Monday 7 November

The built in alarm clock went off at 6am but Cathy didn’t make it out of bed for a run until 7.30am. We vacated the de Russie suites to quickly buy a couple of things from Woolies, not realising that everyone from around Orange would descend on the supermarket early Monday morning. SImmo waited patiently for us at the tourist bureau then lead us out of town to claim the campsite shelter at Ophir.

That accomplished, we bush bashed across the landscape avoiding snakes and mine shafts to find the Bizmark tunnel and Doctor’s Hill tunnel. The area is full of old gold mines but no nuggets laying around for us to find. Cathy’s energy ran out after lunch and she sat back in a chair to read a book on her kindle. The boys didn’t know whether to relax or whether she would rejuvenate into a bundle of “what are we doing next?”!!!

Simmo entertained as he got the coals blazing and demonstrated a new sort of oven to Cathy – the Camp oven (hasn’t Cathy got enough ovens yet?).

We drank local Prenthe chardonnay with pre dinner nibbles then Climbing Shiraz with our roast beef and vegetables. No room for dessert or coffee. We eagerly jumped into our troopy bed whilst Simmo dared himself to walk another tunnel in the dark and wake up the bats nesting there.