Winter 2008 - KAKADU

Winter 2008 - KAKADU - NORTHERN TERRITORY

Around town I've found my new Land Cruiser 200 series Twin Turbo V8 diesel uses just under 13 litres of diesel for every 100 Klms. This winter will be my first trip using diesel. Fuel consumption whilst towing the caravan, will be interesting. If I never return, it will be because we cannot afford to buy the fuel to get home again :-)

The inside of the caravan (left) is comfortable for 2 people for a few months travelling. We have regular Foxtel satellite TV plus we can pick up local TV stations for the odd cold day. A nice quiet air conditioning system is fitted and the water heater is powered by gas and/or electricity. I have some of my radio station built in as well.

We have 360 ah of battery storage which is topped up in the bush by 400 watts of solar panels.

Water storage capacity is well over 300 litres but, of course, we only fill the tanks when we go "off the beaten tracks". With full tanks, we can manage for a week (including showers) before needing extra water.

Internal lighting is almost exclusively LED (light emitting diodes). It doesn't give very bright light but uses very little power - important in the outback.

Our trip starts on 14th May 2008...

Day 1, 14th May, Getting out of Sydney was HORRIFIC with 90 minutes of bumper to bumper traffic before we reached the F3 freeway. Then the V8 started to stretch it's legs and it gave me a surprise by cruising easily at 120klm/hr pulling the 2900 kg caravan - up and down hills! Our first night was spent at Gunnedah, about 424 klms North West of Sydney.

A conversation at Gunnedah with an ex-farmer (in the caravan next to us) left me in despair for our future. He told me about the local cotton growing industry and how it was killing everything with chemicals in the ground water. But, the next person I spoke to cheered me up by telling me that the chemical stuff was a lot of rot ... ! ... ?

Day 2, 15th may, the 439klm to St George was all tar sealed but varied from bumpy, to narrow, to nice smooth new surface. The roads had slicks of cotton along the edges and we saw our first wildlife - a flock of wild emu. It is warmer already and we noted the afternoon temperature in the caravan park was around 27 degrees. Diesel in QLD has dropped by 10 cents a litre to $1.64 per litre.

Day 3, 16th May, it was warm enough for a T shirt at 7:00 am (that's why we're here). It rained during the night and the locals were grateful because many local farmers have planted a large crop in the hope of getting some rain. Today's drive took us 286klm North through Roma and on to the sleepy village of Injune. Most of the tar sealed road was pretty lumpy & bumpy. The only reason we stopped here was because we have booked into Carnarvon Gorge on Saturday and it's an easy run from here. The whole town is a dry and dusty "outback" place with thousands of white galahs flying around. Connie said "Lots of dust and not much grass - hope it doesn't rain, it'll all turn to mud". The diesel was dearer at $1.75 per litre.

The caravan park is cheap at $12/night but it isn't flash, just the basics (right).

Next door was a 3 year old sticky beak who wanted to play with the bits and pieces on the front of my van - I had to chase him away more than once. Hell it was cold the next morning. Maybe I should have been nicer to the little bastard next door.

The next stage was from Injune to Carnarvon Gorge where we stayed for two nights. The road into Carnarvon Gorge included about 20 klms of dirt and dust plus a flock of emu.

The next day at Carnarvon Gorge was a killer - we walked up to the top of Boolimba Bluff (right), a round trip of over 7 klms. A 300 meter stretch of this walk was almost on hands and knees climbing nearly straight up. And if that wasn't enough, Connie then persuaded me to walk another 11 klms round trip into Carnarvon Gorge and back (left). My body ached. Much Jack Daniels Bourbon and coke was needed. It was cold again that night but the Bourbon dulled the pain.

An early start on Monday (19th May) got us on the road heading for Emerald. Half way there we decided to wash the dirt and dust from the car and caravan. We stopped in a siding on the side of the dry and dusty road to do the big clean up. We used the remainder of the water in our caravan tanks to hose the car and caravan and this caused some strange looks from "passers by" as you can imagine. When cattle started to smell the water they closed in ... this was our cue to move on.

Emerald will be our base for at least three days. I was hoping to set up a HF radio but the van park (left) is too full and shooting lead sinkers up into the tree tops (to pull up an antenna) would be a bit too risky - so we did some grocery shopping instead. We will leave the caravan here while we drive down the road to Blackdown Tablelands - that's a bit West of Rockhampton.

Tuesday 20th May. "Down the road" turned out to be 150 klms each way, two meat pies, two chicken and garlic rolls and a pork and gravy roll.

The Blackdown Tablelands included the spectacular "Horseshoe lookout" (right) and a waterfall or two (left). It also included another four or five klms of walking, some of it straight up and down. I had to buy another bottle of Jack Daniel's bourbon.

I did enjoy 30 klms of (rather tame) four wheel driving, and a chance meeting with a wild dingo (right).

Back at Emerald, Connie wanted to wash the car again - so I had another Jack Daniel's & Coca Cola!

Wednesday 21st May. Warning! do not try to renew your New South Wales driving license while you are travelling interstate....

Thursday 22nd May. About 430 klms driving took us to Longreach (via Barcaldine where everybody is a Larikin (left)). Longreach is where the Jumbo 747 jet has been internally stripped so you can see how complex and yet frail they appear. It is also where you can spend a day or two browsing about in the "Stockmans Hall of Fame". It is also where Qantas was born. When we arrived it was a perfect 30 degrees with a gentle breeze. Once again, I was out of luck with radio antennas. The neighbouring caravans were too close and the trees were too short. The evenings are warmer here than they have been anywhere else so far.

With a little luck I'll entice Connie into the heated pool (left).

A sausage sizzle and some songs from an outback singer who specialises in ballads, finished off the day. We lazed about (and got bored) until Sunday morning. The weather in Longreach was PERFECT for all of the three days. The day temperature was around 28-30 degrees (dry) and the nights cooled down to 15-18 degrees. I didn't get evicted from any pubs either!

Sunday 25th May. The sunrise was fantastic. One third of the sky was red. Longreach has done well.

We headed for the sleepy town of Winton where numerous dinosaurs have been unearthed. Sunday at Winton is unbelievably quite. It is also dry and dusty. Most of the shops in the main street (all 12 of them) have something to do with dinosaurs. Even the garbage bins are set in fibreglass dinosaur feet (left). It is a weird feeling to stand in the centre of the main street that is about 80 feet across and not see a car or a person in any direction !

Monday 26th May. The run from Winton to Boulia was close to 400 klms. The road was basically one lane with a number of short sidings to allow overtaking (left). There was no extra provision for passing oncoming traffic which sometimes included road trains of a prime mover plus 4 trailers (right).
When we saw one coming, we called them on the CB radio and told them to "STAY ON THE ROAD" while we pulled completely off onto the gravel and almost stopped as they went past. This manoeuvre was less to do with courtesy, and more to do with preserving our windscreen.

The tiny town of Boulia is the source of stories regarding the mysterious "Min Min" lights. These mysterious lights are supposed to appear on rare occasions either following or moving away from people in the night. There is little else in the town apart from a caravan park and the stage show that illustrates the possible sources of the lights. The stories all seemed to include alcohol at some point ... if you get my drift. The odd wild emu along the roadside was more exciting!

Tuesday 27th May. The next stage of our trip was nearly 300 Klms. This got us to Mount Isa by lunch time. The run from Boulia to Mount Isa included some scary manoeuvres passing oncoming trucks and road trains on a single lane road, plus a few kilometers of heavy dust. The landscape was amongst the harshest, driest, and most dangerous that we have seen so far in Australia (right). I say dangerous because the thought of being stranded out here is frightening. Even the wildlife is scarce.

It was a relief to see the outskirts of Mount Isa come into view (left).

We went to a caravan park that we had visited several times in previous years only to find that it was now run down, dry, dusty and not so attractive (right).

Without a choice, we paid for only three nights because the alternative park was booked out (I know why).

We stocked up on the usual groceries and Connie had a "hairdo". I had intended spending a week in Mount Isa, but Connie seems eager to get to Kakadu. Radio is hopeless without a reasonable antenna in Mount Isa and it is possibly because the city is surrounded by hills and appears to be sitting in a huge meteorite crater (it isn't, but that's the impression one gets from the city's only lookout).

Friday 30th May. A fairly big day. We drove over 600 klms to get to the famous "Three Ways Roadhouse" (left). There is little to see along this stretch of road other than the tiny town of Camoweal. The landscape gradually changed from dust and gravel into a sort of dry grassland with small trees, most of which grew no more than 12 feet tall (right). There is little to see at the roadhouse either but I didn't want to drive much further. At least we saw some green grass again (well it was almost green). The Easterly wind blew around 25 - 30 knots constantly from Mt Isa to Three Ways. I was able to drive at 110 - 115 klm per hour for the whole trip and the V8 rarely exceeded 2000rpm.

Saturday 31st May. Another relatively big day was the 660 klm drive to Katherine. We saw a huge black snake, maybe 8ft long, crossing the road. It was all I could do to avoid running over it. We also saw several wedge tail eagles eating their lunch - which was usually some unfortunate road kill. The eagles stood close to a meter tall when they glared at the passing traffic. We needed air conditioning again today as we drove through the warmest part of the day. As we approached Katherine it was obvious that more rain falls here as the countryside became slightly greener.

The "Riverside Caravan Park" at Katherine has suffered obvious neglect since our last visit. Next time we will try the "Red Gums" caravan park instead. I was able to put up 200 feet of wire antenna running over the adjacent river. Unfortunately, the static radio noise level was high. A short walk from the caravan park is the well known "Katherine Hot Springs" where water gushes from the ground at around 32 degrees and flows through 100-200 meters of channels between palms and other trees before flowing into a river. A number of large swimming holes have been formed in the channels. It is a great attraction for the tourists. It is a great pity that the local council have not capitalised on the area and it remains slightly neglected. The people of Katherine probably regard the springs as a nuisance - but to the tourists the warm springs are a novelty. The water is perfectly clear thermally heated spring water.

The town of Katherine is complete with banks, ATMs, hardware, supermarkets, restaurants, pubs (of course), golf club, lots of aborigines, and a variety of industrial businesses - after all, it is the third largest city in the Northern territory. I have noticed on previous visits as well as this one, that the aboriginal people (in general) avoid eye contact. I wonder what this signifies?

Tuesday 3rd June. We spotted a place on the maps called Edith Falls and decided to take a 120 klm round trip in the Landcruiser to see what it looked like. We were very pleasantly surprised but my feet started to ache all over again. We did another 3 klm climb up and down a mountain. The falls (left) created several huge swimming pools with the greatest scenery surrounding them. Keeping up with Connie on this walk was a challenge (right). A Jack Daniels & coke had to follow.

During our week at Katherine, the day temperature usually peaked a little over 30 degrees and the night temperature was usually around 18 to 20 degrees - this justified our winter migration. To our surprise, there seems to be as many "grey nomads" on the road as last year in spite of fuel prices. Number plates showed that tourists were coming from every corner of Australia. We did however, hear many comments suggesting that next year will be different.

Our last evening in Katherine was spent with a small group of nomads (right)enjoying genuine bush tucker (left) consisting of kangaroo meat, barramundi fish, roast lamb, and genuine billy tea (complete with a handful of ash from the fire instead of sugar). We both accidentally spilt our billy tea and didn't tell the host in case he brought us more.

At 2:00 o'clock in the morning, I had to chastise the next door neighbour for leaving his particularly noisy air conditioner on.

Friday 6th June. We drove around 250 klms and included two stops in Kakadu National Park. The first was Gungarul, a free rest area for overnight stays - with no water or power. The only attractions here were "South Alligator River", (left) (a dry river bed) and a climb to a rather high lookout. We did the walking things (in 35 degrees heat) and moved on. We drove through several bush fires along the roadside. These fires attract hundreds of kites, the birds of prey waiting for goanas and lizards to come running from the bush and onto the road.

Our second stop in Kakadu was at a great place called Cooinda where we spent two nights. Cooinda is actually a comprehensive resort for all kinds of travellers (left). The "yellow Water Cruises" are centred here. It includes a motel, hotel, service station, restaurant, alfresco dining, buffet, souvenir shop, swimming pools, camping, caravanning, and cabins - all in the middle of nowhere. They charged $15/night for an unpowered site and $35/night for a powered site. Jumping Catfish! it must cost a fortune to generate power out here in the bush. We chose the unpowered site (right) and used our solar panels.

Sat 7th June. Last night was so hot that we barely slept but we still managed to catch the shuttle bus at 9:00 am for a "wetlands nature cruise". We saw numerous saltwater crocodiles (left) and a whole range of birds (right). Connie said "It is stinking hot"! I didn't previously realise the extent of the wetlands. In fact much of the park is actually flood plains. The crocodiles and birds have become very casual about the tourist boats and the guides often get the boats within a few feet of them.

Sun 8th June. We travelled another 50 klms to Jabiru but stopped on the way to climb to the top of Mirrai lookout (right) and again to view the Nourlangie rock art (left). Some of the paintings are mysterious - eg. a decorated vase with sculptured handles painted by aboriginals thousands of years ago ????

Hell! they could have put the road a bit closer - I need another new pair of joggers (and feet).

Sunday in Jabiru is like many other country towns - totally deserted with absolutely no signs of life at all, except for the service station. The bakery (left) is a rather noticeable business. Hell it's hot in Jabiru.

Monday 9th June. Our tour bus for Arnhem Land tour picked us up at 8:00am. It was a very small bus (right) with about twelve seats. It was not made or intended for big people. Unfortunately, it took only a few minutes to discover that the public address system in the bus did not work and we could barely hear a word of commentary from the driver. When the passengers at the back complained the driver fixed the problem - he stopped talking altogether so that the passengers at the front didn't have an advantage over the passengers at the back. We soon discovered that the air conditioning didn't work either. Opening windows was difficult but not impossible and allowed dust to blow in when traffic passed us, however, we could breath most of the time.

We walked, climbed, viewed rock art paintings and finally we stopped for morning tea (just before Connie feinted from malnutrition). At 1:00 o'clock we were given a cup of coffee and some biscuits! The location however, was a spectacular lookout high on the side of a rocky outcrop. The view was outstanding and memorable (left). We spent another two hours looking at more rock art paintings (right) and finally got two salad rolls and some chilled water for lunch at 3:00 o'clock.

Tuesday 10th June. A visit to the local supermarket saw us leave empty handed. We went to the colourful bakery to buy bread at half the supermarket price. After lunch we headed to Ubirr [oohbeer] and saw a whole new selection of rock paintings and learnt some of the stories attached to them. The feature at Ubirr is the lookout (left) - stunning is the only word for it. On the return from Ubirr, we passed the shop known as "Border Store" (right). It sits hidden between tropical trees and plants on the border of Kakadu and Arnhem Land and sells the basic necessities to the adjacent caravan park (it sells ice creams too!).

Wednesday 11th June. Our tour for today included two sets of waterfalls and took an entire day. Twin Falls (left) has a number of shallow pools above the falls - and not a lot of shade. The view looking down into the gorge below is breathtaking (right). The walk to the top of the falls required a good degree of fitness but it was nothing for Connie and I. The rest of the group struggled!
A disturbing fact is that the entire tribe of aborigines who inhabited Kakadu have been slowly shrinking in numbers until the last few tribal elders died recently.

Jim Jim Falls was just as spectacular (left) but the tour took us to the bottom of the falls. This was probably just as well because the top of the falls was two hundred and twenty meters above us - straight up. Most of the group were all quite exhausted after the climb to the top of Twin Falls. The water takes over seven seconds to fall from the top of Twin Falls to the bottom. Below the falls there are two swimming holes, one is deep and the other is shallow with a huge sandy bank (right). The tour guide suggested that we all have a swim to cool down but said he preferred not to swim - because of the crocodiles! :-)

Thursday 12th June. This was supposed to be a rest day, however, it was an unusual one. Firstly we discovered that my genuine deer skin chamois (used for cleaning the car and caravan) had been left hanging on the rear bumper of the caravan last night (Connie is sure that I left it there). In the morning we found it had been eaten by a hungry wild dog during the night! It was reduced to about a quarter of its original size and the remains were lying on the ground. We also noted that Connie's rubber thongs had a few teeth marks in them.
More excitement followed when Connie discovered that the outside of the caravan was covered in ants - big and small. We quickly found their trail was coming up along the plastic coated electricity power lead (this is not the first time I have noted that ants like plastic). Fortunately, Jabiru has no shortage of water and I spent some time hosing the caravan thoroughly from top to bottom. Problem - Jabiru ants are familiar with sudden downpours of rain and have learnt to run for the nearest hiding place. As I started to remove the excess water (using the remains of my chamois) the ants started to reappear all over again. A good part of the rest of the day was consumed killing the clever little critters. I eventually won. Temperatures on the trip have been fairly consistent since we left Mount Isa - daytime 30 to 34 degrees - and nightime was 28 degrees or thereabouts. KAKADU... some pretty places, some breathtaking lookouts, lots of hard walking, only one or two "easy to reach" features, thousands of acres of intentionally burnt bush, apparently nearly deserted in the wet season.

Friday 13th June. A cool early morning run of 240 klms got us to the "Shady Glen Caravan Park" at Darwin where we were met by the most aggravating, arrogant, loud mouthed, rude female booking clerk in the whole of Darwin I'm sure. As we left the office to set up the caravan, I was yelling at her, as loudly as she was yelling at me. We were allocated a site on 13th Avenue [ominous isn't it!] One reason we were both aggravated was because the air force (next door) was playing "war games" and they were playing with jet fighters - and they seemed to have at least twenty of them. Darwin airport is closed to every body while the big kids play with their toys.

Saturday 14th June. We chose today to drive around the city centre of Darwin (right) because traffic is lighter than during the week days. We also checked out "Fanny Bay" and some other suburbs and shopping centres. Lunch was on "The Pier" (left) but Allan complained about the prawns being tasteless and not at all fresh - in fact, just like Darling harbour... !

Sunday 15th June. We strolled around the local markets where we saw the most unusual things - bracelets, necklaces, thongs ... yep all of those rare things. Best of all we discovered some crepes with cream, apple sauce, caramel and almonds. We didn't know quite what to do with them and so we ate them - and some ice cream as well. After lunch we retired to the pool at the caravan park and relaxed.

Darwin ... very ordinary, sand flies, plenty of history, a longer stay may have revealed more.

Monday 16th June. We took an easy 100 klm drive to Batchelor which is a good base for anyone exploring Litchfield National Park. We booked into the Banyon Tree caravan park where they provide a snack of sausages and onions every evening for their visitors, as well as a musician on some nights (right). The sites are completely shaded by trees making a nice cool place for a caravan in this climate. But - no satellite TV (too many trees) and no mobile phone coverage. I managed to put up a good 300 feet of antenna but it still didn't do any good - I still don't understand why.

Late in the evening I saw a Cane Toad (ugly blighter) hopping around the caravan. The locals here say the cane toads are creating havoc with the local wildlife.

This caravan park has a license to sell bottles of beer and cans of mixed drinks but they were of course a little expensive. A 375 ml bottle of Tooheys New and a lemon squash came to $8. I guess that if I was in their place, I'd charge at least the same amount.

Tuesday 17th June. Armed with sandwiches and drinks, we headed into Litchfield park. Surprisingly, we checked out most of the interesting features, had our lunch and were heading back to the caravan park by 1:00 o'clock. Some attractions were closed due to bad road conditions and/or crocodile presence. We saw HUGE termite mounds (12 to 14 feet tall) and (even more) waterfalls.

LITCHFIELD ... Much smaller than Kakadu, most features easily reached with short walks from a sealed road, great views for those who want to walk an extra klm on foot.

Wed 18th June. South again, back to familiar territory. The town of Katherine was 230 klms away and we were easily there by lunchtime. This time we booked into the "Red Gums" caravan park and it was like a breath of fresh air with real green grass. It was a vast improvement on the "Riverside Caravan Park" down the street where we stayed two or three weeks before. We finally collected our mail from the post office. The town is still more black than white.

Thur 19th June. .... BATS ..... At 5:00 o'clock in the morning the bats in the tree next to our caravan started arguing over the spoils from their night of hunting. They were worse than a kindergarten full of hungry kids - their screaming noises erupting every ten minutes. By lunch time they were apparently overcome by the heat of the day and simply hung upside down using their wings as fans. I assume their fighting and squawking noise was over food or sex. The park was good, so we put up with the noise. If you ever book into this park, be sure to get a site well away from site no 11. The weather is glorious.

Fri 20th June. I discovered a 2 meter ham radio "repeater" (node 8191) that transmits & receives between 147.800 Mhz and the internet (it does not re-transmit locally - only on the internet). I also discovered a ham radio "gateway" (node 6411) that transmits & receives on 29.120 Mhz. Either can be used by simply keying any echolink or IRLP node number into a DTMF microphone. The locals are Mike VK8ZMA (owns the repeaters but currently in China) and Steve Jones VK8ZSJ (21 Cox cres.) and Neil Henry VK8ZNH. The stone guard under the caravan has been beaten to death but I cannot find any rubber mats to repair it with (instead of the wire ones). We spent half an hour in the hot springs this afternoon.

Sat 21st June. Over the next few days we will be travelling towards Mount Isa (nearly 1300 klms) and will stop several nights in some remote "bush" roadhouses. Because of this, we got a few extra groceries from the supermarket and filled our water tanks with Katherine "town water". The water at roadhouses is usually bore water and is often very high in calcium. Today is surprisingly cool and windy.

Sun 22nd June. We travelled 572 klms South down the Stuart Highway (left) with a strong headwind against us all the way. We consumed a huge amount of diesel fuel. We finally stopped at Banka Banka (right), a surprisingly nice overnight stop where the fees were only a few dollars but with no electricity (not a problem for us). The Bank Banka "cattle station" has quite a variety of animals including turkeys (right), goats, donkeys, cows, and more. They all roamed about in the caravan park. The park owners warned visitors to keep their pets inside otherwise they could be injured by the farm turkeys.

I finally managed to take a picture of a huge wedge tailed eagle on the side of the road (left), along the road between Katherine and Banka Banka. He was having a feed of some some poor critter that had been run over by a car (no... I don't think it was an ankle-biter).

I also thought this huge rocky plateau was picturesque (right).

Mon 23rd June. The drive from "Banka Banka" to "Three Ways" (136 klms) and then on to "Camooweal" in Queensland (445 klms) was not good. We used 160 litres of diesel and battled a head wind all day. In an attempt to conserve fuel, I kept my speed down to 80 klms/hr for most of the day but driving at this slow speed provided a boring and tiring day.

At Camooweal, I noticed that construction techniques were quite different to what we are used to (right). Photo courtesy of Camooweal Roadhouse. The pub was also a little different (left).

Camooweal was the first town on the Queensland side of the border and so the roadhouse gave us the appropriate reminder to correct our watches (right).

Tues 24th June. Mt Isa. From Camooweal to Mount Isa was a short run of 180 klms with no head winds and we averaged 100 klm/hr. At the Copper City caravan we had a novel view from our caravan - a vast area of bushland that had recently been burnt and reduced to black ash (left).

Wed 25th June. Mt Isa. For Connie this was a laundry and shopping day (but then ... most days seem to be food shopping days!).

Thurs 26th June. Mt Isa. A "rest" day and we used it to go to the movies in Mt Isa. The movie today was "Get Smart" and it was really funny. The cinema was uncomfortably cold - but the manager was not in the slightest bit concerned.

Fri 27th June. Julia Creek. Beaurepairs at Mt Isa rotated all the wheels on the car and caravan and still used the "air gun" to tighten some of the wheel nuts - even after I told them that I had a tension wrench and wanted to tighten them to the correctly specified tension myself - idiots! I had to borrow their air gun to get them undone again.

The road to Julia Creek 258 klms East of Mt Isa is an "eye opener". We have travelled this stretch of road several times and yet I still say "wow! take a look at that". In some places it is barren, really barren, just dust and a few whisps of dead grass and the landscape stretches as far as the eye can see (left). The few odd "rivers" are perfectly formed with steep banks and overhanging trees - but not a drop of water, just dry sand beds (right). Ironically, below this part of Australia is the Great Artesian Basin - a seemingly never ending supply of water for anybody prepared to sink a bore.

At Julia Creek caravan park we recognised the same manager (left) who was there last year. We also remembered the hot spa - with user instructions written in German! The wind came up just as we parked our van and it howled through any gaps around the windows and door. Fortunately, it was a very warm and comfortable 30 degrees - perfect! All worth while. We decided to buy our dinner at the local hotel this evening. It was a huge feed of Barramundi fish.
How is this for co-incidences - the manager told us of his adventures when he managed the Colyton hotel some years ago (our home town)!

Sat 28th June. Hughenden. We drove East another 260 klms to Hughenden. Along the way we saw an immense flock of Gallahs (right), (or maybe they were cockatoos, I don't know). When they took flight, they resembled a huge white cloud - pity my photographic timing was not up to scratch.

The REALLY big ones (left) were emus - this I do know!

The town of Hughenden (left) was asleep when we arrived at Midday on Saturday, but we woke them early. Although we haven't followed the trail, this part of Australia is one of the Worlds greatest sources of dinosaur skeletons - maybe it is ..THE.. greatest, anyway we walked the entire length of the main street of Hughenden in 90 seconds!

Sun 29th June. Charters Towers. We drove East another 250 klms to Charters Towers. The condition of the road varied dramatically several times. The surrounding vegetation changed towards green - with far more trees than we have seen for some weeks. Our check-in at the caravan park was unusual - the manageress was having a BAD day and wanted everyone to know. Maybe it had something to do with working on a Sunday. I somehow managed to ignore her. The main street through the shopping centre is probably a kilometer in length. The town lookout (left) has it's own residential rock wallabies (right) (I think that is what they are).

We were lucky enough to be allocated a grassy site but I could see no way to get up a wire antenna for HF radio. The only radio repeater that I could hear was at Townsville but this was too far away to be accessed from Charters Towers. The van park has a new swimming pool (left) and provides morning tea with entertainment on several days each week - check out all the grey hair (right). The pool is too damned cold for me, or anybody else it seems!

Mon 30th June. Charters Towers. The first cloudy day we have had in seven weeks but still warm at 30 degrees. A quiet and relaxing day - apart from shopping for food again!

Tues 1st July. Charters Towers. We awoke to find thick fog and heavy dew on the car and caravan but it was sunny and warm by 9:30 am. A free "morning tea" (scones, jam and coffee) was provided by the caravan park today at 10:00 am.

Wed 2nd July. Townsville. In perfect weather we moved on to Townsville (150 klms East) (left) and everything suddenly looked familiar. All our previous visits to Townsville have been for at least a week. We were disappointed to hear that the Coral coast caravan park (right) (a very pleasant park) has been sold to developers like so many others. There is a small mountain in the centre of Townsville and the 360 degree view (left) from the top is breathtaking. Some of the locals have a habit of running the 3 or 4 klms along the road to the top of this mountain for exercise. On the way they often risk getting killed by passing cars but it doesn't seem to worry them.

Thur 3rd July. Townsville. We spent several hours wandering about the port area of town. It included numerous Al Fresco restaurants, Irish pubs and a mall.

We checked the OmniMax theatre to see what shows are currently running. The theatre is operated by ONE person who changes the film reels (the size and weight of a car's spare wheel) as well as collecting the money and issuing tickets. The screen for this amazing cinema is .. the ceiling.! .. and the seats lay way back. The control room (right) is below the cinema and the projector is in the middle - pointing upwards. If you have an opportunity to see a movie at this interesting cinema, don't miss out.

Fri 4th July. Townsville. We enjoyed a tour of the Townsville highlands ranges including a section of the rail corridor from a Nickel mine at Greenvale to Townsville where the Nickel used to be refined. The Nickel mines, rail and refinery were all been abandoned many years ago and so our tour bus drove through a number of the railway tunnels. The driver showed us how good a didgeridoo sounds in a tunnel.

Sat 5th July. Townsville. We went to the Omnimax cinema in the Townsville CBD and saw "African Elephants". This was a "magic" experience because the screen covered the entire domed roof (left). We felt as though we could touch the animals in the film. I ducked down in my seat when an elephant charged!

Sun 6th July. We went to a park called "Riverland" in a Townsville suburb. It featured a number of swimming pools and an entertainment theatre. From there we drove to the top of Castle Hill (right) to make sure that the views were really as good as we remembered from our last visit - fantastic.

Mon 7th July. Townsville. Connie tried to make an appointment with a hair dresser but they seem to use Fiji time in Townsville. I succeeded in making an appointment to have the car serviced (10,000 klms).

Tues 8th July. Townsville. We enjoyed a full day bus tour to the Wallaman Falls. The water falls a staggering 260 meters (left) in one column of water which becomes a massive spray before it hits the bottom of the gorge. The vegetation in the foreground makes the waterfall look small - but it is actually close to a kilometer away. The tour guide claimed that this was the highest sheer drop in the southern hemisphere. Some adventurous folk had walked to the bottom of the gorge - half a kilometer below (I declined)!
To reach the falls we drove about 40 klms west of Ingham and up 500 meters through some of the densest rain forest that I can ever recall seeing (right).

We travelled through endless sugar cane fields and finally spotted a heard of camels (most unusual so far North in this part of Australia).

Wed 9th July. Townsville. The mighty Landcruiser was given a 10,000 klms service at Mike Carney Toyota in Townsville. Our mail didn't arrive because Josephine didn't post it on Monday ? she kept it until Tuesday ? The caravan park provided a sausage sizzle and we joined in.

Thur 10th July. Townsville. We walked the full length of "The Strand" and back, but had to hold onto the palm trees to avoid getting blown away (I am exaggerating, but it was very windy). Our mail didn't arrive because Josephine didn't sign the "dangerous goods" declaration and it has been sent by road from Brisbane.

Fri 11th July. Townsville. We finally got our mail. I bought a hammer and a spanner from Bunnings (obviously bored eh!). I spent the afternoon packing up and getting ready to move on to Proserpine tomorrow. Our total distance travelled on this trip so far is 8700 kilometers. The total cost of diesel fuel so far is $3440.

Sat 12th July. Proserpine. We arrived at Proserpine (268 klms South) before lunch. Connie did washing. I set up our satellite TV but couldn't be bothered putting up a radio antenna for one night (and so I had a couple of beers instead). The weather was perfect and so was our site in the caravan park. Some old pensioners were playing lawn bowls next door - every now and then one of them yelled "You beauty! I've got it in". This seemed to amuse some of the ladies in the caravan park. Later in the evening we went walking to discover that the droning noise and the orange glow in the sky was coming from the local sugar refinery (right). That night we encountered our first shower of rain since we had left Sydney.

Sun 13th July. Seaforth. Just a short 100 klm run down the road we came to Seaforth where some old friends had reserved a good site for us (sites 9 & 10 are perfect). We needed plenty of sunshine for our solar panels because there is no electricity for campers & caravans at Seaforth. We thoroughly inspected John & Val's new van and were impressed with the technology and the thought that had obviously been used. The site that our friends had saved for us (site 10) was perfect. We had maximum sunshine all day and plenty of grass. The green ants that continuously dropped from the trees onto the caravan roof caused a bit of a stir. I set up a great antenna and thought at first that all my radio problems were solved when I heard almost no background noise. Things somehow changed later in the evening when the noise level came up to S7. Another shower of rain at night was welcome.

Mon 14th July. Seaforth. Today I played with (a) solar panels and (b) insecticide (ants). This was the first time we had been beside a beach since leaving Sydney and so we walked the length of the beach. Only a little amount of sun graced us and so we learned to be a little frugal with our electricity (we actually turn the TV and radio off when we are not listening to them). Even at the coldest part of the day, it only dropped to about 20 degrees - wonderful. We enjoyed some time talking to John & Val. We discovered that diesel heaters draw a considerable amount of electrical power and may not be the heating solution that we occasionally need. LPG may be a better solution after all. I'd like to go to Mackay tomorrow and see what is available.

Tues 15th July. Seaforth. Mackay is only 43 klms South of here and so we took a trip there to get more food. We still haven't checked out the gas heaters.

Wed 16th July. Seaforth. A horrible day. It showered on & off all day. The solar panels did very little work and by the evening we had even decided not to watch TV because the caravan batteries were low. We took another trip into Mackay and did some more shopping.

Thurs 17th July. Seaforth. The sky was clear for an hour and then it clouded over again. I took a chance and decided to run my generator down on the beach using some long power leads (generators are strictly not allowed in the caravan park). The generator worked brilliantly for close to an hour, but some council workers spotted my power leads - I was told to turn off the generator. My first instinct was to point out that my generator was NOT in the caravan park - but he was big enough to pick up my generator and me, under one arm and throw us both in the sea, and so I obliged. By then I had put 50 amp/hours of power back into the batteries and the clouds had started to clear. By sunset, the batteries were back to 93%.During the afternoon we explored the nearby coastal attractions of Ball Bay, Hallidays Hideaway and Cape Hillsborough Nature Reserve (left). Ball Bay has a tiny caravan park that is also controlled by the council and provides nothing but the space and a public toilet (not pets, no power, no generators, no water) - all for the "bargain?" price of $17/day. Hallidays Hideaway has deteriorated since we last saw it and the fees have increased considerably from $18/night to $25/night. It has a very nice bush setting but very poor amenities. Cape Hillsborough has a number of extra amenities and is also in a bush setting but features a nice sheltered beach (right) - even at low tide it is attractive. The Cape Hillsborough resort is about $25/ night for a [fairly small and shady] powered caravan site and could be a good place to spend some time. We also considered purchasing a quaint little cottage along the way (right), but decided against it. Smalleys Beach (in Cape Hillsborough National Park) is at the end of a dirt road that can get quite muddy in wet weather. Permits are purchased at the beginning of the row of ten campsites, all of which are set in quite thick bush with 20 to 30 meters between them and only 20 to 30 meters from the beachfront. There is a very "airy" toilet block with walls that start 500 mm up from the floor !!! No power, water or fires. Generators are not mentioned strangely (it is a national park).

Fri 18th July. Seaforth. Full sunshine worked on our solar panels and by lunch time it seemed that we could have charged more batteries if we had them. Another trip to Mackay was used to choose a caravan park for our next stop and to pick up two new LED lights to replace the only remaining incandescent lights in our caravan. We also bought more food, believe it or not.

Sat 19th July. Seaforth. Big game fishing day ... beside the boat ramp (with sand flies) and using frozen prawns for bait, results zero, back to radios instead. This was the last day at Seaforth and so it is time to pull down antennas, pack up and say goodbye to the people we knew from previous years. The weather forecast predicts four or five days of rain and we have planned to spend this time at a conventional caravan park with grass and power.

Sun 20th July. Mackay. It was a very quick 50 klm run to Mackay and "The Park" caravan park. A great park - clean, tidy, grassy & good amenities. Strangely, the reception workers appeared to be terribly sad & grumpy. The park is about 4 klm South of the city centre. Our site doesn't have any trees nearby and so HF radio is out, but VHF/UHF is in.

We spent the afternoon touring nearby suburbs such as, Eimeo, Bucasia and Blacks Beach (left). The Eimeo hotel (right) is built on the top of a huge rocky outcrop overlooking the ocean and beaches. It is a brilliant place to stop for lunch or a beer and the views are great. There are some nice beaches in this area but the sand is NOT white, in fact the sand is course and gritty in many places.

Mon 21st July. Mackay. The weather forecast was correct and the rain set in. The amateur radio community is mysterious ... they have installed four repeaters within reach of Mackay but don't use any of them! why? I tested them and found that they all operate perfectly, at least one of them has "Echolink" and one of them has "IRLP". I left my radio scanning the 2 meter band for several days and never heard a word spoken! The pictures on the left and right show the massive breakwater around the harbour.

Tues 22nd July. Mackay. Showers continued. The sky remained black.
Wed 23rd July. Mackay. Rain continued. We went to the local cinema and saw a boring film called "Sex and the City" - yes all the same actors as the TV series - and just as boring. The weather bureau predicted strong winds and so I packed up some outdoor furniture and rolled the awning half way up in anticipation.
Thur 24th July. Mackay. More showers (left) until late afternoon. The empty field behind our caravan was now a sheet of water (right).

Fri 25th July. Carmila Beach. Today was back to sunshine, but cool. We had intended to stop at Clairview Caravan Park, but they had little drinking water and the park taps were only for washing. Because our water tanks were empty, we decided to backtrack a few kilometers and have a look at Carmila Beach. The choice turned out to be a good one because we filled our tanks at Carmila and found an ideal position at Carmila Beach (left) which is a free camping area that we seem to visit every year. The view of the ocean from our caravan window (right) was superb.

Sat 26th July. Carmila Beach. Still cool but sunny. Fishing from the beach had the usual result .. ( ). Connie & I walked kilometers along the beach (left) and I wondered how small trees (right) manage to survive between the rocks, sand and salt water?? We were also puzzled by the small number of caravans/campers currently using this free reserve and concluded that the recent rain had left many travellers in fear of getting bogged in the deep sand (in fact, this particular sand is firmer when wet).

Sun 27th July. Carmila Beach. Myself and half a dozen other hopefuls tried fishing from the beach. I froze in the cold wind as the sun was setting, but I didn't care because I was the only one on the beach who caught any fish at all. I caught two salmon. Did you read that?

Again, in case you didn't notice .. I caught two salmon from the beach.

Mon 28th July. Carmila Beach. At low tide, I waked out to a sand bar and tried to catch more fish .. with the usual result.. ( ). We had yesterdays amazing catch of fresh fish for dinner. On the radio we heard that some suburbs of Sydney had snow and this cheered us up... :-) We also heard that some truck drivers had gone on "strike" and a few grocery shops had reported panic buying.

Tue 29th July. Rockhampton. This morning we woke at Carmila Beach to find the temperature was 9 degrees, but we warmed up in the car on the 270 klm drive South to Rockhampton. We heard on the radio that Queensland had experienced frost in many areas and this did not cheer us up! The site we were given at the "Riverside Caravan Park" was perfect (right) - maybe because we are regulars at this park. The cashier at Woolworths told us that all their trucks were continuing to run. We had a great evening meal at the next door bowling club.

Wed 30th July. Rockhampton. Last night the Fitzroy river looked dirty and muddy because the tide had flowed out (left). This morning it looked a thousand times better with the high tide (right). It was also cold this morning (somebody said 4 degrees) but our caravan was in direct sun and it warmed up quickly. Our mail was waiting at the post office and so we paid our bills on the internet after lunch.

Late in the afternoon we drove to the top of the nearby Mount Archer which is over 600 meters above sea level. Below is a panoramic view of the city of Rockhampton taken from the top of Mount Archer (set browser to maximum screen width).

Thur 31st July. Rockhampton. We WALKED into the city centre. I also put up an antenna and amazed several of the geriatric neighbours by how far up the giant gum tree I had managed to get the wire - even so, it didn't help, it was found to be as useful as pockets in pyjamas. The flavoured ice cream (left) from "Cold Rock Creamery" provided more satisfaction than radio. We decided to pay for an extra seven days at the caravan park.

Fri 1st August. Rockhampton. Perfect weather. A lazy day except for another walk into the city centre. We spent half an hour at the Riverside Markets while they set up their stalls for the evening (below) - and we sampled more chocolate coated ice creams!

Sat 2nd August. Rockhampton. Another perfect day and a lazy one. We enjoyed another evening dinner at the next door bowling club and then a late night tour of the suburbs.

Sun 3rd August. Rockhampton. Another perfect day. My radio antennas and TV satellite dish have been noticed and requests for help are being received from other grey nomads with satellite TV. [for my notes] .. We took a drive to some local seaside resorts including Emu Park (right) which is a spotlessly clean and tidy looking village. It features a "singing ship" in a park overlooking the local beaches and bright blue ocean. We believe that the large caravan park (100 meters from the shops) is usually booked up one year in advance. We also stopped at Yeppoon (left) where we had lunch. It is a little busier with a couple of pubs, lots of parking, numerous places to buy food, groceries, hardware etc. The Seafood shop in Yeppoon wanted me to wait 20 minutes for some fish and chips - so I went next door and bought a pie. Keppel Sands is a tiny village with a mud/sand beach that was nothing flash. The caravan park has some grass sites. The beach front (one half of it is rocks) has a narrow one way tar sealed road lined with a boat ramp at the end. The return road runs along behind the houses that face the beach. The sea at Keppel Sands is not blue today, it's brown?

There are small beaches and bays (left) every couple of kilometres along this picturesque part of the coast. Sellers are asking million dollar prices for Houses like this one in Keppel Sands (right). They apparently don't know what happens when Labor governments are running the country. I'll come back and check the prices again in a few years, when they have realised.

Mon 4th August. Rockhampton. Another perfect day. A check at camping goods stores gave us more ideas regarding cabin heaters that can be used when free camping [with no power].
Tues 5th August. Rockhampton. Another perfect day. Mostly digital radio orientated.
Wed 6th August. Rockhampton. Another perfect day.
Thur 7th August. Rockhampton. Another perfect day.
Fri 8th August. Rockhampton. Another perfect day.
Sat 9th August. Rockhampton. Another perfect day.
(note that the nights were cold for Rockhampton - this is the second consecutive year when night temperatures have been abnormally low and we have used extra blankets. Even day temperatures are lower than normal. In previous years we needed only light summer clothes in this part of Australia and recall that we used to take greater care to protect from sunburn in the hot weather, but now it is comfortable to spend time in the sun with cardigans or jumpers some of the time.)

Sun 10th August. Rockhampton. We decided to explore some of the local area and drove to Mount Morgan - only 30 kilometers away. When we arrived it looked very familiar... "we have been here before" I said and Connie agreed. It is a very old gold mining town with some ancient buildings, houses (left), shops and a railway station that has been preserved in its original state and is now a tourist attraction where they sell ice cream! The mines still dominate the landscape although they appear to be abandoned except for daily tours for tourists. The rest of the town is spread over 1 or 2 square kilometers (below).

On our return from Mount Morgan we visited the Rockhampton Multicultural Festival. Some of the dancers displayed their skills at Indian dancing (left) and others offered to teach "belly dancing" (right). Dozens of stalls sold all the usual things that are found at markets, trinkets, camel rides, ... plus a variety of ice cream.

Mon 11th August. Rockhampton. Another perfect day. We shopped for food again ... then started packing up ready for tomorrows drive to our next "port of call". The news reports told us of bitterly cold temperatures in NSW - the thought of getting home sends shivers down my back.

Tues 12th August. Gladstone. It was just over one hour of driving at 100 klm/hr to get to Calliope (I was corrected more than once on the Queensland pronunciation, it is "cal-eye-o-pea"). Our intention was to free camp on the river for two nights, however, this morning was cold enough to worry me. We still do not have a cabin heater in the caravan that runs off anything but 240volts. I finally snapped when I overheard some campers discussing the temperature last night and so, at the last minute, I turned off the highway and headed for nearby Gladstone. Two months later I received a speeding fine - "Dawson Hwy, Gladstone".

We booked into the Kin Kora caravan park (above) for the two nights (set browser to full screen). Our arrival caused some confusion because the office staff were all "away somewhere" and we were told that somebody would come by later and collect the camp fees (it wasn't until we were on the road to Maryborough, two days later, that we realised that the camp fees had not been collected).

Wed 13th August. Gladstone. The city is very industrial with an aluminium processing plant, a harbour, loading terminals (left), and a marina full of private craft (right). We spent another hour checking out a local winery - that did not sell port, but [luckily?] one of the employees gave us a very detailed and lengthy explanation of his physical fitness. He didn't stop talking until I closed the car doors and wound up the windows... I think he had stopped talking when we drove away.

Thur 14th August. Maryborough. The drive of 280 klms to Maryborough was worrying because .. we were travelling SOUTH! The TV has reported very cold weather down south (and records are being broken). We stayed at the usual Maryborough caravan park called "The Wallace" because it has plenty of real grass and plenty of room (right). The guys who own/run it are interested in how I get antennas up into tree tops.

Fri 15th August. Maryborough. We toured the CBD and recalled the interesting sights like the old pub (left) and the area known as "Portside" where they show free open air movies (last year we saw "The Queen" at this interesting cinema). We booked at the information centre for a one day tour on Fraser Island for Saturday. At a local camping store I found some rubber bands for my "slingshot" antenna installer and a roll of antenna wire at Dick Smiths - 300 feet of antenna was promptly installed.

Sat 16th August. Maryborough. We spent the day on a tour of Fraser Island. It is the largest sand island [in the World?] It suffered over 100 years of logging before it became a national park. 16% however remains as sub-tropical rain forest. The East coast beach is listed as a highway (right) and all road rules are enforced by the two full time police officers. The Mahona ship wreck (left) - had been sold for scrap in the 1920's and the propellers had been removed to make it easier to tow back to Japan. While the ship was being towed, a hurricane caused the tow ropes to break and it washed ashore on Fraser Island. During the 70 years that it has been resting here, four decks have disappeared below the sand. The fresh water lakes on Fraser Island provide quiet secluded hideaways where no one is seen for days on end - an example is Lake MacKenzie where I took a couple of pics (below) (set your browser to full screen) - It's like Hyde Park on Sunday!!

Sun 17th August. Maryborough. Today promised to be another interesting day. Our first stop was to be the local markets in the CBD streets of Maryborough.... unfortunately it was the wrong day - no markets today. We drove towards our next planned stop which was to be the Harvey Bay Seafood Festival.. sounds good eh! The problem was that 20,000 other people had the same idea. It was the most crowded place I have seen in many years. The queues of people waiting to buy seafood were 20 to 30 meters long. The park was a sea of people, just slowly shuffling and jostling about trying to find the end of a queue - it was all too much for us. We headed for the Harvey Bay shopping centre to find a "Fish & Chip" shop. I ordered fish but when I tried to eat the fish, it was like drinking a cup of cooking oil. I demanded a better effort from them but 15 minutes later I got the same result - another crumbed fish that was also dripping with cooking oil. Back at the caravan Connie fixed everything by cooking bacon & eggs, followed by pikelets, fruit and ice cream, followed by a glass of port... or was it two? Great!

Mon 18th August. Maryborough. A very cool day. We did brave the cold to go shopping for food.

Tues 19th August. Maryborough. A very cool day. We did brave the cold to go shopping for food - again. I noticed a statue of Mary Poppins in town, was she born here? or did she live here? There's a prize for the correct answer. I spent some hours trying to fix my computer so that it would transmit digital signals - I failed.

Wed 20th August. Maryborough. Another cool day. The only outing today was lunch at the Post Office Pub (left) - and it was pretty good value. I finally fixed my computer and made some contacts using a radio transmission mode called BPSK31.

Thur 21st August. Coolum Beach. It was slightly less than 170 klms down the road to Coolum Beach on the "Sunshine Coast". We checked in at the caravan park and were allocated site number 27 (which we found was already occupied). Back at the office, the staff sent us to another site. As I reversed into the site, a "geriatric gypsey" told me that this site was already booked by somebody whose "fifth wheeler" would not physically fit on any other site and who co-incidentally was his mate. My reaction was blunt, I told him I didn't care and the office staff could surely solve the problem. I continued to reverse into the site but within minutes the office staff arrived to politely ask me to take the next site (which was actually better from my point of view). That's where we settled, site 219 (left).

The day was cloudy but we still walked a few kilometers along the beach after lunch (right) - and we visited our favourite ice cream shop (of course). The owners of another Boroma caravan (6 mths old) came to compare their van with ours. They owned a 200 series Landcruiser Sahara and advised me to keep an eye on the amount of oil that my Landcruiser is using.

Fri 22nd August. Coolum Beach. We had a warm sunny morning, and a wet and windy afternoon. By late evening the sky was clear again. Sydney had the coldest day in twelve years ... I offer my sympathy ... Ha Ha Ha.

Sat 23rd August. Coolum Beach. Walking & shopping for food and ice cream!

Sun 24th August. Coolum Beach. A sunshine Coast visit would not be complete without a tour of the Hinterland (or is it called the Blackall ranges?). The numerous views from there are spectacular (below)(set your browser to full screen).

We drove to see a number of small towns. Eumundi because we thought the markets were on (but again, we were a day late). Yandina to see the Ginger factory. Mapleton where we learnt what a "chocolaterrie" was (I thought it was a place where they make chocolate but it is actually where they make cups of coffee & drinking chocolate. Montville (left) where we had a great lunch of nachos. Maleny where we stopped at the Mary Cairncross park to take photos of the Glasshouse mountains (right) - and relax with a coffee and carrot cake for afternoon tea.

Mon 25th August. Coolum Beach. Fishing. It was a disaster, I got wet, cold and frustrated (no, of course I didn't catch anything).

Tues 26th August. Coolum Beach. Rest and recreation (recovering from yesterdays stupid effort).

Wed 27th August. Coolum Beach. Fishing. It was a disaster, I got wet, cold and frustrated (no, of course I didn't catch anything).

Thur 28th August. Coolum Beach. Rest and recreation (recovering from yesterdays stupid effort). Lunch at the bowling club was a bargain for only $5 each.

Fri 29th August. Coolum Beach. A few kilometers South of here is Mount Coolum. It is a BIG rock (mostly sandstone ?) jutting out of the landscape. Over thousands of years it has been covered with vegetation. It has been declared a national park and a rough track takes energetic (and stupid) people to the top for a view. We, being of the energetic group, walked up to the top to take photos (below)(set browser to full screen). To the right is Maroochydore - Coolum Beach is out of sight on the left.

The steep climb to 208 meters of altitude was no problem for us - however one poor fellow (who explained that he was testing his heart bypass operation) decided that his surgeon needed to be retrained. He only reached a quarter of the way up the climb and had to lie down for half an hour. Connie just powered on up and down again (left). At times we could see Coolum Beach about 10 kilometres to the North (right).

Sat 30th August. Coolum Beach. Perfect weather - we just relaxed. I realised that we had 5 days left before we head for home - so we went to McDonalds and had an ice cream!

Sun 31st August. Coolum Beach. The warmest morning we have experienced for a long time. We have only four days left before we head for home. . . ug!

Mon 1st September....Wed 3rd September. Coolum Beach. Three more nice days of relaxing, walking and enjoying the sun however, the weather forecast has predicted two days of BAD weather. It was time for us to move on. Although Connie was now keen to get home, she was not keen on travelling in bad weather. I did not like the thought of watching the rain from inside the caravan. We took a vote and I won! I started packing up ready to move on in the morning.

Thur 4th September. Tenterfield. I got soaking wet in the rain as we packed up and hitched the car. We covered five or six hundred kilms today in constant heavy rain and and finally stopped at Tenterfield for the night. I finally got into dry clothes.

Friday 5th September. It rained again almost all day and barely reached 13 degrees. I preferred to keep driving as long as it continued to rain - and so we arrived home after 700 or so klms. We arrived home at Colyton and got into the dry and warm just as the sun was setting (well it set somewhere - certainly nowhere near us).

The end.