Planes ,frost and Ned kelly

 Don't know why this went sideways but we had a really informative time at the PArkes Telescope.

Spitfire, one of only two in Oz, it still flies.this one fought in the battle of Britain.

Glenrowan's version of Big.....Ned Kelly.

Cold enough? They say it gets cold in TAssie-we had to break out of our van. Evidence presented here.

In deference to Bert's swollen knee, we hired a buggy for the day at the zoo. Heaps of fun steering it and trying not to fall off. Here is Hilda, off to MacDonalds.

One of the two whispering dishes at Parkes.

Parkes to Glenrowan

We have arrived in Glenrowan, home of the infamous Ned Kelly of course. We were having such a good run that we just kept on trucking, straight past Wagga, straight past Albury-Wodonga and right into Bushranger country, Victoria. It really looks like the kind of area you picture when you hear the stories and there is a Ned Kelly animated theatre here which we attended. The guy has set up a number of rooms to look like the saloon, the railway station, the hotel and the executioner’s room which were the setting for the last great battle to capture the Kelly Gang. He has gone to so much trouble and expense and his imagination and creative talent are superb. He has it all rigged up with lights and robotics and sound effects and when you enter, you become one of the people who were there at the scene. There is the gun fight, the troopers arriving, the execution, the waiting at the station, the burning down of the Inn and the scene inside. There are ‘rats’ running over the bar, babies crying in prams, life size musicians playing fiddles, people drinking and even a kid swinging from the lamp etc. So life- like and all animated-well worth a visit as it goes for 40 minutes.

Last night we stayed at a place called Temora. It has an aviation museum with aircraft from WW11 and the Korean and Vietnam wars. They all fly and of course we missed a big flying day by being there three days too soon. That is the story of our trip-too late for the cotton harvest, too late for the mini country music festival in Tamworth, too early for the flying day and the school band competition in Sydney etc. Not that we care, if you wanted to be at the right spot for all those things, you’d have to plan and implement pretty carefully and that doesn’t sound too relaxing. It was very interesting and we had a private guide volunteer tell us all about the planes. They had some motors on stands too so that really was a talking point. But it was FREEZING overnight. Check out the pictures of the frost. We were not cold in our bed but the spot was very open being at an airfield so a prime target for cold. It wasn’t operating after dark so no worries about noise because it’s only a recreational and specialised strip. Apart from one other van, we were the only ones there.

Our other main stop was at Parkes where we toured the CSIRO observatory which tracked the moon landing. They also had a 3D theatre of space missions and planetary exploration. We will post a picture of two dishes set up outside, similar to the dish on the telescope. They are set about 100 metres apart and if you speak normally facing one of them, your partner at the other dish can hear you and it’s possible to carry on a conversation. No telling what we told each other! If it works as simply as that, it’s not surprising that they can pick up electronically enhanced sounds from space.

THE SAGA OF THE CAMERAS

A concerned brother in law stressed that we should take a camera with a proper lens along on our holiday because the iphone photos simply wouldn’t be acceptable. Camera 1 was fine until the recharger and its batteries decided they didn’t like each other anymore. Camera 2, borrowed from Leah and brought along as back up, was fine until it too needed charging. For some reason, even though we left it on for hours, it wouldn’t spring back to life. Irene took it home when she went for Dad’s 90^th but had no further success. Borrow Mum E’s-Camera 3. Now we have recharging without a problem but guess what? Nothing to transfer photos onto the computer with. So, dear ones, iphone photos will have to do to chronicle the time until we get home and we can get some off the proper camera. Good night.

Dubbo 2

The paving inside the main entrance is made of wooden blocks abour 300x150mm. These are hammered into the ground narrow edge down and were preferred to stone cobbles because they softened the noise of horses hooves as they brought yet another prisoner for incarceration or execution. So thoughtful! But most of it is still intact after 200 years so that ain't bad.The gaol is clearly from the same era and jurisdiction as the Richmond one. A great claim to fame for Dubbo.

Dubbo

It is a week since we left Maroochydore but it seems much longer. The days just seem to blur from one into the other. The grey nomads call it ‘free wheeling’ and that seems like a good term because you have a sense of floating or coasting along. The road trips from there to Tamworth and then to Dubbo, where we are now, have been really nice. The open spaces, which are particularly huge and flat around here give a sense of space and openness which you associate more with African velds. It’s no wonder someone thought it would be a good spot to put a safari park. We are looking forward to that for tomorrow. Also, using van parks that are more in the country, you get the greater sense of peace and quiet which doesn’t happen in big tourist destinations. That is why we have also seen more birds close at hand, feeding on the grasses and trees around our van. Very special to see them in the wild because their colours are so much more defined and the birds are a better size than those bred in captivity. Red rumps, crimson parrots and king parrots have shown themselves to us in all their natural glory.

The weather has been kind to us as well and although it’s a winter sun, it’s still warm enough to enjoy sitting out in it. It is now 4.30pm and we have just moved inside but the van door is still open as it’s not cold yet. We walked into town this arvo to get a few basic supplies- most of these country towns look pretty much alike as they are mostly situated on a river and have the same range of businesses and shopping centres. You don’t need to go to Moree, though, unless the thermal pools really appeal to you. It’s definitely not a happening place although they are spending $6 million on building a public aquatic centre to give more people access to the artesian springs.

That is something we have had to smile about-each place is understandably proud of what is has to offer and so big notes it’s attractions as much as it can. On closer inspection, some fall a bit flat and are more interesting in your imagination. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen tomorrow. We don’t want to look at elephants ALL day!

Cheers and keep smiling!

Tamworth and Moree

The artesian spring/thermal pools at Moree. We were amazed by the tree size cactii growing by the side of the road which were unexpected in this environment. There are four pools at the park, ranging in temperature from 39 degrees to 34 and supposedly have great therapuetic capabilities and , would you believe, Bert could jump over the BIG PLANE after his first session? Hmmm, I thought not.

The towns have amazingly wide streets around here-nothing else to do with all that space? We decided it is because they all have angle parking, which takes up quite a bit of road space. This is the town clock across the road from the Bicential park in Tamworth. We went tothe Golden Guitar Centre and wax museum, Tamworth Hall of Fame, Oxley Lookout etc

Moree had its version of the Big -------; it was a DC3 from New Guinea, WW2.

A friendly old guy was celebrating his birthday with some mates at the GG Centre and wanted to do his bit for touris. We think he must have been related to Slim Dusty. Lee Kernigan's wax model flattered him-the ears were very dainty!

After Tamworth we drove to Coonabarabran for the night and are forced to begin acclimatising for home. A lovely sunny 12 degrees during the day and very cold now. Having a great time and heading for Dubbo tomorrow; will do the Western Plains Zoo-should be fun.

Goodiwindi-Victoria Hotel on the far corner. Apparently it was flooded in 1920's-in the middle of nowhere. But the way it rains here and the way they don't drain their roads (or caravan parks) it's probably no wonder.

We really enjoyed the drive from the Sunshine Coast to Toowoomba. It was nice to have rural scenery as a change from coastal. The countryside had a friendly feel to it and the roads were not as busy, more like the way to St Helens I suppose. The area is big into cotton growing and we just missed the harvest which took place last week apparently. The locals say it’s a wonderful sight with the fields white in the sun. There was lots of cotton which had blown away lying on the side of the road everywhere we went. We picked some up and it felt like wool, so soft and so clean too.

Toowoomba is known as the City of Gardens but we couldn’t see much of it because the rain had set in and you couldn’t see to the other side of the road. Needless to say, we drove on and camped at Millmerran- a country park with lots of space and cows over the fence. Lots of bird life to watch as well. This park caters a lot for seasonal workers so they have one person rooms lined up in a long row of demountables. They all come home around 4.30 in their big utes and filthy dirty from coal mining and power engineering etc. Then leave again bright and early.

Crossing the Blackbutt Range was hairy. Because of the rain the visibility was very poor and since the road is like the Sidlings it wasn’t much fun; trying to peer through the fog took its toll but we made it safe and sound. Thankfully the GPS shows you where the road is going so at least you have some idea of what’s ahead. Apart from that section, it feels more like the outback here. Long, straight roads with low scrub, easy driving.

Photos next.

Maroochydoor

Hi every one,shame to leave this place but it's time to move on . Just a quick snapshot of the beach we were staying @ cotton tree; you can just see Maroochydoor high rise in the back ground. We were able to have our van just a minute or so from this spot hence the reason to stay a bit longer than originally planned.

Same beach but looking the other way,the spit /Mooloolabar in the back ground We loved going to Mooloolabar- great food, beautiful surroundings and lots of yachts [I want to live here !!!!!].

This photo was taken today. We are on the homeward stretch now. Left Maroochydoor and headed inland to Toowoomba where we had lunch. Then on to Millmerran, stayed there Tuesday night @ a wonderful park , enjoyed lots of different bird life: King parrot , Red rump, Pale head rossella etc. From there we moved to Moree , once again further inland. Here they have Thermalsprings and we flooated around in one that was 39 deg celcios. The reason Irene is sitting there to cool off a bit . A Vic bitter tastes very good mind you after cooking in that spring. Staying here an extra day and then it's off to Tamworth.

Will keep you up to date .

Bert and Irene

Fraser island-Rainbow beach

Prawns and salads for lunch

Fraser island 'highway', speed limit signs and cop patrols included. We travelled 50 km at least on the beach, much smoother than the tracks inland where the 4wd bus nearly shook us to bits. What an experience.

Afternoon tea at Rainbow cliffs, made totally from sand coloured by ancient water courses-the island is the largest sand island in the world.

Wild dingoes live there. One came to investigate on the beach.

The water is perfectly clear because it's been filtered so much by the sand. And no rocks nor differences in heights means you can't hear the creeks either. Peculiar, but beautiful rainforest biosphere with huge tree ferns 20 mtrs tall, kauri, satinay and giant gums among others.

Coming out of the lighthouse at Byron Bay on the very top.

Intriguing mix of old and new in central Brisbane.

Brisbane

We got to Cotton Tree Tourist Park without too much trouble and had time for a walk on the beach before the rains et in. The next 48 hours were wet, with 75 ml one night and constant rain. Nevertheless we made sure that we did sight seeing with our first port of call at Noosa. The surf was spectacular again and the overall impact is the same as other coastal destinations. Lovely scenery, impressive shops on the esplanade and the usual commercial stuff behind that. Nice settings though and pleasant temperatures despite the wet. Next day we sought out the Ettamogah Pub and Ausie World. Someone sure had a sense of fun and personality inventing that idea. It was refreshing to find something unique and full of character, different from the theme parks and cruises this area abounds in. One of the shops had sculptures made from hundreds of car aprts. One was a transformer, as in the cartoon, and another was called’ Terminator’ and ‘Alien’. The artist had used diffs, bearings and springs and spark plugs and shock absorbers-you name it- to construct his masterpieces. Terminator stood 3 metres tall, was articulated and so could be posed ion various ways. He nly cost $13 000 but we didn’t think he would be comfortable on the back seat of the car so we left him behind! The coffee/gift shop had three old cars inside-FJ, chev utes 1920’s. Had to take pictures of that!

From there we went to Eumundi which had mid week markets. Had to buy bert a $3 poncho ‘cos his coat wasn’t keeping him dry. Thursday we drove to Mooloolaba and found someone’s mobile in the loo’s. MAqnaged to track the lady down and then treated ourselves to fish and chips at the Spit. The guy told us that if it didn’t get above 20 degrees that day, it would have been the longest cold stretch they had since 1998. No guesses what happened. But still, if you were not in the rain, all you needed was a long sleeved T shirt. Back to Maroochydore and did what Everyone Else was doing-go to the multi storey shopping center. What a big plaza for a holiday town!

Friday was Brisbane-an hour by car but don’t go till 9.30 or you’ll be stuck in traffic. Parked on the outskirts a suburb? called Chermside and caught the bus into town, another half hour. Sydney has train tracks but Brisbane has bus ways. They look like train tracks but have no rails, have stations and platforms and tunnels. It sure is an efficient way to get people into town and keep the cars out! The South Bank of Bris has been developed and has the Brisbane Wheel, a massive Ferris wheel with air conditioned ‘cars’ which you can ride for a good view all over the city. You can tell that Brisbane has recently grown up into a city. Uptil ’88 it was a large country town but with the Centennial Games it was upgraded and brought into the 21 Century. They are still busy restoring and preserving their historical buildings and creating modern city, expecting to number 2.8 million by 2020 or so. It reminded us of Hobart.

Saturday was for lazing in the delicious sun. We tried our hand at fishing off the beach but without luck. The guy next to us had caught two huge flatheads before we got there-atleast 60 cm each. The tide was going out when we got there and the locals were saying there is too much fresh water from the rain but we will try again on Monday. The Mooloolaba Yacht club was serving Flathead Tails for lunch. Apparently they are quite popular but that’s the junk we throw away after we have filleted the fish isn’t it? Any way to make a dollar!

Byron's Bay

If you want to find somewhere really special on the east coast of Oz, Byron's Bay is it. What a gorgeous setting, superb beaches and spectacular views. Climbed to the top of the lighthouse which is set on the most easterly point of mainland Oz, saw whales frolicking in the water but couldn't get them on camera 'cos we don't have a tele lens, nearly stepped on a snake-long enough but fairly slim, greyish with green underside-spotted a scaley breasted lorikeet and watched the surfers doing their thing in the sun, on the sand. Overall, a delicious day. Off to Maroochydore tomorrow. Here is a taste of what we saw.

Mt Tambourine

On Saturday we had a lovely day exploring the 'hinterland' and found ourselves at Mt Tambourine after a climb like the sidlings. They had horse and cart rides and a whole village set up there a bit like Kuranda near Cairns. Great atmosphere.

On the way down the mountain we found a whole bunch of guys jumping off the side using gliders and parachutes, riding the thermals. We sat and watched them for a while, enjoying the view from there as well. Too bad if you trip when you are running off the edge and jumping into space!

Surfer's Paradise

Surfer's in the background. Didn't take any pictures of the bikini clad ambassadors. This will have to do!

Looking back towards Coolangatta where we stayed.

Did the Burleigh Heads national park walk today and checked out Surfer's. Beautiful, warm and picturesque.

Tweed Heads/ Coolangatta

Coolangatta/ Tweed heads

We took off from Coffs Harbour and the Lorikeet Park on Tuesday and felt confident enough to drive without GPS. We had checked out Grafton on Monday and knew the general layout of the area pretty well by then. Grafton was fun-a relaxed town with wide streets and plenty of services, the sun shone warm and there was plenty of parking. OK, so how do you know when Bert is relaxed? He comes shopping without grumbling and doesn’t have to buy the first thing he tries on! Found him some nice shirts to cater for the warmer conditions and I got some shoes for the same reason. They will be handy for next season.

The floods last year came through Grafton with a vengeance. We couldn’t believe how high they must have been when we saw the bridge that was in all the pictures. The river valley is wide and the bridge so high, it would have been petrifying to live nearby, not knowing how high the water might come. That bridge is freaky to drive over too. It has a BEND in the middle and cars are warned to give way to trucks on it. You literally have to stop in the middle, on the crest , and give way if you spy a truck coming up the other side! Another example of how many of these towns have grown too fast and nothing was properly planned.

So we were heading for Ballina thinking we would stay there but when we turned on the GPS for directions, it was BLANK. Switch it off, try again-still nothing. Not happy Jane! Further efforts were to no avail but by then it was time for a rest stop and coffee from the thermos. We spotted a Yellow breasted Robin and marked him off in the book and then got talking to an old couple who were also on the way. Ofcourse enquiries are made about destinations and lots of free recommendations are made. Ross and Coralie were headed for Kirra beach at Coolangatta and since we were free wheeling, we thought we might follow them in. Which we did and were very glad to have a free guide, even though they weren’t aware of it. Turns out they had spent the night at Lorikeet Park too.

Coolangatta/ Tweed Heads are called the Twin Cities. The border between Queensland and NSW runs right through the middle of them-one minute you are in Nsw and on the other side of the road you are in Q’land. It’s all about food, shopping and gaming around here but the night temperatures are around 13 degrees so far and the park is lovely so we might stay a while. A trip into Cooly as the locals call it, found us first at Dick Smith for help, then ‘Laptop2Go’ so we could get the laptop fixed because it wasn’t connecting to the internet. We discovered it was the virus scanner blocking it and thence toHArvey Norman to get the GPS doctored. 30 mins of downloading and ploading and so on restored it and now we are all connected once again. Maybe we should do without all the gadgets and we’d be better off?

We will drive to Surfers Paradise tomorrow (30km) and have a look around. Enjoying sitting in the sun and really holidaying.

Cheers!

You should see us now!

Coffs Harbour welcomed us with beautiful weather and a gorgeous caravan park at the Arrawarra beach. They had suffered lots of damage from the storms so we couldn't get a powered site. To our dismay (not) they gave us a free upgrade to an ensuite site-talk about luxury. You don't have to put a coat on to go to the loo and you can go on bare feet too. You can also leave your things in the bathroom! At the moment we are inside without coats, jumpers or heaters on, hard to believe. Today we explored our surroundings and hopefully we can add some more photos of Port MAc showing the view from the church tower there. St Thomas' church is the fifth oldest church in Aus, convict built with those wierd convict boxes to hide them from the wealthy parishioners and is still used every Sunday. The view from there was as good as from the Sydney Eye-they could charge $25 too and rake the money in.

Port Macquarrie and Coffs Harbour

Touring at Port Macquarrie on an old chinese junk. Lunch was the freshest ocean perch you ever tasted!

Who's the big---- then?

We saw thomas and friends at the Clog Barn, Levi.

Bert posing harbour bridge in the back ground , note the wellrounded appearance

just a quick one for today, had a brilliant day and lots of fun .
Saw a lot and had plenty to marvel at .
Cheers Bert and Irene

Sydney opera house ,we had a brilliant guide
and the sun shone. Fascinating building, fascinating history

Batemans Bay

Relaxing @ Batemans Bay

Waiting for trains and mono rail.

Hello every one again , here we are in Sydney than and you have guest it Rain Rain Rain- we are over it, that is the weather of course, having a great time otherwise.
Arrived here Saturday lunch time, the journey from wollongong [ bulli ] was supposed to have taken about one hour but after a challenging time with Jane [the voice on our GPS] we limped in, mentally exhausted
but blown away that a GPS can send you on sight seeing tours through Sydney with a caravan in tow, doing blokkies in Redfern of all places then on through Sydney CBD and then over The Habour Bridge.
After that it was of course a sinch but I can assure you we were the only idiots out there , it helps ofcourse that we have Tassie number plates- most locals being verry accommodating.
Stocked up for the weekend at a shopping centre in Epping somewhere near McQuarrie university.
 Spent Sunday Morning worshipping with some Presbyterians also in Epping.
Today [Monday] explored Sydney, you know doing all the touristy things eg
Taking the trains to Darling habour ,The mono rail around the CBD, Paddy's market, Powerhouse museum, a Jazz concert also at darling habour, and all !!!! to stay out of the RAIN.
But it was not all bad , managed to spend a truck load in one of the locals and sampled some of the local brew to warm up again.
Staying put till wednesday- the weather is supposed to clear then , hoping to be off to Coffs Harbour.
The fun continues, that's it for now. will try to include some pics.

Bate mans bay

Hi guys what a beautiful place this is and guess what.... sunshine!!!.
Did some sight seeing today  and sat on the beach for a few hours after having been to a zoo
where they specialised in exotic animals eg White lions and other threatened species .
Will enclose some more photos.
Off tomorrow to Wollongong to a place called Bulli , from there we hope to move on to Sydney.

Irene on Surf beach Batemans Bay

Master chef at work

PS-Eden Harbour/ Bermagui photos

This was the view from the Wharfside Restaurant in Eden- except for the sunshine!

                                                           Bermagui Coast line
Photos stolen off internet!! Heehee