WEDNESDAY 30TH – ANDY'S BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday Andy.

Well, as threatened, today we built a bridge Well, not quite, but we made remarkable progress towards the finished product.

The bridge is over a creek giving wet weather access to the house. It will mean that Mal and Paula will be able to get access to the house when floods occur at a somewhat higher height than they can currently get.

 

This is what we started with.

 

Bernie demonstrated his welding skill.

 

 

I demonstrated my lack of welding skill, but I did have a go.

 

 

This is what we achieved by the end of the day. Tomorrow, we expect to complete the structural components leaving Mal to complete the decking, railings etc. at his leisure.

 

 

Our road building and bridge building skills are considerably enhanced.

 

 

TUESDAY 29TH SEPTEMBER – THE DAY BEFORE ANDY'S BIRTHDAY

 

Happy Birthday Andy for tomorrow.

The photo above is of the "museum" here on the property. It is actually historic items of equipment going back to the Cobb and Co days that Mal and Paula excavated when they started exploring a former dump on the property.

 

We were going to build a bridge today but we got distracted. Instead we did a tour of the property and visited the workers. David was cutting scrub for his stock to eat. The stock are attracted to the sound of the chainsaw because they know that it means food. David leases Mal and Paula's property on which to run his cattle.

 

 

 

We also met Alan, a neighbour who is temporarily running some cattle on the property. He uses a piece of equipment slightly larger than a chainsaw to cut scrub for his cattle.

 

 

This afternoon, we were introduced to the crawler, a small bulldozer which is used for clearing roads and knocking over scrub – great fun. You steer with your feet and operate the clutch, throttle and hydraulics with your hands. We didn't do too much damage.

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we will be helping Mal build the bridge. We looked at it today. It is a serious structure. I don't see how we will be able to add any expertise to the process but we will see.

MONDAY 28TH SEPTEMBER

A very productive day today in that we built a road.

A bit of discussion and planning was necessary but, once that was done, we got stuck into it. The first part of the project was to mark waypoints on a GPS to identify each end of the road. We then walked through the bush along the bearing provided by the GPS marking trees with pink tape as we went.

 

The next step was to use the John Deere tractor to push a track through the scrub and clear the larger vegetation.

 

 

That left only the grading which was completed by a couple of experts in a most efficient manner.

 

 

 

Tomorrow I am told we will be constructing a bridge. Mal is taking advantage of the expertise Bernie and I can provide on these matters to get the jobs done while we are here.

SUNDAY 27TH – CLAVERTON PARK

Another day on the road to arrive at our second destination (Toowoomba being our first) Claverton Park where we are now enjoying an evening drink with Mal and Paula at our favourite campsite. The good news is that we have mobile phone signal so there will be no trouble maintaining the blog.

 

 

This morning was a perfect still morning at Mitchell as the photo above shows.

The activities for the week include building a bridge and learning to drive the grader – should be fun.

 

We expect to be here until Friday when we start heading north.

 

 

SATURDAY 26TH - ON THE ROAD

The blog is back, this time to record our great adventure heading to Darwin for our West Papua cruise.

We left home yesterday afternoon and, with Bernie and Colleen, spent a most enjoyable evening with Hugh and Marie in Toowoomba last night.

Today was a leisurely drive to The Weir at Mitchell where we are now camped. Tomorrow we head for Claverton Park, 100kms south of Charleville, to spend a few days with Mal and Paula before heading north for Darwin.

Unless I can borrow the house computer, we may not have internet connection for the next few days. If you hear nothing for a few days, that will be the reason.