Travelling Around Australia: September 2011

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.