KISA has just come through "the month from hell" at work, and is still not really out of the woods yet, but he was able to at least take last Friday, Monday and Tuesday off work. All he wanted to do was get as far away from mobile phone coverage as he could. So we went to the dam for four nights. I know I said last time we would try somewhere different, so you, dear reader, would not get bored, but this was an important trip as we had to
destress KISA. He is wound up like a spring, hardly sleeping and working at least 12 hour days. It can't go on. So first thing Friday morning we packed up the car, watered up the camper and hit the road. We got up to the dam about 11 and were all set up by lunch.
We even set up the ensuite which we usually leave till day two, but we had all afternoon. It is a loo with a view this trip. As there were hardly any other campers this weekend, we mostly left the door open too!
This is the lakeview window. We line this up so we can see the lake from bed. You can see inside the tent to the bed. As we haven't slept in it yet it is still tidy. There is a reason you haven't had any inside shots of the tent yet!
Sitting under a tree doing some light reading. He is starting to destress a little.
As soon as the golden orb goes behind that hill, the temperature drops 5 degrees in 5 minutes. Then it is time to unscrew a bottle of wine. Ah feel the serenity!
The birdlife was starting to wind down too. This fellow was going for a sunset glide across our view.
We spent a leisurely evening by the fire with two bottles of red. Made tandoori chicken over the fire with naan over the fire as well. With a bit of vegetable curry and rice brought from home on the side.
I was woken in the night by lots of splashing noises. Then some snorting that was very close by. Spooky if it was your first trip up here and didn't know that a small herd of horses grazed the camp ground and are particularly fond of the water weed. I thought they slept at night, obviously not! Later that day, they were still at it. This guy took a short cut.
We cooked each of our evening meals over the fire KISA kept going the whole time we were away. On the Saturday night I tried a roast lamb, and it turned out very well. Very tender. On the third night we had stew and again it worked well. Each lunch we made jaffles over the fire too. We only really used the gas for breakfast.
I really love cooking with cast iron. I am thinking of getting a couple for the kitchen at home. The stand over the fire helps with keeping the temperature reasonable. The stew tasted a lot better than it looks in this picture. Still have leftovers!
We didn't do much activity wise. Just the usual reading, wood hunting and chopping, firetending stuff. We both find it relaxing and that is why we do this. It was very hot this trip though, mid thirties during the afternoons, which means it will be the last trip up here for a while. With the heat came lots more flies than usual and the snakes are waking up soon. Once the sun went down it became more comfortable, and by 8pm we had a jumper on. We both slept well each night though. Went up to the lookout for an outing and to see from above how many other campers there were. There were 3.
Time flew and before we knew it we were watching our last sunset.
KISA put all the wood leftover that he couldn't fit in the camer on the fire and it roared till we went to bed. Had potatoes in the coals with Stagg Chilli and cheese. Simple but yummy meal.
Even the kookaburra came by to see us off.
Here is much more destressed KISA on our last night.
On Tuesday morning it looked like rain, so we wasted no time packing up as soon as the canvas was dry. By 10am we were heading back along the dirt road to Eungella when the first drops of rain fell. We made it! The camper was having some electrical problems, so after dropping off our gear and getting a shower, we spent the rest of the day getting that sorted out and stocking up on a few things. Then KISA turned on his recharged phone and the calls started. By evening he was all wound up again and had a restless night. AAARRRGGGHHH!
KISA had Friday and Monday off so we have just had a four day long weekend. Some of you may have experienced or heard about the dust storms affecting the east coast of Australia this last week. Well they have even come this far north, though not with the severity of that experienced in Brisbane and Sydney. We had a dusty day during the week and the second one arrived overnight Saturday. We woke up to a pinkish dawn. That grey is not cloud, it is dust. It looks like a British sky though. Ours is meant to be bright blue!
Later in the day it looked like a fog. It was hot, windy and dusty. 
Everyone's cars are filthy, and the houses are filling up with dust. Lucky I have been slack with my dusting and the Dyson is off getting serviced in Brisbane, so at least I will only do it once. Our neighbours hosed and scrubbed their exterior walls last week and their windows. Just two days before the first dust hit.
So it was an indoor weekend with the windows shut till the worst of the dust clears. I set to and made some stock and a couple of batches of soup. Cauliflower soup, lamb and vegetable
and Chicken and corn soup.
We ordered another door to match the sliding door upstairs as we are going to start using the real front door. We couldn't remember the stain, so the shop gave us a sample or two to bring home. We decided it was dark oak.
We gave the old white IKEA bookcase to the Leukaemia Foundation for their new Mackay office, so we shuffled around the wall units to accomodate the now homeless books. The big tall unit near the real front door went to the downstairs bedroom to put the books in, the wall unit downstairs came upstairs and there was some culling of knick knacks and keepsakes and the unit was placed opposite its mate beside the window. That freed up the space near the front door. We also had to sort all the CDs and VHS collection to create space, so KISA digitised all the CDs so now they can ALL go out the door. And he will digitise the remaining VHS, mostly home videos of the kids, and they can go in the bin. Yay lots of space freed up. It only took him one day to rip all the CDs, now they are all on the media centre and we will actually listen to them again. Love that you can search the collection too now with the computer. Clever man.
This is the new tidy knick knack cupboard. Games and functional stuff below. Look at the empty space! Wonder how long that will last??
Still dusty today, so I cleaned out the pantry. That was a mess, so am now feeling very domestic goddess and virtuous today. Some of the useby dates were scary!
The Dyson was returned by courier this afternoon all fixed just in time to clean up after all that cupboard sorting. Tomorrow I will be tackling the layer of dust on everything and when the skys turn blue again we will have to wash the cars! Lets hope we get rain soon and there is no more dust!!!
And this little one is a survivor, with her Mum. She is the best hugger I ever met!!
With a bit of zoom you can see its orange deliciousness. It was quite a sight.
KISA took the camera and took a few shots of the table.
Isn't this a handsome couple.
The boys, Miss R, KISA and I went to the Sushi Tram for lunch, then we went back to TBS for a spell before Son 18 drove us to the airport.
KISA put all the wood leftover that he couldn't fit in the camer on the fire and it roared till we went to bed. Had potatoes in the coals with Stagg Chilli and cheese. Simple but yummy meal.
On Tuesday morning it looked like rain, so we wasted no time packing up as soon as the canvas was dry. By 10am we were heading back along the dirt road to Eungella when the first drops of rain fell. We made it! The camper was having some electrical problems, so after dropping off our gear and getting a shower, we spent the rest of the day getting that sorted out and stocking up on a few things. Then KISA turned on his recharged phone and the calls started. By evening he was all wound up again and had a restless night. AAARRRGGGHHH!