Colin went to pick up Laurie's new car with him it is a Discovery TD5 auto. It is a nice tidy vechicle can see how it has moved on from our earlier model. It has turned out to be a warm sunny day. Ron and Wendy popped round in afternon and stayed for dinner, it was a lovely evening and good to renew friendships.
5 August Sunday
Warm in the sun, Tim popped round and stayed for breakfast, Laurie does a mean fry up. Colin and Laurie got the camper trailer into the garage and were doing man things to it, readying it for the trip to Fraser Island. It was a slower day but still got things done. Skyped the twins who were staying at Natalie's and that was good fun.
6 August Monday
Rose making lists, contacted shipping company and they will be emailing shipping details to us later. Details arrived and we will drop Carnet off Wednesday, the LRover leaves country 6 September and arrives in UK 18 October, it seems if we drop Carnet off asap we should get it back before we return home, glad to have it sorted. Went out to the RSL (bit like British Legion in UK) for dinner, Colin and I went for the Roast pork, absolutely stuffed. Back at home Marion cooked a lovely chocolate pud which we had with custard and ice cream, we might start to put some weight on.
7th August Tuesday
Went and did our food shopping, as we are leaving tomorrow. Itis very warm out, summer clothes unpacked again. Filled up with fuel. Repacked boxes qnd left souveniers/mementos at the house. Weather forecast for next week looks good, low to mid 20s in the day with a chill at night. We cooked dinner tonight, good hearty British food, pie chips beans and gravy.
8th August Wednesday
Finished putting belongings in LRover and got away just before 10am, heading to Cargo Clear at Eagle Farm Brisbane, to drop off Carnet. Satnav should have taken us the shortest route, but it has a mind of it's own and took us via Morningside over the river and Hamilton, we shall go over the Gateway when we take the vehicle across. We have to contact them on the 22nd August for date they need vehicle, nice to have it sorted. We got onto Bruce HWay as soon as we could to clear Nth Brisbane, then onto route 60 towards Caboolture, where we stopped at the Centennary Pk.
for lunch, it was a lovely spot. Back onto road and stopped at the lookout at Beerburnum and walked up the mountain, it's 700mtrs but it was so steep
we didn't make it. We could see through the trees across to the Ocean
and then the other way to the Glass Mountains, stunning. At Landsborough now driving towards Kenilworth, we have twisty steep roads and the views are amazing.
Stopped for the night 6km south of Kenilworth at Little Yabba Picnic Area(free), lovely well kept site. Put up the Oz Trail Anywhere Bed so will try it out. Zip on main tent still playing up. Lit our BBQ and cooked Pork chops and jacket spuds. Chilled down quickly. It is nice to be back on the road and camping again, the stay at Marion and Lauries was needed and enjoyed.
9th August Thursday
Cold night, bed was good but still had condensation on the mattress, will try a blanket under mattress tonight. 6degs in LRover, there was a mist around this morning, but when sun comes out it was very warming. Left site at 10am, after waiting for tent to dry out, into Kenilworth where we visited the cheese factory. We took part in cheese and pudding tasting, yummy, we bought 2 cheeses(one garlic and the other sweet chilli) and a chocolate cheesecake. Kenilworth is a very picturesque small town. Carried along the Mary Valley Rd until Brooloo Rd. We pulled up at Imbil and had coffee and cake at the Rattler Cafe,
whilst sat outside, the children from the school came walking past with hats they had made, even the teachers had dressed up. A teacher stopped and told us that the Melbourne Cup was coming to town on the train at noon. We had a walk round town, past The Railway Hotel
to the station, eventually the train pulled in and all the children
cheered as the Cup was carried off the train, we all gathered in the towncentre and were able to take close up photos of the Cup,
Merzougah even touched it.
Right place right time for a change. Back on the road up to Gympie. The scenery is stunning and very reminiscent of English countryside, it's beautiful. We found our way through Gympie to The Tin Can Bay Rd and our camp for the next few nights at Standown Park, and only $15 per night. The caravan park only used to take Vietnam Veterans, but when they applied for funding it had to be opened up to anybody, they do discourage children. It is in a beautiful open parkland setting
and the facilities are very good. We joined happy hour round a campfire, talking to a few of the Vets before dinner.
10th August Friday
FRIDAY FACT - THE MELBOURNE CUP DAY IS A PUBLIC HOLIDAY IN VICTORIA
Much warmer night, wind got up in the night and was quite gusty at times. Beautiful sunny day. The owners of the park have built a memorial garden for the Vets, with flagpoles.
In one weeks time it will be the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, so they are trying to finish the planting etc before then. Colin has volunteered to help today and is barrowing mulch to put round trees, following a Vet in a motorscooter who is watering them. You can already see that it will be fantastic when finished. On the anniversary the park will be packed with Vets and there will be marching and ceremonies. The volunteers worked till lunch. We sat in sunshine in the afternoon reading, trying to stay out of the wind. After dinner sat around campfire chatting and getting warm.
No comments:
Post a Comment