Tamworth - Maldon - Safety Bay

We had left the van at friends place in Maldon when i took Vickie to Tullamarine Airport and it was a tiring drive back after leaving her there. I am used to long distant driving but travelling as far as we did with the van in tow was something else. It took all my will to keep the eye's open on the 100klm drive back to Maldon.

It was raining the whole time and it didn't stop raining for the next 3 days. I managed to get the Ute in for a service at ARB Bendigo at short notice which i appreciated, they did an excellent job servicing the front wheel bearings, machining the brake rotors & replacing the brake pads, the usual oil & filters, adjusting and tightening suspension components, rotated and balanced all wheels, they even unblocked the aircon filter! that i didn't know was blocked. I thought the Ute drove well before but now it's even better.

Without a car for the day, my mate Mally drove me around Bendigo and Maldon district, it continued to pour down rain. Some of the roads were starting to flood over and i jokingly said the Qld floods have followed me down and i may get stuck here! Well that wasn't far off it, When i picked the Ute up late in the afternoon i connected the van and got it ready for an early departure the next morning.

Heading to Maryborough and West, i only got 20klms or so before i came across road closed signs, i tried zigging & zagging following my GPS to find another route that would get me further down and hopefully past the closed sections but all i did was waste an hour more. I ended up phoning Vic Main Roads and they directed me down on the Midland Highway to Daylesford, Crewswick and then onto the Western Highway and Ararat and Horsham. I was heading to our youngest Daughters place at Glenelg SA and i knew i wasn't going to get there in one day so i decided to head down to the Coorong for my 1st night on the road by myself. The amount of water on either side of the road was amazing, the rain was continuing to pour and i just kept driving on with the wipers on max.

Turning off at Horsham i went past the township of Natimuk, warning bells started in my head when i saw the SES and towns people sandbagging the shops in the main street. After a drive of around 600klms i finally arrived at 42 mile crossing on the Coorong, it was still raining and the track in was muddy limestone. This camp is lovely when the weather is kind but all i did was get into the van, turn on the diesel heater ... yes it was cold! and switch on the Satellite dish, pour myself a strong Bourbon and relaxed on the lounge watching TV listening to the rain hammer down and the van shake from the winds. The news reported that the Western Highway was closed and Victoria was expecting record flood levels - Deja Vu Queensland.

Next morning, i was up early and it had stopped raining i drove the 200 klms into Adelaide and Erin's arriving around 8.30am. It was lovely seeing my baby, though at nearly 30 she is growing up fast .. lol, she works for Qantas as cabin crew and was home for the weekend so the 1st thing we did was head into the City and have our delicious Chinese Chicken & Rice in China Town. Vickie also loves it so i sent her a photo of us tucking into our lunches.

Being anxious to get home and see how Pop was for myself i decide to only stay one night and headed off the next morning for the long drive West. That day i travelled 695klms before stopping [ too early] at Pildappa Rock, we have stayed here before and though it's a 15klm side road to get there it's a lovely spot to camp, the sun going down whilst standing on top of the rock is a lovely experience.

Time to get serious, up early at 4.30am i wanted to get as far as i could that day. I must be getting older as all i could manage was 1395klms before calling it quits 30klms west of Norseman. The next day it was an easy 800 klms before arriving at home around 2pm. After seeing the family the 2nd thing i did was give the Van a wash with the pressure cleaner whilst it was still parked on the lawn.

Vickie's sister Sue from Melbourne is over to help with their Dad, he is out of hospital now after a week of touch and go, still early days to see just how he recovers but we are hopeful that he will regain his mobility & strength. Vick's other sister Jo and hubby Dave came up from Bunbury and we had a busy bee in Pop's back yard which was long over due. Vick & I have moved in to his house to look after him for the next 10 weeks, Sue who has been her for three weeks flys home on Monday, we still plan on going to Ningaloo in April and all going well Pop will go stay with Sue in Melbourne.

Well that is about it, the next time i write hopefully it will be good news and it will involve Kayaking & Fishing along the Ningaloo Coast.

Heading West

Plans - Do Not Make Them.......... they have a habit of getting turned inside out. We camped at Chaffeys Dam for four nights and then our mates Kimbo & Ned arrived, we spent the next 3 days site seeing and paddling the Kayaks on the Dam. During this time we were aware that Vickie's Father was being treated for a skin rash but had no idea how things would change and affect the slow trip back to Western Australia.

Without getting into the nitty gritty and venting our anger & frustration at his family Doctor, Vickie's father has been admitted to hospital where things turned worse with internal bleeding, Pop is a very sick man and has undergone two surgical procedures to stop the bleeding and if the 2nd hasn't been successful then he will undergo open surgery which at his age has a high risk factor. Hearing all this we decided to say goodbye to our mates and start the long drive home, further phone calls during the drive made us change our mind, Pop wasn't good and Vickie's sister Sue from Melbourne was booking a flight to get over as quickly as she could,we made the decision to have her book an extra seat and we detoured down towards Melbourne and left our Van at friends property at Maldon, i then drove Vickie to the Airport where she flew back to Perth.

We drove 1300klms with the Van in tow and it took us around 16 hours arriving at Maldon at 3am, quickly unhooked the Van whilst Vick had a shower and packed her bag and then another 2 hour drive to the airport. The Ute performed beautifully as i wasn't exactly dawdling along, the night driving made easier with the HID Driving lights that literally turned night into day.

Still unsure just how Pop is but he is stable in ICU and just what it will mean for our travel plans, I will drive the rig back to WA and we will just take each day as it comes.

Deception Bay - Tamworth NSW

Happy New Year All, we spent it 33,000' high in the sky winging our way back to Brisbane. The flight was initially delayed 30 minutes, and take off and getting altitude was a very bumpy ride, lots of gasps and Ohhh sounds coming from the passengers. Vickie and i choose to select aisle seats this flight to give us some extra leg room we also choose to get seats down the back which was a mistake as we were surrounded by young children & babies all over tired and crying, luckily i had my iPod and was able to block out the joyful sounds of crying kids with some Chris Rea & Colin Hay.

Arrived at Brisbane Airport and had to disembark on the tarmac, what greeted us was rain, it was a fair walk to baggage collection and that was another 30 - 40 minute wait until the bags started arriving on the conveyor belt, then we were outside and picked up by our mate Muzza who drove us back to Deception Bay and our Caravan. We were tired from having no sleep on the plane and just laid down on the bed and had a few hours sleep. The rain kept coming down all afternoon and night.

Sunday Morning we hooked up the van and said farewell to Brisbane and hopefully the rain. Our intention is to head down to Tamworth and experience some of the Country & Western Music Festival that starts on the 14th January. Our 1st night we stopped at Beardy Creek Heritage Park [CAW #148] a nice camp off the highway with plenty of grass and shady trees, we had only been there an hour when the heavens opened up and the rain started bucketing down along with a shower of hail, luckily it was only small hail as it would have been our luck to have the newly repaired Van damaged again by a hail storm.



We have plenty of time to spare and as we were passing by Armidale we phoned up some Bushtracker Owners that i had been emailing for a while, Rick & Julie are also Bushtracker owners and own a Motel in town, a quick call found them home and ready for a cuppa. It is nice finally putting faces to the names of people we have known through the Bushtracker Owners Group, we found we had a lot in common and hope to catch up again when they hit the road. 2nd night we stopped at Bendemeer camped beside the Show Ground [CAW #165], a nice spot near the river and an easy walk into the town. 1/2 a dozen other campers were set up but plenty of space for everyone, not much in the town other than a craft shop & a well stocked delicatessen. We were threatened with a thunder storm but apart from some grumbles & bangs and the odd lightening strike it was a fizzer.


Being so close to Tamworth we decided to go and check out CAW #160 Uralla Fossicking Area, having the GPS waypoint on the Garmin i let the GPS direct us there, all appeared fine as we left the bitumen and took the 1.6klm of dirt road described in the Camps 5 Book, but getting to the bottom of the narrow track it was a dead end apart from a very narrow gate that we would never fit through, looking across the river we could see a few campers set up and realised we had been lead a dummy. It's not the 1st time the GPS has put us into positions that are tricky to get out of, luckily the Toyota has a better turn circle than the F250 we had previously as that would have been a nightmare getting back out.

So out we get and decided to not even bother finding the correct road, instead we headed out to CAW #168 on the Cockburn River, the scenery was nice with a narrow windy bitumen road leading to the bush camp but we were disappointed in the area and it's long walk from the water, we are perhaps getting fussy. Instead of staying we headed to Chaffeys Dam where we greeted with a large expanse of water and green grass and plenty of shady tree's. Maybe 12- 15 other campers in the area but it is a very large area and Vickie found us a lovely spot on the edge of the dam. Yesterday it was quite hot and in the afternoon the wind got very gusty which cooled things down.


Later in the evening we had a phone call from our daughter back home informing us that Vickie's 85 year old Father wasn't well with a nasty body rash and was going into Hospital to be treated. That bought all kinds of guilt feelings that we should be there but after making a few calls to other family members we were reassured that Vickie's sister would drive up and stay with Pop and find out what was happening.

Today we woke to dark sky and cooler conditions, we took the Kayaks out for a paddle around the Dam, stunning scenery especially when on the water looking at the large hills surrounding the Dam. Another BT had stopped with the owners having a tea break, a quick chat with them and then the rain started coming down. Three hours have passed and still the rain comes down, i have filled up all the water tanks by catching the rain in a bucket system that gravity feeds down into the tanks.




Not much else to do other than catch up on the blog, read some books whilst Vick watches Tennis on TV, tomorrow our mates turn up and we decide our plan of action as to what we do next.

Flew Home for Xmas

Our laptop was returned to us Christmas Eve, new screen & new keyboard along with a new 240v power pack. Everything else was the same including no loss of any hard drive so all contacts in our address book have been retained. I was a bit concerned that even though i had backed up the contents onto an external hard drive before sending the computer away for repairs, i had not backed up emails & the address book, whew! all well that ends well.

Christmas at our home in Perth was much the same as any other year except we were missing our Daughter Erin and her Boyfriend Scott, also both our Nephews were missed as they were working away. We did have some new attendees - Elle's Parents Chas & Rae & Brother Charles Elle came for the day, Elle is our Son's Girlfriend and it was nice to meet them for the 1st time though we are certain they were bemused with just how loud & chaotic our family get together can be.



Temperature's have been around 40 degrees centigrade every day and Christmas day was no different, fortunately we have a swimming pool and plenty of time was spent in and out of the pool in between eating and keeping our fluid levels up.

Santa had left many presents under the Tree and it is our family tradition that we have a secret Santa, a present is given to the recipient without them knowing who it was from and they in turn choose a present and give to the next and so on, by the end everyone had worked out who had bought what, most of the presents turned out to be for Millana & Ruby our Grand Daughters - they must have been very good girls throughout the year to receive so many.


Today things have returned to normal, the temperature has dropped to a more comfortable mid 30, visiting family have all left and Aaron has returned to work so it's just Caddie & the girls & Vickie & myself - SERENITY !!!!!!!

We have three more nights and then it's up to the Airport to fly 'home' to Queensland, we call it home wherever our Caravan is, it's always lovely seeing our family during these return visits but it also reinforces just how much we enjoy the lifestyle that we have. We have been following the weather conditions back over East and we hope that our travels are not hindered by all the recent rain & floods, when we do get back we will be heading down to Newcastle to meet up with our mates Kimbo & Ned, - 2011 will be another journey similar to our 'Mates & Mud' trip we did back in 2007 except this time we hope it will be more 'Mates & Fishing' as we head to South Australia and eventually get to Ningaloo on the West Coast beginning of May.

In the mean time i will continue to ramble on about what we are doing, try and include as many photo's as i can.

Happy New Year & Safe Travels if your on the road.

Life without a laptop

Where is NIKNOFF ? i hear you all ask, things have been quiet on the blog, well the answer to that is the laptop decided to stop doing it's thing and although it's under warranty nothing moves fast in the service department of Toshiba or so it appears. In fact i am so annoyed with the way our situation has been handled it has put me off having another Toshiba Computer.

So, what's been happening since my last entry, nothing much really, we have been based at Kenilworth for 3 weeks and then went down to Kalbar and stayed at the showgrounds there for 6 days before returning back to kenilworth and taking up residency for another week. Vickie had some more Doctor appointments about her eye and that has compelled us to stay in the area, her Dr is in Maroochydore and only 45 minutes away from Kenilworth, the Eumundi Markets are on Wednesday & Saturday and only 30minutes away so we have been spending our time either chilling out or driving to & fro for appointments or markets.

The weather has been wet much like the rest of the East Coast at present, though certainly not like the floods the inland area's are getting, hot & humid and rain = Queensland at this time of the year, we don't mind it at all but we are getting an unsual amount of ants around the van which we are eradicating with baits & sprays.

We leave here Friday and go and stay at some mates at Maroochydore the night and then onto to Deception Bay where we will leave the rig at another mates place while we fly home for Xmas. Who know's when i will get the laptop back so there is a chance things will go quiet again until then.

To all our family around Australia, our Mates, fellow Travellers we have met and the Lurkers out there [I know who you are] We would like to wish you all a very Happy, Safe & Enjoyable Christmas.

Kenilworth

Some have left today so we may soon have the park to ourselves again.

Well that wasn't the case, with the 5TH Wheeler's leaving last Monday we then had 34 Caravan's camp around us for the next week. The group were part of the Queensland Freemason Touring Club and were celebrating their Christmas get together & AGM. We thought about moving camp to elsewhere on the grounds to give them & us some space but our immediate neighbours wouldn't hear of it, with them insisting we stay where we are. As things turned out they were a good bunch of people and though we would loved to have had our space to ourselves it wasn't a hardship with Roger beside us plying us with home brew Rum at happy hour.

Freemason Touring Group - Disc Bowl Championships



The past week we have driven out to Booloumba State Forest searching for Geo Caches but with no success, we were so close at times with the GPS indicating we were within a couple of metres but we could find nothing, maybe it's gone. Bellbird Creek Tea House was a nice cafe just 4klms out of Kenilworth, very popular with the motorbike riders who are either trail riding in the Forests or the Road Bikes riding the windy roads. They also sell a good range of Fruit & Veg and the coffee & assorted cakes makes for a pleasant visit.

Bellbird Creek Tea House





Hinterland & Surrounds






We came across some horses in a paddock and had to stop to get some photo's of the baby foals for our granddaughters.



We drove out to Tin Can Bay last Thursday via the Gympie - Brooloo Road, stopping at Imbil & Kandanga along the way. Check out Imbil's Quality Car Yard, sure to be a bargain buy here.

No Shortage of Holden Parts at Imbil





Kandanga has a lovely free camp with lots of green grass plus individual bituminous sections for the van's & new toilet block. The town is certainly pro-active in allowing travellers to camp free knowing that most if not all would spend some money in the small town. We had been to Tin Can Bay about three years ago and was surprised how much things had changed, the cafe down at the boat launching ramp hadn't changed and we had a lovely lunch of local whiting, chips & salad. It was one of the nicest lunch meals we have bought and we told the ladies who served us, they appreciated the compliment.

Kandanga Free Camp



Friday we chilled out at Kenilworth, another walk around town and then a pie and coffee at the local bakery for lunch. Saturday it was off to the Eumundi Markets AGAIN! Yes Red Nomad Oz - what a guy i am ! I really enjoy the markets but this time it was raining steadily all day, still it didn't stop me from buying a coffee and listening to Juzzie Smith one of my favourite market artists. Juzzie plays a mixture of steel slide guitar mixed with harmonica, a great one man band. Another group i enjoyed listening to for the 1st time was Mitch Davis & The Dawn Chorus, they are a local Sunshine Coast group with a great sound. Do yourselves a favour and google or You Tube for both Artists and support them if you like what you hear.

With the rain not letting up we drove to Yandina and the Ginger Factory so Vickie could buy some things. Ive been here so many times i choose to sit in the car and listen to the Mitch Davis CD. Then it was back to Kenilworth where it hadn't rained until we arrived back, it also rained fairly steadily all night. Sunday today and we have busied ourselves and packed up ready to head to Kunda Park & Bushtracker Factory 1st thing in the morning, there we leave our van to have the new awning and minor panel damage repaired, we are booked in a lovely unit at Noosaville overlooking the Noosa River. We are hoping the weather clears up and we can get the Hobie Kayak's off the roof racks and get on the river for a peddle.

Kenilworth & Surrounds

We have spent our time at Kenilworth chilling out and going for a drive every 2nd day, this area certainly grows on us, it is handy to towns like Malaney, Montville, and Eumundi, lots of bush tracks to explore and the coast is only 40 minutes drive away. Every Saturday we have visited the Eumundi markets, we both enjoy the markets, YES even me a bloke finds them interesting though i am more of a people watcher. Many of the stalls are the same as they were when we visited 10 years ago but neither of us get tired of going. I tend to get a coffee from the Bean & Gone stall and plant my backside down and watch & listen to the musicians, I have seen some excellent Artists performing at Eumundi, OKA, Matt James, and Juzzy Smith were a few.

Last week i lashed out and spent $50 on a massage, my back & hips have been aching more than usual lately and i was hoping that a massage would give me some relief. I was a bit concerned about the style of massage as it involved lots of manipulation and stretching and i didn't want my hip joint to pop out as that wouldn't be fun but the masseur knew by working on me that my body has been through the mill and didn't work me to hard but he did manage to loosen me up a bit, enough that i was yawning the whole drive home and fell asleep as soon as i sat down in my reclining camp chair. Of course one massage does not perform miracles.

Vickie would love to live close by to Eumundi so she could visit the markets every week, we know our Eldest Daughter would love it here also because she makes & sells baby & children's wear and the markets would be an excellent outlet, her website is called Millaruby Designs, Who knows what the future may hold but with commitments back home we cannot make a decision nor rule out the possibility of one day having a Base our here, a couple of acres and a shed would be a start.

Last Wednesday we caught up with Vickie's sister Sue and her husband Greg, they were up from Victoria playing Basketball in the Masters Games held on the Gold Coast. They had a hire car so we met up at Woodford for lunch at the Hotel. After a nice meal and catching up with all the family chat we said our goodbyes with them off to battle with the crazy hectic traffic on the Freeway to Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast, for us it was a leisurely drive back to Kenilworth taking in the magnificient views.

I have been a member of Geocaching Australia for a couple of years now but hadn't followed up with it, sitting here at Kenilworth browsing the lap top's bookmarks i came across the Geo site. In case your not aware, Geo caching is a free high-tech treasure hunt where you use your GPS receiver to find caches hidden by other players. It's a great way to be outdoors, enjoy the environment and do something different. A quick look on the Web Site showed there were a few in the area so today we went looking for hidden caches, so far we have found two in the area, we filled out the note book that is included with our name and date we have found it.

Our home here at the Kenilworth Showgrounds has become very busy, the past four days a Motorhome group called Crocodile Wheelers have arrived for their end of year Christmas get together, the majority have 5TH Wheelers though there are a few small Motorhomes with them. Some have left today so we may soon have the park to ourselves again.




Whatever Photo's i have i'll load up later