Chilling (literally) in historic Beechworth Vic

Beechworth gaol - we missed the Ned Kelly tour

historic precinct

Adventurous bushranger - and Ned Kelly

Colonial geometry

Koala - and not in a zoo!

Trust me to spot him

I've been keeping an eye out for days - apparently one fell on a van roof recently

It was minus 2 yesterday morning, but Beechworth has its charms.
After 38 years in Australia Roy saw his very first Koala in the wild, right at our campsite.
Next stop Melbourne.

House sitting for friends in The Blue Mountains

Newbie makes a new friend, Cooper

Head in the lion's mouth

Friends

Parked outside friends' straw-bale house

They don't call Blackheath Bleak Heath for nothing!

View around our campsite tonight

 

We were about to hit the wind-down bed for the night to escape the cold when we decided to take a look outside the van!
No wonder we were cold.
Brrr!
Our poor little puppy Newbie is really feeling the chill in spite of his little coat.
Last night he cried and Roy had to go down the ladder and cuddle with him in the club lounge below.
Tonight may be my turn to cuddle with him!

Life in the Diversion, back in Sydney

Guess who is glued to the Olympics - and who isn't so much

Cosy winter nights in the Diversion motorhome

We're back in Sydney (Dural) to do a few things.

We also need to go up to the Blue Mountains soon.

Enjoying a good rest from our travels.

Gemfields RSL dinners in a roller-doors garage

Rustic RSL in a garage - the baked dinner was good

Rusty barrel wall and storage system.(Note the new gutters)

Our new RVer fills a dog-shaped hole in our lives

Anubis (Newbie) is settling into RVing really well.
Quite a self-contained little guy who is happy to curl up in the motorhome and go to sleep if we go shopping or out for a meal.
We called him Anubis because he looked just like Mighty Anubis, Egyptian dog god of the underworld. Not.

Back in the gemfields, Queensland...finding sapphires!

Thrill of the hunt

We found this - 2.55 carat blue sapphire

It was 5.2 carats before cutting

Humungous 18.5 carat sapphire - but presents cutting difficulties

Maybe we'll just have it polished in Thailand

We're back in Sapphire at a favourite resort in central Queensland on the Tropic of Capricorn.
We have now found 7 good sapphires (including, yesterday, a lovely star sapphire of 2.85 carats) and heaps of smaller ones and garnets to be cut and polished cheaply in Thailand. It really is addictive.