10th - 16th November

Monday 10th

My birthday - yay!! I decided to give myself the day off today and had a lovely day, went down the beach, etc, etc.

We all went out to SSS BBQ barns for dinner and had a lovely time, followed by a couple of games of 500. Mum and I were partners and we lost both games and I didn't think that was fair seeing I was the birthday girl, so I made everyone play a hand when I had the joker and we won!! (well, it was MY birthday!!) I also was given a pack of 3 Guilyan chocolates from SSS and I ate them ALL BY MYSELF - my birthday - my chocolates!!

3rd - 9th November

Monday 3rd

We had a HUGE storm last night, heaps of thunder, lightning and rain and Boris decided the best place to be during that was sitting on my head!! Its 10 am and he still hasn’t emerged. Its still overcast and raining on and off today.

Thursday 6th

Well, we've had a great week, the weather cleared up by Monday afternoon, but we decided this morning that we will head back and try and get this caravan fixed up as it's getting worse every day.

We had a lovely time here and have made some great friends: John and Judy from Tassie, John from Tamworth, old Clyde and Iain, Pam and od course Gus from Hervey Bay.

We packed up and headed off to Kempsey to Ross' parents through Dorrigo - what a lovely place that is!! The Dorrigo mountain was a bit hairy but we made it eventually and arrived in time for tea.

Saturday 8th

We arrived home in Port Macquarie and spent the afternoon unpacking the van so we could start fixing it. Dad and Ross are going to have that lovely task!

27th October - 2nd November

Monday 27th

It was fantastic this morning. I was sitting out the front of the caravan doing my computer work when a whole flock? of pelicans decided to swim up and down in front of our campsite on the river we were camping on for a couple of hours – it was amazing – never seen anything like it – there were so many of them – what a spectacle!!

We packed up and headed into Goodiwindi for free hot showers at the water park. We did some shopping, etc, then headed towards Moree – mum told us about the artesian baths there so we reckon we might go and check them out.

We found a great spot to camp about 8 kms north of Moree, as we came over a bridge there was a very uninspiring looking rest stop, (turn off at GPS: 29 24 42.0S 149 55 11.1E) but when we looked further, there were tracks leading down to the river (Gwydir I think), so we pulled up there for the night.

Tuesday 28th

We headed for Moree to try out the Artesian Baths - they were fantastic!! It costs $6 each to get in or you can pay $9.50 each to be able to go in and out as much as you want all day. We ended up only going in the once as poor old Boris was waiting for us in the car. There are 2 "spa baths", which are really just little pools with the water being pumped straight from the artesian bore - the water is crystal clear with a slight sulphur odor and the 2 different pools have temperatures of 38 degrees + and 40 degrees + - it was like having a giant bath. I guess the spa part of it is where they jet the water into the pools and you can stand in front of it and get a massage. The funniest thing we thought was that it was full of old people going after the healing qualities of the water (apparently you can even drink it), and then they all sat out in the sun and baked themselves!! You can only stay in for about 10 minutes before you start falling asleep, then you get out and jump in the cold water pool and start all over again!

We then headed for Warialda and stayed at Cranky Rock (funny name eh?). It's kinda like a gorge I guess and there is a caravan park attached to it. I wouldn't pay to stay here again, but I would come for a day visit. The price is too much for what you get ($18 unpowered/$20 powered), which is what you pay in other caravan parks and you get hot showers, laundry, etc, which you don't get here. We also didn't swim (Boris did), because the water looked decidedly green (I'm sure it would be great to swim in when there was more water in the rivers). It is a fascinating place though and the rock formations are awesome.

Wednesday 29th

We packed up and headed to Bingara - a great little town with an excellent information centre. The lady at the information centre told us we can free camp anywhere along the river (heading north out of Bingara, take first right after first small bridge) go along the highway and there are heaps of spots you can free camp there and it's a great place to camp. We found a campsite with a bunch of other campers and settled there. We all had happy hour at 4:30.

Boris was particularly pleased with our campsite as it is the closest we have been to the water so far and we can throw his ball in the water (we found a spare ball) while we are sitting under the awning.

Thursday 30th

We went for a great big walk this morning with John from Tamworth, one of our neighbours, up the side of a mountain!! We took the hand-held GPS with us and according to it we went up 160 m. It was a big walk but a fantastic view when we got to the top!! Boris had a wonderful time of course but there a heaps of nasty thistles here (Lion Pear? Bit like prickly pear but nastier) and poor old Boris had them all through his feet and even his mouth yesterday after our walk, so he had to endure us pulling them out - he was very good about it.

I made lemonade scones and shared them for afternoon tea when we had happy hour. Haven’t caught any fish here, but there isn’t a lot of water in the river (still swimmable). We will probably be here for a couple more days then head off to the least bumpy road home (caravan is falling apart around our ears!).

Ross went for a walk when it got dark to see if he could find any carp by shining the torch in the water and guess what?! He found them, he even grabbed one because they were all sleepy. We headed back to the caravan to grab the spear gun, but by the time we got back they had all woken up and taken off – onya Ross!! We might have another go tomorrow night.

Friday 31st

We went for another walk, this time along the river, according to the GPS we walked a total of 5.6km today - not bad! We found some excellent camping spots along the river, there are so many places you could camp along here, but we still reckon we have the best spot where we are because the river is much deeper here.

Had some more neighbours turn up today, Pam and Ian from Hervey Bay, they also have a miniature Schnauser with them named Gus. Gus and Boris seem to get on okay, so we will see how we go. For those of you who don't know Boris, he isn't the most sociable of dogs, but he is normally pretty good with little dogs. We reckon he never got socialised as a pup and really doesn't know how to play!

Saturday 1st

John went into town this morning so we didn't go for our usual walk. It was quite overcast and we had the occasional shower today. We ended taking the tinny up the river to see what we could see. It was a great little trip and we found some deep holes, so we are going to take it out again this arvo to see if we can catch any fish.

We toddled off in the tinny after lunch with Boris in his usual spot on the prow. Once we reached our fishing spot it didn't take Boris long to get bored and he spotted something interesting on the shore so he jumped out of the boat and was off. After about half an hour or so he got bored and wanted to come back in the boat, so he swam back out. Of course there is no way for him to get back in the boat other than one of us dragging him back in, which we did. Next thing he is shaking to get all the water out of his coat - all over us -we were saturated! Then of course he proceeded to walk all over the tackle box and spill tackle everywhere, not to mention jumping out of the boat again and getting tangled in the fishing line and we had to go through the whole process of pulling him in again and enduring getting saturated while he shook his coat out!!

Once we got back we all went in for a swim, and Gus and Boris played on the shore - that's right - Boris was actually playing like a normal dog - couldn't believe it!!

After awhile Boris decided to come in for a swim with us but didn't have his ball with him so he got bored (doesn't take him long). We all wear our "Crocs" in the water, which float, and I was blissfully floating about with my feet up in the air when Boris (with a little encouragement from Ross) decided that my Crocs looked enough like his ball that he might have a go at them! Unfortunately my foot was still firmly entrenched in the shoe when he grabbed it and started pulling away! It was so funny, I was laughing so hard I nearly drowned and Boris was so determined not to let go of my shoe that he nearly drowned too!! I couldn't get my foot out of my shoe as Boris had such a firm grip on it and I had to get Ross to grab him and wrestle my shoe out of his mouth before we both drowned - it was hilarious!


Sunday 2nd

We went for a walk this morning the other way up the river. There was John, Ross, myself, Boris, Pam, Ian and Gus. It was a lovely walk but poor old Gus has tender feet and kept picking up prickles and had to be carried parts of the way. All in all we had a lovely walk though it was getting pretty hot by the time we got home. It's still a bit overcast and we aren't getting much solar power at the moment.

I made my first cake in the camp oven - turned out pretty good though it was a bit burned on the bottom - will get it right next time!!

20th - 26th October

Tuesday 21st

We had a lovely few days in Brisbane. We stayed at Lee and Gary’s place and caught up with family and friends and picked up Boris!!

We have missed the cheeky boy, so it will be good to have him with us again – we will see how we go for camping, etc with him along. We know we won’t be able to get into National Parks, etc, but that’s ok – we will have to be more creative in finding places to go and things to see.

We left Lee and Gary’s after lunch as we were waiting on the mail for a new credit card that didn’t turn up, so they will have to forward it onto us.

We headed for Warwick and then got partway to Stanthorpe to Dalveen and stayed at Jim Mitchell Park there – a lovely little park off the highway so it wasn’t too loud with traffic. It was a very popular spot and there were a lot of people staying there overnight.

Wednesday 22nd

We had a lovely leisurely morning and went for a stroll and found an old mill that had been abandoned. All the workings were still there as well as an awful lot of timber just laying around going to waste. We picked up a couple of pieces to use as firewood.

We then moved on to Stanthorpe for a look-see, went up to the lookout at Mount Marlay – Stanthorpe is quite a big town when you look at it from up there.

We then headed for Texas – we have no idea where we are going to setup camp tonight – guess we will check out Texas and make a decision when we get there.

Half way to Texas a great big huntsman spider decided to crawl out of the window section of my door and proceeded to crawl along the inside of the door into the handle. Unfortunately there was nowhere to pull up at the time so I had to sit tight until Ross could find a spot – AAAGGGHHH!! I was very proud of myself though and didn’t try sitting in Ross’ lap or crawl into the back with Boris – I just sat tight and waited (and prayed a lot).

We got to Texas and had a bit of a look around - nice little place we thought - though VERY windy. You can have free hot showers in town and the locals are very friendly and helpful. We asked the locals and they told us its not usually this windy and told us about a local free camping spot on a river in a fishing reserve so we thought we aught to check it out. We had pretty vague directions but managed to find it. You have to go through a gate to get here, but it is a nice spot with only one other caravan parked here. (Turn off from Texas-Yelarbon Road at GPS coordinates 28 49 59.4S 151 05 42.2E - tiny sign saying "Gibralta Reserve"). There are no facilities at all, but we reckon we might stay a day or two to see what the fishing is like.

Boris had a wonderful swim, followed by a lovely roll in cow manure, followed by a very thorough bath in the river! He has no interest whatsoever in cows (nobody told him he is a cattle dog), but he absolutely adores fresh cow poo!! We have to keep him tied up now to make sure he doesnt sneak off again!

Thursday 23rd

It was absolutely bloody freezing this morning!! It stayed pretty cold all morning and then the wind came out in the afternoon - VERY windy, making things very unpleasant.

We got the boat out in the morning and went for a putter up the river, although it was very shallow and we didn't get far. The other guy who was staying there is an old hand at fishing and he told us the fish were off the bite because of the cold snap. Even though is wasn't a bad place, we thought we would move on and see if we could find something better.

Friday 24th

We went back into Texas to fill up with water and have another shower, chatted to some fellow travellers who had similar intentions, did some shopping then headed out to see what we could find.

When we reached Yelarbon we took the Border River Tourist drive as a particular map we had told us there were a lot of free camps on rivers along there. There were heaps of nice places and we would have loved to stay at some of them but there was no phone reception so we kept going towards Goondoowindi until we found a nice campsite near a river and decided we might just stay here a few days. We threw out the fishing lines but didn't even get a bite. We were getting a bid bored but we wanted to keep fishing so we took Ross' laptop down to the riverside where we were fishing and watched an episode of Psych while we were fishing (still didn't get a bite). We did put yabbie nets out though and got a heap of red claw before we retired to bed. We also caught a heap of shrimp that we might try as bait tomorrow. We had a go at casting the throw net again and caught a bunch of bait fish too.

Boris reckons its a great spot because we can throw his ball into the river from the caravan site so he can give us the ball any time he wants to go for a swim. Unfortunately we left him unsupervised with his ball and he destroyed it and we don't think we have another one with us - hmm - could be a problem!!

Saturday 25th

We had a very leisurely day today - we didn't do much at all!! Hard life. We went for a paddle in the afternoon and discovered why we weren't getting any fish - the river, although quite wide, is only about three feet deep the whole way across and anything other than the first couple of inches under the top layer is FREEZING!! Oh well, we will have to put up with eating all the yabbies we are catching instead. We had a great fire and cooked spuds, carrots and onions in the foil for dinner as well as sweet chilli yabbies - yummy!!

We solved Boris' temporary ball shortage by throwing sticks in the water instead. Sticks are ok to throw in the water - but not on land - too dangerous for Boris, so we will have to see what we can do about getting him another ball.

Sunday 26th

Another quiet day - watched "Psych", updated the side of the caravan, sorted through photos, etc. The weather is great and we have a great spot on the river - what a life.

Ross managed to break the chainsaw when he was cutting up the wood for the night's fire - another thing we will have to get fixed! Ross reckons the caravan needs some major repairs and we are going to start heading slowly back to Port to try and get things fixed over the Christmas break.

13th - 19th October

Monday 13th

I rained overnight again so there is no way of getting to Carnarvon Gorge for this trip, so we moved on and stayed at a lovely little rest stop at Warra, which is a teeny tiny town just past Chinchilla. We stopped at Miles for lunch and wanted to go and have a look at their little historical village they advertised, but they wanted to charged $10.00 per head and we reckoned it couldn't be that much better than Timbertown near home so we didn't go in.

Tuesday 14th

We decided to get to Brisbane to Lee and Gary's tonight so we could spend the rest of the week sorting out the caravan and then we could move on again early next week with Boris in tow - we sure have missed the little rascal!! If you haven't already - read the letter from him (Letters from Boris heading) - pretty funny - he is always up to no good!

Wednesday 15th - Sunday 19th

See next post!

6th - 12th October

Monday 6th

We drove out to Fairfield Dam this morning – it is HUGE!! We had no idea how big it would be. There is also no free camping here, but there is a farmstay nearby called Higher Ground that you can stay at really cheaply apparently, so we might check it out once we have been to Bedford Weir.

We got to Bedford Weir just after midday – pretty hot, so we set up the awning for the first time – made it much better. This is a great place – you can camp for free here for up to a week as long as you follow the rules (generators only between 8am and 8pm, dogs always on leash, no open fires). There are toilets and hot showers but no drinking water.

We went for a walk to look at the weir, then for a swim, then put the boat in the water (first time) and went and put out some yabbie traps to see what we could catch.

We had happy hour with all the other campers at 4:30 and found out that the fish are too well fed at the moment and aren’t biting – but we will give it a go anyway – tomorrow.

Tuesday 7th

We had a lovely leisurely day today - our first since we started our trip!! Did a few domestic duties in the morning, etc. Went and checked the yabbie trap (found out whe had put it in water too deep). Went for a drive around the dam in the boat, did a spot of fishing (caught a bunch of catfish), collected firewood, cooked a lovely meal, happy hour again - then bed! We are going to bed earlier and earlier and getting up at 5:30 of a morning. We are finally settling into our new lives and aren't fighting all the time!! We were getting a little frustrated with life and taking it out on each other when we were travelling every day, so we are really appreciating these few relaxed days. We don't have to get to Bribane until about the 17th. We were also told how to catch red claw better and are going to try that tomorrow night - apparently they like veggies - not dog food like we were told!

Wednesday 8th

Well, we finally caught our first Red Claws!! There were only three, but it was a start!! We will try it again tonight, but we are finally getting the hang of it! We put them on the BBQ for appetizers for dinner.

We spent most of the day just chatting with neighbours, doing little jobs, swimming, driving around in the boat, etc, etc – it was a lovely day – so relaxed!!

Thursday 9th

Bit of an overcast day. We got about 8 red claw in the nets this morning and cooked them up in a curry for tea – yummy! Ross isn’t all that keen on them so unfortunately I had to eat them all!! We went fishing and managed to terrorize the local catfish population again – man, if they were any good to eat we would be living like kings!!

Friday 10th

We had quite a bit of rain overnight but it had stopped by the time we got up this morning. At about 10:30 we made the decision that we should move on and head down to Carnarvon Gorge. We were in no hurry packing up and we didn’t get away until 1:30 (only 3 hours pack up time!!). We were heading for a caravan park at Injune that only charges $12/night for powered sites.

Ross rang his boss at Port Macquarie today to find out whether he could do some work over the Christmas period – Pat thought that was a wonderful idea, so we will aim to be back in Port at around mid November and will stay until about the second week in January before we head off down south.

We didn’t arrive in Injune till about 7:30 pm and set up at the caravan park – it had been raining most of the way down which made going pretty slow. It’s not looking good for a visit to Carnarvon Gorge L

Saturday 11th

Still overcast and miserable – it’s even cold!! Two days ago we were withering away in the heat and today we have all our winter woolies on! We can’t get in to see Carnarvon Gorge with the weather like this – can’t get through the roads. We are in a bit of a dilemma. If we move on we will have to either go to an free site with no power, which would be bad because there is no sun, or move on to another caravan park to get the power and where else can you get a powered site for $12/night?

We have decided to stay one more night to see what the weather does. If it is still raining tomorrow we might forget about Carnarvon and leave it for another day and move on.

We had a wander about Injune (lovely information centre – give you tea/coffee and bikkies), went for a walk up the main street (took about 5 minutes) then went for a walk around the lagoon – that’s pretty much all there is to do here so we settled in for the afternoon to watch movies.

Sunday 12th

Still overcast and miserable so I guess we will move on. We don’t have to be in Brisbane until the weekend, so we might pop out to Charleville and have a bit of a peek around there. If this weather isn’t going to clear up though, we might just pack it in and head back to Brisbane early. We have to get our power situation sorted out – we can’t survive in this bad weather for very long the way our power situation is at the moment.

We decided to walk down to the Roadhouse to get pies for lunch, but that proved to be a mistake, as they pretty much had nothing there as far as pies, etc were concerned, so we wandered over to the bowling club, but it was full of old people so we went back to the van to have sandwiches for lunch instead. There is pretty much nothing else to do in Injune so Ross watched Bathurst while I read a book.

Just before lunch a couple in a caravan pulled up next to us and we got chatting and after awhile we worked out that they lived in Lake Cathie (close to Port Macquarie) and have done for 20 years and Ross had sold them a laptop just before we went on holidays!! Small world eh? We also worked out that their names were Bruce and Jenny Adamson and they know my old workmate – Simone Cook – so Mon – if you are reading this, Bruce and Jenny say Hi!!

29th September - 5th October

Monday 29th

Off again pretty early this morning and went sightseeing around Cape Tribulation - Cow Bay, etc. We knew that Fred and Jude needed to get to Townsville to get Troopy fixed (problems with the gearbox), and we wanted to go and see Mossman Gorge, so we parted ways and will meet up again in Ayr in a few days time. We went on to Mossman Gorge and it was just fantastic. No charge and there are heaps of different walking tracks, bridges, lookouts, swimming, etc. We just loved it. Took a million photos and went on the big walk. We were going to go swimming but were running out of time to get to tonights campsite (Lake Tinaroo), so we moved on. I put the coordinates in the GPS, (according to the Camps 3 book), but they were wrong, so we ended up in the middle of nowhere. We finally arrived at our destinatin and it is just beautiful! This is our first night alone in a long time and we are savouring it. We put on the camp oven to cook a great stew and just kicked back and relaxed.

Tuesday 30th

When I chose the campsite we ended up staying at, I chose one at random – and got it right!! The other campsite at Lake Tinaroo (Platypus), which we could see across the lake, had a massive party going on all night which we could hear clear across the other side of the lake – so glad we didn’t camp there – I would have been quite upset I think! Started working at medical transcription again this morning and didn’t take off until about 10:30, aiming to head for Ravenshoe and Innot Hot Springs and then inland from there. We got to Ravenshoe and saw the huge wind turbines – they are ENORMOUS! We were about to head inland when we noticed that our kilometers had ticked over to the point where we were due for a service (we bought this big extended warranty thing when we bought the car and they are very strict about when it needs servicing). So, instead of heading inland and putting more Ks on it, we decided that, being so close to Ayr that we should head back and pick up the caravan and get it serviced at Ayr. We arrived at about 5:30 after a big day’s drive. Once we got there we spoke to Carole’s neighbour, Les, who let us into the unit and also told us that Fred and Jude had Troopy on a tilt tray and were heading to Townsville!! We knew they were having problems with the gearbox, but didn’t know it was that bad! We are not sure of details but I’m sure they will come back here as soon as it is fixed.

Did heaps of loads of washing and went to bed – big day!

Wednesday 1st

I got up and did some work this morning and Ross took the Disco to the mechanics for a service. I was listening to the TV while I was working and heard something about a crocodile killing someone. When I looked further into it, it was “Charley”, the croc at Endeavour River Escape that Terry told us about, and the guy was at the same place we were standing when it happened only a few days ago! Freaky!

Mostly spent the day cleaning and organising. We even gave the poor old Disco a well-deserved wash!

Thursday 2nd

What a mess! We spent most of the day trying to get things back into some semblance of order so we can take off tomorrow.

Friday 3rd

We left Ayr at about 11 am and said goodbye to our travelling companions. We had a great trip but are looking forward to striking out on our own. We didn’t want to do too big a drive today so we drove to Charters Towers for a look around. It’s a lovely little town – heaps of history and historic buildings – well worth a look around and the Information Centre is great too. The lady we spoke to there was extremely helpful and helped us make up our mind which direction we would go from here, as we hadn’t made a firm decision as yet. We did originally intend to keep going west and then eventually make our way down to Longreach, but it is just so dry around here at the moment that we didn’t think we would enjoy it all that much and thought we should come back at a different time of year when its not so dry. Every creek we cross is dry and there is nowhere to fish!!

So we camped at a little roadside stop an hour east of Charters Towers (in hindsight we should have just stayed at the Mobil service station which offered free showers too). It was a pretty good spot – really close to the road, but there was very little traffic so it didn’t worry us, and also really close to the railway line, but trains were few and far between and I never heard any until I woke up in the morning after I got to sleep. It was right on a river, but not a drop of water in it L. We met a great bunch of people there – all travelling separate but great to talk to so we swapped stories and information. One couple had a Disco exactly the same as ours and Ross enlightened him about the joys of getting a computer upgrade and new exhaust system – another one corrupted!! His caravan weighed 3.5 tonne compared to our 1.5 tonne and he was having a little trouble with towing considering the Disco’s tow capacity is 3.5 tonne.

Saturday 4th

I got up and worked this morning and Ross was busy trying to fix an oil leak caused by the guys who serviced the Disco in Ayr – not happy Jan!! He was also happily gossiping with the neighbours so we didn’t get going until about 11 am.

We headed back towards Charters Towers then down the Gregory Developmental Road towards Emerald. We stopped and filled up with fuel at the Mobil and had free showers while we were at it – nice!!

We stopped for lunch at about 2:30 pm at a roadhouse at Belyando Crossing – now there is a hole in the middle of nowhere!! Stinking hot, no loo paper in the loos, brown water for washing your hands – yeeeuk!! Moved on from there pretty quick. There is nothing much out here so we are going to push through to either Capella or Emerald – depending on what campsites we can find.

The country is looking lusher and lusher and hopefully we will be able to start finding places we can fish again soon – we have the boat and the fishing gear but no water!!

We got to Capella which looks like a very interesting little town but it is definitely not friendly towards free campers, so we pushed onto Emerald and camped under the bridge at the Botanical Gardens. It was a bit noisy and very well lit (bit hard to sleep), but not a bad spot and you get to wander around the Botanical Gardens when you get up of a morning.

Sunday 5th

We decide to try our hands at fossicking today and headed off to Sapphire and Rubyvale. It was a stinking hot day and we pulled up for a break and lunch at Sapphire and were chatting to some fellow travelers when a car pulling an old caravan drove past and the wheel fell off the caravan!! Poor bugger – middle of nowhere and the wheel falls off your caravan!! We went over to see if he needed help, but some other people had already pulled up and given him a hand.

The people we were chatting to told us to go to Wills Wash (around the back of the pub) in Rubyvale, so we toddled off to find our fortune. It was an interesting afternoon and we had a great time sifting through all the stones looking for sapphires and zircons and we did find a few, but not our fortunes – oh well!! We can say we have done it now – I don’t think I would be in a hurry to do it again, but we had fun.

We headed back to the same campsite in Emerald for the night and will go and check out Fairbairn Dam (Ross’ dad helped build it in the early 70’s), and then on to Bedford Weir near Blacktown.

22nd - 28th September

Monday 22nd

We packed up fairly early today and left Punsand Bay at about 8:30 this morning. We had to make a trip into Bamaga for supplies, and then headed up to the east coast near Albany Island. We were heading for Sommerset Beach, but of course decided to take the long, scenic route to get there. We first stopped off to have a look at Lake Wicheura, which had lovely pristine white sandy beaches, but was a little inaccessible, so we didn’t drive too far down that track. We then headed out to Chandagoo Point to take the beach route up to Sommerset Beach. The track was quite challenging and we both managed to get stuck/lost at some point along the track and the lid came off of the diesel barrel on the roof of the Disco and it got a lovely diesel bath (tad smelly). The road up to Sommerset Beach varied from beach to rock to sandy stretches up in the hills and was a great drive with some magnificent views along the way.

Once we arrived at Sommerset Beach at around lunchtime we went for a stroll to have a look at the old well site and windmill from the original homestead that was built there sometime in the late 1800s. The original well was dry, but there are freshwater springs seeping out of the ground here and there and we even managed to fill a couple of solar showers and some extra water containers with the water. We then had lunch and we went and studied the old grave sites of the Jardine and pearl diver graves, then the only energetic ones of the group (Jude and I) decided to go and check out the sandstone bluff and cave paintings at the northern end of the beach. We certainly passed our “Rock Clambering 101” certificates! Really rough going, but a lovely spot when we got there. We are spending the night here so we decided to throw a line in to see what we could catch. The main thing we seemed to catch was seaweed, but we did manage to catch an unsuspecting sand crab! The boys decided to cut up a coconut so we munched on coconut in the afternoon. This is a fabulous place and there is only one other group of campers here and they are waaaay up the other end of the campsite and we can’t even see them.

Tuesday 23rd

We slept in a bit this morning and didn’t get up until about 7:30 am, we all (except for chicken Jude) went for a swim in the ocean before leaving the campsite (it was quite brisk!). Fred made scrambled eggs from the eggs that had frozen in the fridge that had been turned down a little too much previously. Troopy decided that he didn’t want to leave and wouldn’t start on the main battery and had to be jumpstarted from the reserve battery. We decided ho head back into Bamaga and refuel before we headed down to check out the campsites on the north side of the Jardine River. We had a lovely wander about along the river and followed some pretty dodgy trackss until we got as far as we could go on a little “track” and had to turn back. We then headed across the ferry and had lunch on the south side of the ferry crossing. It was about then that I decided that I hadn’t done any fishing in the Jardine River and so threw a line in just to say I had wet my line in the Jardine. We didn’t catch anything of note and we certainly fed the fish in the area – they loved picking the bait off of our lines! Fred had a lovely hot shower while we were fishing and Jude did a load of washing, so we were all happy. Just before we crossed the ferry Troopy contacted us on the UHF to let us know that we had one of our tail lights hanging off the back of the 4x4 – another victim of the rough roads! Troopy had also broken a strut on the pop-up bit of his roof and we lost the glass coffee plunger to the rough roads, as well as several other little mishaps along the way – but nothing major – yet.

We decided to camp at Eliot Falls again that night, as we reckon it’s the best camping spot around here – it’s just glorious! We pulled in at around 3 pm, lit up the cooker; put a roast on to cook and all headed down for a swim. By the time we got back it was time to put the veggies in and the cooker did the rest!

Wednesday 24th

This morning we all went for a swim in the beautiful crystal clear water of the falls before we jumped in the cars (Jude and Lisa driving) and went and checked out Fruit Bat falls. Fruit Bat Falls are just glorious, but there is no camping there so we moved on. Just as we were getting into the 4WDs from Fruit Bat Falls to move on we discovered that the tent poles had punched through the front of the pole holder and were just about to fall out. Once again Fred’s super dooper Selleys glue came in handy and we glued it back together, along with an application of our super dooper silicone tape and it all got patched up and we were off again. Once we hit the main road the boys took over the driving. We decided we were going to head for Chilli Beach today and according to our GPS there was a shortcut across to the beach, but when we got the shortcut there was a sign that said “Batavia Downs, No Entry” so we decided to go the long way round. We had been told that Chilli Beach was just fantastic (by Jude’s brother), so we thought it was worth the drive. From the turnoff from the main road to the beach took us a couple of hours, and along the way we had another victim of the rough roads when we lost both our little and big table off of the top of the Disco. We managed to retrieve the big table, but we have no idea what happened to the little table, so we will have a look for it on the way back tomorrow.

Once we hit Chilli Beach, we had the choice of southern beaches or northern beaches, and we chose to have a look at the southern beaches. I tell you what, I have never been so disappointed with a place in my life, and the others had the same opinion. The beach was COVERED in rubbish – plastic, etc all washed up from the ocean, plus the beach was extremely disappointing as it was really flat and shallow and full of weed, etc. We were really disheartened so we went to check out the northern beaches and found them to be much better, so we decided to spend the night. We got talking with some people who we met when we first started on the Old Telegraph Road who were coming the other way and they just loved Chilli Beach and had been here for several days, so I guess it comes down to individual opinions when it comes to that sort of thing. They also told us that we should have gone to the mouth of the Jardine River, which I REALLY wanted to do while we were up there, but some literature we had said that the road was exceptionally bad and you would have to use winches, etc, so we didn’t go, but these people reckon the road was rough but fine – typical!

There are no showers here either, so if you want to get clean you have to dip in the ocean. We also got talking to the other people who were sharing our camp spot, and they had a Troopy and a Oka and they were from Switzerland and had been on the road here in australia for a couple of years and were about to head to South Africa. They told us that we could have come down the road that had the “No Entry” sign after all (would have saved us a couple of hundred of kilometers) but it was a very rough road (just what we are looking for!). Bugga missing that road – would have been fun – next time I guess! We ended up staying the night at Chilli Beach, because it was too far to go anywhere else, and it is beautiful and breezy and we are quite happy with the campsite, it’s just a shame the beach is so grotty.

Thursday 25th

Well, we certainly had an interesting night! We all went to bed early after admiring the beautiful clear sky and the stars. Ross and I decided to sleep in the tent, as we have done a few times in the past, mainly because it’s a bit easier to set up than sleeping in the back of the Disco. We have found the whole setup a little frustrating and we are definitely going to change our setup when we get back to Brisbane, but we have to work with what we have for now. Anyway, after going to bed the wind picked up and it got Really windy. We hadn’t bothered to put the fly over the tent because it was such a lovely night. Once the wind came up it started blowing the tent around quite a bit until we got the doors worked out so it wouldn’t blow the tent down. We then settled down for a quiet night and a good night’s sleep, which was interrupted at about 4 am when it decided to start raining!! Because we didn’t have the fly on, the rain came straight through the roof of the tent and we were saturated within minutes. We had no idea how long it would keep raining, so we decided it was a good idea to go and get the fly and at least drape it over the tent to try and stop the flow of water. We jumped out of bed and got the fly and put it over the tent, and after about 5 minutes it stopped raining, but we thought we had better leave the fly on just in case it started raining again, which was good in theory, but with the strong wind and no outlet for it, it almost blew us away again!! So, we took the fly off hoping that it wouldn’t rain again and made it through to morning with no other mishaps. We then spent half the morning trying to dry stuff out and the rest of the morning was spent talking to our new friends in the Oka, and their friends in the Troopy conversion. We got some great ideas from them, and by the time we got underway we had fonder thoughts for Chili Beach than when we first got there.

We then headed south and were planning to camp on the river just north of Coen, and we called into the campsite to check it out, and it looked pretty good, but there was a definite lack of water in the river so we made a group decision to head back to Charlie’s as Coen is definitely a place that you would not stay in overnight if you had the option. (Though mum did send us a message saying that they had stayed behind the “Sexchange Pub” before with no problem). The Disco managed to lose almost all of the screws that held the front headlight in and we got to it just in time before it completely fell out – another victim of the rough roads!! We managed to get some more screws from the mechanic shop in Coen and he didn’t even charge us for it. We stocked up on fuel and grog at Coen and headed out to Charlie’s and arrived at about 3 pm. We were once again the first ones here so we got some washing done (no black water this time), and then some other campers pulled up in a couple of camper trailers. We had a lovely leisurely afternoon and had a chance to relax and enjoy ourselves (as well as do a few running repairs) before it got dark.


Friday 26th

Off again early this morning and we are planning to get to Kalpower camp in Lakefield National Park and staying there for a couple of days – it will be nice to just sit and relax for awhile as we haven’t spent more than one night anywhere yet. We drove past vast plains of nothing but anthills. We stopped in to have a look at Sweetwater Lagoon on the way which was just lovely.

When we got into camp, Ross and I went for a quick dip in the rockpools (have to be careful of crocs), then chatted to some other campers who had boats with them and had been very successful in catching barra – we were hooked – had to have a go ourselves, so got the casting net out, caught some bait and off we went. Ross was down in the rock pools catching bait when a croc surfaced a couple of meters away from me – I freaked out, but he was only about 6 feet long but I was pretty scared anyway! We didn’t catch any barra but decided to move on tomorrow as we got mucked around a bit with the self-registration. We will find somewhere else to stay tomorrow night.

Had a chat with some more neighbours who were also Swiss – must be a popular destination for them. We have decided to head for Cooktown and take it from there tomorrow.

Saturday 27th

We were all up early and got packed up and going by about 8am. We drove Battlecamp Road into Cooktown, which was pretty rough, and we even saw an abandoned camper trailer with a broken axle on the side of the road at one stage. We came across Isabella Falls, which were nice, but not as nice as Eliot Falls. We made it to Cooktown and did a bit of a shop and had some lunch, then went up to the lookout and the lighthouse which was just fantastic. We then drove to Finch Bay for a bit of a look-see and Jude and myself walked to the Botanical Gardens from there while the boys drove and met us there. We asked at the Botanical Gardens where to stay and they told us to go to Endeavour River Escape, which was about 15 minutes out of town. They have this rule in Cooktown that you are not allowed to camp within 15 ks of the town otherwise the caravan parks have a dummy spit. It is a fantastic spot right in a rainforest and on the river and Terry, the owner of the property took us for a walk and told us about the history of the place and about "Charley" the huge croc who lives nearby and you can hear him barking like a dog at night. We might head up to coloured sands tomorrow and might even stay here another night – top place! It is a working cattle and Clydesdale station.

Sunday 28th

What is it about us not putting up our fly and getting wet during the night??!! Same thing again - we put up our tent minus the fly because it was a beautiful night and half way through the night it started pouring rain!! So, out again, running aroud like mad people to get the fly on (no wind this time so it was ok to leave it on), but we were pretty wet by morning, as with the fly not on properly, the rain still came in. We went and had a chat to Terry the next morning to find out what time checkout was and he wasn't really bothered, he's really a great guy and told us some other places to go and visit when we reach WA. We dried everything out and got underway at about 11 am. We decided to head down the Bloomfield Track and stopped at the Lions Den for a looksee - pretty interesting place. We also had a look at the Black Mountains - freaky!! The Bloomfield Track was not nearly as interesting as the Old Telegraph Road, but it was a lovely trip through the mountains with a couple of wrong turns along the way (thanks to bad signage at roadworks). We decided to stay at a lovely little park at Cape Tribulation named Lync-Haven (they even let you have dogs) that had 20 acres of rainforest to explore. We all got dresssed up for the first time in weeks and had dinner at their restaurant, which was just lovely. We also saw a Hercules Moth at the restaurant - HUGE!! Biggest moth I have ever seen. We made sure we put the fly up this time so we wouldn't be caught out and guess what? Didn't rain.

15 - 21 September

Monday 15th

Fred and Jude took off to pick up Troopy from Hughendon at 4am and arrived back here at around 3pm.

We spent the day packing the 4WD - man it's hard to condense everything down and try and decide what to take and what to leave!! We finally got the worst of it packed anyway so we should be right to head off in the morning!!

Tuesday 16th

We got away at about 9am and spent a big day travelling. It was great to finally be on the road. The difference in the countryside between Ayr upwards and the countryside between Bowen and Ayr is remarkable. It has been so lush and green since we left Ayr, whereas before that it was very dry and arid and desert-like. We pushed through to Townsville and stopped at Bear and Christiane's place in Machans Beach - what a lovely spot. We camped overnight in their driveway after having a BBQ tea with them. We went for a walk down to the beach at sunset as it is only a couple of blocks away from their house. Their house is a converted fishing shack that is just fantastic - loved it!

Wednesday 17

We spent a lovely day today. We went up to Kuranda to see the markets in the morning. The drive up is lovely, through rainforest, lovely lookouts. Christiane has a lovely little clothing/bric a brac shop so we went and had a look at it and Jude brought some stuff. There was a great museum and heaps of other great shops there too. After that we moved along up the road and had lunch at the café at Mt Molloy – it’s a little mexican café and they serve the hugest, bestest hamburgers in the world (maybe a little exaggeration).

We ended spending the night at Lakeland Caravan park which is a great little spot considering the desert we seem to be in the middle of. The landscape keeps changing so rapidly around here its incredible.

Thursday 18th

We spent a lovely night at the caravan park at Lakelands, played cards, chatted to some neighbours, and took off at about 9.30. Only a few k’s out of town the roads turned to dirt, then bitumen, then dirt, then bitumen … and so on. I have no idea why there were so many little patches of bitumen in among all the dirt roads, but we decided after several of these that they were there purely to annoy us – you just got used to the fact that you were back on bitumen and 500m later its dirt again!! VERY dusty. At some stages we couldn’t see a thing if a few vehicles were coming the other way. Also a lot of corrugations which made the ride very bumpy, but all in all it was a pretty good trip – well until Fred and Jude broke another windscreen passing a truck! We reckon it broke because Jude took photos of sacred aboriginal art when she shouldn’t have and they were cursed!! We stopped to go for a bit of a stroll (uphill in very hot weather) to look at Quinkan aboriginal art at Split Rock north of Lakelands.

The guy at the Lakelands caravan park told us we had to camp at Charlie’s 4 U 2 C camp spot just shy of Coen. We pulled in at about 3pm and we found a very interesting camp site in the middle of nowhere. Charlie, as it turns out is a very eccentric Maltese guy who has a very interesting house and old mine site come camping spot (but not an official campsite). He used to mine gold here years ago, but it has all been filled in now and he just lives out here by himself and has little “projects”. (see website for photos) His house has beer bottle walls and it’s extremely interesting to look at – great little campsite too and all you have to do is leave a voluntary donation for the use of it. It even has hot showers and a laundry. One word of warning though, if you do decide to camp there and do some washing – keep an eye on the water colour! We were happily filling the tub and happened to look down and the water had gone black! For some reason that we couldn’t quite fathom, the water kept going from clear to black so we had to keep a good eye on it – not good for whites! There is also a free campsite next to the river just on the other side of Coen.

Well, we have certainly gotten into the Cape area now, the countryside changes constantly and people are few and far between, and we are absolutely loving it. We got the camp oven out for the first time tonight so we are really camping now, though we did still have hot showers and laundry J. We had our first really good look at the stars tonight, as it’s the first time we have been far enough away from civilization that there were no other lights around – I tell you what, it’s worth the trip just to see the stars! Magnificent!! I had forgotten how great the night sky could look.

The weather is just fantastic. It does get rather hot during the day – around the mid 30s, but there are virtually no insects and the nights are lovely and cool. We haven’t had to use insect repellant yet and we can sleep with all the doors open and get a lovely cool breeze in the car – it’s just glorious – wouldn’t be dead for quids!

We met a lovely young couple when we stopped for lunch today and they told us to go camping at Pennefather Creek just north of Weipa because the fishing was fantastic and it was a paradise on earth, so we are going to aim to camp there tomorrow night.

Friday 19th

We took off pretty early this morning and hit Weipa by about 11:30 and we went shopping and then went looking for somewhere to get Troopy’s windscreen fixed. There was a panelbeater in town that apparently did windscreens but they were shut for lunch, so we went and had lunch on the beach which was just fantastic – there was no sand but there were tiny round red rocks, which we think may have been bauxite, they were great to walk on – massaged the feet, they looked a bit like red rice bubbles! We went back to the panelbeaters but they were still closed so we gave it up for a bad job and headed off to Pennefather Creek for a look.

The drive to Pennefather Creek was the roughest we have encountered so far, there was a whole heap of really rough dirt roads, followed by a run along a magnificent beach where Troopy nearly came to grief in a particularly bad stretch of sand. It was about that time we decided to stop and deflate the tyres a little before we kept going. We eventually reached this beautiful looking lagoon, which was our destination and thought we were in paradise. However, we stopped and talked to the Ranger and he told us: You can’t swim here because of the crocs. It's aboriginal tirbal land. There are absolutely no amenities. The fishing wasn’t so great at the moment. It was going to cost us about $50.00 + each just to spend the night. Hmm…we went for a drive to see what we could see, and decided, yes, it was a lovely spot, but not worth $50.00 + each, so we turned around (about 4:30 pm) and went back to Weipa (arrived at sundown) and spent the night in the caravan park there for $24.00 each that had toilets, laundry, swimming pool, and was right on the beach – we reckon we got a bargain!

Well, we were looking to do some serious 4WDing and we certainly found that today. We had a great day but were really worn out by the time we settled down for the night. It was certainly a great experience.

Saturday 20th

We took off from Weipa at about 8:15 am this morning, went back down the way we came into Weipa and then cut across a 4WD track (Batavia Downs) to meet back up with the main road heading up to the cape and when we hit the crossroads where the Old Telegraph Road leaves the main road, and of course we took the Old Telegraph Road for a bit of a challenge! We were only about 10 minutes down the track when we came to the first creek crossing and it was a doozey (well for us inexperienced 4WDers anyway). In the end it looked worse than it was and none of us had any problem getting through, but we did manage to pick up some extra friends who came through at the same time, so we ended up going in a convoy with the 4 4WDs. One of the 4WDs was a Landcruiser with Vic and Jan and believe it or not, Ross knows Vic because he used to work near him when he worked in Brisbane about 15 or 20 years ago. The others were in a Nissan Navara and they are Darby and Jamie (his 5 year old son). They have come from NT and have been on the road for 2 weeks and have another 3 weeks to go. We had a fantastic day with heaps of challenges as far as 4WDing goes. Heaps of creek crossings and ruts and corrugations, etc, etc.

An hour or so into the Old Telegraph Road Troopy decided that he didn’t want to carry Fred’s luggage on his roof any more, so he dumped it off in the middle of the road without letting Fred and Jude know, so they were blissfully unaware driving down the road until we stopped for lunch and looked up and noticed it was gone – Fred’s underwear was scattered all over the Old Telegraph Road! Luckily Vic and Jan were behind them and decided to stop and rescue it for them and wandered into the luchspot with a decidedly scraggly looking box with Fred’s clothes in it.

We ended up staying overnight at Eliot and Twin falls camping area, which is a fantastic spot with beautiful swimming holes and waterfalls – just glorious. We apparently are only 98.5 kilometers from the tip, so we will have another swim in the morning and then head off to make the tip tomorrow sometime.

Sunday 21st

Well, this is the day we have been waiting for, but we couldn’t leave Eliot Falls without one more swim in the glorious water. We got underway at about 9:30 am and had a great creek crossing first thing leaving Eliot Falls. We stuck to the Old Telegraph Road for most of the way and crossed the Jardine River on the ferry ($88.00 per car – including camping permits). We stopped at the Croc Tent on the way to Punsands Bay where they gave us free maps and great info about the local area including where to camp, fish, etc. We then moved onto Punsands Bay down a pretty rough 4WD track and our Disco ended up airborne over a particularly big dip in the road, but we stayed intact and made it to our destination where we stopped for a lovely Barra and chips lunch and caught up again with Darby and Jamie. We all moved on together to the cape down another rough track and got the beach just shy of the tip where we drove our cars out onto the beach (low tide) and took photos showing the spot that’s the furthest you can drive your car, then we headed up the rocks to the tip (about 15 minutes walk) and finally made it to the very tip of Australia!! It was REALLY windy and the weather came over a bit nasty, but it was just fantastic to finally get there. We got lots of photos and added our rocks to the piles of other rocks that other people have been piling up there as a memento of getting to the tip.

After that we decided to head back to Punsands Camp Area to camp for the night, and I finally had a chance to throw a line in! There is a great beach there and I ended up catching a couple of toad fish and nothing else, but it was lovely just sitting on the beach and relaxing. Fred cooked a great curry for tea and Darby and Jamie joined us. We are again sitting in paradise and having happy hour and having a great time.

8th - 14th September - Finally under way!

Monday 8th

Ross had to wait for the gaskets to turn up, which they did at around 11 am. He got most of the work done, but the last gasket that needed to go on wasn't right, so we have to wait for another one to turn up in the morning ...

We also had a call from Fred today and it seems like he has broken down - not sure what is wrong yet.

Tuesday 9th

OK, the part turned up - woohoo! If Ross can get the car going we will be away by this afternoon - finally!

Later that day .. Ross called to say that he has it all together but it won't go - looks like we are going nowhere today

Later ... Late afternoon they finally got it going - apparently there was something wrong with the injectors - all fixed now - we will be off in the morning after Ross has taken it for a test-drive and taken it back to the mechanics to put coolant in the water - hopefully we will be away by lunchtime.

Update from Fred - he has blown his gearbox and it won't be fixed until next week sometime, bad luck for him but good for us because now we have a chance to catch up with him! Man, I hope this isn't an indication of what's to come - hopefully all of our mechanical problems are out of the way and we will have a smooth trip from now on. Fred has a daughter in Ayr, and he and Jude are going to catch a bus there and meet us there - they will go back for their vehicle once it is fixed. We can take our time now and enjoy ourselves and meet them in Ayr, which is where we will be leaving the caravan for the trip up to the Cape.

Wednesday 10th

We didn’t get away from Lee and Gary’s until 1pm by the time Ross took the 4WD to the mechanics and we finished packing up. We got to a little side of the highway stop that Gary told us about a few km’s south of Gympie. It was a pretty good spot, but too close to the highway – it was hard to get to sleep with the traffic. (Rate 5/10. GPS: 26.23212S 152.69696E)

I went to do my medical terminology work, but the internet kept dropping out – very frustrating. We will go into Bundaberg in the morning and talk to the Telstra people to see if we can get it sorted out – can’t put up with that all the time!

Thursday 11th

We spent a fair bit of time in Bundaberg trying to sort out the internet problem and we seem to have that sorted out now, so I should be able to do my work tonight with no problem.

We are really struggling to adjust to living out of a caravan – we really didn’t realise it would be this hard. Everything is so cramped and you have to pull everything out just to get to one thing and we are both taking time to adjust.

We stayed at a great camp spot at Calliope overnight (Rate 7/10 GPS: 23.95978S 151.15047E). It is about 7km north of Calliope and it is a huge site right away from the highway and truck noises. It’s a really big camp and there were probably about 30 other campers staying there overnight. There were no showers and the river was really low, and there was a sign warning of crocs, so we couldn’t go swimming – not that it’s warm enough yet to go swimming. Someone had cut up a big tree for firewood, but it was still really green and the wood wouldn’t burn, so I think if we went there again we would take our own firewood.

Friday 12th

Had a big day of driving today. We stopped only for lunch as we wanted to get to close to Ayr as possible. We couldn’t find any free campsites to stay at, even after stopping and asking at Mackay Information Centre. We rang ahead to a caravan park and they offered us an unpowered site for $10.00 overnight, so we decided to stop there. The caravan park was called Kuttabul Hotel and Caravan Park, and as we got close we drove past this really scary looking caravan a we guessed that was it – so we kept driving – it looked almost like a wrecking yard!! A little bit up the highway was a servo so we stopped and asked where to stay and they directed us to a caravan park called Jolimont Caravan Park, (Rate 8/10 GPS: 21.0026S 148.5227E) which was much nicer, so we stayed there for the night. They charged $18.00 for unpowered sites and $20.00 for powered sites, so we took the powered one. We found out later that there was another caravan park just up the road that is right on the river that looks nice that charge only $12.00 for unpowered sites! Damn! Never mind, the one we stayed at was lovely.

The weather is getting hotter and hotter and we are having trouble acclimatizing – guess by the time we hit the Cape we will be used to it! None of the rivers have much water in them – waiting for the wet season coming up I guess. Can’t wait to throw a line in and see if we can catch any fish! We have been travelling to fast to do any of that stuff so far – hopefully the pace will relax a little now that we are have caught up to Fred and Jude.

Saturday 13th

We only had a couple of hours of travelling to do today, so we took our time and had a few stops. Once we got to Carole's place (Fred & Jude's daughter), we had to try and park the caravan somewhere - that was an interesting job - there was this tiny narrow driveway to get it down, followed by a very small space for manouvering, then we had to back it into a shed - but we managed - Ross is a great caravan backer!!

It is very dry up here and we drove over heaps of bridges and the creeks/rivers had literally NO water in them - we had never seen that before - guess they will fill up pretty quick when the wet season arrives.

Tomorrow we are gong site-seeing, Monday Fred and Jude are going to pick up "Troopy" (the name for their troop carrier motorhome, while Ross and I pack up our 4WD and we are leaving Tuesday morning, so we won't have time to go fishing unfortunately - I'm sure we will get time somewhere along the line!

Sunday 14th
We decided to have a fairly leisurely day today and do some sight-seeing around Ayr, as well as doing a little packing of the 4WD. We all took off in Carole's little old Ford Festiva and went down to a little beach near here - Alva Beach, which was lovely, then we went out to Home Hill to see a few sites and guess what??!! We blew up the Festiva as well! That's the third car we have broken in the last couple of months between us, but we reckon that will be the end of it because bad luck comes in threes right? ...

1st - 7th September

Monday 1st

Ross took the Disco in to the mechanics today to see what they think before we leave on our trip- guess what??!! They reckon there is still something wrong with it!! AAGGHH!

Still not 100% sure, so they have disconnected the oil cooler to see if that is the problem. Ross will take it back tomorrow for them to look at and decide whether to take the head off.

Tuesday 2nd

Well, it wasn't the oil cooler, so the head came off! Damn - more delays! They have sent it away for testing.

Got a phone call from Fred and Jude today. They have left already and we will have to catch up with them somewhere along the line, but they have had a delay themselves with a broken windscreen and they have to wait a few days for it to turn up!

Wednesday 3rd

Got a call from the mechanics today and the head is kaput. We need to get a new one, but a brand newie is $5000.00, so we shopped around and found a good second had one for $1600.00 - much better. Ross will pick it up in the morning and put it back on and hopefully all will go smoothly and we will be away by Friday. I am not getting my hopes up at this stage, because nothing has gone to plan so far!

We also borrowed a projector from a friend of Dale's (my brother), and put a piccie of Australia on the side of our van so we can keep a record of where we have been - looks great - takes up the whole side of the van!! We also had our web address put on the back of the van as well as our UHF channel (40).

Thursday 4th

Ross decided to send the new second had head off to be tested before he puts it back on the car - hate to go through all this again.....

Friday 5th

The head came back and has checked out fine, but the gaskets haven't turned up because the courier company went on strike! It's a conspiracy! Looks like we are here till next week now.

Sunday 7th

Father's day. We had a whole bunch of family around for a BBQ lunch - we had a great day. I think there were about 18 of us all told.

22nd - 31st August

Sunday 24th

Ross and my nephew, Jason, along with a couple of guys from the Landrover club went 4wding at Ormeau. They had a great time and Ross was very pleased with the performance of the Disco with the new diff lock in it. The only problem was that when they came back, Ross thought the Disco had blown a head gasket! Two major problems with that -heaps of money to fix and heaps of time too! We are supposed to be leaving Thursday!

Monday 25th

Ross took the Disco down to the Landrover specialists first thing this morning to see whwther they thought the head gasket was blown or not. Unfortunately there is no easy way to tell, so Ross rang his mate who is a mechanic to see what he could do. Ross took the Disco over to the mechanic shop and I told him to ring me when he was ready and I would come and pick him up. A couple of hours later he turnred up - not in the Disco, but on a moped! Pretty funny sight! It is the mechanic's "loan car". He has left the Disco with the mechanics shop for now and they are going to have a look at it.

They rang this afternoon and they don't think its the head gasket - they think its something to do with the cooling system - phew! They aren't positive mind you, so Ross is going to trundle around on the moped tomorrow to see what he can do to help.

Tuesday 26th

Ross spent most of the day in the workshop but they still haven't figured out exactly what is wrong with it and have sent it off for more tests - should know more in the morning - fingers crossed!

Wednesday 27th

Ross spent the day at the workshop again and the guys still reckon it isn't the head gasket and is something to do with the cooling system, so they have parts coming in in the morning, so Ross will go in then and see if he can get it fixed in time.

Thursday 28th

The parts came in but didn't get in until 1 pm, so he didn't get it all finished - running out of time to get it done by the weekend! Ross talked to the guy who is running the 4wd course on the weekend and he has called it off because there was only 1 other person who was doing it. He also talked to Fred and they are not in a hurry to get going as Jude's dad is visiting so the pressure is off to get it up and going by the weekend.

Friday 29th

Ross got home late in the afternoon with the Disco running, but he still isn't convinced that they have fixed the problem, he still has a suspicion that it is the head gasket, but will take it for a drive tomorrow to see what happens. He has put degreaser through the cooling system to try and get all of the oil out of it.

Also today, Lee's son, Shane came home with a broken arm after a fight at a club in the city and had to be put in hospital to get plates put in his arm - these young uns never learn!!

Saturday 30th

Ross rang Jason to see if he would go with him to take the Disco 4wding to see if they have fixed the problem, but Jason was working today, so they will go first thing in the morning - fingers crossed!!

Sunday 31st

Well, they took the Disco for a good run this morning and it seemed to be fine, though Ross is still worried becasue there seems to be a film in the radiator. Nevertheless, we are taking off tomorrow morning and we will call into the mechanics on the way out to see if they think it is ok. We have to tow the caravan up the Toowoomba range, so if it is going to play up, we will know pretty quickly anyway.

We spent the afternoon packing and will head off sometime tomorrow once we have finished packing - I am not as excited as I thought I would be, mainly because I am still nervous about the Disco, so if it makes it over the Toowomba range tomorrow, I will be REALLY excited!!

Letters from Boris

16 August 2008


Hi mummy and daddy. Boy I am having lots of fun! Last night, after I got over the shock of you 2 not coming on my trip in pa's bus, we drove till about 11.15pm, then pa took me for a pee and little walk, then we all slept inside their bus in a Rest Area (I think they call them) all night till 7.45am this morning. I was a good boy, mummy, I slept all night and never made a sound - didn't even snore, I think.
Nan and pa took me for a quick walk in the park, gave me a drink, let me have a pee, then they sat outside with me tied to pa's leg, while they ate their brekky. They spoilt me by giving me some "smackoes", but insisted I take my fish capsule, yuk!
I sometimes sit up between pa and nan so I can look at everything, but othertimes I'm just happy to lay down on the floor on my other bed and sleep.
They are very kind to me mum, but they're not quite like you. I don't miss you too much, but wish you were here with me, I guess.
Nan is especially lovely to me. She is always talking to me, patting me and taking me for walks - or is that pa? No matter - they both love me, I just know it!
Enjoy taking Missy and Sally for a walk each day (without me!) Boy, Sally will think she's king pin now (without me!) and the cats will just love it too (without me!)
Have a good trip (without me!) to the cape (without me!) and dont worry about me (how could you do that to me?) as I will be just fine (without you!)
We are having another walk at Ulmarra now and they gave me some of their bickies they were having with their cuppa - yummy!
Love and licks from your loving son Boris - nan just gave me a big smile and pat - see, she loves me!

22 August 2008

Hi mummy and daddy ... guess what.. I have pa and nan utterly confused!
When we got home pa put my bag of feed into the garbage bin and my Chewey chip things up high (that's what he thought) up on a shelf but not in a sealed container. Sooooo easy! I had a great feed that day! But, I left the tell tale ripped plastic bag on the back lawn.
Like good grandparents, they went out and bought me some Smacko bitie things, and guess what - pa left them in the garbage bin, but left the lid off! How dumb! Again, what a great feed I had that night!
I heard pa ask nan did she know where that red Smacko box come from and it was funny to see the look of realisation on pas face as he remembered what he'd done! Now they have to go out and buy me more - perhaps this time I'll get beef jerkeys or chicken necks - they will probably think of a way to keep me from finding them - they think!
Anyway, thought I'd let you know that I haven't lost my talent - finding food!!! Could have got a gold medal in Olympics if they had that event, eh?
Well, must away. Pa is taking me for a drive in the big bus and if David hadn't have been coming, I would have claimed the front seat - darn David!
Bye mum and love you both, but nan and pa are looking after me. No walk today as it is raining.
Woof and licks from yourfavourite son - Boris

24 August 2008


Hi mum and dad.
Guess what? Nan and pa have just brought me home from a swim and run on the beach! It was sooooo cooool! Yes, real cool (cold) but I had a ball! (to chase I mean)
Had a bit of an misunderstanding with a part collie re "who's ball is this?" Nan and pa yelled at me to stop, but as usual, my selective deafness cut in and I soon sorted him out! No one takes my ball off me!
Must have been at this stage I lost my collar and tag, but of course, no one noticed till we got up top - looks like you'll be paying for a new one. Sorry mum ...
Another first - it was so windy the other night and I got scared (only little bit) but with my small, continuous, pathetic little yelps - eventually, pa came down and let me sleep in their bedroom. Works every time!
Sunny but cool here today, but I'm tired and happy, so I don't care. I'll probably sleep most of the day.
Well - nan just shoved a half tablet down my throat, but I loved the peanut butter ... must go.
Love you heaps - licks and woofs from your favourite son Boris

31 August 2008


Hello again mum and dad.
Well, I don't know if you want the good news or the bad news first ...
actually, when I think of it, there is no good news!
Let me start by defending myself. You know I can't resist chasing cats! ... Well, here goes.
First time, pa and I were having a lovely walk together when I spotted an open gate and an enticing cat! Naturally, I pulled and jumped and yapped, attemping to get at it, and guess what? My lead broke!!! Heaven!
Can you imagine pas face? He was standing there with half a lead and I was FFRRREEEE!
I took off like a shot after that now unfortunate cat, through the gate and around into the yard.
Pa was shouting and chasing after me and a guy came out to see what all the commotion was about. Talk about cats having nine lives ... unluckily for me, that cat got away.
Not too bad yet, you say? Well, now to the other really unfortunate cat ...
Pa, nan and I went for our usual walk this morning and just down the hill abit, I suddenly lunged into a small bush right on the footpath and came out with a CAT in my mouth!!! Now, again, imagine nan and pas faces?
They started yelling for me to 'drop it' - pa violently shaking and pulling on the lead, but no way was I letting it go now!
Pa suddenly started to kick me in my side, hoping to force me to drop my prize - but NO WAY! I've worked very hard to finally snag a cat! It's his fault that he was stupid enough to try and hide in that tiny bush!
Well, eventually, I had to spit him out as pa was kicking the s*#t out of me. I took great pride in watching that stupid cat trying to jump up that fence - took him three times before he made it. Darn!
Well, we finished our walk, but I knew I was really in trouble when I was confined to my quarters and they wouldn't let me upstairs ALL DAY!
Sorry mum and dad, but I cant say it wont happen again. Poor pa and nan - I bet they wonder what will our next walk bring in excitement!
Well, not much else to tell you at the moment - at least by staying downstairs on my own, I keep remembering and savouring that absolute pleasure when I held that cat in my mouth! Sheer delight!
Bye for now ... talk again soon. Your clever cat catching son, Boris.

3 September 2008


ell, here I am again, mum ... in disgrace!
Pa was working out the front on his car and I was sneaky enough to wander out without pa seeing me and decided to call and say hi to my neighbour, Brockie.
We had sniffed through the fence a few times and I thought I had him well and truly 'sussed out' - he is a German Shepherd just like my old pal, Sasha.
Well, as I said, I'd wandered in to say hello, and his lovely parents thought we seemed to like each other, so they opened the screen door! Bad mistake!
I only wanted to be friendly, honestly mum, you know me! Well, Brockie decided I was a real threat to his man hood (obviously) and started to attack me ... well, what can a fella do?
I had things completely under control and well and truly had the upper hand, when all the humans decided they'd better break us up.
Talk about it! Give a guy a break - we were having a great time! I would have had him for sure!
Anyway, he was shoved inside and pa grabbed me by the collar and I was in a lot of trouble! Again!
I'm sure I wasn't this naughty when you were here - was I?
Well, that's all for now - oh, by the way, someone found my other collar and tags and I have it on again.
Bye again mum and dad - I love you both and do miss you, even if nan says I dont. Woof and licks from your boisterous son, Boris.

8 October 2008


Hi mum and dad. Why can't I just write to you with good news - why only when I have been naughty?
Well, let's start out by saying nan and pa had to go away for a few days to some stupid wedding somewhere or other. They asked David, accross the road, to take me for walks and feed me while they were away.
Well, David fell into the same trap that poor pa did, by leaving my tin of 'Smakkos' within easy reach. What an amateur!
Took me a while, but after I rolled it all around the floor, bashing it up against the wall - hey, wallah! - the lid eventually came off!! Bingo!
I took my time, but after about an hour, I had devoured the lot! Heaven!
When pa and nan came home, they thought I was pregnant! They soon worked out what happened when they found first the empty tin and then, eventually the lid. Dead give away!
Needless to say, I haven't had any 'treats' since they got home. Buggar!
Oh, well - cant be helped. Missing you still and looking forward to seeing you on weekend of 18th - I think they are still thinking of bringing me up? Let's hope!
Love, licks and woofs from your very fat son, Boris. ......

24 November 2008


Hi Gramma and Granpa, mummy said I have to send you a message to let you know that she is as big a sucker as you guys!! She bought some of that powdered coconut stuff that you showed her Gramma, she bought it for the caravan and put it downstairs in a plastic bag - what a stoopid thing to do!! She thought that because it was sealed in that silver stuff that I wouldn’t be able to smell through it - pfft - she didn’t bargain on the "Soopa Sniffa"!!! I forgot to wipe the evidence off my whiskas though, cuz it didn’t take her long to work out that I had been doing something I shouldn’t be!! I left the evidence on the back lawn again (gotta work out a way to fix that problem).

Lots of love and sloppy licks.
Boris

15th - 21st August

Well, the decision had to be made whether to take Boris up to the Cape with us or not, and I finally relented and gave in to the majority and decided to let him go back to Port Macquarie with mum and dad until we get back. I miss him like crazy, but I think it's for the best, I would never forgive myself if he got eaten by a croc!

We met up with Fred and Jude again and decided that we are going to meet in Roma on 1st September - we finally have some solid plans! Fred and Jude have to go to Alstonville to meet up with some friends on the 3oth (31st?) and we are going to go to Maryborough to redo the 4wd course (hopefully), so we will be meeting at Roma to start our adventure. We are all very excited and can't wait to get going. Ross only has 1 more day of work left before we go, so we can pretty much head off any time we like, but will be staying for the weekend so we can have 1 last get-together with family and friends before we go.

We have decided to head off on Thusday so we can spend the night at one of Ross' mates place who went up to the Cape last year - maybe we can pick his brains! From there we will head up to Maryborough to redo the 4wd course, then meet Fred and Jude in Roma on the 1st.

8th - 14th August

Sorry to tell you, but Boris hasn't got up to any antics this week - poor effort Boris!

I am typing about one word a minute at the moment because I have Lucky (one of Lees cats) sitting on my lap and if I don't keep one arm wrapped around me he will fall off!

I have been flat out working on my transcription this week I'm pretty slow at the moment, being a beginner, so I probably only earned about $20 this week, but I will get faster! If anyone is interested, the website for what I do is http://www.ozescribe.com.au/.

We had Ross' 40th birthday party this week and it went down a treat! We had a great night. With plenty of booze, singing and joke telling. The spit roast was a hit, and so was the singing on the Singstar, though some people were classed as "tone deaf" (mum)!

August 1 - 7

As usual, Boris is on the top of the funnies list this week. My brother-in-law, Gary, has a tray top ute with 2 big tool boxes on either side, with room in the middle for the dogs, so I took Boris down to the lake for a swim and picked up my sister-in-law Louise, and their dog, Chopper on the way. Boris was a bit put out by Chopper sharing his spot on the back of the ute and decided to ride on top of the tool boxes instead of in the middle! Needless to say this is not a very safe spot to ride and I had to stop the ute and explain to him that it wasn't safe. Anyway, we took the dogs down to the lake for a lovely swim, and when we went to leave, I tied Boris on the back of the ute and then turned around to get his towel off the ground, and when I looked around again, he had jumped off the back of the ute - while he was tied on!! He looked hilarious, because he had his harness on, so his elbows were up around his ears and his back legs could just touch the ground, so he was tippy-toeing on his back legs!! Dumb dog!!

More news on our trip this week, Ross got in touch with Fred, (Ross' old boss), and told him what we were up to and asked him what he was up to and Fred said that he and his wife, Jude, are about to take a trip up to the Cape and wanted to know if we wanted to join them. We jumped at the chance, because we still hadn't made any firm decisions on where we wanted to go after Frazer Island, so we will be leaving for the Cape at the end of the month.

Ross has been talking to the guys on the Land Rover forums, and they said that the Frazer Island trip has been cancelled because of lack of interest, so we won't be doing that trip after all.

Steve (brother-in-law), Gary, and myself went fishing in Gary's tinny at friggin 5am on Sunday (blimmin freezing!), and we were out for 6 hours and Steve and I never caught 1 fish!!! Gary managed to get a taylor and a sole fish (stupid looking fish), and that's it!! Unbelievable!!

Wed, August 6th - Mum and dad turned up today, they are on their way back down to Port Macqauarie to help look afer nan (97), who has recently been put in a nursing home and is going down hill fast - poor nan, she has done so well upt till now.

Mum and dad have offered to babysit Boris for us while we go up to the Cape. It originally wasn't an option, as they weren't due back to Port Macquarie until the end of the year, but they have come back early because of nan. So now we have to make the decision whether we think they can handle our fiesty little puppy. I would hate to leave him behind, but I can see the sense in it, not so much as us not being able to go into the National Parks, but more because I have been worried about him getting eaten by a crocodile, as he loves the water so much it would be hard to keep him out. So we will have to make that decision before mum and dad head back to Port Macqauarie. I really can't imagine going without him, as he adds so much colour to our lives, but it would only be for a few months, so I could probably handle that.

A sad day today too, as one of Lee's cats - Woody - was coming in for dinner this afternoon (the cats all get locked in a cage together at night time for safety), and on his way in somehow got trapped in the neighbours back yard with their Rottweiler. Woody put up a good fight, and Clinton, Lee's son jumped the fence and rescued him, but he was in bad shape when they got to him. They took him to the vet, but he had a punctured lung and internal injuries, so they thought it would be kinder to put him to sleep. Poor Woody, he was a lovely cat and a great mouser - he will be missed.

Sooooo, again, nothing too interesting and we are going to be staying put here at Lee and Gary's for a couple of more weeks, we still have stuff to get done to the 4x4 and caravan, so it will give us time to get that stuff done. It's Ross' 40th birthday party on this Saturday night, so that should be a good night. We are getting Dale's (my brother's (married to Louise)) spit roast machine to cook the meat on and Ross' brother, Robert, is briniging Sing Star, so that should make it interesting!!

21st - 31st July

Wow! What a great week. Ross and I went up to Maryborough to do a 4WD driver's training course. We had a fantastic time, and both Ross and myself were doing the driving (though Ross did the most). It was really muddy and the poor old Disco ended up absolutely covered in mud, but the training gave us so much more confidence in her abilities as a 4WD.

Ross has done a lot of 4WDing in the past, but only in an old Lada, so having the Disco with traction control, etc, was a whole new experience for the both of us. We managed to get well and truly bogged once and had to get rescued, but it gave us the chance to see how to get a 4WD out of the mud! We ended up doing a total of 4 "rescues" on the day, as it was really muddy and everyone kept getting stuck. We had a ball! The other car doing the training with us was a brand spanking new Jeep Wrangler, and it was "blooded" by the end with a big ding in it's bumper from doing a creek crossing with vertical embankments. Lucky he was planning on getting a different bumper anyway!

We managed to leave our camera behind, so we are hoping to get some footage of the day from the guys in the Jeep. We were invited to go back free of charge to do the course again if we want, and we are seriously considering it because Ross is getting a diff lock put in the Disco that should make it perform better and he would love to go and try out the course again to see what difference it makes.

I also caught up with some buddies from my old workplace - we went out for lunch at Sushi Station at Bulimba and had a great time at lunch. Hi Christy, Sarah and Nyree!!!!

14th - 20th July

We have been staying at my sister's and her husbands (Lee & Gary) place for a week now, and Boris has managed to get himself into more trouble and cost us more money!

First, he chewed through his lead so he could chase the cats (my sister, Lee has 4), then he busted his collar so he could chase cats, then he had to go back to the vet and get his ear drained because it was still swollen.

Poor old Lee's cats are going to need psyciatric help after we leave, I'm sure.

Gary and I took his tinny out fishing, we didn't catch anything worth keeping, but did catch a variety, including bream, whiting, taylor, , crabs, shovel nose shark, and several stingrays.

We have been out to dinner at my other sister's place - Debbie, Steve and Ethan (their 4 yo). We took Boris around there too so he could terrorise their cats for a change - Boris thinks life's just wonderful with all this variety!

We also went out for Macca's with Ross' brother and his son Christopher for Christopher's 10th birthday.

Ross and I completed a senior first aid course this week so we can hopefully handle most emergencies that may come up on our travels.

Not much else to tell this week, as I said - there won't be much to tell for a week or 2 until we get underway on the real trip!

Leaving Kempsey

7th - 13th July

This is it! Our big 12-month trip around Australia that we have been planning like forever! Here's how the first week went:

Well folks, it took us a week to get from Port Macquarie to Brisbane! We did a lot of visiting friends and family. We stopped at Ross' parent's place for the first few days (at West Kempsey, a whole 3/4 hour drive from home). We then stopped at Ross' sisters place in Repton (just this side of Coffs Harbour), another whole hour's drive along the way. While staying at Repton with Michele and Bill, we went whale watching, which was fantastic, the whales came right up to the boat, but in all the excitement, I didn't get any good shots of it!

We have Boris, our cattle dog cross with us, and he has created havoc already. We pulled up at some friend's place in Lismore (Joi, Greg, and their 3 yo daughter Madeline) who own some property, and they weren't there when we arrived, but they left the door open and left a note for us to make ourselves at home, so we let Boris go in the house yard while we were setting up the caravan. Now, last time we visited these friends, they did not have a cat, and when we were talking about coming and visiting them, they didn't mention about the cat, so, of course we had no idea that they had aquired one in the meantime! Unfortunately for the cat, Boris thinks cats are great to chase, so within seconds of arriving, the fun was on!! Boris managed to get the cat cornered in the garage, and ended up with it attached to his face. With a little intervention from myself, we got them separated, and never saw the cat the rest of the time we were there visiting! Anyway, Boris looked a little worse for wear after that encounter, so we washed him down with salt water and let him go again, only to find him 20 minutes later swimming in their pond and covered in cow poo!! AAAGGHH! Another wash later and he was put on the chain for the rest of the visit. Dear sweet puppy!

Two days later in Brisbane I notice he is favoring his ear, and when I look, it has all swollen up, so it's off to the vet for Boris and $140.00 later he is feeling much better!

The rest of the trip has been uneventful so far, and there won't be much happening over the next couple of weeks while we stay in Brisbane, getting more things ready for the trip. We have a 4WD course to do while we are here, as well as a First Aid Course.

Ross rang his boss in Port Macquarie and asked him to get him a job here in Brisbane at Harvey Norman for a few weeks while we are here - the boss was more than happy to help out, so we will find out soon whether he has any work or not. I have been continuing on with my course and am just about ready to start earning money over the internet - yay! Hopefully I will be able to earn a good wage doing that so I don't have to go fruit picking!!