14/5/2022 – Saturday –

This morning we caught up with our Kimberley Kamping neighbours, downhill from Batemans Bay & uphill from Sydney, chatting with all four for a fair while. Off for a walk to town next through the showground then along a path through a sheep paddock following the bone dry Willochra Creek. There are lots of very old & character filled large gum trees along the track, with some wild olive trees growing here & there. The walk was very pleasant & we quickly warmed up & had to take our coats off. The nights are cold & we certainly appreciate our doona but the days are beautiful sunny 20 – 23C. In town we walked to the Jacka Brewery for lunch & a Remarkable Ale. It was very pleasant sitting next to a fire pit sharing a meal & chatting with fellow Kimberley people that happened to be there as well.

After lunch we walked to the Melrose Museum, situated in the old Police Station & Courthouse building. The museum is very well presented with a focus on policing & court activities in the main building with the other outbuildings presenting different aspects of farming life & the history of Melrose. The display of farming equipment & machinery was well presented. We spent a few hours here wandering through before walking back to camp. 

Time just went so quickly that we didn’t have time to see two other places we wanted to go to.  Maybe tomorrow after our drive out into the country.  We walked 7.8Km today.

Tonight was the group dinner & we sat with some people we had not met before, so that was nice chatting to them over dinner. One of the ladies actually lived in Richardson, not far from our place when it was just being established, her kids went to the same school our son went to, we filled her in all the different things about her old street & Canberra in general. The local show society catered for dinner & did a great job providing meals for around 150 people with chicken & lamb on the menu for the main course followed by lovely ice cream & apple crumble. During dinner was a slideshow of previous Kimberley gatherings followed by a presentation on the next planned gathering in the Northern Territory next year. This was followed by a talk by the owner of Kimberley Kampers & he spoke about what they have done & are doing with the Kimberley range, very informative.  A very pleasant day.