Breaking Ground

We introduced Nissa to the fossicking area on her first day.

Nick and Erin got the urge to dig, so selected a likely spot and started breaking ground.

There was no real plan - other than to dig!

Nobody was sure what might be considered a "good" spot, where one patch of dirt looked very much the same as the next.

Nick and Erin dug, while we and Keegan supervised ...




As usual, Vaughan was chasing grasshoppers - and stripping bark from trees in the hope of surprising sleeping geckoes.

Nissa and I just poked about until the diggers were tired of digging!

YRTC

Yowah Rural Transaction Centre

The Yowah Rural Transaction Centre (YRTC) housed a cafe, library, community information centre, small laundromat, public toilet and one hotel-style room. 

We were frequent visitors and made good use of the $2.00 for 15 minutes internet access!

Nissa standing near the small library.  The books on the table were free to take or swap.  The library itself operated on a normal borrowing system.  

We donated a large box of books to the librarian(s) and will donate more next trip.

The cafe sold some groceries and great hot chips!

Nick, Erin, Nissa enjoying ice-creams on the verandah with Max (the young son of Renee who worked in the cafe and library).

Keegan (in the foreground) probably enjoyed some ice-cream too!

Nissa!

 
















Nissa was able to join us for part of our Yowah adventure, which presented a few logistic challenges due to limited and/or expensive transport options. Our resident logistics support officer decided the best method was by rail - so Nissa caught a train from Broadmeadow at 4am, to meet the Dubbo train from Sydney at 7.30am. The last part of the journey was by bus from Dubbo to Bourke (around 5 hours).

Meanwhile, Nick and Erin left Yowah at around 9am for the 390 km drive to Bourke.  They did some shopping while they were there, purchasing a much-appreciated fan heater and some other supplies.  They met Nissa from the bus at 7pm, then all traveled back together and returned to Yowah after midnight.

For the week preceding Nissa's arrival, Vaughan had climbed into our bed each morning with eyes barely open and muttered how many sleeps were remaining till Nissa came! He was hugely excited to see her on her first morning!

Birds of Yowah

These guys are Apostle Birds - so called because allegedly they are generally found in groups of 12.

(I have made a point of counting them since reading the reasoning for their name and so far haven't found any groups of 12)!

As you can see, they are not backward in coming forward!

Although not the prettiest of birds (sometimes even described as "scruffy"), they have long been one of my favourites and it was fun to watch Vaughan enjoying them.


It seemed to us the Blue-faced Honeyeater ate anything but honey!

He was often on top of our gazebo and more frequently under it; tasting various food, with olive oil spread a favourite!




















We were given a bird list for Yowah (compiled in 2007) with 160+ varieties that had been spotted.

We positively identified 41, so ticked them off and hope to see more next trip (as well as identify a few more doubtfuls)!

Yowah nuts?!

Nope, the term "Yowah nuts" is not a self-description - nor an indictment of the local population! Although ...

Yowah is a small opal field known for it's unique opal formations where the opal deposits are encased in ironstone nuts. There is a free fossicking area where hopefuls can hunt for treasure, either on the surface or by digging.

We didn't get greatly involved in fossicking during our first few days, though "colour" shows best when the stone is wet, so I introduced Erin to the concept of licking rocks.

Obviously, she won't fall for that again!

Although Yowah nuts are unique, it seemed many of the best stones we admired (at the markets, with various sellers and during the opal festival) actually came from Koroit - a much smaller/more remote field further north-west.

Nick holding part of a Yowah nut, showing a small deposit of opal. 

We bought a bucket of rubble to sort through and this nut was among those.  Nick chipped at it several times with a pick to reveal the "colour".

The road less travelled

Whoops!

You know those times when your memory is ticking over, processing just a little bit too slowly?  (Missed it by that much, as Max would say)?! 

Nick and I had taken Vaughan for a drive just outside of town and liked the look of this road.

A dim memory was creeping through my consciousness but before I could call a warning, we had driven into this bog - and we were quite stuck.

Fortunately we weren't that far from our campsite so Nick and I intended to wander back, sit by the fire with a cup of tea and ponder the situation - privately!

Vaughan dashed on ahead though and we soon met him coming back with Erin - as seemingly he had been keen to announce "the news" to all! (So much for skulking in quietly)!

Geoff was gearing up to come and rescue us, so Nick continued on to assist and I walked back to the car with Erin and Vaughan.

A quick recovery

Geoff had actually been bogged on arrival (in front of Peter's second house), when doing a u-turn to enter the camping ground, so was aware of how easily it could happen.

We all told stories round the fire that night!

Another house that Peter built

This was another of Peter's houses, a bit more sophisticated than his original dwelling though I believe this one had never been completed. 

It had been for sale when I last visited Yowah, back in September 2000.



In the days when we lived at Yowah, Peter had often talked about building a church - and the running joke was that it would be royal blue, the same as all his pottery pieces.

(He glazed some of these bricks, though not royal blue)!


The wagon wheel spokes were painted with folk-art motifs.

(Peter was Hungarian, so they may have been traditional designs). He had built a larger kiln in the backyard too - again more sophisticated than his original.