A Long Time between Posts

Busy Busy Busy

It has been a long time between posts I know, so I will do there update a little different to cover this period. We have been having a wonderful time with our many friends at Nambung Station and Cervantes. Our primary aim has been to prepare Nambung Station for the Nambung Country Music Muster. This included assisting with farm work so Brian (the owner) could also focus on the muster.

22 September 2016 – Arrival at Nambung Station to hit the work running.

24 September 2016 – Today as I ran a farm tour, Steve took to the air with John in the Foxbat. That evening to our wonderful surprise there was a BBQ put on to welcome us home. Ivan arrived with the BBQ on the back of a trailer, John took control of the BBQ and cooked up a storm. A great night was had by all.

26 September 2016 – As we also took over the farm tours we took the opportunity to take a walk through The Painted Desert. It was incredible how this place changes, but also stays the same.

28 September 2016 trip to Moora to drop off the John Deere Gator for repair as it was leaking oil. We also combined the trip picking up farm supplies, a great pie and coffee and took in the beautiful wildflowers along the roadside.

1 October 2016 – Duyfken visit at Jurien Bay with Ivan. Today we were surprised by Ivan with tickets to the open ship Duyfken at Jurien Bay harbour. This is a full size reproduction of the Duyfken was built by the “Duyfken 1606 Replica Foundation” which is jointly with the Maritime Museum of Western Australia and was launched on 24 January 1999 in Fremantle. It is currently being displayed as part of the Dirk Hartog celebrations up and down the west coast.

5 October 2016 – John and I took to the sky for a Foxbat flight. I also have wanted to do a late evening, night walk into The Painted Desert.

6 October 2016 – Both Steve and I did a night shoot of The Painted Desert in stormy conditions. These tend to give the best photographs.

7 October 2016 – Fellow Amesz Truck owners Kath and Daryl arrived at Nambung to catch up. We took them on an evening Gator ride to a very special part of Nambung Station named the Frederick Smith Waterhole where we discovered wildflowers in carpets over the local area. Steve and Daryl settled into a bottle of fine port and Kath prepared an awesome meal.

8 October 2016 – Said goodbye to Kath and Daryl as we headed back to work again

10 October 2016 – Took Sonia on a surprise trip to Frederick Smith Waterhole to show her the wildflowers. To our surprise, some of the tastiest fish you could imagine arrived for us from Ivan. Mmmmm Dhu Fish

11 October 2016 – Cooked up Dhu Fish from Ivan and ate like royalty.

16 October 2016 – Big surprise this morning was a text from John letting me know he was arriving in 20 minutes to take me for a flight to photograph the Eneabba Camp Draft. On the way there we flew over Leisure National Park, Stockyard Gully, and Lake Indoon. On the way back we flew down the coast over the Green Head, Jurien Bay and Cervantes. Never to miss a chance and we also took in Nambung National Park.

17 October 2016 Rush trip to Perth. This was our first visit to a large populated area since leaving home. So it was time to catch up on some clothes shopping, buy some power tools for Steve from the Masters closing down sale, pick up some things for the Nambung Country Music Muster and briefly visit Marine and RV Windows, the manufacturer of 4WDAUS’s windows to investigate refurbishment. We arrived back at Nambung Late in the evening after a stop at Cataby for dinner. Sadly, we also hit a kangaroo, killing it, the first we have hit in all our years of driving. Fortunately, 4WDAUS is a tough truck and there was very little damage.

20 October 2016 – This was the first night we had some of the performers for the Nambung Country Music Muster on site. It was great just having them sit in the shearing shed making impromptu music. We took many more photos of the muster and they can be seen here. Nambung Country Music Muster

22 October 2016 – Steve and I did an aerial flight each over the muster to preserve the memory

25 October 2016 – During the muster we met and made friends with Fred and Bernie from Derby. We look forward to catching up again with them in Tamworth in January. That night to wind down we had a sing along in shed that night with Brian and Gloria to celebrate a very successful muster

26 October 2016 – Now how is this for spoilt, this morning 3 crayfish arrived by air for us to enjoy. These were the first crayfish caught for the season. Thank you both Ivan and John, you are both so generous and loved. The sunset today was a beautiful golden colour so we headed up the paddock to take some photos.

27 October 2016 – Thank you dinner at Cervantes Tavern with Brian and Gloria and the gang

28 and 30 October 2016 – We were again spoilt with a boat trip to take in the local seals and pull the cray pots. Sadly, there were now crays today, but the seals were so playful and fun. More photos can be found on the Travel Galleries page: Seal Hunt at Cervantes

5 November 2016 – Farewell Dinner at Brian and Gloria house, John, Ivan and Wilson also there. Plans to leave Sunday were put on hold as the shearers confirmed they would be at Nambung’s Station next week.

7 November 2016 Back to Nambung to round up the sheep for Shearing.

8 November 2016 Shearing commences. Met some great people in the shearing team. Kiwis dominate the team with one Australian. The 2 shearers were Joshua, Michael and a couple of the floor workers were Jo and Sadie.

9 November 2016 Goodbye Nambung Sorry to leave. Hello Perth (Daryl and Kath)

10 November 2016 Early start today as we head off to have 2 windows rebuilt by the guys at Marine and RV Windows. Over the 7 years the windows have been fitted, the rubber parts had begun to deteriorate. So as we like to take a preventative view on maintenance on 4WDAUS it was off to Freemantle where we sat and caught up on things.