Our self isolation

Early morning rainbow over Kooralbyn Valley.

Left Kirra Beach and drove to Kooralbyn only seeing one van on the way.  Very quiet on the roads as many people staying and working from home.  Set up and have a lovely view of the NSW Border Ranges and so quiet and peaceful. No-one else is here so have full use of amenities and Rec room.  Leon and Sandy are still working so see very little of them and they are very conscious of keeping their distance from us.

Kooralbyn Valley and Border ranges of NSW

All this space to ourselves.

Our site

Drinks on the deck

A Butcher Bird would join us on the deck as the sunset.

Over the three weeks we stayed at Sandy and Leon's I was able to watch many sunrises and sunsets from the deck at the rec-room while having afternoon drinks.  Also plenty of photo opportunities!!
The weather was warm which we naturally enjoyed while the nights cooled and made for good sleeping weather. Once a week we would travel to Beaudesert for our essential shopping which become our main excitement for the week, as is for many other people. Helen read 14 books during our stay, apparently to reduce the load for when we travel, while I spent the time doing some small repairs to the caravan and the occasional walk around the property.  I also spent a few hours on the computer completing forms and researching what we needed to do to travel back to the Northern Territory.

Each night a different sunset

Sunset transition over time.

Another sunset over the ranges

Free as a bird - Eastern Osprey flying past during the day.

Whiptail

These butterflies and bees where attracted to this particular tree.

Our stay also coincided with Easter which we had planned to have with friends but due to the travel restrictions we spent it by our self and of course still had an Easter egg and hot cross bun or two. Organised a group Messenger "face-time" for coffee with the kids which was good and will be the 'norm' in these unusual times.

The Easter bunny resting up in a farm art dunny. 

Helen enjoying her Easter egg/rabbit dark chocolate.

From the 3rd April 2020 the NT border was closed and people who cross will be escorted to a motel for quarantine for 14 days.  Getting a bit concerned about how we will get back to Darwin as the tenants move out at the end of April and we are hoping that we could return to bunker down until the coronavirus pandemic passes or restrictions are lifted to allow some sort of normality back.  I applied for exemption to quarantine 2 weeks before we estimated we would cross the border into NT, hoping  we can drive straight to our house in Darwin and maybe self isolate for 14 days there instead of forced quarantine in motel accommodation, which is at your own cost.