Tuesday 11 April 2023

A Loo and a View

 Nick's recent post about public toilets got me thinking about the roadside composting toilets I used while I was away on holiday. My travelling companion was proud of herself for naming this one "a loo and a view"

There was a roadside parking area with a composting toilet at the bottom end:



The view would have been spectacular on a good day so I have copied  photos from google: 


On the day we passed through the weather was more like this:
And I had temporarily lost my phone ( I could hear it but not find it in the car) so another copied photo.

In one place I walked round a spiral to get to the toilet and I didn't see a door so thinking that the spiral design itself was my only means of privacy I took my seat then realised there was a sliding gate. It was actually a very clever way to avoid having to go around a door.

These roadside composting toilets are great in remote places, all of them are made with ramp access and grab bars for anyone who has mobility challenges and there's a tap and basin which supplies rain water for hand washing. 

After recently having my phone drop from a back pocket into the toilet at home, I was especially careful about the composting toilets because there would be absolutely no hope of recovering a phone from one of those!


At one point we stopped in this Walcha park for lunch. there were no composting toilets there but proper, plumbed facilities with a vase of flowers on the counter. As I ate lunch I watched an elderly lady walk around the park cutting flowers. I thought she was either stealing the flowers or cutting them for the bathroom and I watched long enough to see her go into the bathroom with them. Obviously a very civic minded citizen!




Nothing to do with toilets, the careflight helicopter landed on the sports field right next to our accommodation one morning and I just had to ask a resident who was wandering through the caravan park why and how often it landed there on the outskirts of town. Apparently the hospital landing pad is not suitable for use after rain and the basketball court is the other option. I'd like to know how the hospital helipad is unsuitable in wet weather, it would seem to be a major design flaw. Never mind, it added an air of excitement to my day.
 



This photo is also not at all related to toilets but I had to put it in for it's sweetness.

16 comments:

  1. Thanks for the mention. Your composting toilet looks different from the one in the link you sent me. It looks like there's complete privacy, plus water for washing your hands after. Also it looks suitable for both women and men. Glad you didn't lose your phone a second time!

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    1. Yes, completely different, Nick! Losing a phone is a very expensive mistake so I'll be trying not to do it again!

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  2. There was a news story about a woman who had her phone fall in a toilet and she rescued it....eww. So, were you exposed sitting on the toilet? The view is spectacular.

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    1. With the amount a phone costs, it's worth the gross factor. There was no view from the toilet, it was a dark little shed

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  3. https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/24/us/woman-rescue-toilet-washington-trnd/index.html How about this accident! At least they hosed her off.

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    1. oh dear! it's incredible that the phone still worked!

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  4. Lovely, lovely photos. A big hooray for composting toilets (and not dropping your phone down them).
    Many years back I visited a property where the loo door was a stained glass window rescued after a nearby church had been demolished. I remember that very fondly...

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    1. I want to say the stained glass deserved a better place but there's time for appreciation for a toilet door :)

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  5. We come across plenty of them on the trip up north. None with a view like that though.
    Those long drops can be a health hazard at times. Mind and body - how long can I hold my breath….don’t look down - .be careful how you plant your little bum cheeks on the awful stainless steel pan. We only use them out of bare necessity

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    1. They sure aren't luxurious but after reading about the scarcity of public toilets in the US and Uk, I thought it was pretty good to be able to find them in some remote areas of this huge continent.
      I guess you travel up the New England? This one is on Thunderbolt Way

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  6. I enjoyed your post. I usually do but this one was about a subject close to my heart: medivac and public loos. One of the great things about both Australia and New Zealand is the excellent and plentiful public loos. I with that the same could be said of the UK.

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    1. Graham, as I said to Cathy, I was surprised that we seem to be better served here than in other places.
      Medivac is important to so many people, the town we were in was only a couple of hours drive from a major hospital so i was surprised to see it twice before 10am but those couple of hours can be critical

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  7. Thank you for the kangaroo picture!
    Sx

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