We woke to a brisk morning and shortly after a much appreciated hot coffee we jumped into the ute to make our way further east.
- Key into the ignition.
- Heat the glow plug.
- Turn the key and crank the motor
Didn’t start. It normally starts after a second or two at most. WTF and Oh-oh!
Repeated the process and only at the end of a second long crank did the engine come to life.
Phew!
We talked about heading back towards the Ford dealership in Bordertown but as the vehicle had run without fault the previous evening after leaving the service department we bravely (or foolishly?) chose to press onwards in our preferred direction. Long story short, we did not experience any of the issues of the previous day and made it to our next campsite nice and early in the afternoon.
Site location and set-up was quick and easy at a nice level spot overlooking a water reservoir with some mountains in the background.
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| With the campsite set-up, Heather gets ready to go metal detecting. |
Dinner for the night was to be a camp oven meal so I set about collecting wood and getting a fire started to make a bed of coals to cook with. In the process of gathering wood I unknowingly (but not unknowing for long) had disturbed and picked up some bull-ants that had claimed the wood that I had in my arms as their own. One of these ants in particular had a real problem with me disturbing his home and proceeded to vent his anger by latching onto the outside of my right hand with all of his might, which for this individual was considerable - I can certainly attest to that!
I said a few words that you wouldn’t want little kiddies to hear, dropped my wood bundle in a hurry and searched for whatever had bitten me. I saw this 3cm beast clamping down on my hand with his pincers and quickly brushed him off while at the same time looking to see whether there were any of his friends about to join the assault on me. Fortunately he was a lone soldier but he had made his point and left his mark! I retreated from his area shaking my hand and still uttering a few profanities under my breath because I was sure they would help the ache go away.
Now far more aware of what may be lurking in the wood and leaves I completed my wood collecting, got the fire going and released my ‘Inner Chef’!
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| With the fire lit & the coals ready it was time to add the ingredients |
The plan was to cook up some Braised Beef with Chunky Vegetables.
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| After browning the cubes of beef, in went the vegies then some beef broth |
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| Time to surround the oven & cover the lid with coals and come back in couple of hours! |
Once all of the ingredients were in the pot and coals had been placed around and on top of the camp oven it was time to sit back, crack open a can of beer and relax while the magic happened!
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| The finished product looked, smelled and tasted great! |
After cooking slowly for a couple of hours dinner was served and I must say it turned out very nicely indeed!
For a detailed ‘How to’ description of the meal, click on / follow the link below to Heather’s YouTube channel where my camp oven cooking exploits were captured on video.
Next up on WTF? - Where are The Farrows?, we find ourselves in The Grampians, in western Victoria, where I happen to get bitten again - not once but two more times. Each time by a different kind of critter!
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