Anzac Day

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DAY 169

Before we start today’s blog, this is not just a special day for Australia but it is one year ago today that our visas were officially granted. A day we had waited for so long.

I awoke to those immortal words “Andy, can I borrow your axe or is it under Caroline’s Pillow?” Great Ken was going to stoke the fire up what a lovely way to start the day.

Andy was already up and the kettle was on for our first brew of the day, I could hear the rest of the Truman family padding around outside, it was not long before I joined them.

We sat around the campfire drinking tea and chatting, the sun was well and truly on its way up, there is talk of breakfast and Kahlia suddenly announces that she wanted to make Damper. A few minutes later Kahlia reappeared with a mixing bowl, wooden spoon some flour and some water.

An amount of flour is added to the bowl, a pinch of salt (well I think a little more than a pinch) and then just add some water and mix until you have a dough.

I forgot to mention that Kahlia also decided that she would put some chocolate chips in the Damper, great chocolate for breakfast, so before adding the water in go the chocolate chips.

Jodie and Kahlia then broke the dough into 6 pieces and rolling them into balls that could easily be cooked on the grate above the fire that we have going. We put some foil and sprayed it with some cooking oil just so that they would not stick.

Ken did his bit by managing the cooking and turning them over when needed as he was already cooking the eggs, ham and spam for breakfast, a short while later we were eating our delicious breakfast.

I concluded that as long as we have flour and water on board then Andy and I should not go hungry, it is so easy to make damper and now we have had our first lesson courtesy of the Truman’s we are further initiated into the Aussie Camping Ethic.

You can have a number of variations on Damper, sweet or savoury, perhaps we should come up with 101 ways to have Damper. What I am really impressed with though is how easy it is to cook over the fire.

Josh was helping with the fire by chopping some wood and replenishing the fire when needed, however the head of the axe parted company with the nylon handle that we knew would happen at some point as it had already started to give. The head of the axe was embedded in a piece of log and there was no way of getting it out until Ken said get the hammer and use the head of the axe like a wedge and bash it further into the log in the hope that it would split and free the head of the axe. Success, this trick worked!

The Trumans have a tall Billy Can that they hang on the hook, enabling the water to be boiled while we eat, we can then either have another cup of tea or do the washing up.

While we were preparing breakfast, Andy was beetling around in the background with some rope, two tarps and a couple of poles. Shortly after breakfast another pail of water has been hung on the fire to heat up, then it becomes clear what Andy is up to, he has rigged up our little canvas shower unit to hang from a tree branch, a little area with tarps has been set up so that once the water is heated we can pour it into the canvas bag and then we can have a shower.

Andy is first in, we can hear his sighs of delight at being able to have a shower, nothing like getting back to nature is there?

My turn next but despite the tarps being rigged up, to avoid any blushes I put a bikini on and stepped into the shower. Getting wet first, then soaping up and then rinsing off. Because I put conditioner on my hair I had an extra rinse off.

I have to say that was one of the best showers I have ever had, out in the open, the water was plenty hot enough and in the sunshine, oh yes and nice to be clean.

The Trumans were busy catching up on writing their blog as they had not done so for a several days.

It is Anzac day today, it is a long weekend and there are a number of campers around. Anzac day is well celebrated in Australia and because it falls on a Saturday this Monday is a bank holiday. Young people are encouraged to get involved in this memorial day so that they understand the sacrifice that people made so that they can have the life that they live today and the sacrifice of their lives at a very young age.

We drive into Bunbury to hopefully see the Dolphins, at the Dolphin Discovery Centre, however when we go in, we find that the best time to see the Dolphins are between 8 and 11 in the mornings which the tourist information people had not elaborated on. We have a look around the displays and the pictures of the dolphins that frequent this particular coastline, of course they are easily recognised by the scars that they hold on their bodies and dorsal fins because of shark attacks, boat scarring, and human intervention.

We go outside to find a volunteer she is scanning the coastline for Dolphins, she says they are feeding and will not come in until they have finished, we may be lucky to see one this afternoon, and we may not. Eventually one appears on the horizon jumping out of the water and enjoying the day, however this dolphin did not come any closer to shore, so we were disappointed. Another day, another place?

Because it is Anzac Day a lot of the shops are closed, we were hoping to go to Woolworths to get some groceries to cook up a big curry tonight as the Trumans have been so generous with what they have shared with us, we wanted to give them something back.

About the only shop that is open is Bunnings so we pop in and just like boys on an important mission Andy and Ken found the axes, you would think it was easy buying an axe but oh no, Ken and Andy were picking up every single one and then discussion ensued about the fundamentals of each one, how it was made, the material, would it last, would the head stay on etc. until finally a ¾ length axe with a wooden handle was chosen to be the best option. One each in hand off we trot to pay for our goodies.

We decided at Kens suggestion that we should get a chicken from Red Rooster so that we could use that to make the curry, Red Rooster are a fast food outlet but they sell whole roasted chickens, we bought two to make sure that there was enough for 6 healthy appetites.

While the Trumans took advantage of Maccy D’s free wifi to update their blog and Skype friends we came back to camp to set up for the evening get the fire going and put a brew on.

I asked Kahlia to show me how to make the Damper so we could have this with our curry instead of Naan bread. Kahlia brought out her mixing bowl and we whipped up a Damper. Andy was already on with the curry, combining resources to make a decent curry adding the cashews that the Truman’s had.

By now it was dark, the evenings have pulled in here and it is still early it seems strange to be cooking like this in the dark yet so early.

The moths keep flying into the dinner while Andy is cooking, he does his best to get them out, but you never know if anyone may slip through the net, but that is probably added protein.

We sit around the picnic table and eat, Jodie and I have a Bourbon and Pepsi, this washes the curry down very well, I am pleased with my Damper efforts that also goes well with the curry (Plain damper that is not with chocolate chip or anything).

Kahlia has also made a marshmallow cake for dessert which has been busy cooking over the fire while we ate the curry. When it is ready we add Golden syrup and Cream (oh yes some had custard, apparently Ken has a thing about custard!).

More wood goes on the fire, this time Andy spotted a tiny Scorpion but it was too late to rescue it, the scorpion was suddenly cremated. We have not seen any around here but we are told they hide in the wood; this is not sensible when we of course throw the wood on the fire.

It is a clear night, we lie back in our chairs and gaze at the stars above, they are stunning, we try to spot satellites but for some strange reason none of us see one. We listen to some favourite easy listening tunes, the evening is quite magical and one to be enjoyed and remembered.

Jodie spots a shooting star, there have been a few tonight, but I sadly keep missing them, better luck tomorrow night.

In the darkness when you shine your torch light to the ground you can sometimes see tiny diamonds of light reflecting back, we find these to be spiders, Josh tells us that they are Wolf Spiders.

The possum has not made an appearance tonight, no doubt bothering someone else; we are in bed by 10.00.

Andy and I both feel that this has been a great camping experience tonight we have learnt some new techniques from the Truman’s which in the art of survival is a good thing. We will take these techniques and hopefully embrace them into our camping experience to make our journey easier and if we should happen across some other new travellers on this journey we can pass our new found skills along.

Just Magical!

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Photos

Kahlia Truman
Kahlia makes the damper

Mum Truman
Jodies tries to fit it on a stick but we ended up having to make paties

Damper
Cooking

Ken
Spectating this monumentous event

Ranger Smith
Collects our camping fee's

Breakast Al fresco
Our breakfast on an open Fire

Our Shower
Its a bag with a sprinkler hose on, but it was so good

Having a shower
In our makeshift shower cubicle

Kahlia & Jodie
The female side of the Truman's