Well being up to date didn't last long did it?
Never does I'm afraid.
We have made it back to Melbourne, we are staying at my friends Billy and Drews in their glorious spare bedroom. It is lovely to not be in a van.
I will get the blog up to scratch in the next couple of days and try and pop some pictures on their too.
Much love Leah and El xx
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Saturday, 1 August 2009
I'm up to date yipppeeee
Byron Bay was the next stop and again a 2 night stay we found a campsite just outside the centre and although they had some strange rules about reverse parking for the most part it was less scary than many we had frequented. We had a nice day looking around and managed to potter about the shops and find a nice bit of beach to sit on, El decided that she’s go surfing and set of to the rental place but the conditions weren’t great and so we spent the afternoon sitting in the sun. On the first night it rained non stop and the noise was so loud that it was almost impossible to hear yourself think let alone sleep! We had a couple of nice days though ( although we were a bit tired )
After a late start we set off to find a campsite in Brisbane ( or just outside it ) Unfortunately Brisbane doesn’t have any accommodation that is accessible. We got to Brisbane at about 5pm and it was already dark , the normal situation is that you rock up to a city and you have to pass through the sprawl , that ridiculous string of fast food eateries and bad motels situated next door to Waynes exhausts or Shanes tyres – Brisbane is different you hit the sprawl , you can eat, gamble, drink, get your car fixed, you can even do your laundry or get your pet looked at by 1 of the 645 vets but if you want to sleep you better think again, in 30km of non stop bright lights not a single motel/hotel/campsite finally, after almost giving up hope we spot the Hotel George It has a big Bar it has everything in fact that you could ever need so I go into the foyer and as I Can’t find a reception desk I head to the bar – I ask the barmaid if they have any rooms available, she informs me they are no longer a hotel . I am very cross with their signage.
She does however direct us to a shopping mall ( about 10 km back ) that has a hotel we decide that despite this advise we’ll continue on our way (heading into the city) after all why should we trust a lady that works in the George “Hotel” ? We are confident that there has to be a hotel/motel before we end up in the city centre, this lasts for about as long as it takes us to be in the city centre.
Now we are in the middle of Brisbane.
It is Saturday night there is an AFL Match 120,000 people milling about 30 minutes before kick off we do not have a map, any idea where we are going, and the good people of Brisbane have made t5he whole of their fair city into a one way system. Things are not good in camp Godfrey – Baker.
We drive about lost, tired and fed up when eventually we manage to navigate our way back out onto the road we came in on, it seems now might be a good time to put a little faith in that nice lady from the George.
We find the shopping centre, we get a burger, we drive around the place 3 times – there is no hotel.
El ends up accosting a man who is doing something complicated to the car park floor he tells her there is a hotel and with his directions we finally locate the place.
And guess what? They had a room.
We watch a film, drink a bottle of wine and vow that tomorrow we are going to continue up the coast and not go to Brisbane. We’ll save it for the way back when we don’t hate it quite so much.
So we set off up the coast it’s still a bit industrial, I don’t think I mentioned Surfers Paradise, it’s one of the hot spots on the Gold Coast Now I don’t want to put you off or appear to be critical of someone Else's home turf but I will say this ; If you paid me 5 Million pound and gave me my own house car, shipped over my cat and enough marmite for the rest of my life I would not live there, It was like something out of CSI Miami crossed with one of those horrid Spanish party Isles. Not only did we not want to stay there we did not even want to be there. Above Brisbane was slightly better but not by much. It didn’t take long however to finally get to the more secluded and country townships and we stopped for the night at a camping site in @@@@@@@@ It was a nice enough site very basic but with a TV room and a camp kitchen under cover. We decided to have an experimental dinner of Chicken and corn steak with cauliflower peas and pour over. Pour over is this great sauce that you put on veg to spice it up a bit. The reason why food sometimes becomes a little experimental is that we only have bowls and forks. We don’t have any plates and we can never find the knives ( apart from the sharp one for cutting ) so dinners are eaten from a small bowl, like the size you would usually use for cereal, it makes everything seem a bit silly really. We got an early night with the plan of an early start.
We travelled the 20 km or so to Noosa and found a campsite about 5 km out of town it was right on the river and really pretty as it was early morning we figured we’d head into Noosa and check out the beach and the town. It was a hot day but we walked the 5km into the village and then spent the day on the beach. Noosa is the loveliest place, chilled out, but with an air of elegance and just the best shops and bars and cafes and the beach ( despite the current issue that they are running out of sand ) is just the right size. Unlike a lot of the coast we have travelled Noosa is actually set right on the edge of its own national park and so there are no high rise or horrible purpose built buildings and the main street is shady and broken up by trees and seating areas. Apart from Melbourne, this is the only other place I would consider living in Australia. ( so far !) We went for a cocktail that evening and then caught the bus back to the campsite. The following day we headed into the town again, El wanted to surf and I wanted to finish my book so we had a quiet morning in the afternoon we walked around the national park and saw the local beauty spots. We both really enjoyed Noosa and probably could of stayed longer, the problem is that it’s quite difficult to gage how long everything will take you and being that we’re not really planning ahead at all! We do sometimes struggle.
Day 14 We got up early had our usual cup of plastic coffee ( have I told you about the plastic coffee?) and then decided we needed a proper breakfast. We had a lovely meal but the service was truly appalling at one point El said
“Excuse me “
And he replied with
“What”
Not exactly Customer service at its best!
After that we hit the road, Malkovich is a wonder, he has had a few problems, the windscreen chip ( hardly his fault ) and then there is the ongoing oil leak – I say this but we have absolutely no idea where the oil is going, for example;
Monday – Oil light is on, so using the same brand of oil that we have used from the beginning ( to avoid the rare but real phenomenon of 2 brands of oil not being compatible and wrecking Malk’s engine) we fill the oil up (using the red funnel which I have purchased specifically for the job) to the correct place on the dipstick ( as advised by a mechanic which I questioned in his garage whilst waving the dipstick around) Oil light goes off. I have checked the radiator, there is no oil shine off the surface, Oil is not leaking onto the floor and no smoke comes out of the back of Malk. We drive happily for 7 days ( or once 14 ) and then – the oil light comes on again.
The only other issue we had was when an exhaust bracket rusted through, But the boys at Midas who are very friendly but obviously were not that impressed with my cable tie efforts, I thought it was ingenious and have absolutely no idea why I felt that I knew enough about exhausts to start fiddling around with a cable tie but none the less.
They sorted that out and welded it fixed for about £20 and we’ve never heard a rattle since!
So all in all we can’t complain
We made it in good time to Tin Can Bay an odd little place – they have dolphins that you can hand feed, obviously this makes you drive the 40km to experience, what they don’t tell you on the 20ft sign is – Dolphin feeding time is at 8am in the morning! And as this is about the only thing to do in the whole place you sort of have to just leave, except of course if you have the nerve to rock up to a small towns bowling green and request not only to borrow two sets of equipment but also a green.
There are several reasons they are shocked by this;
We are not over 60
We are not dressed according to bowl club rules
We have just pulled into there car park in a van and I have just spent 2 minutes trying to change my bra under my top ( discretely ) as the one I was wearing had unruly underwire.
They agree almost immediately to our requests and supply with the kit and off we go.
Now although this clubs are surprised by our interest and attire they are very accommodating and engage us in chat about our trip, why we like bowls and often watch us out the corners of their eyes, today was no exception except for that we had the added enjoyment today of meeting Merv Baxter
Merv Baxter is obviously King of the bowls club he’s the one they all want to impress.
Merv makes his way over to us and introduces himself, we shake his hand, he is pushing 70 and as he takes the bowl out of Els hand it is clear we are going to get a tutorial. He tells us the correct way to stand, orders us to the best places for optimal viewing and then takes us through the steps.
He gives me a bowl
I feel very under pressure suddenly following all the instructions he has just given me mean that I am completely unable to actually release the bowl, I bodge it completely, as El approaches the mat Merv again takes the bowl from her hand, at this point I catch the look of surprise and mild annoyance on her face and have to stifle my laugh and turn it into a cough he talks about the art of bowling and then places the bowl perfectly on the jack with this he wishes us the best, tells us to practice and turns back to his adoring posy, we are left to continue our game.
El actually is able to follow Merv’s instruction and not only beats me but lifts her game so much that she is heckled
“Crikey El you’ve got a good bowl on ya”
“We’ll join you up yet”
We eventually decide enough is enough and after thanking the entire club we make our move.
We went to Rainbow Beach famed for its wonderful rainbow cliffs – again all very well but you need a 4 wheel drive to experience them ( Malk isn’t really all that comfortable with beach driving !! ) We quite liked it there it was quiet and friendly and we found a place to camp which had a brilliant BBQ area and we cooked up a storm, we were hoping to catch a few of the programs we like on TV but this was foiled due to the fact that game 3 of State of Origin is on. For those of you who don’t know it’s actually just QLD and NSW that have a team in this, it’s like rugby ( or is Rugby ) and they play 3 games whoever wins 2 wins. But they go nuts for it.
We end up chatting to some people who have been to Whitby ( everyone seems to have been somewhere in England and they’re always odd places ) we turn in after a couple of hours of serious card playing.
Day 15
We are looking at the map, drinking plastic coffee and eating fried tomato sandwich's at the camp site when we come across a place called 1770 – that’s its actual name , Well we had to go there, it had a twin town too, although it wasn’t like in England when you twin an English town with a French one, they just sort of teamed up with the town next door Agnes Waters. It was a great place , Friendly and pretty and right on the water. We found a campsite that had a real forest feel and we set up camp. We had fish and chips for dinner and spent the night chatting to two Dutch boys who were travelling on a similar route. We had brought a box of wine, or a goon as they call it here, now to give you an idea of the quality it cost $10 and that is for 4.4 litres of Chardonnay , after about a litre each we were quite drunk and let me tell you cheap wine = a very nasty hangover. We threw the remaining 2.4 litres away and vowed we’d splash out a bit and try and pay about £3 for a bottle from now on. This is the same night ( probably due to the goon wine ) that I had to get up for a wee at about 2am, this is the most annoying thing and trying to put a coat on over your PJ’s find your shoes undo the curtain, unlock the door, slide it open get out shut the door and then navigate the distance to the toilet block is not only highly frustrating it’s also difficult . Any way I make it to the loo and to my horror I see my first ( and only ) Australian style Spider. It was horrid, I believe it was a huntsman.
Yuck.
After getting some Coffee we picked up some lunch and headed to the beach and baked ourselves in the sun for a couple of hours – glorious. We are applying high factor sun cream every 20 -30 minutes so please don’t worry yourselves about this, also when we were in St Kilda you may remember there was the St Kilda Festival , there were some Nivea people handing out sachets of Face vail a factor 30 suncream that is light enough to be worn everyday ( even under make up ) which neither of us bother with! But any way we still have enough sachets to last us this trip. ( they did say to help yourselves) after lunch we were feeling a little bit less woolikie and we decide maybe the best way to spend the afternoon is to play a game of bowls.
Again we are met with the odd glances but on the whole this is the most libral club yet and as long as we remove our shoes they seem to believe that we are genuine in our love of the game. In fact the problem here is that although we are playing terribly ( and we really are, I blame the goon wine ) The head of the club actually comes over and invites us to come tomorrow for the 6 hour league match. Well, you can imagine we are shocked and after insisting that we really are only beginners and no nothing about the game or the rules in a match type scenario he becomes pretty insistent and starts telling us where to be at what time etc. We decide the only way to deal with the situation is to go along with him and then flee town. It is not that we wouldn’t like to find ourselves in a highly competitive game of bowls with 30 odd Australian Men who get quite angry when one of them under performs , oh sorry that is exactly what it is.
We set off early planning not to travel too far presently we came across Rockhamton, known to the locals as Rocky, the unique thing about this town is the 28 odd statues of giant cows on every roundabout and roadside ( most unnerving!) Deciding that it wasn’t the sort of town we’d like a prolonged stay in we headed on to Yepoon. Yepoon is a funy sort of place – It has one street which houses all it’s shops and apparently gets booked out way in advance ( I can’t think why) The tourist information kindly found us a spot but I have to be honest it was the weirdest place ( lots of Permies ) and when we checked in the receptionist gave El a key and said “this is for the toilets, we keep em locked, you don’t want any nasty surprises do ya” I did not like the sound of this one little bit.
The next morning we came to the conclusion the Yepoon was not really somewhere you looked around so we drove out to Sandy point in the Byfield National Park and poor Malkovich had the job of trecking over 20 km of dirt track ( I gave El a break and drove ) it was very bumpy indeed. The end result was worth it the beach was lovely and the sand dunes were quite impressive, we made it back in time to rent out some DVD’s and buy all sort of junk food and after running the extension cord out the window and through the front of the van we settled down for a night of movies. It was absolutely what we needed.
We had planned 2 nights here as we were going to go on a sailing trip across to the reef, but it ended up being fully booked.
Having decided to try and avoid staying at another Yepoon we got on the road at an early hour, the driving took us through a couple of towns and delivered us just North of Mackay to a wonderful campsite right on the beach, we were there early enough to enjoy just watching the sun set and tyo collect wood for our fire. The fire was a disaster and although we tried our best we just hadn’t collected enough wood so we went and sat in the camp kitchen instead.
We had left our chairs out by our failed fire and in the morning when we came to pack up El noticed they had a few ants around the legs. She grabbed the chair and banged it on the ground to make the ants come off and about 1000 ants poured out of the legs, it was horrible a swarm of them came out of each leg.
We had to leave our chairs there.
We had thought about staying another day here but the weather just wasn’t really up to it
We drove the remaining distance up the coast to Airle Beach and found the most brilliant campsite The only downside was the200 French school children ! We had finally made it as far up the coast as we intended to go and it was overcast.. Not the sunshine that Queensland had promised us. We booked in for 4 nights and booked two trips;
A days sailing around the Whitsunday Islands and a stop on Whitehaven Beach for lunch and a swim
A day out on the Reef station so we could snorkel on the reef itself
The first day we pottered around and managed to get a phone card and some internet access we also managed to find an underwater camera. On the camp site they had these stange tent like structures called CAMP-OTEL S they were brilliant and as we’d paid $30 to camp ( without any power) I asked the reception how much it would be to upgrade to one of these ( it had it’s own beds, power, light etc ) she charged me $10 and we moved in. We rented a couple more movies and had a really nice evening.
We woke up to sunshine, which was just as well as our yacht was waiting Maxi Ragamuffin ( 3 times winner of the Sydney Hobart race ) we had a great day, the weather was perfect and we managed to see a whale giving birth! Whitehaven is just beautiful it is home to the finest sand in the world and is there for a brilliant exfoliant and jewlery cleaner, I must admit I spent more time in the crystal blue ocean than polishing my rings! The water was so warm and you really felt like you were on a tropical island in the middle of nowhere.
We sailed back and El and I found a lovely spot and sun bathed the whole way back. Heaven.
The next day was the earliest start we’d had since leaving England! We were up at 6:45 and so excited I was jumping up and down in the car park. The bus collected us and took us to the boat which after stopping at a lot of the Islands ( it is also the taxi for the Islands) headed to Reef World.
Reef World is a permanent pontoon like structure which has very little on it it is fixed about 20 metres from the Great barrier Reef and the boat pulls up along side it and so you can have access to toilets and tea and coffee on the boat and access to the water from the pontoon.
They have built these clever metal platforms which are suspended about knee deep in the water so you can go down there to attach your snorkel and your fins before swimming out to the reef.
In my life I have never been so terrified and so excited at the same time. The minute you put you head under the water you see 2 things
Fish
Endless , bottomless blue, black sea.
The first is lovely, the second is panic causing, As you swim across to the reef you try and ignore the endless ocean behind you. The edge of the reef comes into view and the first thing you see is the cliff like edge as far as you can see ( maybe 10 metres ) before it is swallowed into the blackness. And then you are above it and just 1.5 metre below you is this sanctuary of coral, clams, fish and shells as you slowly kick your legs ( keeping your arms flat at your sides ) you propel yourself through this water wonder land. El and I swam side by side and I lost count of the time I tried to point at a fish and yell through my snorkel! Or she’d see something to her right and kick me in the head as she swam off! We spent an hour just swimming around like this before heading back to the pontoon. They also had a submersible which went out over an area of the reef you couldn’t swim over so we hopped in that and had a history lesson from a guide for 45 minutes. They put on a huge BBQ for lunch with salads and breads and we figured that the trip in the sub woud allow for the food to go down before we spent the last hour in the water.
We absolutely loved the last two days , they really are things you can’t do anywhere else in the world and it is so strange to think that this country has so many different faces, one minute you can be in the sea looking at such pretty fish and just 3 weeks ago we were wearing 5 layers of clothing coats scarfs and gloves !
We had the difficult task of deciding what we were going to do .
Should we go inland and head to Alice Springs? We only had 3 weeks and it worked out at nearly 2500 km more so we choose an inland route which afforded us a host of new places and the option of going along the Victorian coastline. With this in mind, on our way up I had picked up a leaflet about a place called Emerald, it was the heart of Saphire Fields, and you could go and Fossick for Saphires. We had both decided we quite fancied this and so plotted a route accordingly.
We had planned to stay in either Nebo or Moranbah but our guide book had nothing on either of them – I love these days best, we arrive, we look around and normally we laugh ( Sometimes we lock our doors and keep going !) Well they didn’t have any campsites so we ended up booking into a small motel in the mining town of Moranbah. The motel had it’s own Chinese restaurant so we ended up eating takeaway for dinner.
We drove to Emerald and decided to try our luck in Rubyvale. The campsite was brilliant, right next to the local pub, fossicking areas and the small amount of shops the village had to offer . we didn’t waste anytime, we set off to Willy’s and brought ourselves 3 buckets of rough.
The idea is this ; you put a layer of rough stone into your sieve and shake out any excess dirt, then you place thisa in a contraption which allows you to wash it you presh and lift a lever which lifts the sieve out of the water and then pushes it back under. After several minutes of this you take the sieve and flip it quickly upside down onto you station, the sapphires migrate to the middle during the cleaning process as they are heavier that the dirt. You have a pair of tweasers and a container and as much time as you need to go through the pile and pick out the gems. You repeat this process until you run out of dirt ( or patience )
The chap who ran this particular station was originally from Derby!
We did quite well and found a few chunks which are worth getting cut. It was a glorious sunny day and it was a brilliant way to spend a few hours. We went for a swim in the campsite pool ( It must have been the coldest pool I’ve ever been in! ) Then we went up to the pub for dinner and a beer.
We drove to neighbouring Saphire and had another fossick before heading out of town. We’re actually on a driving route called the great inland way, this is hard to believe as if we’re lucky we may pass 2 other cars in a whole day, unfortunately we pass alot more dead animals including 2 cows. We passed through Springsure, Rolleston and Roma before stoping over night in Surat, a tiny little village.
First stop this morning was for a egg and bacon muffin from the local shop, nest stop St George.
It woulod only be right at this point to make a observation about Tourist information centres in Australia. No matter where we are we tend to stop at each town to gather iformation. It gives us both a break, a chance to use the facilities and often these places help us decide where to stop for the night. 99% of the tourist Informations out here are ran by voluntears and the enthusiasm with which we are greeted is astronomical. The amount of time spent telling us where to go and the amount of leaflets they provide us with really is a wonder . They are also always so accommodating. This said, sometimes somebody goes too far and the lady at St George was a shining example of this.
She was nuts. We left St George ( which did mean we did not see the man who carved ostrich eggs ) we asre still to this day both bitterly upset by theis fact!
We travelled for sometime passing no one for almost 100km when we came across Hebel.
Hebel has 3 things
A camp site
A local shop come restraurant
A building on the other side of the road
We had a coffee and a pork and gravey roll and yet again I sat bewildered and amazed that miles from anywhere I was sat in the sunshine drinking a coffee watching the world go by Amazing..
We arrived in Lightning ridge and for me, it felt like coming home. The whole place is just ridiculas.
We arrived in their busiest week of the year, Lightning Ridge is home of the Black Opal, it is the only place in the world where it is found. We arrived in the middle of their opal fest, and were very lucky to find anywhere to stay, think then how amazed we were when the only place to stay was the coolest most amazing campsite you will ever come across and at the price of $12 a night we couldn’t believe our luck.
Lorne, the campsite has a full kitchen, dining room, living room that looks like it came straight out of a tumble down cottage, books, games, videos, an oven, plates, pans everything you can think of.
Outside there is a fire pit with benchs and chairs surrounding it and in the evenings everyone sits around the fire swapping stories and histories. It must be said that we were the youngest people there by at least 30 years and the other guests we’re a little to peppy at 7am for our liking, but despite that it really was a wonderful place. Now with our fossicking experience we felt we stood a chance at finding an opal or two .... we were wrong and our hunting on 3 different mounds left us with nothing more than potch ( non precious opal ) and flecs ( the tiny little bits ) The town have this brilliant system for guiding tourists around they have taken old car doors and sprayed them red, green, yellow or blue and then hung them around the area. For $1 you can buy a map from the tourist information which then guides you by the doors ( they each have a number on them ) around the different touring routes. One of these routes took us to a look out and we saw the most incredible sun set. I felt like I was on the edge of the world. On the 2nd day we decided to go out Glengarry which is another opal rich town about 60km away they have these massive ( think 3 story buildings) piles that you are allowd to look through for opals. Glengarry has the ‘Hilton’ it is a cafe in the middle of the bush and really quite an experience.
We returned with a bucket full of potch and thought we’d go and look at the opal fair. They have some incredible chunks and the colours are amazing. We headed back to the camp site for a very special treat, the owner of the campsite plays and sings on a Friday in a make shift stage area surrounded by fir pits and everyone sits around for a couple of hours, it was a lovely evening, chatting to some of the people we’d met the night before, a couple from Sydney, a couple from Bournmouth ( El had drank in their local pub when she was at Uni ) asnd a man from Queensland who talked about his Saga trip to England. During the conversation he asked “Do you know Somerset at all ? “ Yes I said I grew up there,
“ I share my last name with a town in Somerset, my fore fathers were from there”
“Where is it”
He replied “Chard”
I Nearly fell of my chair – after I explained that I had gone to school there we chatted for some time about his trips and such, El ended up chatting about Australia in the Golden years until Mr Chard went off to bed and we turned in ourselves.
We are on the road to Dubbo and we have just pulled into a coffee shop so that I can tell you this.
Love to you all xxxxx
After a late start we set off to find a campsite in Brisbane ( or just outside it ) Unfortunately Brisbane doesn’t have any accommodation that is accessible. We got to Brisbane at about 5pm and it was already dark , the normal situation is that you rock up to a city and you have to pass through the sprawl , that ridiculous string of fast food eateries and bad motels situated next door to Waynes exhausts or Shanes tyres – Brisbane is different you hit the sprawl , you can eat, gamble, drink, get your car fixed, you can even do your laundry or get your pet looked at by 1 of the 645 vets but if you want to sleep you better think again, in 30km of non stop bright lights not a single motel/hotel/campsite finally, after almost giving up hope we spot the Hotel George It has a big Bar it has everything in fact that you could ever need so I go into the foyer and as I Can’t find a reception desk I head to the bar – I ask the barmaid if they have any rooms available, she informs me they are no longer a hotel . I am very cross with their signage.
She does however direct us to a shopping mall ( about 10 km back ) that has a hotel we decide that despite this advise we’ll continue on our way (heading into the city) after all why should we trust a lady that works in the George “Hotel” ? We are confident that there has to be a hotel/motel before we end up in the city centre, this lasts for about as long as it takes us to be in the city centre.
Now we are in the middle of Brisbane.
It is Saturday night there is an AFL Match 120,000 people milling about 30 minutes before kick off we do not have a map, any idea where we are going, and the good people of Brisbane have made t5he whole of their fair city into a one way system. Things are not good in camp Godfrey – Baker.
We drive about lost, tired and fed up when eventually we manage to navigate our way back out onto the road we came in on, it seems now might be a good time to put a little faith in that nice lady from the George.
We find the shopping centre, we get a burger, we drive around the place 3 times – there is no hotel.
El ends up accosting a man who is doing something complicated to the car park floor he tells her there is a hotel and with his directions we finally locate the place.
And guess what? They had a room.
We watch a film, drink a bottle of wine and vow that tomorrow we are going to continue up the coast and not go to Brisbane. We’ll save it for the way back when we don’t hate it quite so much.
So we set off up the coast it’s still a bit industrial, I don’t think I mentioned Surfers Paradise, it’s one of the hot spots on the Gold Coast Now I don’t want to put you off or appear to be critical of someone Else's home turf but I will say this ; If you paid me 5 Million pound and gave me my own house car, shipped over my cat and enough marmite for the rest of my life I would not live there, It was like something out of CSI Miami crossed with one of those horrid Spanish party Isles. Not only did we not want to stay there we did not even want to be there. Above Brisbane was slightly better but not by much. It didn’t take long however to finally get to the more secluded and country townships and we stopped for the night at a camping site in @@@@@@@@ It was a nice enough site very basic but with a TV room and a camp kitchen under cover. We decided to have an experimental dinner of Chicken and corn steak with cauliflower peas and pour over. Pour over is this great sauce that you put on veg to spice it up a bit. The reason why food sometimes becomes a little experimental is that we only have bowls and forks. We don’t have any plates and we can never find the knives ( apart from the sharp one for cutting ) so dinners are eaten from a small bowl, like the size you would usually use for cereal, it makes everything seem a bit silly really. We got an early night with the plan of an early start.
We travelled the 20 km or so to Noosa and found a campsite about 5 km out of town it was right on the river and really pretty as it was early morning we figured we’d head into Noosa and check out the beach and the town. It was a hot day but we walked the 5km into the village and then spent the day on the beach. Noosa is the loveliest place, chilled out, but with an air of elegance and just the best shops and bars and cafes and the beach ( despite the current issue that they are running out of sand ) is just the right size. Unlike a lot of the coast we have travelled Noosa is actually set right on the edge of its own national park and so there are no high rise or horrible purpose built buildings and the main street is shady and broken up by trees and seating areas. Apart from Melbourne, this is the only other place I would consider living in Australia. ( so far !) We went for a cocktail that evening and then caught the bus back to the campsite. The following day we headed into the town again, El wanted to surf and I wanted to finish my book so we had a quiet morning in the afternoon we walked around the national park and saw the local beauty spots. We both really enjoyed Noosa and probably could of stayed longer, the problem is that it’s quite difficult to gage how long everything will take you and being that we’re not really planning ahead at all! We do sometimes struggle.
Day 14 We got up early had our usual cup of plastic coffee ( have I told you about the plastic coffee?) and then decided we needed a proper breakfast. We had a lovely meal but the service was truly appalling at one point El said
“Excuse me “
And he replied with
“What”
Not exactly Customer service at its best!
After that we hit the road, Malkovich is a wonder, he has had a few problems, the windscreen chip ( hardly his fault ) and then there is the ongoing oil leak – I say this but we have absolutely no idea where the oil is going, for example;
Monday – Oil light is on, so using the same brand of oil that we have used from the beginning ( to avoid the rare but real phenomenon of 2 brands of oil not being compatible and wrecking Malk’s engine) we fill the oil up (using the red funnel which I have purchased specifically for the job) to the correct place on the dipstick ( as advised by a mechanic which I questioned in his garage whilst waving the dipstick around) Oil light goes off. I have checked the radiator, there is no oil shine off the surface, Oil is not leaking onto the floor and no smoke comes out of the back of Malk. We drive happily for 7 days ( or once 14 ) and then – the oil light comes on again.
The only other issue we had was when an exhaust bracket rusted through, But the boys at Midas who are very friendly but obviously were not that impressed with my cable tie efforts, I thought it was ingenious and have absolutely no idea why I felt that I knew enough about exhausts to start fiddling around with a cable tie but none the less.
They sorted that out and welded it fixed for about £20 and we’ve never heard a rattle since!
So all in all we can’t complain
We made it in good time to Tin Can Bay an odd little place – they have dolphins that you can hand feed, obviously this makes you drive the 40km to experience, what they don’t tell you on the 20ft sign is – Dolphin feeding time is at 8am in the morning! And as this is about the only thing to do in the whole place you sort of have to just leave, except of course if you have the nerve to rock up to a small towns bowling green and request not only to borrow two sets of equipment but also a green.
There are several reasons they are shocked by this;
We are not over 60
We are not dressed according to bowl club rules
We have just pulled into there car park in a van and I have just spent 2 minutes trying to change my bra under my top ( discretely ) as the one I was wearing had unruly underwire.
They agree almost immediately to our requests and supply with the kit and off we go.
Now although this clubs are surprised by our interest and attire they are very accommodating and engage us in chat about our trip, why we like bowls and often watch us out the corners of their eyes, today was no exception except for that we had the added enjoyment today of meeting Merv Baxter
Merv Baxter is obviously King of the bowls club he’s the one they all want to impress.
Merv makes his way over to us and introduces himself, we shake his hand, he is pushing 70 and as he takes the bowl out of Els hand it is clear we are going to get a tutorial. He tells us the correct way to stand, orders us to the best places for optimal viewing and then takes us through the steps.
He gives me a bowl
I feel very under pressure suddenly following all the instructions he has just given me mean that I am completely unable to actually release the bowl, I bodge it completely, as El approaches the mat Merv again takes the bowl from her hand, at this point I catch the look of surprise and mild annoyance on her face and have to stifle my laugh and turn it into a cough he talks about the art of bowling and then places the bowl perfectly on the jack with this he wishes us the best, tells us to practice and turns back to his adoring posy, we are left to continue our game.
El actually is able to follow Merv’s instruction and not only beats me but lifts her game so much that she is heckled
“Crikey El you’ve got a good bowl on ya”
“We’ll join you up yet”
We eventually decide enough is enough and after thanking the entire club we make our move.
We went to Rainbow Beach famed for its wonderful rainbow cliffs – again all very well but you need a 4 wheel drive to experience them ( Malk isn’t really all that comfortable with beach driving !! ) We quite liked it there it was quiet and friendly and we found a place to camp which had a brilliant BBQ area and we cooked up a storm, we were hoping to catch a few of the programs we like on TV but this was foiled due to the fact that game 3 of State of Origin is on. For those of you who don’t know it’s actually just QLD and NSW that have a team in this, it’s like rugby ( or is Rugby ) and they play 3 games whoever wins 2 wins. But they go nuts for it.
We end up chatting to some people who have been to Whitby ( everyone seems to have been somewhere in England and they’re always odd places ) we turn in after a couple of hours of serious card playing.
Day 15
We are looking at the map, drinking plastic coffee and eating fried tomato sandwich's at the camp site when we come across a place called 1770 – that’s its actual name , Well we had to go there, it had a twin town too, although it wasn’t like in England when you twin an English town with a French one, they just sort of teamed up with the town next door Agnes Waters. It was a great place , Friendly and pretty and right on the water. We found a campsite that had a real forest feel and we set up camp. We had fish and chips for dinner and spent the night chatting to two Dutch boys who were travelling on a similar route. We had brought a box of wine, or a goon as they call it here, now to give you an idea of the quality it cost $10 and that is for 4.4 litres of Chardonnay , after about a litre each we were quite drunk and let me tell you cheap wine = a very nasty hangover. We threw the remaining 2.4 litres away and vowed we’d splash out a bit and try and pay about £3 for a bottle from now on. This is the same night ( probably due to the goon wine ) that I had to get up for a wee at about 2am, this is the most annoying thing and trying to put a coat on over your PJ’s find your shoes undo the curtain, unlock the door, slide it open get out shut the door and then navigate the distance to the toilet block is not only highly frustrating it’s also difficult . Any way I make it to the loo and to my horror I see my first ( and only ) Australian style Spider. It was horrid, I believe it was a huntsman.
Yuck.
After getting some Coffee we picked up some lunch and headed to the beach and baked ourselves in the sun for a couple of hours – glorious. We are applying high factor sun cream every 20 -30 minutes so please don’t worry yourselves about this, also when we were in St Kilda you may remember there was the St Kilda Festival , there were some Nivea people handing out sachets of Face vail a factor 30 suncream that is light enough to be worn everyday ( even under make up ) which neither of us bother with! But any way we still have enough sachets to last us this trip. ( they did say to help yourselves) after lunch we were feeling a little bit less woolikie and we decide maybe the best way to spend the afternoon is to play a game of bowls.
Again we are met with the odd glances but on the whole this is the most libral club yet and as long as we remove our shoes they seem to believe that we are genuine in our love of the game. In fact the problem here is that although we are playing terribly ( and we really are, I blame the goon wine ) The head of the club actually comes over and invites us to come tomorrow for the 6 hour league match. Well, you can imagine we are shocked and after insisting that we really are only beginners and no nothing about the game or the rules in a match type scenario he becomes pretty insistent and starts telling us where to be at what time etc. We decide the only way to deal with the situation is to go along with him and then flee town. It is not that we wouldn’t like to find ourselves in a highly competitive game of bowls with 30 odd Australian Men who get quite angry when one of them under performs , oh sorry that is exactly what it is.
We set off early planning not to travel too far presently we came across Rockhamton, known to the locals as Rocky, the unique thing about this town is the 28 odd statues of giant cows on every roundabout and roadside ( most unnerving!) Deciding that it wasn’t the sort of town we’d like a prolonged stay in we headed on to Yepoon. Yepoon is a funy sort of place – It has one street which houses all it’s shops and apparently gets booked out way in advance ( I can’t think why) The tourist information kindly found us a spot but I have to be honest it was the weirdest place ( lots of Permies ) and when we checked in the receptionist gave El a key and said “this is for the toilets, we keep em locked, you don’t want any nasty surprises do ya” I did not like the sound of this one little bit.
The next morning we came to the conclusion the Yepoon was not really somewhere you looked around so we drove out to Sandy point in the Byfield National Park and poor Malkovich had the job of trecking over 20 km of dirt track ( I gave El a break and drove ) it was very bumpy indeed. The end result was worth it the beach was lovely and the sand dunes were quite impressive, we made it back in time to rent out some DVD’s and buy all sort of junk food and after running the extension cord out the window and through the front of the van we settled down for a night of movies. It was absolutely what we needed.
We had planned 2 nights here as we were going to go on a sailing trip across to the reef, but it ended up being fully booked.
Having decided to try and avoid staying at another Yepoon we got on the road at an early hour, the driving took us through a couple of towns and delivered us just North of Mackay to a wonderful campsite right on the beach, we were there early enough to enjoy just watching the sun set and tyo collect wood for our fire. The fire was a disaster and although we tried our best we just hadn’t collected enough wood so we went and sat in the camp kitchen instead.
We had left our chairs out by our failed fire and in the morning when we came to pack up El noticed they had a few ants around the legs. She grabbed the chair and banged it on the ground to make the ants come off and about 1000 ants poured out of the legs, it was horrible a swarm of them came out of each leg.
We had to leave our chairs there.
We had thought about staying another day here but the weather just wasn’t really up to it
We drove the remaining distance up the coast to Airle Beach and found the most brilliant campsite The only downside was the200 French school children ! We had finally made it as far up the coast as we intended to go and it was overcast.. Not the sunshine that Queensland had promised us. We booked in for 4 nights and booked two trips;
A days sailing around the Whitsunday Islands and a stop on Whitehaven Beach for lunch and a swim
A day out on the Reef station so we could snorkel on the reef itself
The first day we pottered around and managed to get a phone card and some internet access we also managed to find an underwater camera. On the camp site they had these stange tent like structures called CAMP-OTEL S they were brilliant and as we’d paid $30 to camp ( without any power) I asked the reception how much it would be to upgrade to one of these ( it had it’s own beds, power, light etc ) she charged me $10 and we moved in. We rented a couple more movies and had a really nice evening.
We woke up to sunshine, which was just as well as our yacht was waiting Maxi Ragamuffin ( 3 times winner of the Sydney Hobart race ) we had a great day, the weather was perfect and we managed to see a whale giving birth! Whitehaven is just beautiful it is home to the finest sand in the world and is there for a brilliant exfoliant and jewlery cleaner, I must admit I spent more time in the crystal blue ocean than polishing my rings! The water was so warm and you really felt like you were on a tropical island in the middle of nowhere.
We sailed back and El and I found a lovely spot and sun bathed the whole way back. Heaven.
The next day was the earliest start we’d had since leaving England! We were up at 6:45 and so excited I was jumping up and down in the car park. The bus collected us and took us to the boat which after stopping at a lot of the Islands ( it is also the taxi for the Islands) headed to Reef World.
Reef World is a permanent pontoon like structure which has very little on it it is fixed about 20 metres from the Great barrier Reef and the boat pulls up along side it and so you can have access to toilets and tea and coffee on the boat and access to the water from the pontoon.
They have built these clever metal platforms which are suspended about knee deep in the water so you can go down there to attach your snorkel and your fins before swimming out to the reef.
In my life I have never been so terrified and so excited at the same time. The minute you put you head under the water you see 2 things
Fish
Endless , bottomless blue, black sea.
The first is lovely, the second is panic causing, As you swim across to the reef you try and ignore the endless ocean behind you. The edge of the reef comes into view and the first thing you see is the cliff like edge as far as you can see ( maybe 10 metres ) before it is swallowed into the blackness. And then you are above it and just 1.5 metre below you is this sanctuary of coral, clams, fish and shells as you slowly kick your legs ( keeping your arms flat at your sides ) you propel yourself through this water wonder land. El and I swam side by side and I lost count of the time I tried to point at a fish and yell through my snorkel! Or she’d see something to her right and kick me in the head as she swam off! We spent an hour just swimming around like this before heading back to the pontoon. They also had a submersible which went out over an area of the reef you couldn’t swim over so we hopped in that and had a history lesson from a guide for 45 minutes. They put on a huge BBQ for lunch with salads and breads and we figured that the trip in the sub woud allow for the food to go down before we spent the last hour in the water.
We absolutely loved the last two days , they really are things you can’t do anywhere else in the world and it is so strange to think that this country has so many different faces, one minute you can be in the sea looking at such pretty fish and just 3 weeks ago we were wearing 5 layers of clothing coats scarfs and gloves !
We had the difficult task of deciding what we were going to do .
Should we go inland and head to Alice Springs? We only had 3 weeks and it worked out at nearly 2500 km more so we choose an inland route which afforded us a host of new places and the option of going along the Victorian coastline. With this in mind, on our way up I had picked up a leaflet about a place called Emerald, it was the heart of Saphire Fields, and you could go and Fossick for Saphires. We had both decided we quite fancied this and so plotted a route accordingly.
We had planned to stay in either Nebo or Moranbah but our guide book had nothing on either of them – I love these days best, we arrive, we look around and normally we laugh ( Sometimes we lock our doors and keep going !) Well they didn’t have any campsites so we ended up booking into a small motel in the mining town of Moranbah. The motel had it’s own Chinese restaurant so we ended up eating takeaway for dinner.
We drove to Emerald and decided to try our luck in Rubyvale. The campsite was brilliant, right next to the local pub, fossicking areas and the small amount of shops the village had to offer . we didn’t waste anytime, we set off to Willy’s and brought ourselves 3 buckets of rough.
The idea is this ; you put a layer of rough stone into your sieve and shake out any excess dirt, then you place thisa in a contraption which allows you to wash it you presh and lift a lever which lifts the sieve out of the water and then pushes it back under. After several minutes of this you take the sieve and flip it quickly upside down onto you station, the sapphires migrate to the middle during the cleaning process as they are heavier that the dirt. You have a pair of tweasers and a container and as much time as you need to go through the pile and pick out the gems. You repeat this process until you run out of dirt ( or patience )
The chap who ran this particular station was originally from Derby!
We did quite well and found a few chunks which are worth getting cut. It was a glorious sunny day and it was a brilliant way to spend a few hours. We went for a swim in the campsite pool ( It must have been the coldest pool I’ve ever been in! ) Then we went up to the pub for dinner and a beer.
We drove to neighbouring Saphire and had another fossick before heading out of town. We’re actually on a driving route called the great inland way, this is hard to believe as if we’re lucky we may pass 2 other cars in a whole day, unfortunately we pass alot more dead animals including 2 cows. We passed through Springsure, Rolleston and Roma before stoping over night in Surat, a tiny little village.
First stop this morning was for a egg and bacon muffin from the local shop, nest stop St George.
It woulod only be right at this point to make a observation about Tourist information centres in Australia. No matter where we are we tend to stop at each town to gather iformation. It gives us both a break, a chance to use the facilities and often these places help us decide where to stop for the night. 99% of the tourist Informations out here are ran by voluntears and the enthusiasm with which we are greeted is astronomical. The amount of time spent telling us where to go and the amount of leaflets they provide us with really is a wonder . They are also always so accommodating. This said, sometimes somebody goes too far and the lady at St George was a shining example of this.
She was nuts. We left St George ( which did mean we did not see the man who carved ostrich eggs ) we asre still to this day both bitterly upset by theis fact!
We travelled for sometime passing no one for almost 100km when we came across Hebel.
Hebel has 3 things
A camp site
A local shop come restraurant
A building on the other side of the road
We had a coffee and a pork and gravey roll and yet again I sat bewildered and amazed that miles from anywhere I was sat in the sunshine drinking a coffee watching the world go by Amazing..
We arrived in Lightning ridge and for me, it felt like coming home. The whole place is just ridiculas.
We arrived in their busiest week of the year, Lightning Ridge is home of the Black Opal, it is the only place in the world where it is found. We arrived in the middle of their opal fest, and were very lucky to find anywhere to stay, think then how amazed we were when the only place to stay was the coolest most amazing campsite you will ever come across and at the price of $12 a night we couldn’t believe our luck.
Lorne, the campsite has a full kitchen, dining room, living room that looks like it came straight out of a tumble down cottage, books, games, videos, an oven, plates, pans everything you can think of.
Outside there is a fire pit with benchs and chairs surrounding it and in the evenings everyone sits around the fire swapping stories and histories. It must be said that we were the youngest people there by at least 30 years and the other guests we’re a little to peppy at 7am for our liking, but despite that it really was a wonderful place. Now with our fossicking experience we felt we stood a chance at finding an opal or two .... we were wrong and our hunting on 3 different mounds left us with nothing more than potch ( non precious opal ) and flecs ( the tiny little bits ) The town have this brilliant system for guiding tourists around they have taken old car doors and sprayed them red, green, yellow or blue and then hung them around the area. For $1 you can buy a map from the tourist information which then guides you by the doors ( they each have a number on them ) around the different touring routes. One of these routes took us to a look out and we saw the most incredible sun set. I felt like I was on the edge of the world. On the 2nd day we decided to go out Glengarry which is another opal rich town about 60km away they have these massive ( think 3 story buildings) piles that you are allowd to look through for opals. Glengarry has the ‘Hilton’ it is a cafe in the middle of the bush and really quite an experience.
We returned with a bucket full of potch and thought we’d go and look at the opal fair. They have some incredible chunks and the colours are amazing. We headed back to the camp site for a very special treat, the owner of the campsite plays and sings on a Friday in a make shift stage area surrounded by fir pits and everyone sits around for a couple of hours, it was a lovely evening, chatting to some of the people we’d met the night before, a couple from Sydney, a couple from Bournmouth ( El had drank in their local pub when she was at Uni ) asnd a man from Queensland who talked about his Saga trip to England. During the conversation he asked “Do you know Somerset at all ? “ Yes I said I grew up there,
“ I share my last name with a town in Somerset, my fore fathers were from there”
“Where is it”
He replied “Chard”
I Nearly fell of my chair – after I explained that I had gone to school there we chatted for some time about his trips and such, El ended up chatting about Australia in the Golden years until Mr Chard went off to bed and we turned in ourselves.
We are on the road to Dubbo and we have just pulled into a coffee shop so that I can tell you this.
Love to you all xxxxx
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