Tuesday, November 23, 2010
The time had come to head back to Gold Coast where the Masters Games were to be held on Coomera Lake. The caravan park is in chaos due to upgrade work, dusty-hot (21 deg. already when you wake up).
We headed off to the lake about 8:30 and a joyous reunion with my Dragons Abreast friends, settled our pink chairs under a blazing blue sky to watch the dragon boat races. My friends were incorporated in a team which was called Derwent Storm, another dragon boat club which also calls Lindisfarne Bay home, and a fast team they were too, providing some exciting racing.
On the Saturday there was to be a “Flowers on the Water Ceremony” and I was overjoyed to hear that I could take part in it. But, not only that, as I was walking toward the marshalling area before the preceding race, in my Tasmanian uniform and holding my paddle, the Dragons Abreast Gold Coast Team invited me to join them in the race as they were short of 1 paddler.
Wow I GOT TO HAVE A PADDLE as well ! They won that race also, though I decline to take any credit !
Another great thing was that we were able to catch up with Chris and John again briefly.
On the Sunday there was a breakfast at Kurrawa Surf Lifesaving Club, very pink of course, more pink flowers and also very tasty, beginning with a big bowl of fruit salad mmmm, eggs bacon, sausage, toast. After that we farewelled our friends and went our own way.
The next morning we had a 4 hour journey to where we were booked at Sommerville Valley Tourist Park, situated beside the Storm King Dam, 10k from Stanthorpe, 5k from Aloomba Lavender Farm where the concert was to be held on 27th Nov.
We headed off to the lake about 8:30 and a joyous reunion with my Dragons Abreast friends, settled our pink chairs under a blazing blue sky to watch the dragon boat races. My friends were incorporated in a team which was called Derwent Storm, another dragon boat club which also calls Lindisfarne Bay home, and a fast team they were too, providing some exciting racing.
On the Saturday there was to be a “Flowers on the Water Ceremony” and I was overjoyed to hear that I could take part in it. But, not only that, as I was walking toward the marshalling area before the preceding race, in my Tasmanian uniform and holding my paddle, the Dragons Abreast Gold Coast Team invited me to join them in the race as they were short of 1 paddler.
Wow I GOT TO HAVE A PADDLE as well ! They won that race also, though I decline to take any credit !
Another great thing was that we were able to catch up with Chris and John again briefly.
On the Sunday there was a breakfast at Kurrawa Surf Lifesaving Club, very pink of course, more pink flowers and also very tasty, beginning with a big bowl of fruit salad mmmm, eggs bacon, sausage, toast. After that we farewelled our friends and went our own way.
The next morning we had a 4 hour journey to where we were booked at Sommerville Valley Tourist Park, situated beside the Storm King Dam, 10k from Stanthorpe, 5k from Aloomba Lavender Farm where the concert was to be held on 27th Nov.
Saying goodbye to Kilarney with sadness (on my part) joining the New England Highway traveled via Stanthorpe to Tenterfield home of Peter Allen and his grandfather the saddler.
Tenterfield is another beautiful and historic town, we wandered around it with the aid of the printed guide, checked out the saddlery – that song of Peter Allen’s running through my head all the time.
Oh! such a lot of ancient memorabilia bringing back fond memories of our childhood. I acquired a beautiful little box that tinkled Waltzing Matilda and John wondered if it was the place from which his parents bought him a stock whip in the early fifties.
We drove along roads lined by granite boulders, the area being known as “The Granite Belt”.
We checked out Thunderbolt’s Hideout atop a cavern amidst some huge boulders which he also used as a lookout, for unsuspecting travellers along the road from Warwick’s goldfields..
Then on to the World War II Tank traps, designed as a second line of defence, to be used if the Japanese Army invaded Australia. Posts 8 feet long were set 5 feet into the ground, and if they tried to negogiate; they would expose the bottoms making them vulnerable to waiting troops.
At the now defunct Tenterfield Railway Station, (1988) reborn into a very impressive museum showing examples of various railway stock and a fascinating array of tools and artifacts; we spent several hours there and of course many photos.
Drove also to Mt Mackenzie affording a wide overview of Tenterfield and surrounds.
On another trip we visited Aloomba Lavender Farm, (to my fascination) more acquisitions !
We were told of a fund raising concert on 27th November, featuring James Blundell amongst others. With further discussion we were told we could camp there for 2 nights free, so we bought tickets – more about that later.
Tenterfield is another beautiful and historic town, we wandered around it with the aid of the printed guide, checked out the saddlery – that song of Peter Allen’s running through my head all the time.
Oh! such a lot of ancient memorabilia bringing back fond memories of our childhood. I acquired a beautiful little box that tinkled Waltzing Matilda and John wondered if it was the place from which his parents bought him a stock whip in the early fifties.
We drove along roads lined by granite boulders, the area being known as “The Granite Belt”.
We checked out Thunderbolt’s Hideout atop a cavern amidst some huge boulders which he also used as a lookout, for unsuspecting travellers along the road from Warwick’s goldfields..
Then on to the World War II Tank traps, designed as a second line of defence, to be used if the Japanese Army invaded Australia. Posts 8 feet long were set 5 feet into the ground, and if they tried to negogiate; they would expose the bottoms making them vulnerable to waiting troops.
At the now defunct Tenterfield Railway Station, (1988) reborn into a very impressive museum showing examples of various railway stock and a fascinating array of tools and artifacts; we spent several hours there and of course many photos.
Drove also to Mt Mackenzie affording a wide overview of Tenterfield and surrounds.
On another trip we visited Aloomba Lavender Farm, (to my fascination) more acquisitions !
We were told of a fund raising concert on 27th November, featuring James Blundell amongst others. With further discussion we were told we could camp there for 2 nights free, so we bought tickets – more about that later.
We chose to head for Killarney which would put us in touch with several places to explore, but along the way we had a GPS incident. It turned us onto a road which bore signs saying “NOT SUITABLE FOR BUSES, TRUCKS,CARAVANS. Panic – narrowing country road – where to turn ? – finally we found somewhere and backtracked to join the safer Cunningham Highway– climbing up an 8deg incline-3rd gear came in handy ! Remember – in doing this we are climbing the foothills of the Great Dividing Range and as a consequence the views were divine.
Killarney Holiday Park was set in green parkland, surrounded by mountains, paddocks containing stock, (we woke in the morning to the cattle lowing) and I was in my seventh heaven. It caused me to realise that “you can take the girl out of the country – but you can’t take the country out of the girl”
We checked out the nearby mountains and their many facets, walked in to waterfalls and drove around THE GREAT DIVIDING RANGE ! I was fascinated at one part of beautiful high country as the road meandered through and the cattle were grazing at will – there were no fences. At Carr’s Lookout we took photos of the rolling hills and valleys stretching to the largest mountain range in southern Queensland. Magnificent.
We visited and enjoyed the beautiful town of Warwick and took more photos of some of the lovely buildings e.g. the Post Office and Queenslander style homes and visited the railway restoration workshop.
Killarney Holiday Park was set in green parkland, surrounded by mountains, paddocks containing stock, (we woke in the morning to the cattle lowing) and I was in my seventh heaven. It caused me to realise that “you can take the girl out of the country – but you can’t take the country out of the girl”
We checked out the nearby mountains and their many facets, walked in to waterfalls and drove around THE GREAT DIVIDING RANGE ! I was fascinated at one part of beautiful high country as the road meandered through and the cattle were grazing at will – there were no fences. At Carr’s Lookout we took photos of the rolling hills and valleys stretching to the largest mountain range in southern Queensland. Magnificent.
We visited and enjoyed the beautiful town of Warwick and took more photos of some of the lovely buildings e.g. the Post Office and Queenslander style homes and visited the railway restoration workshop.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Our next stop was Scarborough, firstly to have our new annexe fitted and secondly as a base to celebrate our granddaughter Jessica’s 21st Birthday.
I was happy with the mid blue stripe of the annexe I had chosen when we ordered it whew!
We celebrated the birthday with a dinner on the Saturday night at the Breakfast Creek Hotel (I had Barramundi and Prawns …mmm) then on Tuesday evening we had a family gathering and Leanne cooked dinner. It was a joyous and happy occasion, a scrumptious chocolate cake Leanne made and decorated, streamers and decorations.
Jess loved all her presents including from her uncle Michael and Peter and Sue.
Scarborough is a seaside suburb and on the Sunday morning John and I had inflated our canoe, paddled on placid Moreton Bay and took photos including some of people doing tandem jumps from an aeroplane.
Moving on Wednesday we lobbed at Nerang, to be advised by reception that fruit bats were active in the trees – meaning they were noisy and messy, so continued to a park at Helensvale on the Gold Coast. Laundry to be attended to and time to tend my new herb pot, containing parsley, mint, thyme, oregano, chives – a lady alongside our site gave me a piece of a herb (name unknown) but it has a fragrance like five spice, so that could come in handy.
John’s sister Chris and hubby who were staying in the area to help family with an expected new arrival, came to visit mid afternoon on the next day – I successfully made a nice banana cake in my turbo cooker, about which I still have much to learn. Later we went to dinner at a nearby Tavern and were given a complimentary bottle of wine with each 2 meals ordered, we thought that was a pretty good deal, I couldn’t drink all and took the rest home to have through the evening.
We checked out Tamborine Mountain, found lots of interesting things to see as we drove through the beautiful rolling hills and valleys, read how they were formed millions of years ago by a volcano and then eroded away over subsequent years.
We decided in the end it would be a pain taking the caravan around all those hairpins and sharp inclines and would have too far to commute to the Masters Games in two weeks time and decided to book into the Helensvale
Holiday Park instead.
I was happy with the mid blue stripe of the annexe I had chosen when we ordered it whew!
We celebrated the birthday with a dinner on the Saturday night at the Breakfast Creek Hotel (I had Barramundi and Prawns …mmm) then on Tuesday evening we had a family gathering and Leanne cooked dinner. It was a joyous and happy occasion, a scrumptious chocolate cake Leanne made and decorated, streamers and decorations.
Jess loved all her presents including from her uncle Michael and Peter and Sue.
Scarborough is a seaside suburb and on the Sunday morning John and I had inflated our canoe, paddled on placid Moreton Bay and took photos including some of people doing tandem jumps from an aeroplane.
Moving on Wednesday we lobbed at Nerang, to be advised by reception that fruit bats were active in the trees – meaning they were noisy and messy, so continued to a park at Helensvale on the Gold Coast. Laundry to be attended to and time to tend my new herb pot, containing parsley, mint, thyme, oregano, chives – a lady alongside our site gave me a piece of a herb (name unknown) but it has a fragrance like five spice, so that could come in handy.
John’s sister Chris and hubby who were staying in the area to help family with an expected new arrival, came to visit mid afternoon on the next day – I successfully made a nice banana cake in my turbo cooker, about which I still have much to learn. Later we went to dinner at a nearby Tavern and were given a complimentary bottle of wine with each 2 meals ordered, we thought that was a pretty good deal, I couldn’t drink all and took the rest home to have through the evening.
We checked out Tamborine Mountain, found lots of interesting things to see as we drove through the beautiful rolling hills and valleys, read how they were formed millions of years ago by a volcano and then eroded away over subsequent years.
We decided in the end it would be a pain taking the caravan around all those hairpins and sharp inclines and would have too far to commute to the Masters Games in two weeks time and decided to book into the Helensvale
Holiday Park instead.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Time spent in lovely Esk
Spent a week at Esk enjoying the beautiful scenery, we took a few drives, to Toowoomba and roundabout. On the Saturday we drove to the Wivenhoe Dam from which the authorities had been releasing water and from the news reports was very spectacular, here is one of our photos. There were also lots of my favourite Jacaranda trees and I obtained some lovely shots.
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