Posted Sunday 7th April
Hi everyone,
Here we are at just past Monkey Mia. We went there today and heaps of dolphins came to visit cool!!! Visited my sister had a great reunion, haven't seen each other in about 14years! Only her eldest remembered me but all was great. Perth is much bigger than I remembered (haven't really been there for 25years) The freeway is wonderful with a train running down the middle. All the houses seem new, don't know what happens when they get over 20years old, do they knock them down??? We've been heading north trying to catch up on time, gotta get to work on 15th & running out of money & time, Monkey Mia was the last place on our list, was 260kms out of the way but worth it in the end. Tonight we are camped about 55klms north of the Monkey Mia turnoff about 1000klms south of Port Headland, it is a beach side camp about 6klms off the main highway. Still a long way to go. The weather is getting warmer and more humid, tonight there is a cool damp breeze coming off the ocean. I tried to go for a swim but the water is only about 4" deep for about 800mtrs, still sat in it and had a cool off. Well hope to see you all soon, love & kisses :ox
Sunday, 7 April 2013
Monday, 1 April 2013
We've made it to Perth
Posted Monday 25th March
10klms from WA cooking the last of the veggies lol. What a week! last time I wrote we were still in Broken Hill, since then we have traveled up to Lake Eyre and across the state of SA. The trip was pretty uneventful from Broken Hill to Port Augusta, we had to hand over our cucumber at the fruit station just outside of Peterbough. The night before we drove to within 1klm of the checking station, camped and cooked up the last of the veggies, made a yummy pumping soup. When we got to Port Augusta we started up the Stuart Hwy and found a good camp about 20k from town. We had to share with a young couple but there was plenty of room. Got so great pix of the Flinders Ranges at sunset. Next day we headed off to Roxby Downs where we had decided to leave the trailer for the run to Lake Eyre. We passed Woomera without getting ourselves into trouble (there is lots of secret stuff happening there) and arrived at the caravan park. $50 per night for a powered site!!! We hummed and hared but decided to bight the bullet and pay the $100, I got a $10 discount for being in the AANT. The park was very nice, no swimming pool but a great camp kitchen and games room with Austar TV. For the rest of the day I cooked up a roast for dinner & cold meat for lunches and watched 3 movies. We both had very long showers (i think I had 2) and left the next morning with the power still plugged into the freezer. We drove all the way to Lake Eyre, lots of rabbit holes along the way but all the rabbits have been dead for at least 6 months. That virus that 'accidentally' escaped is certainly potent. There was no water in the lake but still pretty impressive. Did I mention the SA government charges $150 per vehicle to visit their parks? Needless to say we didn't go to the paying bit but had a look at Lake Eyre South for free. After traveling across SA Ive come to the conclusion they don't want people to visit their parks. The viewing place had no shelter, not a picnic table or anything just a sign. Had a walk on the lake it's covered with salt. We headed back to Roxby Downs and watched some more TV and did some more cooking in their lovely kitchen. I saw most of a movie called Battleship looked great but had to go home before it ended because they close the kitchen at 9pm. Next day we headed back to Port Authur and camped at the same place as last time. After fueling up at Port Authur we drove on to Ceduna, we found a nice little camp just out of town. S frightened away some tourists when they caught him having a shower loll.
That takes us up to last night. After traveling along the most boring road we finally made it to the Great Australian Bight. I was looking on the map & could see we were less than a 1km from the water but couldn't see the sea. We couldn't find the lookout and after about 10kms or so we took one of the unmarked side roads. Wow the best view in Australia! over 70mtrs of vertical cliff dropping down to the ocean. This time we decided to forego a shady spot and camped right there, about 5 mtrs from the edge. What a great spot. So today we went looking for the caves, we've finally found one but you can't go in unless you have climbing gear, we thought there would be guided tours like the other caves. Still we've had an adventure going on the back-roads, none of them are signposted so half the time I have to navigate using the compass (the road we're on now looks like someone's driveway. So we've stopped just short the the boarder to cook the last of the veggies, looks like the only thing we'll have to chuck is a bit of lettuce. Will be in WA tomorrow on the way to Esperance.
Posted Sunday 31st March
Hi again, we are now camped about 280kms south of Perth. We tried to find a camp near the beach but forgot it was Easter weekend and every man and his dog has gone away camping so no campsites available. :o( No matter we found a camp near a creek and today we are stopped at Dumbleyung Lake. You're not allowed to camp here, but we will stop for a long while just for a rest. Cooking dinner now. It took a bit longer to get to Experance than i thought. We arrived on Saturday & it was packed, people everywhere. The weather was cool so everyone was at the shops, we didn't stay for too long too busy for us. The journey across the Nullabor too a few days, from last Monday's campsite we went inland to see the caves was a great drive out in the middle of nowhere on dirt roads that are rarely traveled. We found the caves but they are only holes in the ground so you can't go exploring unless you have the right gear. We found an old homestead with a grave stone from 1889 so much work in those days… The bloke had dug out a well by hand, he was miles from anyone else the old fences are made of bits of timer with holes drilled in them & the wire strung through, it must of taken days to put up just a kilometre of fence. We had a day camp at one of the caves great place but the flies started to swarm about 6:30 so we left, never seen anything like it, the flies were chasing the car, actually hanging on to the side to keep up with us, they kept flying back into the window, I tried to drive faster but as we were on a dirt track heading into the sun I couldn't do more than 40klms -- talk about attack of the killer flies!!! It was too hard to see driving into the sun so we had to stop for 20mins while the sun went down, I walked round and around the car to try and keep them from getting into my eyes. Was so glad when we could take off again but took ages before they finally settled down to sleep. Saw heaps of bunnies near the border, we crossed over the WA border and didn't even see a sign. We camped that night on the beach, we were gonna go for a swim but the next morning the flies found us again and along with the march flies chased us out of the area!
Posted Monday 1st April
Back again, had to stop writing last night due to cooking dinner. Where was I up to… Oh yea the beach in WA so we left the beach, was gonna have a swim but flies really too bad, we've been camping on side of the road till today, last night we spent at lake Dumbleyung where that land and water speed guy made his world record in 1964. Tonight we are at a caravan park in a suburb called Success in Perth, it was a very nice spot in it's day but it is being closed on the 28th of this month and has fallen to disarray since then. There was no-one in charge when we arrived but one of the permanent people said we should camp and pay tomorrow, I think will be about $25 but we shall see. Tomorrow we will visit Perth then off to see my sister before we go to Cervantes to taste the lobster. Looking forward to getting home but still enjoying the holiday. That's all for now (gonna wash my hair for the first time in about a week) cheers :)
10klms from WA cooking the last of the veggies lol. What a week! last time I wrote we were still in Broken Hill, since then we have traveled up to Lake Eyre and across the state of SA. The trip was pretty uneventful from Broken Hill to Port Augusta, we had to hand over our cucumber at the fruit station just outside of Peterbough. The night before we drove to within 1klm of the checking station, camped and cooked up the last of the veggies, made a yummy pumping soup. When we got to Port Augusta we started up the Stuart Hwy and found a good camp about 20k from town. We had to share with a young couple but there was plenty of room. Got so great pix of the Flinders Ranges at sunset. Next day we headed off to Roxby Downs where we had decided to leave the trailer for the run to Lake Eyre. We passed Woomera without getting ourselves into trouble (there is lots of secret stuff happening there) and arrived at the caravan park. $50 per night for a powered site!!! We hummed and hared but decided to bight the bullet and pay the $100, I got a $10 discount for being in the AANT. The park was very nice, no swimming pool but a great camp kitchen and games room with Austar TV. For the rest of the day I cooked up a roast for dinner & cold meat for lunches and watched 3 movies. We both had very long showers (i think I had 2) and left the next morning with the power still plugged into the freezer. We drove all the way to Lake Eyre, lots of rabbit holes along the way but all the rabbits have been dead for at least 6 months. That virus that 'accidentally' escaped is certainly potent. There was no water in the lake but still pretty impressive. Did I mention the SA government charges $150 per vehicle to visit their parks? Needless to say we didn't go to the paying bit but had a look at Lake Eyre South for free. After traveling across SA Ive come to the conclusion they don't want people to visit their parks. The viewing place had no shelter, not a picnic table or anything just a sign. Had a walk on the lake it's covered with salt. We headed back to Roxby Downs and watched some more TV and did some more cooking in their lovely kitchen. I saw most of a movie called Battleship looked great but had to go home before it ended because they close the kitchen at 9pm. Next day we headed back to Port Authur and camped at the same place as last time. After fueling up at Port Authur we drove on to Ceduna, we found a nice little camp just out of town. S frightened away some tourists when they caught him having a shower loll.
That takes us up to last night. After traveling along the most boring road we finally made it to the Great Australian Bight. I was looking on the map & could see we were less than a 1km from the water but couldn't see the sea. We couldn't find the lookout and after about 10kms or so we took one of the unmarked side roads. Wow the best view in Australia! over 70mtrs of vertical cliff dropping down to the ocean. This time we decided to forego a shady spot and camped right there, about 5 mtrs from the edge. What a great spot. So today we went looking for the caves, we've finally found one but you can't go in unless you have climbing gear, we thought there would be guided tours like the other caves. Still we've had an adventure going on the back-roads, none of them are signposted so half the time I have to navigate using the compass (the road we're on now looks like someone's driveway. So we've stopped just short the the boarder to cook the last of the veggies, looks like the only thing we'll have to chuck is a bit of lettuce. Will be in WA tomorrow on the way to Esperance.
Posted Sunday 31st March
Hi again, we are now camped about 280kms south of Perth. We tried to find a camp near the beach but forgot it was Easter weekend and every man and his dog has gone away camping so no campsites available. :o( No matter we found a camp near a creek and today we are stopped at Dumbleyung Lake. You're not allowed to camp here, but we will stop for a long while just for a rest. Cooking dinner now. It took a bit longer to get to Experance than i thought. We arrived on Saturday & it was packed, people everywhere. The weather was cool so everyone was at the shops, we didn't stay for too long too busy for us. The journey across the Nullabor too a few days, from last Monday's campsite we went inland to see the caves was a great drive out in the middle of nowhere on dirt roads that are rarely traveled. We found the caves but they are only holes in the ground so you can't go exploring unless you have the right gear. We found an old homestead with a grave stone from 1889 so much work in those days… The bloke had dug out a well by hand, he was miles from anyone else the old fences are made of bits of timer with holes drilled in them & the wire strung through, it must of taken days to put up just a kilometre of fence. We had a day camp at one of the caves great place but the flies started to swarm about 6:30 so we left, never seen anything like it, the flies were chasing the car, actually hanging on to the side to keep up with us, they kept flying back into the window, I tried to drive faster but as we were on a dirt track heading into the sun I couldn't do more than 40klms -- talk about attack of the killer flies!!! It was too hard to see driving into the sun so we had to stop for 20mins while the sun went down, I walked round and around the car to try and keep them from getting into my eyes. Was so glad when we could take off again but took ages before they finally settled down to sleep. Saw heaps of bunnies near the border, we crossed over the WA border and didn't even see a sign. We camped that night on the beach, we were gonna go for a swim but the next morning the flies found us again and along with the march flies chased us out of the area!
Posted Monday 1st April
Back again, had to stop writing last night due to cooking dinner. Where was I up to… Oh yea the beach in WA so we left the beach, was gonna have a swim but flies really too bad, we've been camping on side of the road till today, last night we spent at lake Dumbleyung where that land and water speed guy made his world record in 1964. Tonight we are at a caravan park in a suburb called Success in Perth, it was a very nice spot in it's day but it is being closed on the 28th of this month and has fallen to disarray since then. There was no-one in charge when we arrived but one of the permanent people said we should camp and pay tomorrow, I think will be about $25 but we shall see. Tomorrow we will visit Perth then off to see my sister before we go to Cervantes to taste the lobster. Looking forward to getting home but still enjoying the holiday. That's all for now (gonna wash my hair for the first time in about a week) cheers :)
Monday, 18 March 2013
Dramas and Breakdowns
Posted 13th Mar 2013
Here we are at the Corner (I've decided you're allowed to call it that once you've visited). Looks like I made a miscalculation and Port Augusta is a bit further than i thought, anyway we decided to visit the Corner and then retrace our steps back to Peterbough, before we head off to Lake Eyre. The roads out here are pretty rough and fuel is very exie. So we made it to the Corner this morning, driving through the Sturt NP is quite beautiful lots of animals and sand dunes. Coming back we hit a bump and whoops broke one of the springs on the trailer. We had gone over a big bump yesterday and Dorothy & the trailer went airborne, looks like that little flight damaged the spring and it was just waiting for one more little bump to snap. Luckily we weren't going fast so no damage to Dorothy. So now we are stuck about 20klms from Cameron's Corner. S jerry rigged the trailer to get it off the road & I set off to the ranger station to call for help. When I got there no one was home, the gates were locked and a beware of dog sign is up. I tooted but no-one heard. Then I had the bright idea to us the CB so I called out on several channels and the ranger heard me. He came to the rescue, as he has a welder, he and S are going to see what they can do to get us back to town. We might be stuck in town for a day or 2 to wait for new springs to come up from Broken Hill.
We went north from the Murray (near Mannum) to Peterbough then headed east back to Broken Hill, I decided to go that way as the Silver City Hwy looks like the best road to the Corner. We camped just out of Peterbough at a roadside camp and left really early to get to Broken Hill before it got too hot. In Broken Hill we saw the Pro Hart gallery. I didn't know that much about the man but the gallery really tells you a lot about him. The gallery is quite small it is in his old house, but there are lots of pictures displaying all his various styles, there also his 4 rolls royces to see and a very informative video about him as a person. It was so nice and cool inside we stayed for an hour or so, S nearly fell asleep watching the video so we thought we'd better be off. We found a camp about 60klms up the road. There were no official off the road camps so we tried a couple of creeks but the sand was too soft, on the third attempt we found a good shady camp. It was very good but the ants tried to eat you all the time, there were only little ones but they are like ginger ants very bitey! Had to put my covered shoes on. Next morning we set off again and guess what?? We found a lake in the middle of the country, yes a lake, not a yucky salt lake a real honest to goodness fresh water lake. Turns out it rained up here a few days ago so there is lots of surface water around. We stopped for a rest as it was getting hot and I had a little paddle, the water was only knee deep but nice and cool. We camped at the Sturt NP and the rest is history.
Well S and Bill and fixing the trailer now so we'll see what the next episode will bring.
Posted 16th March
It feels like ages since my last post, but only 3 days have passed. The boys gerry rigged the trailer to make it back to Broken Hill by finding some extra spring leaves and bolting & welding them together. Everything is a bit crooked but should hold till Broken Hill. We camped another night at the National Park.
Headed off early to Tibooburra The 130k journey seemed twice the length as we couldn't go over 40km/h. We had a short stop at Tim?? to pick up some groceries and headed out again, we made a nice day camp just outside of the town where they had a bore running and a little pond for a swim.
In the evening we set off again (not wanting to travel in the heat of the day) we dawdled down the road for a couple of hours, I was driving, when we pulled up I turned the ignition off, out of habit, and all the lights went off!!! Dorothy's engine would not start, nothing, no clock or dash lights, nothing. Strange thing the CB was still working. S looked under the bonnet, i checked out all the fuses, could not find anything wrong. There was no reception on the phone so we started to set up camp. The road had been deserted but then someone came along, S thought 'Great they can give us a pull start' (I explained what this is back at the Gulf) so the fellow pulls up, is in a hurry, but agrees to try the pull start. He is getting reception, so i figure 'if he is getting reception I should be too'. Tried again and did get through,bloke was in hurry so he says goodbye & drives off, unfortunately i didn't have enough power in the phone to keep the reception so had to ring off & plug in to recharge (the cigarette recharger was also working). Stressed to the max we ended up in a row. By the time that was over it was much too late to call AANT so we had to wait till the next morning, at least the car was off the road. No one came past all night. In the morning the phone was charged and I did get through, turns out there are no NRMA guys till Broken Hill which was more than 300 kms away. So even though I'm in premium cover I would still have to 'contribute' to the tow. With the trailer it would cost even more. The guy gives S some hints as to what might be wrong with Dorothy and it turns out it was a broken wire that S couldn't see properly in the night Wheew! Dorothy started! That saved I don't know how many $$.
So we packed up and headed slowly to Broken Hill, after the bad luck we decided to bite the bullet and drive the whole way. It took hours, we traveled at about 40km/h to Packsaddle (the road is mostly unsealed) then after Packsaddle there is more sealed sections so we averaged about 60km/h to Broken Hill. Got into BH about 4pm after about a 5-6 hour journey. We found a trailer place the bloke takes one look at the trailer and says 'Too much for me mate' S felt like thumping the bugger (he is supposed to be a trailer specialist). Anyway he can sell us all the parts & has put us onto a boiler maker who will do the welding. The repair will cost about $500 & we have to wait till Monday. There is a big race meeting on in BH so we didn't want to stay in the caravan park, we found a camp a few ams back down the Silver Hwy which is nice and shady. Luckily the weather is quite mild and we have plenty of water and shade, we will just hang here till Monday morning.
The evenings have been quite cool, last night i needed 3 blankies! But after a sleep in and another rest earlier in the day we are both refreshed and will not be going home via Stuart Hwy after all. (last night we were so tired both of us felt like packing the whole trip in) Did the calculations again today hopefully I haven't made any more mistakes - this week Broken Hill to Ceduna with a side trip to Lake Eyre ( ~ 1700 klms) next week Perth (~1900 klms) WC 1/4/13 Port Headland (~ 1600) we'll probably camp a little past the town. Then the last week WC 8/4/13 and we make the final dash home to Darwin (~2400 klms) I should be home just in time to have a shower before I have to go back to work! Oh well, I haven't been allocated the days or place I'll be working at so I can figure that out when I get home. That's a total of ~7600 klms to go!
Missing everyone at home and sorry I'll be two weeks late but can't be helped. Kisses to everyone :ox
Posted Monday 18th March
Well here we are in Broken Hill waiting for the trailer to get fixed. We spent the weekend camping just outside the town and today has just been a day of hanging around town waiting for the repair. We did have a look at a place called White Rocks which was apparently the only place in Australia to see action during the first world war. Two men who were sympathetic to the Turks attacked a picnic train and injured some civilians. They were hunted down and killed by the local militia the battle lasted 1 whole day. Quite interesting I didn't know there was any fighting on the mainland in WWI. Well I've got Internet so gonna put this up and will catch you all when i have time and reception again. :o)
Here we are at the Corner (I've decided you're allowed to call it that once you've visited). Looks like I made a miscalculation and Port Augusta is a bit further than i thought, anyway we decided to visit the Corner and then retrace our steps back to Peterbough, before we head off to Lake Eyre. The roads out here are pretty rough and fuel is very exie. So we made it to the Corner this morning, driving through the Sturt NP is quite beautiful lots of animals and sand dunes. Coming back we hit a bump and whoops broke one of the springs on the trailer. We had gone over a big bump yesterday and Dorothy & the trailer went airborne, looks like that little flight damaged the spring and it was just waiting for one more little bump to snap. Luckily we weren't going fast so no damage to Dorothy. So now we are stuck about 20klms from Cameron's Corner. S jerry rigged the trailer to get it off the road & I set off to the ranger station to call for help. When I got there no one was home, the gates were locked and a beware of dog sign is up. I tooted but no-one heard. Then I had the bright idea to us the CB so I called out on several channels and the ranger heard me. He came to the rescue, as he has a welder, he and S are going to see what they can do to get us back to town. We might be stuck in town for a day or 2 to wait for new springs to come up from Broken Hill.
We went north from the Murray (near Mannum) to Peterbough then headed east back to Broken Hill, I decided to go that way as the Silver City Hwy looks like the best road to the Corner. We camped just out of Peterbough at a roadside camp and left really early to get to Broken Hill before it got too hot. In Broken Hill we saw the Pro Hart gallery. I didn't know that much about the man but the gallery really tells you a lot about him. The gallery is quite small it is in his old house, but there are lots of pictures displaying all his various styles, there also his 4 rolls royces to see and a very informative video about him as a person. It was so nice and cool inside we stayed for an hour or so, S nearly fell asleep watching the video so we thought we'd better be off. We found a camp about 60klms up the road. There were no official off the road camps so we tried a couple of creeks but the sand was too soft, on the third attempt we found a good shady camp. It was very good but the ants tried to eat you all the time, there were only little ones but they are like ginger ants very bitey! Had to put my covered shoes on. Next morning we set off again and guess what?? We found a lake in the middle of the country, yes a lake, not a yucky salt lake a real honest to goodness fresh water lake. Turns out it rained up here a few days ago so there is lots of surface water around. We stopped for a rest as it was getting hot and I had a little paddle, the water was only knee deep but nice and cool. We camped at the Sturt NP and the rest is history.
Well S and Bill and fixing the trailer now so we'll see what the next episode will bring.
Posted 16th March
It feels like ages since my last post, but only 3 days have passed. The boys gerry rigged the trailer to make it back to Broken Hill by finding some extra spring leaves and bolting & welding them together. Everything is a bit crooked but should hold till Broken Hill. We camped another night at the National Park.
Headed off early to Tibooburra The 130k journey seemed twice the length as we couldn't go over 40km/h. We had a short stop at Tim?? to pick up some groceries and headed out again, we made a nice day camp just outside of the town where they had a bore running and a little pond for a swim.
In the evening we set off again (not wanting to travel in the heat of the day) we dawdled down the road for a couple of hours, I was driving, when we pulled up I turned the ignition off, out of habit, and all the lights went off!!! Dorothy's engine would not start, nothing, no clock or dash lights, nothing. Strange thing the CB was still working. S looked under the bonnet, i checked out all the fuses, could not find anything wrong. There was no reception on the phone so we started to set up camp. The road had been deserted but then someone came along, S thought 'Great they can give us a pull start' (I explained what this is back at the Gulf) so the fellow pulls up, is in a hurry, but agrees to try the pull start. He is getting reception, so i figure 'if he is getting reception I should be too'. Tried again and did get through,bloke was in hurry so he says goodbye & drives off, unfortunately i didn't have enough power in the phone to keep the reception so had to ring off & plug in to recharge (the cigarette recharger was also working). Stressed to the max we ended up in a row. By the time that was over it was much too late to call AANT so we had to wait till the next morning, at least the car was off the road. No one came past all night. In the morning the phone was charged and I did get through, turns out there are no NRMA guys till Broken Hill which was more than 300 kms away. So even though I'm in premium cover I would still have to 'contribute' to the tow. With the trailer it would cost even more. The guy gives S some hints as to what might be wrong with Dorothy and it turns out it was a broken wire that S couldn't see properly in the night Wheew! Dorothy started! That saved I don't know how many $$.
So we packed up and headed slowly to Broken Hill, after the bad luck we decided to bite the bullet and drive the whole way. It took hours, we traveled at about 40km/h to Packsaddle (the road is mostly unsealed) then after Packsaddle there is more sealed sections so we averaged about 60km/h to Broken Hill. Got into BH about 4pm after about a 5-6 hour journey. We found a trailer place the bloke takes one look at the trailer and says 'Too much for me mate' S felt like thumping the bugger (he is supposed to be a trailer specialist). Anyway he can sell us all the parts & has put us onto a boiler maker who will do the welding. The repair will cost about $500 & we have to wait till Monday. There is a big race meeting on in BH so we didn't want to stay in the caravan park, we found a camp a few ams back down the Silver Hwy which is nice and shady. Luckily the weather is quite mild and we have plenty of water and shade, we will just hang here till Monday morning.
The evenings have been quite cool, last night i needed 3 blankies! But after a sleep in and another rest earlier in the day we are both refreshed and will not be going home via Stuart Hwy after all. (last night we were so tired both of us felt like packing the whole trip in) Did the calculations again today hopefully I haven't made any more mistakes - this week Broken Hill to Ceduna with a side trip to Lake Eyre ( ~ 1700 klms) next week Perth (~1900 klms) WC 1/4/13 Port Headland (~ 1600) we'll probably camp a little past the town. Then the last week WC 8/4/13 and we make the final dash home to Darwin (~2400 klms) I should be home just in time to have a shower before I have to go back to work! Oh well, I haven't been allocated the days or place I'll be working at so I can figure that out when I get home. That's a total of ~7600 klms to go!
Missing everyone at home and sorry I'll be two weeks late but can't be helped. Kisses to everyone :ox
Posted Monday 18th March
Well here we are in Broken Hill waiting for the trailer to get fixed. We spent the weekend camping just outside the town and today has just been a day of hanging around town waiting for the repair. We did have a look at a place called White Rocks which was apparently the only place in Australia to see action during the first world war. Two men who were sympathetic to the Turks attacked a picnic train and injured some civilians. They were hunted down and killed by the local militia the battle lasted 1 whole day. Quite interesting I didn't know there was any fighting on the mainland in WWI. Well I've got Internet so gonna put this up and will catch you all when i have time and reception again. :o)
Sunday, 10 March 2013
We're off to Cameron's Corner
Hi everyone,
Just gonna put the latest posts up. Outside of Petersbough now and gonna make the dash to Cameron's Corner.
Here is my post from yesterday:
Posted 9th Mar 2013
We went cross country to Melbourne was some lovely scenery we camped at a little reserve where we found lots of Acorn Trees. I looked on the net and they are edible but require a bit of processing http://www.grandpappy.info/racorns.htm we picked a couple of bags to give them a try. It started to rain quite heavily so we went to bed early, couldn't even cook dinner- S had a cold can of spaghetti (yucky) Was a very cold night, we left early and headed for Bad Al's we tried to stop to make some breakfast as we were crossing the Black Spur tooooo cold! Black Spur just as beautiful as ever (RIP Dave) took a video, we had some great days in the old days riding up there, but didn't see any bikes too early in the morning.
When we got to Healsville we stopped for breakfast at the Beechworth Bakery YUM!!! I bought a cook book the food was so great! Knocked on the door of Bad Al's house and Silvia (his Mrs) looks stunned, I don't think she was quite sure who we were! She did recognise us in the end and was really lovely and welcoming insisting that we stay in the "honeymoon suite". We went off to do some shopping and by the time we got back Al was home and she was making us some scrumptious cheese cake. Man I forgot that Victoria had such yummy bakeries and bakers! I think I must have put on kilos just being here!
Had a great time catching up with Bad Al & had a trip down memory lane from when I used to live in the area as a girl. We went out berry picking and got lots of raspberries, strawberries and blackberries. You can go to the U-Pick farms and eat as many berries as you can you have to pay $12.50 per person and that covers the 1st kg of berries. We ate about 3kg before we left!
After spending a few days at Al's we drove over to Ballarat to see my cos & good friend Ann. We stopped at the Lerdiderg Gorge on the way, when we went down the bottom there were campers every where and no place to set up our trailer so we decided to stay up the top (thank goodness). People were arriving all evening into the night… turns out there was a 'rave' down in the gorge, we couldn't hear much over the genny so it didn't bother us. Next morning they were still going! We left about 10:30 and was starting to slow down then. It sounded like all instrumental and no singing very repetitive & boring! Oh well to each his own. We continued on past Woodend, we didn't stop at Hanging Rock (unfortunately you can't fit everything in) We arrived in Ballarat mid afternoon, (they were expecting us lol) It was so wonderful to see Ann after all these years we had a great reunion. She couldn't believe my cooking but said I hadn't changed apart from that. She hasn't changed much either, but she is ill so I worry about her.
In Ballarat we went to see Sovereign Hill was a great day but quite expensive $90 for both of us. I didn't mind the entry fee so much as i they had lots of people dressed up and heaps to see but I was not happy with the charge of $4.80 for a drink! Even the small bottles were $4.00 each (ripped off) We had a great time saw the red coats and had a trip down the mine (the free one) the holograms were amazing. We bought some olde lollies I had an umbrella, haven't had one for years, S had some spearmint drops. For afternoon tea we went to the Beechworth Bakery again, good but not quite so much pride at the Healsville store (Pull your sox up Ballarat) I had a beesting yum yum yum lol. On way back to Ann's we found a pear tree and another quince tree (I tried the recipe from Burke's backyard and they are very good, kind of like tart apples) We picked heaps of both, when we cooked up the pears they were a bit disappointing but we've frozen them & will think of something later. i spent several hours processing the acorns and am still not sure I will eat them, gonna give them a try for lunch today.
It was sad leaving Ann's but we have to get on, only 3 weeks left & we still haven't got to Cameron's Corner. All the fruit was cooked and frozen so no worries going through the fruit fly. We stayed at a roadside camp and yesterday found our current camp on the Murray. Very picturesque but the water is very dirty, don't think I'd eat a fish out of it so we're not gonna bother. We will stay here till Sunday then we will make the run to Cameron's Corner, from here to there and back to Port Augusta is 1600kms we intend to make the trip in 1 week (that means about $500 in fuel) we'll see if we make it this time...
Just gonna put the latest posts up. Outside of Petersbough now and gonna make the dash to Cameron's Corner.
Here is my post from yesterday:
Posted 9th Mar 2013
We went cross country to Melbourne was some lovely scenery we camped at a little reserve where we found lots of Acorn Trees. I looked on the net and they are edible but require a bit of processing http://www.grandpappy.info/racorns.htm we picked a couple of bags to give them a try. It started to rain quite heavily so we went to bed early, couldn't even cook dinner- S had a cold can of spaghetti (yucky) Was a very cold night, we left early and headed for Bad Al's we tried to stop to make some breakfast as we were crossing the Black Spur tooooo cold! Black Spur just as beautiful as ever (RIP Dave) took a video, we had some great days in the old days riding up there, but didn't see any bikes too early in the morning.
When we got to Healsville we stopped for breakfast at the Beechworth Bakery YUM!!! I bought a cook book the food was so great! Knocked on the door of Bad Al's house and Silvia (his Mrs) looks stunned, I don't think she was quite sure who we were! She did recognise us in the end and was really lovely and welcoming insisting that we stay in the "honeymoon suite". We went off to do some shopping and by the time we got back Al was home and she was making us some scrumptious cheese cake. Man I forgot that Victoria had such yummy bakeries and bakers! I think I must have put on kilos just being here!
Had a great time catching up with Bad Al & had a trip down memory lane from when I used to live in the area as a girl. We went out berry picking and got lots of raspberries, strawberries and blackberries. You can go to the U-Pick farms and eat as many berries as you can you have to pay $12.50 per person and that covers the 1st kg of berries. We ate about 3kg before we left!
After spending a few days at Al's we drove over to Ballarat to see my cos & good friend Ann. We stopped at the Lerdiderg Gorge on the way, when we went down the bottom there were campers every where and no place to set up our trailer so we decided to stay up the top (thank goodness). People were arriving all evening into the night… turns out there was a 'rave' down in the gorge, we couldn't hear much over the genny so it didn't bother us. Next morning they were still going! We left about 10:30 and was starting to slow down then. It sounded like all instrumental and no singing very repetitive & boring! Oh well to each his own. We continued on past Woodend, we didn't stop at Hanging Rock (unfortunately you can't fit everything in) We arrived in Ballarat mid afternoon, (they were expecting us lol) It was so wonderful to see Ann after all these years we had a great reunion. She couldn't believe my cooking but said I hadn't changed apart from that. She hasn't changed much either, but she is ill so I worry about her.
In Ballarat we went to see Sovereign Hill was a great day but quite expensive $90 for both of us. I didn't mind the entry fee so much as i they had lots of people dressed up and heaps to see but I was not happy with the charge of $4.80 for a drink! Even the small bottles were $4.00 each (ripped off) We had a great time saw the red coats and had a trip down the mine (the free one) the holograms were amazing. We bought some olde lollies I had an umbrella, haven't had one for years, S had some spearmint drops. For afternoon tea we went to the Beechworth Bakery again, good but not quite so much pride at the Healsville store (Pull your sox up Ballarat) I had a beesting yum yum yum lol. On way back to Ann's we found a pear tree and another quince tree (I tried the recipe from Burke's backyard and they are very good, kind of like tart apples) We picked heaps of both, when we cooked up the pears they were a bit disappointing but we've frozen them & will think of something later. i spent several hours processing the acorns and am still not sure I will eat them, gonna give them a try for lunch today.
It was sad leaving Ann's but we have to get on, only 3 weeks left & we still haven't got to Cameron's Corner. All the fruit was cooked and frozen so no worries going through the fruit fly. We stayed at a roadside camp and yesterday found our current camp on the Murray. Very picturesque but the water is very dirty, don't think I'd eat a fish out of it so we're not gonna bother. We will stay here till Sunday then we will make the run to Cameron's Corner, from here to there and back to Port Augusta is 1600kms we intend to make the trip in 1 week (that means about $500 in fuel) we'll see if we make it this time...
Tuesday, 26 February 2013
Where the # are we?? Nagambie lol
Posted 21st Feb 2013
Well we've arrived in Victoria. We left the Yass campsite on the 18th, it was an OK site the noise from the Hume Hwy got a bit too much in the end at about 3 am I was ready to leave but had to wait till morning. We traveled down the Hume till we got to Gundagai to see the dog on the tuckerbox… it's always much smaller than you remember. Here is the oldest (probably) poem about the dog:
As i was coming down Conroy's Gap,
I heard a maiden cry:
'There goes Bill the Bullocky,
He's bound for Gundagai.
A better poor old -
Never earned an honest crust,
A better poor old -
Never drug a whip through dust.'
His team got bogged at the Five Mile Creek,
Bill lashed and swore and cried:
'If Nobby don't get me out of this,
I'll tattoo his hide.'
But Nobby strained and broke the yoke
And poked out the leader's eye:
Then the dog s(h)at on the Tucker Box
Five Miles from Gundagai.
We popped into town to do our washing and ate breaky at Australia's oldest running bakery, S said the pies were delicious. Then we headed for Narrandera you wouldn't believe it we found a whole pile of almond trees, so we both picked several bags full, god knows how we will eat them before we get to WA but anyway. At the Narrandera camp S picked some rosehips to make rosehip syrup, got lots of prickles but he say's it's worth it. I finished the apples 7 put in freezer so we don't have to throw them away when we cross the Vic border. Next day we headed off to a tiny little town called Maude there is a pretty weir and you can camp on the river just out of town. No luck fishing though. We left really early in the morning (3am) to see what we could see with the new spot light, saw lots of rabbits, foxes, hares and some sheep. (i didn't know we had hares in aust… learn something new every day) We arrived in Swan Hill very early 6am and had a sleep in the park. It was freezing!!! After our sleep we made breaky on the free bbqs and I cut my fringe i the public toilet -- came out Ok considering they had shut the light off after 7am. So yesterday we arrived at Toolebuc S's home town. Of course everything has changed, unfortunately all the camp sites that he remembers now have houses on them, but we managed to find a nice site on the Victorian side of the border, lots of trees.. we have to really careful because river reds loose their branches so we made sure we camped where no branches can fall. I saw lots of carp in the water but we haven't been able to catch any fish. We'll be off to Bendigo tomorrow.
posted 26th Feb 2013
Well we've been to Bendigo & visited uncle Alec, we camped at Serpentine in 2 different places, trying to catch yabbies. Unfortunately they're not running this year so we only caught a couple, got lots of shrimp so I will make some special fried rice later down the track. We bought a new freezer to cart all the extra food we have been finding. Today we camped at Nagambie great campsite if you don't mind all the rubbish! Still lots of shade and we need that to sort out the trailer. We found a wild fig tree & some quince trees growing on the side of the road. Most of the figs were ripe so I just blanched them & put in the freezer, got quite a few unripe figs so trying a Greek recipe for candied figs… will let you know how it turns out. http://mamastaverna.com/baby-fig-spoon-sweet-sikalaki-gliko/ I've never tasted quince before, they're yucky raw but apparently nice when cooked.. http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/factsheets/Food-Health-and-Nutrition/2UE-Quince-recipes-and-growing-tips/6011I'll let you know what they're like.
We are now slowly heading down to Melbourne to visit a Bad Al then we will set off for Ballarat. We only have 1 month to go, so will have to get a bit of a move on if we're ever to get to Cameron's Corner… cheers :o)
Well we've arrived in Victoria. We left the Yass campsite on the 18th, it was an OK site the noise from the Hume Hwy got a bit too much in the end at about 3 am I was ready to leave but had to wait till morning. We traveled down the Hume till we got to Gundagai to see the dog on the tuckerbox… it's always much smaller than you remember. Here is the oldest (probably) poem about the dog:
As i was coming down Conroy's Gap,
I heard a maiden cry:
'There goes Bill the Bullocky,
He's bound for Gundagai.
A better poor old -
Never earned an honest crust,
A better poor old -
Never drug a whip through dust.'
His team got bogged at the Five Mile Creek,
Bill lashed and swore and cried:
'If Nobby don't get me out of this,
I'll tattoo his hide.'
But Nobby strained and broke the yoke
And poked out the leader's eye:
Then the dog s(h)at on the Tucker Box
Five Miles from Gundagai.
We popped into town to do our washing and ate breaky at Australia's oldest running bakery, S said the pies were delicious. Then we headed for Narrandera you wouldn't believe it we found a whole pile of almond trees, so we both picked several bags full, god knows how we will eat them before we get to WA but anyway. At the Narrandera camp S picked some rosehips to make rosehip syrup, got lots of prickles but he say's it's worth it. I finished the apples 7 put in freezer so we don't have to throw them away when we cross the Vic border. Next day we headed off to a tiny little town called Maude there is a pretty weir and you can camp on the river just out of town. No luck fishing though. We left really early in the morning (3am) to see what we could see with the new spot light, saw lots of rabbits, foxes, hares and some sheep. (i didn't know we had hares in aust… learn something new every day) We arrived in Swan Hill very early 6am and had a sleep in the park. It was freezing!!! After our sleep we made breaky on the free bbqs and I cut my fringe i the public toilet -- came out Ok considering they had shut the light off after 7am. So yesterday we arrived at Toolebuc S's home town. Of course everything has changed, unfortunately all the camp sites that he remembers now have houses on them, but we managed to find a nice site on the Victorian side of the border, lots of trees.. we have to really careful because river reds loose their branches so we made sure we camped where no branches can fall. I saw lots of carp in the water but we haven't been able to catch any fish. We'll be off to Bendigo tomorrow.
posted 26th Feb 2013
Well we've been to Bendigo & visited uncle Alec, we camped at Serpentine in 2 different places, trying to catch yabbies. Unfortunately they're not running this year so we only caught a couple, got lots of shrimp so I will make some special fried rice later down the track. We bought a new freezer to cart all the extra food we have been finding. Today we camped at Nagambie great campsite if you don't mind all the rubbish! Still lots of shade and we need that to sort out the trailer. We found a wild fig tree & some quince trees growing on the side of the road. Most of the figs were ripe so I just blanched them & put in the freezer, got quite a few unripe figs so trying a Greek recipe for candied figs… will let you know how it turns out. http://mamastaverna.com/baby-fig-spoon-sweet-sikalaki-gliko/ I've never tasted quince before, they're yucky raw but apparently nice when cooked.. http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/factsheets/Food-Health-and-Nutrition/2UE-Quince-recipes-and-growing-tips/6011I'll let you know what they're like.
We are now slowly heading down to Melbourne to visit a Bad Al then we will set off for Ballarat. We only have 1 month to go, so will have to get a bit of a move on if we're ever to get to Cameron's Corner… cheers :o)
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Outside of Yass
Yep definitely getting slack, I'll have to put this post up tonight. Well we left Grub's place last Sunday & made our way to the Jenolan Caves well worth a visit. Unfortunately for me there was 2 dreadful kids on the tour, honestly if you can't control your kids don't take them on a tour with a lot of other people! These 2 horrid boys were naughty the whole tour, jumping around & shouting out, the parents are like "be good Jaysie", "now you need to stay with us Justie" I though they should just throw Jaysie & Justie over the side and make the world a better place for all of us, but they didn't seem to think that was a good idea. I refrained from asking them if they had had themselves desexed, so as not to populate the planet with any more of their evil offspring, but man was I tempted. Anyways aside from the terrible duo I enjoyed the caves. We didn't stop to camp at the caves but found a great campsite outside of Bathurst Chiffley Dam we checked out the Bathurst racing museum @ Mount Panarama, cool but could have been more cars & info on other drivers besides Brocky. Ben Chiffley Dam is a great free campsite with fishing in the dam and you can stay for 72 hours.
i can't remember exactly what we did after then but during the week we looked at another cave along the way and found another great campsite with fruit trees and goats running around the place. We went to Canberra and checked out Questicon. I got quite stressed trying to find the way and we went around in circles for a while. I think Questicon is really cool, S thinks it's for nerds and kids but anyway…. We stayed at Wee Jasper next to the river, that was a great site we were expecting to pay $7.50 per night, but the ranger kept driving past and didn't stop for the money, so we ended up getting 2 nights for free! No fish in the water. Yesterday we stopped at out current site just out of Yass, we found lots of fruit trees on the side of the road, plum, apricot, apple & nectarine so we've spent the day cooking up the fruit to freeze. Tomorrow we're off to the dog on the tucker box and Gundagai to wash our clothes. PS there are free hot showers at the Yass service centre &free water yippie!!! That bloke who travel's with me, says 'it's all a blur but we had fun" lol.
I'll try and get some pickies up soon too :o)
i can't remember exactly what we did after then but during the week we looked at another cave along the way and found another great campsite with fruit trees and goats running around the place. We went to Canberra and checked out Questicon. I got quite stressed trying to find the way and we went around in circles for a while. I think Questicon is really cool, S thinks it's for nerds and kids but anyway…. We stayed at Wee Jasper next to the river, that was a great site we were expecting to pay $7.50 per night, but the ranger kept driving past and didn't stop for the money, so we ended up getting 2 nights for free! No fish in the water. Yesterday we stopped at out current site just out of Yass, we found lots of fruit trees on the side of the road, plum, apricot, apple & nectarine so we've spent the day cooking up the fruit to freeze. Tomorrow we're off to the dog on the tucker box and Gundagai to wash our clothes. PS there are free hot showers at the Yass service centre &free water yippie!!! That bloke who travel's with me, says 'it's all a blur but we had fun" lol.
I'll try and get some pickies up soon too :o)
Friday, 8 February 2013
We're in NSW at last!!
Posted 30th Jan 2013
We've arrive at Mitchell. Looks like there are floods throughout Queensland but we're not affected as yet. Since my last post on 23rd we have been steadily heading south/southeast. The weather is still very hot, but at least we are finding some campsites with some shade. We were both feeling a little sick and was blaming it on the heat, but we realised that the bore water is causing us trouble so we have started to buy water and are feeling much better now. The Qantas museum was quite interesting, I liked the part where they drove up to Darwin, in an old Ford through much of the country we have travelled on. That's where they got the idea to start Qantas in the fist place. Just incase you've forgotten QANTAS stands for Queensland & Northern Territory Airline Service. (This was a question on Who Want's to be a Millionaire?" So it could be important info loll.) We've seen heaps of history, which I won't go into here, but it seems that in 1886 there was heaps happening here in Qld. Shearers were forming the Labour Party & a trade union & going on strike and the black stump was being used to survey Qld, railway stations were being built and everyone had a goat or two for milk.
We're camped at the weir just outside of Mitchell we stayed last night and will stay tonight again, we need to get some meat frozen in the freezer. (We found some goats last night and some other things) We'll head off thru St George and Morven tomorrow to try and get to Nimbin.
Posted 1st Feb 2013
We've reached NSW! On Wednesday night we decided to try to get to Nimbin via Toowoomba as most of the roads were open. We got up early and set off to Roma, when we arrived to get fuel they informed us that the alternate route we had planned had been closed there was no way to get to Toowoomba at all. So we thought we would just go to Chinchilla and wait till the road opened again. About 17klms out of Chinchilla a bloke stopped us and told us another way to get thru-- Miles > Condamine> Tara> Dalby > Toowoomba. So we turned back and headed to Condamine. There was quite a bit of water over the road at Condamine, but Dorothy made it with no trouble. SES guys were there, I think they shut the bridge just after us, some mad bugger in a sedan used Dorothy's wake to get thru, but the SES didn't like that. From Condamine we set off to Tara, had the CB on and we started hearing that they had shut the bridge at Dalby. There were a couple of trucks ahead so we followed them, another bloke stopped us and said we wouldn't be able to get thru Dalby and would be stuck for 3 days. I was looking for another alt route but S thought we should go and look at the river at Dalby. Turns out there was only a little water on the road and even though you couldn't go north or west you could still go east to Toowoomba. After Toowoomba we tried to find a camp but there was nowhere suitable, it is very built up. We ended up in a caravan park for only $20 and I had a lovely hot shower, 1st one in months! Got up this morning early and headed off towards Nimbin. Many roads are still shut and there is some crop damage but all in all it doesn't look too bad. We have crossed the Condamine River several times and looks like it is going down now. Everything should be Ok if it doesn't rain again too soon.
We only got a little way up the road today, with all the bad roads damaged from the flooding, and just the rough roads in Qld generally, some of the clamps have come loose from the exhaust and fumes are getting into the cab. We needed to stop for some repairs.
We are crossing the Great Divide again. The road is sealed but very rough & steep. I spotted this clearing in the state forrest, there is no water but lots of shade. The bell birds are tinkling away. There are a couple of old logging tracks to explore and it is a nice cool day. Gonna have a camp oven tonight, will cook some of the goat so we have some cold meat for lunch. We don't want to get to Nimbin too soon, it will suck money out of our pockets. We still haven't finished our shopping as most to the shops have been out of stock also I forgot my pin number so I can't get any cash out :o(. I'll try again next time I get to a EFTPOS machine…
Posted 8th Feb 2013
Getting slack, must be in holiday mode, I keep thinking of posts but haven't gotten around to writing them so here goes:
So we headed off last Sunday for Nimbin, the roads were dreadful rough, steep with lots of tight bends. The mist was heavy and visibility was poor. i hung on for dear life as we rounded the bends, so much for the beautiful NSW country side. The mist finally cleared and we were able to see some of the greenery, NE NSW is lovely. We arrived in Nimbin. I always think I'm gonna like the place but when I get there I don't like it at all. There were several drug pushers following us down the road trying to sell dope and one woman who I instantly disliked with long grey/blond hair selling cookies to the young people. I had seen her earlier in the day getting out of her flash new little car and putting on her leather sandals, I suspect the long hair may have been a wig!! How fake! There were heaps of interesting characters on the street but we decided not to stay. LOL we probably should have given the place a bit longer since we had been through so much to get there, but when they were gonna charge $14 each for an unpowered site we cracked the shits. So off to Grubs we headed.
When we got down the bottom of the hill and started off to Sydney the damage of the floods was quite evident, as we passed the sugar cane fields the smell from all the chemicals and fertiliser was disgusting, the cows were all put into small paddocks and they were pretty stinky too. Most of the flood water has abated but the creeks and rivers are dirty so there is no fishing. All the national parks are closed so we couldn't stay in one of those, so with nowhere else to camp we stayed in a rest stop for the night. When we were setting up a friendly rooster popped over for a visit. I don't know what he was doing there but he came over to see if we had any food. There were several people at the stop so we just continued setting up camp. He went away, S went for a walk and out he comes again, S tried to catch him but the rooster was a bit wary. But curiosity did not only kill the cat and silly mr rooster decided to follow S back to the car, needless to say we had to put him into the freezer as he was so insistent on coming with us. He will make a delicious dinner with the mangoes we had found growing wildly near one of the national parks. (Yes mangoes do grow wildly here in NSW & Qld)
On our second day of traveling to Sydney we decided to stay in a caravan park near the beach, we stayed in a lovely park just next to a river. The cost was $27 fro a powered site, which considering the 5 star accommodation I thought was reasonable. You had to pay 20c for 5 mins of shower but it was worth it, I had an 80c shower! The park was lovely and green, and had it's own boat ramp for campers. It had really nice grounds with lovely walks all around and a swimming pool with a waterfall. I was really surprised that there was so few people there, they had heaps of onsite vans but no-one was staying. It was too cool for a swim but it was a nice place to stay.
Next morning we headed off for Sydney, we stopped for lunch at Tea Gardens the beach was pristine with white sand and high surf, sorry didn't take my camera but it was beautiful. Too rough for fishing so we tried our luck in the river, no fish but heaps of oysters so we just collected them. The drive to Sydney was difficult in that they kept changing the speed limits 80, 90, 100, 110 and back to 80 again. They have speed cameras and special speed cameras that take your average speed, we tried our best not to get a ticket, but I don't know if we succeeded. Arrived at Grubs about 5pm.
We've been camped at Grubs ever since. S is very tired after so much driving and needs a rest. Also Dorothy needs some work, he has fixed the exhaust and topped up all the fluids. I fixed a chip in the windscreen. We have also installed a spot light in the roof and S is putting some new speakers into her today. I took a ride into Sydney town the other day on the train to order an new pin and get some cash out. Man so many weird looking people! Lots of men wearing hot pink shirts, they wouldn't show their faces in Darwin lol. Women with green, blue and pink hair, one bloke was about 40 carrying a skate board with bleached blond hair, and lots of men wearing way too much jewelery.
I got off at a few stations to have a look around, on one of the stations there was a big group of school girls from a Muslim school, they all had their hair covered and were dressed modestly. One girl aged about 16 was walking down the street with her friend and I overheard some of the conversation "F'n this and F'n that" lol, I thought Ozzy culture is certainly rubbing off for better or worse. I tried to find Krispy Kream donuts but have had no luck as yet. We have ended up spending all our money on the spotlight so I probably will find them now I have no money!
We will probably be leaving on Sunday off to Jenolan Caves, i'm just chilln here trying to learn how to program apps. I had some success today where I solved a problem I've been having for a week or so, so now I can move on to tutorial #16. Grub and his wife have been very welcoming, the kids love us, the older boy is a sweetheart & made me a necklace at school yesterday. Well gonna get on with trying to make my Fragments do someone will get back later with the next adventure.
We've arrive at Mitchell. Looks like there are floods throughout Queensland but we're not affected as yet. Since my last post on 23rd we have been steadily heading south/southeast. The weather is still very hot, but at least we are finding some campsites with some shade. We were both feeling a little sick and was blaming it on the heat, but we realised that the bore water is causing us trouble so we have started to buy water and are feeling much better now. The Qantas museum was quite interesting, I liked the part where they drove up to Darwin, in an old Ford through much of the country we have travelled on. That's where they got the idea to start Qantas in the fist place. Just incase you've forgotten QANTAS stands for Queensland & Northern Territory Airline Service. (This was a question on Who Want's to be a Millionaire?" So it could be important info loll.) We've seen heaps of history, which I won't go into here, but it seems that in 1886 there was heaps happening here in Qld. Shearers were forming the Labour Party & a trade union & going on strike and the black stump was being used to survey Qld, railway stations were being built and everyone had a goat or two for milk.
We're camped at the weir just outside of Mitchell we stayed last night and will stay tonight again, we need to get some meat frozen in the freezer. (We found some goats last night and some other things) We'll head off thru St George and Morven tomorrow to try and get to Nimbin.
Posted 1st Feb 2013
We've reached NSW! On Wednesday night we decided to try to get to Nimbin via Toowoomba as most of the roads were open. We got up early and set off to Roma, when we arrived to get fuel they informed us that the alternate route we had planned had been closed there was no way to get to Toowoomba at all. So we thought we would just go to Chinchilla and wait till the road opened again. About 17klms out of Chinchilla a bloke stopped us and told us another way to get thru-- Miles > Condamine> Tara> Dalby > Toowoomba. So we turned back and headed to Condamine. There was quite a bit of water over the road at Condamine, but Dorothy made it with no trouble. SES guys were there, I think they shut the bridge just after us, some mad bugger in a sedan used Dorothy's wake to get thru, but the SES didn't like that. From Condamine we set off to Tara, had the CB on and we started hearing that they had shut the bridge at Dalby. There were a couple of trucks ahead so we followed them, another bloke stopped us and said we wouldn't be able to get thru Dalby and would be stuck for 3 days. I was looking for another alt route but S thought we should go and look at the river at Dalby. Turns out there was only a little water on the road and even though you couldn't go north or west you could still go east to Toowoomba. After Toowoomba we tried to find a camp but there was nowhere suitable, it is very built up. We ended up in a caravan park for only $20 and I had a lovely hot shower, 1st one in months! Got up this morning early and headed off towards Nimbin. Many roads are still shut and there is some crop damage but all in all it doesn't look too bad. We have crossed the Condamine River several times and looks like it is going down now. Everything should be Ok if it doesn't rain again too soon.
We only got a little way up the road today, with all the bad roads damaged from the flooding, and just the rough roads in Qld generally, some of the clamps have come loose from the exhaust and fumes are getting into the cab. We needed to stop for some repairs.
We are crossing the Great Divide again. The road is sealed but very rough & steep. I spotted this clearing in the state forrest, there is no water but lots of shade. The bell birds are tinkling away. There are a couple of old logging tracks to explore and it is a nice cool day. Gonna have a camp oven tonight, will cook some of the goat so we have some cold meat for lunch. We don't want to get to Nimbin too soon, it will suck money out of our pockets. We still haven't finished our shopping as most to the shops have been out of stock also I forgot my pin number so I can't get any cash out :o(. I'll try again next time I get to a EFTPOS machine…
Posted 8th Feb 2013
Getting slack, must be in holiday mode, I keep thinking of posts but haven't gotten around to writing them so here goes:
So we headed off last Sunday for Nimbin, the roads were dreadful rough, steep with lots of tight bends. The mist was heavy and visibility was poor. i hung on for dear life as we rounded the bends, so much for the beautiful NSW country side. The mist finally cleared and we were able to see some of the greenery, NE NSW is lovely. We arrived in Nimbin. I always think I'm gonna like the place but when I get there I don't like it at all. There were several drug pushers following us down the road trying to sell dope and one woman who I instantly disliked with long grey/blond hair selling cookies to the young people. I had seen her earlier in the day getting out of her flash new little car and putting on her leather sandals, I suspect the long hair may have been a wig!! How fake! There were heaps of interesting characters on the street but we decided not to stay. LOL we probably should have given the place a bit longer since we had been through so much to get there, but when they were gonna charge $14 each for an unpowered site we cracked the shits. So off to Grubs we headed.
When we got down the bottom of the hill and started off to Sydney the damage of the floods was quite evident, as we passed the sugar cane fields the smell from all the chemicals and fertiliser was disgusting, the cows were all put into small paddocks and they were pretty stinky too. Most of the flood water has abated but the creeks and rivers are dirty so there is no fishing. All the national parks are closed so we couldn't stay in one of those, so with nowhere else to camp we stayed in a rest stop for the night. When we were setting up a friendly rooster popped over for a visit. I don't know what he was doing there but he came over to see if we had any food. There were several people at the stop so we just continued setting up camp. He went away, S went for a walk and out he comes again, S tried to catch him but the rooster was a bit wary. But curiosity did not only kill the cat and silly mr rooster decided to follow S back to the car, needless to say we had to put him into the freezer as he was so insistent on coming with us. He will make a delicious dinner with the mangoes we had found growing wildly near one of the national parks. (Yes mangoes do grow wildly here in NSW & Qld)
On our second day of traveling to Sydney we decided to stay in a caravan park near the beach, we stayed in a lovely park just next to a river. The cost was $27 fro a powered site, which considering the 5 star accommodation I thought was reasonable. You had to pay 20c for 5 mins of shower but it was worth it, I had an 80c shower! The park was lovely and green, and had it's own boat ramp for campers. It had really nice grounds with lovely walks all around and a swimming pool with a waterfall. I was really surprised that there was so few people there, they had heaps of onsite vans but no-one was staying. It was too cool for a swim but it was a nice place to stay.
Next morning we headed off for Sydney, we stopped for lunch at Tea Gardens the beach was pristine with white sand and high surf, sorry didn't take my camera but it was beautiful. Too rough for fishing so we tried our luck in the river, no fish but heaps of oysters so we just collected them. The drive to Sydney was difficult in that they kept changing the speed limits 80, 90, 100, 110 and back to 80 again. They have speed cameras and special speed cameras that take your average speed, we tried our best not to get a ticket, but I don't know if we succeeded. Arrived at Grubs about 5pm.
We've been camped at Grubs ever since. S is very tired after so much driving and needs a rest. Also Dorothy needs some work, he has fixed the exhaust and topped up all the fluids. I fixed a chip in the windscreen. We have also installed a spot light in the roof and S is putting some new speakers into her today. I took a ride into Sydney town the other day on the train to order an new pin and get some cash out. Man so many weird looking people! Lots of men wearing hot pink shirts, they wouldn't show their faces in Darwin lol. Women with green, blue and pink hair, one bloke was about 40 carrying a skate board with bleached blond hair, and lots of men wearing way too much jewelery.
I got off at a few stations to have a look around, on one of the stations there was a big group of school girls from a Muslim school, they all had their hair covered and were dressed modestly. One girl aged about 16 was walking down the street with her friend and I overheard some of the conversation "F'n this and F'n that" lol, I thought Ozzy culture is certainly rubbing off for better or worse. I tried to find Krispy Kream donuts but have had no luck as yet. We have ended up spending all our money on the spotlight so I probably will find them now I have no money!
We will probably be leaving on Sunday off to Jenolan Caves, i'm just chilln here trying to learn how to program apps. I had some success today where I solved a problem I've been having for a week or so, so now I can move on to tutorial #16. Grub and his wife have been very welcoming, the kids love us, the older boy is a sweetheart & made me a necklace at school yesterday. Well gonna get on with trying to make my Fragments do someone will get back later with the next adventure.
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Which way should we go now?
Posted 30th Jan 2013
We've arrive at Mitchell. Looks like there are floods throughout Queensland but we're not affected as yet. Since my last post on 23rd we have been steadily heading south/southeast. The weather is still very hot, but at least we are finding some campsites with some shade. We were both feeling a little sick and was blaming it on the heat, but we realised that the bore water we have been drinking is causing us trouble so we have started to buy water and are feeling much better now. The Qantas museum was quite interesting, I liked the part where they drove up to Darwin, in an old Ford through much of the country we traveled on. That's where they got the idea to start Qantas in the fist place. Just in case you've forgotten QANTAS stands for Queensland & Northern Territory Airline Service. (This was a question on Who Want's to be a Millionaire?" So it could be important info lol. We've seen heaps of history, which I won't go into here, but it seems that in 1886 there was heaps happening here in Qld. Shearers were forming the Labour party & a trade union & going on strike and the black stump was being used to survey old, railway stations were being built and everyone had a goat or two for milk. We're camped at the weir just outside of Mitchell we stayed last night and will stay tonight again, we need to get some meat frozen in the freezer. (We found some goats last night and some other things) We'll head off thru St George and Morven tomorrow to try and get to Nimbin.
We've arrive at Mitchell. Looks like there are floods throughout Queensland but we're not affected as yet. Since my last post on 23rd we have been steadily heading south/southeast. The weather is still very hot, but at least we are finding some campsites with some shade. We were both feeling a little sick and was blaming it on the heat, but we realised that the bore water we have been drinking is causing us trouble so we have started to buy water and are feeling much better now. The Qantas museum was quite interesting, I liked the part where they drove up to Darwin, in an old Ford through much of the country we traveled on. That's where they got the idea to start Qantas in the fist place. Just in case you've forgotten QANTAS stands for Queensland & Northern Territory Airline Service. (This was a question on Who Want's to be a Millionaire?" So it could be important info lol. We've seen heaps of history, which I won't go into here, but it seems that in 1886 there was heaps happening here in Qld. Shearers were forming the Labour party & a trade union & going on strike and the black stump was being used to survey old, railway stations were being built and everyone had a goat or two for milk. We're camped at the weir just outside of Mitchell we stayed last night and will stay tonight again, we need to get some meat frozen in the freezer. (We found some goats last night and some other things) We'll head off thru St George and Morven tomorrow to try and get to Nimbin.
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
I've reached Longreach (well almost)
Today's been a pretty lazy day. Yesterday we packed up from the mouth of the Annan River and went into Cooktown. It was sooooo hot! someone said it had gotten up to 42oC. We caught 4 good sized mud crabs so that was good. We headed off about 4pm to find a camp site in the Daintree, we went the back road from Cooktown, very lovely drive but beware, at one point the road just got steeper and steeper, Dorothy couldn't climb any more, S tried to roll her back for another go, but that was too dangerous, black smoke started pouring from the bonnet as the clutch started to melt, somehow S managed to get her into low range and we got up that hill. Dorothy was not happy. We found a very nice camping spot in the middle of the forest.
Today we have just been chilln there is a wild mango tree, that has some ripe mangoes so we collected those and ate some, we ate 2 of the mud crabs for lunch, a water monitor came to visit and ate our scraps. We've also been eating some of the coconuts we found on the beach at Annan river, they are delicious. S likes them when that start to sprout and you get a kind of fairy floss inside, I like them better when they are brown but not yet sprouted. We'll probably head off towards cape tribulation tomorrow, we don't want to get to Cairns until I get my pay on Monday.
Out camp is located at 15o58'1.70" S 145o22'31.63" E elevation 168mtrs
The water in the creek is clear and safe to swim in, but there are no brim or cherabin only turtles and water monitors. There is some kind of fruit that may be edible, looks kind of like a avocado and tastes a bit like honey dew melon, will collect some and check out when I have reception.
Posted Today Sunday 13th January 2013
Camped 16o39'55.10" S 145o19'38.53"E
On Mulligans Hwy, Rifle Creek just outside of Mount Molloy
We set of early yesterday hoping to find another campsite in the park. Unfortunately we couldn't find one. The official camp site closes from 06/01 - 29/03 every year and there is nowhere you can get off the road far enough to have a bush camp. We found a couple of likely spots but the first had a sticky-nose neighbour who I'm sure would have reported unauthorised camping and the second was chokers with mozzies. So we headed across on the ferry and now we are just outside of Mt Molloy. There is a free 48hr camp here at Rifle Creek . S says it's a bad spot because he broke the shovel when he backed in, but I think it is quite a nice spot for a day or two. We have to stay here today as I don't get paid until tomorrow. There are showers, toilets and water in taps… luxury!!! There are signs warning that the water has not been treated but as we always drink creek water, I don't think that will be a problem for us. Last night we cooked up the last 2 mud-crabs they looked beautiful but they were empty :o( so we had them for entree and I mad some spag boll for dinner. Today we're just gonna chill got some pots in the creek so we might get some redclaw see what happens.
PS I've used up all of my downloads so I can't post any pix till after 15th I'll try & be more careful next month.
Posted Tuesday 15th January 2013
Today we are camped just outside of Townsville. Yesterday we drove across the great divide yet again, I've lost count how many times we've crossed it since we arrived at the coast. We found a tea plantation with an honesty box out the front so we bought 6 pkts of tea, later on we found an wild banana tree and got a whole pile of bananas. S also found some limes they are very small but smell nice. Last night we camped at Tully Gorge NP, we had the whole place to ourselves, it was lovely. This morning we went for a walk through the butterfly walk and saw a few butterflies. Yesterday we went down to the river, we both got stung by a paper wasps, gee those buggers hurt, luckily only for a minute till you can put some cold water on the bite. S got stung on the ear so his took a bit longer to settle down. On the way to our current camp we stopped at Frosty Mango for an ice-cream Yum! I had chocolate & he had dragonfruit. We had to stop at our current campsite because we were both very tired and needed a rest, it's not much chop, just a side of the road camp, there is a great adventure playground for the kids and an outdoor shower so you he to keep your cloths on, but as they say any port in a storm. Oh the surrounding trees contain heaps of bush tucker, it's a shame they don't have a sign for the plants, but we recognised some & picked some others to see if we can identify them later in our journey. Coordinates of the park 19o10'37.37"S 146o33'02.71"E Elevation 11m about 20k from N of Townsville.
Posted Thursday 17th January 2013
Well the camp from Tuesday wasn't that good after all, we couldn't run our genny because it's too loud and there were quite a few other campers around, the breeze died down as soon at the sun went down, so it was a very airless night, had heaps of trouble sleeping. Yesterday we were sent on a wild goose chase, of should I call it a wild rabbit chase? We dropped in at the gun shop in Townsville S had to get new sights for his gun, the bloke there tells a story of rabbits & deer galore on the Hervey Ranges, so hoping to get something in the pot we set off, needless to say about 150klms of dry dirt road later, no sign of even a rabbit hole let alone a rabbit. We limped into our current camp just short of Charters Towers. It's turned out to be a very nice camp, we are down by the river with a far bit of shade. There is another camp site up on the hill but now shade there. Haven't caught any fish (i think we'll have to go back home to catch one at this rate!) but we're taking it easy today, this part of the country is very boring with nothing but cows and grass so we'll head out tonight and try to do some hunting. Who know maybe we will find a rabbit.***
*** I didn't believe there were rabbits above the Tropic of Capricorn until the other week when I saw one on the Savannah Way (it could have been an escaped pet) I'll have to keep my mind open
On the 13th we dropped into Mount Molloy and I bought the worlds largest hamburger for his majesty's birthday it was huge, but he thought he could do better so on Wednesday he made the world's most delicious burger here is the recipe can you do better?
Makes 2
Ingredients
1tbsp olive oil
1 onion sliced
2 slices fresh pineapple
2 ripe mango cheeks
2 eggs
2 buffalo steaks ( can have cow if you prefer)
2 buttered wholemeal hamberger buns.
1 grated carrot
few slices tasty cheese
some Cos lettuce
1 tomato sliced
few slices of green capsicum
2 slices beetroot
sauce of your choice we had mango & basil chutney
Method
Spray table with areoguard to deter flies*. Heat oil in fry pan, add onions & cook till clear. Add pineapple to pan and fry gently. Prepare the raw ingredients (butter buns, slice cheese grate carrot etc) After about 5 mins turn pineapple slices and place onion onto the pineapple slices, add steaks to pan. Wash ginger ants off the steaks.** Cook steaks very briefly about 1.5 mins each side (you may want more time for cow) Remove steaks from heat and allow to stand. Add eggs to pan and fry gently, turn over 1/2 way (i think this is called over-easy) Assemble your hamburger and enjoy yum!
* omit this step if you're not in cow country.
** you may choose to skip this step.
Posted 18/01/2013
Today we are camped at Porcupine Gorge NP about 65kms N of Hughenden it's quite pretty here. This morning we walked down to the gorge which is about 1.2kms, the walk down is easy the walk back up much more challenging. Down the bottom is a creek running through the water is lovely and cool, I had packed sandwiches and intended on staying longer, but there was not much shade so after we'd had a dip and a drink we set off back upstairs. Last night on the way to the gorge we caught 2 rabbits, we are going out again tonight to see if we can catch anymore. Yesterday we decided to have an experiment and travel at night, we left about 4:30, it worked out very well, much cooler traveling in the evening, the sun is setting about 7pm so we still get to see a lot. Arrived at campsite not too tired, we will leave here again tomorrow at about 4pm. Bugger we've had the campsite all to ourselves for till now but some campers just arrived, will probably have to turn off genny :o(
Posted 23/01/2013
We've had a pretty tiring time of it the last couple of days. We left Porcupine Gorge last Thursday and headed for Mt Isa. The day was extremely hot, the wind was blowing a gale of very hot air. We stopped for lunch at Hughenden where there is a lake and a water park. The drive between Charters Towers and Cloncurry is very flat, the country as far as the eye can see has been cleared and there is no break for the hot wind. there was no suitable campsite** so we pushed on to Mt Isa. We stayed in the caravan park there. I was supposed to be 4 stars but the swimming pool was green, the camp kettle was broken the staff were quite rude, the grounds were untidy with leaves and sticks from the trees, and the laundry cost $6 per load! I won't be staying there again!
We left Mt Isa on Monday after I picked up the number plate for the trailer.. we have been driving around Queensland for nearly a month and have only been queried once on not having a number plate.
As it has still not rained we decided to try an alternate route to Cameron's corner. We scrapped the idea of going via Birdsville and started down towards Burke, we can head west from there. Monday was still very hot with a strong headwind as we headed down towards Winton. We stopped at the pup where Banjo Patterson first sung Waltzing Matilda and had a quick drink. We were directed by the barmaid to camp at the local water hole. It was the best camp available. Unfortunately the creek and trees have all been fenced off to protect them so we couldn't camp close to the creek. The wind blew hot all night so we decided to leave very early in the morning about 2am. We arrived at our current campsite about 10am yesterday. We have some shade! The wind is still blowing but is not quiet as strong or hot. We will spend a couple of days here. We're going into town (Longreach) tomorrow to check out the Qantas Museum. Oh great the bananas have ripened having a banana sanga for lunch :o)
**(There was a possible campsite at Julia River along the river, but we were hoping for a bit more shade)
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Just chilln again
Posted Friday 11th January 2013
Today's been a pretty lazy day. Yesterday we packed up from the mouth of the Annan River and went into Cooktown. It was sooooo hot! someone said it had gotten up to 42oC. We caught 4 good sized mud crabs so that was good. We headed off about 4pm to find a camp site in the Daintree, we went the back road from Cooktown, very lovely drive but beware, at one point the road just got steeper and steeper, Dorothy couldn't climb any more, S tried to roll her back for another go, but that was too dangerous, black smoke started pouring from the bonnet as the clutch started to melt, somehow S managed to get her into low range and we got up that hill. Dorothy was not happy. We found a very nice camping spot in the middle of the forrest.
Today we have just been chilln there is a wild mango tree, that has some ripe mangos so we collected those and ate some, we ate 2 of the mud crabs for lunch, a water monitor came to visit and ate our scraps. We've also been eating some of the coconuts we found on the beach at Annan river, they are delicious. S likes them when that start to sprout and you get a kind of fairy floss inside, I like them better when they are brown but not yet sprouted. We'll probably head off towards cape tribulation tomorrow, we don't want to get to Cairns until I get my pay on Monday.
Out camp is located at 15o58'1.70" S 145o22'31.63" E elevation 168mtrs
The water in the creek is clear and safe to swim in, but there are no brim or cherabin only turtles and water monitors. There is some kind of fruit that may be edible, looks kind of like a avocado and tastes a bit like honey dew melon, will collect some and check out when I have reception.
Posted Today Sunday 13th January 2013
We set of early yesterday hoping to find another campsite in the park. Unfortunatly we couldn't find one. The official camp site closes from 06/01 - 29/03 every year and there is nowhere you can get off the road far enough to have a bush camp. We found a couple of likely spots but the first had a sticky-nose neighbour who I'm sure would have reported unauthorised camping and the second was chokers with mozzies. So we headed across on the ferry and now we are just outside of Mt Molloy. There is a free 48hr camp here at Rifle Creek . S says it's a bad spot because he broke the shovel when he backed in, but I think it is quite a nice spot for a day or two. We have to stay here today as I don't get paid until tomorrow. There are showers, toilets and water in taps… luxury!!! There are signs warning that the water has not been treated but as we always drink creek water, I don't think that will be a problem for us. Last night we cooked up the last 2 mud-crabs they looked beautiful but they were empty :o( so we had them for entree and I mad some spag boll for dinner. Today we're just gonna chill got some pots in the creek so we might get some redclaw see what happens.
PS I've used up all of my downloads so I can't post any pix till after 15th I'll try & be more careful next month.
(will be off to chocky factory tomorrow ;oD
Today's been a pretty lazy day. Yesterday we packed up from the mouth of the Annan River and went into Cooktown. It was sooooo hot! someone said it had gotten up to 42oC. We caught 4 good sized mud crabs so that was good. We headed off about 4pm to find a camp site in the Daintree, we went the back road from Cooktown, very lovely drive but beware, at one point the road just got steeper and steeper, Dorothy couldn't climb any more, S tried to roll her back for another go, but that was too dangerous, black smoke started pouring from the bonnet as the clutch started to melt, somehow S managed to get her into low range and we got up that hill. Dorothy was not happy. We found a very nice camping spot in the middle of the forrest.
Today we have just been chilln there is a wild mango tree, that has some ripe mangos so we collected those and ate some, we ate 2 of the mud crabs for lunch, a water monitor came to visit and ate our scraps. We've also been eating some of the coconuts we found on the beach at Annan river, they are delicious. S likes them when that start to sprout and you get a kind of fairy floss inside, I like them better when they are brown but not yet sprouted. We'll probably head off towards cape tribulation tomorrow, we don't want to get to Cairns until I get my pay on Monday.
Out camp is located at 15o58'1.70" S 145o22'31.63" E elevation 168mtrs
The water in the creek is clear and safe to swim in, but there are no brim or cherabin only turtles and water monitors. There is some kind of fruit that may be edible, looks kind of like a avocado and tastes a bit like honey dew melon, will collect some and check out when I have reception.
Posted Today Sunday 13th January 2013
We set of early yesterday hoping to find another campsite in the park. Unfortunatly we couldn't find one. The official camp site closes from 06/01 - 29/03 every year and there is nowhere you can get off the road far enough to have a bush camp. We found a couple of likely spots but the first had a sticky-nose neighbour who I'm sure would have reported unauthorised camping and the second was chokers with mozzies. So we headed across on the ferry and now we are just outside of Mt Molloy. There is a free 48hr camp here at Rifle Creek . S says it's a bad spot because he broke the shovel when he backed in, but I think it is quite a nice spot for a day or two. We have to stay here today as I don't get paid until tomorrow. There are showers, toilets and water in taps… luxury!!! There are signs warning that the water has not been treated but as we always drink creek water, I don't think that will be a problem for us. Last night we cooked up the last 2 mud-crabs they looked beautiful but they were empty :o( so we had them for entree and I mad some spag boll for dinner. Today we're just gonna chill got some pots in the creek so we might get some redclaw see what happens.
PS I've used up all of my downloads so I can't post any pix till after 15th I'll try & be more careful next month.
(will be off to chocky factory tomorrow ;oD
Thursday, 10 January 2013
Hi am in cooktown !! (now updated :))
POSTED Saturday 4th Jan 2013
It's been several days since we left the Burke & Wills camp. We continued on down the Savannah Way to Normantown & then on to Karumba. When we first arrived in town we were not impressed, the caravan park in which we intended to stay had little shade & the town was quite ugly, it is a port for exporting cattle. One important thing to note is that you can get diesel there for $1.60/lt which is much cheaper than in Normantown $1.77. We were just about to leave when we found another section of the town, across the way. That part must be the tourist part, there were several shops 2 more caravan parks and several houses. You also have access to the beach from this section. We stayed in the older caravan park as it had more shade, if I had to pick again I think the one closer to the water would be better as it might get more breeze.
When we pulled up to book in S turned off Dorothy, and then she wouldn't start again! He tried & tried, the man from the park came out to try and jump start her but no go. Finally we got started with a tow, start. The battery was very hot, next morning she still wouldn't start so we had to get AANT (RACQ). Turns out to be a battery so we had to buy one from them $205 :o( but at least we get 2 years warranty, the old battery was only 18month old but only 1 year warranty.
We went down the beach and put in a couple of crab pots, next morning we had 2 muddies and a barra, You're not allowed to catch barra at this time of year but, he was dead & still fresh so we kept him. We were going to spend that night on the beach but there is only one tide per day in the gulf, so we packed up and went to our next camp site. This site was about 20kms out of Normantown, there is a creek and an old abandoned camp ground. We put some pots in, when we were walking along the bank there was a big splash and I saw a crock in the water, S says it was a freshy but looked like a small salty to me.
We had no luck getting any cherabin or redclaw and the water was a bit to dirty any way so we left to continue the journey. We stopped at Normantown again on the way out, we were thinking about going the back way to Cooktown but the tourist guy and AANT guy said it would be too wet. Turns out they've had no rain here yet and all the creeks along the suggested way were empty. The 2 most interesting things along this route Cobbold Gorge and Undara Caves were closed for the season, so we should have gone the back way after all.
There was a mango tree with a sign 'Water Me' that had some nice mangos on it, at Mt Surprise there is a free car wash that cooled the car down. We've arrived at a very nice campsite just short of Ravenshoe. there is a nice clean creek running through and lots of shade, we'll stat here for 2 days.
17o38'50.26" S
145o20'51.07"E
POSTED 8th Jan 2013
17o23'83.60" S
145o09'48.46"E
We've arrived at a lovely campsite east of Irvinvale. Yesterday we going to camp @ lake Tinaroo we drove around the checked out the curtain fig & cathedral fig both were really cool but I couldn't see any figs. The lake was full of blue green algae so we couldn't camp. (also you have to pay to camp there and I'm not willing to fork out money to camp by a lake I can't fish, swim in or drink from thank you very much!! )
In Atherton we had a look at the crystal caves $22.50 each but well worth it. It has crystals and fossils from all over the world and the worlds largest amethyst rock. It was really cool. We dropped in at the Atherton Tourist Information, they weren't a lot of help the woman suggested a camp site between Herberton and Irvinvale, but turns out the camp site is non existent. You can camp on the common at Irvinvale, but we wanted to use our generator and there was no water in the creek so we moved on. The road is unsealed and very rough with a 10% incline in some places. He who shall not be named had to climb some hills in 1st gear (he still wont let me drive loll) Herbertville and Irvingvale are quite interesting and full of history from the tin mines in the 1880s, I prefer Irvingvale and it it more authentic. We found this campsite about 5pm. There is a dam with swans & ducks, in the evening a family of wallabies came down for a drink. The water too muddy to drink but OK for a wash up.
POSTED 9th Jan 2013
Today we continued on our journey to Cooktown we stopped at Mareeba at the chocolate and coffee factory you can eat all the chocolate and drink all the coffee & tea you like for $19 per head, and IF you have one of their brochures you get $5 off so we only paid $28. We scoffed lots of chockies, drank a mountain of coffee and I forgot to mention about the liquors we scoffed them down at well, I liked the coffee liquor at 22% best. They also have a really interesting coffee museum where you can look at a vast collection of coffee & tea memorabilia we certainly had a lovely morning. To top it off you only have to ask and they will give you a free pass to enter again next time! The lady didn't look impressed when I asked but handed over the pass anyway. We'll be back later :) We found a nice campsite on the way to Cooktown, the water is clear and there is plenty of shade so all is good.
Camp's location 145o25'01.23"E 16o58'78.63"S
Friday 11th January 2013
Yesterday we arrived at Cooktown. On the way we saw the Black Mountains, absolutely amazing! They look like a huge dump truck has come in and dropped a load of granite rocks onto the ground. They were formed by the lava cooling too fast and causing the granite to crack up. The top layer of clay quickly eroded and then you were left with a whole lot of granite rocks, that have now eroded to round boulders. There is no soil on the rocks so plants can't live there. So now you just have these big piles of rock with just a few plants that don't need dirt hanging on, very weird.
Cooktown is a nice little village not really set up for tourists. The main occupation seems to be fishing with lots of boats in the water. It is the first landing place of James Cook, so there are a few monuments. I found the museum most interesting. It was an old convent boarding school before the war and there is lots of history about the nuns and the girls that went there. There is of course some history about Cook and the Endeavour's anchor. The old building is lovely and the grounds though small have an interesting array of plants.
We camped overnight by the beach at the mouth of the Annan River. It's quite hard to find you have to go down by the golf course on a sandy 4WD track to the beach, then you make your way along to the river. We got out directions from the bait shop. S nearly caught a sting ray, had him almost on the beach but the line snapped. I also nearly caught something, it ran out all my line and nearly pulled me into the water, unfortunately it was too big and my line snapped as well.
We put some pots in, we'll see if we get some crabs or lobsters about 2pm today.
It's quite hot here on the beach, we have plenty of shade but the air temp is high. I'm sitting under a tree, about to get another coke, S is fishing, he keeps nearly getting the big one but no luck so far. Earlier today we were inundated by the tide, had to move the car and gear so it didn't get wet. Table and chairs had water around them, just when we thought we would end up with wet bums, the tide turned and went out again. The camp site is very picturesque but too many people have left their rubbish, I will pick up 10 pieces of their rubbish, if everyone did the same, the place would be clean in no time!
In the area of the campsite there are several coconut trees and some other bush tucker trees so we won't go hungry, S just returned with a shooting coconut, yum better go :o)
It's been several days since we left the Burke & Wills camp. We continued on down the Savannah Way to Normantown & then on to Karumba. When we first arrived in town we were not impressed, the caravan park in which we intended to stay had little shade & the town was quite ugly, it is a port for exporting cattle. One important thing to note is that you can get diesel there for $1.60/lt which is much cheaper than in Normantown $1.77. We were just about to leave when we found another section of the town, across the way. That part must be the tourist part, there were several shops 2 more caravan parks and several houses. You also have access to the beach from this section. We stayed in the older caravan park as it had more shade, if I had to pick again I think the one closer to the water would be better as it might get more breeze.
When we pulled up to book in S turned off Dorothy, and then she wouldn't start again! He tried & tried, the man from the park came out to try and jump start her but no go. Finally we got started with a tow, start. The battery was very hot, next morning she still wouldn't start so we had to get AANT (RACQ). Turns out to be a battery so we had to buy one from them $205 :o( but at least we get 2 years warranty, the old battery was only 18month old but only 1 year warranty.
We went down the beach and put in a couple of crab pots, next morning we had 2 muddies and a barra, You're not allowed to catch barra at this time of year but, he was dead & still fresh so we kept him. We were going to spend that night on the beach but there is only one tide per day in the gulf, so we packed up and went to our next camp site. This site was about 20kms out of Normantown, there is a creek and an old abandoned camp ground. We put some pots in, when we were walking along the bank there was a big splash and I saw a crock in the water, S says it was a freshy but looked like a small salty to me.
We had no luck getting any cherabin or redclaw and the water was a bit to dirty any way so we left to continue the journey. We stopped at Normantown again on the way out, we were thinking about going the back way to Cooktown but the tourist guy and AANT guy said it would be too wet. Turns out they've had no rain here yet and all the creeks along the suggested way were empty. The 2 most interesting things along this route Cobbold Gorge and Undara Caves were closed for the season, so we should have gone the back way after all.
There was a mango tree with a sign 'Water Me' that had some nice mangos on it, at Mt Surprise there is a free car wash that cooled the car down. We've arrived at a very nice campsite just short of Ravenshoe. there is a nice clean creek running through and lots of shade, we'll stat here for 2 days.
17o38'50.26" S
145o20'51.07"E
POSTED 8th Jan 2013
17o23'83.60" S
145o09'48.46"E
We've arrived at a lovely campsite east of Irvinvale. Yesterday we going to camp @ lake Tinaroo we drove around the checked out the curtain fig & cathedral fig both were really cool but I couldn't see any figs. The lake was full of blue green algae so we couldn't camp. (also you have to pay to camp there and I'm not willing to fork out money to camp by a lake I can't fish, swim in or drink from thank you very much!! )
In Atherton we had a look at the crystal caves $22.50 each but well worth it. It has crystals and fossils from all over the world and the worlds largest amethyst rock. It was really cool. We dropped in at the Atherton Tourist Information, they weren't a lot of help the woman suggested a camp site between Herberton and Irvinvale, but turns out the camp site is non existent. You can camp on the common at Irvinvale, but we wanted to use our generator and there was no water in the creek so we moved on. The road is unsealed and very rough with a 10% incline in some places. He who shall not be named had to climb some hills in 1st gear (he still wont let me drive loll) Herbertville and Irvingvale are quite interesting and full of history from the tin mines in the 1880s, I prefer Irvingvale and it it more authentic. We found this campsite about 5pm. There is a dam with swans & ducks, in the evening a family of wallabies came down for a drink. The water too muddy to drink but OK for a wash up.
POSTED 9th Jan 2013
Today we continued on our journey to Cooktown we stopped at Mareeba at the chocolate and coffee factory you can eat all the chocolate and drink all the coffee & tea you like for $19 per head, and IF you have one of their brochures you get $5 off so we only paid $28. We scoffed lots of chockies, drank a mountain of coffee and I forgot to mention about the liquors we scoffed them down at well, I liked the coffee liquor at 22% best. They also have a really interesting coffee museum where you can look at a vast collection of coffee & tea memorabilia we certainly had a lovely morning. To top it off you only have to ask and they will give you a free pass to enter again next time! The lady didn't look impressed when I asked but handed over the pass anyway. We'll be back later :) We found a nice campsite on the way to Cooktown, the water is clear and there is plenty of shade so all is good.
Camp's location 145o25'01.23"E 16o58'78.63"S
Friday 11th January 2013
Yesterday we arrived at Cooktown. On the way we saw the Black Mountains, absolutely amazing! They look like a huge dump truck has come in and dropped a load of granite rocks onto the ground. They were formed by the lava cooling too fast and causing the granite to crack up. The top layer of clay quickly eroded and then you were left with a whole lot of granite rocks, that have now eroded to round boulders. There is no soil on the rocks so plants can't live there. So now you just have these big piles of rock with just a few plants that don't need dirt hanging on, very weird.
Cooktown is a nice little village not really set up for tourists. The main occupation seems to be fishing with lots of boats in the water. It is the first landing place of James Cook, so there are a few monuments. I found the museum most interesting. It was an old convent boarding school before the war and there is lots of history about the nuns and the girls that went there. There is of course some history about Cook and the Endeavour's anchor. The old building is lovely and the grounds though small have an interesting array of plants.
We camped overnight by the beach at the mouth of the Annan River. It's quite hard to find you have to go down by the golf course on a sandy 4WD track to the beach, then you make your way along to the river. We got out directions from the bait shop. S nearly caught a sting ray, had him almost on the beach but the line snapped. I also nearly caught something, it ran out all my line and nearly pulled me into the water, unfortunately it was too big and my line snapped as well.
We put some pots in, we'll see if we get some crabs or lobsters about 2pm today.
It's quite hot here on the beach, we have plenty of shade but the air temp is high. I'm sitting under a tree, about to get another coke, S is fishing, he keeps nearly getting the big one but no luck so far. Earlier today we were inundated by the tide, had to move the car and gear so it didn't get wet. Table and chairs had water around them, just when we thought we would end up with wet bums, the tide turned and went out again. The camp site is very picturesque but too many people have left their rubbish, I will pick up 10 pieces of their rubbish, if everyone did the same, the place would be clean in no time!
In the area of the campsite there are several coconut trees and some other bush tucker trees so we won't go hungry, S just returned with a shooting coconut, yum better go :o)
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
The Bourketown Adventure lol
Posted Monday 31st December
Well it's been a difficult couple of days. Yesterday we only traveled 40 klms when we came to a creek just out of Burketown. The water was flowing and there was a good camp site so we decided to have an early camp. During the day 6 different cars from Burketown drove over the bridge and then turned around & went back again it was quite odd. We thought we must be the talk of the of the town. We had Internet coverage so I updated the blog and Facebook etc while the boss went fishing. He caught 2 small sharks and 5 good sized catfish in the pots he got some freshwater prawns. In the late afternoon some of the locals (white fellas) started to come down for a fish, they would fish for about 20 mins then go off again for about 1/2 hour then they would come back again. The same cars with different people over and over. There was at least 6 car's worth. This continued all evening, just when we thought they were gone back they would come getting drunker and drunker and laughing and swearing. In all this time they caught no fish, just kept casting and drinking and driving back to town. By about 10pm we decided to go. We thought it best to wait until they went on one of their beer runs, before packing up and leaving so as not to draw attention to ourselves. Unfortunately from then onwards there was always at least 1 car load there. Finally at about 2pm they all went off again, I heard them talking about coming back later, so we leapt up packed up the remainder of out stuff and zoomed out of there asap. While we were packing they were just down the road revving their engines, we could see them as we left parked about 500 metres down the road. Mad Maxish or what.
We drove about 50 kms down the road, wallabies all over the place we ended up hitting 2 and a bird flew up and bashed itself into the windscreen. We were looking for another camp site all along the way but the ground was very soft at one stage we nearly got bogged on a side road, we finally camped in the driveway of Floraville Station, the dog started barking but luckily the station owner just shouted for him to settle down. We we did want an adventure but I'd prefer a little less scary next time.
Today we got up early, and drove to Burke and Will's North-most camp, camp 110. We have camped here for the night. There doesn't seem to be any markings but they may be further up the road. There is so much food here I can't understand why they didn't stop for a while and rest up. I know they had to get back to the base camp, but you could easily get fat living out this way. Wallabies, bush turkey's big grey birds with red heads (gotta find out what they are) *edit I think they might have been brolgas* loads of other birds and plenty of water and fish. I'll have to study up on what they did while they were here. I took some pix of the where their camp is marked on the map. PS the water in this river is brackish, and tidal.
Fuel : We used up all but 80 litres of Diesel and have just started on the second 20 lt. container of petrol for the genie. Well mozzies are out, there still doesn't seem to be many flies, but millions of burrs. No walking around in bare feet in this camp!!
Good night. :o) (oh yea happy new year)
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