We had our medicals at Katherine and it took nearly ALL day!  We left town at 3pm and drove for about 3 hours before stopping for the night.  Of course as we were heading towards home, it meant for early starts!! So the next day we were on the road just before daylight and drove a LONG way before stopping for the night.  You know how things can get a little silly towards the end of a long day?  This was only a little taste of it :)

The sun was setting on the driver's side that meant we were heading south!

After two really long days of driving, we came through Pt Augusta at tea time the night of the eclipse.  I was keen to get some photos so Bun decided that if we pulled up for the night too early, we would simply go to sleep and miss it.  So we ended up driving to Burra and stopping at about 9.30pm.  I set up the tripod and quickly grabbed some shots before we crashed into bed.  

Next morning we drove home, stopping briefly in Barmera to see Josh and this darling little munchkin!!

Luckily we got to take her home with us for the day!!!

Considering that Kasiah had only seen us on Skype since late April, she was so relaxed with us so that was lovely for us :))

We got to see Josh and Kara and feed them tea for a couple of nights so it was just lovely to see them all after so long!

Playtime on the floor!!

She just loves to snuggle in!

We even got to have her sleepover on the Friday night and this was her the next morning.

'What are you doing?'

'I think you've got the camera out.'

'Yay, I love photos!'

Saturday morning we dropped Kasiah home and went to Adelaide to see Callie and Steven.  After some text messages saying 'where are you?', 'are you nearly here?' and 'HURRY UP!'  we got there and left practically straight away to walk the dogs in the hills.  

The afternoon was spent on the seafront at the Largs Pier Hotel, enjoying a couple of relaxed drinks and then it turned into 'let's just order tea early'.  Such a chilled afternoon in the sun and we can't wait to be back there again in March for Josh and Kara's wedding!!

Sunday morning was walking on the beach, it was pretty cool and breezy and the sand was freezing on our feet! As usual, Boof loved it :)

We headed home Monday morning when Callie and Steven were ready for work.  We spent some more time with Josh and Kasiah before heading to Mum and Dad's for tea.  Kara met us there after work and we celebrated Dad's birthday a day early.

Tuesday meant a day trip to Mildura to get the truck serviced so we were there at 8.30am and used the motorbike to get around.  We visited Bun's mate Datesy for a couple of hours which was great, not just to catch up but also because we could sit somewhere warm!  It was so cold that day.  After getting a few things and having lunch, we ended up back waiting for the truck to be finished.  I got a call about 4.3pm from Viterra to say 'can you be here for induction on Friday morning?'   That meant that we only had the following day to get organised.....because we had to travel over to Lock on Thursday!  

We arrived here about 3pm Thursday having left at 6am.  At that point it was only going to be me doing the induction, as Bun's paperwork hadn't come through.  He was fine with that, as he said I could work and he would go surfing!!

Unlucky for him that I checked the emails at 5pm and his paperwork was through hahaha

He started work on Monday last week and I wasn't able to start until Tuesday as they didn't have steel cap boots to fit me.  I'm still wearing some that are too big for me!  We woke up one morning to this thick fog...below shows how close we are to work, literally right across the road.

Above you can see the weighbridge where I spend most of my days.

Sylvana really wanted to see a photo of the high-vis fashion!!

And the view from my window back towards the caravan park.

Trevor lives at the caravan park too!  What a face??

I've received a couple of chocolate bars from truckies and heard 'Hello Smiley' so I think that my customer service skills are pretty good!

It's interesting watching what happens around the site.

Josh and Kara visited Adelaide last weekend and Kasiah adores Uncle Steven!!  Callie said that as soon as she sits on his lap, she snuggles in :))

I love the above sentiment, it reminds me of the trip to the US with Callie and Steven and brought back memories of sitting on the beach at Santa Monica.

We are finding the work can be tedious and some of the people have obviously been here way too long however the money will come in handy and it really isn't hard work, just long hours.

I'm sure that having spent those few days home that the kids will be really happy when we are back after this job, especially with Ben moving to Adelaide in early December....and we are really keen to be home with all the exciting events that 2015 brings!!

There you go Kate, it's updated!!  Kate emailed me yesterday, there was nothing in the email, just the subject line reading   Blog Up-Date Please!

That's it for now

Cheers

Anne

It has been so good to catch up with Garry, we have been saying for well over 20 years that one day we were going to make it to Darwin and we finally got here.

We went back into Darwin on grand final day to watch the game at Garry's and also caught up with Shane Gartner and his partner Sally.  It was a lovely afternoon and evening, even though not everyone was happy with the footy result haha

I've been out again trying different settings on the camera and just had to remember to spray first!!  I told Callie that I have been glowing up here, if it's not from sweat it's from plenty of Bushman's repellant.  The humid weather is definitely NOT my friend and the bug bites have been driving me insane!

Three guys from Paspaley were out at Bynoe for a couple of days.  We got to go out in the boat with them one morning and have a closer look at the shells and see the shells getting cleaned.

The property is surrounded by the bay and if you zoom in on this photo you can see the van in the shed.  There are saltwater crocs around so you need to keep an eye out for them.  

This is how high the water comes up, the tyres go right around in front of the accommodation/kitchen/patio area.

I know Kara loves frangipanis so these photos were just for her :)

This photo was the sunrise, most mornings there was a lot of ripple on the water but this day was a little calmer.  There seems to be a few fires around most days so the smoke haze adds to the colour.

Above is the view from the patio area out towards the bay.

And looking back to the patio and the office and some rooms behind it.

Although I don't love the humidity at the  moment, I've been told (and believe it) that it is just magic here in the dry so who knows....maybe we'll be back next year :)

Josh took this photo a couple of weeks ago when he got home from work....love it!!

Absolutely cannot wait to see this cute little munchkin again!!!!  We have just seen her walking this morning while on a facetime call with the kids.  She is growing so fast and her parents say she has 'attitude' so we are in for some fun times soon!  I'm sure there were lots of giggles when she was getting painted (with help from two 'big kids' haha)

We are in Katherine right now and will be having medicals in the morning for work with Viterra.  All being well, we will be working at Lock or Wudinna for the grain harvest so will be back in SA and then home for Christmas.  

Looking forward to the dry heat of SA!

Cheers

Anne