Australia Day 2016

Happy Australia Day everyone!

It was on January 26th, 1788 that the first fleet from England landed at Botany Bay (pretty much where Sydney airport sits today) to take up permanent residence - some by choice and quite a few others that had less say in the matter that arrived as convicts in chains.

As the public holiday is celebrated on January 26th, and that was a Tuesday this year, I booked a vacation day off for the Monday and made an extended long weekend out of the situation and we went camping.

Setting out on Saturday, our destination was Innes National Park on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula about 300km from Adelaide.

Our beachside camp set-up at Innes National Park

This park has a lot of rugged coastal scenery to admire, plenty of hiking trails to take and some nice fishing places where you can throw in a line and try your luck.  We did a little bit of all of that over the three days we were there.

Wide, empty beach and rugged cliffs at West Cape. We saw a pod of ~ 20 dolphins playing in the waves here.

Heading to the Stenhouse Bay jetty to try our luck fishing

All we got was some sunburn despite the hats and long sleeves

As you can't do any metal detecting inside the national park we drove to a beach just outside the park where Heather was able to do a small amount of hunting.  We didn't catch any fish or find our fortune but the outing was fun nonetheless.

On Tuesday we broke camp in a wind that made things challenging to say the least but we got the job done and loaded everything into the car.  The drive back to Adelaide was uneventful.  We washed off the grit and grime that comes with camping at a beach location and suited up in our Australia Day gear before heading around to my mothers house for an Australia Day BBQ.

In the backyard in our Australian flag hat, t-shirt, shorts, and dress

Heather, Grant and Sue (Grant's mum) waving the flag on Australia Day

After a lovely BBQ lunch at mums house we went home and listened to the fireworks going off in the nearby city parklands before retiring for the night.  All in all it was a fun weekend with plenty of fresh air and outdoor activities to keep ourselves busy.  The next scheduled long weekend is in early March but we will have to see if we can manufacture another one before then...

Until the next issue of WTF? - Where are The Farrows?, stay happy and safe.

It has been a while... and we have some bad news to report.

It has been a while since our last blog posting in October of last year and it is only now that I can bring myself to letting you know why.

While most people already know what has transpired, for those that do not, here is a brief summary to bring you up to speed...

In November our beloved dog and an integral part of our family, Bernard, was diagnosed with cancer.  Tests determined it was already widespread through his body and inoperable.  The vet thought we would have between one and three months more together.  We spent every possible minute with him during his remaining days.  Heather never left his side night or day and we both slept downstairs with him every night he was still with us with a hand on his back, butt or belly to give him comfort that we were there with him always.  If love were medicine he would have made a full recovery - but as powerful as love is, unfortunately it was not enough.

Just four weeks after being diagnosed he was gone.  He went to sleep on December 21st 2015 just about a month short of turning 7 years old.  We are devastated that he is no longer with us and is dearly missed.

Bernard loved the snow - he was made for it!

Honouring Bernard's memory.

The best times of all for the three of us were without doubt whenever we packed up our truck and hit the road to go camping.  Those road trips whether quick weekenders or three week tours were something special for us and were where the first 'travel game' postings of WTF - Where are The Farrows? originated.  Feedback from friends indicated you enjoyed seeing and reading about what we were up to.  As a result of that, and as a means of maintaining some form of contact with our friends across the globe given our relocation from Canada to Australia in May 2015, this blog was created.

So after a few difficult weeks and a very sombre Christmas period while our feelings of loss and hurt have been so raw, we now think that we are ready to (need to) get back into some camping and to re-start the creation of more good memories - he would have wanted that.  It won't be the same without him but to honour Bernard's memory we have committed to getting back into the road-trip and camping saddle again.

Standby for new blog postings to recommence in the near future.

You brought great joy into our lives every single day and will always be with us in our hearts.
Rest In Peace my beautiful boy.

A Productive Weekend of Metal Detecting

Hello all.

This week I am happy to report some real success on the metal detecting front over the course of the recent long weekend here in Adelaide.  A case of three days and four interesting, old, or valuable discoveries were made - remarkably, all of them within site of our home!

It started on Friday morning with Heather heading out with her metal detecting 'tools of the trade' to hunt along the riverbank behind our home.  Not long after she got started had she unearthed a big (and I mean BIG) spent shell casing!  The cartridge alone is over 100 mm long (4"), it is 25 mm (1") in diameter, and it used to carry a 20 mm bullet - that is 80 calibre in 'gun-speak' and at almost twice the size, compares quite favourably with Dirty Harry's '44'!

Check out this 80 calibre shell casing!

The markings on the bottom of a bullet's brass casing tell you a lot about the origins of the cartridge.  While not that easy to see in the photo below, this cartridge has the following markings: K2 1941 20MM.

K2 1941 20MM

Prior to becoming metal detectors (family collective description) we had no idea that any of the markings on a cartridge were telling a story.  Since then, however, spent bullet casings are a whole lot more interesting to us.  While some of the information contained in the markings is quite self explanatory, such as the fact that it is a 20mm calibre bullet made in 1941 (making it World War 2 era ammunition), the K2 markings are unique to the manufacturer.  In this case the bullet was made by Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd. at their Kynoch Factories, Birmingham, England.  All bullets have similar information contained within the markings on them so next time you see an old shell casing you might want to pick it up and find out where it came from (or not).  We think this shell would have been used in a mini-cannon or an aircraft machine gun of some sort.

Saturday produced the oldest find in Heather's metal detecting experience to date.  Straight out of the ground she knew she had a coin or a token but it was covered in dirt and grime so it was only after she got back home and had cleaned it up a bit that she realised what she had found. 

Coin straight out of the ground

Once the dirt was removed it became evident that she had found a coin.  After some more cleaning the date stamp on the coin revealed it to have been minted in 1853 - that is 162 years ago!  The coin is in great shape with the images on each side being clearly legible.  We typed the date and the words on the coin into Google (what a wonderful tool this is - I don't think there is anything that isn't in there somewhere), and we soon knew what we had.  It turns out that the coin is an 1853 British Queen Victoria copper farthing (a farthing had a face value of one quarter of one penny).  Needless to say that Heather was stoked by her discovery!

HEAD - VICTORIA DEI GRATIA 1853

TAIL - BRITANNIAR REG. FID: DEF:

After the success of Friday and Saturday there was no holding Heather back as she was well and truly gripped by 'treasure fever'.  She could not resist returning to her happy hunting ground on Sunday to give it another go.

Heather with her trusty guardian & companion Bernard out in the field

I was a bit worried that high hopes for more of the success that she had experienced on Friday and Saturday would mean a big let down was imminent.  As it turns out, I should not have been so pessimistic.  A couple of hours later she returned with a button and a busted old spoon - each of which turned out to be very interesting in their own right.

A button from an AUSTRALIAN MILITARY FORCES uniform

Although the copper or brass or bronze button, above, had lost the loop that was used to sew the button onto a uniform, the quality of the image of the map of Australia on the front of the button after being buried in dirt for who knows how long is incredible.  These buttons were used on Australian Military Forces uniforms from the start of WW1 in 1914 through to the end of WW2.  The button itself is of no value due to the damage on the back of it but the imagination gets stimulated when it links a military button found on Sunday in with the bullet found nearby on Friday - you can't help but think that either the riverbank out the back of our house used to used by the military once upon a time, or, the riverbank has been stabilised using landfill from somewhere that the army used to play.  Who knows!?

The second item found on Sunday was an old broken spoon.  On the face of it this was a rusty old piece of cutlery.  When it was first dug up, as usual, it was covered in dirt.  With a little bit of a rub some shiny bits could be seen so the imagination started to run wild that we had found a rare silver spoon. 

This broken old spoon revealed some great clues as to its origins

More rubbing... all of this rubbing revealed progressively more and more clues to use to learn about this old spoon.  It was a bit like getting a genie out of a bottle!  Heather kept rubbing and removing more and eventually 5 hallmarks on the handle of the spoon became visible.  Finding a hallmark is the best way to identify the origin of manufactured metal goods and jewellery as they are almost as good as fingerprints linking the piece to its maker.  The close-up photo below shows how clearly the hallmarks could be seen once the dirt was removed.

5 hallmarks revealed on the handle of the spoon

While we are no experts when it comes to silverware, the internet and Google have information aplenty to tell you just about everything you could want to know about an old spoon.  We are now a little more enlightened and by way of sharing our knowledge, the 5 hallmarks on Heather's spoon told us this:

Firstly, the far right marking of 'EP' in the 'Route 66' road sign like shield, tells us this was not sterling silver cutlery.  'EP' indicates the silver appearance was achieved via a silver coating being Electro Plated over the top of a base metal spoon.  The base metal was typically copper or brass.

Now, from left to right, the remaining hallmarks told us:

• Who made it?: The gothic 'J' in a circle was not as conclusive as hoped for as almost every cutlery maker on the planet appears to have been called 'John'.  So, lets say that 'John' Someone probably made this spoon.
• Where was it made?:  The 'B' confirms that Birmingham in England was the place of manufacture.
• Don't know what the rose in the shield like symbol stands for.
• What quality is the metal?: 'B2'.  Cutlery makers used to indicate the quality of their electroplated 'silverware' using a scale from 'A1' (best quality where two and two thirds of a gram of silver was contained in the electroplated coating) through to 'D' where just one half of one gram of silver was used.  Our 'B2' spoon turns out to have been of 'third quality' and originally contained one and one third of a gram of silver in its coating.

Last but not least is the most valuable find in Heather's collection - an 18 ct gold wedding ring.

18 carat gold ring found in the bank the river

While not found this weekend like the rest of the items described in this blog (Heather found the ring about 3 weeks ago), just like everything else, it was discovered within site of our house along the riverbank.  Using the weight of the ring, its purity (750 is stamped onto the inside of the ring (much like a hallmark) - 750 parts gold per 1000, or 75% pure gold.  Pure gold is 24 carats so 75% of 24 carats makes the ring 18 carat gold), and the gold price of today, the monetary value of the ring is about $200.  I am sure this is far outweighed by the sentimental value of the ring to the person that lost it (but then again, perhaps someone that had had enough of a bad marriage threw it into the river on purpose - we will never know)!  Regardless of how the ring ended up in the river in the first place, Heather's metal detecting efforts are the reason it is in our house today.

Before I close I have to let everyone know that while a quick report like this makes it appear as though all you have to do to find buried treasures is get a metal detector, walk outside, wave it around bit and then dig a hole in the ground the first time a signal rings in your ears and you will be rewarded.  That is just not so.  

Many many hours of time go into developing your skills as a metal detector.  Since Heather got the detector almost two years ago she has learned to interpret the signals and tones the machine gives her and she has learned to 'read the terrain' to identify the most likely locations for success - it is definitely a learned skill.  Only once in a very long while do you have a weekend like the one she has just had.  That's why it was so 'post-worthy'.  Normally a keen metal detector has to deal with sunburn, sweat in your eyes, flies in your face, mosquitoes, sore legs and knees from squatting and kneeling in the dirt and the seemingly endless disappointments from digging up bottle caps and pull tabs, and the old nails and bits of wire that are just everywhere!  The effort required is probably best summarised by quoting a line from a song by one of my favourite bands, AC/DC, "...I tell you folks, it's harder than it looks..."

Every now and again a metal detector will dig up something that is a bit unique and that is what keeps them going back for more.  Much like this blog... every now and again I pull together a decent story and it feels good to share.

Until the next issue of WTF - Where are The Farrows?, stay safe and stay happy!

An evening at the Drive-In

Hello everyone.

It has been a while since my last posting - I apologize for that but we have been busy settling into our house and our new routines so we haven't got out and about too much.

Heather and I are well but Bernard's left hind leg has started to give him some considerable grief when getting up and down and walking.  As a result of this he will be seeing the vet yet again during October to try and address his lameness once and for all (as best we can).

Anyway, now for the subject of this posting...

Last night we found ourselves at the drive-in for the first time in a very very long time for both of us.  We went to see a movie called 'Oddball'.

Promotional poster for the movie

It is based on a true story about how a Maremma dog (same breed as Bernard) saved a colony of penguins from being decimated by foxes.  There were once over a thousand penguins in this colony and their numbers got down to as few as 15 before they put the Maremma (Oddball) amongst the penguins to guard them.  Since the dog (and subsequently other Maremmas) went to work not a single penguin has been lost to foxes and the colony is flourishing once more.  It is a feel good family movie and lots of kids were there (it is school holidays here at the moment) but it was of particular interest for us as we have a Maremma ourselves.

As it turned out Bernard was allowed to be in the car with us so we took him to the movie as well (if you click on the photo below it will enlarge and you can get a better look at him filling up the back of the car).

Bernard in the car at the drive-in to see his Maremma movie star cousin 'Oddball'

'Oddball' and Bernard look almost exactly the same so at times we swore it could have been Bernard in the movie.

We had some popcorn, Bernard had some dog treats and a good time was had by all!

That's all for our recent outing so you now know the latest about WTF - Where are The Farrows?

The Copper Coast of Yorke Peninsula

As far as winter weather is concerned, Adelaide and its surrounds sure do have a pretty good time of it.  It was cool (8°C) but fairly clear when we woke up this morning with the forecast advising it would warm up to a very pleasant and rain free 16°C by mid afternoon.

While we are waiting for the purchase of our house to close so that we can move in there is not much else we can do but venture out and about on short road trips.  Today we decided to visit some of the coastal towns on the 'Copper Coast' of South Australia's Yorke Peninsula.  For no real reason we targeted towns that had jetties or piers that we could walk out to the end of.  I was practising my panoramic photos today so please excuse the numerous 'panorama' shots included in today's post (tip: if you click directly on each photo it will enlarge and you will be able to pick out a bit more detail than you can see on the thumbnail sized images in the blog itself). 

First stop was Pt. Broughton located about 170 km NW of Adelaide.  The town perfectly fits being described as 'a sleepy little town' - so sleepy in fact that I forget to take a picture of the jetty (sorry about that).  I did take a photo of a grumpy pelican sitting proudly on a channel post near the end of the jetty.  He was not really that appreciative of us being there as he made an almost growling noise by rapidly clattering his beak open and shut whenever we stepped to the closest edge of the jetty to take his picture.  We took our picture and left him to continue surveying his realm.

Pelican standing guard at the end of the Pt. Broughton jetty

Wallaroo was the next seaside town we came to about half an hour's drive away.  The jetty at Wallaroo is about 800m long and is used to load locally grown grains, mostly wheat that has been delivered to and stored in nearby silos, onto ocean going ships.  Locals fish for squid from the jetty year round with a few trying their luck today.  There was plenty of evidence of recent catches in the form of ink stains all over the deck.  Swimming within a large enclosure attached to the side of the jetty is also big in the warmer months.


Wallaroo Jetty - Grain silo's in the background & ship being loaded at right

About 20 kilometres further down the coast was Moonta Bay where we saw a few squid getting hauled in by people fishing from this L-shaped jetty.



Just landed - you can see some of the ink it has squirted

As you can see from the photo above, squid are not the most handsome of creatures, but they make for some mighty good calamari especially when they are this fresh from the ocean and go straight into the pan!



Panoramic view from the end of the Moonta Bay jetty

The Pt. Hughes jetty is visible from the Moonta Bay jetty so it was just minutes after leaving Moonta Bay that we walked out onto our fourth jetty for the day.

Port Hughes jetty is straight out and back - no fancy ship loader or L-shape

This jetty is straight out and back with no particularly remarkable features.  It was however, similar to ALL of the jetties we strolled across today in that it too was covered in squid ink.

Last stop for the day was at Ardrossan on the eastern side of Yorke Peninsula.  The eastern coast of the peninsula is not part of the Copper Coast but Ardrossan has some very nice views over the water and it has a nice long jetty so we included it in our loop - and we were glad we did.  Due to good luck rather than good planning, by the time we arrived the area was bathed in beautiful 'photographers light'.  This is the light that you get very late in the afternoon when the sun is at your back and low in the sky.  As a result, the photos from here look great so they had to be included (even if they were not of jetties - thank goodness for something other than jetties I hear you say - don't fret we are nearly finished!).

It had been a while since we had eaten anything and with all of the fresh sea air and jetty walking that we had been doing we were hungry so we picked up some fish and chips to have as an early dinner.

Heather & Bernard enjoying the ocean view and some Fish and Chips

Ardrossan has some small red cliffs immediately above the coast.  The light blue sky, deep blue water, red cliffs, green grass and the beautiful sunlight made for a lovely scene.  I hope the photos do the place justice (last panorama for today coming up).

View from cliffs above the Ardrossan Jetty

As we strolled along the walking path above the beach there were flowers that looked like Marigolds? (I stand to be corrected on this) everywhere.  Their bright orange colour just added to the colour sensory blast that we felt at this place.

Is this a Marigold?

A quick walk out to the end of the jetty was the plan but it took a bit longer than envisaged.  Not because the jetty was longer than we thought but because it seemed that every kid on the jetty wanted to love-up Bernard as we walked by.  For one little girl just once was not enough - she had to stop us again as we made our way back in.

This little girl couldn't get enough of Bernard

Finally with our jetty walk completed and with the sun now setting we loaded Bernard and ourselves into our little red wagon and drove back to Adelaide.  We arrived home about an hour after dark and despite the fact that all we did was walk to the end of structures that poke out from the shoreline into the ocean, the time passed quickly and a good time was had by all.

Who knows what we will get up to next?  To find out, you will have to keep following our exploits on the next instalment of WTF? - Where are The Farrows?

From inside the Artist's Studio

We have a new and interesting experience to report on this week - Heather and Bernard were asked to sit and pose as models for a group of sketch artists, painters and a sculptor!

How did this come about?  Well I am glad you asked...

Recently, towards the conclusion of one of Bernard's numerous daily exercise walks, he had a bit more energy left to burn off than usual and was not ready to go home just yet.  He started snapping and tugging at Heather's coat tails while she was walking alongside him - he wanted to play tug and was not letting go.  Those people that have met Bernard will understand that he is a big boy and will be able to appreciate that when he is in a feisty mood and wants to do his own thing he can be quite a handful to control.  After a couple of minutes of this Heather had had enough as he was being particularly unruly so she told him to 'STOP IT!'  Suitably rebuked Bernard came to heel and let go but unbeknownst to our intrepid duo a woman standing in a nearby doorway had been watching the show.  The doorway, which is literally next door to our apartment, just happens to be the front door to the Adelaide Art Society studio.

The Adelaide Art Society now resides in what was formerly a grain store

She must have noticed what a striking and interesting pair Heather & Bernard made so after a brief chat she asked if they would mind sitting as subjects for a group of artists to draw, paint and sculpt - and she was willing to pay them to do so!  The invitation was duly accepted and so it was that on Monday 22nd June, my Heather and Bernard officially became professional 'models'.    I think it was Linda Evangelista that once said "I don't get out of bed for less than $10000 a day."  Now neither Heather nor Bernard will get out of bed for less than $50! (ha ha).

From all accounts a good time was had by all with both the subjects and the artists enjoying their time together.  He was well behaved (unlike the behaviour he had been displaying that resulted in them getting the gig in the first place).  A final 2 hour sitting is to be done next week so that the group can put the finishing touches to what they have started.

It is amazing how differently a group of people looking at the same subject at the same time in the same setting can see things and then there is the different way each artist captures what they see.  Below are a couple of photos of their works in progress.
 

Portrait of Heather and Bernard

One of the painters was a little more abstract...

That's all for now.  Once the paintings and sculpture are finished I will post an update for all to see.

Fleurieu Peninsula

Another nice weekend so another local road trip to discover and re-discover some of the places of interest that are on our new doorstep.

On a driving loop to and through a region known as the Fleurieu Peninsula that lies to the south of Adelaide the three of us visited a number of little towns and parks along the way.  All in all it was a pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

First up were to neighbouring towns of Yankalilla and Normanville where we enjoyed a nice lunch in an historic pub.

Next planned stop was to be at the Deep Creek Conservation Park where we thought we would take Bernard out for a bit of a walk.  This however, was not to be as the 'Conservation' part of the park's name also means 'no dogs allowed' as they may decide to chase the native critters that they come across.  So as we were doing our drive through and out the park without any leg stretch for the dog we had to be satisfied with the consolation prize of some beautiful views of the coastline from the higher elevations of the park.

View of the coastline from Deep Creek Conservation Park

As it turns out we did come across a small mob of kangaroos (for non-Australian readers, the word 'mob' is how a group of kangaroos is described) while still in the park.  With the dog confined to the car the kangaroos were not too bothered by our presence so we took the obligatory photos then continued on our way.



A few roos enjoying the green grass and sea view

The seaside town of Victor Harbor (population 14,500) is the major centre at the southern end of the Fleurieu Peninsula.  There used to be some whaling activity run out of the area way back when.  Today there are a couple of outfits that run whale watching tour boats which is a much better way to make money off of the whales.  Although the whale watching season has just started (it runs from June through to October), we decided to stay on land and take the dog for a walk across the causeway to nearby Granite Island.

View of the Causeway and Granite Island from Victor Harbor

The causeway connecting Victor Harbor to Granite Island (so named because it is essentially a big lump of granite - the early settlers were literal if not very imaginative with their place naming), is about 600m across which makes for a pleasant stroll on a cool but calm day like today but may not be quite so much fun when it is colder and windy.  For those where the walk there and back may be a bit too far, or perhaps just for the novelty of it, you can also take the horse drawn tram across.

Take the Horse drawn tram if you are not up for the walk

The three of us were all set to walk across to the island when we saw the 'Dogs and Cats Prohibited' signs at the start of the causeway.  For the second time today Bernard was deprived of what would have been a good walk for him - this time on account of the existence of a colony of penguins on the island.  With Bernard unable to make the hike we loaded him back into the car, cracked the windows to let some cool air in for him, gave him a dog biscuit and then we scurried away without looking back at the car in order to avoid the 'stink-eye' look that he gives us when we don't take him with us.

Heather and I made short work of the walk across and then around the island.  The penguins have been making a comeback on the island of late so they get the rule of the roost hence the Give Way to Penguins signs dotted about the place.

It was getting later in the day so it was time to start heading home.  Along the roadside we came across an old gum tree (a eucalyptus tree) that had had a large 'blaze' cut out of it.  A signpost stated the bark section had been stripped off by aboriginal people many years ago in order to make a canoe.

Aboriginal 'Canoe Tree'

We got home just as it was getting dark after setting out at around 9:30 that morning.  A much longer day than we were expecting but the time seemed to fly by as something new and interesting always appeared around the next corner.  Despite our best efforts Bernard probably got the raw deal for the day but that is also one of the few times in his life where that has been the case.  He needn't worry as we will make it up to him tomorrow...