We slept in, had a late breakfast, and broke camp.
We went to town to fill the generator fuel tank which had taken a bit of a beating because of my mistake with the fridge on Friday.
We went back to camp at Pip and Mell's place to wait for the mail to be delivered from Barraba. The Woods joined us so we had a bigger happy hour.
At happy hour, Mell produced her dowsing rods and had everyone use them to see if they "had it". I didn't participate because the "test" was unable to prove or disprove anything. If you got the expected results, that "proved" that dowsing works. If you didn't, it "proved" that you weren't able to operate the rods properly. It was "determined" by those that "had it", that there were two streams of water running under the property. When I got out my shovel to allow "proof" of the presence of water where it had been "found", I was pooh-poohed as a skeptic. I did sit and hold the rods to find out what kind of movement of the hands was necessary to make to rods move. The movement is so small as to be virtually undetectable by either the operator or by another observer.
We talked about how the rods work. One theory is that the rods sense the water and move by themselves. When I commented that it shouldn't need someone who "has it" for the rods to work, it was agreed that another theory was necessary. I never did find out what mechanism was in action but it is something about the person "feels" the presence of the material being searched for, in this case water, and the person conveys this to the rods.
I also found that it is said that a dowser can search for any particular material by carrying samples of any material that is to be excluded from the search. If you want to find gold, you carry water, silver, aluminium and so on. When I asked how you could tell if the material you found was the one you were searching for or another material that you weren't carrying, Mell said she hadn't got that far in her studies of dowsing.
Jean and I went to Maryborough to try and buy a small inverter to run the new printer so that we don't have to have the big inverter on all the time consuming a significant amount of energy out of the batteries. We found the places that sell inverters but none of the models on offer suited my requirements. We had a very nice lunch in a coffee shop in the main street before going to the supermarket to buy supplies.
We got back to Logan on time for happy hour.The Woods had left to make progress on their way to Mt Gambier so we were four again.
We went into town to pick up the mail which had been sent on from Barraba. The contract for the sale of Twin Creeks was there so we signed it and sent it back to the solicitor in Noosa.
On the way back to Logan we followed an SES truck with its lights flashing almost all the way to Logan where there had been a motor vehicle accident with a station wagon speared into a tree. The police and the ambulance were already there when we arrived so we drove slowly past and reflected on the fact that it was not anyone we knew who was involved.
Pip and Mell went to Dunolly to pick up with Mell's "new" car, a Ford Laser from some years back, which she had bought to allow her to drive herself around when Pip goes into hospital to have his hip operation later in the year. She was a bit like a little girl with a new toy.
Another bright and clear day with the temperature at sun up below 10°C (50°F) but rising to over 30°C (86°F) during the afternoon.
Mell went off in the morning with Pip to register her new toy while we held the fort at Logan in case Dot and Syd, motorhoming friends who are passing through, arrived while they were away.
Pip and Mell were home in time for morning tea. Dot and Syd turned up before lunch with some friends in another motorhome. They didn't stay long as they wanted to go the St Arnaud for lunch and do the laundry.
Before they left the guy in the other motorhome accidentally opened his black water valve. They had dumped somewhere on the road on their way to Logan but there was some liquid in the tank which dropped on the ground outside the shed. Nothing was said.
As we sat chatting after they had left, someone smelled the stuff. Pip and I tried to suppress the smell with some dirt and a litre of bio-activator toilet additive while Mell got on the phone to tell Dot what had happened. There was much upset with Bob's wife, Roma saying that the people who had done such a thing wouldn't be welcome at Bob's camp. This embarrassed Dot who is Bob's cousin. The guy eventually admitted to Dot that he had done it but had been too embarrassed to say anything. Jean remarked that he might be in for a surprise at the rally if he comes to the Self-containment Scheme stand and sees me there.
In the afternoon I did a little work on the chapter flag pole in preparation for the rally.
We went on a long trip in the Little Motley to check out some local camp sites.
We stopped for lunch at the Royal Hotel in Wycheproof and drove up to the lookout which provides a view across a vast area of very flat farm land.
We visited three lakes during the trip, all of them dry. Most Australians think that the great drought has broken but around here they are in their twelfth year of continuous water restrictions. The land is very,very dry. The only vegetation which looks in any kind of condition is the native trees.
We got back to Logan in time for happy hour well bushed after a big day out.
We went into town to do the laundry and have some lunch. We had the car washed at Murdock House, an institution for disabled people. They started the car wash to provide some opportunities for the residents. The work is really first class. The Terios hasn't looked so clean since it was new.The service is so popular now that they have to make appointments and they do over a dozen cars a day, four days a week and have a thriving enterprise. They agreed to do our car because we were leaving town and we were most impressed with the service and the quality of the work.
We went into town to visit the monthly Saturday market. On the way we saw a motorhome parked in a gravel dump and we realised that they were friends from way back so we stopped for a chat.
We drove into town and took in the market.
We went to the Harness Racing Club for lunch with Pip and Mell to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Mell had composed a poem to put on her Anniversary Wishes card.
Topsy you're lucky to have a wife like Jean
She's the best kinda pom that we've ever seen
You know we're not lyin', it's our belief
That all poms are catholic with sticky out teeth!
And Jean I imagine your life has been hectic
Living with Australia's most adamant sceptic
So all in all, you've both done well
Happy Anniversary love Pip'n'Mell.
We went back to Logan to prepare for the next leg of the journey to Mt Gambier.