2021....

[Moneybox]

Those Wreath flowers look interesting, is there a particular place that is good to see them? I have been along that road and the main thing that I saw ear Yalgoo was a very thick dust storm.

Rob P.

Yes Rob, we ran into a very serious dust storm when we were passing through some time back. It was worth the experience but I'm not sure I want to repeat it. To find the wreath flowers head to Pindar and into town, turn by the old buildings on the eastern side and head north on the dirt road for perhaps 4 or 5km but you can't miss the rows of caravans. There's a good campsite just north of the flowers, within walking distance. They are on a divided section of road with more flowers on the eastern branch.

 

[Moneybox]

Wednesday 8th September

We eventually got away this afternoon after spending the morning gardening. Mrs M put some new plants up the side of the driveway and they need irrigation. We needed pliers so instead of going to the shed I just reached back and opened the tailgate and dragged the toolbox out from the boot of the bus.

I emptied a 20L jerry can of Kero and placed it by the door of the bus. We might need the extra outboard fuel up there. I got distracted to help Sandra carry a heavy box of frozen food to the bus.

We ducked around grabbing the last few things and drove off down to get fuel at 2:45pm.

My mind was wandering as we scooted up the highway in the slipstream of a road train. I suddenly remembered the Jerry can. I said to Sandra Did I put that Jerry can in? What Jerry can? The one by the bus door. I dont know . Did you get the rest of the food from the freezer? No, what food? That was only half of it. Are we going back? No, did I close the tailgate? Oh no, not again!

So we slipped out of the slipstream and pulled over. We were only 27km up the road so the toolbox was still sitting there with the lid open. No harm done, at least I dont think so. We just got up from an hours snooze for dinner at Gascoyne South Branch rest area 100km south of Kumarina roadhouse.

If you approach from behind and see this perhaps I forgot to close the trailer.

 

[Goldchaser1]

The trip out Yalgoo way was a hurried one.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3960/1631108212_wreth_flowers.jpg

We never do enough sight seeing close to home and these wreath flowers are found only around here and nowhere else on the planet and they only flower for a short period of time each year.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3960/1631108316_wreth_flowers2.jpg

At this time of the year, spring, the wild flowers are everywhere.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3960/1631108383_flowers.jpg

Mrs M decided it was time to go and see them for once and with a couple of days to spare off we went.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3960/1631108476_flowers2.jpg

I enjoy travel and looking at the flowers but my real reason for going was to give the bus a run on the new diffs before heading north to the NT.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3960/1631108576_fitting_shadecloth.jpg

We had to get some work done about the house as well. We spent a couple of days, well a few hours at least, covering the garden so that it doesn't fry in the summer heat while we're away.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3960/1631108700_relics.jpg

Mrs M is sure to come home with a few relics too so she spent some time hanging some of her previous finds

Just noticed this thread mb,a good read,hope the change of ratios help but ah ya going to NT for summer? Have you lost your mind? :lol:

 

[PabloP]

Those Wreath flowers look interesting, is there a particular place that is good to see them? I have been along that road and the main thing that I saw ear Yalgoo was a very thick dust storm.

Rob P.

Yes Rob, we ran into a very serious dust storm when we were passing through some time back. It was worth the experience but I'm not sure I want to repeat it. To find the wreath flowers head to Pindar and into town, turn by the old buildings on the eastern side and head north on the dirt road for perhaps 4 or 5km but you can't miss the rows of caravans. There's a good campsite just north of the flowers, within walking distance. They are on a divided section of road with more flowers on the eastern branch.

Thanks MB, next time up that way at this time of the year I will have to take a decko.

Rob P.

 

[Moneybox]

Just noticed this thread mb,a good read,hope the change of ratios help but ah ya going to NT for summer? Have you lost your mind? :lol:

We didn't choose the date. My son Nic decided to celebrate his 40th at Wiligi Outstation campground, Arnhem Land on Oct 1st. What choice did I have :lol:

 

[Mackka]

Safe Travels folks.
Mackka

 

[Moneybox]

We might have had a bit of a bumpy start to the trip through just feeling lethargic and struggling to pack properly but we soon settled into enjoying the travel north with the plan of seeking warmer weather. Mrs M had been stuck in Cue for most of the winter and she needed to break away from the wind and rain.

We'd normally drop into Newman to do some shopping as it's only 540km and has our nearest supermarket. I'd recently returned home and did some shopping on the way so that wasn't necessary. Instead of stopping there we continued on until we spotted the first interesting looking spot.

Weeli Wolli has running water too, something we don't see much of throughout the year.

This might not look too impressive for some of you guys living in the east but for us desert dwellers it was an eye opener.

We took the wrong road in and had to endure about 40km of rough track. There was no camping allowed so the trip in and out each day was a bit tiresome (well it would have been if we'd noticed that 'no camping' sign on the way in ).

Those big mining companies who leave a scarred mess of the landscape are in my opinion environmental vandals but on this occasion they actually put a little back. Much of the water flow here is maintained by ground water pumped from a nearby deep open-cut mine. We'd planned an overnight stay but it got extended by a couple more. A couple of mine workers gave us a bit of guidance on finding the bitumen road out

 

[Sandta]

Crystal clear .. just glorious erfect:

 

[Moneybox]

After our soak in the water the bitumen road access brought us back to the highway a bit further NW so we backtracked to some little known Aboriginal rock carvings.

Once again the road in was a bit rugged but we slipped the quads out and it made the travel fun.

Some of these well eroded engravings are obviously very old but some you have to wonder about

A little further upstream we visited a crystal clear deep waterhole but access was too difficult. No problem for Mrs M, she just started collecting pretty rocks with just 6500km to go :argh:

 

[nicko61]

is there two moneybox;s?

 

[Mackka]

Yes, Mr and Mrs.
Mackka

 

[Moneybox]

I just came to the realisation that 2021 was nearly done. I've not been on the site for a while because life has just been too hectic but I'll post a few notes in the coming days just to tidy up the end of the year.

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/zjVXk63wOmQ[/video]

 

[Jaros]

What a beauty!!

 

[Moneybox]

This is from one of our trips north earlier in the year. It's a bit long winded but it's that time of the year to be sitting about playing a bit of YouTube.

[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/jlefB5L33hc[/video]

 

[Mackka]

Well Done Mrs. Moneybox a beautiful, gobsmacking piece.
Mackka
PS
Welcome back to both of you, i missed ya.

 

[Glenn01]

You beauty!! erfect: Nice work :goldnugget:

 

[silver]

Who'd a thunk it...... nice score Mrs M :goldnugget:

 

[Nightjar]

We missed you Mr & Mrs Moneybox. Happy New Year :beer:

 

[Jaros]

Same here we've missed you both--hope you won some good gold....and rocks.
Happy new year. :flowers:

 

[Moneybox]

We left at a bad time, heading to NT for October/November is not one of our smartest moves. We've just started to learn how to grow vegetables out here and then we too off.

We harvested what we could because we had the first couple of weeks in WA. These cabbages were waiting for us when we got home after two months away. We must be doing something right

One of the highlights of the trip was catching up DaveNT and Glenn01 in Darwin. These guys put in 100% effort in weather conditions that we can't handle. It's not so much the high temperature but the ridiculous humidity. We had intended to do quite a bit of detecting while there and Dave and Glenn were more than happy to point us in the right direction but a couple of hours early in the morning or late in the evening was all we could take.

I'll eventually get to post a video including some of these nuggets but I know if I just talk about them nobody will believe me so here's the photo. This is the total of our NT gold, I think we got it all anyway :lol:

The thing we most wanted to do was duck in for a swim. The water was beautiful and plentiful but the predators were too plentiful. There are big signs everywhere warning of the crocodile danger and then there are the stingers if you choose the ocean.

We chose our spots carefully and took to the water anyway. We didn't do much fishing but we swam with those beautiful tropical fish in their natural environment. I'll eventually get a few bits of movie together on that too.

The water temperature is good enough to spend hours enjoying it but you must choose you swimming hole carefully. Some of the fish were table size and so used to people that they barely moved out of the way when you come paddling through.

Perhaps we'll get to visit the NT at a better time of the year but Mrs M reckons she's never going back 8.(