Day 27 (Monday24th)

We spent the morning doing the obligatory shopping and fuelled up ready to leave tomorrow. I have begun to fear eating and drinking, and that includes the bus's drinking!! We have a budget of $100 a day but both food and fuel is more expensive out here. Fuel in the coming weeks will range from $1.60 to $1.80, possibly as high as $2, and a trip to Mt Isa woolworths for a small shop this morning cost $182.This is a mining community and miners can earn up to $2/3000 a week but we have heard that those servicing them earn about $20 - $25 an hour and therefore struggle with the prices. But as I keep saying all's good,I just thought some might be interested in these everday issues.

The afternoon was spent at the Riversleigh Dinosaur Fossil Collection which included a tour of the laboratories where they slowly separate the bones from the rock/soil using a vinegar solution - very potent! and then identify them. Interesting but smelly work. This area and Winton are the richest areas for dinosaur finds and both have been in the news in recent months for their latest amazing archaelogical finds.

We Made It !!

Hi all !
We have arrived in Alice and have made excellent time across the Barkley Hwy and down the Sturt(1105 km's in 3 days), arriving a day earlier than expected. The 'bus and us' travelled well for several reasons; flat road(finally), slightly cooler travel due to us leaving earlier in the day,new air con belt allowing us to use it for last hour of day.
It is taking bus ages to cool down inside, but thats ok as we live outside anyway till it gets too cool later in the evening. Reason?? for those that don't know - our bus is a front engine so we're sitting on it, then the exhaust runs length of bus heating the whole interior. Haven't noticed it too much before as haven't travelled in this type of heat before.
But all is good!! Feel sorry for those who haven't had the opportunity to do this yet (it's our 2nd time round). It is a great experience, even given the long distances! Have met quite a few families, generally with younger children of pre-school and primary age.

Will continue Blog Diary later today. Jessica has just got up and it's her 14th Birthday today!!

Love Lynne

Previous post

Have updated last post and placed our Itinerary on the end of it if you want to know where we're heading. Sorry for confusion!
Also , have added a link to videos so you can see some of these. 1st is George sandboarding. Will add them playing musical fence soon, so keep checking!!

Love Lynne, George and Jess

(for those of you with access to Jessica's, she has finally written hers and sorted out her comments function so have a look and excite her by commenting!)

Days 23 to 25 (Thurs, Friday & Sat)

Left Longreach for Winton on Thursday. The travelling is very hot as just our luck Qld is experiencing unusual weather, 10 to 13 degrees higher than usual.

These next 2 nights were spent in c'van parks with great company(great conversation and guitar and singing AGAIN!) but very poor facilities, it was a toss up as to whether Jess and I would use their facilities... And we're pretty easy going.
We spent Thursday afternoon looking at the old Outdoor Theatre and some dinosour fossil exhibits having decided not to take the bus out to Lark Quarry- 260kms return on dirt or expensive tour. Then did the Waltzing Matilda Exhibition on Friday before heading off for Cloncurry.This centre is dedicated to the song and it's history and folklore.There was also a Namitjira exhibit in the art gallery and of course more outback history and exhibits.
Before leaving we visited the Musical Fence - just amazing! A percussionist designed the fence and George and Jessica could actually play music on it. Will try to upload a video.

Only made it as far as Kynuna - all of 1 Roadhouse and 1 Pub and 12 people, both offering c'van stops - as Jess hurt her leg on Thursday and wasn't travelling well.

Drove onto Mt Isa on Saturday and intend to have a lay day on Sunday - rest day and washing again!!

Itinerary for next few weeks:
-Leaving Mt Isa on Tuesday after stocking up for next 5 days.
-It will take us 3 days to cross the Barkley Hwy to Tennant Creek from here(Mt Isa)with only 1 small town on the 1st day then nothing except a fuel stop and bores.So,no phone or internet. You'll have to wait for the next installment!!
-another 2 to get down to Alice Springs where we will spend 10 days in and out of Alice. P.S. Jessica's b'day is next Saturday as we head into Alice.
- then a week around Uluru and Kings Canyon before we head into South Australia.
It's very dry and hot but a great trip, we're all enjoying ourselves

For Amanda and Tracey

Days 21 & 22 (Tuesday & Wednesday)

Hi All !!
Have gotten a little behind again as Jessica spent these 2 nights finally writing her blog. It was a major effort but she is now up to date and I'm behind. We have had no phone service since leaving Longreach on Thursday morning.

Longreach : We drove to Longreach on Tuesday morning and did a morning tour through LSODE -Longreach School of Distance Education or School of the Air as many may know it.This time we were lucky, unlike past trips, it was school term and everyone was working!! We viewed year 1 and 5 classes on air/on line and there was a Yr 4 mini-school in operation at the base for the week. Very interesting. Not only does the yr4 child come in(maybe 10) but mum and home tutor, if one, must attend and therefore all the siblings so it is a major operation. With 50+ to feed its all hands on deck and the parent group must notify local shops ahead of time in order to be able to purchase enough bread, meat etc.
Amanda and Tracey - you won't believe which book they chose for last years Book Week - see photos.
In the evening we attended Banjo's Outback Theatre, all 9 of us. On arrival I heard another lady say " oh my gosh what have we spent our money on?" and I must agree I wondered myself, but commented to her that our $84 couldn't be too badly spent as we were getting a meal unlike Capricorn Caves which cost $55 for a one hr tour! As it turned out we had a great night of old fashioned everything!! - shearing shed,dogs, lambs, dinner,hospitality, bush poetry and ballad music. Very personal.See photos of Jessica getting into the act.
Wednesday: we walked to the Stockman's Hall of Fame and spent the whole day there, as we did last time we were here. This is a wonderful display and tribute to Outback life beginning with Gondwana, Aboriginal life, early discoveries of The Great South Land, then moved onto exploration and the opening of Australia and the outback, and outback life.We also saw an outdoor display of Droving basics including horses, mules, sheep, dogs and equipment.
Another 2 busy days.Jessica enjoys it all and keeps us on the hop in each centre.

Happy 2nd Birthday Riley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Days 19 & 20 ( Sunday /Monday)

Left Sapphire on Sunday after ordering our rings. Jessica and George would have liked to have 'washed' another bucket but we are over our daily budget and i really don't think they would find any better. Besides we still have Gemtree in the Territory and Coober Pedy in SA.

Can tell we are moving further inland as there are increasing kangaroos on the side of the road and the carion feeding birds are increasing with them. We have also seen our first emu, with baby chicks. The road once we were over the range has also become straight for many km's. From experience this will become moreso as we head further west. Enjoying ourselves except for the unusual heat, which we will adjust to. Locals say it is about 10 degrees higher than usual but expect it will cool down again.

Spent Sunday in a Rest stop outside of Barcaldine before going into town today to see The Tree of Knowledge.Barcaldine is the home of the Shearer's Strike of 1891 and the birthplace of the union movement and the Labour Party. The Tree of Knowledge was a gigantic Ghost Gum the striker's met under,they were later arrested for this. The tree died a few years ago and the photo above shows the sculpture built in it's place. It covers the same canopy area as the original. We spent several hours at The Worker's Heritage Centre, a museum dedicated to the lives of ordinary workers who built the nation(Qld)and the union movement. Had displays on the railways, police, teachers, transport and roads, Aboriginal workers, ordinary and extraordinary women. Very interesting!

Are now in Ilfracombe,30 km's out of Longreach, as we wanted to use the artesian spa pools and could not book a spot in Longreach. The grey nomads are very prolific this year. Must be the downturn in the economy, all involved in tourism up here say they're having a great year.No matter, this is a beautiful little town and we finally have phone service. Funny that, had telstra Next G internet last night but no phone service! And... after 4 days out we needed to charge electricals and have real showers.

Anyway, I digress so must be time to go. Will post photos later.

Love Lynne

Days 17 & 18 (Friday/Saturday)

Off to Sapphire !
But before leaving Emerald we went to the local park and viewed their oversized Van Gogh painting of Sunflowers and a Mosaic Walk which outlined the history of the area.
The area used to grow sunflowers until the crops were effected by a disease and they must now wait a specified no.of years before growing again. The painting stood 25m high on an easel.

Sapphire is part of the central west gemfields and we were off to do some fossicking the easy way. Jessica, determined to find some sapphires and thereby a new piece of jewellery, was excited. The rock hound came out in her again!!

We arrived mid-morning and nothing, not even the approaching heat of the day was going to stop George and Jessica from starting straight away. But remember I mentioned an "easy way" - yes,there is! There are quite a few Fossicking Parks set up where you buy a bucket of 'wash'( instead of having to get a license and dig it yourself) and just wash, sort and pick out the sapphires or zircons. If your lucky you may get something big enough to have facetted for jewellery.

So we did one bucket at a place called Armfest, where I constantly acted like a typical mum and bugged them to ' slip, slop and slap', annoyingly. And another in the afternoon at Blue Hollow where they also facet and set the stones in jewellery. We found quite a few stones but only 2 worthwhile setting into small rings. The waiting list for this was up to January and is cash on delivery. This suited us on our limited travel budget so we chose our ring settings and left the stones to be faceted. Some of the rest we could send to Thailand later to have faceted, but they are very small.
Also did a tour through an underground sapphire mine.

We bush camped on a fossicking field called ' Big Bessie' and though dry we enjoyed ourselves. Discovered George had left our shower tent at home and packed a 2nd tent instead( don't really need either unless someone comes to visit)- but our Guide Leader would be proud. Us girls put our heads together and used our guiding skills to rig up a tarp between bus and trailer for this. Jessica also enjoyed visits from rainbow lorikeets each morning and night. 2 the first night, 3 in the morning, 6 the 2nd night and about 30 + the last morning. Will post photos so watch this spot!!

Day 16 : Thursday

Moved on, finally heading west.

But first a final look at the coast,we travelled down the coastal loop back into Rockhampton. The road hugs the sea and affords excellent views of the beaches, which by the way are not like ours - no surf. Once you reach the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef in Agnes Waters/1770 there are no more surf beaches because the outer reef stops the rolling swell.
We took our last look at water and green vegetation, before heading inland,at Emu Park. Here we viewed The Singing Ship but was a little disappointed. When last here in 2001, on our trip back from Cape Tribulation, the sounds were much clearer and louder. New growth in the small town meant new locals had complained about the "noise" and they toned it down only to have continued complaints and further toning down of the resonators.This day was windy but the musical sounds were still difficult to hear. (It is quite possible that when word gets around tourism to the small town may be affected as it is out of Rocky.)

We had hoped to drive to Sapphire this day but stopped short in Emerald. The temperatures have risen to the low 30's and the travel was hot after the lower temps.This worked out well as there are a couple of things to see here!!

Love Lynne

Days 14 & 15

Tuesday - we moved on to Rockhampton and spent the afternoon doing the obligatory housekeeping - washing and shopping. A lot of our clothes were smokey after Calliope because of everybodies campfires - even tho' we didn't have one.The day ended with a walk on the beach at Yeppoon, and the night spent once more with neighbours asking George to play and sing.He's getting lots of practice!!
Wednesday was spent sightseeing in Yeppoon and the Rocky area. Went to the Capricorn Caves, a dry cave system above ground. Jessica pronounced them to be not her favourite type, wet caves are more interesting. But the Cathedral Cave sounded beautiful when she was conned into singing, the accoustics were marvellous. We finished the day having afternoon tea in their Botanical Gardens.

Will, as always post photos when on power!!

Hi All !!

HI all!!
Sorry - we have been free camping or bush camping for the last 4 nights - so ... no power. This is our last night out before we book into a c'van park in Longreach so was game to use laptop but it decided to use my battery and download time to update itself. Am going to see if we can stop this function for a while.

So this is why publishing dates are'n't in sync with actual days. Sorry ! Am going to backtrack to keep you up with what we have been up to.

Days 12 & 13

We moved from 1770 to Calliope on Sunday for 1 night free camping but the river camp was so peaceful we decided to stay a 2nd night. We found the day sitting a good rest after the rush of the last 10 days. From now on life will be a little slower as we have no other tour bookings at the moment.Except for all the yacking with new found friends everwhere.
We enjoyed a campfire with the neighbours who asked George to bring his guitar.

Day 11

Saturday, a later start and this time we had to pack up camp and drive as there was no pick-up service. We booked a LARC tour and have now used up 1 lot of our Rudd money!
A LARC is a Lighter Amphibious Re-supply Cargo boat. That means it can travel on land and water. It has the only access to the Bustard Head Lighthouse. This was opened in 1868 and the light was shipped from England. The light was switched to electricity in 1986 and was automated, this means there was no longer any need for a Light house Keeper. The light house and buildings were then vandalised and eventually destroyed as vandals set fire to the kitchen and wrecked the walls and ceilings till there was only the frame left.One of the old Light House Keepers visited and was apalled. He and his wife fought the Parks and Wildlife( who wanted to bulldoze all) for Lease of property and have restored it. Money from the LARC Tours and sale of books helps them.
The tour was good fun the duck switched from travel on the beach to the water, we saw Sea Eagles, cattle on the beach, sting rays, fish etc. George and Jess went sand toboganning, which finished in the water, and George won the comp for longest ride.
Another busy day.

Day 10

Friday saw us up early for a 7.30 am pick-up. We cruised out to Lady Mugrave Island and Coral lagoon across open sea that was very rough. It took 2 hours and many people were sick.
The area itself is the southern most section of the Barrier Reef. The coral cay is 14ha, with a 1292 ha surrounding reef- one third is the lagoon that we could snorkel, scuba dive and view through a glass bottom boat. Between us we did all 3. Over the last 2 days we have seen all types of reef fish- big and small, rays, small sharks,sea anenomes, sponges, sea cucumbers, dolphins,shearwater birds,noddies, terns and the best of all quite a few different sea turtles!! The island itself is unique and home to rare plants seen only there, one being the Pisonia tree.
It was a great experience!! Make sure you look at the photos posted on the link on the side bar.

A Typical School Day

Day 9

Travelled to the Town of 1770 today. Captain James Cook landed here in 1770 and named the town this. Arrived early, paid for our 2 day trips( which used up 1 lot of our Rudd money) and was able to finally do the washing- 10 days worth!! Have walked the beach to the point. George and Jess searching for crabs, marine worms, sea snails, small fish. We even saw some dolphins in the lagoon.
Jessica got stuck into some school work as tomorrow is a day off for her. We embark on a cruise to Lady Musgrave Island to snorkel, scuba dive etc at 7.30 am and dock again at 5pm. On Saturday we do a Duck tour up the coast to a Lighthouse which is only accessible this way. Will post photos and then you'll understand.
Lynne

Days 7 & 8

Tuesday: we left Maleny late in the morning as we were too busy talking to friends to want to leave. But leave we all must.
We were headed to a small town called Tiaro for an overnight free camp with a stop at the Big Pineapple. This no longer looked big to us and was a disappointment as entry to each part of the property was so dear. We pulled into Tiaro too late(4.30pm)to camp by the river and even the stop in town was pretty full but we stayed anyway and were glad we did.
For those not in the know I will try to explain what a free stop in a town is. There is a huge "war" raging between the Caravan Associations and those who would like to free camp. C'van Parks would like to see all free rest/camp stops closed - forcing everyone to use the C'van parks. But little towns like Tiaro have seen the difference it makes.Their town was dying, the butcher, coffee and craft shops etc were going to close due to downturn in trade. They provide 2 spots for free camping with showers and in return travellers stay and spend their money. We try to buy our petrol,food supplies etc or have a meal at the club/pub to boost their economy rather than fill the c'van park owners pockets.Tiaro we were told was a great spot and for 2 days up the road we were told by other travellers to hold off buying our meat till Tiaro as he was a great butcher who smoked his own meats. We were not disappointed we bought our meat, and some crafts, Jess used the internet for school and we moved on. This we have been doing on our free nights which makes up for the cost of c'van parks.

WEDNESDAY we moved on to Bundaberg, arriving early we decided to stay in a c'van park and ditch the trailer(rather than free camp as planned) as Bundy is not really set up for Cars towing. Jessica loved the visit to the Glass Blowers as she had never seen it before and had the German man make a pendant and earings. we also watched the Cooper making casks and toured town.
Have seen alot of banana, pineapple and sugarcane crops.It is harvest season for sugarcane. Will post photos tomorrow!!
Lynne

Days 5 & 6: Maleny

We travelled from the Gold Coast to Maleny on Sunday to meet up with friends from the CMCA Forum. The climb up to Maleny was very steep but the bus went well tho' very slowly. Tomorrow we have to go back down it!! Maleny is not far from Steve Irwins Park in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland. We arrived in time to catch up with friends and go out with all to an Indian restaurant for dinner Sunday Night where we were entertained by a couple of people in the group. Barry recited "The Man from Ironbark" and a Canadian one "The Cremation of Sam Maggee". George and Jesse sang a few songs.
Today was spent relaxing with friends and a walk through Maleny shops( a bit like going to Berrima or Berry). We have just come back from a campfire where there was good conversation and some singing and playing by you guessed it - George and Jess.
Tomorrow we are heading off and should be in the Town of 1770/Agnes Water by Wednesday night. First stop after saying goodbye will be the Big Pineapple.

Look after yourselves
Love Lynne, George and Jessica

Day 4

More photos from Sea World!!

Day 3 & 4 : Gold Coast

What a whirlwind 2 days!! We did Movie World the 1st day and Seaworld the 2nd, and backed it up with The Australian Outback Spectacular on the 2nd night, with only an hour between the 2!! Jessica and George have rollercoasted themselves silly while I sat patiently and waited. For me The Outback Spectacular was fabulous, a wonderful example of Australian horsemanship and history. It made me proud to be Australian and it was great to see some young Aussie kids from Logan(bushies) feeling the same.
Will post more pictures onto links tomorrowfor all to see.

Current itinerary
Days 5-7 Maleny on Sunshine Coast
Days 8- 11 Agnes Waters/ Town of 1770
Days 12 15 Gladstone/ Rockhampton area
Then head inland to Sapphire, Barcaldine, Longreach

stay tuned for more
Lynne
PS maybe George or Jess can post about the rides

Day 1 & 2

Hi All,
Sorry to be slow posting but we have had no internet till now!!
We spent the first 2 days travelling. They were long days but what do you expect in a 1984 Coaster bus that is now a classic and only goes 90km/hr max. We stayed Wednesday night at Nambucca and pulled into The Gold Coast late afternoon on Thursday. The bus went well but not quite finished, some small touch ups needed as we find time on the road.Jessica loves the new sleeping arrangements!!