Back on home turf.

Long time no post. We have been busy catching up with family and friends, and here it is, the end of 2009; well, tomorrow..........   :)
Today is our 14th wedding anniversary. Where have those years gone?

Thursday 19th November: We left Willow Park and headed into Melbourne on the Princes Highway, and found Robert's Winnebago. We parked out the back for 2 nights while they did the 6 month service on the house section of our Winny.

Saturday 21st November: Time to tackle the freeway out of Melbourne. I was nervous about driving our Magna back to Adelaide by myself, but after leaving the city I was fine. I stuck behind Rick (in the Winny) and it was an easy drive; no big mountains to cross.
We stopped for the night at a pleasant rest area on the outskirts of Great Western, it rained all night and most of the next morning.

Sunday 22nd November: We originally planned to stop for the night at Bordertown, but decided we could drive another couple of hours. We found a car park next to a community hall in Coomandook which looked OK, so pulled in there for the night.
It was quite busy as travellers stopped all during the night to use the toilets.

Monday 23rd November: Through Tailem Bend, past Murray Bridge and down the freeway to Adelaide. Back on familiar roads! Well, almost. A lot of roadworks along the start of Port Road by the city; what a mess!
First stop was Semaphore foreshore to gaze at our beach; then we stopped outside our old house. The new people seem to be doing quite a bit of work around the place.
Then on to Mum's. She wasn't home, but we waited for her. She was thrilled to see us.  :)

Tuesday 24th November: After spending the night in the street outside Mum's house, we went to my daughter's for 2 weeks. Granddaughter was VERY happy to see us, and spent most of her spare time in the Winny with us.

Monday 7th December: We packed up and headed to my older brother's property, where we were warmly welcomed by brother, sister in law and niece.

Saturday 12th December: Packed up again and visited my younger brother and family down south at Seaford; again, a very warm welcome.

Sunday 13th December: Further south to the country town Yankalilla to spend time with Rick's daughter. Again, we were made to feel very welcome, even though the only level area they had was in a horse paddock.  LOL  
But we didn't mind as it was very peaceful, and Rick's DD came to chat with us every spare moment she had.

Photo below is a view from the hill above "our" horse paddock, over Yankalilla to Normanville on the coast.

This photo is from the same hill looking down into "our" horse paddock. I have circled our Winny so you can see where we were camped.

Friday 25th December: We had Christmas breakfast with Rick's DD and BF, very nice. Then we had to leave as we were invited to my younger brother's house.

We had a great day with more family; lots of good food & laughs.

Saturday 26th December: Back to the north western suburbs to have lunch with Rick's brother and family. Then back to my older brother's property north of Adelaide in the evening. Another great day of family fun.  :)

Photo below is Rick learning to drive my brother's tractor. If it wasn't so hot outside today, Rick would be working on it now.

 

My next post will be in 2010! 

Happy New Year everyone!!!

Further South.........................

30th October: After a very relaxing week at Casino, we headed south to Grafton, on the Clarence River; famous for it's Jacaranda lined streets. We were fortunate to see these beautiful trees in full bloom, a lovely haze of purple everywhere.

Next stop Coffs Harbour, where we walked around the marina, then climbed to the top of Mutton Bird Island. I should have taken the camera, as the view was great.
We stayed in the car park overnight, worrying that we might be told to move on, but it was OK.

31st October: Next morning the car park was filling up by 7am; all the kids were there for surf lifesaving training.
We drove out at 8.30am, around to the breakwater. Nice view from there.

We found our way out of Coffs Harbour with the help of our GPS and continued further south past Nambucca Heads, Macksville, Kempsey and Port Macquarie, to our next overnight stop, Tom Cat Creek. Even though it is beside the highway, the noise wasn't bad.

1st November: We left the camp area around noon for Taree, where we obtained a map from the Information Centre. We decided to take the tourist drive through the Great Lakes region. Very scenic in places, and worth visiting, but some of the roads were quite bad.

Next overnight stop was Bulahdelah, on the Pacific Highway again. There is a golf club here with a Chinese restaurant, so that is where we had dinner. The food was quite tasty and cheap, and the wine was only $2 per glass. We were happy.    :)

2nd November: 9.30am we headed down the highway, then south east to a place called Tea Gardens, and neighbouring Hawks Nest. Nice and quiet in these 2 small towns between the lakes and the sea.

Back to the highway again, then west to Maitland, where we toured the old gaol. Very interesting.
Now to find a safe place for the night. Further west to Singleton, the heart of the Hunter valley, we stopped at a nice looking park with shady trees, lawns and clean toilets. Life is good.    :)

3rd November: We went to the Singleton Information centre to ask about Putty Road to Windsor as an alternate route to avoid driving through Sydney, and were told it was a good road, but winding in places, so that was the route we chose. 179 kms with no towns or anywhere to stop. It certainly was winding for several kms as it followed a creek, then climbed into the mountains. We had Wollemi national park on our right and Yengo national park on our left as we drove high on the ridge. Finally, after some steep descents, we were in Windsor, but continued on to Penrith as we intended going to the Blue Mountains next day.
We booked into a a caravan park at Penrith as it was very hot and we wanted to connect to power to run our air conditioner. Surprise! Air conditioner doesn't cool! grrrrrrrrrr
We will need to get it fixed at some stage.

4th November: Cooler with some light rain this morning; a big relief.
Headed west up the steep highway into the Blue Mountains. We passed through some quaint villages until we reached Katoomba, where we stopped to look around. The main street is very hilly, then we found ourselves at Echo Point. Bus loads of tourists everywhere.
After parking Winny, we wandered over to see what everyone was trying to see through the mist. The Three Sisters, famous rock formation, was right there! I hadn't realised it was so close to the town, having assumed a hike into the mountains was the only way to access this site. Well, now I know.    LOL

As there are no freedom camp spots in the tourist areas, we headed off towards Lithgow, as there is a place to stop just west of there. What a steep hill to drive down. Big signs stating trucks and buses MUST use low gear, speed limit 40 kph! Beautiful view of the valley below though.

5th November: We drove another 35 km west to Bathurst, then south to Oberon, where we had lunch looking out on a pretty valley.

It was hard to believe we were still in the mountains looking at these gently rolling hills.
Our next stop was Goulburn, around 150 kms south of Oberon, and the road was quite good; gentle hills and bends. Then suddenly we came to this.........

2.5 km steep descent, single lane, hairpin bends, down to the bottom of the valley! When we reached the bottom, Rick said "that was fun, let's do it again"   We didn't.
Through Goulburn and onto the Federal Highway towards Canberra, we found a cold, windy place for the night.

6th November: This is the coolest we have been for a long while; we had to find jackets.

We drove into Canberra, our nation's capital, where we spent 4 days checking out various museums, the Mint, old and new Parliament House, Mount Stromlo Observatory (which was badly damaged by bushfires a few years ago)  and the Deep Space Communication Centre. All very interesting. 

Photo below is blanks being tipped into a machine ready for minting into coins.

This is our Parliament. We walked on the grass on the roof

Part of the Mount Stromlo Observatory complex, destroyed by bushfire.

Big dish at the Deep Space Communication Centre.

10th November: Left Canberra 10.30am, still heading south, towards Cooma. We were still in the mountains; then heading east we came to Brown Mountain, which we had to drive down to get towards sea level again, and our next camp spot. 10 kms steep winding descent, with the obligatory hairpin bends. Sigh, I was getting tired of mountains by this time. As usual though, the views were magic.

We drove through the cheese town of Bega, then around 20 kms south to Yellow Pinch Dam rest area. 1 km steep road off the highway, this was a lovely quiet bush area, with water and good loos. We stayed 2 nights here.

12th November: We thought we had better make tracks or we'd never get to Adelaide for Christmas. But....................which Christmas???    LOL

The next camp site we chose from our book was closed, so another 20 km on we found a place, close to the highway, lots of flies, but we had some good company from other travellers.

13th November: 19 km south to Genoa, the first town across the border in Victoria. Not really a town, it has a pub, a handful of houses, and a GREAT rest area.

But first, we headed off the highway to the coast, Mallacoota. Pretty town with lakes and rivers, and fishing. Rick tried his luck and caught a Flathead.

We drove back to Genoa as it got dark, and stopped there for 2 nights as we liked it there. Big grassy area with shady trees, good loos, surrounded by green paddocks with grazing cows and far enough off the highway that we hardly heard the traffic.

15th November: Heading west / south west now, through Orbost and then south along the Snowy River to Marlow. We camped beside the river just out of town, and Rick tried feeding the fish again. He isn't having much luck catching any.

16th November: Next stop Lakes Entrance. Some very nice water views around here.

After driving around the area we went through Bairnsdale to find our next camp at Providence Ponds.  This was right next to the highway, and very noisy and dusty. The loos weren't bad though.

17th November: Drove to Sale, the first town in the Gippsland region, where we walked around the lake, then we went downstream to see the old swing bridge.

Our next overnight spot is Willow Park, which we almost missed as it wasn't sign posted early enough. This is another nice big grassed area beside a river, La Trobe, but it has some traffic noise.

We are staying here 2 nights before we tackle the freeway into Melbourne. Our Magna sedan is still at the Winnebago dealer, 6 months after we drove Winny north! So I will follow Rick back to Adelaide driving the Magna, he in the Winny. We should get back in a week or so.

Still heading south, slowly..............

I have been having some trouble with the paragraph spacing here, so I don't know how this page appears to you readers. Can someone please let me know. Thanks.

While we were in the Gladstone area, (Calliope) we took a coffee cruise on Gladstone Harbour. Photo below shows Mount Larcom, the Sleeping Giant, in the background.
Click on photos for a larger view. These tug boats appeared to be having a tug of war! They had a rope connecting them.

Friday 9th Oct; We left the Gladstone area and travelled only 15km or so to Benaraby where we stopped for the night at a free roadside rest area.

Saturday 10th Oct; Went to look at Awoonga Dam, there wasn't anywhere suitable for us to park, so we headed down to the coast to 1770. That's the name of the town. Nice place, with boardwalks along the beachfront, clean BBQ's and picnic areas.

Then we drove to the small town of Rosedale, off the main highway, where we spent 2 nights parked behind the local pub. Cheap and very quiet. We had dinner in the Rosedale Pub both nights. The crumbed fish was very good.

Monday 12th October we headed to Bundaberg to tour the rum distillery. Very interesting, and we were given 2 full sized drinks at the end of the tour. We bought the liqueur, which is only available at the distillery.

We drove to the free rest area at Gin Gin for the night, where we met up with a group of travellers who had also attended the Rockhampton Rally. Happy Hour became 3 hours. LOL

Tuesday 13th Oct; Driving towards Childers it was very windy. We stopped at Apple Tree Creek for lunch, but decided to find another place for the night, as it was very hot and windy. We took a tourist route through Burrum Heads and Hervey Bay, then drove through Maryborough and back onto the Bruce Highway. 2km north of Tiaro we stopped at Petrie Park, on the Mary River. This was a very peaceful stop with lots of bird life, so we stayed 2 nights.
Had to watch out for frogs in the loo here! Photo below is Winny at Petrie Park.

Thursday 15th Oct; We left Petrie Park around 10am and drove to Gympie, where we stopped at Chatsworth Park for coffee. This is another free overnight rest stop with a series of ponds; a nice stop, even though it is on the highway. There were a lot of large wading birds in the tree tops by the ponds, as pictured below.

From Gympie we took the hilly and winding road down to Tin Can Bay, then Rainbow Beach; then back to the southern end of Gympie to Six Mile Creek for the night. This is another free stop on the Bruce Highway.

Friday 16th Oct; heading south to the Sunshine Coast. We thought we would go and have a look at the famous Noosa Heads; we couldn't find anywhere to park the Winny it was so busy there, so we followed the coast until we found a place to stop and have a swim. I think the beach was Mudjimba, between Coolum Beach and Maroochydore.

Up into the hills a way we came across a town called Yandina which is home to the Buderim ginger factory, so we did the tour and sampled some yummy ginger products, and purchased some too. We found a rest area near Yandina, Brown's Creek, where we spent 2 nights. Had Happy Hour with a couple parked in front.

Sunday 18th Oct; Took the tourist route through Kenilworth and Maleny. The road was quite bad in places, and scary going down the steep hill from Maleny to Landsborough, but the views were great. We saw the famous Glasshouse Mountains from up the top at Maleny, and also from a couple of other vantage points.

As we weren't to far from Caboolture we visited our niece and family, then went to the local showgrounds to camp for the night.

Monday 19th Oct; Drove to the Glasshouse Mountains lookout up the hill from Beerburrum, then over to see what's at Bribie Island.

Rick then decided we should head off and get through Brisbane. Yikes! After all our time driving through the countryside and smaller towns, this was quite an experience. Traffic! We hadn't seen traffic like this since early May in Melbourne.

We managed to get through Brisbane, then onto the Pacific Motorway to the Gold Coast. Using the GPS we were trying to find Stotts Island Nature Reserve, which is just across the border in N.S.W. Well, the GPS took us up over a big hill, down to a dead end dirt track by the Tweed River and expected us to cross, but there was no bridge. Rick used his sense of direction and managed to find where we wanted to go. I turned the GPS off.

Photo below: Glasshouse Mountains from Bribie Island.

Photo below taken from Glasshouse Mountains Lookout.
Photo below is the Glasshouse Mountains from up at Maleny.

We stayed 3 nights at Stotts Island Reserve as we wanted to visit Movie World and Sea World, which are around 40kms back along the highway on the Gold Coast, Queensland. We crossed the border a few times.

We thought Movie and Sea Worlds were overpriced for us, but would be better value for kids. You are not allowed to take in any food or drink; you have to buy their over priced items. At least we found a drinking fountain at Movie World. The 4D Shrek movie was fun, and Rick went on 2 of the rides.

At Sea World the dolphin show was very good. We both went on 2 of the water rides here.

Photo of Rick at Movie World.

The "Imagine" dolphin show at Sea World.
Thursday 22nd Oct; we set off around 10.30am to Murwillimbah in search of a laundromat. When the washing was taken care of we drove over more very hilly roads to the Pacific Highway (which is also very hilly) down to Ballina, through Woodburn looking for a place to park for the night. We came to a locality called New Italy, where we stopped under the trees next to a small museum. Next morning we visited the museum; interesting story about this place.

We then drove inland to the town of Casino, which has a very good RV village. We paid to stay for a week here; we are due to leave Friday 30th Oct.

The weather has been very warm to hot, and dry, our whole drive south. Yesterday was overcast and humid; late afternoon rain, thunder and lightning started and continued most of the night. It was good to see; we might get more today.

I have often heard or read of people thinking Australia is all flat, well sometimes I wish it was! We have come across some very interesting roads so far, and I bet we will find many more!

South to Rockhampton, Qld.

Sorry I have taken so long to update, this nomadic lifestyle is keeping us VERY busy! LOL

We packed up and left Rick's sister's place on Monday 21st September, heading around 1100kms south to attend the CMCA National Rally in Rockhampton. We allowed ourselves a week to get there, as we didn't want to rush. We drove through towns we had already been through on our way north, and added a couple more. The photo below is Mission Beach, very nice. The weather was very warm, and it might have been sunny, but it was a bit difficult to tell with all the dust! There was a layer of dust over most of NSW and Qld for a few days of our drive south. Photo below is along the Bruce Highway..............somewhere. The mountains are barely visible.

This photo is a view over the town of Bowen, shrouded in dust.

We stopped for 2 nights at a quiet little caravan park at Armstrong Beach; we were only going to stay one night, but Rick wanted to go fishing with the bloke camped next to us. There was a lot of birdlife around; all sorts of bird calls. The photo below is the 2 guys fishing in the mangroves. They didn't catch anything there, so tried their luck from the beach. We had some yummy fresh fish for breakfast next morning. :)

We arrived in Rockhampton in the morning, 28th September, the day the week long motorhome rally began. What a week! Almost like being on a cruise. There were seminars every day, craft classes, rock'n'roll dance classes, evening entertainment, happy hour, socialising, laughing................ Rocky Horror theme ball on the Saturday night.

It was sad to have to pack up and leave on Monday 4th October; we had such a great time.

We are planning to attend the next big rally in Tasmania next March.

Now we are camped at Calliope River, near Gladstone. We have been in this area since Monday night, as we have been doing a few different tours in Gladstone, which is an interesting place. Rick has been trying to catch a feed of fish from the river, but seems to be feeding the fish instead! He has caught some, but they were under size, so back in the water they went. I want a Barra! Just one...............................please.

North, to Alaska!

Sea Princess Alaska cruise, 12-22 August 2009, 10 nights from San Francisco return.

We booked this cruise over a year out, but because we were to be a surprise to the group, we were sworn to secrecy. LOL It was hard to not say anything on the cruise addicts roll call forum as the rest of the group were preparing for the sailing.

This was a Duck Crew cruise that grew exponentially! Mama Duck, Mary Ann, did an exceptional job, and Rick, Mum and I thank her so very much for her hard work, generosity and attention to detail. She is truly a TA extrordinaire! :)

Monday 10th August, we were up at 1.30am as we were supposed to be at Cairns airport by 3.45am, 2 hours before our flight to Sydney, then San Francisco. Our flight left on time, and we landed in Sydney around 8.45am, then hung around waiting 3 hours for Mum’s flight from Adelaide; then onto a shuttle bus to the International Terminal. Our 13 ½ hour flight left Sydney at 2pm Monday, and arrived in San Francisco at around 10am Monday!

Dizzy......... LOL

We made it to the Holiday Inn Express where Mary Ann was waiting for us; it was wonderful to see her again. We met a few of the group, then went for a walk around the Fishermans Wharf area. Back at the hotel we met more of the group, it was a great surprise for them to see us there and many hugs were shared. By 3pm we were so tired we headed to our room for a nap, as we didn’t sleep much on the plane. We had dinner at Denny’s, a chat with Suer and Warren, then over to the Hilton to meet Mary Ann and more of the group.

It is STILL Monday! LOL

Finally Tuesday arrived! Hahahaha... We did the tourist thing, of course, and rode the cable car. We couldn’t believe how steep the hills are in San Francisco! Didn’t see any car chases though. Later we took a tram to the Bay Bridge area and wandered around.
More of the group arrived during the day and more hugs were shared. We met some cruise @ddicts who couldn’t sail with us, Lisa63, pizzaboy and Mariposa. So nice to see you. :)

Wednesday, embarkation day, was finally here! Mary Ann arranged a Duck vehicle to take us all to the ship, and what a hoot that was! She had given us ducky stuff, so we were wearing yellow duck hats and blowing our quackers at people on the street. It was sooooooo funny. Click on photos for a larger view.

Sea Princess sailed away, quacking, under the Golden Gate Bridge in sunshine; the fog had lifted for us. So for the next 10 days we had calm seas and much hilarity. Well, the seas seemed calm to us, or maybe the ship rode the waves very smoothly. I guess anything would feel calm after our crossing of the Tasman Sea late last year.
Our cabin ducks enjoyed the view from the window.

Our first port of call was Ketchikan, Alaska, after a couple of sea days. It was mild and partly cloudy. We walked around town; interesting place. The houses are built up the steep hillsides and looked almost like they were stacked on top of each other.

Photo below is Creek Street, Ketchikan.

Next was Juneau. Cool, wet and foggy. We wanted to ride the cable car to the mountain top, but it was too foggy at the top to see the view, so we wandered around town, bought some souvenirs, then visited the Red Dog Saloon where we sampled Alaskan beer.

Third port, Skagway. Cold, wet and windy; we were blown along the wharf towards town! LOL Snow on the mountain tops, quaint wooden buildings and wooden footpaths. We took the White Pass Train at 12.30pm to the top of White Pass. This was a great ride up the mountain; at one point we could see the ship way down below, before climbing even higher. Back at the ship around 4pm.

Scenic cruising Tracy Arm Fjord. Rick and I got up at 5.30am to see the view from the front of the ship. Awesome! Big blue chunks of ice floating all around. Then to Suer and Warren’s aft cabin at 7am to view the glacier. It was cold, but beautiful views here. Waterfalls cascading down the mist shrouded mountainsides; ice and snow at the top, so quiet.

Next stop Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). Mary Ann had arranged a morning bus tour for those of us interested, and the surprise was BSeabob, a Canadian cruise @ddict, who joined us with his DW for this tour, and provided commentary. It was great meeting you Bob and Jude. :) The inner harbour area of the city is beautiful; flower baskets on the lamp posts and buildings, cute little water taxis, fine old architecture............would have liked more time here for sure.

A day at sea, then back to San Francisco to get booted off our “home” :( Our flight wasn’t til 10.40pm, so we walked back to the Holiday Inn Express, dragging our luggage behind us (which the hotel kindly held for us) then did more tourist stuff. Got a bus to the Golden Gate Bridge because Rick wanted to walk across. Mum and I didn’t go far as it was cold and windy, so we waited while Rick crossed, and returned. We went back to the hotel, had lunch at Denny’s, then did some serious hill climbing to Lombard Street, the famous zig zag street. Tourists everywhere! I don’t think I would like to live in that street!

The hotel kindly booked us a shuttle to the airport; our flight left around 11pm Saturday; 14 ½ hours in the air and arrived in Sydney 6am Monday. Sunday didn’t exist! LOL 9am flight to Cairns, arrived around 12.15pm. Back to our Winny at Ann’s place by 2pm. We were very tired by then.

The Sea Princess is a fine ship, we found it easy to find our way around. The crew were all great, and quacked at us a lot! LOL They seemed to enjoy the duck antics. I am not going to write about food, amenities, entertainment etc. For us, the absolute highlight of this cruise was meeting Mary Ann again, and this wonderful group of people who I have been chatting to on cruise @ddicts forums for almost 7 years. Thanks all of you for your company, chats, laughter and hugs. :) We would endure the long flight to do it again, so watch out, we’ll be back!

Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi

more photos here: http://www.cruise-addicts.com/gallery/browseimages.php?c=3&userid=2561

Happy Balloon Birthday Rick! :)

Today is DH Rick's birthday, so we decided to have a ride in a hot air balloon to celebrate. We woke up at 4am, had coffee and got organised, drove off at 5am to be in Mareeba, 30kms away, by 5.30am. We met up with the balloon team at the Mareeba Heritage Museum, then taken by bus to the launch site, where 4 balloons were being readied for flight. I am not good with heights, so was a bit nervous; unnecessarily so as it turned out. The flight was great; I actually leaned over the edge of the basket to watch the view. Ahhhhhhh, so peaceful, except for the times the pilot fired up the gas thingys.

Picture below is one of the balloons being fired up. Click on photos for a larger view.
We were being followed. The bright green area is a sugar cane field.

The Barron River.

We are still being followed.

We watched the sun rise over the mountains. Lovely.

Mist on the ground The morning sun made a golden glow over the landscape. We landed in a paddock, and the pilot tipped the basket on its side with all of us in it, so we ended up on our backs and had to scramble awkwardly out, laughing.

We were then put to work helping expel the air and fold this huge thing. Back on the bus to the Heritage Museum for a cooked breakfast. The crew made Rick a birthday cake from a stack of pancakes decorated with chocolate and raspberry syrups, with 2 candles on top. We all sang happy birthday to him. Pity the battery went flat in the video camera.

We really enjoyed the ride, and the pilot and his crew were great. If you are ever in Far North Queensland, have a hot air balloon ride with the Raging Thunder team.

Photo below is me, Rick and Ann. (Rick's sister)

Tropical Christmas in July

Last Thursday, 23rd July, we attended the annual Tropical Christmas in July Rally, put on by the Far North Nomads, a chapter of the CMCA. What a fun 4 days we had!
CMCA is the Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia, of which we are members. This event was held at Davies Park, Mareeba, and over 260 vehicles of all types were present, from small pop top vans to large converted busses/coaches.
We met many interesting people, who we hope to come across again on our travels.

Morning and afternoon tea were provided each day, BYO chair and cup. Each evening there was entertainment; live bands and dancing; with Christmas dinner on the Saturday night. Sunday was Open Day, with market & food stalls, and the public was welcome to come in for a look.
Sunday night the Far North Nomads entertained us with a variety of acts, all very good. We laughed almost the whole 4 days! hahahaha...................this will be a must do next year. Photo below is of some of the vehicles; it wasn't possible for me to get all of them in the shot. Click on photos for a larger view.
This eagle was part of a wildlife show at the rally.

Today, finally, our Winny has name stickers. We chose Mystery Tour because that seems to be what we have been doing! LOL And we also added the Aussie map with Our Back Yard as it seems appropriate. (Mystery Tour is on the front too.)