home!

Or how about the family – 10mth old girl and 4 yr old boy – not a sound from either – a bouncy swing for the little girl, a bath of toys, bubbles and a scooter for the boy.

Or the campers who bury disposable nappies in the bush – Muz and I see them….. or the kids who take a short cut through our site…..

Overall we love camping with the kids, babies, everyone loves us and we love the attention-children come by looking for us and play with us, including us in their hut building...

Mt Remarkable National Park

Mount Remarkable National Park is proving to be just the spot we need, providing us with a clean peaceful environment. This park has fantastic clean facilities-hot showers, clean toilets, Adelaide drinking water which we are able to connect to from our van. There are 54 sites with the road running between the sites. With our SA pass it is not costing us anything to camp here.

The park is halfway between Pt Pirie and Pt Augusta. We tend to go for a drive 2/3 times a week-visiting the country towns, farmers markets, etc.

It is a very high fire risk season, so we have worked out our fire escape plan. The ranger has told us he will know when a fire is coming long before the radio station. We have our grab bag in the truck so feel relatively safe.

There are numerous walks/tramps/hikes/treks. We try to do one every 2^nd day-it takes me a day to get over them… Murray is doing well with the tramps and has managed the 18km Hidden Valley trek. I have done a 1/3^rd, but did manage the 7km hike and a 2km hike, but this one put me off as it was my first experience with an eastern brown snake – on the track!

We are reading a lot of books, I am knitting and learning to sketch birds. There are 118 varieties here and I often sit under the trees watching the kookaburras attacking the lace monitor lizard Muldoon as he moves about the hollow trees searching for their nests. The willy wag tails in turn attack the kookaburra as he tries to steal their young chicks. Muldoon scavenges on the ground for camper’s crumbs and baby lizards.

Emus, kangaroos and euros appear all the time and move around the sites.

Summertime is the quiet time for the park so Murray and I are often the only campers here.  We have no trouble filling in the day-by the time we get up 8am!, have breakfast and do our chores-Murray is constantly shifting the solar panels around, time for lunch, then perhaps an afternoon nap, 5sies, we get the dinner ready before we have 5isies, (that way we have the ingredients correct)??? Murray cooks, then a game of scrabble, lights out between 9-11pm, depending on whether we are meeting other campers.

Little towns and tourism – do they need us…. Going the extra mile….. for example

Brenda writes.... 

 Coffin Bay – the locals are very friendly from the marine workshop to the Coffin Bay Yacht Club staff, to  the gas man who welcomed us to his town,  to the people walking on the beach who explained the ins and outs of the pipis v cockles – depending on which state you came from. We meet an 86 yr old walking the beach who drove from Adelaide to CB to her shack – takes her 10 hours. We met the shack lady again the next day at the market, along with a friendly knitter – who was keen to engage her knitting group in some guerrilla knitting.

 But there are always some who spoil or who have little respect for the environment – the 2 Kimberly Kamper trailers who lit a fire in the National Park – they had children with them or the lady at Tumby Bay who for the sake of 5 minutes refused to serve us after we had walked 1.25 km to buy fish ‘n’ chips – we were met with ‘Have youse done a phone order’, - we had arrived after closing time. She did direct us to the pub across the road that served us a greasy meal of mixed fish – one serving for $30.00!

With over 75,000 caravan owners, I had expected to find camping grounds/parks full.  Only twice we have come across ‘free’ spots full with caravans lined up waiting – at Cosy Corner, Esperance and Louth Bay – SA. Often we are the first to a camping spot. People arrive from 11.30am – 2pm, if they are coming…  Many of the people we have met come from Mackay – Queensland. We now have 2 invites to call in and stay – Bundaberg and Greenhill – Sth Mackay. Most campers keep to themselves and it is only when people arrive and see us parked up and talk to us about our camping spot that we meet people.  Across the Nullaboor we were often asked if we minded company – it is safer to camp in numbers.

Superman is popular wherever he goes and makes friends very easily. At Elliston Jill fell in love with him and Muz and her husband Russell took many photos of the 3 of them. Dogs continue to be fearful of Superman. One caravanner wondered if I made soft toys! Both Murray and I refer to them as ‘the boys’.

We have both lost a lot of weight – Murray especially, he has dropped several sizes in clothes and we have had to purchase new shorts/jeans etc.

Camping grounds – that is the commercial variety vary in prices from $26 - $36! Per nite for 2 adults. Washing machines vary from $3 - $4 a load and dryers $3-$5 for 15 minutes. Apparently in north WA you pay extra if you are running the air conditioner.

Fitzgerald Bay, 32kms north Wayalla – free camp spot – ideal if you have a boat – very windy though – we had a sand storm the 2^nd nite – winds up to 86km – Pt Augusta had a sand storm the same evening along with a bush fire. We parked 4 feet from the waters’ edge and both experienced for the first time fast tides – 3 metres gushing through the mangroves. Here we collected razor fish – there are signs on the beach at Tumby Bay – to wear footwear due to razor fish – what a fuss – these are shell fish that stick up above the sand – similar shape to a NZ horse mussel – ok they are a bit sharp – the locals preserve the black meat – which looks like a mussel-according to Murray doesn’t taste like a mussel.

We took Superman to the May Gibbs memorial and plaque. He sat in the gum nut tree. Superman also visited the Pt Augusta Library.

Our next stop is the Mt Remarkable National Park – we hope to spend most of December here – using this camp as a base to explore the surrounding Clare, ‘Murdock’ country, Port Perie. With our Sth Australia National Park Pass – we paid extra for camping - $50.00 for 2mths – this hopefully will turn out to be good value. There is no cell phone coverage in this park – so we take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Healthy Fulfilling 2012.

Colours of Coffin Bay

Elliston Yarn Bombing

WORLD FAMOUS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Superman writes….

Brenda says you don’t have to travel to Paeroa – NZ to be’ world famous’…

After leaving Elliston we travelled a short distance to Sheringa Beach – it was an incredible rare hot day. Muz and I were relaxing in the chairs – this is a rareity – usually we sit on the gas bottles, and along came a photographer from WildEyre-the lady was looking for camping photos for their new website and Muz and I were delighted to oblige.

The next day – flies arrived – flies indicate rain – but we got more than we bargained for – 12hours of thunder, lightning, rain – the longest thunderstorm any of us had been in. Just as we thought the storm   had gone along it came again, fork lightning struck the ground just as Murray was outside shifting the solar panels – he was very lucky!

Due to rough seas the fishing was not happening so we moved on to Coffin Bay National Park.

This park is fantastic – Muz and I didn’t want to leave. We spent 6 nights here – fishing, 4wd driving-very rutted tracks-sand/beach driving-we saw a’ beached as’ seal. There was much wildlife, fauna and flora and Muz and I spent the days identifying the birds, listening to their calls – dddd I am preeteee…

We ate young kawahai, pipis and whiting.

Brenda knitted a piece for the National Park – ‘colours of coffin bay’.

Sunday – sadly we had to pack up… drove to Port Lincoln to buy some fresh fruit/vegies and now we are at Tumby Bay – SA coast.

Storytime Craft

Superman Writes...
Muz and I were getting scratchie with each other so Brenda took us for a walk along the beach and we found some holey shells - we made ourselves a necklace?

Cactus beach – Ceduna – Smokey Bay – Streaky Bay – Granites (Pt Westall) – Murphys Haystacks-Venus Bay – Talia Caves - Elliston

Ceduna – a pretty clean town with Norfolk pines down the main street – one of each type of shop, a foodland – IGA – very well stocked, local indigenous to make you feel welcome – watch out for any wine you have in your trolley-don’t turn your back…..

Murray pushed the trolley thru the main street laden with food and liquid, books from the op shops to stock up the van and back again to the supermarket. We used the trolley in the camping ground to load our dried washing into and back to the van – just like the locals – only we are a different colour.

A very clean camping ground on the foreshore – next time we will state we have a longer van-trying to fit between 2 other smaller vans – which we did-avoiding the tree which left  us only able to put up 3 legs as we didn’t have enough room to turn our leg jack. No room to put out chairs for a drink so off to the local foreshore hotel for a lovely feed of oysters, prawns, baked snapper and whiting – accompanied by the shiraz and nz sauvy blanc. A sunset poked itself through the Norfolk pines . After dinner a stroll on the jetty to watch the locals feed the pelican.

Leaving Ceduna on the Friday we headed to Smokey Bay to buy Murray’s oysters @ $6 dozen in the shell. Drove through Streaky Bay and started to looking for our next camp spot- Pt Westall – free camping on a cliff – another couple joined us. Saturday – no sun so ran the genie, watched some dvds, when suddenly the wind changed and the awning jumped- a sand storm arrived, our neighbour Bill came and helped us take it down, secure. Fortunately the boys were inside-but dust and sand throughout…. We managed to last 5 days here-eventually the wind drove us away – 67 knt winds the last straw, plus we had bees for neighbours and they had started to swarm up our sullage hose.

Murphy’s Haystacks at Cacla – a great tourist spot – Inselberg Rocks – similar to wave rock material and the Avebury Rocks in the UK. Very clean flush toilets here.

Next top Venus Bay – we had heard so much about this place – I expected a lush clean green bay of commericalisim – rather like Ceduna – alas – it is a lime sand bay no greenery around, plenty of water-commercial sardine fishing village? With a camping ground on the foreshore-stop here if you have a boat or love to fish off the jetty. We stayed for 2 hours – Murray caught a herring and a man we had met the other day at the granites gave us a small kawahai. Superman met a young girl from Pinjarra and had his photo taken. We had a lovely lunch of whiting and chips washed down with Watties Tomato Sauce! Wines were cheap in the local shop so a few bottles managed to be seconded to the truck.

 Colton Bakery on the side of the road – Flinders Highway provided Murray with a chance to try their bread – they are not always open –so we were indeed lucky.

Tomorrow?

Talia Caves provided a refreshing stop – with a walkway to the cave and rock formation.

photos to come...



 As we were only 28 kms from Elliston – we decided to call in for the night – do a wash and stock up with water. And here we caught up with Bill and Ma

storm rolling over cactus

yarn bombing

where's julia

Lizards and more....

Lizards galore-Julia’s cousins abound the golden sands at Cactus Beach, out they come to play, to eat the millions of tiny ants and to suckle the moisture from the minute mauve succulent native flower.

Muz and I spent hours and days watching the lizards, hoping and wishing that just one would stop and play with us. Murray said we had to be patient. After 168 hours we were rewarded with Julia’s 2^nd cousin stopping by to say hello..

What a thrill for Brenda to capture this on her camera!

We met some interesting characters while staying at Cactus Beach

 – George who works in the gypsum mine-the biggest mine in the Southern Hemisphere. The gypsum is sent by train to Adelaide and Melbourne and shipped overseas to be made into plaster board.

-          Ruby the jack Russell x – wasn’t at all friendly towards us – growled each time she saw us.

Every day Murray took us fishing, we caught leather jacket (trigger fish-nice eating), herring, rock cod and the biggest thrill was when Brenda caught a massive snapper that took her float and all her rig-in fact we thought we were going to loose her – she nearly fell off the cliff with all her excitement. Muz said it was a bigger spectacle than the ‘dingo event’ – some of you may not have seen this video clip – I think Brenda has deleted it…..

November the 5^th, we had own private fireworks display – another ripper of a thunderstorm hit us about 4pm- rolling in from the ocean – temperature dropped, thunder, lightning and then Muz and I had to be rescued – we were in the annex listening and watching – when all of a sudden we were floating – yes we nearly floated away- well not exactly but we did have a river crossing under us and under the truck.

We were very lucky as Ron the owner of the camp  had his empty water tank blown 500 metres and his front verandah flooded. Our awning and annex stood up to the severe wind and our CGear matting withstood the water. This matting is the best – it keeps the sand/grit out – has a double layer and is rather like shade cloth to look at and is soft to walk on. Very easy to keep clean and folds up flat and not bulky like the clip together foam squares.

The toilets here are just amazing – Ron makes them from limestone rocks cemented together, forming a circular pattern, like a maze-Muz and I sometimes play in here-Brenda doesn’t like this… and we sit on a bucket and when we have done our business we put a scoop of lime sand on top. Ron comes twice a day to empty the bucket. We use Dettol hand cleaner – and we eat from plastic plates-to save water-that way we can all have a shower every day and a tank will last us 4-5 days.

When we are not fishing or lizard spotting we help Brenda fossick on the beach – beautiful twisted, swirled shells abound the beach here. Some are so tiny that Muz and I are unable to pick them up and Brenda has to help. We have put our collection in our ‘treasure box’ – to show you when we return to COP.

Brenda has introduced yarn bombing to Cactus Beach. She has ‘dropped’ a piece at the A-frame-this is where bore water is available for clothes washing or a cold shower-not drinkable-smells like sulphur. Some of you may recognise the piece….

In the evenings we play a game of scrabble and Brenda knits – she is knitting Murray a sock, and we read or Muz and I listen to the wind and the rain or the frogs.

Fortunately while we have been at Cactus Beach the sun has shone every day charging our solar panels – only once has Murray run the genie – so all the electric devices eg computer, phones, shavers, camera, drill, toothbrush batteries could be recharged.

the wind has become too much to bear-the contstant flap flap.. thunderstorms and rough seas saw us move on - CEDUNA - here we come..

Where is Julia?

40 days and 40 nights is

 what  it felt like coming off the Nullaboor today. After 5 days stopping at dirty, smelly, rubbishery 24 hour stops – although we did stay 2 nites in one, we came over the hill and into civilization – well it felt like it – we saw manicured paddocks and a farm gate as we drove through Nundroo.

The Nullaboor Plain is aptly named – the treeless plain. There were a few caravans etc on the road-not as many as I would have expected. Each night there were on average 8 in the camping spot. We look for those blue ‘P’ signs and also use the camp 5 book which describes the camping spot to us. These camp spots are free-some have smelly toilets and dirty water which is free. Although rubbish bins are provided rubbish accumulates everywhere-how does toilet paper get up a tree?

We were treated to some severe storms at Balladonia – one minute you are having your evening red and snap-just like that the temp drops the wind changes and POW-the black clouds roll in, thunder and lightning all around, over the top of us then as it moves away to the east we are treated to a laser show – fork/sheet lightning hitting the ground.

Now we are at Penong – famous for the windmills – apparently a windmill for every resident. Tomorrow we head out to Cactus Beach for 1-2 weeks-no cell phone coverage. This beach is famous for a shark attack years ago and surfer’s haven. We are hoping for some fish/oysters….

Superman's friends....

Imagine cycling from Perth to Wagga Wagga on your road bike towing your trailer that holds your guitar, skateboard, tent, food etc. One day at Madura I met Rennie from France. He is cycling from Freo to Wagga Wagga to meet his friends. He let me play his guitar.

Another day Muz and I were sitting in the tree and along came Julia… she loves to hide…

And then there was the camel – who wasn’t very friendly and the little boy in the park who didn’t mind having his photo taken.

Housekeeping...

Brenda writes….

Many of you have asked about our rig etc so here are some facts….

We are driving, well Murray is driving most of the time – only because he has more experience in the wet windy weather – a Nissan Patrol 3 lit GU automatic diesel 4wd-known as the Truck. Inside at the rear Murray has built drawers – the top one houses his stuff and the bottom drawer is the pantry holding all the food repeats – when we take food from the pantry we record it-ready for our next big shop.

Also we have a 40 litre waeco fridge/freezer that runs off the truck battery. We have 2 truck batteries – with a switch that allows us to run either the fridge or the truck or both. As we drive the switch is turned to both. The waeco also runs off 240 volt. Generally we are able to keep this charged at -14deg. Also we run 2 solar panels that gives us 800 watts each. These can be used to charge the truck battery and also directly to the van battery.

The truck fuel tank and sub tank hold a total of 120 litres.  We also carry 20lit spare diesel on the back of the van. The cost of fuel on the Nullaboor has been exhorbiant – averaging $1.89 lit, sometimes over $2 lit – with the easterly wind blowing and travelling around 87-95 kms-just to keep the revs under 2500 = we are chewing through the gas!!

We are towing a Goldstream Explorer Off Road Pop Top – 14.6ft-lovingly known as the ‘ensuite on wheels’-it was the smallest pop top that we could find that had a shower/toilet, also a double bed made up all the time. Superman and Muz sleep on the small drop down/dinette table which converts to a single bed.

Inside we have a 3way, (gas, power, 240volt), 40 litre fridge with small icebox. For cooking there are 3 burner gas elements and a fan above that runs off the van battery. We also have a microwave which we can use when the genie or we have 240volt power.

When there is no sun to charge we will run the genie. This is a 2.4volt Kipor – which will run the aircon/reverse cycle heating that we have inside the van.

There is plenty of storage in the van, under the bed we have 2 large plastic bins which hold our linen, wet weather gear, wine, art stuff, ukeles. My knitting/jigsaws and extra food is kept here. Food we use is kept under the dining seat in bins. Our clothes live in a narrow deep cupboard-about 800x300x400-divided in half.

On board the ensuite on wheels we carry 3 x55lit water tanks-these have separate fills and gauges inside the van.

We also have a hot water cylinder that holds 14 litres of water that is heated via gas.

We carry 3 x 9kg gas bottles.

Drinking water – this is water that we know the source of – is carried in the truck in 2x 10 lit and 1 x20lit containers with taps.

Cooking – this takes up a large part of our day and is entirely flexible. We don’t eat much meat now so we don’t need to concern ourselves with remembering to take meat from the freezer.

We have an eco pot – like a dream pot/shuttle cooker. This is just like a huge thermos that fits a billy tin – or inner pot. You cook the meal in the inner pot – get it boiling then drop into the thermos shut the lid and leave for 4-8 hours, by the time you get to your destination you have a scrummy cooked meal waiting for you. There is also a smaller pot that sits on top on the bigger pot and in this you can cook rice, pudding, potatoes etc. Apart from starting the meal off on the stove top, no further fuel is needed.

I cook corn silverside, casseroles, curries, chicken, lentil soup. We also make our yoghurt by using our easyio jar and putting 1inch of boiling water into the thermos, putting in the jar and 10hrs later we have yoghurt. The pots also become our cooking pots for other foods.

We have a camp oven – which is a heavy cast iron pot with lid that we cook roasts, bread, same food as above, but we need a fire for the fuel.

Another method is using the Kamp Kooker. Take a large colander, place in the bottom a smaller container – in here place the green fuel(compressed coconut husks), poke 4 roads through the colander holes to make the oven rack, then put the camp oven on top. To create more heat, put a wok – upside down on top and hey presto you have your own kamp kooker. This is an ideal way to cook in a closed fire season – as you can keep your fuel contained. We have made cakes and puddings this way and of course all food that would normally go into the camp oven. Also you can grill fish by putting a trivet on top of the steel rods.

And another method is Murray’s fire on the side of the road……

Entertainment… we read – how those paperback exchanges are worth their weight in gold- camping grounds are a cheap source 1/1 and a gold coin donation to the flying drs, play scrabble/ crib, cards, listen to music/radio on our cd/mp3player/radio, upwords, crosswords, knit, smoke cigars, talk to the boys, potter, write, talk, text, email, fishing, walking, exploring, and try to be a tourist.

yarn bombing

Superman writes.....

I have a new friend – Muz – he is Murray’s friend too and he is a gorilla who came from Bali. Murray calls us ‘his boys’ and he takes us out and sits us down to watch him make the fire to cook the bread. One morning we spent all day with Murray – we watched him gather the firewood, chop it with his new axe, light the fire, knead the bread – we had to wait very patiently – in fact we fell asleep waiting. Murray had a cigar while he waited for the bread to rise, then he banged it on the table and finally he put the bread into a cast iron pot with a lid called a camp oven.

By this time the fire had died down and was a grey/white colour. Murray spread these ashes out and put the oven on top and placed some ashes on the lid of the oven. Brenda put some potatoes and kumura in the ashes. After 40 minutes Murray took the camp oven off and WOW we had golden brown bread and charcoaled potatoes and kumura to eat. YUMMY!

Muz and I were very lucky – we were allowed to climb the Gloucester Tree. This tree is 58 metres tall and was used as a ‘fire lookout’ up to the 1970’s. There are spikes nailed into the tree in a spiral and at the top is a cabin. We all tried to get to the top…..

I have been too busy to read…..

Malo 'e' lei lei

I am practising my languages for the trip as you never know who you might run into.......
Lying on the back seat and waiting and waiting to go.. spent yesterday sunbathing on the gas bottles-36deg!
have my yellow BB bag all packed with my book...... and fishing gear.....
Julia has found a niche inside Brenda's door - sharing the space with the 'minties'
Muz has comandeered the best seat - in the 'ensuite on wheels' -sitting at the table
Murray is having his last cooking lesson with Dorothy
I am not sure where Brenda is - she went to work but hasn't returned.....
Kia Ora!
Superman

'Where's the fruit and vegie stall?'

So many people are asking where will be our first stop - Murray says "we will stop when we find the fruit and vegie stall" - I don't know where that is......
I had a good party at the library yesterday - 13th - lots of children and mums came and some dads too - we sang my favourite songs 'head shoulders knees and toes' - and at long last I was able to remember where my mouth, eyes and nose were! Two face painters came and Brenda had her face painted with 2 BB butterflies. The girls also made balloon ladybird bracelets.
Some mums cannot speak english but they gave me big cuddles and tried to say how much fun and knowledge they have gained coming to storytime.
I introduced Merilyn who will be looking after storytime for me while I am away.
In the afternoon I went with Brenda and her friends to Council House for afternoon tea with Mr Edwards and Mr Dunn. We had tiny cakes to eat. I was very good and sat still and didn't say a word.
Bye
Superman

photo of superman and brenda

EXCITMENT IS BUILDING...

Superman had a busy weekend-his last saturday working then out to yum cha with friends on Sunday, and busy packing the pop top with his friends....

18th October - we leave

Hi Fans....
I am still at the library but not long to go. My party is on Thursday - storytime-my last for 18 months. Brenda has organised 2 facepainters to come and 'paint' the staff and then me and the children can have a go. Everyone says I should have a 'smile', cause I do look a bit grumpy-but I am sure that will change once I get out into the outback.
We will be singing my favourite songs; hokey pokey and head shoulders, knees, and toes. I have asked Brenda to read my favourite book - the mouse and the strawberry.
I am sooooooooooooooooooooo excited-not long to go.............
c u lata.
superman