Saturday 7 August 2021
DOGGY TAILS – The Cook and his Mates
Rosie, Conan & Chinner 
Rosie, Chinner, Conan & Carli 
Chinner
Norm decided to cook up a batch of bolognaise sauce on Thursday. In no time the delicious smells had attracted every resident dog on Coomalie. The next night we heard a distant chorus of dingoes howling – possibly the delicious aromas had finally reached their camp. They were joined by the usual nightly lament from the curlews.
LINUS FAILS…
Dear old Linus, the usually most reliable work horse known to man (well at least to us) is currently parked in the paddock, not even grazing.
Over the week she has faithfully taken us
foraging runs out to Batchelor https://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/batchelor-nt,
as well as ambles around the air field https://www.ozatwar.com/airfields/coomalie.htm
and to Lake Bennet. https://www.facebook.com/lakebennettbungalows
Once Norm had finished cooking up the Spaghetti Bollonese masterpiece, we jumped into Linus, intending to take a quick run into Batchelor. The old beast just turned over with no action beyond the starter motor, when Norm turned on the ignition. She was not going anywhere and nor were we. There was a warning light indicating water in the fuel. Last time we experienced that light flashing was back in the days of Betsy, when Norm had changed the air filter, and installed the new one up side down. We also noted that the oil levels were down. Just then, Richard rolled in, back home from Darwin. On the way back he had purchased a couple of containers of oil. Unfortunately the oil did not change the situation, and when Norm drained some of the the fuel to check for water, that also was negative. The fuses were all ok leaving all our resident experts stumped. Norm then called son Scottie, a very experienced mechanic. Despite his best suggestions the situation remained. Round 1 to Linus. SO with great reluctance on Friday Norm finally resorted to phoning for H.E.L.P from the NRMA. Not long later, Andrew from Adelaide River arrived to try and save our day. He was very confident in the beginning, but finally had to concede defeat. Round 2 to Linus. However; he did conclude that most likely the anti- theft mechanism has been activated by THE computer. Don’t we love this modern age when everything is run by computers!!
Almost as if it was an omen, smoke from bushfires down near Adelaide River rolled over the farm casting a dirty orange – reddish light.
Norm and Andrew
Meanwhile, Richard has very kindly offered us the keys to his old farm workhorse, The Great Wall of Coomalie. After a practice take off down the runway and a few circuits of the taxi-ways we were able to take a re-supply run into Batchelor, with Rosie, riding shotgun in the back seat and the wind blowing in her fur.
The Great Wall of Coomalie 
Shot Gun Rose
THE RETURN OF THE WRIGHTIES
Just as the Linus affair was in full swing, Denise and James arrived back home from Darwin. It was such a lovely diversion to welcome them back and catch up with news about the operation.
Later we gathered near the Gazebo and chatted whilst Denise prepared some of the craft rocks for her stall at the Batchelor Sunday Markets. Richard performed a few circuits in his jeep, which Rick had recently managed to get running. At least one vehicle out of three (the Jeep, Denises’ Buttercup and our Linus) is running again.
MORE COOMALIE MORNING AMBLES
On Saturday morning Rosie and I walked out beside the dry creek bed next to our camp. There were many Wallabies, including cute little joeys out in the long grasses. They were so lovely to watch as they took off towards the trees when we got closer to them. The thump, thump thump sound they made seemed so much louder than usual in the still quietness of the morning. Unfortunately they were too quick for me to take a photo.
The birdsong in the big trees was delightful to listen to, https://youtu.be/he6cHVBVX08 as we explored the high rise termite apartments, as well as those still under construction..
Turkey Bush 
Me and Termite High-rise 
High Rise under construction 
On the Runway 
Looking out for unscheduled landings 
inside the tower 
Jetsom? 
Target practice 
Wind Sock
From the High Rises we wandered over to the landing strip where I could see in the distance a shed full of intriguing looking treasures.
POKING AROUND THE SHEDS…
Wandering around the sheds I could not help but reflect on how much my Tony would have LOVED this place.
TOUCH & GOES…
This afternoon I was entertained by one of the local flight trainers putting a student through some practice on the runway. It was awesome to listen to the sound of an aeroplane landing and taking off echoing from the hills around.
ON THE ROAD 