Some say it’s rare to spot an Echidna in the wild, in that case- we must have some seriously keen eyes (helps when they’re crossing the road in front!)
I managed to get some great footage of it on video. We’ve setup a YouTube account and will upload some of our favourite videos for you to have a look at – starting with A VIDEO OF AN ECHIDNA IN THE WILD.
(See along the right hand side column as we update more videos along the way).
(See along the right hand side column as we update more videos along the way).
Our day at Tumut was spent – finding an excuse to enjoy some lagers on tap at the local. Our excuse? They had a powerpoint and said they were happy for us to use it and given that we still hadn’t sorted out our inverter on the laptop situation – we were happy to oblige.
Note : when purchasing inverters – don’t fall into the same trap we did and make sure you get one with a “secure soundwave” otherwise, when you go to plug in your laptop, the laptop will sense it’s not secure and won’t charge it’s battery ***grrrr*** We’ve since been told that that you can get a power adaptor specifically for laptop batteries to cigarette lighter. We’ve ordered one in at Tumut and it’ll take a few days to arrive so a great excuse to stick around for a while.
Next on the list in Tumut was a BIG SHOP. Something which I’m pretty sure Tom’s been dreading for the last few weeks. I’ve written up a bit of a debrief on our groceries & budgeting for it. Something which a few of you may not find so interesting but hopefully it’ll help one or two avid campers out there. ***See bottom of the blog.
Located just 35km south of Tumut is Jounama Creek Camping Ground, NSW. And it is certainly not to be missed, truly is a lovely spot. We were told that there was once a flying fox installed over the creek which had been flinging reckless teenagers for over 40 years. The recent influx of rain left the flying fox as just a loose piece of steel wire and a rather hefty scar on the base of the tree.
The creek itself was flowing with the clearest & cleanest water I’d ever seen in a creek. Certainly made life easy to top up water supplies and was handy for rinsing the laundry (yes, greenies we use eco friendly laundry detergent!!!)...
One of the four gloriously sunny days we were there, a man parked his ute next to us. He got out, reached for his binoculars and disappeared on a walk up the track and into the bushes. Tom, being his inquisitive self, was just dying to know what the man was doing and what exactly he was going to watch. He thought about following him up the track but later decided that it could be easily misconstrued. A couple of hours later, the man returned. He climb back into his ute and drove away.
The next gloriously sunny day, the same man returned in his ute and parked up next to us. Only this time, he hadn’t returned with a pair of binoculars he had returned with a camera. “Well”, says Tom “if he’s come back to capture whatever he’s found... it must be good!” And off Tom went, keeping a stalkerish distance behind the curious man. Once I had finished busying myself washing the dishes, tidying the cabin, hand washing all of the linen and the towels and all the clothes, Tom still hadn’t returned. After no shorter than 3 hours later, Tom returned with a rather disgruntled look on his face. I asked after his walk, if he found the man and what he found on his adventure. Tom looked at me with a sad little look on his face “Yes I found the man”. AND?? What was he looking for? “Well his was a strange little man and I didn’t much want to talk to him for very long”. Why not? What was he looking for? “Nothing really, he was a Geologist”. Enough said. :)
The next gloriously sunny day, the same man returned in his ute and parked up next to us. Only this time, he hadn’t returned with a pair of binoculars he had returned with a camera. “Well”, says Tom “if he’s come back to capture whatever he’s found... it must be good!” And off Tom went, keeping a stalkerish distance behind the curious man. Once I had finished busying myself washing the dishes, tidying the cabin, hand washing all of the linen and the towels and all the clothes, Tom still hadn’t returned. After no shorter than 3 hours later, Tom returned with a rather disgruntled look on his face. I asked after his walk, if he found the man and what he found on his adventure. Tom looked at me with a sad little look on his face “Yes I found the man”. AND?? What was he looking for? “Well his was a strange little man and I didn’t much want to talk to him for very long”. Why not? What was he looking for? “Nothing really, he was a Geologist”. Enough said. :)
Early morning day two...
Tommy about to tackle the rapids...
We're getting very good at self timing the photos...
But it can get pretty exhausting!
Some wildflowers.. taken during Tom's stalking attempt
Tom busy cooking lunch.. leftovers!! :)
***GROCERIES
I like to try and make sure that we tick two boxes with the groceries – life longevity and healthiness. A lot of the time, with the food, it’s about trial and error. I finally feel like we’re in the swing of it all.
I like to try and make sure that we tick two boxes with the groceries – life longevity and healthiness. A lot of the time, with the food, it’s about trial and error. I finally feel like we’re in the swing of it all.
Here are a few little tricks that I like to try & use –
VEGIES
Only buy fresh what you absolutely need. Particularly if you only plan to do a grocery shop every two weeks or so, by day 12 you’d be eating some pretty rotten stuff.
Only buy fresh what you absolutely need. Particularly if you only plan to do a grocery shop every two weeks or so, by day 12 you’d be eating some pretty rotten stuff.
Try and stick to the vegies that have a long life and generally taste like crap in a can. i.e. garlic, onions, potatoes & sweet potatoes.
Storage is always a concern (particularly when you live as jam packed as we do!!). Smaller vegies are much easier to manoeuvre around all of the other groceries & heaps easier to pack. While tinned vegies are never as good as the real thing, I guess they’re better than nothing at all (right mum??). One key is to only buy the size tin that you would use for each meal – while buying in bulk may save you 20c in the long run, you then have to worry about storing & refrigerating it until you use it again.
I’ve found great tinned vegies are – tomatoes, carrots, peas, corn & mushrooms. All great to have on hand for a variety of meals. A great all in one can that you can get is peas, carrots & corn – really good to bung into any number of stews, pastas, casseroles and or just steamed.
Canned tomatoes are an absolute must. Very handy for a pasta sauce, soups & stews.
Coconut cream in a can is really handy if you want to cook more of a creamy based meal or even curries (right Soph?? :) )
Together we spent $18.90 on vegies – both fresh & tinned and that should last us from now up until about Christmas.
I’ve found great tinned vegies are – tomatoes, carrots, peas, corn & mushrooms. All great to have on hand for a variety of meals. A great all in one can that you can get is peas, carrots & corn – really good to bung into any number of stews, pastas, casseroles and or just steamed.
Canned tomatoes are an absolute must. Very handy for a pasta sauce, soups & stews.
Coconut cream in a can is really handy if you want to cook more of a creamy based meal or even curries (right Soph?? :) )
Together we spent $18.90 on vegies – both fresh & tinned and that should last us from now up until about Christmas.
MEAT
Now this one can often break the bank, especially if you find yourself running out often and having to buy one offs here & there. Before we left, I invested in a food vacuum sealer, bought it off ebay for roughly $100 with 80 bags included. Just make sure you get a bundle of bags when you buy it cause the resale cost of the bags is quite high. The vacuum sealer itself is no longer than 30cm long and 8cm high – so very easy to slip down a forgotten about hole. We portion out the meat by each meal servings and vacuum seal them separately. Rather than 5 days of life we get up to 5 weeks!! Plus- you can buy it all in bulk saving you loads in the long run. Our meat supplies purchased should again last up until Christmas and were a total of $29.50.
Now this one can often break the bank, especially if you find yourself running out often and having to buy one offs here & there. Before we left, I invested in a food vacuum sealer, bought it off ebay for roughly $100 with 80 bags included. Just make sure you get a bundle of bags when you buy it cause the resale cost of the bags is quite high. The vacuum sealer itself is no longer than 30cm long and 8cm high – so very easy to slip down a forgotten about hole. We portion out the meat by each meal servings and vacuum seal them separately. Rather than 5 days of life we get up to 5 weeks!! Plus- you can buy it all in bulk saving you loads in the long run. Our meat supplies purchased should again last up until Christmas and were a total of $29.50.
Busy making some herb & garlic crumbed meatballs...
When Tom & I first sat down to do our budget, back in the early planning stages, we estimated that we would spend $150 per week on groceries. Thankfully, it’s nowhere near that amount. At this stage, with meat and vegies included, we’re lucky to reach $70 a week... leaving us loads more in the drinking fund which is always a winner...
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