Blog Day 709 - Saturday 19 March 2022 - Day 22 of Even More Covid Nearly Normaller

A am sure that you, my gentle readers, will be relieved to know that I have returned unscathed from my adventures in the great Australian wilderness, or at least the Delatite arm of Lake Eildon.

I arrived at our camp site early Tuesday afternoon and although overcast it wasn't raining.  My fellow adventurers who, for the sake of anonymity, I will call John, Richard and Tom, had already arrived and were busily setting up tents and getting boats in the water and so on.  I put up my new tent and I must admit having a tent that one can stand up in is such a blessing.

Tuesday night was uneventful and up early to be out on the water by about 9.00, and was it bucketing down.  The rain started at about 3.00am in the morning and didn't stop until about 2.00pm in the afternoon.  I discovered very early in the piece that my new tent is very waterproof and I was snug and dry.

Once out on the water it was still raining heavily but luckily I was in John's boat that was very comfortable and had a very waterproof canopy.  The the other two chaps weren't quite as fortunate as they were out in a very basic tinny with no cover except for the very cheap plastic ponchos they were wearing and they got saturated.  As I said to young Tom, "it is character building" which he appreciated my pointing that out.

The weather the next couple of days was really nice with sunny warm days and pleasant evenings. Richard and Tom returned to Melbourne on Thursday leaving myself and John in camp. 

Thursday night was clear with a full moon and the lake looked stunning in the moonlight. After a little bit of sleeping medicine myself and John decided to call it a night and retired to our tents (separate, no Brokeback Mountain here) for the evening.  About 3.00am in the morning I was awoken by a bloodcurdling howl that seemed to come from next to my tent, I woke up like one of those cartoon characters, bolt upright with hair standing on end and eyes bulging, and then there was silence.  About 30 seconds later there was another howl of similar length and intensity and then a couple of minutes later another howl from a little further away.

We decided the next morning that it was a wild dog that had wandered into the camp and was baying at the full moon, but it was certainly blood curdling stuff.

Anyway a pleasant trip was had by all and it was great to get away into the bush for a few days.

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention the tractor.  There were some forestry guys near our camp site putting in some pine posts and they were using a tractor with a little drill rig and pile driver on the back to punch the posts into the ground.  As they were leaving they asked me if they could leave the tractor near our camp and would we keep any eye on it for them, this would save them loading the tractor onto the trailer and taking it back to the depot and then bringing it back the next day.  Of course I agreed that it would be Ok.

When the others returned from fishing I told them about the tractor and the honour and responsibility that had been thrust upon us.  As usual I take these things very seriously so I had drawn up a little roster for us to maintain a watch on the tractor overnight.  I was to take the first watch from 9.00 to 12.00, Richard 12.00 to 3.00, Tom 3.00 to 6.00 and John 6.00 to 9.00.  

I don't think that the others took the responsibility with the same seriousness as I as I wasn't relieved at the end of my shift and I don't think that any sort of watch was maintained for the rest of night.  Fortunately the tractor it was still there in the morning and all wheels were still attached.

Some campsite photos below, including the new tent, unfortunately no photos of the tractor or the dog.

During my absence I see that things have not improved much covid wise.  

Victoria is now reporting up to 9,000 new covid cases a day, hospitalisations are up, ICU patients are down and ventilators are also up.  The Victorian death figures are remaining steady with daily fluctuations ranging from 10 per day to 1 or 2 per day.  

NSW new daily infections are now back up to 19,000 per day with a daily peak of 30,000 a couple of days ago.

Nationally the vaccination percentages are continuing to creep up with 96.6% having received their 1st dose, 94.9% their second and 60.4% their third.   

        Corona Virus Daily Stats – 19 March 2022 – Day 22 Even More Covid Nearly Normaller

	Aus Infected	Aus Increase	Aus 1st Dose Vacc	Vic Infected	Vic Increase	NSW Increase	*Aus Active Infection	NSW Active Infection	Vic Active Infection	Aus 2nd Dose Vacc
01/03					6,879	8,874
02/03	3,261,365	29,177	96.3%	1,054,417	7,126	10,650	203,751	96,291	41,162	94.4%
03/03					7,093	11,358
04/03					6,545	9,466
05/03	3,342,656	24,202	96.4%	1,073,518	5,721	10,017	216,123	103,910	39,556	94.5%
06/03					5,046	8,782
07/03					5,645	9,017
08/03					7,043	13,018
09/03	3,456,456	27,008	96.5%	1,098,093	7,081	13,179	231,794	118,038	38,874	94.4%
10/03					7,779	16,288
11/03	3,527,709	27,092	96.5%	1,112,451	6,811	14,034	259,037	133,783	46,263	94.2%
12/03					6,075	12,850
13/03					5,192	13,093
14/03					5,499	8,911
15/03					7,460	10,689
16/03					9,426	30,402
17/03					9,752	20,087
18/03					9,036	20,050
19/03	3,863,155	46,422	96.6%	1,171,736	7,847	19,060	356,556	195,681	49,022	94.9%
20/03

Corona Virus Daily Stats Hospitalisation Etc – 19 March 2022 – Day 22 Even More Covid Nearly Normaller
Date	Aus New Infection	Aus Hospital	Aus ICU	Aus Ventilate	Vic New Infection	Vic Hospital	Vic ICU	Vic Ventilate	AUS Daily Deaths	Vic Daily Deaths
01/03					6,879				41	18
02/03	29,177	1,859	121	25	7,126	264	37	5	61	28
03/03									45	22
04/03									38	26
05/03	24,202	1,758	111	28	5,721	250	28	8	47	24
06/03									13	4
07/03									32	2
08/03									16	6
09/03	27,008	1,737	110	22	7,081	196	32	3	31	9
10/03									21	8
11/03	27,092	1,684	100	21	6,811	185	27	3	28	10
12/03									22	11
13/03									15	4
14/03									5	1
15/03									25	4
16/03									23	8
17/03									26	7
18/03									29	9
19/03	46,422	1,903	86	22	7,847	210	23	5	28	2
20/03