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Anzac Day at Little Duna

Posted by on April 25, 2014

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

Ode, the fourth stanza of the poem For the fallen by Laurence Binyon (1869–1943

I awoke this morning to the sounds of birds chirping in the distance, a peaceful way to wake as the sun chased the morning chills from the caravan’s canvas walls. Little Duna…. we are back 🙂

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So after a lot of umms and ahhs we decided to once again head up to Little Duna after work so we could make the most of a full day today, even though that once again meant we would arrive  at nighttime. Getting used to setting up in the dark now, so that was no issue at all.

Really weren’t that prepared at all this time, but as we had only got home a few days before, most of the van was still packed and we have enough food for another weekend of camping. That being said, still took us until 6:30pm to get ready, then as we were about to leave I realised I hadn’t filled the tanks in the van!!! That would have been a disaster with only the water on the roof.

After filling the tanks, we finally pushed out about 7pm… and straight around to Coles Express to fuel up and grab some Maccas for the road. 7:30pm by the time we left Vermont South, not our best time at all!!!

Anyway, not sure what time we got up here, but it was an easy run with nowhere near the amount of traffic we had last time. As I said before, we are getting used to setting the van up in the dark and with no shooters in the farm behind us, it wasn’t long before I was digging the fire pit and throwing the remaining wood from last camp on the fire. Lucky too because boy was it cold!!!

Poor little Kushi had just had a hair cut the day before and he was feeling the cold. Both Kushi and Ruby were cuddling up together for warmth when I went to my own very cold bed.

Anyway, as I mentioned before I woke to the tranquil sounds of bird chirping, unfortunately a little late for the Anzac day dawn service, so instead I woke and crept outside to start work on fixing the quad bike suspension.

Here is a photo of what had happened to the old one.

 

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Before I left on Monday afternoon, I measured the old one, got on ebay and ordered a new one that arrived on Wednesday in plenty of time for the weekend. Wasn’t too hard to remove the old one, bolt at the top and bolt at the bottom and off it came. Lucky I had thought to bring a metal bar to hold the bike up once I had removed the suspension.

I grabbed the shiny new one, fitted it in place and went to thread the bolt…. didn’t fit! No worries, a few little bush mechanic tricks later and I switched the new gromets with the old ones and bolted the suspension in place.

Unfortunatley, the new suspension was shorter than the old one and needed adjusting to lift the bike up off the wheels, and I din’t have any such tools to adjust it.

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Bunnings was what I needed. The closest Bunnings is in Shpparton, so I checked on the web to see if it was open today being a public holiday and all. It was, but being Anzac day, none of the shops opened until 1pm. I had no choice but to leave the quad bike where it was and go for a walk around Little Duna.

So not overly much has changed in the 3 days since we were up here last, except that the green grass continues to sprout and the place is just getting greener and greener. The dams are still full, and as always Ruby needed little encouragement to head in for a swim!

Was not long after midday when we chained the dogs and headed off to Shepparton. No trouble finding Bunnings as it was on the road in from Violet Town. I got a large pipe wrench to adjust the suspension, and couldn’t resist also getting a manual post hole digger to help with toilet pits. I’ll take a photo tomorrow for those that don’t know what that is. Also grabed a few cans of butane for the BBQ, we seem to go through so many of them up here!

Across the road from Bunnings was a pet shop, so Fi decided Kushi needed a jumper to keep him warm (he was shivering last night). So the little prince(ss)  now has a new coat to keep him warm. He was very happy with it too and more than happy show it off!

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Lucky for him I was able to talk Fi around from the “…cute little blue woollen jumper…” that was just not practical for rolling in the dirt and sticks round here.  Guess he doesn’t look too bad with this camo one on!

So anyway, was about 3:30pm by the time we got back to Little Duna, I dropped Fi and the girls at the Cafe in town so they could walk home while I continued on to fix the quad bike. The pipe wrench worked a treat and I adjusted the suspension to the highest level… unfortunately the suspension is not as heavy duty as the last, or as high, so while I can ride it, the seat is too low and very bouncy. At least it will get me through the weekend, but looks like we will need to order a new heavy duty one before we come back again 🙁

Well with the quad bike at least workable, I was able to collect a good amount of firewood, and lit the fire as the sun went down and Fi and Tara cooked us a lovely pasta dish for tea. I’m sure there will be some marshmallows on the menu as well 😉

PS – Tara had a huge huntsman crawling on the ground in front of her as we ate tea. I just flicked it in the fire, but Tara was ready to run for the safety of the van until I pointed out there were thousands on them up here, and that was the first one she had seen!! Think someone might have a few nightmares tonight!!

Hehe… sleep tight and don’t let the spiders bite!!!

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