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ADVENTURE BEFORE DEMENTIA No 13. Thought I didn't have much to write about this time, so I should really be calling this - 'Much ado about Nothing'. We stayed at the Redcliffe Showgrounds for a few weeks, until the end of May, then they threw everyone out, as the show was coming to town. Only $15 a night, the best showers, and the market every Sunday on our doorstep. Good value. They have an excellent Museum and library just down the road too. While we were there the local art group had a wonderful art exhibition and also free art lessons, so I went along to pastels, water-colour (we had to paint Michael Jackson), and drawing workshops. Really enjoyed all of them, but my best work was portrait drawing. We even had a live model.
Went to a Kitefest on the beachfront which was amazing. The kites were huge, some about 20m long. Took dozens of photos as usual. Met a nice lady, also staying at the showgrounds, called Wendy, who said Aldi were advertising for people to work as cashiers and they were holding interviews at a local hotel, so we both went along. What an experience! Must have been about 500 people in a line in front of us. I wouldn't have stayed, but she wanted to, so we stood for 3hrs before we were finally interviewed and of course by that time there were another 500 behind us. Sad to see so many young people looking for work. We had to answer 4 maths questions, as their machines don't tell you how much change to give a customer. Couldn't believe it. Wonder how many tills balance at the end of the day. Anyway neither Wendy nor I were offered jobs. At $22ph it would have been nice to earn some Australian money for 6 mths. Dave and I then decided to try and track down some of our ancestors as it was free at the library to use some of their genealogy records. Had unlimited access to Ancestory.com which was very handy, but after a few weeks of not really getting anywhere, I decided I didn't really have the patience and we both seemed to lose interest. We drove up to Bribie Island and spent a lovely day with Greta and Bruce. Bruce has heaps of patience and has traced Greta's fathers ancestors back to about 1600. I decided to take some baking up, so as we don't have a lot of room for lots of baking ingredients, I bought a Betty Crocker mix. Very easy to make, but I couldn't get it to rise, they must have forgotten the baking powder, so very disappointing. Luckily there was a stall at the market selling cakes. Should have bought one there in the first place. I normally do that every week, which is why I haven't baked since we've been on the road.

Moved up to Coloundra on the 1st June, for 3 weeks. Lovely caravan park, very close to beach and another fab cycle track. I wish I could describe how much I enjoy biking along these cycle paths. There are usually lots of trees so it's lovely and cool and with the beautiful blue water beside me and the sound of the birds it's absolutely heaven even with all the other people enjoying the path too. Australians really do use their parks. During the week always full of mothers with their children and at the weekend's families using the free BBQ's. Often see grandparents early in the morning decorating one of the sun shelters with balloons ready for a party later in the day. We seem to be staying at a lot of doggy parks lately. The dogs are mostly really good. Some have their own little playpen. One night the couple next to us went off to dinner and a show and asked us to keep an eye on their dog. It cried and cried, people in the park were annoyed and I was upset, so in the end I went and sat with it for 3 hours. When they returned said it had never done this before (how would they know), but gave me $20 for babysitting. The whole town closed down the day of the Malaney Show, so we caught a free bus up (about 1hr away). I really love these country shows. Lots of beautiful chickens and cows and of course lots of stunning embroidery, patchwork, weaving, cake decorating, photography etc etc. Especially liked the decorated biscuits. The kids had obviously had a wonderful time cutting up lollies and putting onto arrowroot biscuits. Another day we drove back up through Landsborough (a little town with a large railway station, which we rather like), to Melany and across the top of the range to Montville. This is a very picturesque trip with lovely views across the countryside. Montville is very touristy but very lovely and it's very easy to spend a day there. They have a wonderful games shop there, and the guy who owns it never stops talking, but is really nice and spends a lot of time showing you how to play the games, so I always manage to buy some new games for Ethan. He then told us he has a huge shop in the main street at Coloundra, but somehow we'd never been down that end of town. Could spend a fortune there very easily. The weather has ranged from 1degree at night to about 25 during the day. On 9 June the Sunshine coast had its coldest June day since 1915. Only managed 12 degrees. I actually put slacks on - the only time since I've been back. It normally seems to be about 10 at night and 22 during the day, so I live in shorts and T-shirts. The locals all think it's winter and wrap up warmly. When we walk down the road, someone often says 'Well you're obviously from down South.' Hasn't been hot enough for me to get in the pools though.
Have just been talking to Brent and he couldn't go to work this morning as snowed in. Looked very pretty. They had another large earthquake last week. Wonder when they'll ever stop and will they ever be able to rebuild the city. For me Skype is one of the best inventions. I would go crazy if I couldn't talk to my sister every day and I talk to the grandkids most weeks. They've all had their share of colds. Wish they could be over here with us in the warm weather. I had my computer down at the river one day and I was talking to Eloise on Skype and showing her the ducks. People stared at me as if I was crazy. I guess for people who don't know about Skype it must appear strange to see me wandering around talking to a computer. Ethan always shows me what he's made with his Lego and usually reads a chapter out of one of his books, which is lovely. Lyn said when Eloise hears Skype ringing she says Nan, Nan. Isn't that just cute! Our friends, Jenny and Jim, have been up to see us a couple of times, which we really enjoy. Dave and Jim usually manage a game of golf, something that Dave and I never seem to get around to for some reason. It's so easy just to sit in the sun and read.

Moved up to Noosa. The town is full of round-abouts and for some reason every time we went out we got lost. They have a lovely walk along the river and also a fabulous boardwalk beside the beach. We drove from here up to Eumundi Markets again. This is a craft market so as usual, lots of things I would love to have bought. Noosa also has the best Farmers Market I've ever been to. Food mostly organic and so fresh. Loved it. Strawberries are in season again and they are so big and so sweet. Mandarins are lovely too. We then went to Tin Can Bay for 2 days so that I could get up close to a dolphin. Two come in every morning at 7.30 to be fed. There were about 100 people there, so some mornings they probably get to eat more than others. At $5 each a good money earner. A beautiful caravan park, but too isolated and no shopping malls for Dave, so off to Hervey Bay. We have a love/hate relationship with this place. They have a wonderful cycle track for about 15km along the beach and lots of special roads for the thousands of mobility scooters. This place has at least 16 retirement villages, also some of the worst drivers we've ever seen, so maybe it's all old people who are crazy drivers. Found 3 really good markets around here. Bought a cute little blue and white spotted dress for Eloise for $5 (made in China of course) and the lady put a little pink purse in too that she will love. Met a guy from Mundubbera selling beautiful citrus for $3 a bag. Takes him nearly 3hrs to get down here. You'd have to sell a lot to make that worthwhile. Bought some handmade cards which I thought were a bit special and spent quite a long time talking to the couple who make them and now tomorrow I'm going round to their caravan to learn how to make them so that will be fun. Also spent a long time talking to a couple that we met at the botanical gardens and they want us to call round for a cup of coffee, so all this keeps us busy. They told us about a very cheap c/p in Hervey Bay - only $20 a night and all the rest are about $38, but unfortunately we couldn't get in until 14 August, so a bit late for us. Houses are very cheap here and even cheaper in Maryborough. The dearest we saw for sale, was a stunning Queenslander opposite a lovely park with 5brms, study, dble gge, auto gates etc etc for $500,000. Most 4brm, 2bth homes were about $300,000. And only 1/2hr from the beach too. We spent a week there again as I had a special Christmas in July square dance to go to. Had a great day of dancing, with lovely people and with a fab dinner in the middle of it, and of course a fab supper, all for $18. I've been dancing at lots of different clubs over the last few months, so knew most of the people there, although some other visitors from Sth Aust and Melbourne there too. An old friend of Daves, who we last met in Melbourne, about 22mths ago, drove 1 1/2hrs down from Bundaberg to visit for a day, which was lovely. They have some lovely parks and at one, they have a replica 1873 steam train, so we had a ride on that and of course I wished Ethan and Eloise were with me. I enjoy doing our travel scrapbook as we find that very useful to look back on, and hopefully when I bring it over, you guys enjoy looking at it too. We decided the $80 a time for our printer ink was just too much, so now I go down to Harvey Norman and print $1's worth of photos and it's much easier. Guess we will keep the printer in case we ever want to scan something. Lyn reckons I should scan all my recipes onto the computer and throw all the pieces of paper away, because although I never do any cooking, I still can't resist ripping recipes out of magazines, and I seem to be given lots of magazines every week, so you can imagine how many drawers full of recipes we have!
Read the latest Ken Follet book, Fall of Giants (about 1200 pages). Turns out it's a trilogy, so now waiting for him to write the next two. As I said earlier we're having lovely hot sunny days, yet Sydney has had the wettest July since 1950. No wonder everyone comes up North for the winter. I've been trying to talk Lynette and Warren into bringing the kids over. If they do I won't be coming home so won't be seeing you until next March.
C

Say Hi to everyone for me. We've moving to Noosa next week, then maybe to Tin Can Bay or Rainbow Beach. Need to be in Maryborough or Hervey Bay middle of July for square dancing. Only 6 here at night and about 20 during the day. Have the heater on at night.
C

Hi
I was supposed to write this newsletter in March, before I left for my 'grandmother's fix' in NZ, so the news is a little late. Also, those of you in NZ will have heard half of it already, but tuff, you'll just have to enjoy? it all again. We managed to sell the Jackaroo for $3,000 (lost about $12,000 all up) and bought a 1995 Cherokee Jeep for $5,000. Tends to overheat when it's towing the van up hills, but so far its' still going. Hopefully we'll keep traveling for a year of two. Fingers crossed. (Here's a photo of the car I wanted).
Dave got it into his head that he wanted to go to South Australia next, so instead of staying in Toowoomba and flying home from Brisbane, on the 14 Feb we started heading downwards. Why we would want to spend winter in the cold beats me - I'm used to warmer weather now. First stop was Warwick. Lots of old sandstone buildings built around 1910. Stayed 2 nights, then traveled 60klm onto Stanthorpe for a night. Very pretty area - full of apple orchards and vineyards. Bought the best apple pie and the best apple juice I've ever tasted. Called into a little dairy farm where they made there own cheese and bought apples, raspberries, nectarines, peaches, broccoli, carrots, courgettes, cauli and beans, all from local farmers. Yum. Then it was on to Tenterfield - a Federation town. As we were only staying one night Dave wouldn't unhitch the car, so I made him walk 8km around the town with me, looking at all the beautiful historical buildings and homes. Guess who loved every minute of it! I got up early the next morning and walked around for another 2 hours. We had intended driving to Tamworth from here, but our friends had told us about an RV park at Casino that we wanted to see, so headed out towards the coast again. Three hours of up and down hills - not the nicest drive with a car that was overheating. The RV park was huge. Hundreds of lovely permanent homes with an ordinary carport on one side and a very tall one on the other side for the RV - and just about every house had one too! Lots of people with plenty of money, as some of these are 30-40' long with a small car towed behind. The houses are 1-3brm and range from $150,000 to $400,000. Ground rent was $120 pw. Have to be over 50 to live there. They had a lovely pool, a 9 hole golf course, a huge hall and numerous other buildings used for crafts, painting, woodworking etc. We spent a week here and Dave never saw me. I did water aerobics, steps, line-dancing, indoor bowls, crafts and even tried clogging. Didn't even have time to go to the art studio, play cards, or try 8-ball. If this park was on the sunshine coast I'd happily live there, but Casino didn't really excite me. (Here's Dave a little behind with his work. The best photo of him I've seen for a long time). On 22 Feb at lunchtime, heard there had been another huge earthquake in Christchurch. Once again had the worry of not being able to get through to Brent until later that night. Luckily all the friends I have there were OK, some were in office buildings in the central city too. But my beloved Christchurch is no more, with all those beautiful old buildings destroyed. And they're still having large aftershocks. About 4.500 to date. Thank goodness all the lovely old trees are still there.
We then went to Darlington Beach for 2 days. Lying in the swimming pool, looking around at the palm trees, 29degrees - just felt like I was in Fiji. Spent 4 days in Northhaven (26klm S of Port Macquarie). A lovely part of the country, on the coast, yet lots of lakes - paradise for fishermen. Went to the club for tea, and lots of women in square dance skirts. They'd had a w/e of plus dancing with Brian Hotchkies, so invited me along and of course I had a great time. The next morning I could hear water pouring somewhere, but we had none coming out of our taps. When Dave went to investigate the hose had fallen off our van, but of course the tap was still full on, the drain was blocked, so not only was our site flooded, but so was half the park. We packed up and left in record time. Our next park was beside the the river at Karuah, Port Stephens. Once again a great place for fishing and boating. It was very hot, but luckily our site was next to the swimming pool and that's where we spent most of our 2 day stop. At 4.30pm the sky suddenly went black, the wind came up and whipped through the park. We quickly had to put the awning away and put the stabilizers down too, as the caravan looked about to blow away. Wind and caravans do not go together! It poured with rain for 2 mins and then just as quickly the wind dyed away, and blue sky came out again. 5 mins of panic! On the news that night they said a mini cyclone had swept through Port Stephens.
The next day we were meeting up with our friends Mike and Angela, who we hadn't seen since Aug last year when we were in Sarina. We had planned to meet at Lake Macquarrie, but the caravan parks at Toronto and Morisset were both full. Luckily a 2 star park at Teralba managed to squeeze us both in. We only had a 40 km drive, but they drove about 500 km from Jervois Bay and with bumper to bumper traffic through Sydney didn't arrive till 4pm. We had 3 lovely days together catching up. Mike BBQ'd our breakfast and dinner every day, which was lovely, but sitting outside all the time meant the mosquitoes had a feast too, so for the next month I was once again covered in very itchy bites. I went over to talk to Angela one morning and she came outside and forgot the tap was on with the plug in the sink. Ended up with a major clean-up as water went all through the cupboards and across the floor. The joys of camping!
On 8 March we left our car and caravan in a locked paddock at this c/p for $10pw, which is extremely cheap, and traveled for 3 hours by train down to Sydney. Only $2.50, which is also very cheap. But then from Central to the Airport, a 5 min journey, costs $10. This time Dave also flew home to NZ. He stayed for 3 wks and I was to stay for 5. But on landing at Auckland airport had excruciating pain in my r ear and experienced ear ache and headaches on and off for the 5 weeks. The day before I was supposed to return to Australia a Dr advised me not to fly as there was still fluid behind the eardrum and he was fairly sure it would burst. So I didn't go, and the next day spent $400 on a specialist who told me there was no fluid and nothing wrong and couldn't tell me what was causing the pain. Crazy! But there was a bonus to all of this. It was another month before I could get a cheap flight and I spent most of it with Ethan and Eloise. Ethan has so much more confidence after a year at school. I was able to watch his first game of soccer and also went to his swimming lessons a number of times. He's very good now and has just gone up another level. Eloise turned 1 on the 24 Feb. She is so gorgeous and very bright- you only have to show her something once. She loves her big brova, as she calls him. She had just started crawling a few weeks before I arrived, then she took her first few steps just before I finally returned home. I'm going to miss them both sooooo much.
Dave went crazy on his own for another month in Sydney, so drove back up to Brisbane to give himself something to do. He'd also decided it was too wet and cold in NSW, so looks like I'll have my way, yet again, and we'll winter in Queensland. Yeh! I arrived back in Brisbane, thankfully with no ear problems on landing, to a beautiful hot sunny day. Had a picnic on the Brisbane River with our friends, Jenny and Jim and then drove half an hour out of town to Redcliffe. One of my favourite places, so we're staying here until the end of the month. There's a 20km cycle and walking track around the beaches which I love and it's about 25 degrees every day, so back into shorts and t-shirts. Apart from the caravan being so small after spreading out in a house for 2 months, it feels like I never left. Love Colleen

Hello from Toowoomba
First I would like to thank all of you who were concerned enough to phone or write. We had no mobile coverage for 4 days and when it finally sprang to life there were 20 calls all from Tuesday. Our broadband has been very intermittent so although I wrote this on Saturday it’s not until this morning that I have been able to open hotmail and finally send it. For the past 5 days we have had 16 hrs of TV flood crisis reports each day. Today, a lovely hot sunny day, we have floods of people turning up to help in the massive clean up operation. Sadly NSW, Victoria and Tasmania are now experiencing what Queensland has for the past month. I’m sure by now each and every one of you has seen the film of the horrific torrent of water that with absolutely no warning rushed through Toowoomba’s main street last Monday tossing cars around like matchbox toys and killing two people. And then a short while later, an ‘inland tidal wave’ swept down the Toowoomba range through the Lockyer Valley taking everything in its path. It only lasted 5 mins but in that short space of time houses, cars and people were swept away. One body was found 86km away. At this time 18 are dead and 11 are still missing. Of course all this started with huge amounts of rain falling all over Queensland. 2010 was the wettest year on record. Normally at this time of year they are in drought conditions, but we have seen it all so beautifully green. Although Nth Queensland started to flood Dave and I managed to stay away from it all and had beautiful hot sunny weather for the weeks we stayed in Mission Beach, Charters Towers and Ayr, but a few km away in Emerald they were completely isolated. We were supposed to be heading there next, but as all roads were closed by floods we drove out to the coast again and there was already a lot of flooding around Rockhampton. At this stage we drove inland again and were nearly caught by floods at Dalby (which ended up being flooded 5 times in 2 weeks). When we woke on Dec 20th the river had risen and half the town was under water. They opened the road at 9am and we were able to ‘proceed with caution’ to Toowoomba. It’s not a drive I would want to repeat again. Pouring with rain and with water over the road and not being able to see the huge pot holes, we blindly followed the truck in front. For the first week we were in Toowoomba we had lovely fine weather and were able to explore the city. We love it. Full of trees (most streets are lined with them) and flowers and some beautiful old homes. Cooler than all other parts around here, (around 18 at night and 25 during the day), but no humidity. Then unfortunately the 3rd injector on the car went again (for the 3rd time) but this time it also has a cracked head, around $10,000 to repair. So we are still sitting here with no transport, trying to decide whether to abort the trip and come home, or buy a cheap car and try to continue. Would be such a shame to give up now! All this time the floods in Nth Q were getting worse with dozens of little towns and the main city’s of Bundaberg and Rockhampton under water and the main Bruce Hwy south closed. Supplies to the Cairns supermarkets went 1300km inland to get through. They ended up airlifting food in to these northern citys. Everyone in Toowoomba thought being 800m above sea level, up on the range, that the floods couldn’t reach us. But from the 5 Jan we had 10 days of gale force winds and torrential rain with 100mm falling most days. The ground became fully saturated and couldn’t take any more and then on 10 Jan 60mm fell in 10mins. And that’s when our little creek sent a wall of water through the town. Everyone who experienced these flash floods talked about the massive volume of water and the power of the water. The Wivenhoe Dam was full to capacity and they had no choice but to start a controlled release of the water. They were releasing 116,000ML a day, but that Monday, the dam came very close to releasing water uncontrollably, so 645,000ML of water had to be released and this met the water from the Lockyer Creek, and then Ipswich and parts of Brisbane city and 80 suburbs became flooded. 40,000 homes were affected, evacuation centers catered for thousands of people. Boats and pontoons broke free and were dragged down the Brisbane River to the sea. Even a floating restaurant samashed into one of the bridges and the lovely walkway beside the river broke up and is now out in the bay. Thankfully and amazingly, our friends, Jenny and Jim, who live a few metres from the river were not flooded, and the water which rose so quickly subsided the next day and the big clean-up began. This morning on TV I’ve watched men washing the thick mud off their roofs. That’s how high the water rose in one day. Today massive piles of rubbish are out on the grass verges and 12,000 people turned up to help, with their spades and brooms and hoses to clean the houses, businesses and schools etc. It’s hot, muggy weather and smelly dirty work and the mosquitoes aren’t helping, but I must say, if the car had been going, we would have driven the hour and a half into Brisbane to help too. Can’t imagine what it must be like to lose everything and then discover you had no insurance. Apparently a heavy storm that comes through the roof is a flood, but water that comes up from the ground is not! There are a lot of heartbroken people around. Farmers have also lost animals and their crops. Of course it’s far from over yet. There are still towns here flooded, but the fine weather is certainly helping.
Hopefully the next newsletter will be happy and exciting news again.
Love Colleen

The sun is out today. After 10 days of showery, overcast weather, it's lovely. Still having lots of problems in other places. Biggest natural disaster in their history. Theodore is deserted. They took helicopters in and airlifted everyone out. In Bundaberg 100 homes completely under water. No drinking water in Dalby. Chinchilla is just a lake. Emerald has 200 homes under. People walking around in waist deep water. Dawon and Fitzroy Rivers still rising. Will peak by Monday. 20% of state crops have washed away, so they reckon prices will be double from last year. Of course there are already grocery shortages and fruit and veges are crazy prices. Off for a walk around some of the lovely old homes. I love it.
C

From Cairns to Rockhampton is on full alert (this normally only happens when a cyclone is coming). They are predicting 1/2m of rain on Christmas Day which will make it a disaster area. There is flooding everywhere. A few days ago we were in Dalby. Half the town was under water. They opened the road to Toowoomba at 9am and although there was a lot of water over the roads and terrible pot holes we got out. The town is now 3m under water. The dams are all full, but they are worried about letting the water out as it could flood the towns further down the river. Millions of acres of crops are under water and rotting, so imagine that will put the price of food up next year. Don't think Australia has ever seen weather like this at this time of year. We have been so lucky. Most of the time it seems to be fine wherever we are. We had a beautiful hot sunny week at Charters Towers, yet Emerald was flooded so badly that every road into the town was closed. Sad that we didn't get to see it. Drove out to Ayr instead. Nice little town. At Rockhampton went inland again to Biloela. Toowoomba is a beautiful city. Lots of trees. Every street is lined with trees. The Jacarandas are just finishing. Would look wonderful in Spring and Autumn. Some beautiful parks and stunning old homes, so will have to walk around a lot of the streets. The car started playing up again yesterday, so it's back at Holdens this morning. They charge $126 an hour labour, so Daves worried it could cost $1500 again. Let's hope it's no 3 injector again so might be free. Well it was no 3 again, but they reckon there is a slim line crack in the engine, so $8,000. Could be the end of our adventure. Will have to decide what to do. Have a great Christmas. We're going to win Lotto.
Love Colleen

Guess what’s happened this time? (No Warren – we haven’t been eaten by a crocodile!) We have an enforced stay at Innisfail. On our way down to Mission Beach we ran out of water – 2 fan belts broken, so had to be towed back here for a few days. Saturday is not a good day to break down as they won’t look at it until Monday. Especially disappointing as we had planned to meet up with our friends from NZ, John and Gail, who are on holiday here. They didn’t have a mobile so I stood on the road for 2hrs in a bright yellow T-shirt hoping they would see me when they drove past, but as luck would have it they went past when we were in the tow truck. I must say how impressed I am with our Total Care cover from RACV. They pay all our towing cost for car and caravan, our accommodation up to $110pn, a rental vehicle, also taxi fares to $240. And if the vehicle can not be repaired within 3 days you can have car and van transported to any place in Australia. (That would save a lot of diesel). We’ve already seen everything here so a good time to settle down in front of the computer for the day and continue the story.

We didn’t like Townsville. A very big city where it takes ages to get from one side of town to the other, (and inevitably whatever we wanted to see was on the other side of town). But they do have a beautiful long esplanade with stunning trees and a huge rock pool, dozens of covered BBQ’s and playgrounds and seating areas. In every town these areas are very well used. They also have a huge Army base, so soldiers everywhere. Felt sorry for them in full uniform even if it is a summer one. We went for lunch one day to the oldest building in Northern Queensland – a small wooden hotel where the Cobb and Co coaches and the bullock wagons used to stop on their way to the gold fields. Took about an hour to get there – it was at the top of a very steep hill with a gorge and river winding down below. Wonder how long it would have taken 150yrs ago, and how the bullock wagons would have passed each other on the narrow track, beats me.
Some of the toilet blocks have open air roofs and so I always look up into the rafters to see if there are any snakes and I always look under the toilet seat too, but one day after putting the lid down, there was a huge green frog staring at me. I freaked out, but do you think, maybe if I’d kissed him, a handsome prince would have appeared?
Our next stop was only 60k up the road at Rollingstone Beach. Nothing there except our caravan park right on the beach. It was so lovely. No rushing around sightseeing for 5 days! Spent a lot of time in the beautiful resort style pool. That night our lights and TV wouldn’t work and the toilet wouldn’t flush, so we thought a fuse must have blown. Still had gas and power on the stove and power points working so thank goodness for our old lamp that we had bought for $4 at a Hospice shop, and also thankfully the fans were working, as it was a very hot night. The next day I walked around to all the Jayco caravans and asked people if they could think what was wrong. 3 guys had a look, but they couldn’t understand why we didn’t have a battery, as apparently all caravans have and the 12 volt system operates through this. Trust ours to be different! Finally found 1 man who took everything to pieces and he found a loose connection that had arced and burnt. Think it was a miracle it hadn’t caused a fire. He tightened it and everything worked again. Thank you Gerry – you may have saved our life! That night we had torrential rain. On our drive the next day up to Cardwell the little sugar cane plants looked more like rice paddies than sugar plantations.
Cardwell was a very small old place with a few shops and cafes and an IGA all on the main road beside the sea, but very surprisingly they had a new Marina with hundreds of stunning homes from about $600,000 to 1M. Can’t imagine why anyone would live there, so maybe they were holiday homes for people from Cairns. This area is a World Heritage Centre and they had an excellent display at the information centre called ‘Where the Rainforest meets the Reef’. Also the historic Post office and Telegraph office which was used from 1770-1983, one of the oldest buildings in NQ, which amazingly has survived cyclones and termites. It was so interesting to read about the men, who in 1872 put the telegraph lines through 400 miles of mountainous rainforests. How difficult must that have been!
On our way up to Innisfail we stopped for a break at Tully. The wettest place in Australia, with an annual rainfall of 4,500mm. The only exciting thing that happened in Innisfail was we watched the AFL grand final. For someone who doesn’t know the first thing about any sport it was an exciting game. 100,000 people there thought so too. It ended in a draw – 1st time in 40yrs, so they then had to play the whole game again the following Saturday. Crazy! Actually Innisfail does have lots of Art Deco buildings that had to be rebuilt after the devastating cyclone in 2006. Also the best bananas I’ve ever tasted for 50c kg.
From here we travelled up into the Tablelands to Atherton. A really lovely drive, very steep and winding for part of the way, with lots of dairy farms, bush, beautiful trees and rolling countryside. Reminded me of NZ. Paw paws, pineapples, mangoes, papayas and bananas for sale on the side of the road, but nowhere to stop with a 23’caravan on the back. Atherton was so much cooler – we didn’t need the fans on at night. It was lovely. No humidity and never got above 26 during the day. Always a nice cool breeze, and no mosquitoes or sandfleas! One of our favourite places. And the golf club here is only $10 on Monday and Friday so we were able to play. Would you believe I beat Dave at the 11th and had a par on the 12th. My best game yet, but I decided 9 holes is enough for me. The town has everything you would need. One interesting shop has the largest amethyst collection I’ve ever seen. Within 20km there are some lovely places to visit. Yungaburra – an Historic Places Trust village with lots of B&B’s and cafes. The hotel is 100yrs old this year. We watched a lady who was making a beautiful mosaic mural of the hotel, which will hang in the information centre. Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham – volcanic lakes with rainforest all around – very pretty, just like Lake Rotoiti at Rotorua. Malanda – another lovely village with lots of mosaic murals and a huge old pub, probably 100 yrs old too, with a beautiful wooden staircase and very wide upstairs verandahs. The Dairy Centre had an excellent museum telling about the pioneers who farmed in the area a century ago and they also made the best milkshakes we’ve ever tasted. Lots of waterfalls around this area with dozens of people swimming at each one. Herberton, an historic village in its own right, but they also have an historic village with an excellent collection of buildings from 1870. I spent 2hrs there and loved every minute. Dave sat and did Sudoku under one of the dozens of beautiful Jacaranda trees which were all covered in their purple flowers. Lake Tinaroo Dam, where people fish for Baramundi, water ski, picnic. Would be a perfect spot for a bach if you lived in Cairns. One was called ‘A Damn Good View’. Some stunning homes on 5 acre blocks too.
We only stayed in Atherton a week and then went down to Cairns. Steep and windy for about 15km, but not too bad. Found it very warm after Atherton and raining a lot, but it is the rainy season after all, so to be expected. In fact we got used to wandering around getting wet, but it was so hot didn’t seem to matter. I must say this is one of the wettest seasons on record for Queensland so we’re just here the wrong year. (Last night we had 120ml at Innisfail, the heaviest fall in the State). Thank goodness while I was away, Dave fixed the leak in the roof on the van, so no more wet cupboards. The two weeks we spent in Cairns it was 23 at night and 30 every day. Bev said it was 6 and 16 in Auckland. Guess where I’d rather be? One night the power went off at 8.30pm. I was in the middle of watching 4 Weddings and didn’t see who won. Most inconvenient! Everyone else had batteries, but we were in the dark, so drove into town. It was buzzing. Pavement restaurants all full. Night markets crowded. Dozens of Asian massage places. Only $15 for 40mins. Tempting. Cairns waterfront is lovely with a huge Esplanade pool. One day we drove up to Port Douglas and Mossman Gorge. Port Douglas very much like Noosa, but 4 times bigger, with a lovely beach and nice warm water. 20yrs ago a tiny fishing village. Now dozens and dozens of holiday resorts and motels. A very laid back, casual tropical paradise. In 1880 there were 27 pubs in town. By 1900 only 4 left and they’re still there although cyclones have damaged them over the years. Mossman Gorge has lovely walks with a beautiful rocky river – water very cool and refreshing – lots of people swimming. Very pretty. On the way home we called into all the Cairns Northern Beaches. All so different. Some untouched and unspoiled. Others like Palm Cove with lots of tourist apartments, beautiful foreshore, cycle tracks and lovely trees. The Botanical Gardens were another beautiful place with lots of unusual flowers. We stayed at the Big 4, 5 star, Coconut Holiday Resort c/p. One of the best. Everything for children you could imagine. Two fab resort pools, 2 huge jumping pillows, a wonderful water splash park, mini golf, outdoor theatre, tennis courts etc etc. Every night when we got back from sightseeing, about 6pm we went to one of the pools for an hour. Heaven!
We had bought a new printer, scanner, photocopier in Townsville (the month before), for $68, from Harvey Norman, used it twice (you get what you pay for), and then the red colour wouldn’t work. Took it back to H.N. in Cairns and even though it had a years warranty they didn’t want to know. Said we had to take it back to Townsville. (Maybe they are franchised?) By the time we went back out to the car I was mad, so turned around, marched back in and told him what I thought of H.N. He then gave me the phone number of the people who service their problems. Phd the guy, he was really lovely, took it in and he sent it back to the factory. It was replaced with the next model up, which he said was better. No problem. Now why couldn’t H.N. have done that?
We decided to spend $100e and do the tourist trip up to Kuranda through the rainforest. How can you come to Cairns and not do it? A bus picked us up at 7.30am and took us to the train station. Unfortunately 25 yrs ago when I last did this trip I had the seat furthest from the window and it happened again. Those seats should be ½ price as all the views are on the rhs of the train by the windows. Dave thought the train trip a complete waste of time and money, but it is an amazing engineering feat as 150 yrs ago they only had picks and shovels and built a track with 15 tunnels through terrible terrain, with it raining most of the time. Kuranda hadn’t changed in 25yrs. I went through the Butterfly House. Took dozens of photos of beautiful blue Ulysses butterflies flitting around. Managed to miss them in all the photos, but 2. They don’t land very often and when they do, they close there wings and the underside is brown. We travelled back down the mountain by the Skyrail gondola. Dave, who hates heights, loved every minute. It’s really excellent. 7.5km, gliding silently over the treetops. Has 2 stops with walks to waterfall views and a very good display about the rainforest which is another world heritage site. The bus took us back to the c/p at 6pm. I still think the trip is well worth the money. While walking around Kuranda village we bumped into Sheryl and Bob from square dancing in Auckland. They now live in Leigh and were over for a weeks holiday. They were going dancing that night and I would love to have gone too, but something I ate at lunchtime didn’t agree with me so wasn’t to be.
On 15th October I once again left Dave to fend for himself for a month, and I flew home. Dave took the caravan back up to Atherton and stayed for only $125 a week. A little cheaper than Cairns. ($210pw) and a lot cooler. But would you believe, on his first attempt back up the hill, the car had no power, so he turned around and drove back to Holden. They worked on it till 3pm and he was expecting another huge bill, but they said ’No charge!’ It was no 3 injector again, so was still under warranty. How amazing was that! They could have told us anything. So for once Holden came up trumps. The next day he tried again, but forgot that people had said ‘Don’t take the middle road up as it’s not really suitable for caravans’. He did make it, but said he was glad I wasn’t in the car. Much steeper and the corners were very tight.
Of course the month I had at home went very very quickly. Spent as much time as I could with Ethan and Eloise. She is now 8months old and very cute and cuddly. She’s nearly sitting up on her own, but not yet rolling over. She’s eating well and putting on weight (takes after her Nan). A perfect baby – never cries. When she wakes just lies in her cot “talking’ to her toys. Says Mum, Mum, Mum, all the time. Even said Nan once. Ethan and I have such a special bond. Maybe it’s because we share a birthday or maybe because he stayed with me so often, but it is really lovely. He still learns swimming and has just started cricket which he is really enjoying. He’s also doing extremely well at school. When it was time to go he said ’Why do you have to go back to Australia Nan?’ He would love me to be at home as I used to be. It was lovely to catch up with some of you. As usual not enough hours in the day to see everyone. Hopefully next time.
On 12th November Dave picked me up at Cairns airport at 1pm. The heat and humidity hit me. Thank goodness he had brought a pair of shorts for me to put on. Went to the Fruit and Vege market and spent $50 on pineapple, mango, oranges, nectarines, peaches, pears, strawberries, bananas, broccoli and beans. Then drove up to Atherton. It was so much cooler up there. Perfect! Spent another week there. Each afternoon had a tropical downpour. One day 63ml in 35 mins. Drained away very quickly though. Discovered a Regional Gallery with a wonderful display of ‘patchwork placemats’. They were arranged around the walls in the colour spectrum and each was a work of art. Could easily have bought about 10 of them. Drove out to Lake Tinaroo one day. Lots of stunning red flowering trees that looked like Jacarandas, but have discovered they are called Ponciannas. Didn’t have my camera so that afternoon we drove back the 16km again to take some photos.
Now that we had a new printer I spent 3 days catching up with my travel scrapbook. Had 9 pages to do. Wanted to have it ready to show John and Gail. Now they’ll have to wait until my next trip home, which I’m hoping might be end of February.
We’re heading down now to Mission Beach and then into Charters Towers. If it’s not too hot we’ll travel down the Great Inland Way through Emerald, Roma, St George to Tamworth for the country music festival at the end of January. Well that’s the plan, but we do tend to change our mind every week so you’ll just have to wait until the next exciting instalment to find out.
Love Colleen

But back to where we last left off –
From the Sunshine Coast, after Bev returned home, we moved up to Maryborough. My first impression was pretty awful. Town looked as though it needed a huge injection of cash, and probably does, but the next day, when we started looking around, I fell in love with it. Full of beautiful old Queenslanders built around 1880-1910. Went on a tour through one and it was jammed packed with old stuff – I loved it. Also did a walking tour of the town and learned all the history – made it come alive. Loads of old buildings – Customs House, Bond Store, warehouses, courthouse, jail, hotels, post office, built 1866 still being used. Visited a grocery store that was established in 1871, and then in 1972 they closed it, walked out and left everything, so it was quite amazing. Still had the original counters and really hadn’t changed much in a hundred years. The town is built on the Mary River and 70 ships were built between 1870-1974. The sawmill and sugar mill built in 1865 are still working and the rail yards, where the first steam engine, the Mary Ann was built in 1897, are still producing Queensland’s trains. The author of Mary Poppins was born here so a statue of Mary Poppins in the town. We even tried Orienteering here and nearly had a divorce trying to find the first marker. A lot of fun, but reading the map was a lot harder than we realised.
We drove out to Hervey Bay for the day. A beautiful beach front and cycle track but nothing else there. Funny, two of the places I wanted to see were Coffs Harbour and Hervey Bay and we didn’t like either of them.
There wasn’t much at Bundaberg either except for the Rum and Ginger Beer distillery’s. We didn’t bother going through them as they are not proper factory tours. We visited the conservation park at Mon Repos Beach. This is where the turtles nest. Would love to come back between Nov-March to see the tiny hatchlings scurrying down to the sea. Only one in a thousand survives to become a breeding adult between 30—50 yrs of age. I also enjoyed square dancing at Bundaberg and Maryborough. Very friendly people.
Did our second jigsaw – a normal one, so completed in 2 days. Not like the Wasjig that Dave did while I was in NZ last time. That took him 6 wks.
Gladstone has excellent free industry tours. We went on the city and botanic garden tour and also to Queensland Alumina Ltd. This is one of the world’s largest alumina refineries, processing 8M tonnes of bauxite a year to produce 4M tonnes of aluminium oxide. Watched the bauxite being unloaded from the ships onto a 2km long conveyor belt. The whole place was covered in red dust. At the finish the alumina travels 10km by conveyor belt to Boyne Smelters where they make it into aluminium. Here, everything was so clean, but not much to see. We stayed 20km away at Tannum Sands beach. A lovely c/p with a stunning park all along the beach full of trees, covered eating areas, free BBQ’s, playgrounds, and a fab cycle track. We biked 8-10km every day. A beautiful place, would loved to have stayed longer, but the sandfleas loved me. They’re so small, I never actually saw one, but did they do a lot of damage! Dave reckoned, running his hand along my arms and legs was like reading Braille. Unfortunately they itch for about a month and I’m still covered in scars.
On our way up to Rockhampton came across a huge traffic jam. A truck had rolled on a narrow bridge at 4am and the road was blocked until 11am when they moved the trailer over and we were able to squeeze through, but hundreds of trucks waited another 6hrs. Didn’t worry us too much as we weren’t in a hurry, had plenty of food and a toilet on board. Stayed in Rocky for nearly 3wks as Dave decided to buy new glasses and I went to a square dance convention. After 5 nights and some sessions during the day too, my feet were killing me, but I loved it. I was very happy to stay that long as they had some of the biggest Queenslander homes that I’ve ever seen and most have been restored. They seem to be covering in the ground floor and making either a flat or a huge rumpus and entertaining area. And the most expensive I saw for sale was $550,000. Unbelievable. Every night about 5pm, when it was cooler, I made Dave walk around dozens of streets so I could photograph them. I also dragged him to the Historical village. 5hrs later – he loved it. Some great old houses, church, school and an old hospital (found this particularly interesting- remember when needles where sterilized, resharpened and used time and time again). Lots of cars, machinery etc and even a collection of 300 dolls (there was no-way I could get Dave in there). They also have a lovely botanical gardens and a really good free zoo.
It was great to finally meet up with our friends, Mike and Angela, at Sarina (40km from Mackay). They are working in the sugar industry for 6 mths. Mike as an auditor at the sugar mill and Angela is being trained to be a sugar train controller. For the past 6 wks she’s been out on the trains as an assistant train driver. I’ll bet as she worked in an office in NZ she never in her wildest dreams ever thought she would be jumping on and off trains changing the points on the track. The mill operates 24/7 so it means shiftwork and long hours but by Nov they should have enough money saved to travel around Australia for the next 6 mths without having to work. Hopefully we’ll spend time together again on our way down South.
At Mackay we did a tour of a sugar mill. Amazingly dirty and old and I thought too dangerous to have a group of people wandering around, but very interesting just the same. The chopped sugar cane is brought in from the farms by train. They don’t burn it first any more so wonder how many pieces of snake and mice are in it. After being washed, crushed and boiled it ends up as molasses and raw sugar and trucks then take it to a refinery where its melted down again and made into the sugar we buy. Found the computer room very interesting. So much of the process is now just pushing buttons. Must have been so labour intensive before.
I visited another homestead where, when the owner died in 1983 he left it as is with everything in it. It had been built in 1915 and still had a lot of the original furniture. The ceilings were all pressed steel, but every room had a different pattern. When I’m wandering around these houses I always feel as though I’ve been transported back to that time. Of course, as always we visited the Botanical gardens. They’re always so cool to walk around. Had a lovely orchid house. Most were not in pots – they were just sitting in branches with there roots hanging down. They must spray them to feed them. Wish I’d asked. And of course we visited some of the beaches. One had a road with dozens of huge old mango trees to drive under. I guess it was some-ones driveway a hundred years ago. Very pretty.
Every time we travel now we pass hundreds of caravans heading South. All the Melbournites are heading home.
On our trip up we’ve passed masses of pineapple and banana plantations, mango orchards, macadamia, avocados, coffee and of course lots and lots of sugar cane farms. At Bowen there were massive market gardens – lots of tomatoes and strawberries. At the moment I’m eating very healthy food. Some of the towns have fishing co-ops down by the wharf and I’ve been buying lots of different fish. Up here in the Tropics they have a lot of reef fish and coral trout is really lovely, but $40 a kilo. Trevally is only $12 and also nice. For dessert I have rock melons, strawberries, bananas and mangoes covered in yoghurt. Unfortunately it’s so hot I also have to have an ice-cream, milkshake or smoothie every day. And with no stress in my life and those lovely cake shops, I’m still putting on weight. Went on Skype to Lynette the other day and she said she didn’t recognise me at all. The young guy in the caravan next door was a hairdresser, and he’d just cut my hair very short so maybe that was why. Him and his wife leave their hairdressing salon every year for 3 mths and travel with their 3 boys. A great way of spending a lot of quality time with them.
Of course, last Saturday Bev phoned at 6am to say there had been an earthquake of 7.4 in Christchurch, so I had a very worrying few hours before I could get through on the phone to Brent. Luckily they were OK. His only mishap was Simone’s classic car had been up on blocks, as he’d been working on it during the week, and it rolled off onto the Cobra, so he now has a dented bonnet to fix. When I saw the photos of the huge cracks in the roads, the twisted bridges, and the damaged buildings made me realise how lucky it was that no-one was killed. At that stage the aftershocks were happening every 15 mins so pretty scary. They have since had a 5.1 shake which they felt more as it was a lot closer and not very deep. Let’s hope it all quietens down quickly.
I’ve booked to come home on the 15 October from Cairns. Will hopefully catch up with some of you then.
Love Colleen.

"We're in Forster. About 4hrs up from Sydney. Cold this morning. Put shorts & tshirt on then changed to a singlet, long pants, & long sleeved top and cardi and went off for a walk along the Rotary walk which is part along the beach and part along the cliff top. Then the sun came out and we didn't have a hat and I had to strip off. Dozens of seats along the walk and a water fountain (never enough of these) all given in remembrance of someone. Some just said Steves seat. Others said They rest here or They loved this walk etc. Two young 18yrs died within a week of each other, so I guess a car accident. We read them all and sat on a few. it was a lovely walk, talked to some people and found a Tai Chi group. They meet every day at 9am so said to come along tomorrow. Do exercises for an hour and then do part of the form I think. Dave said he'll take photos. 4 really old guys surfing, and they were good too. When we arrived at this place I said theres nothing to do here, but when you look around - great Arts and Craft group, Tai chi, dancing, lovely walks, $7 excellent lunches. Better than we thought, and tonight we're going dancing".

Love Colleen.

6 Feb 2010
Hi
More news to bore or excite you. Australia – the land of extremes. In January Melbourne was sweltering with 41 degrees and Brisbane was underwater. Batemans Bay was a nice little town with dozens of beautiful beaches and millions of people. School holidays are not a good time to be at the beach. They have a bridge where the middle goes up to let the boats through. Of course each time the traffic banked up for miles. Some days it took us an hour to drive through this little town. Normally it would be about 5 mins. Lakes Entrance with its huge inner waterways and 90 mile beach was better. Also went to Raymond Island and saw lots of koalas with their babies. Unfortunately my photos just look like lovely eucalyptus trees with no koalas to be seen. Drove across to Canberra for the day. On the map it looked easy, in reality it was one of the steepest, windiest roads I’ve been on. We had originally thought of taking the caravan over for a week. Thank goodness we didn’t. They had The Masterpieces from Paris Art Expo on – 114 paintings, so many of which I’ve seen photos and prints of and now to be able to see the real thing was very exciting. Van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, Seurat etc. His were so amazing – all little dots blended together. Loved it - Dave went to the library and sent emails!
We moved on to Shoalhaven Heads for 2 weeks. A beautiful caravan park with about 150 lovely permanent homes. There was a 9 hole golf course 2 mins away – I decided to walk around with Dave. He said here have a go. My first putt was a 30 ft ‘hole in one’. I was hooked! Dave couldn’t believe it (neither could I). Went back twice more. Absolutely loved it. I did 8 shots for each hole and Dave did them in 4, but I was at a disadvantage using his left handed clubs. Somehow he’d managed to leave my clubs at home by mistake. I wonder how that happened. He believes that women should have equal time on the golf course as men. Men should play from 7am-7pm: women from 7pm-7am. Went to the Binderoo National Park for the day. Some beautiful beaches- Hyams Beach is supposed to have the whitest sand in the world. You certainly needed your sunglasses on. Had the clearest water too. A very nice Aboriginal Botanic gardens there. Found a lovely historic home built in 1855 that had only been lived in by women. It was built for a widow and her 4 unmarried daughters. They passed it down to their 3 nieces who gave it to one of their nieces who sold it to the Historic Places Trust with everything left just as it was – furniture, photographs, diaries, household goods etc. I loved it – Dave sat and read a book.
Our next move was to a little historical town called Berry, nice and flat for bike riding. Took 2 hrs to pack up the van and only 7 mins to drive there. Stayed at the Showgrounds for $13 a night. Met some great people there. Sat up every night talking till 10-11. One young couple had a 7,5 and twin 3 yr old boys and two dogs. They hope to be on the road for a couple of years. Where just loving every minute. A 50 yr old couple from Perth had been on the road for about a year. A 70 yr old couple from Germany, came in 2003, now on their 2nd navigation. A 60 yr old couple from England, come for 6 mths every year. Haven’t met anyone yet who wasn’t very happy with the lifestyle, and I’m lucky enough to be one of them. People are so much friendlier at these freedom camps than at the caravan parks. Started a little cardi for our ‘little bump’ (she’s actually quite a big bump now I hear), and learnt to crochet again. One day decided to take the train up to Sydney. Took 3 hrs each way, but a lovely trip beside the coast a lot and through the Royal National Park, so very pretty. Only cost $2.50 for a day pass including bus and ferry rides – one of the joys of being old! Walked through Hyde Park, went by ferry to Manly, had a huge ice-cream, as you do, and rode a train over the Harbour Bridge. Would like to have stayed at the showgrounds longer but the annual agriculture show was coming to town and everyone had to leave
Moved to Kiama- 20 mins away. One of the hilliest places I’ve ever seen. The streets are all steep, but at least every house seems to have a sea view. The bikes won’t be used here. Most days have been 25-35, but we’re on the top of a cliff with the sea on two sides so there’s always a cool breeze. For some reason we’ve had some massive seas this week. Waves of over 3 metres high, rolling in one after the other and crashing onto the rocks with 40metre high showers of white foam. A magnificent sight. Each wave seems bigger than the one before and I keep photographing them. Now have 200 photos that all look the same. Usually we have surf boarders from early in the morning until late at night, but the beaches are all closed. They have wonderful rock pools to swim in. The water is about 24 – still too cold for me. I prefer the heated pools at the caravan parks. Spent a day at the Kiama Show. The wood chopping was impressive (or was that the gorgeous tanned muscled bodies). Loved the photography, cakes, knitting, vegetables, crafts etc. Yesterday we drove up towards Sydney, through Woolongong (has the largest Steel Mill I’ve ever seen), on the Grand Pacific Drive to see the 665metre long Sea Cliff Bridge which is built in an S shape out over the sea. Quite impressive. Stopped at the Nan Tien Bhuddist Temple, the largest in the Southern hemisphere, but we like the one in Auckland a lot better, especially when the cherry trees are out.
I’m now glued to the TV every night. So You Think You Can Dance Australia has started a new season and the kids are so talented. Also like Judge John Deed and House.

Here are a couple of the crazy things that happen in a caravan:-
I cooked some rhubarb and put it in the fridge in a covered container. After driving to a new park, opened the caravan door to be met with a river of sticky rhubarb juice all over the floor. I now pack the fridge better.
That actually wasn’t so bad - one night after a very hot day when we had all the windows open as well as our two roof vents fully open we went out dancing. Had an excellent night, the band was from NZ and they were great. About 10.30pm Dave noticed the rain pouring down. This time we were met with the floor under water. Our duvet and the seat squabs were saturated. We used every towel we had cleaning up and so spent the next 2 hrs in the laundry feeding coins into the dryer. Actually I love the two windows in the roof of the van. They’re about 18”x18” and its lovely lying in bed watching the sky and the trees and the stars above.
Also something that made us laugh – one of the caravan parks was beside a school and instead of a bell to call the children into school they played ‘Bring in the Clowns’ over the speakers.
Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Love Colleen

27 Jan 2010
Very hot here. Good for reading, playing cards, Sudoko, knitting and crocheting, talking, swimming etc etc. How did I ever find time for work? Hope all is well.

C

30 Dec
Hi
Hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I found it a really difficult day. Missed being with all the family, especially Ethan. I phoned and asked him what Santa had brought. His answer “undergruds”. Thought it was a bit sad that a 5 yr old would think his most exciting present was a pair of underpants – although they did have a transformer on them he told me. Lyn tells me that he did get lots of other presents of course. The weather is continually changing. After having the hottest start to Nov in 100 years, would you believe we’ve just had the coldest Boxing Day for120 years? It was only 19 degrees. Out came the winter clothes again. Up in the north of NSW they have floods, so we’d better not move up there too quickly. We decided at first to start our trip in Tasmania, but at $900 one way and with the weather only 13 degrees every day we changed our mind and instead headed up the coast. First stop –Bairnsdale. A lovely country town. The main street had a 50m wide park down the middle with trees and gardens. Very pretty. Our caravan park ($22 pn) was beautiful. Full of huge trees, on the side of a river, with a lovely swimming pool which we needed as some days were up to 40 degrees. Enjoyed riding our bikes along the river path every morning. Went to country music and Old Time Dancing and found the people very friendly. We realise now that we moved on too quickly. Should have stayed there until the school holidays were over. Decided to try freedom camping. Found a lovely big rest area and by 7pm there were 9 of us, one a 2 brm 38’ 5th wheeler. Wait till we win Lotto. We would certainly do it again, but the big problem for us was the heat as with no generator we had no aircon or fan and of course there was no swimming pool to cool off ineither. Over Christmas & New Year it can be up to $90 a night to stay on the coast so we are now in Bega, the cheese capital of Australia. There are about 6,000 people living here and we thought maybe most of them worked at the factory, but it’s run mainly by Robots – quite amazing. Our caravan park here is small with about 30 sites and is nice and quiet. We have driven to the coast (about 17klm away) to Mirimbula, and Eden (a fishing port – lovely fish, but $20-$40 kilo) Both have lovely beaches and of course packed with holiday makers. I’ve started a scrapbook of our trip, just using photos and cutting up the 100’s of brochures we get from the information centres. It’s fun to do and looking good, although Dave reckons we’ll end up with about 50 books at the rate I’m going. Have a great New Year. We’ll be in Batemans Bay. Hope they have fire works. Maybe I’ll just watch TV and see the wonderful ones they are supposed to be having in Melbourne and Sydney. Think they’re still predicting rain in Sydney though.

Love Colleen.

25 Nov

Hello Everyone
Did I say the weather was cold and windy! Did I ask for warmer weather! Someone was listening! Victoria had the hottest start to November for over 100 years. We were up in Echuca - 40 degrees (26 at midnight). Absolutely draining, difficult to do anything. Spent most of our time in the pool. Didn't think much of the place. The Murray River didn't have a lot of water in it. Didn't actually see if the paddle boats were running or not. Should have made the effort to go on one. The prettiest sight was in the evenings when hundreds of white parrots and pink and grey galahs would arrive, very noisily, to settle in the gum trees for the night. Came back down for a few days to Bendigo and Ballarat. Loved both places. Fabulous old sandstone buildings. Roses and trees everywhere. Haymaking a lot of the way with some of the biggest hay barns I've ever seen. At Ballarat have this massive lake (about 3 klms across), surrounded by huge stunning homes, but it hasn't had any water in it for about 4 years. A lot of the towns have Memorial Drives leading into them for a couple of klms with beautiful huge Elm trees on each side meeting up overhead across the road. Wonderful to drive through. After Bendigo countryside very much like NZ - a few apple and cherry orchards and then green, hilly and cows.
Bev arrived from Perth on the 14 Nov, so left the caravan on site and travelled down the Great Ocean Road staying in cabins and B&Bs, (a more comfortable bed for her). Loved it. 4 days not long enough. Tremendous scenery. The coastline is stunning. Beautiful beaches all the way. Very deep blue clear water. Some lovely little towns. Drove down the Mornington Peninsular to Portsea and across on the ferry (accompanied nearly all the way by 3 dolphins showing off - really cute), to Queenscliffe, could live there, a very pretty relaxing seaside village. Called into Torquay and Bells Beach - lots of surfers and lots of WICKED vans (something new to me). Had a look at lighthouses at Barwon Heads and Aireys Inlet. There are about 8 lighthouses along this coast. They have a really nice statue at the start of the Great Ocean Road dedicated to all the soldiers who built the road after the 1st World War with only picks and shovels. Amazing when you see the sheer rock cliffs. Lorne a very upmarket seaside town and another stunning beach. At Kennett River walked 100 metres up a side road and saw koalas asleep in a tree - 1st time I've ever seen them in the wild. Went on the Otway Fly treetop walk. It's a 600m long 25m high walk thru the treetops with a spiral staircase lookout at the end another 47m high. It sure was a long way down and really makes you appreciate just how high those trees are. Loved it. Saw the 12 Apostles, although only about 8 left, then turned inland. Stayed at Geelong, seems a nice city. Bev and I went thru Werribee Park Mansion. Just love those old historic homes. Have also been thru Como in Melbourne.
By the way, my neck and arm are back to normal. By the time I got to the specialist I was probably 90% better - I thought the osteopath was a miracle worker, but the specialist reckoned that 80% of people would get better within 8 weeks if they did absolutely nothing. He said it can come back again so I'll just have to hope it doesn't.
Met a couple from West Auckland who have been travelling for 10 mths and have only paid for a caravan park 6 times. Actually have talked to a lot of people who love freedom camping, so we bought a freedom camping book (still need a generator) and who knows, Dave, who said he would never freedom camp wants to try it. They also only brought 2 suitcases of clothes with them. Why didn't I do that! We're now trying to decide where to next. Who knows. Thanks to all those who have written. Letters from home are very precious and appreciated.

Love Colleen.

29 Oct

Hi Everyone
The Best Laid Plans of Mice & Men........... We're still stuck in Melbourne although the weather has improved, very hot & sunny, predicting 30 degrees by Friday. After only being in Australia for 2 weeks I developed excrutiating pains in my neck, left shoulder, down left arm with numbness and tingling in my fingers. So I've been to the emergency department of a hospital for the 1st time in my life, had my 1st CT scan, lived for a few weeks on every powerful pain killer I could find, although I did draw the line when the Dr suggested Morphine, & a Neurosurgeon in St Kilda has fitted me in for an urgent appt next week. They think it's a prolapsed disc. Dr thinks the only answer is an operation and we shouldn't be travelling anywhere, but I've been going to an Osteopath and after only 3 visits I'm feeling 60% better. Think it may have been caused by sleeping awkwardly in a very uncomfortable bed in our loan caravan, & maybe driving a manual car again. Anyway we've been busy fitting up the van with all the little extras one thinks one must have and looking around the area. Found an amazing area of wetlands full of tall reeds, islands and of course millions of birds. Stopped at the birdhide for a few minutes and stayed for 2 hours. Watched a baby swallow being fed by his mother on the wing and also learning to fly and a huge hawke circling overhead. Everytime he swooped the ducks etc would all rush into a big tight circle or head into the cover of the reeds. Some of the members where very interesting to talk to and of course had fab binoculars & cameras (1 guy takes 1200 photos a week). Also down the road there is a plant shop and nursery with the most fabulous displays of flowering cacti, orchids, bonsai etc. Even Dave was happy to spend an hour there. Have planted my little 'garden' with chives and parsley. Went into the city by train last Sunday and then by tram to the St Kilda Markets. Only $3.10 all day for all transport. Stalls were good. Only spent $5 on 2 lovely rings. Lots of paintings I liked thou. Spent a day in the Dandenong Ranges. It's beautiful. Massive Mountain Ash trees, lots of rhododendrons, maples etc. Found the biggest scrapbook shop I've ever seen. Millions of papers. So overwhelming I actually only spent $18. Too difficult to decide what to buy. Hundreds of new subdivisions around Melbourne. Of course the $40,000 handout to 1st home buyers must help. They all have streets of show homes which I love looking thru. Fabulous homes with huge outdoor covered entertaining areas. They have wide streets, all lined with trees, a huge 'green' in the middle with a childrens playground, band rotunda, seats and trees. Seem to be spending a lot more on food than we should be. Aldi and Woolworths excellent supermarkets. Aldi is a German company so a lot of stuff from Europe, but their best biscuits are made in NZ, not available there of course as made exclusively for them. Everything very cheap, but they don't stock everything, so visit Woolworths too. Go in for 1 thing, walk out with 10. Have found lots of fab breakfast cereals and yoghurt. Just as well we have a large fridge. Didn't take long to adjust to this lazy lifestyle. 1st week we woke at 7am, next week 8am and now its around 9. Seem to have breakfast about 10, lunch 3pm and then dinner about 7 or 8. Crazy. Spend quite a bit of the day talking to other caravaners. hearing about their travels and where to go and where not to go. Some have been on the road for 7 or 8 years so have plenty of tips for us novices. Actually Dave says he is very impressed with some of the ladies tips! He'll be even more excited as the weather gets warmer. I've never seen such short shorts as they are wearing this year. Have bought 2 lovely reclining chairs and an outdoor table which can be a coffee table or a normal size. Really good. Hope to start travelling next week.

17 Oct
I've had a terrible pain all down my left neck, shoulder and arm with numb tingly fingers for over a week. 3 different pain killers not helping. Have had a CT scan, will know the result tomorrow. Went to an osteopath but still no relief. Must have pinched a nerve I guess. Makes it difficult to sit and type. Still raining and cold here, but 27 deg forecast for Tuesday. Have unpacked my 7 tea chests and everything fits in. Amazing.

9 Oct 2009
Hi There
Two weeks into our 'Adventure' and we had bought a wagon and caravan. Thought the way I make up my mind it would take 2 months! The wagon was easy. Bought the first one we looked at, but took a week to have it checked ($300), serviced ($240), WOF ($100+$250 parts & labour), Change of Ownership ($240), insured($500) and we joined the RACV with total cover for car & van($220). Just as well the wagon was a bargain to start with. Have a 2000 Holden Jackaroo SE turbo diesel manual. Looked at over 200 vans and could not make a decision over any of them - didn't really know what we wanted - every one was different and none had everything - shower/toilet comb or just a toilet or a full ensuite, a large fridge or small one, a full oven (most are just a grill), did we want a pop top or a full van. Saw a fab van with everything for $28,000 but with single beds. Wonder who didn't want to buy this one? They all ranged in price from $28,000 to $38,000 with full annex etc. Would you believe we purchased a brand new 17' Jayco Pop-Top, but when we went back the next day they said there would be a 10 week wait and Dave felt it was too small anyway, so we swapped it for a 2003 21ft Jayco Heritage with a full ensuite, large fridge and full oven with both awning and annex. Doens't have a flat screen TV, but guess we can live with that. Plenty of room for my 4 suitcases and 7 boxes (arriving next Wednesday the same day we collect the van). Very exciting. Also have 2 bikes and a bike rack already. More exciting news. Bev is coming to visit for 10 days in November. We have had some exceptional luck - House sitting for the first week then being given the use of a caravan for $100 a week. Weather is crap. Rains nearly every day and windy and only about 15 deg. Will write again when we reach our first stop.

Love Colleen.