Brisbane

We have been camped up in Mt. Cotton, a suburb of Brisbane.   Justin's work collegue, Col and his wife Linda were our hosts and were way too nice to us.    Justin flew up for a visit to his tattooist on the Gold Coast and we managed to spend 24 hours with him. He was suffering from a swollen and bruised arm from getting his tattoo sleeve coloured in.  Before he flew home we visited Mt. Tambourine and did a brewery, some shops, a cheese factory and lunch at a German Restaurant.    The boys had a massive german meat platter.   They were impressed.     Rick met up with a guy who was selling chevy parts and got his elusive grille for the 60 Chev.   One happy man now.    We left Brisbane and then headed to Beaudesert, about 90 mins. away to camp at the Showgrounds so we can be on the spot for the Swap Meet .

A pretty church in Beaudesert

Rick managed to get a couple more car bits so the Suzuki is getting heavier by the day.  Once the Swap Meet was done we decided to head to Boonah, about 90 mins away.   Our plan was to camp up and explore the outer edges of the Scenic Rim before returning to Brisbane and the Beenleigh Showgrounds where we were going to camp up for another Swap Meet and Hot Rod Show.

Visited the Boonah Info Centre, got our maps and stuff, and then headed off to a nice free camp.   Apart from the fact that two magpies were intent on causing us serious harm by dive bombing every time we came out of the bus, it was a nice spot.     But then we had a phone call to tell me my mum was not doing too well with her Alzheimers.    We decided that it was time for mum to go into care and so we pulled the plug on the rest of the trip and decided to head for home the next day.   Had planned hopefully to be away till December, but it was going to be an early return.     

It was sad going home, we had had a great time, didnt want to leave Qld or the sunshine behind but knew we had no choice.   The closer we got to home, the colder it got.   The day we arrived it was out with the long pants and shoes.  They hadnt been worn since we left home in May.  Oh My God how we hated that.

We are now home, its nice to see Justin, Rachel and Xavier, the house is the same, the garden looks like it could do with a week of rain, and my mum insists she is doing fantastic and will never never go into a home.    Sadly she doesnt realise that she isnt doing great.  She has been accepted into our preferred Nursing Home.   It is hoped that she will be going in towards the end of the month.   It will be a struggle to get her to leave her home but the family know its the right thing to do.

So another blog has come to an end.   Probably wont do any more, have found it a chore this time around as we havent been doing enough exciting stuff to warrant writing about.  I guess time will tell.  Thanks to everyone who has bothered to read it.   Cheers.

Whale Watching

We went to Hervey Bay to do a Whale Watching trip.   Well we could not have picked a worse day.   It bucketed down on the way to the Marina. The sun came out beautifully so we had fish n chips by the water as we waited for our boat to come in.   Sun shone when we set off but then drizzle arrived then rain and it continued for the whole 4 and 1/2  hours we were out.   We had a great time, spent so much time in the company of 6 whales who I beleive simply showed off for us.   We were told they were very inquisitive creatures and Im sure thats true.   They swam under our boat surfacing on different sides, which meant we were continually "running" from one side to the other to watch.  They were awesome. Coming so close you could see all their battle scars.  Could almost tickle their tummies.   BUT I simply couldnt get any decent photos.   We were so worried about the camera as it got drowned along with us, that in the end I put it away and instead just enjoyed the show.   In fact, Im glad I did, because it was unreal to simply watch and admire.   A great day out, spoilt by the weather in some ways, but it didnt effect the whales.   We came home drowned rats.   Got the heater on in the bus for only the 3rd time the whole trip. It was heaven.

 Last night we camped at a roadside rest area we have used before.  Its a 48Hr. stopover. Popular and crowded.   This time - ferals.  One guy has been sleeping in his car here for two weeks.  Others have set up tents, camp fires and are drinking beer at 9.00 AM  !!!!!!   They are OK people as we have chatted with them, but it makes the rest area look like crap.

Tonight we are at Maleny Showgrounds.   Great showgrounds, very friendly caretaker and the town is a beauty.   Would LOVE to stay a few days here but we have to be in Brisbane tomorrow and there is no camping here from tomorrow thru to Sunday as they have a huge food festival to get ready for over the weekend.   Bugger that would have been great to attend but we have a Swap Meet to go to.  !!!!!!!!!!  on Sunday.   Lucky for us we are now going to camp, in Brisbane,  next to Justins workmate's house so we dont have to go to a Caravan Park.   Will leave on Saturday and head out to a place called Beaudesert. Swap Meet, the biggest one day swap meet in Qld.   We will camp up close to it  or right there,   hopefully,as it starts at 7am.  Then we will travel a bit before coming back towards Brisbane the following weekend for another swap meet/hotrod show.   The Rod Club are allowing us to come and camp up on the Saturday afternoon for the Sunday Day Out.   Nice of them. Hopefully someone out there has parts for our 60 Chev.   !!!!!!!!!!

Maryborough

We stayed at the Maryborough Showgrounds for two days.  Great spot.   There were horse events on, lots of beautiful looking horses and riders doing their dressage thing.   It was a two day event and full of horse trailers of every size and sort.   Some flasher than our motorhome.   We also had the company of a remote control race car club.    They also had a two day race event on a special course.   Full on.  So many people watching and participating.   Stalls selling all sorts of stuff.   Cant beleive how big it is. Camped up with some kiwis in a Swagman motorhome.  They spend 6 months in Oz and then spend 6 months back in NZ in their Fuso Motorhome. Got talking to them and lo and behold - they are friends of Coral & Terry, our friends we stayed with whilst attending Coolly Rocks.   They actually house sat Corals house whilst they were recently overseas.  Its a small world after all.

We chose to stay at Maryborough cos we saw on TV that the Speedway was on Saturday night.   It was the opening of the Season so it was a mixed bag. Started with a car show at 1pm and ended with a massive fireworks display at 9.30.   We had a Burn Out Comp., Monster Trucks, midget racers (aged 5-10), and lots of speedway itself.   The little ones in their midget racers had their own racetrack within the speedway track.   They were hilarious to watch.  Throw caution to the wind, run off the track, get back on, dont look for oncoming traffic, just go for it.   So many near misses.  Loved them.    We had a great night out.   They had a special fireworks program at 6.30 for the kids and after that I think half the crowd left.   Prob. 3,500 people here.   The speedway holds 5,000 and it looked full.   The only downfall, we Victorians wore thongs, shorts & t shirts.  Took a blanket to sit on and our jackets but it got very chilly as the night wore on.   Most of the locals came dressed for Winter.

Camping Up

 Yes, thats what we are seeing in the very unfriendly coastal towns as we head south.   Fortunately we dont want to stay in these places and just drive thru.   A lovely rest area in Bowen, across from the Tourist Info Centre was the centre of atention when they actually fined travellers who had overnighted in this "Day Time Only" spot. $2000.    I spoke to the people at the info centre and mentioned that they were very RV Unfriendly.   They pointed out that there were plenty of caravan parks for us to stay in or we could head out of town to a farm stay where we could pay $10 to stay in a paddock next to the farm stay.  Didnt bother just wouldnt stay in these sort of towns.

We did camp up by a lovely billabong just past Sarina.   Very friendly Cafe. Opened up a camp spot. Spend anything at the Cafe and your $5 camping fee is waived

.   With home made fruit icecream and pies to die for.   It was easy to cover our $5 camp fee.

What The ?????

Spotted this motorhome in a back street of Mackay.    Have they been copying us or what???

We left Townsville and headed back down the Coast, now calling into places that we only drove thru on the way North.    Visited Bowen, Mackay and Rockhampton.   Took a trip down to 1770 and Agness Water to see what all the fuss was about and have to admit Agness Water was gorgeous.  Could easily spend a couple of weeks there for sure.   Lovely beach, patrolled, sand and blue water stretching as far as the eye can see.  We are also now camping up with fellow travellers we have met along the way, it seems everyone is now heading south back to NSW, Vic and SA.   The overnite rest areas are chockers by early afternoon, sometimes people are camping up in the mornings.!!!!!!   We arent that keen.   If we dont get in, there is always somewhere else.     Heading down to Brisbane now, be there in about 10 days to see Justin, who is flying up for two days for a tattoo appointment, would you beleive., and  Rick is hopefully picking up some chevy parts if the price is right.    Also two hot rod shows/swapmeets  in the next two weeks around Brisbane will see us quite possibly hanging out up here for a bit.

Townsville Rock N Rodz Weekend

We were very very blessed to be allowed to camp at the Townsville Turf Club, the site of the above festival. Thanks to the wonderful staff who couldnt do enough for us.   We asked if we could camp and they said YES..   Asked us not to mention to anyone as the Council give them grief  if they are seen to be allowing overnight camping at the Racecourse. We arrived on Friday afternoon, Michael the manager, parked us up on lush green lawn hidden behind a  screen of trees, ,inside the racecourse,  insisted we plug into power and water and also came along with beers and a bottle of sav blanc.  The grog was for us to share a happy hour with him when he finished work for the night.   Unfortunately a mechanical problem with one of the forklifts had him working till dark and he ran out of time to have a drink.

The Festival was only on Saturday from 10am to 10pm.    Hot Rods, Market Stalls, Food Vans and Rock Bands dominated the day.     The day is run by the Townsville Rock N Roll club so its all about cars of course, plus fashions of the 50s and rock dancing.    We had 4 bands playing thru the day, a big bar,  lots of dancing, a Mummy & Me  fashion parade, a miss Kitty Pinup Parade, a Burlesque Show, Cake baking comp. and an  Icecream eating comp.Not sure what those two had to do with rock n roll or hot rods but it was a lot of fun.  We lasted till about 9pm and then went back to the bus.     We were able to wander back and forward to the bus all day as we were on site but tucked away.    Fantastic day.     We could have stayed a week if we wanted to, but having done Townsville already, we decided to leave Sunday.   The alcohol came with us, we tried to give it back and they insisted we enjoy.   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 We want one of this little caravans to tow behind the Chevvie when its finished.   So cute, so expensive, so in demand now.

This lovely couple are both blind and rock n rolled effortlessly, even when others tired out and sat a few songs out, they danced for the whole of one bands set.  A full 55 mins.

Mummy and Me Fashion Parade







Miss Kitty Kat Parade.   The girls had a number of outfits they modelled and went thru various routines to impress the judges.   A few were great, the rest were forgettable.

Ravenswood cont.

One of the many chimney stacks scattered around the area.   The brickwork is amazingly intact   There were heaps of these chimneys still standing.

Old Miners Cottage.  The owner raised 21 children in this cottage.   Can you imagine what life must have been like in that hot and dusty environment.    You got to give a medal to the brave mum.

We came across a creek  bed in town where there were more than 30 resident wild peacocks. We were amazed to see them.  We were commenting on how much they stank, similar to bats, when lo and behold we looked up from them into the trees to see 100s of smelly and noisy bats.   We simply hadnt noticed them and had driven over this creek crossing a number of times.   

A drive down to the Burdekin River Dam (Lake Dalrymple) and the Gorge that you can explore.   The dam isnt very deep, around 8M, and the water wasnt anywhere near the top of the spillway so you could drive across the base of the dam and explore the gorge and waterfalls

Driving across the dam base

Abandoned mine in Ravenswood.   The colors of the rock and the water were great

Next stop will be Townsville.    Hot Rod Show in Town this weekend.   Rick is a happy man.

Ravenswood

This tiny  town was once a bustling gold mining town like so many others.   Today there is still a working gold mine operating here, employing about 300 people.   Most of them are driven in each day from Charters Towers and Townsville.     The local population is around 100.    We were going to stay a day and ended up staying 3.   Lots to see, even though in theory, there are two pubs operating, a post office/general store, a museum and an antique/arts/crafts shop.   Really enjoyed exploring the old mines, the equipment and brick chimneys dotting the landscape.  Had a  drink at the two pubs, the Imperial Hotel below is a beauty.   Pretty much original right down to the iron beds,timber wardrobes and dressers in the upstairs bedrooms, the furniture in the dining room is more than 100y.o. and the timberwork in the bar was all hand made on site also more than 100 years ago.  Leadlight panels came from France.   Way too much money being made from gold way back then.  Couldnt find that elusive gold nugget for ourselves, but did see a couple of gem cars that would bring some good dollars if they were back home.    

Charters Towers

This is a rather large town, built around the discovery of Gold.    There are some stunning buildings to look at and look thru but they are mostly on the main drag and almost impossible to take photos of without people and cars in the picture.   We arrived on the Sunday, intent on doing some grocery shopping and then heading out to our camp spot.  Well it was Sunday and NOTHING is open.   Not even Woollies.    The Burdekin River was our campspot.   This river has a usual depth of around 13M, way back some years ago it rose to 22M an unbeleivable volume of water.   As you can see its pretty much dry now until the next wet season.   We have seen the destruction this flooded river can cause when we travelled up to Qld in early 2013.   Had a good look around, took a CD Tour of the touristy stuff and then decided to head off to a tiny town called Ravenswood.   Another old gold mining town, heritage listed.

Richmond to Hughenden

Got our tyres late in the day and decided we just couldnt stay another day here, there is simply nothing here.    Boring.    As it turns out, I couldnt even buy the lucky Powerball ticket, even though I tried.    The young guys at the mechanics were terrific.  Took them more than two hours to fit up our tyres, charged us $80, didnt charge for getting rid of the old ones, which is what every other tyre service we have dealt with has done.     Off to Highenden.    The countryside is bleak.   Flat desolate and crying out for rain.   Almost no stock in any of the paddocks and not even the slightest bit of growth, even weeds.   Arrived in Hughenden to a magnificent sunset,  camped up and finally relaxed.  The new tyres working a treat.   Ended up spending 3 nights here, even though there is very little to do & see.   Its all about dinosaurs here once again.   Checked out all the dinosaur bones & fossils, toured the town, visited a small market, chatted with the locals and went out to see Porcupine Gorge.    The Gorge is 27 kms. long and you can take it in from viewing platforms high above or take a 2.5km walk down and into the Gorge.   Its amazing to find greenery out here when you have driven thru dry and dusty paddocks for miles. Very litle water at the moment and it wasnt interesting enough to bother getting excited about.

Barn Find. 

Another dry river bed

 Large search going on out here for a missing local man.  Been missing from his property for 8 days now.  Helicopters, police cars, horses and quad bikes out looking for him.   Its very hot during the day here, but cool at night.   Still its inhospitable country, and no-one knows what he was wearing or had with him and where he headed off to.  The local police we spoke to, said that if he has gone missing in the Gorge, it will be almost impossible for him to be spotted, even from overhead. Sad for his family and I hope he is found one way or the other soon.    We had a sunset happy hour at one of the lookouts with a local cattle station owner.   He hasnt had rain for two years and even though he can pump up water from a bore (23 hours per day) he simply cannot feed his bulls.   He had just sent off the very last of his 3000 cattle.  Left with a handful of cows and one goat, which couldnt fit on the last of the trucks.    Again a very sad situation to be in.   He was very chatty and seemed to be a happy man regardless.    After driving thru this country, we can sympathise

Mt Isa

We left Karumba and headed down south to Cloncurry and then west to Mt. Isa.    We were on a mission to get tyres.    Four tyre services later and not a tyre our size to be found.   What the !!!!!!!!   Of course they could get them in for us in a couple of days at an exorbitant price.     By the time we had done the rounds of all the tyre services, topped up the shopping it was getting late in the day.   We were frustrated and cheesed off and couldnt be bothered staying and looking around the next day.   Probably a stupid move in hindsight, we were there, but we were just "over it".   Called Townsville, got a price for tyres, on the shelf, in stock, and decided to just head east and hope to god we didnt do another tyre.   Stopped off at Cloncurry for a look around, then lunch at Julia Creek which has a great free camp by the water.   By this time we were feeling OK, but then disaster struck and we blew an outside tyre.   No spare.  We had 100km to go to the next town.    We limped along at 40kmph for the next 50.   Praying that the pressure on the remaining single back tyre wouldnt be too much and leave us well and truly stranded.   Managed to get to a rest area 50k down the road, our back tyre was very hot and very low in pressure so we decided to stay the night and let the tyre and us cool off.   Rick put some air in the tyre  and we phoned ahead to the town of Richmond to see if they could get us tyres in from Townsville.  Phone service was hit and miss where we were so we had to keep wandering to get a signal and wait for a phone call.     Thankfully the garage arranged for the tyres to be freighted out to them.   So we now had to limp a further 50km the next day to Richmond.   Every finger and toe was crossed, prayers were prayed that we would make it. Arrived Wednesday morning.   We are now here, the tyres were supposed to arrive at 9.30 this morning, Thursday, but they havent turned up.   Looks like they will be here later today which means we will prob. stay on another night.   We are getting 4 new tyres right across the back.   Once we have these we will head off again, going East back towards the Coast.   Hopefully, this is the last of our dramas.   One more and we will be heading home, broke.  !!!!!!!!!!!

Karumba

In the market for a penthouse/boat?

We knew that the only reason anyone went to Karumba was to fish.   Its all about fishing here.   In the caravan park we met three couples, all of whom, come for three months at a time to sit out the cold winters down south and to fish.    There is nothing else to do here.   Nothing touristy to see and nowhere you can drive to to escape.   How people do it is beyond us.   We spent a day and night and it was enough for us.  So we vsited the Info Centre - closed, the Barramundi Research Centre - closed.   The only two things you can do except for fishing, drinking at the pub or relaxing at the park.   We were so bored, we even visited the tip.   Well it was by accident as we had seen heaps of big Kites circling and we were just watching them in awe when we realised we were at the tip.  If you love the smell of rotting fish guts in plastic bags, then it was the place to be.   Any wonder the birds were so big.    Caught up at the pub with a couple who we had met previously in Mareeba, had a drink, they were there for a week!!!!!!!   Waiting to do a fishing charter.   She wouldnt go out in their own foldaboat as she was afraid of crocs.   Blow me down, we clearly saw two in the shallow water whilst at the pub.    There really are crocs at the beach.   We thought it was a myth to stop us all going for a nice dip on a hot day.    Their is no actual beach at Karumba, unless you want to drive a fair distance.   Its all rocky and mud flat.   Nothing attractive except for the color of the water.  Sunday morning saw us at the Market.   Ladies who make cards, teacosies, dolls, jewellery whilst bored out of their brains at the caravan park trying to flog their stuff.    The only good thing at Karumba were the fish n chips.   The freshest barra you could get.

Tawny frogmouths next to our bus

At the pub

Kite at the pub  

Info Centre

 Drove into Normanton and it was pretty much a hole.   Called into the Info Centre to find out where we could get fuel.   The only what you would call "service station " was closed.  Why?   Cos it was Saturday and they had all gone shooting.   Of course, why not. Who cares about business.   Anyway we fuelled up at the General Store, cheaper anyway.    Fuel has been at its most expensive at $1.70/Lt. for diesel but we didnt think it was too bad actually as it had been $1.67 at Cairns.  Took a quick look around at the touristy stuff, which isnt much and then left town.   The croc below is a replica of one shot in the 50s.   He measured 8.6 Metres long.   Sad to think he may have been over 100 years old to have reached that size.    What an outrage it would be today if something like that were to happen.   Back then they were heroes.    No hope of getting a spare tyre here so we hope we dont blow another tyre.   We will be truly stuffed.

A ford under wraps

Leichart Lagoon & Normanton

Camped at Leichart Lagoon, part of a cattle station.    The lagoon was full of beautiful waterlillies, though the water was getting low, and there were heaps of birdlife, geese, ducks, brolgas, ibis and a pelican.    Also turtles.   The turtles wander thru the campground, two nests under construction and one turtle starting her nest next to the wheels of a 4WD camped up.     The sign below states the facts, but we wanted to see evidence of crocs so we jumped in the car and drove thru the gates of the station down to the river that runs nr. the camp.   Well we were rewarded with a heap of crocs both in and out of the water.   The river is getting low plus they are pumping out heaps for a local weir.    The crocs are congregating in what is left of their water.    It was a little creepy, driving down to the river bank and then walking thru the mangroves.  Fortunately all the crocs were hopefully sunning themselves on the opposite banks to us, but we were still apprehensive because we couldnt actually see the bank we were standing above.    At one stage we  4wd thru sandbanks on the rivers edge when we spotted one on our side.    That was it, we decided not to push our luck.   We had come to see them in their natural environment and were rewarded.   If we wanted to, we could have souvinered a tooth from a dead croc at the weir.   Trouble was it was ripe and needed to prob. sunbake for a few more months.   The caretakers at the camp had a beaut skull they had taken from another dead croc some months earlier.

This croc was on the opp bank, Rick decided to tempt it over to us by throwing in a big rock.   The croc immediately headed towards our side of the bank and we watched him glide thru the water, almost like a floating log.   We didnt hang around though.

Mt.Garnet/Mt Surprise/Georgetown/Croydon

We drove thru some small blips on the Map.   Nothing too exciting but its starting to feel very Outback.   The scenery has changed dramatically.   Dry & dusty.   Our three fav. things in abundance - doe eyed bulls emus and huge wedge tail eagles.   A lot of the roads were narrow strips of bitumen, single lane, making for lots of dust, especially when a road train approached.   Its" get right off the road" for them.   We had a bit of an itinerary planned but then 22kms from the town of Croydon we blew an inside tyre on the bus.  Managed to get off the road and took stock of our situation.   Rick tried to change the tyre but it was physically too hard.   We had hoped someone would stop and ask if we were OK but no-one did.    Utes, a bus, caravans and a motorhome all passed us without a blink.    So we made the decision to slowly drive into the town.  At   15kmh for the next 22kms.    We watched the scenery slowly pass us by.   Lots of bulls stared at us, either mesmerised by the bus or more likely by the noise the wrecked tyre was making.    We had our hazards on, and only 1 of 7 vehicles that passed us on the road called on the CB to ask what was wrong.   I couldnt beleive it.   We always stop or slow down if we see someone who may be in trouble, but no one did for us. Got into town 2 hrs later and headed straight to the roadhouse.   At first they wanted us to wait TWO days but after hearing Ricks plea, the owners son, who had just knocked off work for the day,  relented and helped Rick do the changeover.    Wouldnt take anything for it but we gave him $30 to buy a beer.    So we ended up in a caravan park at 6.30 cos I could see Rick was stuffed.   A hot shower, cold drink and a meal and Rick was in bed by 7.45.     The next morning we got up early and headed into the Info Centre, got a walking map of the town and spent 4 hours there.     This town is tiny but has a history as a huge gold mining area.   The street is probably only a couple of kilometres long but once the main street was 18 kilometres long   There is only one pub now but there were 36.   Interesting old buildings, all open, lots of old mining equipment kept us entertained.

Dry river beds

Camp near Georgetown

Old Mine

Old house still lived in till 1986

Oldest general store in Aust.