A Mystery Solved.

The riddle of the mystery object has been solved!

However, in true Uncle Harry style I am going to inflict yet more photos on you all before I reveal our detectives.

If you want me to stop you’ll have to cease telling me you like my piccies!

Well here we go again, following our brief stop at Port Fairy we pushed a further 80km (50 miles) along the coast to Portland.
Just beyond Portland (another 20km) lie Cape Nelson and Cape Bridgewater.

As this was a lightning trip we shot across to both.

At Cape Nelson we stopped for a late morning tea and I (strange as it sounds) took some piccies.

My piccies there focussed on the rather magnificent lighthouse.I liked the shapes and shadows of the doorway and the walls around it.This piccie gives an indication of how the lighthouse perches near the edge of a cliff.
Past Cape Nelson lies Cape Bridgewater.
There are some interesting features there called “The Petrified Forest”.They are in fact an oddity known as “Solution Tubes” which form in prehistoric, vegetation covered sand dunes. When the vegetation is removed the old dunes erode away leaving the tubes.

Behind the "Petrified Forest" you’ve probably spotted a man-made feature on Cape Bridgewater.A wind farm.
Many people hate these. I actually quite like them.
Yes they stand out, but I think they have a kind of majesty.
Also they are a symbol that we are finally beginning to look at alternatives to an economy based on finite fossil fuels, with all the problems they come with.
I also like the fact that one of our most ancient machines is being modified as part of a solution.

Finally we drove down to the Bridgewater Lakes and parked ourselves on a jetty overlooking this lake. For a late lunch.
This piccie shows our setup. Our folding chairs have done many thousands of kilometres with us. The large soft bag is a cooler bag, the small one my camera bag. The red bag is one of Deb’s knitting bags. Her knitting goes almost everywhere with us. Knitting is probably her favourite pastime and it is something for her to do when her loony husband is “Getting just one more photo of that…”Oh, and you might also notice my mystery object on the table.

Which brings me to an announcement

Rayna of Coffee Rings Everywhere nailed it with her guess: “Is that something you use to warm water? You could pack the chimney with hot embers or something?”

Cheers all round! Take a bow Rayna
Rayna you are exactly right, except for the type of fuel.
This item is called an “Ecobilly”
To use it you loosely fill the chimney part (underneath) with eucalyptus leaves. You turn it upright on a piece of bare ground and fill the top chamber with water.
Put on the lid and apply a match.Eucalyptus leaves have such a high oil content that they burn with an intense heat (as unfortunately attested by our bushfires). The heat coupled with the fire being contained in the cone means it will usually boil in 3 minutes.
All from a tiny fire that leaves a small pile of ash.
And here an unflattering pic of me tending said object.Jaydee deserves an honourable mention for her guess: “I was going to guess a coffee maker of some sort - but it's doubtful. It's probably more of a case of me needing another cup.”
You just boil plain water in the billy, but hey you certainly could make coffee with that water (although we usually make the bush staple - tea).

Next: Aboriginal rock shelters