Goulburn to home

As we departed Goulburn, we passed the giant Ram marking the gateway to the city.

Our drive to Gundagai was uneventful but at least the day was fine and warmer than the day before. We stayed at a very nice caravan park and actually sat out in the sun as it was quite warm. We toured the town and visited the “Dog on the tuckerbox” statue referred to in the song “The road to Gundagai” written by Jack O’Hagen.

We only stayed one night and were off the following day to Albury/Wodonga where we camped on the shores of Lake Hume. Magnificent camping spot with loads of wildlife.

We first visited Albury which is in New South Wales and then travelled the few kilometres down the road to Wodonga which is in Victoria.

Our next stop was Benalla where we travelled to Wangaratta to see where a distant relative lived many years ago and found his gravesite, which just happened to be close to Brown Brothers winery so in need of some refreshment we called in. Leaving with the car slightly heavier, we travelled through Glenrowan, where  Ned Kelly had his final shootout with police.

The next day we visited some distant relatives of mine in Benalla before heading off to Kiabram to see some friends I hadn’t seen for over 25 years, John and Janice Hosking. John was a Venturer Leader in Werribee, Victora who I met in 1977. He joined the ministry and was a Uniting Church minister in Tasmania for some years before being transferred to Kiabram. We parked the caravan on their front lawn and spent a very pleasant evening with them.

It was then off to Melbourne where we spent the last two nights with friends before boarding the ferry. Photo of Port Melbourne taken whilst waiting to board the ferry.

The following morning we were first off the boat at 6.30am and after stopping for breakfast at Campbelltown, we were home by 10.30am. The next few days have been spent emptying and cleaning the caravan and catching up with a few urgent jobs. A magnificent journey and great experience but glad to be home.

Armidale to Goulburn

Sorry about the long delay since the last blog.

Well, we arrived at Tamworth, set up in a caravan park and did some shopping. The following day the weather wasn’t too good so we went to see “Mrs Brown’s Boys – The Movie” and afterwards visited a few local attractions including the Golden Guitar. (Tamworth is the country music capital of Australia).

It was then off to Muswellbrook where we stayed at the Showgrounds. There are many old character homes here so we toured the town gathering its history. The next day it was off to Newcastle to stay with Phil, Kristie and newborn Madison for a few days. Luckily Sophie was staying that weekend so we got to catch up with her also.

I got to meet my new granddaughter Madison when we arrived in Newcastle.  She was only 4 weeks old, and I managed to get in quite a few cuddles which was lovely.

We were also lucky enough to spend some quality time with Sophie. Brian and I took her out shopping so she could buy her dad a birthday present, plus we also took her to Morpeth which is a lovely little place just outside Newcastle with lovely old buildings.  It was lovely to be there for Phil’s birthday too (first time in 11 years)! On the Sunday we all went to Annies Beach for lunch.  The beach looks like a desert, especially with the camels giving rides along the beach. Apparently this beach was used in a Star Wars movie.

Whist in the Newcastle area we gain visited the Hunter Valley and, you guessed it, we bought more wine - there’s no helping some people. We also visited Nelson Bay and took in a Whale Watching trip from Port Stephens. The weather was starting to break up and the sea was rough but we did actually see some whales although nothing close up.

It was then down to Sydney where we stayed at the Baden Powell Scout Centre at Pennant Hills. We caught the end of the very wet weather that caused severe flooding in the Sydney area so the first few days were a bit dismal.  We were lucky enough to be able to catch up with one of Adele’s friends in Sydney – we caught the train in to Kings Cross on the Friday afternoon/evening and had a great dinner with her, then we bought a gelato ice cream where there was quite a long queue.  I had rhubarb & peach !  Anyway, we did get up into the Blue Mountains where we saw some spectacular waterfalls

and another trip up the Hawkesbury visiting Richmond along the way. Ferry across Hawkesbury River.

We stopped for lunch by the river and were entertained by a series of powerful power boats screaming up the river towing water skiers. The boats were so loud, they sounded like aircraft engines and I have never seen water skiers travelling so fast. Our last full day was glorious so we caught the train into central Sydney and wandered around Darling Harbour

where we had lunch before boarding a ferry out to Olympic Park and back again. We purchased a pensioner day travel ticket which cost $2.50 (about 1 pound 20p) and covered our rail fare, both ways, plus out trip on the ferry. Great value.

We then packed up and headed for Goulburn. Along the way we stopped for lunch. One of the great things about a caravan is that you can stop, make lunch and boil the kettle for a cuppa.

It was 23 deg when we left Sydney, arriving in Goulburn to 17 degrees. It was very the first night and yesterday it didn’t get above 10 deg. We travelled 35km to visit a National Park only to find it was closed. Why would you close a National Park? Anyway, we learned from the information centre that there was a specialised driver training complex at Marulan about 20km out so we headed there. Guess what? It is closed on Tuesdays. After looking around the centre of Goulburn and visiting the cathedral and another old church, it was cold and wet so we headed back to the caravan to view some DVD’s and read. After an even colder night last night, we are off today “along the road to Gundagai”. At least the sky is blue and the sun is shining but still very cold.

Gold Coast to Armidale

On leaving the Gold Coast, we headed south over the border into country New South Wales. The weather took a dramatic change. Whilst travelling to Casino, we encountered our first rain for 7 weeks. Casino was just an overnight stop so due to the inclement weather we stayed indoors and continued our journey to Tenterfield the following morning. The weather had improved so after setting up camp at the Tenterfield Scout Hall, we toured around the town and discovered some of its history. We also visited a winery to sample some of their fare and purchased a couple of bottles. That night it rained heavily and the temperature dropped. The following morning it was still raining with a temperature of only 8 degrees. We headed off to visit a couple of the national parks and the refreshing rain seems to have brought out the wildlife as we spotted at least 20 wallabies and a mob of eastern grey kangaroos that were at least as tall as me. It was unusual for them to be out-and-about mid morning. How many kangaroos can you see?

Tenterfield should be called “Boulder City” as the countryside is littered with masses of boulders.

We also visited the hideout of the bushranger Thunderbolt who was active in the area 150 years ago. Look closely, you can see Brian inside.

This is called Platypus Lake but we couldn’t find any.

The following morning was fine again with clear blue skies and sunshine so we had a pleasant drive to Armidale where we set up camp at the showgrounds. Just as well we had power because that night the temperature dropped and the rain started again. Today has been wet and windy with a maximum temperature of 6 degrees – Hobart has double this temperature. Anyway, we rugged up and toured the town with its variety of old buildings and many churches. Photo of St Paul’s church.

I must admit I like the look of Armidale as they have kept all their lovely old buildings.  It was so cold that we went to a pub for lunch as it advertised a roaring fire!

Off to Tamworth tomorrow.

Emerald to Gold Coast

Sorry it has been such a long time between blogs. The road to Roma was more of the same as far as remoteness is concerned. Nothing for miles and miles. We pulled off the road and spent the night roughly about half way and the following morning we completed the journey to Roma. I just want to add this bit about our overnight stay.  People we have met have told us that when free camping they pull up, wait 20 minutes or so & if no-one else turns up, they leave (as they would feel uncomfortable being the only ones there at night).  Well, as you can imagine, that didn’t happen with us.  There was no-one anywhere near, and I felt extremely nervous at night.

Roma, named after the wife of a Queensland governor, is noted for its oil and gas reserves, although it took quite some time for this industry to get established after many false starts. One natural gas well was left pouring out its gasses for 5 years before someone decided it could be useful. They constructed gas street lights and piped the gas to them. Roma was the first town in Australia to have gas street lights. However their new lighting system only lasted 10 days and the well suddenly ran dry- wouldn’t it rot your socks? Now there is a gas pipeline supplying Brisbane.

We looked around the town with its character buildings and visited a museum describing the history of Roma. It is getting cooler and the sandals have been replaced with sneakers but the shorts are still there (during the daytime anyway). Picture of me hugging a Bottle Tree, can’t quite get my arms around.

Feed one duck and see what happens!

It was then time to start working our way back towards the coast. Our first stop was at Chinchilla where we camped by the Chinchilla Weir, a free camp with POWER - the first one of these we had come across. The next day we were on our way to Toowoomba where we stayed at the Wirraglen Scout Camp, just outside the city at Highfields. Toowoomba is a very nice city with plenty to do and see. We visited the lookout at Picnic Point with its panoramic views of the city and the Great Dividing Range. Picture Great Dividing Range from Picnic Point.

There are plenty of parks and old buildings. Toowoomba Town Hall.

We visited the railway museum and discovered an ex Burnie railcar that was undergoing restoration. Apparently it had been sitting rotting in Burnie and vandals set fire to it. No one wanted it so the Toowoomba Railway Museum put in an offer and bought it.

Went to the toilet at the campsite this morning, flushed it and found a green frog jumping around in the bowl. It apparently is living under the lip of the bowl. Quite a surprise. Sorry about the state of the scout camp toilet bowl.

Brian actually managed to get the frog out of the bowl (luckily).

Today we travelled to Brisbane, staying again at the Samford Scout Camp. It was nice to be back at Samford (having stopped there on our way up) – we didn’t do much sightseeing so could relax more & do boring things like catching up with the washing.We did spend one day visiting Bribie Island which was only accessible by ferry until the 1960’s when a bridge was constructed. We toured the island and had lunch at a restaurant on the beach. More blue sky, sunshine and glorious sandy beaches. Bribie Island with pelican and Glasshouse Mountain in the far background.

Our trip down to the Gold Coast was uneventful. We again parked the caravan in the grounds of the Burleigh Heads Scout Hall and headed off to Southport. Visited Kirsty’s new office (they only moved in 2 days earlier) to collect the key to the apartment and settled ourselves in. Jon is working in Brisbane and it takes him 2 hours each way to get to work. He drives to the railway station at Helensvale and catches the train into the city and then has a 15 minute walk to work. He works in the IT department of the Queensland Education Department, a similar job he had with the Cheshire County Council.

We spent the weekend visiting a large local market and touring op-shops for a fancy dress party Jon and Kirsty were going to on the Saturday night. On Sunday we drove down to Byron Bay (Australia’s most eastern point), had lunch on the beach and visited the lighthouse where we saw a number of whales and dolphins. Photo Byron Bay beach and Kirsty and Jon at lighthouse.

 

We drove back via the beautiful Tweed Valley. Monday, Kirsty and Jon were back at work so Janice and I went to Harbour Town (more shopping) and were home for lunch.

Tuesday was my birthday so Janice and I walked around the Southport Marina, admiring all the leisure craft that we could own if we won Tatts Lotto. We spotted one with a price tag of $79,000 which was magnificent. While I was checking out our bank account we saw written in small print underneath“10% share”. Photo of “$79,000 boat” and marina.

 

Had morning coffee at Max Brenner Chocolate house where I indulged in a chocolate fudge cake,

then make our way back to Kirsty’s apartment for lunch. Toured around the Gold Coast in the afternoon looking at places we used to go when Janice’s mum and dad lived here and then all 4 of us went out to dinner at a delightful little restaurant called “My Place”.

Today the Prado went in for service so we are having a relaxing morning. Would you believe we have covered over 12,000 kms since we left home?

 

 

Townsville to Emerald

Great news! I (Janice) have a new granddaughter, Madison Lee born last Friday in Newcastle.  She was two weeks early, but she’s doing wonderfully well & so is Krissy.  We will see her in about 4 weeks. Picture below.

 

We are now leaving the coast and travelling inland. One of the first things you notice is the vast distances between habitats. This is now the dry time of year and there are hundreds of dried up river beds and many of the large rivers have little flow. This riverbed on the approach to Charters Towers has little water.

Charters Towers is an old goldmining town and at one time was the second largest city in Queensland next to Brisbane. It has many heritage buildings like the bank shown below.
 

We visited many goldmining sites in Charters Towers and Ravenswood. Below are the remains of an open cut mine (they are now mining underground) and an old miner’s cottage.
 

Nearby we discovered a landmark know as White Blow which is a large lump of white quartz about 10 metres high which was forced out of the ground millions of years ago.

 
We spent two days in Charters Towers before moving south towards Emerald. The distance was too far to travel in one day so we planned to stop overnight about half way there. We left CT on the Great Inland Way and the only civilisation we saw in 400 kilometres was the roadhouse at Belyando Crossing which was too close to CT to stop for the night so we continued on until we reached Clermont. This is the longest section we have driven on our trip so far, just over 400 kms. The road was straight, flat, boring and at times quite narrow. We stayed overnight at the Teresa Creek Dam just outside Clermont and continued on to the “Emerald City” the following morning. Along the way we encountered a large number of cattle on the road and at one point we hit an unmarked ditch in the road about 1 metre wide and 100mm deep at 100 kph which almost sent car and caravan airborne. A number of things were shaken about in the caravan but only one bowl broken thankfully. We are staying in the grounds of the Emerald Scout Hall
Emerald is quite a nice town in the middle of the gem mining area. Today we tried out some fossicking at a place called Sapphire and came away with some small pieces of sapphire. We also visited an underground mine at Rubyvale.  Photo below.

 

The people around here have a sense of humour as shown on a boat in a paddock

 

and on a mechanics workshop.

 

We leave here tomorrow heading for Roma but we will stop somewhere along the way.

 

 

Millaa Millaa to Townsville

Our drive down to Millaa Millaa was quite uneventful and we arrived before lunch at a very nice caravan park amongst tropical trees and bushes and backing onto a golf course. In the afternoon we visited a series of local waterfalls and a lookout giving a magnificent panorama view of the surrounding countryside. Millaa Millaa Falls.

The following morning we were up early for a drive to the Undara Lava Tubes. The journey along the Kennedy Highway was quite boring. I have never been on a road that was so straight for so long. All you can see in the distance is one long straight road with the odd bend here and there. On the sides of the road and in the bush are thousands of termite mounds.

 

The Lava Tubes are formed when lava from ancient volcanos flows down a gully or watercourse and the outside of the flowing lava solidifies leaving the inside to continue to flow. Eventually the flow of lava ceases leaving these extensive tunnels or tubes. Because of the remoteness of the area, these tubes have only been discovered relatively recently. Some of the tubes have partially fallen in giving access to the inside. Absolutely fascinating.

The Kennedy Highway carries quite a few “Road Trains” which are trucks with two or more trailers. On our way back we met a road train with 3 trailers going the other way and the draft created by this speeding mass broke the support bracket on my drivers’ side extension mirror. Amazing.

The following day we travelled down to Paronella Park which we visited on our way up and took part in one of their night-time tours where many of the features where lit up. Paronella Park.

It was then off to Townsville again, staying at the Scout Camp at Bluewater. The local Rovers had a “Christmas in July” function while we were there and I met one of the leaders who is an ex Northern Area Rover from Tassie. We again visited the waterfront at Townsville and re-stocked our caravan. Townsville waterfront.

Next stop Charters Towers.

Atherton Tablelands and Cairns

The drive up to the Tablelands was a steady uphill climb through some beautiful countryside in various shades of green. Our destination was the Barabadeen Scout campsite on the shores of Lake Tinaroo, a magnificent site but without power. We had just travelled from a site with no power so we were unsure as to how our batteries would hold up, particularly as the campsite is heavily treed with limited sun for our solar panels. We survived another 2 days before having to borrow a generator to top up the batteries. Lake Tinaroo

 

Tinaroo Dam
 

The first full day, Janice had to visit the dentist in Atherton and have her abscess drained and the first part of a root canal done and we looked around the area visiting Malanda Falls
 

and Curtain Fig
 

The next day we dropped down into Cairns. You don’t realise how high you are until you drive down off the mountains to the coastal city below. It takes 1 hour 15 minutes on a very winding road. There we met up with my son Tim and his partner Sia for lunch and went back to their place for a while before heading back up the mountain.
On Sunday we headed for Port Douglas
 

where we wandered around the local waterfront market and looked around the town before heading back along the coast to visit Palm Cove and rekindle our memories of a holiday there 5 years ago. It is still a very nice location and we thought we would like to stay there again some time. Palm Cove
 

The next day we went to Mareeba where we visited Coffee Works. It cost $12 to get in (pensioner rate) and for that you can sample dozens of different coffees and teas plus sample lots of different home made chocolates and look around the Coffee Museum. A great place. Coffee Works.
 

We then met up with Tim and Sia again and spent some time in the Crystal Cave viewing a wide variety of geodes filled with amethysts from South America which had Tim mesmerised. Tim and Sia then came back to our caravan for a look and we spent the rest of the afternoon on the shores of the lake with Tim checking out the pebbled shore looking for crystals. Us with Tim and Sia on the shores of Lake Tinaroo.
 

We had intended to stay at Lake Tinaroo for two more nights but discovered that the camp was to be invaded by 70 children on Tuesday so we decided to depart early that morning and start our journey south heading for Milla Milla.