THE GRANITES - REVISITED

We left Dartmoor yesterday morning.  What a lovely little town it is.  I highly recommend it to other campers.  The tree carvings are great, the camping area is great and it has a natural spring with water flowing from a tap 24/7 and it is free!
We travelled through Mount Gambier, stopped at Millicent to stretch our legs and have some lunch, into Kingston SE for a coffee then arrived at the Granites (about 20km north of Kingston).  We have camped here before and decided to stop here for a couple of nights before heading home.  There were already a few caravans and campervans here when we arrived but we found 'our spot' and set up.  It was pretty windy yesterday so we put the anti-flap bars on the awning and probably lucky we did because this morning it came in very windy with some pretty strong wind gusts (rocking the caravan - I almost feel sea sick!) and quite a bit of rain.  It is now almost 5pm and the rain appears to have gone but the wind is still blowing just as strong.
We saw a beautiful sunset last night - see photo.
I have had a couple of challenges on this trip - mainly with trying to have a decent shower!  On Wednesday morning I went to have a shower and got as far as washing my hair, rinsing the shampoo out, applying conditioner and lathering my body when the water went cold!  The gas bottle had emptied and by the time we got it switched over to the other gas bottle and got the hot water running again I was a mass of goose bumps and had rinsed off in cold water!  On Friday morning before leaving Dartmoor I had managed to wash and rinse my hair, put conditioner in my hair and lathered up my body when the water tanks ran dry!!!  We had some containers with drinking water so I had a rinse (again with blood cold water).  We were able to fill the caravan water tanks at the Dartmoor spring as we were leaving but these two experiences have left me very wary of showers!  Don't have too much choice unless I want to smell but I am apprehensive every time I get in the shower now.
Royce has been getting his rocks off!!!  Don't jump to conclusions - he has been working on his zebra stones - see photo.  They have come up really well and he has done a good job.  The photo doesn't show them as well as in real life but hopefully you get the idea.

DARTMOOR, VICTORIA

We left Mount Monster last Saturday and arrived in Casterton that afternoon.  We were up early Sunday morning to do the Casterton market.  We had some sales - not as many as we would have liked but we did come out a little bit in front so that isn't a bad thing, and we met some really nice people!  It was bloody hot though so I am glad it was for the morning only.  We spent the last few days with Sharon and Richard and had a nice relaxing time.  The kookaburras came to visit this morning as we were packing up to leave - see photo.  This kookaburra was in the tree at the bottom of Sharon and Richard's garden.
We headed off after lunch and arrived a very short time later in Dartmoor.  We had decided to make it a leisurely drive to Dartmoor (which is only about 60km from Casterton) but it turned out to be a lot slower than we had expected.  Roadworks were being done on the road and we sat behind a grader, doing less than 5km an hour for about 5km or so!  The area we drove through is apparently known as The Ark because of the abundance of wildlife but unfortunately we didn't see too much.  We did see a small kangaroo (or wallaby??) and a flock of coloured parrots and one dead snake but that was all.  Perhaps the roadworks scared them all off.
Dartmoor is a lovely town and we have been for a short walk tonight after tea and will do some more exploring tomorrow.  The main street has numerous 'tree carvings' - see photos.  We haven't uploaded all the photos because it takes too long but this will give you a bit of an idea.  They are really lovely.
We also saw a koala in a tree near where we are camped and he/she is a big one.  It was very co-operative and turned to look at me when I was taking photos of it.
The kookaburras have been laughing nearby tonight just as the sun was setting, and the magpies were warbling earlier. 
We do love this life!!!!! (other than the damn pesky mosquitoes).
We will probably stop here for a few nights and will do another post once we have moved on (unless something really exciting happens before then).


The kookaburra in the tree at Sharon & Richards




Royce with one of the wood carvings at Dartmoor




One of the carvings in the main street of Dartmoor commemorating WWI




A massive tree carving




Our very friendly koala