We set off from Bedford Weir intending to camp at Sapphire and we arrived there early afternoon after shopping in Emerald. This is a great place if you are interested in gem stones, fossicking and inspecting mines. There is a good free camp with toilets and running water opposite to a General Store but we didn't want to stay so we had lunch and set off to our next destination some 130kms away Bundoora Dam.

This place is excellent with flushing toilets and plenty of good camping spots available, In the top area near the toilets the ground is hard and there are plenty of trees to stop the solar so I decided to camp down near the lake where there is plenty of grass and level sites. The water here is cleaner than Waruma Dam with sand as opposed to mud at the waters edge. The best news is that not only is there Telstra internet but I have signal on the Optus phone.

Rod, Nitaya and myself are here all camped around the dam, I took the camera for a walk round to and across the dam wall. There are signs and self registration papers about restricting it to 4 days and 7 days before readmittance but have been told that comes into effect next year. If they enforce it next year it would prevent us using the dam as a GN venue as we have Greens and Wuruma, this is in my opinion better than either. John

Looks a great place.  This just makes me want to be out and travelling now.  I am sure my time will come quick enough.  Enjoy your beautiful spot.

Thanks I will try and enjoy my slide into this way of live, but after a day like today at work - I could easily throw in the towel and leave NOW!!!!!

Been a pleasant week here at Bundoora Dam with little of note to report. I did post about our State of Origin get together last Wednesday night in another thread on the General Forum.

We have a new camper Roy (Highwayman) has arrived from Emerald, he was going to stop in Emerald for tonight's dance at the Town Hall, a regular twinkle toes is our Roy and well known in line dancing circles. We asked for a demonstration but he was a little shy.

Nitaya is moving on tomorrow to travel south for medical reasons and has to be back in Brisbane, we will miss her.

We are still hoping that Paul (my van) has his operation and gets well enough to catch up at Lake Elphinstone in a couple of weeks.

That's about all except to say that John (Cruising Cruse) has sent me a copy of Mrs Browns Boys Tour of Australia and I have been annoying the neighbors by laughing too loud too late at night. Shades of Greens Lake in 2012.

I have been cooking much more lately, plenty of time in the afternoons and this lunchtime made myself a perfectly cooked and turned omelette.      John

Hi John.  Visited Paul on Friday, and lo and behold, he hasn't had the procedure yet.  Apparently Thursdays' appointment was for Pre-admission interwiew only.  Now he has to wait for a date from the hospital.

No doubt he'll let you know when he does.

Cheers,

Sheba.

Hi Gayle, Paul rang me last night and said his operation is now due on the 17th June.

Saturday and Roy left this morning heading for Dingo, Duarango and Baralaba so where he surfaces is anyone's guess. Rod had decided to leave here after the long weekend on Tuesday heading south so that will leave me on my own but not for long, bowlerbear (Chris) is expected on Wednesday afternoon after camping at Atkinson's Dam for the long weekend and she will drive here over a couple of days.

The idea is that we will travel further north and we expect to be joined at Lake Elphinstone by Paul after his melanoma operation. All very interesting and Dennise from Tasmania and Gympie sent me an email asking where I was camping now that she has been able to release her joeys and can travel in her coaster. It will be great if she joins us too as I said all very interesting.

So it looks like I will be here until Friday next making it almost 3 weeks here at Bundoora Dam, I wasn't expecting to be here so long and have rationed myself with the UHT milk, no more cereals. Running out of bread and no wraps so I baked damper yesterday in the camp oven, sliced it and put it into the freezer. Lots of other food no risk of starving and cooking every day something out of the freezer, have already had a blitz on tinned and packet food so the cupboard is looking bare.

As I have often said mine is a great and varied life, there are not many at my age 77 who think the best is yet to come but there always is something exciting and interesting ahead.

John

Hi Doug

ill take up bread and milk to keep john going and I've got a pretty good stock of food in the pantry so I don't think either of us will starve.. If we had to rely on fish I'd go hungry for sure and by the sounds of it John and I have very limited skills in that area but at least he has a fishing rod which is more than I have got. Looking forward to catching up at Townsville. 

Chris

Thursday morning and Chris arrived yesterday and set up next to me where Nitaya had been, she is a very capable lady and easy to talk to so I expect our travels to go smoothly. I started off on the right foot by cooking (heating up) quiche and party sausage rolls in the camp oven followed by banana jaffles. Rod came over and we talked till late, he didn't set off on Tuesday  as he had planned.

The lack of sun caused me to use the 1KVA generator and 16 amp battery charger for the first time on the 300AH battery combination, 3 hours later and they settled down at 12.5 volts up from 12.1 and I was disappointed to say the least. I have ordered a 40 amp battery charger and a 2.6KVA Kipor generator to remedy the situation both to be delivered at future destinations.

So off tomorrow and today will be spent making sure that everything gets stowed away, the shower tent and the Coleman hot water service has already been packed away after yesterday's shower. The choofer has had it's last usage here at Bundoora so the rear box can be packed and so on.   John