Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Oakey (about 35 K from Toowoomba) is the base for our Australian Army’s Aviation, so after our semi rainy weekend of motor racing it was fine and we set off to catch up on their museum, very interesting, informative, one does not realise how much air power they employ. John took many photos from the Box Kite to the Black Hawk.
Moving out on the Tuesday we went again to Jondaryan Woolshed which proved to be good and bad – good in that the TV reception was fine, so we could have stayed there for the motor racing weekend – bad in that the only water was from a couple of fixed taps for the whole area and no outlet for our grey water, except our bucket, so John filled our tanks and I had very short showers that would fit into our bucket, I could not bring myself to shower in the ones provided with all the black mould and goodness knows what else.
It was an interesting place with many preserved historical buildings dating from 1859.
The tour was enlightening, the dog which rounded up the sheep to a pen was a lovely thing, and there was a sheep shearing demo, the damper and tea were yummy.
I added Cuddles the sheep to our travelling companions and bought a Jondaryan Woolshed Colonial Cookbook – which also contains snippets about colonial doings.
After 2 nights it was off to Esk via the Warrego and New New England Highways, stopping at Hampton Information Centre and gaining much knowledge of the Somerset region.
Moving out on the Tuesday we went again to Jondaryan Woolshed which proved to be good and bad – good in that the TV reception was fine, so we could have stayed there for the motor racing weekend – bad in that the only water was from a couple of fixed taps for the whole area and no outlet for our grey water, except our bucket, so John filled our tanks and I had very short showers that would fit into our bucket, I could not bring myself to shower in the ones provided with all the black mould and goodness knows what else.
It was an interesting place with many preserved historical buildings dating from 1859.
The tour was enlightening, the dog which rounded up the sheep to a pen was a lovely thing, and there was a sheep shearing demo, the damper and tea were yummy.
I added Cuddles the sheep to our travelling companions and bought a Jondaryan Woolshed Colonial Cookbook – which also contains snippets about colonial doings.
After 2 nights it was off to Esk via the Warrego and New New England Highways, stopping at Hampton Information Centre and gaining much knowledge of the Somerset region.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Moving On
After my 2 weeks in Tassie flew by, I flew back to Brisbane on 23rd Sept to find the van still parked in the backyard at Alana Street, John had made some maintenance work on the Toyota and caravan, we spent time happily with the family, a highlight was Leanne and Scott’s 23rd wedding anniversary on 26th Sept and next weekend a visit to Anton’s Turkish Restaurant-yummy and there we watched a beautiful belly dancer.
On a hot morning we proceeded to winch our van out of the backyard, WOW, the temp. got up to 28 degrees while we all huffed and puffed till it was in the position where we could couple up and pull with the 4WD, taking the van to Scarborough to have it measured for an annexe-I can’t wait ! and continuing on to Caboolture Showground to spend a few days.
Not to be outdone the rains came on the Tuesday night and once again we had a minor flood under our feet, (it has rained heavily at least once a week since the mid coast of NSW) and I have found it somewhat difficult to hold to my vow NEVER to complain about rain.
After going to the Sunday market, whereupon it rained again, we left there with the basket of wet washing I had been trying to dry for a couple of days.
Our next stop was Kingaroy – home of Joh and Flo, once again we took refuge in the Showground and in the tumble dryer they had. Well the fall of the rain did not disappoint us again, but then it dried and we sought out the cheap peanuts and toured the area. Checked out Nananga and I loved visiting the Lavender specialist and there I bought my next stitching project and just generally
enjoyed the area, leaving on Thursday after replacing the cam roller in the awning which had deteriorated in the ratchet.
With a need for our next destination to have a good TV reception to allow John to watch Bathurst
motor racing next weekend, we traveled the Warrego Highway through Bell stopping at Dalby for well priced meat pies for lunch. On enquiring at our preference – Jondaryan Woolshed – not good TV, so we pushed on through Oakey to Oakdale C/Park and he is currently watching his second race for the day while I read the paper and update our blog.
On a hot morning we proceeded to winch our van out of the backyard, WOW, the temp. got up to 28 degrees while we all huffed and puffed till it was in the position where we could couple up and pull with the 4WD, taking the van to Scarborough to have it measured for an annexe-I can’t wait ! and continuing on to Caboolture Showground to spend a few days.
Not to be outdone the rains came on the Tuesday night and once again we had a minor flood under our feet, (it has rained heavily at least once a week since the mid coast of NSW) and I have found it somewhat difficult to hold to my vow NEVER to complain about rain.
After going to the Sunday market, whereupon it rained again, we left there with the basket of wet washing I had been trying to dry for a couple of days.
Our next stop was Kingaroy – home of Joh and Flo, once again we took refuge in the Showground and in the tumble dryer they had. Well the fall of the rain did not disappoint us again, but then it dried and we sought out the cheap peanuts and toured the area. Checked out Nananga and I loved visiting the Lavender specialist and there I bought my next stitching project and just generally
enjoyed the area, leaving on Thursday after replacing the cam roller in the awning which had deteriorated in the ratchet.
With a need for our next destination to have a good TV reception to allow John to watch Bathurst
motor racing next weekend, we traveled the Warrego Highway through Bell stopping at Dalby for well priced meat pies for lunch. On enquiring at our preference – Jondaryan Woolshed – not good TV, so we pushed on through Oakey to Oakdale C/Park and he is currently watching his second race for the day while I read the paper and update our blog.
NOW TO CONTINUE
Since the activities of the last posting much has been happening.
To begin with we decided to press on to Brisbane northern suburbs and our family in Murrumba Downs; by now it was August 13th and in no time we were sailing up the Bruce Highway waving metaphorically to Leanne as we went past and on toward Caboolture Showground to park the van while we sussed out the lay of the backyard at Alana St. No room at Caboolture, so we went further and ended up at a very expensive-overpriced ($35 p/night) Caravan Park at the Glass House Mountains whose facilities were disgusting, far below those we had experienced on our journey, I could not get away from that situation fast enough. Anyway needless to say we wasted no time in getting back to M/Downs to catch up with Leanne and co. Friday is Pizza night and Jessica came over on her way home and it was a wonderful reunion.
So on Sunday we went to Bribie Island for a barbeque lunch and in the ensuing 3-4 weeks after we moved to the Gourlay back yard in a delicate manoeuvre to avoid the house guttering, we did things together with our family and I for one was in my seventh heaven.
John helped Scott with projects around the house building a new section of fence and a gate, fitting a skylight in the kitchen and installing a windmaster to expel the hot air. Took the 2 girls to a Powderfinger concert in a city park and went to Southbank for dinner (spoiled by rain) went about with the girls to some of their activities. During this time Amelia had a small bingle in her Toyota seca and her grandfather was able help her with some of his expertise about bodyworks etc. and ferried her to some of her many activities – university studies + 3 part time jobs.
On 9th September I flew home to attend the Dragons Abreast inaugural Australian Convention and activities on the Huon River and at Franklin. Once again I was in my seventh heaven catching up with my Hobart family and my good Dragon friends and the joy of seeing so much pink clothing in the one place and enjoy some paddling, unfortunately the weather was not in the mood to be kind and it was unseasonably cold, windy and rainy, the bureau stated it was the worst September weather for decades, too dangerous for the interstate Dragons to paddle, so I was glad to have had a paddle on my first Saturday home. We were able to attend all of the workshops which were planned at The Woolstore, and the visitors were impressed with our location for the dinner at Royal Hobart Yacht Club, spectacularly overlooking the bay with lights twinkling and Wrest Point glittering.
HHo
To begin with we decided to press on to Brisbane northern suburbs and our family in Murrumba Downs; by now it was August 13th and in no time we were sailing up the Bruce Highway waving metaphorically to Leanne as we went past and on toward Caboolture Showground to park the van while we sussed out the lay of the backyard at Alana St. No room at Caboolture, so we went further and ended up at a very expensive-overpriced ($35 p/night) Caravan Park at the Glass House Mountains whose facilities were disgusting, far below those we had experienced on our journey, I could not get away from that situation fast enough. Anyway needless to say we wasted no time in getting back to M/Downs to catch up with Leanne and co. Friday is Pizza night and Jessica came over on her way home and it was a wonderful reunion.
So on Sunday we went to Bribie Island for a barbeque lunch and in the ensuing 3-4 weeks after we moved to the Gourlay back yard in a delicate manoeuvre to avoid the house guttering, we did things together with our family and I for one was in my seventh heaven.
John helped Scott with projects around the house building a new section of fence and a gate, fitting a skylight in the kitchen and installing a windmaster to expel the hot air. Took the 2 girls to a Powderfinger concert in a city park and went to Southbank for dinner (spoiled by rain) went about with the girls to some of their activities. During this time Amelia had a small bingle in her Toyota seca and her grandfather was able help her with some of his expertise about bodyworks etc. and ferried her to some of her many activities – university studies + 3 part time jobs.
On 9th September I flew home to attend the Dragons Abreast inaugural Australian Convention and activities on the Huon River and at Franklin. Once again I was in my seventh heaven catching up with my Hobart family and my good Dragon friends and the joy of seeing so much pink clothing in the one place and enjoy some paddling, unfortunately the weather was not in the mood to be kind and it was unseasonably cold, windy and rainy, the bureau stated it was the worst September weather for decades, too dangerous for the interstate Dragons to paddle, so I was glad to have had a paddle on my first Saturday home. We were able to attend all of the workshops which were planned at The Woolstore, and the visitors were impressed with our location for the dinner at Royal Hobart Yacht Club, spectacularly overlooking the bay with lights twinkling and Wrest Point glittering.
HHo
Long delayed posting
Our trip took us through golden wattle lined highway, mixture of cattle and cane country, made friends with 3 roosters who (we are told) live at a Wardell rest stop, usual feed of bread and wild birdseed, and through Ballina a fishing town.
Our newest technique is to offload the van at a prospective town and tour the available parks in the car – so we did at Brunswick Heads, first information centre, then tour.
Choosing Ferry Reserve Holiday Park one of the 3 operated by the Byron Council. Best deal was 7 nights for 6, being careful to avoid trees and therefore Bats who settle very noisily in them in the evening.
Saturday there was a market at the Memorial Park, wow, very hippy, some vendors laid out their wares on the ground(looked mostly secondhand) some nice handcrafts, a couple of attractive bags, some leather, some fabric, I would have liked one but at $45 doesn’t fit the budget, beads, crystals, foodstuffs, honey fruit and veg. We bought a nice piece of pizza and ate it on a tree trunk on the beach, watching the lads using suction pumps to gather bait fish and worms. There were some characters the most outstanding was the fellow in the orange suit, black and white shoes, and a Mexican sombrero.
Drove to some of the local spots including Devines Hill, wonderful views of the town, headed off we knew not where, along one road that had no fences and the cows strayed across the road, then it stopped, back along the way we came and found Crystal Castle.
I
Our newest technique is to offload the van at a prospective town and tour the available parks in the car – so we did at Brunswick Heads, first information centre, then tour.
Choosing Ferry Reserve Holiday Park one of the 3 operated by the Byron Council. Best deal was 7 nights for 6, being careful to avoid trees and therefore Bats who settle very noisily in them in the evening.
Saturday there was a market at the Memorial Park, wow, very hippy, some vendors laid out their wares on the ground(looked mostly secondhand) some nice handcrafts, a couple of attractive bags, some leather, some fabric, I would have liked one but at $45 doesn’t fit the budget, beads, crystals, foodstuffs, honey fruit and veg. We bought a nice piece of pizza and ate it on a tree trunk on the beach, watching the lads using suction pumps to gather bait fish and worms. There were some characters the most outstanding was the fellow in the orange suit, black and white shoes, and a Mexican sombrero.
Drove to some of the local spots including Devines Hill, wonderful views of the town, headed off we knew not where, along one road that had no fences and the cows strayed across the road, then it stopped, back along the way we came and found Crystal Castle.
I
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