Tractors tractors tractors!

Well spring has sprung and we are on our way again after a lovely break in Brisbane where we very spoilt by Rob & Pru, Rick & Flo. Those Greenwoods certainly know how to make guests feel welcome and we were wined and dined in style! I think we'll be eating cruskits and lettuce this week to make up for the feasting we've enjoyed! (tho Flo has popped a few goodies in the freezer!) We never felt we were in a city as both places as in beautiful rural settings on some acreage. This is the view from Rob and Pru's kitchen! 

         

and this is Rick & Flo's house:

        

Rob and Pru made sure our 45th wedding anniversary was celebrated and party hats and all were whipped out:

       

and the lollies would have made some kids we know very happy: (note not many left on the plate!)

The stay wasn't without some drama however, as Dennis trod on a rusty nail and ended up having to go to the Dr again (2nd time in a week!) for a tetanus injection! Poor Dennis!

The drive today from Ricks place in Ipswich to this little place called Clifton was very picturesque with pretty farming valleys and dramatic mountain backdrops as we made our way through Cunninghams Gap. We remember going through this gap years ago on the way from Goondawindi to Gold Coast. 

We are here now at the Clifton show grounds as Dennis got whiff of a tractor collection nearby. So we quickly set up and off they went leaving Tops & I to tidy and sort out things then we strolled to the Main Street and wouldn't you know it? The only dress shop was closed!  The town isn't very big and didn't take long to see it all! The boys had a lovely afternoon looking at this chaps collection - it's not open to the public but he was happy to show such nice chaps through.

      

I don't think we'd want to go camping in this old timer!

      

Tomorrow we will go through Warwick and then who knows? But we do fear we are going to strike colder weather - already the evenings nights and mornings are cold! 

Trust everyone is well and until next blog send our love xxxxx

PS ran into Elton John on the weekend!

     

Onto Brisbane

We had a great night at this free spot at the Chinchilla weir - it's even possible to have access to free power but we didn't need that. The local shire look after the place and think it's worth it as people come here and spend $$ in the town.  Chinchilla seems to be a thriving place on the fringe of the Darling Downs. We had a cute mumma possum visit us and share our chops!  

 

         

   

Dennis made more bread - too much for us humans but the leftovers proved popular with the possum and birds! 

       

It was chilly this morning and we still haven't got the knack of setting up so we get the morning sun! We had to wait a while for the canvas to dry out as we won't be sleeping in our campers this weekend. We are going to be living in luxury in a house - at Rob & Pru's. We won't know ourselves! 

On the way to Towoomba we passed through Dennis's birth place Dalby - their most famous son! (Well we think so) 

     

We had a tour of Towoomba looking for the house the Greenwoods lived in but couldn't find anything familiar so assume it's gone. We had no idea Towoomba was elevated in the dividing range and heading out towards Brisbane you come down 4 or 5 kms of steep decline to the Lockyer Valley. Now we understand how the flooding occurred. 

We decided to travel this route to avoid traffic on the Bruce Highway - well, we were wrong!  This Warrego Highway is the busiest we've been on with an unbelievable amount of roadworks -  so it's been a very slow journey!  Can't wait to get on outback roads again! 

We are now at the beautiful Greenwood resort and seeing we don't have to set up campers have settled down by a fire Rob has lit with a champagne and beer! I think this respite will be a bit of heaven!

        

Good luck to all those involved in sports this weekend! Xxxxxx from us here in paradise 

Rockhampton to Chinchilla

 We have had a lovely rest day here at Gracemere - which sounds like Gracelands but is really just a suburb of Rockhampton. We are in this great park which is very green and pretty with trees and birds. We are camped on lovely soft green grass which is a luxury!  There is a new shopping centre just down the road which was perfect for us as Dennis saw a Dr there (he has been struggling with a cough for a while) and Tops and I attended to some beauty therapy!  It was nice to have a rest day. We did a tour of Rockhampton and the city centre looks like it's struggling a bit with many empty shops. But there are lots and lots of shopping centres out from the city. 

We have some very different lunch spots - one day it's a lorikeet visiting at a beach side stop

      

and another day it's wood cutting way out back!

Now we are on our way to Dalby - famous cos that's where Dennis and Peter were born. We decided to leave the coast as the Bruce highway is busy and we are on the Leichhardt  highway going through some very funny places such as Banana where we had morning tea. Not a banana in sight but the name came from a yellow bullock called Banana! 

After carrying fuel for 7,000 km Darryl, as tour leader today, decided to not worry about refuelling at Rockhampton, but to get down the road with no towns in sight and use the emergency fuel. Turns out there was a station not far down the road anyway! 

The things you see on the road - the old Fords towing camper trailers had Dennis pretty happy. They are heading to WA for a rally from McKay so not a bad trip. 

 

    

       

Darryl's  pretty upset at the minute as he's over his data limit plus some extra he bought and despite trying to work it out with Telstra, they insist he used 1.2gb in 90 mins of normal usage! (That's checking messages, FB & reading newspaper) So in protest he's turned his iPad and phone off till Monday when new months data resumes! And I have to publish this as quickly as I can using my phone hotspot! 

 

We won't get to Dolby today so are heading to Chinchilla  weir - a free camp site.

Must hurry - love to all xxxxx

Heading south

We have this mindset that now we are away from Cape York we aren't far way from home - but last night at Forest Beach we were still 1500kms from Brisbane! This is a huge state! We can't believe how quickly the weather has changed and the last two mornings have been cool and quite dewy! The days  are still lovely though -  about 25 degrees. Maybe we'll head north again if it gets too cold! The scenery has changed too from the tropical rainforest to more open paddocks and gum trees.

    

Another day, another morning tea! 

We left our beachside campsite bright and early and headed through some beautiful country with many sugar cane fields and cute cane engines hauling long trains to the factories. 

      

This is certainly a food bowl area as we have seen every fruit and vegetable growing and for sale in road side shops. We also drove through lovely rain forests and kept our eyes peeled for the elusive cassowarys - with no success!! We called into Mission Beach as we had heard about it during the Yasi cyclone disaster and were pleasantly surprised to find this vibrant village with a lovely feel to it. The beach was beautiful with people swimming and relaxing on the sand. Evidently crocodiles are not often seen on the beaches - more often estuaries. It was quite busy and we walked around a bit enjoying the ambience of the place. You'd never know that the area had been hit by that cyclone. 

     

We then drove through Cardwell which looked like a lovely place but Dennis was on a mission and we did a quick drive by! We found Forest Beach which is a few kms from Ingham and enjoyed a picnic lunch on the foreshore. Tommy the satnav gave us a little tour of a Forest Beach but lead us eventually to Jack and June Kennedys place. They have a lovely spot - quite secluded with lots of trees and birds and plenty of space for us to set up our campers. We cooked a camp oven roast for them and despite not watching the clock or doing anything more than plonking the meat and veges in our camp ovens, the result was delicious and I think we even impressed Jack who does a bit of bush cooking!

      

They were very gracious hosts and we felt very relaxed and comfortable even though we hadn't previously met them and we should know to trust Dennis's judgement! We had a very pleasant evening sitting around the camp fire.

    

Today we had a later start and left there about 10am. We headed to Townsville again and found the Strand where we met up with Dennis and Tops's mate Roger Moore and his mother for a nice lunch right by this area with swimming beach and lovely surrounds. These towns have lovely beachfront areas but I think Townsville has a better feel to it than Cairns.  We didn't leave there till about 2 but still made it to the other side of Bowen. We had afternoon tea at Ayre and checked out Scott and Berny's storage sheds - not hard to find as they are right on the main highway! They are looking very neat and tidy!  This is a very impressive bridge out of Ayre:

     

  

     

Tops and I pored over our camp books to find a suitable place to stay tonight with not much success but Dennis did it again by looking at his Wiki Camps site! I think we could put our books away as they are  outdated and this web site has proven to be great! We are in this quaint farmstay place which is very rustic and unregimented - and we even went over to join in on the happy hour where the host cooked us a damper. It was delicious! Then chatting around the fire when we said we were from Murrabit she said she puts her houseboat in there at Stretch Landers place. She knows him really well as they grew up together at Bacchus Marsh! What a small world - Stretch is our neighbour!  

       

We now have a vague itinerary - to be in Brisbane by this weekend to catch up with Dennis's brothers Rob and Rick. Then we plan to be at Jervis Bay about the 12th September to meet up with Beth and Dust. We are pretty excited to be seeing them as we haven't since Easter! Then home via Junee. It's a bit sad to be planning the end of a trip but all good things have to come to an end. It will be lovely to see family again. Love to all xxx

Ps Dennis is thinking of leaving Tops and the camper here and bringing this beauty home!

      

Cairns

We are camped here at Bampton Beach which is a beaut little park south of Cairns. It's a nice little beach but we wouldn't be game to swim here of course! We have walked along the beach here but always a bit wary. 

 

Our trip down from Lake Tinaroo was beautiful - through rainforest and with lovely scenery over the mountains. It's much like Declan's favourite trip from Canberra to Batemans Bay!  It was a short drive to here really and we arrived before lunch - just as well as we hadn't booked and it's only a small park. However, once again we were lucky to get 2 great sites together and have had plenty of space with what Dennis calls our garden where we could light our fire in Darryls fire pit. That has proved to be a great thing to have as lots of places don't want fires on their grass. 

      

Dennis and Darryl got to the hose and tap and gave the cars a bit of a clean up and they no longer look red and grotty! I think we still need to find a proper car wash place to give a better clean. I reckon we'll be finding red dust in spots for ages!

Yesterday we headed to Cairns for the day - we were most impressed with the swimming pool area on the foreshore and we wished we had some little ones to frolic in the water. We had a coffee and strolled through the market (amazing that these bob up everywhere!) then headed to the Skyrail.

      

The weather was perfect and the whole Skyrail day was excellent ( better than the day we went up Greg - no ponchos this time!)  Our trip up on the Skyrail was great and the cameras were working overtime! 

    

       

We got to Karumba  and  the walk along the streets was very pleasant. We found a Vietnamese place for lunch and enjoyed quite a feast - so much so that Tops and I ate our leftovers for tea and Darryl and Dennis had a piece of toast! The town is a very touristy place and it heartens us to note Australian made souvenirs in the shops. Not very often you see that. We then caught the train back to the station and that was a great ride. How these early engineers designed a track in such rugged conditions is unbelievable - then the workers who toiled to make the project worked under very adverse conditions - the tunnels were made with pick axes and shovels! 

    

We rate this whole experience as being world class and couldn't fault anything - the personell, organisation, presentation, cleanliness, information - all fantastic! There was a shuttle bus to take us back to the car at the Skyrail which completed the great experience.

Unfortunately, we had to stop along the way home to get groceries - in a huge foreign Woolworths, we seemed to take ages to find things. We were not back at camp till about 6 which is real late for us oldies! We pack up and head south again tomorrow and are staying at some ex Kerang people's place at Forest Beach. Another adventure!

Congratulations to the Murrabit B grade netball and reserves football on their win and good luck at the next step. Good to see Port Adelaide back in form too! 

Hope everyone is happy and well xxxxxxxx

Lake Tinaroo

We have well and truly left the outback behind and  are now in the Atherton a Tablelands which is a beautiful part of Queensland and an area we knew little about. We are set up in this very picturesque caravan park - Darryl and I are in an unpowered site and have no one around us, use of a camp fire right by and the birds are prolific! Dennis and Tops are nearby in a powered site as you can't run generators here and it hasn't been particularly sunny. We miss them being right by us as we are unsure when to get up ( usually the zip opening gives us a clue that it's get up time!)

This morning we walked along the Lake Tinaroo foreshore and were very impressed by the neat and tidy conditions and the lovely amenities. This dam was built in the 50's using many of the labourers from the Snowy Mountains scheme. It's primarily for irrigation and is a great recreation area for water sports. Everyone seems to have a lot of civic pride in all the little places we saw today.

Today we set off to drive to Cairns as it's about 90 mins drive from here but we got waylaid and really only did a circle around the lake! We never got near Cairns! We called into several NP camp sites and they looked lovely right on the foreshore with lovely grassy sites. However, we learned that these sites are to be closed soon so they can upgrade them - to be regimented and camps will only be on gravelled areas! We reckon the parks people are nuts! Then we stumbled on this lovely town called Yungaburra! It's got many heritage listed houses and the street scene probably looks like it did years ago.  This is the old pub - currently undergoing some restoration. 

       

Our lunch in a lovely quaint cafe was yummy and after we strolled around looking at some very different and interesting shops. Quite alternative really. The town has recently developed an amazing Avenue of Honour as a tribute to the soldiers in Afghanistan who lost their lives there. It's so beautifully set out with an avenue of Illawarra  Flame Trees setting off the scene and I found it very moving.

       

We saw a couple of strangler fig trees which are enormous and grow an amazing amount of  ferns and stag horns on them. We thought seeing these trees in amazing rain forest settings were much more amazing than the Daintree Forest walks that cost a fortune - and these cost nothing! 

     

We have looked at our books and think we'll head to the beach next so we can have a day trip to Cairns and maybe Karumba. 

When we reflect on our Cape York trip, we realise it wasn't as difficult as we had imagined. Yes, you do have to pre- book in National Parks but we easily found alternative places to stay. This prebooking is a very stupid system and we haven't heard anyone speak highly of it! 

We also worried about alcohol restrictions but that didn't have any affect on us as we stayed out of aboriginal lands and were in a designated wet area. Fuel was obtainable all along the way (even tho pretty expensive at times) and we didn't need max tracks. 

The weather wasn't horrid as we thought and we had no problems sleeping - or enjoying our busy lifestyle! I was armed with sandfly and mosquito repellents but except for one night at Loyalty beach, we had no insect issues at all. And the crocodiles and snakes didn't pose a problem either!  So whether we picked the right time to come up or whether  it was just luck, but our worries were unfounded! We'd recommend the trip to anyone.

Now everyday is again a surprise - what a great way to travel!  Love to everyone till our next blog xxxxx

Dennis does Gunshot

It was with a little sadness that we left Loyalty Beach and started the long journey home! Dennis was pretty keen to see Gunshot so once again we left the main road and headed to the old telegraph track. Boy was it rough!!  Some ruts were very deep and at this spot there was only a narrow bit to drive over! 

The track is very narrow and we hoped no-one came along the other way - we did have our UHF on channel 40 and advertised we were on the track.

        

Then just before Gunshot Dennis got into a rather delicate situation which needed some manouvering to ensure the camper wasn't damaged.

    

It just so happened that a group had just come through the creek ( we missed seeing them and no one else came along!) and these big boys (and little Darryl!) were able to lift the camper across so Dennis could drive out! 

      

After that excitement we had our picnic lunch, waited a while to see if anyone was going to cross the creek, then headed off. The creek is very small and the approaches steep and ridiculous and wish we'd seen someone silly enough to go through. These are a couple of the approaches - no way you could go from north to south!

      

      

Tops and I were pretty glad to get off that OTT and back onto a better road. We stayed overnight at Bramwell Station Homestead - Australia's most northerly cattle station and Dennis tried to share his frozen beer with Darryl! He's had to wash out his fridge and start again as a couple of cans leaked! Today we travelled over the worst stretch of road to Musgrave Roadhouse where we've set up and are now watching fellow travellers roll in! Tops calls this stretch of road no plate broken one but is a bit upset about the lid working open on the tomato sauce and mixing with the flour which developed a hole! Her food box is a bit messy!   Darryl has also been pretty busy watching Dennis setting up the fire. Darryl's theory is lots of fire lighters and minimum kindling whereas Dennis believes in no firefighters and lots of kindling! 

       

In Coen we picked up a couple of items but gee it's a pretty ordinary town and rates almost as the worst one! Tomorrow we have 139kms to get to Laura and then I think we leave the gravel roads and hit bitumen. It will be heaven!! We did wash down the camper before we set up today which makes life much more clean and pleasant! Touch wood we've had no car issues and it's remarkable that a vehicle can take so much punishment over gruelling roads. We've seen a couple of 2WD cars on the road - how they stand up to the corregations I don't know! We even saw 2 push bikes going up yesterday - I reckon that's foolish as they weren't very visible in the dusty conditions and passing cars could throw up dangerous stones! The motor bike chaps seem to bounce all over the bumps but they love it! 

When we reach civilisation and phone service, I will publish this - which will be my last out back one! Trust everyone is fit and well and enjoying life as much as we are! 

xxxxxxxxxx

ps sometimes we think we are 'glamping' - can you see the little tent behind Darryl's car? 

     

Thursday Island

It's Sunday morning and the sun is shining - we haven't seen much of the sun up here really - and this is our view! Not a crocodile in sight! The solar panels are out and that makes the boys happy! And Tops and I are happy to have the washing out! Port also had a win, we've captured photos of some different birds so it's all good! 

      

            

     

Last night we took our chairs down for a drink on the beach and the sunset was beautiful.

     

Yesterday we were up with the curlews (they make these terrible screeches at dawn!) to catch the ferry across to Thursday Island. It was just over an hour trip and the sea was nice and calm so no need for Kwells! We enjoyed a bus tour of the island - seeing the area is 4.5 square kms it didn't take long! It's still a centre for many government agencies and is the centre for health and education. It is a great little Island - pleasantly clean and tidy and the beautiful frangipani trees were starting to flower in an amazing array of different colours. The people are friendly and in their Main Street some great little shops all beautifully presented enticed some retail therapy! Darryl bought a pair of thongs (he lost one at the creek crossing) Tops bought some lovely new unbreakable (?) wine glasses plus a shift to wear to the showers and Dennis got heavy duty nail clippers!! I got nothing - poor me! 

      This is a view of the main harbour and town from Green Hill Fort.

We enjoyed a lovely drink and lunch at the local pub overlooking the harbour.

      

It was a very pleasant day and a nice change from driving.  We are enjoying a rest day today and as it's our last night this far north, we are shouting ourselves a dinner at the restaurant here - it's set up very low key Bali style and the fish'n'chips in paper should be very pleasant. Then we head south! Darryl and Dennis are keen to see Gunshot crossing so think we'll camp there - but not go through! It's a real bush camp so maybe Dennis can get his brand new toilet out!! It's travelled 4500 kms and not been out of its box!

We've heard worse stories of people crossing Nolans Brook - evidently it's quite steep and deep and one chap got stuck and his car got very wet!! He is still trying to dry it out. Not what we want to do! It's amazing how you develop quite a relationship with fellow travellers who we see from camp to camp.  Everyone has a story to tell and we've learned such a lot from just listening - and we can tell a tale or two too! 

This morning I snuck a photo of the bike group - the 2nd lot to camp here while we've been here. The first lot were very late going to bed but this last lot must have been exhausted as we didn't hear a squeak from them and when they arrived they looked done in. 

        

Well, until the next blog, we sign off and hope life is as good for you all as it is for us.

xxxxxxxx

Top of the world!

After travelling 4500km in 19 days we are finally at our destination - well not quite as yet but we are set up here at Loyalty Beach and will rest a bit before heading south! This morning we set off early up the track and soon hit the main road which was like a highway after the corregated track. We called into the Fruit Bat Falls and they were beautiful - and a safe swimming spot where several people were enjoying a swim but we had our thoughts towards getting north. I know lots of kids who would have had a ball there. 

         

We crossed the Jardine River on the most expensive ferry ever - it only took about 20secs to get across and cost $145!!  I reckon  a bridge would be the way to go! 

         

We headed to this camp spot and it's spacious and relaxed and after much deliberation, set up overlooking the no - go sea and Torres Strait Islands. We must be very nice people as despite the many vacant camping sites, these funny 4 fat people, who were next to us at Weipa, set up very close by! Can you see their tent and vehicle behind the horses? (And another Ultimate camper?)

       

 

There are these horses everywhere and they wander around the camp and even try send get into the rubbish bins - why I don't know! They don't belong to anyone and just roam about everywhere. Some are very attractive but most are a bit mangy! 

They say a mans work is never done and these 2 had a go at plumbing this morning and with success too! 

      

Now it's the next day and we have achieved our goal and reached the most northern point of mainland Australia! Darryl can tick that off his list now!  The drive there was beautiful through a lovely rainforest - one of the most picturesque drives you could go on.

       

Then we emerged from this forest to a car park and the beach! In typical Queensland style, there was no signage, so we walked along the beach seeing the tide was out, then clamoured over some rocks and reached our goal. We posed for the obligatory photo then Dennis surprised us by whipping out a Ford flag and posing with that!

        

We left there and drove to a beautiful beach overlooking Augusta island and enjoyed our picnic lunch there. We walked along the beach - with a wary eye out for those pesky crocs - it's such a shame these beautiful beaches can't be utilised. 

        

Our trip to the supermarket in Bamaga was very quick as the prices were atrocious - we did purchase a box of xxxx gold stubbies for $66 and a cask of wine for $25! We also found out that we aren't supposed to be drinking bottled wine as it's illegal to have glass up here! So we'll have to drink what we've got very quickly!  We haven't been impressed with the towns up here -rubbish everywhere, dilapidated houses, mangy dogs and no nice lawns, parks or gardens! We certainly wouldn't want to make our home up here!

We are now cooking a camp oven roast over the campfire and it's a glorious evening. Tomorrow we are doing a tour of Thursday Island and are looking forward to a relaxing day. 

So the very satisfied campers sign off tonight happy and content. Love to you all down south! 

Xxxxxxx

Ps I am having some publishing issues so please excuse me if they don't present properly!