Christmas Lights

Rob and Gay drove me back to Fiona's and after dinner Fiona took us to see some lights. I have never seen anything like what we saw at Everton Hills and the Roman Catholic Church at Chermside West.

Clark's

I had an amazing time with Rob and Gay at their home at Wynnum. Dinner party Friday and Saturday night and lunch today. The food was amazing and it was great to catch up with Katie, Scott,Jo and Bella.

Brisbane

2nd December I travelled to Brisbane with Mum and Dad. We stopped at the Tiny Teahouse at Rosedale for afternoon tea and then Bundaberg for an overnight stop. We arrived in Brisbane Monday afternoon after stopping at Sexie Coffee where I enjoyed a swim in the pool with Peter and Grace. Tuesday we went to Chermside to soak up some of their air on 38 degrees was not pleasant to be in. Did some Santa shopping for Kylie and then back to Fiona's for another swim. Wednesday was Dads doctors appointment, his doctor is a lovely lady and explained his questions well. Thursday was Fiona's birthday and we celebrated with a High tea at Queenies a great experience and beautiful food. Friday I caught the train to the city with Fiona walked for an hour and did some window shopping as it was only 7am and a bit early I felt to catch my next train to the Clark's where I spent the weekend.

Carport Roof

 Work on the dining room ceiling had to go on hold while camps were using the complex so David moved onto replacing the roof of the carport with some second hand iron that was in excellent condition.  Great job no more rust dropping on our vehicles. It was scarry watching him walk accross the old roof as it was so rusted I thought he might fall through.  He was ok he had his safety boots on.

Tanyalla Ceiling

David started resheeting the ceiling in the dining hall and it is a bit of a task. I was the ta but quickly got the sack when I cut the timbers on the wrong side of the line.  In patchwork we cut right down the middle of the line in timber you leave the pencil line on.  Tricky!

Mum's Birthday

David won a meat tray when we went to the Surf club for dinner on Friday night.  We thought it a good opportunity to share it with the family on Mum's Birthday.  It was an enjoyable evening on the verandah at Tanyalla.

5th November

Packed up the van to go home, we stopped at Brent and Julie's to get some Rockmelons.  David and I had a go at packing and I think I will stick to baby sitting.  I was able to entertain Baxter and Ruby while Julie did the pays before we headed home. 

3rd November

Last night we had an enjoyable BBQ at David's parents with Kathy, Darrel, Brent, Julie, Baxter and Ruby.  Baxter and Ruby are delightful children and I had a lovely time playing games with Ruby.

I went to the kiosk to get some milk for breakfast to find what they had was out of date. David decided to come for a walk to Bargara shops with me and we decided to have breakfast at the cafe overlooking the beach. On our way walking down we met Robyn and Malcolm Holmes and found they were staying in the same van park as us just across the back. We enjoyed afternoon tea and drinks with them before rain chased us home.

1st November

We started the day with a walk to Mon Repos stopping to eat a few berries. David had a swim in the surf and I had a paddle in the creek before walking back. Wish we had our bikes down here. I treated myself to a pedicure and manicure and purchased a roast to cook on the webber on the way home. Yum!

31st October

Had to finish breakfast quickly so David could get to the beach for his swim took my coffee to the beach and then went for a walk while he caught a few waves. We went for another walk and on the way back saw a massage bed with a sign "Massage for donation" and I had an awesome massage. David was given one also while he waited for me.

Bargara

After a week at home catching up with family,friends and Tanyalla and cleaning after a camp we are now at Bargara.

Ayr

19th - 20th October

We free camped at the Minnuzo Cane Farm.  Eddie asked if I would be interested in looking at some old farm equipment and I said no that he and David could go but we all ended up going and i was was surprised at the collection.  He had an amazing display of ford memorabillia as well as other old wares including treddle sewing machines.

Pam was our tourguide and took David and I to places and people David knew when he lived inAyr.   Our first stop was Hutchinson Lagoon where they remembered the times when they went to cabaret’s there.  We then went to Allva Beach and on the wayback we stopped where Mary Bonarto lived to find she had moved and the lovelyMan that now lives there showed us around the garden and Tennis Courts and gaveus the address where Mary lived now.   Mary was overwhelmed that we would come tovisit and it was lovely catching up with her. It was then back to the farm to watch a cane fire, a quick shower andoff to dinner at the Anzac Club where David was able to catch up with PeterSaxby another old friend from his Ayr days.

We headed for Claireview stopping at a coffee plantation formorning tea at Proserpine, we were undecided whether to stay at the free campor the caravan park, David was keen to stop in the caravan park for our lastnight before getting home.  On reflectionthe following morning we both thought we may have been better staying at thefree camp.

We headed for Gladstone stopping at Mum and Dad’s to collectthe trailer and Dad’s car and headed for Kylie’s to help them do a couple ofdump runs.  We arrived at Tanyalla about4pm with Aunty Louise welcoming us.  Wewill stay in our caravan for this week and help with cleaning after the camp onthe weekend.  We then plan to go theBundaberg for a week.

Richmond to Ayr

About 200k from Charters Towers the bells in our car started again saying check engine.  What do we do hop out check all we knew but it still seemed to be running fine so we drove to the Holden agency at Charters Towers and a young mechanic came out this time with the computer as they needed to clear the computer not just reset the service alarm. 

All fixed and David wanted to go to the Burdekin Falls Dam, there was a caravan park listed in our camps 5 book and the road said 80k but boy it seemed a lot longer than that, we finally found what looked like an abandoned caravan park with a sign saying $15 powered site and would be collected at 7am in the morning.  It was a lovely place with grass and the bird life was amazing.  We saw an echnida on the way to the BBQ where we cooked our dinner  about  200m from our camp.  No phone service though.  We packed up and went for a walk to check out the dam and were amazed by the facilities just left dormant.  The dam itself was massive and the waterfall spectacular to look at.  There were a few road blocks (cows) on the way. 

cows on the road

On the way to Ayr we stopped at Ravenswood to view some of the history, David had been here before and enjoyed reminiscing.  It was then on to Ayr to visit Eddie and Pam where we free camped at their can farm.  Some more reminiscing for David of his days he spent working in the Court House in Ayr.  We had lunch at the Queens Hotel for $10 each and it was the best value for money I have seen in a long time.  It is great to be able to catch up with Eddie, Pam and the children.

Austin A 40 van at Ravenswood

Burdekin Falls Dam

16th October

Packed up hitched on went to get Woolies Petrol gotta love 15cents off. We still had our pass at the Outback at Isa so checked out the fossils and the mine museum. I ducked over to a patchwork shop that I spotted while David kept reading the history. Oops went past the turnoff to Winton (intentionally) and now we are at Richmond tonight. A nice park overlooking Lake Fred Tritton.

15th October

 

We started the day with a tour of the Hard Times Mine which involved 2 ½ hour trek  under ground.  We had to don hard hat, miners lamp, overalls and boots before descending into the mine in a cage.  The tour incorporated a demonstration of the actual equipment used to drill and excavate the ore.  We also got to listen to an actual blast which gave the impression you were feeling the real thing.  We were able to have morning tea in the crib room before returning to the top.

It was then time to take the car to the holden dealership for them to take one minute to fix it.

Some grocery shopping, dropping the easy lift to a workshop to have it straightened because when we arrived yesterday David noticed when he unhitched it had been bent somehow, driving past 5 17^th Avenue (the scene where I put my arm through the washing machine wringer). 

We packed a picnic of sausages and things and headed for Lake Moondarra where David lit a wood BBQ and cooked our dinner.  It was a very pleasant place to dine.

 

14th October

Today we are at Mt Isa, we did plan to go to Cloncurry but our car is ringing bells telling us to check the motor. We think when we had it serviced in August they did not reset the service time. We will go to a Holden dealer tomorrow and get it checked. We are in a nice van park and will take the opportunity to look around Mt Isa. We may stay 3 nights and then head home. We were going to go across to Townsville but at this stage plan to visit Mike Vercoe in Emerald and be home to help with the camps at the end of the month.

11th and 12th October

We left early and headed for the Hot Springs where we had breakfast in the car park and then went for a plunge before heading to Banka Banka for our overnight stop.  We met a great group people in the van park and had a very social time.  We had a craft session with me showing one lady how to button hole stitch and another showing me a tip on crochet.  I had another wash up cloth made and was able to give that away.

We headed out of the van park early headed for Camooweal.  On our way up we fueled up at Camooweal and then at Renner Springs and all was good but that did not work today.  Five Kilometers out of Barkley we ran out of fuel.  It was fortunate that I had enough signal strength to google and find the phone number of Barkley Station and phoned them and they were very helpful and came to our aid with some fuel.  Just after this we saw a sign saying "Caution headwinds increase fuel consumption".  Upon our arrival at Cammoweal we met the neighbours, had drinks with them and then went to the pub for Apple Pie for dinner.  Well David and the others had it not me! I made another two wash up cloths in the car today and I am getting better not as wonky on the sides.

One of the highlights we have found has been the camaraderie of those who we have met.

  

We left Darwin and stopped at  Adelaide River to see the bits we did not know about on the way up.  The War Cemetery  was the first stop and was very sobering particularly when you looked at the young ages of the servicmen whose graves were there from the conflict in Darwin.

Next was the Adelaide River Inn. The Inn welcomes locals, visitors and travellers alike. The Inn is home to "Charlie" the Buffalo from Crocodile Dundee.

 Bitter Springs at Mataranka is our stop for tonight. We waded into the warm waters of the Spring and drifted with the flow down along the stream that connects the two swimming areas and up the exit ladder at the pedestrian bridge onto the walkway that circles the Spring area, walked back to the beginning and did it again.
 The water is incredibly clear.

Darwin Day Seven

The tyres did not arrive yesterday so we had to stay another night.  We thought we would go to see what was at Howard Springs as some people we had met on the way said they had stayed there.  It was only 15-20 minutes away and after driving through the town where a 4,000 bed workers village  is being constructed for the LNG project we went to the Nature Park and had morning tea that we had taken with us, lucky cause there was none to be got there.  It had been a recreation area for the forces during World War II and now has been developed into a picnic area for the people of Darwin.  On the way home we stopped at the Palmerston Shopping Centre to get some supplies before heading back to have the picnic lunch we had taken with us by the pool in the van park.

The Tyres arrived and we had them fitted so we will leave tomorrow headed for Mataranka.

Darwin Day Six

Hanging around just waiting for the tyres we ordered for the car to arrive.  Went for a drive to Smith Street and a walk around finding airconditioned shops to loiter in.  The rest of the time I spent in and out of the pool trying to keep cool.

Darwin Day Five

Today we went to the wave pool and it was great fun. David was a bit disappointed the waves were not quite the same as catching them at the beach. The shallow water was good for doing a bit of yoga but water aerobics for exercise is the way up here. We visited the war tunnel and the goal as well. They would have had to be slim prisioners to fit through the door ways.
We also purchased a new tap for the water tank and David was able to fix it.

Darwin Day Four

We started the day by going to the Cathedral to what was advertised as 9am Sung Eucharist to arrive and find dogs everywhere.  The service was a pet blessing service celebrating St Francis of assisi,  Despite initially being a little surprised we enjoyed the service which had been shortened significantly due to the short attention span of many of the attendees according to the Dean.   We stayed for morning tea they had good coffee but we were left to our own devices.  We took the opportunity after church to walk to the wharf development.  Gladstone could certainly take a leaf out of Darwin’s book.  What a magnificent complex with bathing areas including a wave pool as well as shopping and apartment complexes back up to Smith Street where we did the historic tour and walked through the mall without the hustle and bustle of the weekday crowds.

Our other event for today was a visit to the Aviation Museum wow I can’t believe how large the B52 bomber was, it was massive and we both enjoyed walking around the memorabilia, particularly that of world war II and Darwin.  I found it incredible an old plane could be converted to a caravan.  

 

We finished the day with a visit to the Mindil Markets where we had tea and watched the sun set over Fannie Bay.  As we were about to leave we noticed a crowd off to one side and went to find an acrobat performing.

 

Kakadu

We were picked up from outside the caravan park at 7am to head into Kakadu.  On the way we stopped at the Bark Hut which is one of the original Buffalo Hunting lodges built in the 60’s.  The Bar area was covered by huge crocodile skins and the heads of Buffalo’s and wild Bulls.  A real  frontier type place. 


From here we headed off into Kakadu National Park with our next stop being  to view some rock art which included a habitation cave which was still being used up until the 1960’s, then it was to Gagudju Lodge Cooinda  to have lunch, then onto the boat for the Yellow River Cruise here our Aboriginal Guide was able to show us the diverse range of Fauna and Flora including large salt water crocodiles.  Back on the Bus we went to the Aboriginal Cultural Centre before heading into Jabiru to change buses before heading home.

Check out that fellow between the trees with his mouth open

Jabiru