Travelling Around Australia: 2011

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Queensland to NSW

15^th November 2011 til 2012

Well here I am again and this blog will be a little different as we have a bit of news. After leaving Emerald we headed towards Toowoomba with the aim of getting the car serviced. We travelled about 800 km’s that day as we couldn’t find a decent camping spot. It was getting really late, so we decided on a motel for one night. Unfortunately everywhere was booked out. We finally found a vacancy in a little town called Chinchilla. The Acacia motel is run by a young couple who have a delightful and clean establishment and provide a home cooked dinner and breakfast.

Toowoomba isn’t far from Chinchilla, so we arrived there before lunch on Wednesday and set up our camper trailer in The Garden City Big 4 caravan park.

While we were in Mackay, Greg and I decided to go home in the New Year and sell the house. We really love this life on the road and have decided to keep doing it for a number of years. Then when we were in Emerald we discussed the possibility of buying a caravan after we sell the house. We have really enjoyed our life in the camper trailer and have been able to visit a lot of places, but it really is not viable for long term travel. I would totally recommend one for weekends and annual camping holidays, but after living in one for 11 months, it becomes a bit tedious. It takes a while for us to fully set up and is not ideal for overnight stops. We always had to set up for at least 4 days or more to make it worth our while.

So the plan was to go home, sell the house, buy a caravan and take off again. Things changed a little in Toowoomba. After we had the car serviced, we decided to look at some caravans, just to get an idea of what was available. Well as it turned out it was the most expensive car service ever, as we ended up buying a van. We looked at a few and kept going back to the first one we saw, which is the one we bought. So our time in Toowoomba was spent organising the trading in of the camper trailer and the purchasing of the van. Along with other bits and pieces we needed to do to get the van on the road.

Not much to report on Toowoomba, except that it is somewhere I wouldn’t like to live. The shopping is fantastic, but the weather is ordinary. I really think Toowoomba forgot it was in Queensland. It was wet and cool and nothing like Queensland weather should be. After 23 days at Emerald with an average temperature of 35 degrees, we all of a sudden felt very cold. According to locals, cool weather is not unusual in Toowoomba. It can be very cold during the summer and particularly at Christmas. Pretty much like Geelong really.

So, about the van. It is beautiful, although the camper trailer was well equipped and very comfortable, the van is another story. We called the camper our Taj Mahal, but the caravan is our Imperial Palace. It is an Evolution, Luxliner, semi off road and 21ft 6ins long. It has a full ensuite, air conditioner, oven and microwave. I have included some photos at the end of this blog. This is our new home!

After spending too long in Toowoomba and finally organising everything with the van, we left on Friday 9^th December. Our first stop was an overnighter just south of Tenterfield, NSW. Yay, finally in Daylight Savings Time. My oh my how easy it was to set up for an overnighter in a van. Compared to the camper trailer it was a breeze. But Greg felt a little lost, he couldn’t believe that 15 mins after arriving, he could sit and have a brew. He kept thinking he had forgotten to do something.

Next day we headed further south to Armidale and set up for another overnighter at the Amaresq Dam Reserve about 18kms west of Armidale. Again it rained all day and night. When we will ever get a summer? Seems we were able to swim all winter, but are now wrapping up to keep warm for summer! I can imagine how nice it would be at this reserve if the weather was kind. Really nice facilities and perfect for all water sports. We packed up on Sunday morning and headed into town to do our Christmas shopping as it was the last major town we will be near prior to Christmas. We also stocked up on food and drink etc before heading to our next destination. A couple we met at Emerald told us about this great camping spot, about 34 kms north of Gloucester. It is called Bretti reserve, which is situated along the Barnard and Manning Rivers on Thunderbolt Way, (an appropriate name). It is only about 200kms south of Armidale.

What they didn’t tell us was how difficult the drive would be. We climbed at one stage to 1440 metres before descending to about 500 metres. That was the nature of the whole drive, up and down, up and down. This is very beautiful but extremely undulating territory. About 18 kms out from the camp spot we were still about 1300 metres above sea level. We couldn’t believe that we would be camping beside a river in a few kilometres. That is until the warning signs came up for the very steep and long descent. Oh dear, oh hell. How would the cruiser which had coped so well with the big climbs and descents for 100kms or so manage this. Not only that, the weather had turned bad, it was blowing a gale and pelting with rain.

Greg engaged in low gear, really low, 1^st gear to be precise and down we went. Slowly, very slowly and pulling about 2 and a half ton of caravan to boot. I was feeling a bit nervous, but had every faith in Greg, who later told me that in all his years of driving he has never been confronted with such a huge downhill run. The length of the descent was 11 kms. Phew! But we arrived safely and in one piece to a most beautiful camping spot. This is where we will be spending Christmas before heading to Forster on the coast to meet with Louy and Phil for the New Year. The only drawback to this site is there is absolutely no internet or phone service, so our plans of Skypeing family on Christmas day have been cancelled. We will need to travel the 34kms to Gloucester to make a phone call, so we will do that on Christmas morning before heading back to camp to enjoy our Christmas feast.

This will be our last blog until after the New Year. We hope you have all enjoyed reading about our travels in 2011. There will of course be more to come sometime in 2012 with many more new adventures for us to enjoy writing about.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our family and friends, and new friends who we have met during our travels this year, a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year. We hope we can catch up with most of you at home in the New Year or somewhere in the great outdoors in 2012.

Cheers til 2012.

Our neighbour at Bretti Reserve

More neighbours. This one is for you Nene ha ha

Some of our surrounds

More of our surrounds

more of the same

Getting ready for Christmas under the awning

Getting ready to cook Christmas dinner

Inside the van

Another view inside the van

Our set up beside the Barnard River

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Queensland - Airlie Beach - Emerald

13th September 2011 to 14^th November 2011

Well it’s been awhile and as reported in my previous blog, I hoped when I went home to Victoria that my Mighty Cats would be in the Grand Final. Well as you know they were and they won, and although I wasn’t able to secure tickets to the match, I had a fantastic day. What a team... the greatest. I had a great week of celebrations and catching up with the family.

Before we left Mackay on 29^th October we spent a weekend in Airlie Beach with Darren and Tracy. If you’ve never been there, put it on the list of places to holiday. It is a really beautiful spot. For those of you who have been there, you’ll know what I mean. The weekend we were there they had the Reef Festival, so we were entertained by night markets, carnivals and fireworks. For the first time in many years I played the clowns and ate fairy floss. We had a beautiful dinner at the Chinese restaurant, The WOK INN, on Friday night and enjoyed the fireworks spectacular from the balcony of our room which overlooked the foreshore. On the way home Darren took us to the Cedar Creek Waterfall, and although it was a very pretty spot, unfortunately the water wasn’t flowing.

After 12 weeks in Mackay, thank you again and again Tracy and Darren, we headed off on 29^th October to go to Emerald, which is 400 kms south of Mackay and about 250 kms inland from Rockhampton. We arrived at the Higher Ground Homestay camping area on a very very hot afternoon. This is a private property with access for 4WD vehicles only to the banks of the Nogoa River about 1km from the house. There are no facilities, which suit us as we are self sufficient, and it is so peaceful with only the sounds of wildlife and the water rippling over the rocky bed of the river breaking the silence. The day we set up was so hot that we had to keep taking our tops off, dipping them in the river and putting them back on wet to stay cool. After finally setting up we were able to take a dip in the refreshing river, which flows very quickly, but has a nice deep hole perfect for swimming. Every day has been hot and we have lived in our bathers getting in and out of the water all day long.

Emerald is known as the hub of the Central Highlands and the gateway to the sapphire gemfields, with Sapphire, Rubyvale and Anakie about 40 kms west, all gem fossicking areas. The town itself is not named after the gem, but after a lush emerald green hill, Emerald Downs Hill, just north of the town. It supplies 25% of Queensland’s cotton and has many primary industries including coal, gem mining, citrus, grapes, native flowers and many small crops. It was once famous as a major sunflower producer and is now home to the world’s biggest Van Gogh Sunflower painting on an easel in Morton Park. The structure is 25 metres high and has about 13.6 tonnes of steel in it construction.

Fairbairn Dam is located only 2 kms from where we are camped. It holds the body of water known as Lake Maraboon, which feeds the Nogoa River. This huge expanse of water is 3 times the size of Sydney Harbour and is very popular with locals for swimming, fishing and other water sports. It also has a caravan park nearby for tourists.

The only other campers near us are four French brothers, Jean Luc, Yenn, Herve and Alain who are travelling Australia for a year and are in this area looking for work. They have secured a job, grape picking which they like despite the hard work. We cooked dinner for them on 2 occasions and they were very grateful, thanking us with a bottle of scotch and a bunch of flowers. We have enjoyed their company for a few drinks and although some words have been lost in translation, we have had plenty of laughs. Poor buggers bought Ginger Beer in the supermarket because it was so cheap, thinking that it was alcohol and then drank the lot with no effect, ha ha. We have taught them a bit of Aussie slang as well as some rhyming slang. They find us very welcoming and funny and write everything down so as not to forget. Of course I have enjoyed the double kisses on my cheeks and the hugs they offer!

Five young Aussies also camped here for one night and we had a few drinks with them. Brendan, Rachel, Larissa, Nathan and Carla are headed to Roma and hopefully we’ll meet up with them on the 19^th November at the Roma races. Roma is about 400 kms south of here and maybe our next stop.

Water from the dam has been released into the river on which we are camped and the level has risen by about 40 cms in the past 4 days or so. Prior to that the swimming was easy as there was a nice shallow part to enter into and then we could swim a little way upstream. But due to the release of the water, the river is flowing much more quickly and the current is strong. Greg fashioned a rope across the river and attached another one so that we could get in and out easier and now we can haul ourselves along the rope against the current and hold onto the rope that crosses the river to prevent us from being pushed downstream. So much fun!

Instead of the 6 days we first intended staying here, we will now be staying until Monday 14^th November. We have really enjoyed the peacefulness of this camping spot, with not much to do but relax by swimming, kayaking, yabbying, reading and playing cards. The weather has been perfect, 34 degrees everyday... it has really been the perfect camping spot.

Cheers til next time.

Feeding the Cockatoos on the balcony at Airlie Beach

The view from our blacony at Airlie Beach

The Lagoon on the foreshore at Airlie Beach

Me and the clowns at Airlie Beach

Some of the fireworks at Airlie Beach

The Cedar Creek Waterfalls - minus the waterfalling. Nice anyway!

Our river at camp

Our camp at Emerald - Higher Ground Homestay

Me in the shallows

Greg and I in the shallows

Greg and I playing cards and having a drink by the river

Sunrise through the trees

The spillway at Fairbairn Dam

Beautiful flora at the dam

Botanic Gardens Emerald

Windmill in the Botanic Gardens

Waterfall in the Botanic Gardens

Federation pillars in the Botanic Gardens

The beautiful historic Railway Station in Emerald

The entrance of the Railway Station

The giant Van Gogh Sunflowers

Greg holding up the Sunflowers

Me holding up the Sunflowers

Greg chatting with the French brothers

Us and the French brothers

Monday, September 12, 2011

Queensland Mackay-Kinchant Dam

15^th August 2011 til 12^th September

An update on what we have been doing for the past month or so and what our plans are. We have been in Mackay for almost 5 weeks and will be staying for a little while longer. Greg has obtained a job as a delivery driver for a couple of months. We cancelled our original plans to get to the Cape this year, as it was getting too late and too close to the wet season. We would never have made it up that far and back in the short time that was available to us. Particularly as we like to take it easy and find it hard to move on from the really good spots. Our plans are now to stay in Mackay, while Greg is working to replenish the bank account, until around end November at this stage. After that we will make our way back (we’ll have 4 weeks to do it) to Forster on the Mid North Coast of NSW, 300 kms north of Sydney. My sister Louy, her husband Phil and hopefully my daughter Emma, will be joining us there for 10 days from 31^st December. We are really looking forward to seeing the New Year in with family.

In the New Year we will again be back on the road and explore our way through country NSW, and then inland Queensland with the ultimate aim of being up at the Cape by June 2012. This will give us plenty of time in ideal weather conditions to see our wonderful outback in all its glory. Anyway more of that as the time draws closer.

As I mentioned in my last blog, we planned to go to a beautiful camping spot called Kinchant Dam, which is about 40 kms west of Mackay. We did this on August 22^nd and stayed for a week, before we came back to Mackay so Greg could start his job. Kinchant Dam was built in 1977 to provide irrigation and town water and covers 920 hectares when full. It features a beautiful park area and picnic facilities with a boat ramp for day visitors and the camping area is on the bank of the dam. The site also provides campers with a kiosk, bar and fully licensed restaurant. They have regular entertainment at the bar on Saturday nights, which was a feature the week we were there. It is a lovely spot and extremely popular for boating enthusiasts including fishermen and water skiers. The weather was really warm during our week there and although we had some rainy days, it was extremely muggy.

Tracy and Darren with Barney (their gorgeous puppy) joined us for the weekend and we had a fantastic time. The fleet was in the water the whole time, my kayak, Greg’s boat and Darren’s new inflatable boat. We enjoyed drinks, card games and toasted marshmallows with white chocolate sauce and strawberries by the camp fire and were entertained by a great band at the bar on Saturday night. Darren was particularly keen to try out his boat for the first time and wasn’t disappointed with its performance.

We are still staying on Tracy and Darrens property, they wouldn’t let us go anywhere else. It is very kind of them and has been fantastic for us. Greg only has to travel half an hour to get to work from here. Although I miss him when he’s gone, I have found ways to keep myself busy until the weekends. We will be using the weekends until we leave to explore the area, so hopefully I can post a few more blogs before Christmas about this area. I’m really looking forward to going to Airlie Beach.

I will be coming down to Victoria on 28^th September, hopefully to see my Mighty Cats play in a Grand Final, if they make it to the big one. Their finals campaign has started off really well, so with a bit of luck they can go all the way. Either way, I am really looking forward to catching up with everyone and will enjoy GF day no matter what (I always do), so my week at home won’t be wasted.

Cheers til next time.