Friday 24th March 2023

 Friday 24^rd March

SHE SAID:

I had a long but good day out with Nikki. We went to Dryandra Woodland in hopes of seeing numbats. Nikki had warned me she has only ever seen “bolters” & never got any good “sitter” photos.

We had a brief stop in Williams, where there is a statue of a numbat, so if we don’t see a real one at least we have the statue.

No numbats were seen! 

Still, it was a nice drive around the Woodlands; Nikki is so enthusiastic about everything. We decided to see if there was a cabin available for next Thursday & try again, and we got the last one!

PS 

Nikki was looking at her photos & realised she had taken a snap of a numbat running across the road at one of our stops. It was a long way off & she didn’t realise till she zoomed in! How funny, yet another “bolter” for her! (I didn't see it at all)!

"William the Numbat"
If only they were this size, they would be much easier to spot

We managed to find gum trees & "Dryandra" in flower

A beautiful coloured tree standing out
like a beacon in the bush

HE SAID:

I met John at Southlands for breakfast and a good catch-up. We've been there a couple of times before and the food is tasty, with good portions. We covered lots of topics in our chat, but especially his mum's death on 31 August 2021, and his girlfriend Stacey's car accident several months ago in Mawson, only a few hundred metres from her home, that she is still recovering from.

The food was good, and the two fat sausages I had were absolutely top-notch. I couldn't get to the end of my plateful, so John managed an extra piece of thick toast and a grilled tomato for me. How, I don't know!

We then headed up to Stacey's, as she wanted to meet me. After a quick introduction we realised that she was hanging out for  a good coffee, so we all piled into Mick's car, Stacey with her crutches, and went back to a Southlands for about an hour of chatting.

Mick arrived in Canberra by train about 4pm, so I collected him from Canberra's only train station, Kingston, then took him back to Farrer via a supermarket for a few supplies.

Jamie only flew back to Canberra around 6pm and I picked him up just before 7 at Russell. We dumped his luggage at his house in Casey, then wandered the 200 metres to the Casey Jones Pub for a catch-up and dinner. It was a brief get-together as Jamie is off to Adelaide in the morning, then to China on Sunday to be with Tongtong and his 9 month old son Jackson, who are already there.