May 2010
I have been very slack and have not kept this site up to date. Been too busy travelling and scrapbooking.
I am not actually sure if anybody ever reads it anyway.
I have decided to try to keep a combined site, travel and scrapbooking, but will leave this as available to any who want to look at it.
March 2010
Newest posts are at the bottom of the page.
Monday 1 – Thursday 4 March 2010
Due to the bad weather we decided to extend our stay here at Yamba until Friday 5th. With all the rain around, it just didn’t seem worth packing up in the wet and moving on.
Friday 5 – Tuesday 9 March 2010
An easy drive down to Stuarts Point, stopping at Urunga on the river for morning tea. Who says there is not a lot of culture in small country towns! We pulled up on the side of the river and found ourselves right across from the Urunga Crocket Club LOL.
We could not get the site we wanted here so we took the one in front of it, could have been a mistake as there is a large tree that we have to get around to get off the site and not much space to make the turn in or we will endup in the river. We drove through from the back, the people there put their awning down so ew could do this. The new people behind us now have a motor home and suggested if we have trouble they will move it out for us to back out again. There are some really nice people around aren’t there?
The weather has been mostly overcast with a few showers and some windy patches but Eric has been out fishing everyday. He has brought home 2 flathead every day and that has made him happy.
Tuesday afternoon the sun came out. Lets hope it stays out, its really lovely here in good weather.
February 2010
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Monday 1 February 2010
Still no bathroom. Bunnings are blaming Caroma and Caroma are blaming Bunnings. Who knows. But.. we are still waiting on the bath tub, can do nothing without it. It has to go in first.
Tuesday 2 February 2010
Hallalula, the tub and wall cladding arrived today at 7.20am. We were told yesterday that it would be a morning delivery, before lunch, did not realise it would be here before breakfast, LOL. I dont care, its here and we can not start to remake the bathroom (well HWMBO will), and then we can get back to our travels.
Wednesday 3 February 2010
Went down to Oxenford the the My Friends Asian Restaurant and had a lovely lunch with Renee and Merv. They are moving on from the coast on the weekend and heading down to Cowel SA. Sigh, wish we were going with them. Never mind. Soon….
Thursday 4 – Tuesday 16 February 2010
The bathroom gear finally arrived and Eric has been working like a dog trying to get it completed. Never in a million years did we think we would be here for this length of time, it is unbelievable how long it took to get the materials delivered to do this job. We visualised that it would be done and we would be gone by mid January. Its mid February and it’s still not 100% finished.
Sunday the 14th was Chinese New Year. Kung Hei Fat Choy! Welcome to the year of the Tiger.
Of course we went to China King for a fabulous meal. So far since we have been off on our travels, we have not missed one Chinese New Year. I had thought this was going to be the first one but no… we were here. I wonder if we will be so lucky next year. China King put on such a great spread, the mains (a banquet of course), are dishes that are not on the everyday menu and they change every year. Just fabulous as is all fo the food they make. The entertainment was great as usual. I always want to pat the tigers, even though I know they are not real.
Chinese New Year
24 February 2010
Back on the road.
We headed out about 9.00am and found the rain about Tugan (on the Gold Coast). It showered on and off until we passed Boradwater, with some heavy showers. When we reached Maclean we decided that we had travelled enough for the day and after having a nice lunch there we headed out to Yamba to the Calypso Caravan Park and booked in for a week.
Calipso Caravan Park
Powered site: $162 a week
25 February to 28 February 2010
A week week. Over one 24 hour period Yamba had 92mm of rain. It was also quite windy. It was a good time for resting up though and recharging the battery’s. We did manage a couple of good walks though and there are quite a lot of nice places to walk here in Yamba.
January 2010
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Friday 1 January 2010
Happy New Year.
New years day is still and hot, seems to be just how New Years Day is. Today was a little different from other January 1st’s though. It’s not every year that you get your bathroom totally ripped out. I think Eric has decided to get into it and get it done so we can leave. His feet are getting itchy again and so are mine.
Sunday 10 January 2010
10 days later and still no bathroom. The materials and fittings have been ordered and we are hoping for arrival this week to get it back together.
To add insult to injury, we have to replace the washing machine in the caravan. I ordered a new outlet hose for it and Eric finally got around to getting the machine out to put it on only to find that this time its not the pipe, its the pump. The new machines are a different size and we have a cats wisker each side to get it into the hole ….. fingers crossed. Ordered from Retrovision, $105 dollars cheaper than CAMEC (The caravan accessory place).
Monday 22 January 2010
Today we drove up to lake Macdonald on the Sunshine Coast, it was kind of sad because ET traded Yertle in for a new Hobie Kayak. This one has not been named yet. My instincts are to call it Buggly, for the reason that I think is is butt ugly. We will see if some other name come to mine.
Monday 25 January 2010
Today is our 41st wedding anniversary. Both too sick with flu/terible cold, to do anything special, mabye we will catch up with that at a later date. The promised washing machine did not materialise, so now we are waiting on bathroom stuff and washing machine. I wish things would arrive when people promise them, service these days? None as far as I am concerned, and… you have to be the one to keep running after them to find out what is going on. It would be nice to be kept in the loop from these places.
December 2009
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Monday 7 December 2009
Eric is up and around a lot more although he is still limping. At least he does not have to sit all day and this makes him much happier.
The drive way was laid last Thursday and looks great. Brady has been out on his bike, racing up and down. I think he will eventually go off the end and come a buster on the bitumen road, but I guess he will probably only do it once. LOL
Sunday December 13 2009 – Wednesday 23 December 2009
Sunday 13 December we took our van down to Lennox Head NSW for a few days before Christmas. Tamara was lucky that there was a vacant site behind her and she could drive through to her site, we also had to drive through that same site and get over to ours. The roads here at Lennox Head (Lake Ainsworth Caravan Park), are very narrow and the tenters and camper trailers extend their camps as close to the bitumen as possible and usually from one side of their site to the other. Consequently, it is almost impossible to swing into your site, or out of it for that matter.
Weather was good all but a couple of days of overcast and showers. The lake was open, the water level is down and this is a bonus as it grows the blue-green algae when the fresh water comes into the lake and then they close it to swimming.
Luck held out again on the day we left, the camp behind Tamara left and she was able to manoeuvre her van back and forward until she could get it around and out from the road behind us. It was near impossible to get it out front wise as there is a light pole on the boundary and star pickets almost in the bitumen across from her. After she was gone it gave us some room to swing out, getting the tow vehicle on at that angle was intersting and I watched as Eric pulled the van by the star pickets and the tyres missed going over them by less than 2 inches.
We are seriously considering not going there when they are so busy, maybe go earlier and come back to Brisbane to Tamara’s before the main rush gets there. At least we are considering moving elsewhere in the park.
Friday 25 December 2009
Christmas Day turned out warm as usual. Lunch was enjoyed by all, (we will be enjoying the left overs for weeks LOL).
Had a great time opening presents and got some great gifts. Brady was so excited about this Santa sack and all the other gifts he got. I thing he thought everything was for him at one stage when he looked at the tree.
Brady on Christmas morning with his Santa stocking
One of the presents he received was a digital camera. He got a toy one last year and it was a shocker. Really did not work. This year he got a real one, not an expensive one but a real one. He had a great time taking photos and I made a scrapbook page from four of the pictures he took of his mother.
Link to the layout here if you are interested.
November 2009
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Friday 6 November 2009
Back to Logan and home for a while. Got to get the new driveway done and a couple of other things.
Tuesday 10 November 2009
Eric is not moving around now, he is spending his time on the couch. Last night he was playing with Brady and he damaged his leg. X-rays show a 25% tear in his Achilles Tendon. He is not allowed to drive for a while, has to rest up to let it heal.
Friday 27 November 2009
Circus day and Christmas party at Brady’s day care. A good time was had by all. Brady turned out to be a great stilt walker and ring twirler.
October 2009
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Monday 5 October 2009
Well today was to be the day we left Wonga Beach and headed south. It has not happened, we are still here and have booked in for another week.
Yesterday while packing up, Eric noticed an oily looking patch under the cruiser. On closer inspection it turned out to be diesel, it was dripping out from under the mid section of the vehicle. Not by the bucket full, but just a steady slow drip. Eric climbed under the vehicle and found that there was damage, damage from the white post we ran over at the lighthouse in Cooktown a couple of weeks ago. Apparently there is a fuel cooling unit under there with flutes? on it and some of these fins/flutes had been damaged.
Our first thought was to take the car down to Cairns for Toyota to fix it but decided to call into the mechanical repair shop at Mossman first to see what they thought about it. Up on the hoist it went and out came the mechanic eventually with the good news and the bad news. The good news was that the unit would cost us $800 plus time and labour. Good news, my God. The bad news was that there is not a part in Australia and it would take at least 10 days to get one in.
Option two and the one we went with was for the mechanic in Mossman to take the part off the car and send it to his radiator repairer in Cairns to fix. And this is were we are right now. Without a car and waiting to find out if it can be reparied.
Oh well, maybe next week we will get away. At this point we do not even know how long the car will be gone for. Just waiting of a phone call.
Tuesday 6 October 2009
I thought I would just share a couple of pictures with you today. The sprinkler was on outside the van and the birds were having a great time in the water. It has been very dry here, the grasses are brown and crisp. Not really the vision I have of ‘tropical north’, so I guess the birds are taking every opportunity to have a bath.
Wednesday 7 October 2009
Thankfully we now have the vehicle back. The damage was not too horrific price wise. $220 all up. I would recommend Burmack in Mill Street, they were excellent for us saving us hundreds of dollars.
The decision has been made to leave here, regretfully, on Saturday.
Saturday 10 October 2009 to Monday 12 October 2009 – Kurrimine Beach QLD
After stopping in Cairns to see Cousin Freda for a while we headed south. By the time we got to Gordonvale it was lunch time so another stop was made in the rest area by the Johnstone River south of town. We later found out that we were seen on the local TV. They were doing an article on a cyclist that had been hit by a car along the road and the TV crew out filming caught us pulling off from some road works along the same road. I was aware of the article on the evening news but did not actually pay any attention to it.
Kurrimine Beach has two caravan parks, one is a Big4 and the other, the one we stayed at, is called King Reef Resort and Caravan Park. It has motel units and a Hotel attached to it. There are about 7 beachfront sites, but none of the sites are very far from the water. The amenities were clean and well kept but there is no dump point unfortunately. The sites are of a good size though.
Noel and Lyn seemed pleased to see us arrive early and Noel and Eric went fishing both days we were there, nothing came in though. One fisherman on the beach in front of the park had a big catch, a large Barracuda beached its self right in front of him while chasing some small fish.
On Sunday there was a small market on the foreshore in the town, there was mainly fruit and vegetables for sale. They seemd to be locally grown.
King Reef Resort and Caravan Park
Powered site: $30 a night
Tuesday 13 to Thursday 15 October 2009 – Rollingstone QLD
We were considering staying a couple of days at Lucinda, we have heard so many people speak about it and love it. We called in and looked at the par and decided to move on, it was not really inviting, maybe at some time when it has rained it would look better. For some reason we thought this park was right one the water but from what we could see, it was not. Taylors Beach is next along the way south from here so we set off to have a look at that one. Taylors Beach Caravan Park is set a street or so back from the water so we decided not to stop here either. After lunch in the park we drove on to Rollingstone and Rollingstone Beach Caravan Resort. Another Big4 park, very large, well set up, good sized sites, beautiful pool and great amenities. Of course the price matches all of the above. Our site was on the front, great views of the ocean. Every where is so dry, I have never seen the ‘tropical north’ so dry, it seems it is the same all the way from the top to the bottom. At least the grass here is a bit green, they seem to water it as much as they can.
- Rollingstone Caravan Resort
There are a few free camps in this area, 3 of them within reasonable distance from the park here so we decided to take a drive and look at them. The one at Rollingstone township (which is a few Kms from the caravan park), is a large area set around a park. It would take big rigs with ease and seemed fairly shaded. The free camp at Balgal is right on the beach, would only take about 12 campers at the maximum, is set our rather like a caravan park with everyone fairly close together, not really big spaces and would not be all that good for very big rigs. It seems it is always full. The third place we had a look at was Toomulla Beach. The free camp there is very shaded, not sure how good that would be for the solar panels, and again a large area by a boat ramp.
Over the hill behind us today there was a big fire, lots of smoke in the sky. Of course it made the conditions right for a nice sunset, and here it is.
- Sunset at Rollingstone
Rollingstone Beach Caravan Resort (Big4)
Powered site: $35.00 a night (low season price)
Friday 16 October 2009 – Airlie Beach QLD
Lots of smoke around this morning, drove in a haze until we nearly got to Airlie Beach.
Took the by-pass around Townsville on the way south today, what a difference not having to drive through all the traffic, lights and roundabouts.
Arrived at Airlie Beach about 12.30 and booked into the park. A little dissapointed in our site or the slab on it at least, it does not reach the door and is cut off an an angle, rather strange really. The park is dry like everywhere else and our site is right up the back, miles from the amenities. Good thing we are self containes.
Met the family down on the foreshore and bought take aways for dinner. There is some sort of festival on this weekend, can’t remember the name of it but they had fabulous fireworks on tonight.
Airlie Cove Resort Van Park (Big4)
Powered site: $35.00 a night (low season price)
Saturday 17 October and Sunday 18 October 2009 – Airlie Beach QLD
Market monring in Airlie Beach, it was a good market, plenty of stalls and a good selection of jewellery, clothing, souviners and foods.
Sunday morning we drove to Conway Beach and had a look at that, we have friends who stay there and they love it. I have to say that in different conditions we might have thought more of it but today was windy, the ocean was brown and choppy and the general area was just as dry as everywhere else we have been lately.
Had a nice evening with the family on Sunday night. Damon cooked some beautiful mackrel to have with a salad.
Monday 19 October
An interesting day in some respects. We drove from Airlie Beach to Marlborough taking the back road around Mackay. We passed a caravan on its roof between Proserpine and Kuttabul (cant remember exactly where we were), it looked like no one was hurt and looked like the car did not go over. The police were there and further down the road we heard the trucks talking and one said that the vehicle had ‘snapped the tow bar”, if so thats a bit scarry. The van was an A Van.
Between Homebush and Sarina we passed the Google Maps car with the four cameras on it. I should have taken a GPS reading when it happened so I could look to see if we were caught on the camera. Its quite a long road, one day when I have nothing to do LOL I might try looking.
We called in to have a look at the free camp at St Lawrence on the way by and had our lunch there. The area is really big, and would fit a lot of vans in there. It seems to be a combination of a showground or a cattle yard or something like that. There is an area on one side where generators can be used and I believe you can stay here up to 7 days. I have to wonder just what the hell you would do here for 7 days though, just sit in the dust I guess.
We spent the night at the pub at Marlborough. You can camp for 24 hours behind the pub for $4. For this money you are entitled to use the hot showers and the toilets. No cooking tonight, had a nice meal at the pub and a drink. There was only three here tonight. Us, a camper trailer and a small bus.
Marlborough Pub
Unpowered: $4.00 a night (24hr limit)
Tuesday 20 October – Thursday 22 October 2009 – Miara QLD
A good run down to Miara. The road from the turn off right to Miara/Bundaberg has not gotten any smoother.
We have a site on the waterfront, its nicer here .. a bit greener but quite windy.
No fish at Miara, no one seemed to be catching anything much.
Miara Caravan Park
Powered Waterfront Site: $24.00
Friday 23 October 2009 – Hervey Bay
Back on site 15 at Pialba Caravan Park at Hervey Bay. This is one of our favourite sites. You drive into it and the slab is gynormous, it once was a permanent site in the days when they had permanents here. There is lovely shade between the van and the beach but no trees hanging over the van which is just how we like it.
Saturday 24 October 2009 – Pialba Hervey Bay
This is a really good park for location, both the fact that it is right on the beach and the fact that it is is within walking distance of the shops and a hotel. BUT I think it just might be the last time we stay here. The local unwashed and untamed idiots went on their usual rampage last night. I got up this morning to find I had only one shoe (both were left outside the door as usual when I went to bed). The neighbour had his esky stolen. He and his wife gave chase to the offenders who, from their account, were only about 10 years old. They got their esky back on the beach and did see myshoe it seems but its gone now. The police were called but could not come as they had three police cars up the road a block or two and were too busy breaking up a big fight at a party. Probably what we did hear, there was a female screaming blue murder somewhere for a while. We did not hear a thing with the shoe and the esky though. I wonder what else they took further up or down the park. It has been our experience here that they come in off the beach and graze along the sites, one after the other and on another occasion at least 10 sites in a row had things stolen. At this time they were in our annex pilfering beer from our Engle. The Engle now lives permanently in the vehicle, never taken out thanks to these low life creatures.
I really think we will have to consider other arrangements when we stay in Hervey Bay, which is such a shame. We do have to visit here though as I have to see my Mother here in the nursing home.
Friday 30 October 2009 – Boyds Bay NSW
Tonight was the dinner for the 2RAR reunion. A good night, quite a lot of the guys from Eric’s company turned up which was good. We are staying at the Boyds Bay Caravan Park as it is close to Twin Towns RSL.
Boyds Bay Caravan Park is one of the biggest we have ever stayed in. Its huge, has four amenities blocks. All very clean when we were there. Our site backs onto the water which is nice and easy for Eric to get his Kayak in to go fishing but the down side is that the sandflies nearly carried us away.
Today is “R” day for Bob and Kay. “R” being retirement day. Finally. They are very very happy people and really looking forward to travelling. There is a deal to do with the wind up of the business yet, but it is getting closer to freedom for them every day.
Saturday 30 October Boyds Bay NSW
After the morning ceremony all met for drinks then for lunch. Again a good turn out.
Photos to follow.
