Must finish this before the year runs out!

30 December 2009

I did a lovely summary in Word and was going to copy it to blog, but found it was in gobbledy gook so here I am hard at it getting the job done. Don't know what I did. Don't you hate doing things twice??

Total number of days away - 96

Number of kms - 17000; the odometer seemed to skip backwards at times, (!) so this figure is a sum of daily distances.

Longest distance in one day - 650

Shortest daily distance - 0, several of them!

$ spent - approx 17000, but hard to be exact because of domestic costs (rates, etc)

Number of toilets cleaned - 0

Number of toilet rolls used -less than one; we came home with the same one we left with! Thanks to public loos, cafes and CVParks.

Number of kilos lost - 0

Number of kilos gained - 0 (Phew!)

Most expensive fuel - $2.10 per litre, on Great Central Road.

Cheapest fuel - 99c in NZ

Best things about trip - togetherness, Rita, feral camels and dingoes, seeing Jim, Nat. Parks of NSW, Canberra, Snowy Mountains, seeing the Bo's in NZ, meeting new people and hearing their stories, snow in NZ, solar cars on the Nullarbor, rain on the Nullarbor.

Worst things - too many clothes, books, games, stuff. There are plenty of good, cheap book exchanges; Op Shops have plenty of good cheap clothes for unexpected weather changes.

What we forgot to take - nothing! This time we remembered it all!

Things we didn't use - our inflatable kayaks - it was either too cold and wet, not enough time or there was no water.

General

- not enough time in South Australia, there are so many parts to the state, we need to go back just for SA.

-too much in too little time, hard to travel so far, so fast. too many things not experienced, need to go again!

-now we know so much more about Oz; when we see events on the TV news we can say that we know where that is and what it looks like.

This is the last word So be it, tanks all for your support and positive comments, sorry about no photos. Over and Out.

Love

Po

xx

November 2nd, 2 days to go

Woke up to a very dirty camp, everything covered in red dust from the willy willys ast night, and we had thought those days were over!

We were heade for the balladonia Road house and hoping to get advice about the unsealed road which would be a shortcut to Esperance via Israelite Bay, a new experience for us. But no, the road had been closed for 18 months and was being upgraded because it had become so terrible. So we had to go the long way round via Norseman, where we discovered one of the biggest coal slag heaps we have ever seen, and we come from S Wales, and a delightful floral bush walk with lookout over town. Turning south for about 100 kms, we stopped in Salmon Gums for a lunchtime drink, but found that the charming old pub had lost its charm and had gone over to the noise brigade so we had lunch in the park opposite, met some very entertaining fellow travellers and pressed on for Esperance.

We were determined not to repeat our error in Esp. Last time we stayed in a CVPk next to the Grain terminal and the noise of trucks grinding uphill day and night plus frequent trains blowing their hooters created a lasting memory. So we drove around (this is one of those occasions when I found the town map after we have left town the next day!) aware that we actually were at the grain teminal end of town, but the CVPk looked too nice t be the same one....so we checked in (tired and fractious) and yes, found ourselves backed up against the same hill, trucks and train, tho to be fair, it was nowhere near as bad as we remembered. We treated ourselves to an excellent pub dinner and slept thru all traffic noise!

Next morning we enjoyed the lovely Ocean Drive along the south coast with all its beautiful bays and crystal clear waters, with a firm focus to the day...we had to get to Lake King Hotel, 200kms away, because it was Melbourne Cup day, and tho we are not followers or punters, it is always an occasion and worth spending it in small town company - lots of laughs and chat, great atmosphere, great food. We had no idea who the horses were and hadn't placed any bets, but we were on a mission. The policeman who stopped us halfway to do a random licence check was not aware of the said mission and seemed inclined to chat, admire Rita, enquire about our trip and so on...We could hardly tell him we were trying to get to LKH because he would have had to warn us about speeding and his mates might have been out there waiting for us!

Eventually we got away because another car turned up ( it can go days between cars out here!) and screeched into LKH carpark at 11.57, 3 mins before the off. Well we were there on time ok and watched the very exciting race with a nice cold drink, but there were only 4 other people there! The main event was a fund raiser at the town hall! never mind, the 4 people were very pleased to see us.

We were aiming to spend our last night at Wickepin. We had heard of this tiny wheatbelt town from reading A Fortunte Life by Albert facey, a very famous West Australian. This was his home town. Using my country towns guide, I read that we should watch out for the Tin Horse Highway near Kulin, a local feature which started as a bit of fun to brighten the rather boring and continuous vista of wheat, when a few farmers knocked up horsey figures in their sheds, using all sorts of old scrap, but it became competitive and quite serious, so that there is now quite a long stretch of road lined with works of art, which become more clever and more comical as you progress. Well worth going the long way round. Also the native WA wildflower presence was increasing and the drive was very pleasant, which is wht we have found in the past when returning from holiday trips at this time of year. The aromas of the flowers is quite an experience too, can be quite unexpected and quite pungent.

we reached Wickepin in time to find the local municipal CVPk, usual patch of dirt with a few electrical power boxes and a magnificent ablutions block. We took a walk through town and have to say we were rather disappointed with the run down pub and general run down air of the place, considering old Albert became a fine statesman and WA is supposed to be proud of him. probably the highlights of the place were Alberts old family homestead, the guest house where he stayed for years, and last but not least the CVPk caretakers gnome garden which boasted a fine collection of what appeared to be any bit of debris that had fallen off something or blown in from somewhere over the last 150 years! One could only gawk at the collection and at the amount of spare time people must have when they live in a place like Wickepin!

Next day we were headed for home; a little trepidation re return to lists of tasks, but we timed our arrival to be 1100 hrs so that we could fill the spa tub from the solar hot water system and enjoy a lovely hot soak, leaving time for the system to refill and reheat while the sun was still out. You know what happens with plans like these...

We took the most rural route we could find going through Narrogin, Williams and Quindanning with its delightful old pub, putting off traffic lights to the very last possible moment, and as we went through them in Pinjarra we realised we could have missed them altogether if we had just turned 1 street earlier. We knew there would be no more till Rockingham because the new freeway extension would help us to bypass Mandurah for the first time ever.

And so we drove into our home space with that strange feeling that people with amnesia must have...we simply didn't know wht had been happening in our home town for the last 3 months.

We filled the spa, switched it on and it ran for about 5 mins and then died. To cut a long story short, 5 days and $700 later we had our hot soak - the little computer unit had died. Ah well, it is 5 years old and has made no other demands on our purse. So we wasted all that lovely hot water and the system didn't reheat because the sun went in, so we couldn't even have a hot shower!

End of trip, and what a trip, we feel so fortunate to have been able to do it.

Watch this space for summary of distances, costs, photos and other notes and musings.

Trying hard to complete this task

About the Drambuie...it was the Germans fault, honestly. Next morning was a bit slow and it was certainly not helped by the relentless squawking of dozens of galahs! Hot night - we had slept with the back door wide open and the noise was incredible. They have emailed twice since and are planning to visit us in the New Year. Hmm must forward plan that, and hide the new bottle of Drambuie.

I should say that when we first arrived at this camp site we found ourselves next to a big group of noisy ocker Aussies and decided to move to a quieter site. I am not sure how much noise we subsequently made, those Welsh hymns can really carry you away, but at least our neighbours were involved and enjoyed it.

We went for a 1 hour walk through gullies and over hillsides, lovely in the early morning light, found remnants of old mine sites; thanks galahs for getting us up.

Our recently developed plan was to visit Whyalla on the Eyre Peninsular, in the hope of having a snorkel with their famous giant cuttlefish, but a bit of research revealed that we need to be there in breeding time, between May and August, so put it forward to next trip. We stopped for lunch in the Kimba Community Hotel, recently renovated with community money, very unusual. It was a great pub and we were glad we had stopped. his is what you find whe you read the local info. Kimba boasts being halfway across Oz. Nice little farming town close to main highway, easy access to many beaches. Now we are on the Eyre Highway which crosses the infamous Nullarbor Plain. Most people complain about this journey; it is one lane each way, carries large trucks and tourists, overtaking can be a nightmare. We find if we stick to 90 kph everything else passes us so it is not our problem! We found a free camp at Pildappa Rock, a huge granite formation in the middle of flat farming land, great to climb over and check for wildlife in the rainwater pools at the top. Some still had water in them, some had tadpoles and one even had a tiny frog. It is always worth the 10 to 20 kms side trip to these places, to get away from the highway and have a wilder experience.

Next day we reached Ceduna, a pretty town on the sea, had a really great fast walk along the foreshore, a nice change from scrambling in dry river beds and climbing ridges. For you mad golfer out there, Ceduna is the beginning (or end) of the Nullarbour Links Golf Course, a recently constructed facility to amuse travellers. You tee off and find the "green" (not very green out here), sign off and then drive for a few hours to the next hole, which I think is the Nullarbor Roadhouse, and so on all the way to Kalgoorlie. You register at each green to prove you have done it and you receive a certificate at the other end when you finish, covering several 1000 kms in the process. So popular is this golf course that people are forming groups to do it as a holiday of choice!

We just missed the head of The Bight Whale Lookout; it closed today, end of season, but we found a beaut free camp at the 133km peg ( 133kms from where I am not sure) with great views of cliffs of Great Australian Bight, the wonderful smell of the sea, clean fresh air, a lovey evening with clear blue sky and a strong feeling that we were getting close to our beloved Western Australia!

Next day John informed me that because of my cold, with associated coughing, snoring, tossing and turning, he woke up 25 million times! needless to say it was an early start. It was a cloudy day with a forecast of rain. We thought that might be a bit of a novelty, rain on the Nullarbor Plain...last time I remember such rain was when I had tickets for Cliff Richard concert in Perth in 1995, and his trucks coming from Adelaide to perth got bogged in wet mud and he had to delay the concert by 24 hrs. It was chaos for us because I was on night duty and it had taken me ages to find someone to work the night for me, and then I had to change it. Great concert though, good old Cliff, he's back again in 2010.

So there we were riding along, singing a song, when bingo...rain! Something to tell them all back home. But even more exciting, we noticed rainwater pools forming on the road and then we noticed kangaroos with joeys, and emus with chicks , wedgetailed eagles and Great Australian bustards coming to the pools to drink. Looking at the low scrub of the Nullarbor Plain, you would not think that so many animals were lying low, so close to the highway. What a treat! lets hope that traffic slowed down and reduced the risk of road kill.

We soon reached the SA/WA border where you pass through a quarantine check and have to hand over fruit, veg, honey and such like. We have done this before and are getting wiser, so only a remnant of honey to give up this time. In Victoria the sign yelled at us EAT FRUIT NOW which really didn't seem very practical because you would still carry the peel and cores, and anyway how much fruit can you eat in 2 kms at 90 kph, and who's going to check? between Vic and SA we did the right thing and threw a few items in a bin, which emitted a vast cloud of fruit flies which invaded our van and crossed the border into Sa with us! In WA they are serious and there is no messing about.

Just beyond the check point is the Border Vilage which has lots of facilities, lovely gardens ($40,000 pa for desalinated water) and a shower block, yippee. A bit further on we found a nice bush camp where we could liht a camp fire and cook our dinner in foil, the last day before the Summer fire ban. There were several willy-willys (little tornadoes) which threw plenty of dust at us, so we retired quite early, putting our watches back to WA time to ensure an early sunset!

We are only 2 days from home, but new surprises and excitement are yet to be enjoyed!

the last 2 weeks

Travelling west from Bacchus Marsh, we headed for ballarat, famous for the Eureka Stockade and the miners stand for fair representation; a famous event in Australia's history and the beginning of a new era in democracy. Government mining licences were becoming intolerably expensive, in an attempt to control the invasion of thousands of people from all over the world, intent on making their fortunes in the goldfields of Victoria. We found the excellent Information Centre, built on the site of the stockade, and learned all about. Scarey times, many people died trying to make their point. We also saw many sulphur crested cockatoos around the area, always lovely to see these large parrots, who give a spectacular show of crest when excited, fipping it out like a fan!

We then camped for the night, another freebee, on the shores of Lake Bolac. We had been there 2 years previously and remembered the free toilet and shower block in this pretty location with very few other people around. Still there too. Lots of local infrastructure such as boat ramps, sailing markers, water taps, picnic tables, but the locals say the busy days are gone as people have found other pastimes and travel. This time the wattle was in flower, and we parked in a brilliantly yellow and pungently aromatic glade on a headland overlooking the lake. Not a place for those with hay fever!

As Margot in Mt gambier was helping her son and family to move, we delayed our visit by a day and had time to visit the Grampian Mountains, much to my delight, as we had had to pass it by last time. So we turned north to pass through Ararat, and found ourselves arriving right in the middle of the town Agricultural Show parade! brilliant timing! We watched the various floats and then found the Orchid Show, which I can never resist, and I got chatting to a lady who had lived there all her 70 years and was a non-stop history teller. It was she who told me that the town was founded by some Chinese men. Because of the Vic. government trying to control the influx of people, they put taxes on everything, including the ship's captains who brought people into the ports. To get round this, they disembarked their human cargo in a place called Robe in S Australia, who then walked the 200 miles (500 Kms) to Bendigo. These particular Chinese stopped at a stream to refill their water bottles and LO! found lumps of gold in the stream. They didn't bother to go on to Bendigo, and the rest is history, but Ararat has the largest fied of Alluvial Gold in the world, and it is stilled mined. So of course we had to visit the Gum San Information Centre which tells the whole story and has some terrific displays and artifacts. So you can see how easily a week to get home becomes 2 weeks or more. I was persuaded to treat myself to a silk dressing gown.. it didn't take much pesuading.

We finally tore ourselves away and got to Hall's Gap Tavern in time to have a fine roast lunch, being Sunday, before we drove through the mountains to the reccommended campsite at Jimmy Creek, recently upgraded and very fine for a Dept of Environment and Conservation (DEC) site. The loo was still long drop tho!

My cold was quite bad at tis point and I was beginning to think sinusitis, so I did something which is not reccommended, I dug out of my medicine chest a 4 year old pack of antibiotics whic I always care just in case, and commenced the course. Glad to say the infective threat cleared up PDQ (pretty damn quick) and I began to feel much better. So much for meds going out of date!

We managed to do the Piccaninny walk and admire wild flowers, including several tiny wild orchids, always a treat. Then we got to Hamilton and stopped to get blood pressure meds for John, only to find that his aged pension concession card had been stopped and his pension payments also! Quick visit to the Centrelink office to put that right, and they gave him back pay too. The things that happen when you are away from your mail box! We stopped at a petrol station to ask how to find the road to Mt Gambier via Dartmoor, and suddenly the conversation was taken over by a white South African man who wanted me to go to Portland with him, to see koalas and visit a great DEC camp spot. Well! I got out of that spot PDQ and reported back to John, and we whizzed out of town. Well blow me, a few miles along the road and there is Mr SA, pulled over and apparently waiting for us. As we shot past he fell in behind us, and as it was not the road to Portland, I started to feel a bit concerned and thoughts of Peter Falconio RIP came to mind ( he was ambushed and shot on the road from Alice to Darwin several years ago). So John found a tiny side track to do a sharp turn into, knowing that Mr SA with caravan could not possibly follow us. We found a lovely picnic spot beside a stream and felt much better for having lost him. He was probably a very nice man just wanting some company but...Scarey.

Getting to Yahl, near Mt Gambier, it was great to see George and Margot in their new home on their son's property. Son Ben is a vet, is married to Michelle and has 3 lovely kids, Aimee 8, Adam 6 and Ruby 2. We had a lively family dinner, saw some local sights, toured the new family home built of rammed earth, rode the tractor to feed the cows and gossiped, wined and dined; terrific. We stayed an extra day, Margot was so keen to keep us. She has only been in SA for 15 months and misses WA and all her family and friends there. George is almost 80 and still rides his horse most days, M is 70, gardens and helps with child care, so they have plenty to do and the family home is just 50 metres away on the other side of a hedge, so the kids are always in and out. Lucky daughter in law!

Mt Gambier is built on limestone which is riddled with caves, and some cave roofs have fallen in to create sink holes. These holes are large enough to hold concerts and parties in, and some have been made into formal gardens. They are quite fascinating. We climbed down into the Umbertson Sink Hole and enjoyed the gardens and the BBQ facilities. Funny to think that in WA, ever since the catastrophic Gracetown rockfall 10 or so years ago, we have Beware of falling Rock signs, while SA has BBQs under the ledges! MG is also renowned for its Blue Lake, which has a spring/summer phenomenon when the lake water turns irridescent. It had just turned before we got there, and it really was quite a sight.

We were keen to get on to Robe, to complete the story of the Chinese gold miners, and finally hit some lovely warm weather at last. SA countryside was looking green and healthy; it can go so brown in summer, lots of pine plantations, saw mills and wood chipping. We spent the night on the Coorong Peninsular, but didn't se any wombats or emus, much to my disappointment.

John booked us on a ferry to Kangaroo Island for the next day, for 2 days, in spite of $350 cost and then...

Bit of a drama at this point.. we then phoned our sick friend in Keppell Mews and heard that he was holding a party to celebrate the marriage of his daughter (they had a quiet family do due to circumstances) and we were invited. Could we get home in time? To cut a long story short we managed to get our ferry fee refunded, tho it wasn't easy, probably cost nearly that in mobile phone charges! So now we had a real focus.

During the 100's ofkms that followed. North thru Adelaide and into the South Flinders Ranges, we were luck enough to see 4 solar powered cars coming towards us. Its funny to think they are trying to function without fossil fuels, yet they each had a convoy of conventially powered support vehicles! The vehicles are tiny and look so vulnerable. I managed to get photos of cars 3 and 4.

Camp that night was interesting, at a DEC site in S Flinders. Met some German neighbours, and spent some cheerful hours in cultural exchange. They may visit us at home soon. Highlight of the night (apart from me singing Horace the Horse, and John doing his songs and jokes) was when we moved an esky (ice bin) and found a very large scorpion under it. Now I have never seen a live one before so it was fascinating. After a period of careful observation we carried it a long way from camp ( on a shovel) and pointed it at a distant point!

How can it be that, at this point the litre of Drambuie, purchased in duty free a mere 6 days ago, is almost finished?

More later...

Closing weeks

Its Nov 11th, how can it be? was my last entry really Oct 17th, or has one gone astray?

We spent our last week in NZ having on and off days, fine, wet, fine, wet, but there was always a space to get out for a walk and for Nina to have a run on the beach and for Hawk to play "bombs away", throwing rocks into the sea. The planned BBQ for Sunday for Mark's birthday had to be cancelled as the elements were trying to breach the front of the house. I think that was the day also that the near vertical hillside was trying to breach the back of the house, with a series of small land slips, or "slups"as they call them. It was a very squeezy experience! Do you know that NZ has an earthquake almost every week???? Apparently they are very small and often not felt, but.....heck.

So the wet Sunday became a trip to the excellent Te Papa Museum, which is great indoor space for kids to run around and fiddle with interactive stuff. Adults too!

Mark had a day off next day and it was perfect weather for BBQ on balcony overlooking great view. Gourmet suasages, chops, steaks, all cooked on his birthday present BBQ from loving wife. Loving in laws gave him binoculars, lets hope they get a good work-out. Chocolate cake once again with candles, saliva and singing, we did him proud. We even had a chat to his Dad Ron and wife Lise in Canada, on Skype, a new experience for us.

That BBQ was serious, it saw us off for the rest of the day!

Tuesday and another day off for Markie, so off we went en famille to Porirua Aquatic Centre with Hydroslide. John and I studied the sliders and concluded it took 12 seconds to go from top to bottom, so we decided we would do it.... We eventually decended a deux (you can tell I have been in Akaroa) with much yelling and a bit of panic, and even did it a few more times so that we could hold our heads up in society. Well you have to, don't you?

That evening I managed to get myself to a local Tai Chi session; rocked up at a convent address to find a beautiful large garden on an absolutely flat large site on a steep hillside, complete with large car park; such a surprise in hilly welly. I was greeted in friendly style, and it was identical to our own class in Shoalwater - exercises, set, etc, really comfortable feeling even though I knew no-one. They are just as friendly as my own group. I left them with a tea towel souvenir from Rckingham and arranged to return the next night with my camera, to take some snaps of their lovely club room. Leasing premises is so much better than just renting sessions, it allows the group to put up information posters, banners, mirrors and wall bars. Perhaps we will be able to lease soon. I discovered later that the nun gardener had won a community garden award.

Going back to Cousin Jim in Noosa, we enjoyed his great knowledge of showtunes and their words, but the one we really got into was "I don't care if it rains or freezes, I'm all wrapped up in Jesus, all my sins are taken away...but that was all he could remember. As we travelled along, whatever went wrong or failed to perform, we used to sing this song, and especially in Arthur's Pass. Well at this point Mark decided to Google the first line and BINGO it was sung by Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. So Mark printed off the words and we got down to some serious entertainment. We determined that we would print a copy of the words and send them to Jim, plus burn a CD and send that too. What a find. Next day we got the movie out just to hear Paul sing it, but the movie was not as good as we expected, although apparently Paul really liked the story.

Time with Bo's was running out. K and M had time out on Weds night while we babysat and we 4 went out for a meal locally on Thursday, the day before we left. I really enjoyed my role as bathtime monitor and made the most of it while I had the chance. Hawk is a little devil, always getting in Hayden's way, pressing and pushing wih much flailing of arms in the hope of making contact, while Hayden plays along and loves it. 2 completely different kids, physically and mentally, and it was great to watch a fight dissolve in giggles.

Friday, time to go..we spent the morning at a local cafe called the Bach (pronounced Batch), great coffee and food, plus newspapers, mags and toys; last few photos and then taxi to airport. It's always hard to leave them but this time we know they are coming home in a few months, so it was not too bad.

Great flight, we had to have separate seats, so I just watched movies, Harry met Sally and Slumdog Millionaires; great. The hotel van picked us up and it was with some trepidation that John left me with the bags and went to collect Rita after 3 weeks of idleness.....

But what a girl! She was so pleased to see him, she started first time and leapt around the corner to collect me and the bags and suddenly it as as though we had never been apart!

It was late, so we made our way west of Melbourne, declining to see Sarah and Rob because I had caught a bad cold and didn't want to pass it on. We found our way to Bacchus Marsh CVPk in order to plug into mains and recharge all batteries. Next day we did some shpping and found a picnic spot and suddenly we found ourselves being familiarised with the history of the women of BM. There is so much information everywhere you go, you can get quite overwhelmed. Gold was the thing, as in so many places, but of course, the women created the fabric of the society and were responsible for the establishment of so many social services. Very interesting.

We expected that it would take 7 or 8 days to get ourselves home, judging by last time, 2 years ago and our only date along the way was with my nursing pal Margot in Mt Gambier, just over the Victorian border in South Australia. Little did we know how much there was yet to see and do, right up to the very last day!

Hopefully by the time I complete this blog I will also have learned how to post some photos. Give me another week...

Saturday 17th October 2009

They are ALL asleep!!! grandpa, parents and kids.

Where did I leave you? I must enlarge on Akaroa; it was colonised by French people in mid 1800's, at a time when communication took so long that they were well established when someone told them "Sorry, its British" They must have said "Merde, quelle domage!" or something to that effect. Anyway the Frenchness has prevailed and it is really delightful, architecture, etc.

On our last day in South Island I had my eye on the clock, drop van off at noon, get to ferry terminal to check in by 1320 hrs, ferry leaves at 1415 hrs. to this end I kept onto John, press on, press on, but there was so much to see. We were in the Marlborough Sounds area, famed for its fine weather, aquamarine sea inlets, green mountains, orchards, tiny towns and villages, all so laid back, plenty of marinas, and of course it was a wow view every minute, the twisty roads providing a kalaedescope of visual splendour, it would have been easy to cancel the ferry and stay another week! We could easily be tempted to do a 6 month house swap, even tho you can only sail 2 hrs each side of high tide, which is what we got away from in UK! However we pressed on, we had to because we had picked up an Austrian hitchhiker who was hoping to get the 1315 hrs ferry. This was the first warning and I didn't heed it. I just thought hmm, plenty of ferries.

We dropped young Wolfgang off at the Picton ferry terminal and almost did a pub lunch but I was on edge, keen to get rid of van. Well! Lucky we did, because the van man said"2.15? that's odd" I had booked the ferry on i'net at Wayne's place and printed off the ticket so I checked it, and sure enough it said 2.15...................but from Wellington to Picton! AAARRRGGGHHH! Not much phases me these days but that did! PANIC...but the kindly van man said you'll make it, whizzed us to terminal where I confessed my blooper to the lady and she smiled and said we'll soon fux thet (honestly that's what she said, that's how they say it in Kiwiland). Next thing we were in the queue and boarding. Now I could lie and say it was my brilliant planning, but the huge grin on John's face was bound to give it all away. Since then I have regained some ground on personal behaviour issues (I won't go into details but it does involve alcohol) but I think I am still way behind. Had to ring Kathy and warn her of early arrival, which can really ruin your day with 2 small kids and a husband to collect from work, but she managed. Mucho chagrin.

We left Picton and its lovely fiords in calm blue water and sky, and as we approached windy Welly it got wilder and wilder and it reminded us of returning to West Wales after an outing or holiday eastwards; as you approach Port Talbot, the weather closes in and you know that that is it, put your socks and long trousers on.

Lovely reunion, kids in good form, not scared of us. Hawk too young to remember us but he pitched in with a will, got the hang of us. Hayden knows I worry about not having a bed to sleep in so he showed me to my room and wow!...4 large windows overlooking Island Bay, the shoreline about 15 metres away, lots of white horses out on the water, fishing boats bobbing on moorings, and in the distance the snowy peaks of South Island. Pretty specky. Nina the dog did her usual prancey dance and it was suddenly like we had never been apart for 9 months.

Since then we have revelled in the comforts of home and not having to drive anywhere. Its easy flat walking around here which is great for
k and kids, and the boys will play on the pebbly beach for hours; it reminds us of being kids, growing up on Sully beach 50+ years ago.

We have been keen to know what K and M will do next, when his contract expires in Feb 2010, and on Thursday he gave us the great news that he has been offered the job he wanted, with the building of the new Fiona Stanley Public Hospital in Perth, commencing late March 2010. So yippee they are coming home, now we don't feel so bad about leaving next Friday. They've got a very busy time ahead of them but it'll pass.

Mark's birthday on Monday, so a busy weekend, we went to Hayden's Kindy Gala today, seemed to spend a heap of money on little things but won 2 bottles of wine (a semillon blanc and a merlot, no less) and some chocs, so came out in front I think, plus BBQ tomorrow.

That's it, you're up to date and they are all still asleep.

Love
Po

friday 16 October

refreshed and recharged after a swim in the welly pool, Hayden and Hawk are like a couple of dolphins, wonderful to watch.
But back to Victoria...
noticed error in last post...the pianist referred to is David Helfgott..oops.
-had quick looks at Wilson's Promontory, Wonthaggi, discovered old port at Port Albert and took time to walk and explore. At this point we have regularly covered between 200 and 300 kms a day, so sometimes it is actually hard to find time for a decent walk. To this end, we even take opportunities to walk by collecting water from taps, taking rubbish to campsite bins, plus a nice stroll to the ablution block; its all exercise!
We reached Phillip Island and found a really beautiful camp site, owned and run by seasoned campers, so it had some really useful features, such as sensor lights around the grounds, which come on when they are needed and go off so you are not kept awake by bright lights, lots of hooks in the shower cubicles and beside the wash basins, (everyone has hangup washbags these days) a large enclosed campers kitchen with everything including washing up liquid, huge lounge area with sofas and a gigantic LCD tv, where, being on our own, we were able to watch ABC instead of commercial rubbish.
we had a drive around Ph.Island and due to inclement weather we decided to do an indoor thing so went to the chocolate factory.
i have never been to one before, and I have to say, it was a WHIZZ! Make your own choc bar in a fantastical machine, see the miniature village made of choc, the liquid choc fall, the 1 ton block of choc, besides being very informative about the production of same. And with lots of school kids, it was extra entertaining, as you can imagine.
Since being in NSW and Victoria we have really enjoyed the towns and villages being so comparatively close to each other, mostly 10 to 15 kms. Its true what they say about WA, its a long way between beers!
Also we have noticed the high density of cows and sheep per paddock, whereas in WA its a case of paddocks per animal! Here, the fences are serious, while in WA after a few kms out of Perth metro area, they hardly bother with them.
-The road trains in Queensland are maximum 75mtrs in length, whereas here they are just trucks.

John and I have been having a lot of fun scoring points off each other for doing silly age-related things, such as leaving the keys in the van door and going off walking, putting things away and then blaming each other for not putting them away properly, then finding them in a completely different place, leaving an empty kettle on the hob; not reading the map properly and taking wrong turns; too many to mention but John is way ahead at the moment because of a silly thing I did, but later...

Did I mention I hired a flute for the trip? I can play quite a few tunes now, Happy Birthday, Calon Lan, Gwyneth Gwyn, Rhagfyr, Mozart's clarinet concerto K622 3rd movement, opening 6 bars! But only in C major, i am struggling to apply fingers to keys for notes outside said scale. As usual, "could do better, needs more practice". Ah well..

We finally got to Melbourne and found Maureen's place quite easily, had a lovely reunion with her, talked until wee hours, caught up on gossip and families, it was terrific, haven't seen her since 1995. We had such fun (and a few traumas!)together in Manhattan all those years ago, and our lives are now completely different, but the bond is still strong. We even phoned a mutual friend in NY and had a good chat. M is a mental health social worker and loves her work, and makes time to pursue her love of art, photography and her growing family of nieces, nephews, and their kids, all the issue of her 4 brothers, who all live in the melbourne area.
M had to work so we had brunch in her local cafe where they all wanted to know about Rita and our trip, then caught train into city and explored Melb. on foot, had a tram ride, went to imax 3D cinema, museum, art gallery and Federation square, then met M for dinner in Carlton, the old Italian area, quite an experience and great food.
Melbourne is an old grey city and has a grey/brown river and a lot of grey sky...not for us.
When it came time to leave, with M promising to see us in WA in Feb, we set off a nearby suburb to visit Kathy's old flat mate Sarah and her husband Rob and their daughter Niamh. Niamh is 1/4 malaysian thru Sarah and is a pretty child, and it was her 2nd birthday, with family party, so we scored a hit there. We were made very welcome and given 3 offers to leave Rita in their drives while we went to NZ, but we had already made a motel booking, so had to decline. But we will stay with Sarah and Rob on our return.

Nice motel, lift to airport in morning, left Rita in respite, good flight, then sunny Christchurch, which I later learned is the Swing Capital of NZ, so there you go! Collected our van next morning and found we had been given an upgrade (frequent flyers with Pacific Horizon). Typical me, I almost declined it because in the van we booked I knew exactly where everything was and where to stow things, plus easy pull-out bed, plus a waist height fridge, which the upgrade didn't have. In the event, it was a nice van, but the fridge and bed were a pain and not enough storage, too many fancy bits of kitchen equipment. It was very easy to drive, which is so important on NZ roads, with all their bends, mountain slopes, steep drop-offs and so on. Somewhere in the past I have seen a speed limit sign which says 25kph on a tight bend. Underneath it said "you have been warned" and I now apply this principal to Tasmanian and NZ roads. NZ has so many 100kph speed limit signs which are a complete waste of taxpayers money, because they are immediately followed by 65, 55, 45, 35, etc.

In Christchurch we made time to do a tourist tram ride and walk in the lovely botanical Gardens, then hit the road for Akaroa, which is a tiny French town on the flooded crater of an ancient extinct volcan which forms the Banks Peninsular off Christchurch.
We had been there 5 years ago and were glad to see it again. Had a sail on the crater lake, out to the Heads, took photos of French influence, they still have French street names, speak French and have an annual French festival, which we had just missed! Beautiful sunny weather, so we spent 2 days there, especially as we found the Little River Hotel with its huge sign saying "motorhomes welcome' and discovered that we could camp free in their back garden, which was up a steep bank and commanding views over a lovely green river valley. They just hoped we would refresh ourselves within, which of course we did. Considering it costs between $25 and $35 per night in a CVPark, this is a great idea. they seemed to take a liking to us because the meals we were served were enormous; Johns steak egg and chips came with 3 eggs. We met lovely local people and had great chats about local issues, which is always interesting.

We managed to make contact with Wayne near Timaru, south pf Chch, a pal we had met 5 years ago while camping by a lake. He loves fishing and presented us with 2 trout for breakfast that time. Since then we have been email pals. We spent the night at their place; they have been converting a bach (a basic NZ fishing shack) into their permanent home and were apologetic about the ongoing work, but it was so interesting for us to see. They have children and grandies nearby, and Wayne also has a magnificent motorbike and does huge challenging things like, the Southern Cross race, in which you have to ride your bike to the N,S,E and W- ernmost points of NZ, and all within 3 days. Judith said he spent 11 hrs a day in the saddle and was still driving it after he got home and collapsed into bed. He also wore a set of $600 tyres out in that week! Some guy. We did enjoy their hospitality plus we had never actually met Judith. They are so generous , saying any family and friend of ours was welcome there.

We took there advice and did a diversion to Lake Tekapo where they have hot outdoor springs, partly natural so they say. i was determined that at max 2.5degC I wasn't taking my clothes of for anyone, but when we got there, well, it just had to be done, so in we went! 3 pool, 41, 39 and 36degC, all of them gorgeous with lakeside views and snow all around. Wot a larf. Spent several hours there.

From there it was a pleasant but rainy ride north and west. I was concerned about Arthurs Pass through the mountains, snow was forecast and sure enough it arrived. On the day we were due to go thru the Pass it had been closed during the night but was now open, and i can tell you, it was a really rare treat to go thru that magnificent Pass in fresh Spring snow, still snowing at times. I made a snowball and a snowman, we saw kids(still on hols from school) sliding down banks on anything they could find, bits of wood, plastic bags and so on. Wow, great fun. We stopped at a lookout and were amazed to have our first and completely unexpected sighting of the kea parrot, the only alpine parrot in the world, right at our feet. We swept on our way, amid snowy scenes, heater full blast and Johnny Coppin singing Winding Stair on the CD.

By this time we were needing to keep an eye on the kms and the date because I had booked us on the Tuesday 2.15 ferry from Picton.
We found a beaut lakeside campsite, Lake Brunner, near Inchbonnie, revisited the longest swingbridge in NZ/?the world, checked an historic coal mine site, pressed on and took 3 tries to find our next free camp; after 2 dead ends in private farm yards we took a lookout road and swept up to the top of Hope Saddle with 360deg views of snowy peaks, and just the one grassy site just big enough for us, plus no "no camping" signs. Sometimes we just laugh, it is so extraordinary the places you can find and spend the night for no cost. There was even a spotless public toilet. No CVPark can compare.
-Lots of quirky NZ arty things along the way; letterboxes, garden figures, a doll festivall, home made campervans, no end of it. Even a school bus stop is individualised. They are very good at it and must put real time and effort into it.

Our last night was again near a pub and in a streamside layby, very welcome after a day of steep u bends, drop offs, no barriers, melting snows. A local in the pub implored us to stay on his property with full use of shower, toilet, kitchen, etc, but we declined. John warned him that we were strangers and might just be serial axe murderers!

Hawk has woken up so I'll take a break!

Thursday 15 Oct 2009. Wellington, North Island, NZ

Here we are in the land of grandchildren, such fun, a bit trying at times. Need a mental shift in this house!

I left off in Parkes NSW, where we had visited the radiotelescope. The 3D movie was amazing, the space walk really made you feel you were doing it yourself. So the story goes, the NASA equipment had a failure which meant that photos could not be relayed to Earth. Parkes to the rescue!Suddenly this tiny place in Oz was cataputed into World news and fame.
In addition to all this excitement we also met and investigated a few interesting campervan/motorhomes in the car park. You never see 2 the same, and many of them have been built by their owners.
Sweeping panoramas, lots of birds, lots of "beware wombat" signs, but we only saw dead ones by roadside. Ahh. Passed a place called Dunedoo and it reminded us of the Perth suburb called Inaloo. What's in a name!

Next major stop was Canberra, so we drove via Grenfell (a pretty rural town in lovely countryside and former home of my good friend Sandy), where we free camped next to the Company Dam, built to service the railway steam engines. Had a look round the town and met someone who new Sandy. Then it was through Young (Cherry capital of OZ) and into Canberra area where we were somewhat perturbed by the brown colour of the atmosphere. We checked into a motel for some comfort in cold weather and a chance to give Rita another clean. Did we ever strike lucky! That night we had a huge storm with red dust, howling wind, pouring rain, thunder, lightening and even hail! I felt very guilty about poor Rita all alone in the car park, while we turned the tv up and poured more wine.

Canberra was a very pleasant surprise, lots to see and do, and as it was school hols, although it was busy, watching kids getting involved in things was very entertaining. We managed to fit in the new and old Parliament Houses, the Captain Cook Waterjet, National Gallery, the National Museum, the National War Memorial and Museum and the Science Museum, a very hands on place called Questacon, and where a very lifelike dinosaur swing his head right in my face and snarled his big sharp teeth at me - very scarey!
Each night we finished at the Canberra Sailing Club for a pleasant dinner, thanks to our reciprocal membership, and where we watched dragon boat training.
The art in the war memorial was far more emotive and interesting than the gallery, and the diorama models of various kinds of warfare were beautifully done and effective. We noticed Aus. soldiers in uniform showing Vietnamese soldiers around. How times change.
Lots of Cherry blossom trying to come out but too cold. The flower festival was on but too cold to enjoy.

Next stop was Cooma where we came across the info centre for the Snowy River
hydrosystem, about 25 years in the making, in the 1930s, it involves about 25 dams and the designer was knighted. I had a chance to try and cycle enough power to boil a kettle - at my speed it would never have boiled! It was exciting to be in the Snowy Mountains, a place I have long wanted to visit. Of course it is a huge area, and we only brushed with it. Maybe another time we will explore deeper

Our night stop was a free camp in a tiny village called Nimmitabel, next to the Country Club - we're getting the hang of this! The locals were intrigued to know why we were there and we explained how we like to spread our money out rather than spend it in obvious large centres. A few drinks, a nice meal and some local gossip, with a free camp site is all we ask, especially on a cold night, which it was there, bitter in fact, fleece, beanie, gloves, and that was in bed (only joking!)but we are snug enough in Rita.

Our drive was taking us through pretty high alpine country and a very steep descent from Snowy mountains to coast, where we discovered such glorious terrain that we decided to drive north to Bermagui, where they filmed "the man who sued God" and do a circuit back to Merimbula. On the way we found (at the end of a horrible 10km dirt road) a Nat. Park Gillards Beach, and camped next to a 34 year old marine ranger from E gippsland in Victoria, Mike,who had his 10 yr old nephew on their first ever camp together. What fun to be 10 and have such an uncle. They were surfies seeking waves. What we found near our camp was a 3 metre lace monitor, once of our larger lizards; I really though 'Komodo Dragon" when I saw it. I thought it was dead, it was so still, but Mike assured me it was very much alive and not to leave any food around. A few hours later it was gone...but where??? There were roos everywhere, of all sizes. We were also treated to our very first look at wild potoroos, small furry things that come out at night, running all over the place from dusk onwards, impossible to photograph, but very special. We had a great evening, shared a campfire, cooked snaggers (sausages), sang, did party tricks (yes, I had to sing Horace the Horse and John did Turkey Rhubarb and Daniel Taylor, not much changes!), played guitar and told yarns. It turned out to be a great place to stay and the 10 kms going out was not nearly so bad!
That was the night that Geelong won the grand final and poor St Kilda will have to wait another year to try again.

So on thru Cobanga, Quamma, Bega (of cheese fame), Potoroo Palace, home for injured wildlife, where we saw cockatoos, echidnas, dingoes, emus, pheasants, native geese, peacocks but no potoroos, but we were ok, we had seen wild ones.

Eden was a must for me, home of the famed WA pianist David, who suffered a huge nervous breakdown in his youth, from pressure of performance. He got back to playing in a Perth cafe, where he was rediscovered. His now wife helped him to recover sufficiently to play major concerts on the world stage. We have seen him perform several times, and he is challenging to watch as he is far from what we would call normal, but his performances are electrical. Eden itself was cold and damp, tho v pretty, but we discovered the lovely Seahorse Inn, like a small stately home near the beach, where you can camp in the grounds and dine with views to die for. Unfortunately there was a power cut that night and dinner was off, so we had to cook on our metho stove. No matter, it was another of those magic moment/places.Next day we visited Eden's Killer Whale Museum, very interesting. there was one old whale apparently who used to lead the sea catch into the bay for the fishermen.

We then drove from NSW in rain and wind to Orbost, now in Victoria. We booked into Snowy River CVP, visited a local pub with roaring fireplace and caught up on local gossip, yarns and history. Next day we were unable to get to Lakes Entrance where Snowy meets the sea, due to nasty road accident, but the diversion was pretty, through real emerald green fields, a real treat for a couple of sandgropers from WA; this depth of green is but a distant memory of Wales.

So we are now in Victoria on this blog. I'll take a break and continue later.

Weds 30 Sept 2009 Phillip Island, SE of Melbourne.

Well followers, so much for my weekly update, after 3 weeks! I'll update as much as I can in the time I have. John is having a lie down, almost finished him of I have, but we will be 3 days in melbourne with my old pal Maureen from Manhattan days, only 37 years ago. Then we fly to NZ to see Kathy and Co at last. The Samoan earthquake/ tsunami alert for NZ was cancelled this morning, thank goodness for they have recently moved beachside.

Last thing, we were in Queensland. We left Jim rather tearfully, and met Peter and Di in Mooloolaba for one night as we were going in opposite directions. Good gossip and nosh, walks on the beach, a swim or 2 and we were off again. The next campsite was at Somerset Dam where we were treated to a show of platypus, always a very rewarding thing in the wild.

Then a slight misreading of the map, plus not enough local information (something we have learned to respect greatly) found us toiling up the one and only steep approach to Toowoomba, on a dual carriageway, so no turning around and going down. We are ASHAMED to admit that Rita once again boiled...............but thanks to RACQ, we were able to get a lift on a tilt tray up the last 2kms of hill, where she cooled off, recovered and loyally soldiered on. What a girl!!! We nurse this baby along, our eyes repeatedly flicking to the temp guage, very much like our old boat "Mayflower" eh Rod?
Toowoomba is the garden city of OZ (they all claim to be something or other) but we were too early, cold weather, so we pressed on, feeling very chastened.

After much messing around looking at this and that we managed to sqeeze over the border into NSW, where we were immediately stunned by the Border Ranges Nat Park. World heritage Rainforest, bower birds, lyre birds, whip birds, fireflies, not to mention the stunning flora, trees etc. Stayed 2 days, too good to leave. We then wandered around some more, round 3 sides of the impressive extinct volcano Mt warning, via the delightful friendly town of Kyogle, hippie world in Nimbin (try googling it) , so like Myddfai and Randhirmwyn in mid Wales, to Byron Bay, the Easternmost point of our mainland. Well we just happened to hit it on the first day of school hols, it was huge disappointment, so we did a flit to Broken Heads, very nice and much quieter. By the way John managed to get an offer of pot in Nimbin, and we had only been there 10 mins! We had been warned. The countryside around Nimbin was described to us as similar to the Bermuda Triangle, you can just disappear! Anyway we did enjoy it their, such a groovy hippie atmosphere, flowing skirts and flower power.

Then we determined to strike hard into the hinterland and cover some k's southwards. We found the New England Highway, crossed the Continental Divide and found ourselves back in England! This merged into the Celtic Way where place names were Gwydir Highway, Glen innes and Llangothlen, (they can never pronounce it can they) Craigieburn, Hungerford (we found ourselves looking for Wantage!) to name but a few. Even found some Stonehenge style standing stones. We topped out at Ben Lomond 1410 metres.
Spent the night at Guyra which boasts the highest caravan park in Oz. (in case you are worrying about Rita, these climbs were gradual!)

Guyra gave us a treat - a free camp area right next to the Country Club, so we introduced ourselves and asked if we could watch the rugby union international between Aust and NZ - no worries. Well, the club filled up with masses of people and the game came on and we were right in the front row....and it turned out no-one else was watching!!! Spoils the atmosphere somewhat. Q'land and NSW are SERIOUSLY rugby league and have barely even heard of Aussie Rules football, let alone rugby union. And if that wasn't enough, when we went into the dining room, we became aware there were some strange people, and they all looked the same...it's only a small place...not a lot of outside interaction...say no more! But we did enjoy it in spite of an embarrassing loss. Our campsite was called "Mother of Ducks Lagoon", and an important food place for ye ancient aboriginals. We were camped by 2 Winnebagos, one called Alpine which was massive with slide out rooms, and the other was Nullarbor, which was more modest but still dwarfed us. Ah well, we are still having the same kind of fun, better really because we can get into more nooky places.

So it was back on the road to do long hauls to get through NSW, which is a large place and has a huge number of fab Nat Parks. So it was back to highway cricket, purple gloves and discussing other drivers' sex lives. Well, you have to pass the time and keep each other awake!

By this stage we were starting to wonder "when does it start to go down hill?"
Suddenly John's national guide to ABC Classic FM radio came into it's own - music-whoopee, Margaret Throsby, Julia Lester and all his other heroines.
We also wondered if we were actually going the wrong way round Oz because all the Visitor Information Centres are on the way out of towns and on the other side of the road? Too late now, we're not going back.
Then Gunnedah, which claims it is the Koala Capital of the world; there's always a claim.

You've seen the film The Dish? The Radio Telescope that just happened to be operational when the Apollo 11 thing happened. It suddenly became world famous. Well we were there man, so coooool. Parkes NSW, such a mass of information and a 3D film that virtually took you into space. Wow. Wow. Check your atlases.

Recounting this has exhausted me, we had no idea we would be exposed to so much, and 3 months is hardly enough time to take it all in. I'll stop now, even though we are near Melbourne, and will update when we get to Kathy's on Oct 14, if not before.

Love from Po and John
Did I mention I have decided to go Senior Blonde?

10 Sept 09, home comforts in Noosa

It's amazing how quickly you can revert to type, once you are back in a conventional home. We are eating more because it is easy to do, drinking less because it is less stressful, feet up in front of the telly, plus showering and wearing clean clothes every day. We won't want to hit the road again, and Jim is saying "stay as long as you like"!

Noosa is a very trendy expensive place, but a lovely place to live and visit. Pounding surf beaches, natioanal park on the doorstep, shops galore. We have had a great beach walk every day plus some swims in the fab town pool, where I might add that we happened to spot the gorgeous Pat Rafter of tennis fame. What a hunk! We took Jim on a river cruise on Monday, and then did a sunset cruise last night, just $10 each, amazing value, a great fun with a lively crowd on board, and a skipper from New York.

Meanwhile, the lovely Rita has been stripped bare and is currently having a major service. The news is good, she is apparently in excellent shape, probably better than us! She has had to have a new thermostat and one new tyre, funny how just one wore through to illegality yet the others are fine. The one that wore out was the rear passenger side, the same position as the 2 flat tyres that Barbara had in Smiffy. So tomorrow we will pack Rita up again and prepare to set off again. There is a small element of reluctance in us both, I must admit, but once we get going we'll be fine. We have 3 weeks to get to Melbourne for our flight to Christchurch, where we will spend a week in a motorhome(devils for punishment!) then catch the Interislander ferry to Wellington.

On our sunset cruise we were shown a small island owned by Richard Branson, which he is developing in a very subtle way as holiday accommodation for his employees. We heard some funny stories about how he has got round rules and regs and excessive charges. He is a character. Eg, he was denied permission to build 14 chalets, but got round is by building them with connecting walkways which rates them as 1 building.

Going back a bit, after we emerged from the Great Central Rd we met various people who had done the same trip and found that they had done it in a few days; what took them 7 hrs had taken us 2 days! But he had decided earlier on that we were not there just to race through, we were going to stop at every opportunity to savour what the journey had to offer.

When we crossed the NT/Qland border into a tiny town called Camooweal, we found it was Race Day, always a big country town event, but the actual racing had been cancelled due to poor condition of the race track. people come with their horses for 100's of miles for these events, so you can imagine the disappointment. So we were in the pub having the regulation lunchtime shandy and being urged to head down to the race track because they were determined to have races, even foot races, egg and spoon etc, so that people could still have fun and enjoy the champagne lunch. Everyone was dressed to the nines with hats and frocks and suits and ties, you would have thought it was Ascot. It was an experience just to sit and watch. In the event we discovered that it was umpteen miles down another dirt track and so we gave it a miss; aren't we terrible? But when you are 3 days unwashed and caked with sweat and dust, you don't feel quite up to par! I had started the trip with a cream hat, but had to buy a brown one in Alice.

We have basically lost touch with what day it is (you know what they say about seniors, they don't know what day it is?) and count the weeks by the intervals between cutting our toe-nails.

We did enjoy Winton. This town became important in 1999, yes that recently, when dinosaur remains were discovered. Not only that but the world's only record of a dinosaur stampede. The town has an excellent museum and display, and by this time we had become accustomed to the heat, had learned to slow down and stop regularly (several nice pubs) for refreshing cold drinks, so we were able to savour the place at ease. We bought John some truly awful shorts in the town Emporium'gentleman's outfitters, where the salesman was so charming, having worked in the shop for 60 years, since he was 14, that we just couldn't leave without buying said shorts.
He dorected us to a free campsite outside time near the river, assuring us we would not be disappointed. What we found was the absolutely roughest site you could imagine, more cobbled and corrugated than any road we had travelled, with gaps between the dried out mud cakes big enough to hide any lethal venomous snake or scorpion. However, we were tired, it was late and we accepted our fate. Within minutes, while walking up the river track, I came across 2 emus and a brolga. magic.

We took the Developmental Road to Townsville via Hughenden and Charters Towers. From this we learned, never ever take a developmental road, ever. Rough was not even in it, and it is marked as a sealed road!!! And it doesn't help that the road trains are 75 metres long out here. Ch Towers was a delightful surprise, elegant buildings in beautiful streets with a fascinating history of gold. A few miles further on we found the Bivouac Bush Camp, a small camp owned and run by a young couple with 3 small boys, with chooks, peacocks, bush turkeys and many other birds. Spent 2 days there. I saw my first green tree frog!!! I was just getting into the rustic shower and it hopped off the shower curtain. A lovely close-up look before it disappeared over the wall.

Scan to Magnetic Island; we had 4 lovely days walking, snorkelling and exploring. We spent the last day at Cockle Creek, no-one else there, place to ourselves, set up the camp for a great brunch and then went walking in the Mangroves looking for mud crabs. Have I mentioned that we are slow learners? After an hour or 2 of fossicking and having a lovely time we started to itch....we were being attacked by sandflies! We packed up and zoomed out of there in record time, realising why we had had the place to ourselves! John had an allergic reaction and came out in spots which looked like some dreaded pox and I just itched and scratchedfor Australia. It took us a week to calm down and we felt like lepers! After that we kept clear of mangroves and will continue to do so.

The other day we had boiled eggs for a treat and I found John using the hot water to shave. When you are bush camping you do get into this habit of saving and re-using everything!

After Mag Is. we stopped at a lovely bush site for the night, but within minutes John was hopping and slapping at his legs - yellow ants everywhere! We discovered that a nest had fallen from the tree above us and he walked walked right thru it! The trees are full of the nest and the ants are little bother until.... I also saw 2 more tree frogs; they are so lovely, but They give you a fright when they hide in the loo. How sad that a green tree frog prefers to live in a human loo.

Since we have been in Noosa we have realised that we haven't looked at the night sky once, not like Out There, where there is no roof or TV. We are looking forward to seeing shooting stars again.

I have had to be a bit more responsible with my suggestions of "I wonder what's up that track?" We nearly gave Rita a heart attack. We went up a v ery steep hill to a lookout and she boiled! It was so scarey, we thought we had finished her off. That was a day when John's sphincters had a severe workout. However she rested and recovered and we survive to tell the tale. Now I keep quiet and let John make the suggesions, then it's not my fault!

We worked our way down the coast avoiding towns like Mackay and Gladstone, but we did enjoy Bowen, apparently the venue of filming for the movie Australia. We spent a night on the headland at 1770, reliving Capt Cook's voyage and grounding on the Gt Barrier Reef of that date. It's just a little tourist beach town 50kms off the Bruce Highway, and it has mangroves, so we took care.

The Bruce Highway would have to be a national embarrassment, a dreadful road on which people overtake on double white lines and blind bends, without a care. We will head inland in due course.

Some sad news, we have heard that our Keppell Mews neighbour Peter Stent is in hospital with a brain tumour. He is due for surgery on Friday, tomorrow, and the nature of the tumour is not yet known. We are keeping in touch with mutual friends re his progress. His daughter Sarah and her husband Ben have just had their first baby, a girl named Tessa. Hard times for them all, and such a very special family.

The weather here is lovely, fine and warm, cool at night, and soon we will get a chance to get the long pants and fleeces out as we head south for Canberra.

Till next time, love from us to you, please remember to register as a follower, it helps to know to whom I am talking. xxx

Sunday end of August, still on Magnetic Island

Here I am again. had to have another look on the blog once Huw had explained about comments being posted...der... So thanks for your feedback and your titbits of news, Palmer move to Devon, dinner, Jak and Ed's wedding news, sorry I'm not up to posting pics yet but will work on it.

I am aware that I could have included a bit more info about the early part of our trip, but as there was no e-access out there I had to keep it brief.

1st night Great Central Rd (GCR) at the Pines, a lovely bush camp, time to swot up a bit on what we could expect to see, and to find out what we had already missed! IE geocaches - these are hidden boxes containing small tokens; the idea is that you improve GPS skills by playing this game. The GPS coordinates can be downloaded, or like us, you forget and have to pay $30 at the visitor centre. You then hunt the caches, and when you find them you can exchange tokens in the boxes and record your find in the log in the box. Some we found, some we didn't, but it was amusing, gave a sense of achievement and improved the GPS skills.
This was when we discovered we had already missed 3 of the 25 sites!

We moved on to Camp paradise the next day; Aussies love to name things opposite to what they are, eg Niagara Dam, Henley-on-Todd. You can imagine the rest...

Camel tracks everywhere, also bungarra tracks (very large goannas, 2nd only to Komodo dragons) , but we didn't see even 1, tho we have seen them on other trips.
We moved the clocks forward as we neared the NT border, to give outselves more evening light.
Gnamma holes are water holes in granite, very important, and travellers are asked to keep them clean and sand free. we found several but couldn't find any with the tripod frames called patjarr spiders, which prevent animals from falling in.

Took a side trip of 30kms each way to a noted waterhole. for a swim??? Just more dust, rocks and hardship, but suddenly you get a sense of overwhelming isolation and realise how far you have come and how you must rely on your own skills and planning. Its quite humblimg. Also there may not be much water, but there are birds everywhere, zebra finches, honey eaters, raptors, so there must be water and life.

Giles met.station was a great treat. For years we have seen it on the tv weather reports and wondered where on earth is that? We were well entertained by the afternoon tour and watched the launch of the hydrogen ballon. Hydrogen is made on site, all sorts of risks and restrictions.

After this we crossed into NT and bought fuel at the only Aboriginal community we had been allowed into. Most roadhouses are on the outskirts of the communities and you cannot enter. This place was sad-looking, so much litter, about 30 dogs loose outside the shop, everything caged to prevent theft, but some amazing art work on display and available for purchase, so we did the decent thing, met the artist and got it signed. The fuel man has lived there all his life, has a good job and wouldn't live anywhere else.

We moved from the Gibson desert to the Gt Sandy Desert at this point and red sand dunes became evident, and as we neared Yulara and Uluru we started to feel anxious about merging once again with society, it can be quite daunting, usually because it means making decisions and spending money!

We are off walking and snorkelling again today, back to the mainland tomorrow and heading for Airlie Beach and possibly the Whitsunday Islands for a sail. Had to buy new shorts and T's because the red dirt had ruined what we had.

peter and Di as further south, but we are in text with them, and Barbara is now home in Shoal;water at 16degC!
Till next weekkk cheers from the tin can on wheels (oops sorry Rita, didn't mean to hurt your feelings)

29 August, Magnetic Island, off Townsville, Qland

Since my last post we have been mostly on bitumen. We spent 2 days out of Alice in the MacDonnell Ranges (lovely) and had to access a few gorges via dirt;I went into instant decline as everything rattled and shook again! I admire Peter and Di for pressing on with the dirt. They are the ones who will be able to say they did it all. John said he had reached the stage where he was needing red wine by 0900 hrs! Just as we reached Alice we discovered that one of the 2 bolts holding the 2nd spare wheel on the front roo bar had sheared through, shortly to be followed by the other one at Mt Isa. We had spares, but it humbling when these things happen and you think of the risks...

Rain! At our last bush camp before Alice we camped on a flood plain, evidence of cattle and camels, plenty of shade and open space, Major Mitchell cockatoos, etc. We joked about what we would do if it rained in the night....At 0300 hrs we were all awakened by loud large raindrops on our roofs and we all leapt out of bed. Peter was all for driving out immediately, but to where? it is just more dirt. I was all for kicking back, wait for it to pass, dry and and then continue, having enjoyed a day or 2 of R and R. The others were somewhere in between. In the event, it came to nothing and we all went back to bed. Next day we heard that there had been 7 mms at Giles Weather Station, right in the middle of Oz ( and put there because of the Cold War) and where we had been only a few days before.

We spent 2 nights in the MacDonnells, somewhere I have long wanted to visit, and saw Alice for the modern city that it is. We managed to avoid several Aussie iconic events by leaving town on Weds - the Variety Club Bash (fund-raising) 200 vehicles were due in town in time for a John Williamson (folk singer songwriter) and new chum Leo Sayer concert on the Friday and then the legendary Henley-on-Todd dry river Regatta (only one in the world) on Saturday. We can't stand crowds. However we can say we saw the preparations and enjoyed several beers in the wonderful Bojangles Saloon. Also we had hit the heatwave, a record-breaking 36degC, in winter mind you. It's hard enough walking in a dry river bed, let alone run in it, and in a heat wave.
We spent our last evening having a bbq at the lovely Telegraph Station Reserve, a slice of history, the reason for Alice's very existence - a telegraph line between Adelaide, Darwin and the rest of the world. Our guide was an Aboriginal man who had grown up there when the station had reverted to a children's home; he was fascinating and loved his job.

We left town heading north for Tennant Creek, then East for Mount Isa, a renowned copper and lead/silver mining town. We side tracked to GemTree to see if we could be tempted by the Plenty Highway shortcut (600 kms of bad dirt) but peoples warnings convinced us it was not worth it.

Northern Territory has "fasten seat belt " signs as you leave every single town or car park or layby, amazing. 50% of roads deaths are related to no seat belts. The drivers are something else on that Stuart Highway! Also we believe firmly that the kilometers are longer in NT. We had to swap drivers every hour on this particular long leg of the trip, to reduce boredom and get some exercise, 10 times round the van.

We arrived in Mt Isa in time for Sat. night at the rugby league club, to see the rugby union international between Oz and NZ. The club looked after us very well, but we still lost. What with the cricket as well...not good.

We keep meeting the same people as we travel, many French people, families too, all having a great experience. It all gets quite pally. We find ourselves camped today next door to our neighbours from Mt Isa. Our other neighbours are from WA and also did the Outback Way, but in a matter of days, not 3 weeks like us!

One of the good things about being back on bitumen is that there are more chances to wash your hands. One gets very entertained at the mingled smells of wood ash, smoke, various foods and toiletries all on one pair of hands.

We have had some great walks, Uluru, Olgas, Kings Canyon, etc and the process for getting ready for these walks is something else. Thick sock, hiking boots, backpack with valuables (camera, GPS, binoculars, 2 way radio, can't leave them in the car) 1st aid, snake bite pack, several litres of water per person, hat sunnies, sunscreen, long sleeved shirt, long pants (spinifex and snakes), gaiters, then have a lie down to recover from all of that before setting off.

I have mentioned that we haven't seen as much wildlife as we expexted. The benefit of this is no road kill! Its always sad to see dead roos, and the huge wedgetailed eagles come to eat them and are then at risk of road death.

There have been many dingoes, and we have learned to keep our shoes in the van at night because they will run off with them if they can. (Not that they fit them mind you!). We had some caravan parks which were so wild and spread out that you needed a compass to get back from the loo at night.

Rita's aircon gave up before Alice and we have had to learn to manage with wet flannels and spray water bottle. It was ok but glad I don;t have to do it again. No point fixing it now as we would pay top dollar, risk being ripped off and anyway, it is getting cooler.

We have 3 buckets, red, yellow and blue, which we use respectively for sink drainage, rubbish and fire tools. I decided we needed another for handwashing water, but it had to be identical in order to fit neatly beneath the bed. Imagine my joy when one night in a bush camp on the way to Mt Isa I found an identical green bucket discarded just for me. Johm said "you don't know where it's been" but we have it anyway. Rule...the fossicker is always rewarded.

The road from Alice to Charters Towers was so long and boring we decided we had used all our existing tricks, such as highway cricket (score runs for how many fingers people wave at you) and needed a new one. So we each put on a purple washing up glove and waved our respective gloved hands out of the windows to oncoming travellers. These waves are usually cheerfully returned but....this time we went too far! We can only think that people thought "watch out for those sandgropers with WA rego plates, they are a worry!"

We had 3 rough bush camp nights in Qland, they don't want you to do it, once in amazing cobbled river bed, worse than any dirt road, then between a railway and highway. 8 trains came through while we were in bed and it seemed like they were coming thru the van! And then there was the night by the truck fuel stop. they never stopped refuelling all night.

We arrived in Townsville after 4 weeks exactly, enjoyed the lovely Strand promenade, are now on Magnetic Island for 3 days and feel we have died and gone to heaven; 28degC, balmy breezes, warm sea water, snorkelling, relaxing, wildlife everywhere, possums, parrots, wallabies, goannas and so on. Bryony knows what I mean

Time to call another halt. Please remember to register , it helps me

we are going separate ways today, we are going north on tarmac, Barbara is going south for home, P and D are going east Boulia.

About to Leave Alice Tuesday 19th I think.

Some more random thoughts since last post....

Please register as a follower, it would be nice to know if this is all worth while!
-Alice has been a welcome stop to clean out the dust, wash the bedding and re-pack the van with things in a more orderly fashion.
-John has been playing his guitar a fairbit which is great, I need to apply myself to the flute I rented for the trip. I managed to play happy birthday for Barbara and Adam's birthdays.
-We discoveredthat most of the dust was coming in through the back door, so have been taping it up when on dirt roads. This involves 2 permanent strips on either side of the gap, to avoid risking ripping off the paintwork every time we want to open the backdoor. The gap is then sealed with 1 strip over the 2 permanent ones. This actually a dressing technique to avoid skin trauma in chronic wound care.
-We have seen many signs on the way, related to aboriginal communities, saying, no entry without permit, no grog, no drunks, no drugs and no pornography. These signs are usually painted onto car bonnets salvaged from the many car wrecks out here.
-there is always something in flower out here in the desert.
-John says the rough roads re like beating to windward in a short sea - uncomfortable.
-our outback highway book has been useful in following the varios bio regions, as we pass from one desrt to the next (desert - evaporation exceeds rainfall).
-the road was so bad from Docker River to Yulara, if I had been travelling east I would have turned back!
-we are sleeping head to toe, with earplugs and anti snore nose plasters!...and find we are sleeping better and distubing each other less.
-had trouble with the cd player till found that it had a fly in ...our first fly!
-our vans have names, we are Rita, Barbara is in Smiffy and Peter and Di are in ...not big enough!
-breaking camp routine - windows closed, cupboard buttons clisked closed, clothing bags down on bed before they are jostled down, top shelf tied to keep heavy things secure, tea-making things in the sink, water bottles full, fruit bag to hand, maps to the ready, GPS battery full, 2 way radios ditto, wet cloth in door pocket because your hands are dirty constantly, back door taped, and so on.ww
-I

Thoughts on the road from Laverton to Uluru

13 August 2009 here follows a random list of our experiences and education as we have proceeded along 1094 kms of variable road;
most important - safe, comfortable feet; that red dirt is awful for getting in any cracks and creases. Also the dust doesn't just swirl behind the van, it swirls inside too, and our first job when we set up camp is the damp dust! I haveen't done so much dusting since nursing training.
-we are still adjusting to one of the great joys of camping - moving 3 things to find what you want, like when we lived in our unit for 10 months! As the journey proceeded, it was a case of dusting dirt off 3 things...
-our usual trick of commencing the "what we forgot" list - we didn't forget anything, and actually have too much.
-the fire grill we found on a trip last year, discarded at a camp site, has done daily service; it is the back of an old fridge, bent over at the ends to give it legs; it is fully adjustable, in the you can turn over and have no legs, if required. A classy bit of equipment!
-My Tai Chi tour progresses, with Grasp birds tail at lasseters Cave, stork cools wings at the old camel corral, dan yus and tor yus wherever I can fit them in, and so on, all captured on film for the Tai Chi newsletter.
-people who travel too fast shower us with gravel chips and our windscreen bears the scars.
-we have had to learn to balance the needs of individuals against the needs of the group or majority. We are the weak links, we are slow with everything, but hey, we are on holiday and its not a race!
-the trick of having cold white wine when the fridge is small and must carry much - decant 600 mls into a cool drink bottle each morning; a most important task! Also, if you take a drink out, you must replace it immediately, too keep the precious stocks up.
-the weather has warmed as we have headed north and east, and now in Uluru it is 34C, but the campground pool is very very cold.
-the feature of wrecked cars along the way is to be seen to be believed.
-our speed range has been between 10 and 70 kph, very glad of new shockies
-you just have to get used to sweaty heat jammed under a hat, until the next shower opportuniy, usually every 4 days.
-John likes to refer to sphincter-clenching moments, usually related to corrugations!
-we spent $104 on a fly proof tent for dining; light attract moths and flies into your dinner, but there have been no flies, mozzies or moths!!!!!
-who would believe that a mouse lives in the safe confines of a spiky spinifex bush?
-we have a new respect for mulga scrub - an ugly name but a plant vital to Aboriginals, it has so many many uses.
-there have been no cattle grids to break the monotony of the sandy desert highway. Usually the become quite a talking point and we have missed them!
-techno chaos - what with leads for 2 way radio, GPS, camera battery, mobile phone, electric toothbrush, John's razor, and so on, it is a daily challenge to keep things up to speed, especially as the road conditions slowed us down.
-when we clean up, the used water is the colour and consistency of tomato soup.
-as much as possible, equipment must have more than one use, ie, the tool box is also a step into the van and also a coffee table when we have visitors, even a spare seat.
-we have just done some walks at the Olgas and Uluru; I have no intention of climbing Uluru - the Aboriginals ask us very nicely not to do so, and I am happy with that. Its also very steep!!!
-wildlife - lots of birds, main treat was 2 major mitchell cockatoos at our last bush camp; several rabbits, 2 roos, 1 emu, 4 lots of wild camels and that's it. Rather disappointing!
-the recent big decision is to miss the next section of dirt outback highway; the road condition is so bad that cars are disintegrating. We will go via tar from Alice. Bye for now!

August 5. Laverton and beyond.
First 5 days have been fantastic, bush camp every night with log fires and great company, COULD GO HOME NOW AND SAY WE HAD HAD A BALL!.
31 July - Mt Observation just outside York, then karalee Dam, just past Southern Cross. Its an old watering site for steam trains going to the goldfields in late 1800's. Barbara John and I tried to have a swim in the dam but it was too cold, so it was a splash wash. Its a fascinating walk roundthe huge granite rock where they captured the rainfall and channelled thru a huge flume in to the dam.
1 Aug - Then we went on our first dirt road to Snake Hill, overlooking Lake Ballard and the sculptures which were erected in the huge dry salt lake bed in 2003, as part of the Perth Arts Festival. We arrived at sunset, cooked, drank and yarned, then woke at sunrise, total silence except for birdsong, magic.
2 Aug - Next it was onto Menzies for a shower and beer in the old pub, then to Niagara Dam, another old town site related to the early mining days; bush walks and birdlife, log fire and then the singing started! Next day more dirt road to Kookynie where at 1000 hrs we had our first beer in the Grand Hotel, well we had to!
3 Aug - Next it was back on the bitumen, much to John's great joy, to Gwalia townsite, a mining town of tin and hessian shacks which was suddenly emptied in 1963 when the mine closed at short notice. The conditions in which they lived were absolutely basic, and it is all preserved for the traveller to explore. We fuelled and watered up and set of for the next campsite.
4 Aug - Old Railway Bridges, a bit more goldfield history, lovely low arches built across a large floodway. Lots of birdlife, Barbara was in her element. It was her wake that night, she turns 60 tomorrow. More drinking and singing round the log fire and B declared she was stunned that it had to be 2 poms to bring her out to these outback places, when she been an Aussie all her life! Not that she doesn't get around the world! Anyway, we are Taffs, not Poms.
We have mastered the art of cooking everything in foil on our fires and have yet to scrub a pot, after all, water is more precious than gold out here.
5 Aug - Happy Birthday Barbara. Saw a large herd of camels, they were huge! a first for us. Into Laverton today for quick shower, laundry, pick up permit to pass thru Aboriginal territory and then we step off this arvo into THE GREAT BEYOND. There is a film show in the Vis. Centre, we could watch it and then go home!
Till next time
P

28 July 2009

From Pauline

The next weekly post, only 14 days after the first one! Hmm. We are almost ready to go. The preparation has involved pruning the garden, several farewell soires, writing of instructions for house-minders, purchase of an EPIRB (we need it for the boat anyway), plus 2 way radios, with instructions in faux English, so that we can keep in touch through the clouds of red dust on the back roads, a fly proof instant tent for fly and moth free meals, (winter nights begin at 6pm and if you put up a light those critters come from everywhere and dive-bomb your tucker), purchase of a nice pair of binoculars for ME with my farewell voucher from work mates, a new cast iron camp pot because I left the last one out in the rain for 2 winters and it is 100% rust, and so on.

We spent a few hours with our unit tenant last weekend and noticed her son had a bad cough. Now we hear that he has swine flu....I have to go there tomorrow to plant a red cap gum tree in the back yard....remember to hold breath and keep it brief.

Must remember to take passports and soft gear bags (no room for suitacases in Rita) as we will side trip to NZ to hug the Boisverts. I have been told off for packing too many CDs, no names mentioned.

We have just learned that when we pass through Aboriginal communities we are not allowed to carry grog, so what was supposed to be a week or so of "having a good look round" is now going to be a DASH! Should do the 1700 kms to Alice in 2 or 3 days!

I've got my flute and so far can play a scale, not sure which one because my piano is so out of tune! John has his guitar and has been working laboriously on Hey Jude.

Our travelling partners are Barbara Manson, sailor, and Peter and Diane McDermott, sailors, whose fence blew down in a storm last week, so our departure is delayed till Friday 30th.

More later

Dilleys On The Road

14 July 2009

Our beloved campervan Rita, also known intimately by Huw and Brooke, Kathy and Mark, and Stuart and Julia, has been overhauled, re-hosed, polished, fitted with new 2nd spare wheel, and is so excited that she is suffering tachycardia at the thought of her impending trip. We fortunates have been allowed to go with her.

Rita is a Japanese imported Toyota Hiace campervan, automatic diesel with electric eat your heart out windows, purchased from our very special friend Rita F (hence the name) 3 years ago. It was only because she was so special that Pauline relinquished her Toyota corolla sedan of 10 years. Rita F did a wonderful job of fitting her out and making a really comfortable travelling home, albeit without shower and toilet, but where we go it doesn't matter.

To date Rita has taken us to the Pilbara several times (WA North West iron ore country) has taken us acros the legendary Yardie Creek 4 times, one of those times through sea water, through the goldfields of WA, across the Nullarbor Plain to Victoria and Tasmania (and back) and has helped us to push our fear boundaries further and further back into the bush.

Now its time for a bigger adventure..from Shoalwater to Kalgoorlie to Laverton, where we must register with the Police and obtain a permit to enter Aboriginal territory before we launch ourselves onto the Great Central Road, a major unsealed road more popularly known as Australia's Longest Shortcut, to Cairns, way up on the East coast of Queensland, via Alice Springs and Winton, where dinosaur remains have just been discovered.

Our travelling companions are Peter and Diane McDermott (our sailing partners of many years) in their Toyota Commuter campervan, and Barbara Manson, (a fellow sailor of West Australian Multihull Association days) in her Toyota Troopie. The plan is to reach Cairns, head south, hire a catamaran and sail the Whitsundays, continue south, exploring everything along the way, hop to NZ in October for Mark's birthday and squeeze the grandkids, and head home for November.

We obtain access to retirement fund on the 15th, I retire on July 17th, Peter retires on July 24th and we all leave on the 29th. But first the house and garden has to be made ready for a 3 month absence.