Good morning to all you forum people. It is an overcast but warmish day in the mid/high 20s.
I decided to wash my bedding today because next week is supposed to have some showers, it dried pretty quickly even though it didn’t get on the line until nearly 10am.
Do you realise that it is only two months to the big C? I have no idea what I am going to do this year, in fact I am considering doing absolutely nothing and spending the day at home.
Spent a long time on the phone this morning talking to my daughter, I thought she was going to be down this evening but she won’t arrive until Sunday morning. I hope she remembers to bring her Cricut machine down. We mainly discussed our trip to the Oodnadatta track next year - I am wary of this trip I have tried to do it four times before and it has rained every time - one day of rain and it is impassable for a week or more.
Repotted some plants today too after my visit to Bunnings for potting mix yesterday. What an exciting life
Good morning - The Sun is shining but rather chilly out there at 10C. Not much to do today but I expect there will be visitors. I’ll have to go and get a few things from the local shop and just generally look after things. A relaxing day I hope.
Just come back from my walk on this pleasant sunny day today, although it had rained earlier.
Not sure of what’s happening yet, Mrs G hasn’t decided yet. Probably go shopping somewhere. I need to go somewhere to try something out on my camera, may even take a drive out to the New Forest to take some Autumn shots, if I get the chance.
We are off to New York in a couple of months and I need to start organising some stuff for it. Notably, we will be away for Mrs G’s birthday and have arranged some small - and expensive - surprises for her.
Anyways, I hear the distant call of a coffee, so I’ll wish everyone a great day.
The first photons are barely over the horizon, and I’ve decided to postpone a run until afternoon ow tha the heat an humidity have finally broken. The window warrior hasn’t even started his early-morning raids, so it’s quite peaceful. There is a full-on pink an blue sunrise, so it’s a fine one for just sitting back with a cup of chai.
This is catch up Saturday, and if I can get it all done, I might break out the easel and start a new painting. Other than that, I plan to help my neighbor with a little raking, work with my daughter reading some of her textbook reading, and wrestle the dogs into a shower, which appears from the outside as if I have let go of a full pressure fire hose that is flailing about and sending sprays of water everywhere.
That is quite a trek @Bruce. I imagine there is a fair amount of fretting when encountering those pools in the road. I’d say it looks like Mars, but that H2O gives it away!
All that spare land in the video. A gold mine for building companies to put houses and shops on. But no, all they can do is put up a road sign, how sloppy is that. Have they not heard of road sweepers either?
Funny thing, when the kids and I went to Uluru last time we stayed at Coober Pedy as they had not been before and wanted to stay in the underground motels. We all went along that road in the video but it had been paved at least as far as the dog fence.
On the filmed occasion I would have been happy to have made the dog fence but I think I only got within a few Ks of it. As you saw on the sign all the other roads in an out of Oodnadatta were closed and the road I was on was 4 wheel drive only which is why I turned back - if I had got bogged I could have been in trouble for ignoring the sign.
Thank you for the information on Coober Pedi, so fascinating that it sent me down yet another Australian rabbit hole. Once I got past the building that looks like a converted Star Wars jet on Wikipedia, the underground hotels, which I had only heard of in the Mediterranean, got me wondering why people would live in such a hostile environment. It seems that opals are the draw. Amazing! Nature has an incredible senes of humor with its contrasts.
No doubt your kids had a really great time. Did you do an opal mining excursion?
I’d be a master of three-point turns with those wadi-looking spots too.
Excellent. I am sure that mine trips was well worth it.
I spent a few minutes reading about your May travels. I had forgotten what a good travelogue website you have, Bruce.
Much of your travels compare to Route 66 in our desert southwest. Though it was much nicer back in the 60s and early 70s dotted with single-story motor lodges with enticing swimming pools out front and gas stations along the way that often sold pies and turquoise and silver jewelry excavated from local mines - but landscape remains the same. I imagine you must feel a tremendous sense of freedom having your teardrop in tow. How necessary is it to reserve campsites in advance?
Before covid it was rarely necessary except popular places like Broken Hill or Broome, immediately after covid everybody and his dog had a caravan and it was necessary during peak season, These days it is getting back to normal and you can just turn up.
Personally I prefer not to book but sometimes I might ring them in the morning to stay that night. In shoulder season like the last Uluru trip absolutely no need to book anywhere. My kids stayed at free camp places most of the trip except at Uluru and Kings Canyon.
I often stay at rest stops where you can stay for 24 hours, they may or may not have a toilet but for free what do you expect?
I stopped at one to make tea (it had a toilet) but in the video you can see a caravan that has stopped for an overnight stay (about 40 seconds in). BTW 24 hours is the normal stop but no one checks.
