14th weddding anniversary

It’s our 14th wedding anniversary today (Tuesday 20th). We were going to go out for dinner tonight in Augusta, but a $406 repair bill for our boat motor’s bent shaft put a stop to that idea! The shaft was nearly $300 and the labour very little-it just totalled more than we expected. Amazing to think we spent our 13th wedding anniversary in Streaky Bay and were only a month on the road. Today is the end of our 13th/start of our 14th month away.

Russ went off fishing this morning, leaving me at home to tidy the van and do a bit of laundry. I don't do it often so quite enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed being almost the only person in the park for a few hours. He came home with nothing, but we went out again this afternoon and he caught a big bream. I lost a monster crab out of my net and caught a small bream-not a very exciting days fishing. Now we are about to have a couple of anniversary drinks with Ron and Irene next door. Ron is the West Aussie who thinks I am pretty nice "for a Victorian"! They leave tomorrow but will be in Coral Bay when we are there in June, so we will catch up with them again.

Yesterday after we picked the motor up, we went and did a bit of fishing and crabbing. We caught 3 just under-sized bream, so threw them back, and managed to catch 3 monster crabs. There was enough meat in them to freeze half and keep half out for our anniversary dinner tonight. We’ll be having Thai crab and prawn cakes (our favourite way to eat crab).

The park was quite full when we arrived back. There was a huge and extremely noisy group camped near us who fortunately left on Sunday. The mothers sat and drank, the fathers boated and drank and the kids ran wild. At one stage the 4 husbands were out front the park here yelling and carrying on, doing circles in the river until the boat nearly capsized. I almost went and helped them all pack up to leave. Now the park is empty. There are 3 vans, one tent and one couple in the cabins-it’s so peaceful. Last night Russ and I lit a fire and sat out til about 10. We had every person including the new manager stop by for a chat, so it was very pleasant.

The biggest drawback in the park now is the birds-they are quite used to being fed by a number of people. Now those numbers are down, we are inundated by ducks, 28 parrots, magpies and seagulls, all looking for a handout!

I got a message from last night from my son Daniel who had made it as far as Port Pirie on his way to Perth. I’m keen to see him as he’s the only one of the 5 boys we haven’t seen yet since we left.