March to May 18th 2013

Geoff and I are really 'silver sailors' at heart but on the 27th January 2013 Tropical Cyclone Oswald stalled over Bundaberg causing horrific conditions, tornados and a river that rose to 11 metres within a few hours.  Our sweet sailing catamaran/home, 2Abreast, was sunk and destroyed along with another 70+ boats on the Burnett River, Bundaberg.  We had no warning in time from the government weather department and there was nothing we could do to save her.  But, one good thing was that we had a fantastic insurance broker, Oceanic Marine Risks in Cannonvale, and we were paid out in full, no questions asked, within 12 days.  This enabled us to start looking for a motorhome and we found a Jayco 28ft Optimum that fitted the bill to a T. 

A month later and I am just about recovered enough to, once again, start writing my journals.  I have previously sent an attachment of an article that may be in Cruising Helmsman in April 2013 (it wasn’t) which fills in the details of that fateful night. 

But Life goes on and so does my journal …..

 So this is now the adventures of the new 2Abreast, fondly called 2AB2.

Wednesday, 27th February 2013  -  Day One of living on our new land yacht  -  2AB2

Up at 4 am and Owen drove us into town (thanks Owen) to catch the Tilt Train at 0515 from Bundy to Landsborough.  We had an hours wait for the bus at Landsborough but we were soon on the bus to Mooloolaba where we had to change for another bus to Warana which deposited us almost opposite Sunshine State RV Centre.  Mark was waiting for us and went through the motorhome, a 28 ft Jayco Optimum, and then took us to the bank so we could transfer over the balance of the money owed.  It was soon time for us to take the motorhome over and Geoff carefully manoeuvred her down to the service station to fill her up (he had only just passed his MR licence the day before!).  It was then on to the shopping centre so we parked in a side street after first clipping a small tree/bush.  After buying a few necessities we headed off towards Brisbane and Coopers Plain area where we stayed overnight at the Brisbane Gateway Motor Village for $39 for a grass site.  This was the 4th caravan park we had called with the other three saying they couldn’t take a vehicle of our size.  This made us worry that we had made a mistake buying a bigger motorhome but we think not as we intend to live on her for quite a while and need to be comfortable.  We put our purchases away in temporary places and were soon in bed.  Comfy inner spring mattress and we slept well if not long.  We haven’t slept long and well since the 27th January!

 

 

Thursday, 28th February 2013  -  Brizzy to Redcliffe

We left the caravan park around 8am and found our way to the Big Rig company in Coopers Plain where we were having the towbar strengthened.  We arrived there just after 9am and they started working on it straight away.  We decided that we would catch a taxi into the large Mt Gravatt Shopping Centre where we could buy quite a bit of stuff as we would then be able to carry it back to the motorhome in a taxi.  So, we bought heaps and eventually grabbed a taxi back to the Big Rig Company where we found the work completed.  We loaded all of the goodies on board and just stacked them anywhere they would stay in place, pay the bill of $300 and head off towards Redcliffe.  We parked outside of the ’Burrell’s’ and wandered up to the local shops to buy some champagne etc. so we could celebrate the new 2AB2 with them.  Tom and Jake were soon home and having a look through.  We did a few chores on the laptop, cooked tea and chatted to the locals who walked by and admired the monster.  When Chrissy came home we all had champagne in the motorhome to celebrate.  Note:  We had stayed with Chrissy, Tom and Jake for 6 days, 2 weeks after the floods ,when we were looking for a motorhome.

Friday, 1st  March 2013  -  Redcliffe, Warana and Maryborough West

Up early as we couldn’t sleep, as usual!  Poor Geoff had indigestion overnight so his sleep was really broken. 

Headed off to Warana after saying goodbye to Chrissy and Jake (Tom was already at work)  but we kept stopping on the way when we saw shops like Bunning’s, Supercheap Autos and Aldi!  At Bunning's Geoff bought himself a reasonable tool kit and various single item tools.  At SCA we bought a 12v fan and various bits and pieces and we just bought a few supplies to keep us going from Aldi. 

This meant we didn’t get to Hitchmate until about 11am.  Robert, the owner, was very fussy, very particular and very thorough and wouldn’t dream of doing a shoddy job.  He did a beautiful job of installing the new scooter rack which he worked on for over 2 hours and never charged us for his labour, which was very nice of him.  In fact everyone has been great and have bent over backwards for us because of our situation so that we didn’t have to come down to Warana and Brisbane a second time.  Both the Big Rig and Hitchmate normally have about a two week waiting period and both of them fitted us in at very short notice. 

 

 

Eventually the job was done and we headed off towards Bundy  but stopped with 112 kms to go.  We basically stopped because we had a warning light come on telling us to check out our side lights, which we did, and found nothing wrong.  We had found a place to stop with a park and toilets on one side and a school on the other and no houses in sight.  Being as it was Friday night we thought no-one would bother us, and we were right.  Quiet night except for torrential rain,  AGAIN!

Saturday, 2nd March 2013  - Anniversary and 45 years married, Wow

We headed off early in torrential rain.  When we got into Bundy we stopped at Macca’s for brekkie.  Thank goodness Geoff had bought a large umbrella at Mt Gravatt! 

We got to Owen’s about lunchtime and started to load up all the stuff we had stored there.  Stuff we had previously stored and stuff we had bought since.  Tony arrived whilst we were doing this with my folding electric bike. Geoff soon had it all together and it looks really good for the price and in good nick.  Geoff tested it in between the heavy rain showers but I said I would try it out on a drier day, if there is ever going to be such a day!  Geoff has a couple of things he needs to check out with the previous owner but we think it is a good buy and I am very happy with it. 

Later, Owen popped down to Bargara for fish’n chips for tea and by the time he came back we had some semblance of order in the van.  Watched a bit of TV and slept in the van overnight outside Kinghorn Street!

 Note:  We had purchased the bike off ebay from a guy in Gladstone for only $300 and Tony had picked it up for  us whilst he was up there storing all the gear from his boat ‘Incantation’ which was being assessed by the insurance company.

 Sunday, 3rd March 2013  -  Bundy, Kinghorn Street

Up early again.  We unpacked some more tools and tried to find homes for them all.  Geoff put the fire/water safe under the bed … a good place for it.  We fiddled around for absolutely ages checking out this and that and just looking at this and at that!  Eventually we headed off for the shops again.  We will be shopping for a few days yet, I think!  Quite a lot of the shelves are bare in department stores, mainly BigW, as we suspect there are a lot of people like us who are having to replace everything.  Plus there is no Kmart at present as the whole of the Hinkler Shopping Centre went under this time.  They are currently working on the Hinkler Centre but don’t expect it to be open for a while yet, In May I think.

On to Jum and Jennie’s to pick up the food, toiletries, cleaning items and medical stuff that we got from the flood relief centre which we had stored there.  Jum even cut a limb of a tree off for us so we could get the van up his driveway.  Once we had loaded all of the stuff we headed off for another overnighter outside Owen’s place.

Note: We dog/house sat for Jum (short for Jumbo  -  a nickname) and Jenny the weekend before we went down to pick up the van,  We had also visited the Flood Relief Centre where we were given a lot of food, cleaning, medical, toiletries and comfort food which we stored at Jum and Jennie’s.  The Relief Centre also had donated goods  (2nd hand) so we were able to get stuff to get us over the hard times.  Thanks to the Salvation Army and church groups.  I’m not at all religious but they were there when we needed them!

Monday, 4th March 2013  -  Near Midtown Marina

A last shower at Owen’s and then load up the scooter onto the new rack and it works well.  When we got to Gateway Motor Cycles the new scooter wasn’t quite ready so we did some chores and shopping (you can’t carry it all at once) and then found a spot outside of Midtown Marina chandlery.  Sandy, Jan, Stan and Ray all had a look at the new ‘land yacht’ and gave it the thumbs up.  Ross and Leanne missed out as they had the day off so we will have to go back another day.  Then we had a nice surprise as Sandy said she had a present for us which was a set of towels, hand towel, flannel, bath mat, tea towels, pegs all inside of a collapsible washing hamper.  How kind of her!  It is things like this that set us off again. 

It was then more running around town looking for items and buying what we could find then we went to Gateway Motor Cycles to pick up the new scooter and load it on and then drove up to the car park just up from the chandlery where we propped for the night.

Tuesday, 5th March 2013  -  Big4 Cane Village Caravan Park

Today was spent buying a few more bits for the van but it is slowing down, I think.  Whilst I was up in town doing the shopping Geoff fitted the large sliding bins in underneath the kitchen sink area.  Once he had finished I moved the Corelle crockery over, moved the heavy cans from the overhead lockers into the large bottom drawer the Corelle had been shifted from.  Time to leave the car park as we didn’t want to push our luck.  Our first stop was Queensland Transport where we ordered an accessory rego plate for the scooter rack.  Then we went in search of a cigarette lighter attachment/USB fitting adaptor so we can charge our phones and laptops more easily when we don’t have 240v power.  By 3pm we eventually made it to the Big4 Cane Village Caravan Park where we paid for a week … ouch … $233!  Gerry and Celia must have been on the lookout for us as they soon appeared.  Geoff unloaded the scooter before he backed the van in.  We invited Gerry and Celia on for a cuppa and to show them around the ‘land yacht’.  Used the oven for the first time to cook tea and it went out twice so will watch it. 

 Wednesday, 6th March 2013  -  Big 4 Cane Village

The grey water was not coming out when Geoff went to empty it so he was having  to think outside the square to fix the problem.  He then headed off to get some bits to try to fix it then spent the rest of the morning working on it until it was right, we hope.  Back to mundane things for me … washing etc. 

At 3 pm Geoff decided it was time for me to go pillion on the scooter with him so off we headed.  He took me over to North Bundy and it looks like a ghost town over there with a lot of the buildings having that ‘unlived’ in feeling about them.  Some houses were askew and off their stumps and some were just gone!  A very sombre sight indeed … poor things!  We didn’t take any photos as it didn’t feel right. 
 

Geoff then dropped me back at the van and went off in search of a service agent who he could ask about Hyundai 2KVA generators.  He came back with the information that they were good as long as you bought them from a company who also gave you the true Hyundai warranty as some people import them themselves and only give you their own warranty.  This would be no good if it went bung and you were out bush.  He then rang the distributor in WA who said the company we were actually thinking of buying it from were the actual importers of the genny and were a good company to buy from.  So, guess what, we ordered it.  Now Geoff is wondering where we are going to store it!  We have also ordered a whisper quiet Calframo 12 volt fan, a 1500w inverter, a 30 amp solar regulator (for later) and a  Dremmel Rotary tool.  I had just given Geoff a new Dremmel for Christmas, which was a bit of a bumma.  There are also some parcels coming from friends so the postman will be kept busy delivering to Owen’s.  Time for me to put away the supplies I had asked him to buy.  Alas, we only have a little freezer now (but a slightly bigger fridge) so I can’t keep a lot of the meat frozen like I used to do. 

Thursday, 7th March 2013

Up early again.  We will both be so glad when we can sleep in again!

We spent a lot of the morning moving things around again to suit us better.  We have been told we will be doing this for quite a while yet. 

A shower and then it was time to head off to the dentist.  Geoff went in first and was in there about an hour.  When he came out he said they had cleaned out the root canal again but he still had an abscess (Geoff thinks it is not as bad as it was) and they can’t finish off the root canal until the abscess has gone.  She didn’t charge him, which was nice.  The problem is that if the abscess does not go down then the treatment gets expensive but we will cross that bridge when we get to it. 

Onwards to the shops again where we checked out the folding camping chairs and outside table.  We found some chairs that were really comfy and on special with 25% off but the table is another matter as most seem to be just too wide to fit in the bins under the van.  It then started to rain so our next stop was BCF to buy me a rain jacket and then it was back to the caravan park.  

 Gerry came round with his laptop for Geoff to look at but it was a Telstra problem so he is going to ring them tomorrow. 

Jan and Merle also popped round and stayed for about an hours, which was really nice. 

Friday, 8th March 2013  -  Bundy

Geoff slept in the bed over the cab last night as he said I was noisy.  Who me?  Never!  He didn’t wake up till after 7.30 and I was still sleeping so we definitely sleep better in our own beds. 

Strip the beds and get the linen and towels in the washing mashing and, hopefully, they will be dry when Maryanne comes round today.  Maryanne and Owen turned up about 1030 bearing gifts of morning tea.  She had a look around and gave the motorhome the tick of approval.  Owen had a go on Geoff’s new scooter and really liked it.  Geoff also got out my electric folding bike and put it together so I had my first ride around the park on it.  I think it is going to suit me fine and, hopefully, we can keep it charged with the generator. 

Owen and Maryanne stayed for about an hour or so and then were off to pick Adam up.  We had put the awning up before they had come and it is rattling quite a lot as it is windy so we will have to try to tension it a bit more and buy some guy ropes and pegs. 

 

Geoff went off shopping again for a few more supplies and to order and pay for the two outside chairs.  Whilst he was away Janine and Dave came for a visit and we chatted away about our plans and their future plans and had a cuppa a bikkies.  They had to pick Hayden up from school and, as they were leaving, Carolyn and Steven arrived bearing gifts from the church for the displaced boaties so Janine went off with a Woolworths entertainment pack and we got a nice cheese tray and knife and some crackers, ground coffee and chocolate.  The church was sending out these comforter packs to people whose house had been damaged and Steve and Carolyn said “what about the displaced boaties”. Nobody had thought of them so it was nice to be remembered.  They stayed for a while and we caught up with all of their news and how they were faring.  They have a long way to go yet as the inside of their boat is a mess and they are not insured and have limited funds.  Poor B’s.  Geoff came back before they left so also caught up with them.  They also went around to give Celia and Gerry and comforter pack as well some toiletries. 

Geoff cooked Mexican Cottage Pie for tea using the new spacesaver pan on the stove and then under the grill.  A very versatile set of cookware.  The Cottage Pie was quite hot as I had bought hot chilli and not mild chilli powder.  But it was good and nice that I didn’t have to cook.

Saturday, 9th March 2013  -  Bundy

Up at 7.30, nice, although we both woke up earlier we managed to sleep on for a change.  Rain overnight.

Geoff went off to take the 12 volt fan back to Supercheap Auto to get a replacement and also to buy some plumbing fittings for the grey water tank and washing machine.  He also wanted to buy a small battery charger to charge his AAA, AA and C batteries.  When he came back he sorted out the grey water/washing machine outlets.  We then headed off on the scooter to the new IGA opposite the Hinkler Centre to get supplies and we managed to pick up the last two containers we had been looking for.  Back to the motorhome/van/RV (not sure what to call it yet) to put things away and check that the new fan works.  At least this one oscillates but they are noisy things.  You get what you pay for!  Anyway, it is only temporary until our new Sirocco one comes then we will only use it during the day when it doesn’t drive us nuts.  

Made Geoff a cup of tea using loose tea in the little teapot that I picked up from the Agrotrend Flood Relief Centre and using one of the nice cups and saucers we picked up at the same time.  Geoff says the tea always tastes better when you use loose tea.  I wouldn’t know, I hate the stuff! 

Geoff spent the afternoon taking the dash to pieces putting some 12 volt USB connections in so we can recharge the phones easier.  I made up a checklist or things we need to do before taking off and then typing up my journal.  I didn’t have the heart to write up the journal for a while but now I feel I

 can start it up again.  The table is a bit high for typing and Geoff is thinking of shortening the leg as it gives us back ache when we work on our laptops.  It is also a bit high for eating off of and you feel like you are just shovelling the food down your throat.  It is on the ‘TO DO’ list along with a myriad of other little jobs.  Plus we are still moving things around as we find better places for them.

 

Sunday, 10th March 2013  -  Big4 Cane Village Caravan Park, Bundaberg

Up early, awoken by the wind and the support arm for the awning rattling. Geoff is going to buys some guy ropes today to see if he can quieten it down.

Geoff finished off fitting the new cigarette/USB connector socket in the dash as the one that is there switches off when the ignition is off.  When he had almost finished (just the mess to clean up) it was time for bacon and eggs.  Yep … back into the old routine, its Sunday. 

Geoff went off to buy some more fittings and then spent the rest of the day moving the 12volt TV connector from the flimsy ceiling area to a more solid wood area.  He also found a spot for the new fire blanket.  Owen arrived , he was on his way back from archery, with a few parcels.  One was from Salpal which contained linen, towels etc.  It was like Christmas!  The Sirocco fan had also arrived so Geoff spent some time fitting it in the bedroom area.  Plus the accessory plate for the scooter rack and Geoff’s new licence had also arrived. 

At 4.30 pm we went round to Gerry and Celia’s van for sundowners and stayed for about an hour.  The 2 beers went straight to Geoff’s head so he went for a lie down whilst I cooked dinner.  He was soon up and fiddling around again. 

Monday, 11th march 2013

Up early us usual!

Geoff started grinding down the stand for my e-bike as it was way too tall.   We were waiting for someone to come and ask us to stop making noise but nobody did!  I did a bit of cleaning but it was a tad hard as when Geoff is working he has tools scattered everywhere.  I thought I would try out my little washing machine for the first time and it takes seven bits of clothing and some undies and works really well.  So … I will have to do two washes when I would normally do one on the marina machines.  Of course, I am not using so much water as well.   By this time Geoff had finished shortening my bike stand and decided to pull out the microwave to get to the clock which had stopped working.  Once he had it all out he realised that the clock was battery operated and he needn’t have pulled the microwave out.  He changed the battery in the clock and then took the opportunity to clean the top of the microwave and clean out its cupboard recess of five years of accumulated dust.  Whilst we were doing this Janine and Dave rang to see if they could visit.  They soon arrived and we had a cuppa and bikkies and a nice long chat and they stayed quite a while.  After they had gone Geoff went out to pick  up some more hardware items (screws, pins etc.) and then continued on to Owen’s to pick up a parcel that had arrived for us.  When he arrived back we had lunch and then Deb from ‘Femme’ arrived for a look at the new ‘land yacht’.  She said it was really nice.  We had a cuppa and chatted about that fateful night and the demise of 2AB and Femme.  She had managed to get on Femme the day before and got a few things off including her shell collection.  She had brought one of the shells with her as a gift for our new home.  Now we will have something of Deb and Femme travelling with us.  She also told us that Tropical Cyclone Oswald had only been downgraded to a tropical low because it was now travelling over land and not sea.  A tropical cyclone is declared when the barometric pressure gets below 1000 hectapasals and it was at 986 when it stalled over Bundaberg.  If that’s not a cyclone, what is?  Deb said she was sure a dam must have given way up river for the river to rise as fast as it did.  It certainly was a ‘Flash Flood’.  I wonder if we will ever find out the real truth of why it was so catastrophic in such a short time!

 

Tuesday, 12th March 2013  -  of no fixed address

Today was the end of the week in the caravan park so we packed everything up ready to go.  This takes quite a while as we have to fill the water, empty the loo, unplug grey water hose, unplug fresh water hose, put the awning back up (we need to buy a new side lever), put the scooter on the rack, put the e-bike in the bin under the van, make sure the antenna is down, secure all loose items, turn off the gas, make sure windows, cupboards and doors are shut and snibbed, put non slip matting under anything that is going to rattle and drive you nuts etc. etc. 

By 10 am we were ready to go so we wandered across to say goodbye to Gerry and Celia and we were off. 

We stopped at the car park near the marina first and went and picked up our new folding chairs and do some shopping.  Next on the list was Office Works to buy a couple of small folding tables which fitted easily in the bins.  We then drove to the car park beside the marina and rang Shirley and Sam and invited them for a cuppa and to have a look at our new home.   We heard ‘first hand’ their story of how they survived ‘Oswald’ and it was quite a horrific story.  They went down river blind with the wind ripping off their bimini and solar panels and, at one stage, they were blown onto their side.  They said we would never had made it with our small engines!  So glad we decided to abandon the boat and not attempt to save her.  They said a few of the others were going to the RSL for tea and invited us along.  They had only just left when Mark and Tracy  arrived so they also had a look around.  They were very new to the boating scene and they said they only reason they went down the river with their boat is  that their mooring lines snapped and they had no choice.  He said that our article on the 2010 floods helped him as he kept remembering things from it.  Glad it helped someone.

Next, Kathy and Reynold wandered by and wondered who these people waving from the motorhome were until they clicked.  They also had a look around and then the eight of us went up to the RSL for a meal.  It was lovely to catch up and chat about each person’s experience.  Sam and Shirley on Priority One survived but with quite a bit of damage,  Reynold and Kathy on Zacatan got through relatively unscathed and Mark and Tracy’s boat also made it.  Three out of so many that didn’t!

We stayed the night parked outside the chandlery … tch, tch but it was noisy with traffic and shop alarms going off!

Wednesday, 13th March 2013  -  Rocky Reach

Up early and move from in front of the chandlery up to the car park and wait for the chandlery to open.   Jan, the manager, said she is more than happy for us to order the solar panel through them and take it off the rent they owe us.  This is really good as it saves us some money.  We never expected them to make good the money we had spent up front for our berth fees which was 6 weeks and about $700 so it came as a nice surprise.  From here it was onto Queensland Transport to try to organise and nationwide e-tag for all of the toll roads but they don’t organise them.  Never mind, we will go on the web.  Onto ‘Loot’ to buy Maryanne three table runners as a thank you present for putting up with us after the disaster.  We have sent it to her by post so that she can get a parcel as they have all been for us.  We have ordered a monocular for Owen to use at archery as his little thank you gift.   I also sent off all the ‘thank you’ cards I had written out.  Next stop Dan Murphy’s to buy ourselves some little goodies and then it was on to Owen’s to pick up some more parcels (the Dremmel and the inverter) and then it was on to Dan and Marg’s to show them 2AB2.  We also went into their off road caravan and got a good idea on how to change the table.  Marg also got some good ideas from 2AB2.  We had a cuppa and arranged to come back tomorrow to give her some e-books.  Geoff then drove me to Bundy Sugar cane fields to show me where 2AB is now resting.  I couldn’t see her but I could see Janine’s boat upside down so I knew she wasn’t far away from her.  Onto Rocky Reach for the night.   Replied to a lot of emails at last.

 

Thursday, 14th March 2013  -  Near the ‘Zoo’

It was a quiet night apart from when some fishermen came back to the ramp and pulled their boat out but they were soon gone. 

We were up early and as I sat looking across the river I could see two sunken boats and at least three lying on their sides in the paddock on the other side of the river and this is only a small stretch of the river.

Geoff fiddled around storing some more things in the outside bins to give us more storage under the bed  and to give him some more room to install the new inverter.  After some time we headed off to Port Bundaberg where we saw Waz working away on ’Leisure Lee’ but we missed Linda as she had gone shopping.  Never mind, we left Waz to it as he was extremely busy and wandered over to the Port Marina to find Fiddler.  Luckily Di and Lindsay were on-board so we went on (huge climb on) for a cuppa.  Once again, we heard their story of their escape … just… but Fiddler is a large boat (we call it a mini ship).  We left at 10 am and headed for Dan and Marg’s where we put over 3,000 ebooks on her laptop for her and on her e-book reader. It took ages so we stayed for a yummy lunch.  Onto Owen’s but no parcels for us today although Maryanne had received hers and I only posted it yesterday.  We then spent most of the afternoon running around Bundy doing this and that and ran into Carolyn and Steve at Bunning's.  Dave was there too and we had already caught up with Janine in Jaycar.  Then it was off to find a spot for the night down by the zoo on a bit of waste ground.   Nice and flat on concrete slabs from a building that used to be there.  A quiet night with not too many trains going past.

Friday, 15th March 2013  -  Jum and Jenny’s

Up just after 6am, the story of our life these days.  Had a shower and a cuppa and packed up the van ready to head off to Ken Day Motors where she was having a service.  We unloaded the scooter and went to Macca’s for brekky and a read of the paper.  Next it was Casey’s RV’s to pick up Geoff’s credit card which he had left behind the day before.  We then decided to go down to Bargara on the scooter to see how we went with the longer distances.  It gave me a little bit of a sore back but wasn’t too bad.  We saw, once again, the sad sight of ‘Osho’ still lying broken on the rocks plus another boat that was still there.  We had seen the Margaret Rose in the slipyard yesterday and she is, apparently, wrecked with a broken back.  We also popped into the local caravan park to get prices.  The pries were tolerable, especially if we could do with an unpowered site.  We also decided to pop into the Bargara Central shopping centre and saw Di loading up her car with supplies,  She wondered who these two people on a bike were as we were looking at her.  Helmets off and she soon saw who we were.  Into Flash Harry’s and spend over  $40 on little things of nothing really. 

Where to next?  Geoff decided we would go back to Bundy and read the papers in the library and have a coffee.  We were just leaving when the garage rang to say the van was ready.  Good timing.  The bill was only $400 and I had budgeted for $700 so that was nice.  Now it was time to head off to Jum and Jenny’s and we parked the van in their long driveway.  Jen came on the van to have a look and a cuppa then a couple of her friends turned up so it was time to make more cuppas.  Then Owen and Maryanne turned up to pick up some liquid supplies.  Maryanne had rung earlier to thank me for her presents, which she liked.  She said her gall stones were playing up again so she had been back to the doctors. 

Geoff fiddled around for the rest of the afternoon doing little jobs to alter/change/fix things before tackling the larger job of installing the inverter.  

 

Saturday, 16th March 2013  - Dog sitting at Jum and Jenny’s

Wow, there were heaps of flying bugs last night and we don’t know where they are getting in so a bit of sleuthing is in order!  We were up at 7 am, which was a little better than has been normal lately. 

Geoff finished off installing the new inverter but it won’t run the microwave, even with the microwave on only 20% power.  The maximum output of the microwave is 1300 watt and the inverter is 1500 watt so we thought it would run the microwave.  Geoff then noticed the grey water pipe under the bed is still leaking a little so it was off to Bunning’s to buy some more bits and pieces.  I decided to go down to the local shops on my e-bike to pick up some milk etc. but I saw the battery was out and I didn’t know what had to be done to put it on the bike and how to start the thing.  So I must find out when Geoff gets back. 

The place is a mess at the moment as Geoff has tools all over the place plus we walk in copious amounts of grass and gravel.  Geoff came back just in time to freshen up and we were soon on the scooter and heading for Jan's for )lunch with Jan, Ena, Merl, Betty and hubby and Di, all from Gracie Dixons (where I used work).  It was really good to catch up and we found out that Di’s house in North Bundy was still uninhabitable … poor B!  Di had some harrowing tales to tell, I can tell you!  She said she had water up to the second storey and had lost a lot of things.  We left at 1.30 pm as Geoff still had to sort out the leaking grey water pipe and still had his tools everywhere and the van was a complete mess.  Sad, as it would have been good to stay.  Maybe he should have left me there and come back for me!

When we got back, Michael Shailer (farm manager of Bundaberg Sugar) rang to say they had tried to turn 2AB upright today but had only succeeded in breaking her up and she was a right mess with stuff strewn everywhere.  We arranged to meet him in the morning and he was going to take us down to her to see what we could salvage. 

 Sunday, 17th March 2013
It is now 1.45 pm and we are both shattered!  We were up at 6 am and after a quick cuppa we headed off on the scooter to meet Michael at the maintenance shed at Bundy Sugar.   As promised, he drove us down to 2AB and what a sorry site she was.  She was in many pieces and our stuff was all over the place.  The salvages had attached wires to her to try an turn her over and the wires had just torn the rest of the starboard hull off and she had been cut through.  Didn’t they think that wires would do this and she really needed slings.  Still, I don’t suppose they really cared … it wasn’t their stuff!  But Geoff said, in some respects, it was better as it was more ‘opened out’.  It was pot luck whether what we found would be any good anyway.  It was really hot, tiring and thirsty work and I now realise why Geoff was in such a bad way when he came back the first time he went there.  We were driven down this time whereas he had to walk in through mud and cane on a 3.5 km round trip. 

 We were still rummaging at 10.30 when Michael came back to pick us up as he thought we would have had enough by then.  He had a ‘duty of care’ towards us and we certainly were stuffed.  He said to leave everything we had salvaged where it was and he would organise for  a 4WD tractor to come and pick it up the next day.  Thanks goodness for that as it was still quite a way to carry things to the nearest track.  Michael is a lovely guy and has been so helpful.  On Tuesday the salvages come back and cut her up completely and haul her off.  Geoff said he is going to be there to see if anything else is revealed.  No sign of our marriage, citizen and birth certificates … shame.  When we got back to the shed we had to rest to get some energy back before it was back on the bike and back to 2AB2 for a shower  to get rid of all the mud and to drink copious glasses of water (even though we took water with us).  Amongst the salvaged items that I was pleased to find were my Parks Kangaroo and Buderim Gingerbread man and one of our PNG carvings.  The fluffy toys were like little lumps of mud so we will see how they come up before I make the decision of whether I can keep them.

 

 

Had dinner with Jum and Jenny, which was nice. ( The owners of our house sit house)

 Monday, 18th April 2013

Jum and Jenny left early today and are heading to Alice Springs to an Archery competition. Geoff went off again at the crack of dawn to meet Lee from Bundy Sugar who was going to take him down to 2AB to pick up the bits we had put aside yesterday.  Geoff said he was a nice bloke and Geoff was able to find a few more little bits but not much.   Luckily he was back in time to drive me to the dentist where I had an oral hygiene examination and cleaning appointment booked.  He said I am still getting a bit of gum disease which is really annoying as I clean my teeth really well twice a day but he said it was hereditary … so thanks mum!

Geoff went off to do a few things and when he had finished we went to the supermarket and onto Gateway Motorcycles to pick up the back rack for the scooter.  Back to the house to drop the bits and pieces off then grab a tarp and some ‘Clean Up Australia’ bags to head off to the Bundaberg Sugar maintenance sheds to pack everything up and load into the car.  We popped in to see Maryanne and Owen on the way back and then the rest of the afternoon was spent using a power washer on all the muddy items and putting some things in soak with heaps of Napisan type soaker (Parks Kangaroo,  Buderim Gingerbread Man and Geoff’s fleece throw blanket that Sally had bought him many years ago). 

Geoff slept in the van and I slept in the house to keep Jess, the dog, company. 

 Tuesday, 19th March 2013

Owen popped by today to test his bow out.  Jum has a really large block (acreage) and has an area where you can shoot and test your bows.  Owen has these new bits on his arrows and one flew off and cut his chin so he wanted to see if they all did it or if it was a ‘once off’.  Well, he soon had a cut chin to prove that they all did it so those will be chucked out. 

Geoff went off to the farm again as they were cutting up 2AB today but he didn’t stay long as he said he didn’t hold out much hope of recovering anything else.  When he arrived back I was into my third load of washing.  We washed and rinsed, washed and rinsed the stuff that had been soaking overnight until it was clean enough to go through the washing machine.  Believe it or not, the fleecy blanket and my Parks Roo and Gingerbread man came up almost like new. 

 

Owen turned up again in the afternoon with his ‘postie’ hat on.  He had our new generator and some mail. 

The genny is quite big so Geoff is going to have to modify one of the bins to fit it in.  The mail was from the Queensland Flood

 Appeal 2013 saying our application for the grant we had put in for on the 2nd February had been knocked back as our claim was outside the guidelines.  The guidelines were:-

You (your partner and/or children) may be eligible for an Emergency Assistance payment if your  home was made uninhabitable and: × the damaged residence was your home that you lived in (principal place of residence) at the time of the flooding, regardless of whether you own or rent the property (e.g. a house, unit, caravan or other dwelling), AND a) the damaged residence was flooded internally above the level of the floor in the living areas (e.g. lounge room, rumpus, dining room, kitchen or bedrooms) making your home uninhabitable, OR b) the damage caused by the winds was structural, making the residence uninhabitable.

The answer to a) and b) were a definite yes so we think they had looked at the word ’boat’ and said “not a home” which, legally, it is.   We now have to appeal so I have written a letter, sent some photos, sent the Marine Safety Qld report so now we have longer to wait.  We haven’t heard of anybody who has received this grant yet.  We think they may be running out of money. 

Geoff spent the rest of the day power washing more stuff off and I went out in Jen’s car to get a few things.   Played with Jess with ‘my god the ball ’until we had a sudden downpour at 5.30 pm.  Geoff had stopped by then anyway.

 

Wednesday, 20th March 2013

Up early, as usual.  Fiddled around until we headed into town for my doctors appointment.  Found out that the antibiotics I had been prescribed was resistant to the infection I had.  So now new antibiotics for the next 10 days, then another test.    Plus I had a flu jab whilst I was there and it didn’t hurt at all!

Whilst I was in the doctors Geoff went off to the marina to order the solar panel then it was his turn to head off to the dentist.  I took the car and went to the Flood Recovery Centre to apply for the Household Essentials Grant but don’t hold out much hope as we were partially covered and they make you ‘jump through hoops’ to get it.  Back to pick Geoff up.  He had a deep gum clean and said it wasn’t nice at all.  I didn’t want to know that as I have that booked for the 15th April.  From here we went to Queensland Transport to get a copy of our boat rego paper to prove we owned the boat then went home and printed of the marine safety report and some photos of the boat.  Back to the recovery centre to finalise the application so we shall see.  Next stop was the Courthouse to try to organise duplicate Citizen certificates but they could only help with Australian birth and marriage certificates so no help to us.  Onto the aluminium fabricator to get a new bin made to accommodate the genny.  The rest of the day was spent washing more stuff down.

Thursday. 21st March 2013

Up at 7.30, that’s more like it!  Cleaning for me and Geoff finished off washing down the last bits. 

I decided to go down to the local shops on my new e-bike.  It was good except for one small hiccup when I got there.  Habit had me leaning the bike over a bit so I could cock my leg over the seat easily.  This is how I used to get off my folding bike which I didn’t need to do on this one as it was configured more in the style of a ladies bike!  By leaning it over and it being quite heavy it over balanced so I grabbed at the handlebars and inadvertently pushed the throttle switch.  Of course, it shot forward pushing me over where I landed on my bum with the thing on top of me.  How elegant!  No damage except to my pride.  Embarrassing but it means I have learnt quickly not to do that again!!!!!  I don’t think anyone saw me which was a blessing so I was soon up as if nothing had happened, grabbed the bread and milk and was on my way back again.

 Friday, 22nd March 2013  -  Day 24 of living on the new ‘land yacht’

Up early again.  Geoff worked on the van getting the new bin area ready.  Then he sorted through the salvaged stuff and deciding what he was going to keep and what we were going to sell.  It was time for me to defrost the freezer as it doesn’t clip in properly and allows it to frost up badly.  Geoff is going to fix it so onto ‘The To Do List’ it went.  But it was done within  the hour!

After lunch we went into town to the ATM to get some money out.  Caught up with Linda outside Target so we went off for a coffee.  Then it was onto the fabricators to pick up the new bin.  Caught up with Janine at the chandlery.  She is still upset over the loss of her boat and other things.  Not much we can do to help out.  Back to Thebeban (Jum and Jenny’s suburb) and Catie, the other dog, was there (Jum and Jen’s son’s dog). 

Not much else today except for ordering a ‘Do not overtake turning vehicle sign’ and a wireless fridge thermometer. 

 Saturday, 23rd March 2013

Up early again, made coffee and Geoff was soon working hard and installing the new bin (after chatting for a while with the next door neighbour).  After he had installed and tested the bin he was off to Jum’s shed to sort out a few more things.  We have completely taken over his shed but he knew we would and has given Geoff the complete run of his workshop which was very good of him. 

 

Postie Owen popped round with our new collapsible aluminium ladder so Geoff tried it out.  Mia and Meggsy came too so we had lots of loves and kisses.   Meggsy was not at all impressed with the little dog Catie and wanted to be held in our arms all of the time to get away from her.  What a sook!  Catie only wanted to play. 

Once Owen had left, Geoff tried to store everything that we now have acquired in the bins and managed to fit it all in … rippa!

 

Sunday, 24th March 2013

Another hot day.  After brekky of bacon and eggs we headed out in the motorhome to give me a feel for it.  We went down the back rural roads with me driving.  I needed to have a go before my first driving lesson tomorrow and I was a tad nervous.  I drove for about 20 minutes and it drives well although I had so much going through my mind I kept forgetting to indicate.  I also don’t take my foot off the accelerator enough when I change gears.  There is a reason for this and is because I have Morton’s Neuroma which gives me less feeling in my feet and lower legs.  It is a thing I must be more aware of.  My seating position is not so good either as it is a high seat and I have to have the seat so far forward (being a short arse) that my knee hits the lower part of the dash every time I have to change gears.  Annoying!   I suppose I will get used to it. 

When we got back Geoff went off to buy an extension pole and brush to be able to wash the van off easier and it works well.   Apart from that … a nothing sort of day.

 Monday, 25th March 2013

A cooler day today.  I worked on my laptop most of the morning whilst Geoff did the more intricate cleaning of some of his tools etc.  I cleaned up after Catie who is in the habit of leaving little parcels in the lounge overnight.  Little B! 

After lunch and a shower we got the van ready to go ‘on road’ and Geoff drove me to the Lern Ezy Driving School for my first Light Rigid driving lesson.  A bit nervous but not overly so.  Explained to the instructor that I hadn’t driven much in the last few years.  In the last 14 months I had driven 3 times in an automatic and that was only last week apart from the sneaky drive in the van yesterday.  After an hour he said I had handled her quite well even though I stalled her a couple of times.  (Apparently you can stall 5 times during your test without any penalties).  He also said I wasn’t looking ahead up the road enough and I over revved (that dead foot thing).  He said these were all things that were understandable on a first lesson as I was so focused on handling such a large monster.  I explained about my feet problem and he said it is legal to drive in bare feet so might try that on my next lesson.  It wasn’t too traumatic and I met Geoff back at the office and booked in for my next lesson on the 9th and also booked another lessen before my test on the 26th April.  I will see how I go on the 9th and maybe book another lesson in between the 9th and 26th just to get more practice.  I can’t really get much practice in with Geoff as he can’t legally take me out as he hasn’t held his MR licence for a year and our insurance only covers me for learning with a driving school.  But I will sneak a couple more goes in if I can.   Whilst Geoff was out he had picked up a current copy of the magazine Cruising Helmsman with my ‘Exploring Evans Head’ article in it and a letter we had written which had won letter of the month.  Whoopee!

As we were over their neck of the woods, we popped in to visit Maryanne and Owen.  Our new fan had arrived and a letter from Government House Canberra stating that two out of the three guys I had put in for bravery awards had been successful.  Well, actually, the three had been successful but one guy had declined the award. 
I don’t know why he knocked it back but it is enough that he knows that I thought he deserved an award.  Below is the article in the Bundaberg Newsmail.

 Men awarded for brave actions in 2010 floods

25th Mar 2013 9:29 AM

Boats on the Burnett River during the 2010 floods

Governor-General Quentin Bryce has approved a bravery award for two men who acted bravely in the 2010 floods.

UPDATE 6PM

TWO men who risked their lives helping to secure vessels along the flooded Burnett River in December 2010 have been honoured with a Group Citation for Bravery.

John Schott and Ian Willett were both named as recipients of the award for their efforts.

Mr Willett said the memories of the 2010 flood were still vivid two years on but he was humbled by the award.
"It was very scary at the time," he said.

"But there were more people than me helping during the floods."

On holiday at the time on his boat The Blue Pearl, Mr Willett spoke of the terrifying early hours of December 30, 2010 when the owners of a catamaran were attempting to evacuate. A  large tree floated under the vessel and took hold of the catamaran's anchor and chain.

"There was nothing worse than going down a river on a catamaran backwards with your anchor down

underneath you with a log on it," he said.

"That is how I got pulled into it because they came flying past me at about 12 to 15 knots."

Mr Willett said he operated a dinghy with another boat owner, to help navigate the catamaran, before the owner was forced to cut the anchor prior to reaching the ferry crossing area.

"We were getting too far down the river where it was getting too dangerous," he said.

"We were coming up to rocks and other boats so it was just a matter of dumping what we had and doing the best we could do."

Mr Willett said he helped about 25 boats during the tumultuous floods and there was a strong sense of camaraderie.

"We all knew each other pretty well," he said.  "And I had lived in Bundaberg for 10 years before then."

Now living in Airlie Beach, Mr Willett said his heart sank as he looked on with horror at the carnage and destruction left in the wake of the 2013 floods.

"I rang the people I knew down in Bundaberg and told them to get out," he said.

Bundaberg Mayor Mal Forman said the brave actions of Mr Schott and Mr Willett were just one example of courage shown by many during the floods.

"True character and bravery is tested in times of great adversity and I believe that these men are a great example of the generous and brave spirit of our region," Cr Forman said.

"I, alongside my fellow councillors and the rest of the region, commend Mr Schott and Mr Willett for their actions during the 2010/2011 floods."

Member for Burnett Stephen Bennett said it exemplified the efforts of hard-working men and women at the time and he had no doubts that there would be recipients from the 2013 floods in the future.

"Congratulates to them because we know they didn't do this for an award," he said.

He said of the 2013 flood heroes: "Hopefully in the near future we'll be able to celebrate some of those achievements."

 

I rang Deb (Femme) and told her about the award and had only just got off the phone when Ian ‘Blue Pearl’ rang and said he had known for two weeks but was not allowed to tell anyone until the official announcement. We had a long chat and caught up with all of his news.  I am so pleased that he, and John, have been awarded this bravery decoration.  We hope to catch up with him at Airlie Beach later this year.  I sent the article off to Phil Ross of Cruising Helmsman in case he was interested in putting a bit in the magazine.  Also sent off an invoice to him for the Evans Head article.  By this time it was getting late so we couldn’t be bothered cooking so headed off to The White China restaurant at the Brothers Club for tea for a change.

Tuesday, 26th March 2013

Up at 6.30, oh dear … back to the early starts.

As it was cooler Geoff took the opportunity to mow the grass before it got too hot.

It took quite a while as they have a large property but, luckily, they have a ride on mower.  He didn’t finish it all but has broken the back of it.  But the ‘ride on’ has now given him a bit of a back ache. 

We then popped into Centrelink as my exemption was still not showing up on Neato’s system and they were still paying us rent allowance.  The lady said there was a 3 hour wait each day (because of the floods?) and it would be ok to write to them about these two issues.  I did that when we got back.

Later I went on the web and emailed Cruising Helmsman and Multihull World to see how I went about replacing the magazines with our articles in them.  Multihull emailed straight back saying they were already in the mail.  Wow, how good are they.  Cruising Helmsman said they didn’t keep back copies but would look for PDF copies, if that was ok with us.  Yes please.  We then rang up the Grotty Yachty Co to claim our prize of a Grotty Yachty T shirt and they knew our story and suggested we would prefer to have a C U @ Sunset flag instead.  Bloody good idea and thanks.  So another parcel to be delivered to Kinghorn Street. 

Wednesday, 27th March 2013

Into town early as Geoff had a doctor’s appointment and a flu jab.  After his appointment we headed off to the chandlery and our solar panel was in so we then went off in search of brackets and connectors.  I also posted off the citizen replacement stuff but hadn’t completed all they asked for as it was just too much on top of everything that has been going on.  I had only just done that when I had a call from Paul McCarthy from the Immigration and Citizen department and we still have to get the ‘Proof of Identity’ forms done.  Found out from Sandy at the marina that Steve off ‘Zarab’ was a JP so she rang him for us and he will do it when he is next in town as he now lives at Coolum. 

Onto Owens as the new 2000w inverter and our etag had arrived.  Back to Thebeban .  Geoff fitted the inverter whilst I watered all the pot plants, fed the fish and played ball with Jess.  Once the inverter was in we tested it on the microwave and it wouldn’t run it.  Geoff investigated further and found there is a fault with the microwave.  Geoff borrowed Jen’s microwave which is 1100w and it worked fine.  So there was nothing wrong with the original 1500w inverter.  So now we have to buy a new microwave and put the 1500w inverter in the Tender Centre.

Thursday, 28th March 2013

Up early again.  We had a little rain overnight.

We had now worked out what we were going to sell and what we were going to keep so we typed up some labels and attached them and headed off to the Tender Centre.  When we dropped it all off we had to fill out some forms and we were ready to go.  Next we went to Target to pick up a parcel for Jen then went onto to various appliance stores checking out microwaves.  Unfortunately the smaller wattage microwaves were too small to go into the area  the old one had vacated.  We rather fancied inverter microwaves but they were just a little too big to go in the space needed.  We did find a Whirlpool Crisp and Grill which was very appealing, dead on in sizing but a bit dearer than we were hoping to pay.  We went back to the van and re-measured and went onto the web to look at the Whirlpool specifications.  Yep, it looked like it would fit perfectly and the microwave side of it was only 800 watts.  The grill could be used as a separate unit and this was 850 watts so we could use either the microwave or the grill with the inverter.  We couldn’t use the microwave and crisp together on the inverter as it was 2000watt so this would be a feature only to be used on 240v power.  So … we decided to go ahead and buy it.  We got back and Geoff installed it, tested it on the inverter and it works just fine.  Geoff checked out the LG one we took out and it has a definite fault as it only works on full power.  So, that will be off to the Tender Centre for a really cheap price. 

Friday, 29th March 2013

Hot and muggy!  It is supposed to rain but no sign of it at the moment.  Did some washing, cleaned and tried to keep out of Geoff’s way as he installed the solar panel regulator under the bed and then he set about installing the solar panel on the roof of the van.  He never stops working and it was really hot up there.  He makes me feel tired just looking at him. 

 

Owen the postman arrived with lots of goodies today so it was like Christmas again.  Our little plastic trains have arrived so we can play Mexican Train again.  Geoff had managed to salvage the centrepiece train station console but I doubt it will ever go ‘choo  choo again.

 I had managed to pick up a double 12 set of dominoes in a tin for $10 on special at Homeart a while ago.  The ‘Do not overtake turning vehicle’ sign had arrived as had the new car radio that can take an SD card or memory stick for music.  Also not one but two CU@sunset flags had also been delivered.  Thanks Grotty Yachty!  Poor Owen, but there are only a few more items to come now!  A quilt from Colleen, Carcassonne from Moo Moo, A holder for my freezer bags and a thermal cooker.  I have bought a small thermal cooker instead of buying a crockpot as it cooks without power once the food has started to cook.  Tony, Incantation, has one and says they are great so I will let you know how I get on with it.  This one is only a 2.5 litre one to save space. 

So … once Geoff has finished installing the solar panel and regulator he has to finish off the final touches to the microwave which is screwing it down to its wooden base and screwing it into place so it does not move in transit.  Then he has to put the sign on the back of the van , install the radio and then he can relax.  We will probably offer the old radio to Carolyn and Steve.  As I said to Geoff, you don’t have to do everything at once. 

I put a portable shelf in one of the top kitchen cupboards and it gives me a lot more places to store things so I will have to buy a couple more. 

By late afternoon Geoff had bolted the solar panel in place and used sikaflex to glue it down and had finished the final touches to the regulator and batteries so he went off to have a soak in the spa to ease his aching back.

Saturday, 30th March 2013

I think I could have slept on this morning but someone started up a power tool at 6.30 so it was yawn and ho hum.

Geoff did some mowing with the hand mower as the belt had come off of the ride on mower.  He then went on the web and found some detailed instructions on how to replace the belt.  He found a better jack, used some wire to use as a tension and eventually got it back on the last pulley.  Time to pull the Honda generator apart and there was thick mud all the way through it.  He said it would be a marvel if it ever started up again. Anyway, he power washed it all and left it to dry. 

 

After lunch we checked out the ‘Free Camping’ magazine spots to ensure the ‘Camps 7’ book had them in and they did.  We also decided to book in for the bi-annual CMCA (Campervan Motorhome Club of Australia) rally as it was being held in Maryborough which is not that far from Bundy.  It is being held from the 29th April through to the 6th May.  We are not really into these group things but there are going to be a lot of trade stands and seminars and we thought we would pick up a lot of information from it all.  Plus it would be very social and we can pick the brains of the experienced travellers as well.  We are slowly making the transition from ‘Silver Sailors’ to ‘Grey Nomads’ but doesn’t Silver sound so much better than Grey?  Geoff then went to see if he could find out which of the outside lights was giving us a warning symbol on the dash.  He has bought four new LED side lights to replace the old ones but he can’t seem to find out where the wiring goes so may have to ring Jayco if he can’t work it out. 

Overcast and drizzly day today. 

  Sunday, 31st March 2013

Bacon and eggs today  -  yep  - it’s Sunday. Once again it is supposed to rain but, so far, it is hot and sunny.  I gave Geoff a packet of dark chocolate small Easter eggs so, hopefully, he will share them with me.

Geoff, once again, tried to trace the wiring and the faulty light.  The warning on the dash states ‘check your side lights’.  Two hours later and he was still looking.  As he was doing all this I was off watering the pot plants.  Whoa … there are even more pot plants down the back of this huge block so I watered them and filled up the copious bird baths that are dotted around the place.  Jen said not to worry about the garden but some plants looked distinctly droopy so they got a drink too.  There is a sprinkler system but neither Jen or Jum showed us where the controller is so we were unable to get it going.  Luckily there are taps and hoses everywhere so it wasn’t too difficult, albeit time consuming.  But time is what I have plenty of at the moment.  All this time Geoff was trying to pick up a damaged wire with a hook, but to no avail.  In the end he went up into the luton peak (over the cab) and cut inspection holes which he will cover with a blanking plate when he has finished.  He saw there was a wooden divide in the middle with a hole cut for the wires but which was way up high.  So there would have been no way he could pick up the broken wire with a hook.  This meant he had to cut a third inspection hole to get the wire through.  “Thank god for that” he said!  After he had replaced the wire he checked and the light warning on the dash was still on.  After all that, this was not the light that was causing the problem.  Still, they needed replacing at some time soon anyway.  He eventually found that the dash error warning was caused by a one of the three number plate lights which was really easy to fix.  That’s life. 

He then said he was going to relax but he can’t stay still for long and he was soon working on installing the new radio and soon had stuff everywhere again until I asked him to move it all so I could cook dinner.  So, he piled it all on the bed!  Not my problem, I’m sleeping in the house and keeping Jess company.
 
 
 

Monday, 1st April 2013  -  April Fool’s Day

Rabbits!!!  We had a little rain overnight so now it is a little hot and humid.  Up at 7.30 so a little better.

After brekkie Geoff went off to Bunning’s (he almost lives there) to get some bits to finish off the radio.  He met Don and Vicky from ‘Dumnaglas’ whilst he was there. Don is working every day on repairing Dumnaglas after it was badly damaged in the floods and ended up being wedged between the Rowing Club and Spinnakers restaurant.  They have invited us around for afternoon tea at 3pm, which is nice.  We are slowly catching up with the rest of the marina people.  Geoff spent most of the day finishing off fitting the radio and the USB charging station.  When he had finished he found the USB connectors still interfere with the TV when something is plugged into them, just like it did on the boat.  I went off for a soak in the tub.

Dumnaglas

At 2.45 we headed off on the scooter for Don and Vicky's place which wasn’t far from us.  We had a really nice afternoon tea and she gave me a few clothes and they offered us their brand new satellite dish which they had bought for a new motorhome but have since decided to be land based and live in Bundaberg.  How nice was that.  At first we thought we wouldn’t have anywhere to store it and offered to put it in the Tender Centre for them but, on second thoughts, we decided it was too good an offer to let slide by.  So we have decided we may keep it one  Geoff has done a bit of research on the web.  We arranged to go out to Kentucky Bluegrass (the name of a suburb out of town … strange name) and pick it up and either keep it or put it in the Tender Centre for them. 

Back to the van by 5pm.

Tuesday, 2nd April 2013

As I write this Jess is under the table of the RV waiting for some left over cereal and milk so we have to be careful where we put our feet. 

We pulled the generator out this morning and tested it to see what it would run as someone from ebay asked about it as they were thinking about buying one.  She tested out well and we answered all of their questions, hopefully.  It seems to run everything, including the 2200w kettle, but not the air conditioner which is understandable. 

Another sunny day.  They keep forecasting showers which don’t eventuate.  Geoff continued working on securing the microwave into its recess area.  That was until the Dremmel tool battery died so we put it on charge and went off to see Don who was working on his boat about 10 kms away.  He has already completed a lot of work On it and is working very hard.  We picked up the satellite dish and told Don we wee thinking of keeping it.  Back to the van to get on the web to see how much a decoder would cost.  The cheapest one was $272 so then we measured up to see if we could get it under the bed, which it did.  So yes, we decided to keep it.  The satellite dish is valued at $478 so it was a very nice gift indeed. 

We then went onto the Tender Centre to drop off the 1500w pure sine wave inverter, the old microwave and the rolling suitcase that had to go from under the bed.  Hopefully most of it will sell over the weekend. 
If it does we should get over $400. 

Onto Owens to find our digital fridge thermometer had arrived .  Big cuddle from the woofs.  Onto the marina to ask then to put together our bill and we bought a new and brighter LED light for the kitchen area .  We also need to buy a couple of new LED outside lights before we leave.  Onto Zac’s to get some meat and then a quick visit to Aldi before heading back. 

When Geoff got back he had another look at the old Honda generator and it is definitely stuffed so into the bin it went.  Geoff then installed the new fridge thermometer and then Sally rang so we had a good natter.

 

Wednesday, 3rd April 2013

Geoff woke Jess and I up at 7.15.  Poor Geoff’s fingers are playing up at the moment.  Maybe the stress in January hasn’t helped much.  I hope they get better soon! 

Geoff spent some of the morning loading music onto SD cards and memory sticks so we can play it on the radio.  Boring for me … washing and cleaning (the RV and the house … wow … Jess sure drops a lot of hair).  We then went into Jum’s shed to clean up the last of our mess and soon all we needed to do was sweep it all out. 

 

 

Later Janine and Dave popped by to have a look at the generator and to have a coffee and a chat.  They stayed for about an hour before they had to head off. 

After a bite to eat Geoff headed off to Bunning’s  -  what again? -  to get a few bits and pieces to finish off jobs.  I printed off all of my recipes off my laptop and put them in a loose leaf folder.  I also have them on my ebook but find it easier to work from a hard copy. 

When Geoff got back he worked on making a laptop table that fitted over the steering wheel.  Checked the emails and there was one from Wendy from the magazine ‘Multihull World’ saying she would definitely like to publish my article ‘The saddest day of my life’ so we started to get some high definition photos together.  Dinner was lamb shanks in Jen’s older style crockpot.   They were ok but not as good as when cooked in the modern versions.    Catie and Jess enjoyed the bones afterwards. 

 

Thursday, 4th April 2013

Up early again.  Had a shower, brekkie and headed into town.  Geoff dropped me off at the doctors and he headed off to the dentist.  I dropped my sample off and then went round to Neato only to find my exemption was now showing on Centrelink and it was only a phone interview.  Now we only hope they have sorted out the rent allowance. 

I wandered around town trying to pick up the bits that were still on my list.  Was lucky to pick up a matching black pouf/ottoman at Crazy Clarks for down side of my bed.  So now we can store the shoes in this one and the microwave bowls. Mixing bowls and plastic containers in the one closest to the microwave. I was storing a lot of these items in the microwave which made it more of a pain to use.  Plus, we can now use them as extra seats if people pop by when we are sitting outside and we offer a cuppa.  Geoff met up with me when I was in IGA and we went to the marina to pick up our two new outside LED lights and pay our bill.  We also popped into the Flood Recovery Centre and it doesn’t look like we are entitled to the Household Items grant as we had some contents insurance.  

We have to prove that we had more contents than what we were paid for very little gain so we have decided to not go ahead with this one as it is getting too hard.  Popped into Home Hardware, which had only just opened again after being inundated by the floods, and bought the four shower caddies that I wanted for the sliding baskets in the kitchen (sounds weird calling it a kitchen again … maybe I should continue calling it a galley as the motorhome is still a vessel, isn’t it?) 

Back to Jum and Jen’s where Geoff was right into it and fitting the new shelves in the kitchen slide out cupboard.  They are so much wider and I can get such a lot more in.  They’re great … thanks Geoff!

Time to tidy up a bit as Don and Vicky were coming round for afternoon tea.  A bit of confusion reigned as they had not heard Geoff say come right down the drive and round the back.  As they couldn’t raise us they were heading for home when I contacted them and they turned around.  Showed them round the RV (doesn’t take long), had a cuppa and apple tea cake.  It was a nice afternoon and they were off home about 5 pm.

Friday, 5th April 2013

Up at 7 am … a little better! 

Geoff made up a new masthead graphic for my journal and then made up some new business cards using the same graphic.  I worked on my journal until Linda and Waz rang to say they were on their way for a visit.  They arrived with a huge decadent pure cream and jam Swiss roll.   I hate to think how many calories it contained!  Mind you, there was only one piece left when they departed which Geoff was going to have as dessert.  They arrived with little Sayla around 11 am and left just after 2pm after two cuppas and the cake and a lot of chatting.  A great break for us and a good break for them as they have been working non stop on ‘Leisure Lee’ for the last month repairing the damage caused by ex (???) Tropical Cyclone Oswald.

After they left Owen arrived bearing gifts.  My thermal cooker had arrived along with my Multix freezer bag holder and a letter from the Queensland Flood appeal saying my appeal was being assessed by a private arbitrator.  Thanks Owen, its good having your own personal postie.  Geoff pottered around doing little jobs like putting up some hooks etc and then we headed off on the scooter to the Tender Centre to ensure we could find all of our goodies had been displayed  and Geoff even put in a bid for a Makita drill.  He bid the lowest bid, just the reserve, so he may not win it. 

From here we went to the marina to take some ‘after the flood’ photos to marry up with the photo of the river in full flood to send to Wendy at Multihull World and then it was back to the van.  It started to rain just as we neared home but we didn’t get too wet.  I then emailed all of the photos off to Multihull World before getting dinner ready.  TV, spa and bed.

 

During the flood

 

After the flood

 

Saturday, 6th April 2013

Up just before 7am after a big cuddle and scratch for Jess and licks for me!

Geoff worked on freeing the mechanisms on the fishing reels and the hot melt gun and thinks they may all be ok.  He also reaffixed one of the mudflaps to the van, fixed the brake safety switch on my ebike and cleaned out the pond filter. Whilst he was doing this I made up beef olives and put them in the thermal cooker to see how well it cooks.  Then I finished off part 2 of the March journal and just need Geoff to give it a proof read.  I also watered the pot plants and fed the fish.  Later Tony popped by on his way to Gladstone where he has to pick up all of the bits from his boat.  His insurance company is going to write off ‘Incantation’ but want all the boat bits back before they pay him out.  Mean B’s I think!  He is also having trouble getting his $2000 flood relief money.  They are asking him to prove that he lived on his boat in the river as he was not in a marina.  They are only giving him 5 days and will not give him an extension even though he says he is, basically, living out of his car when he is not staying with friends or family.  They have no feelings for what people are going through and  it is not only us who are having trouble getting money that we are entitled to.  He brought us some more new release movies so we have now got another 22 movies to watch.

We both fiddled around until it was time to get dinner ready.  The thermal cooker gets the thumbs up but I did reheat the contents once during the day as beef olives take a reasonable time to cook.  But they were really tender and tasty.  I cooked the spuds on the steamer setting of the microwave and this function also works well.  But the setting is not called the ‘steamer’ setting but the ‘fitness’ setting.  Fitness setting? … duh … why not steamer setting so we all know what it means???

 

Sunday, 7th April 2013

Overcast and drizzly.  After brekkie of bacon and eggs, we got ready for the road.  The first thing we noticed when we unplugged the mains power was that the 12 volt did not come on.  Hmmm?  Geoff worked out that the battery charger has to be switched on when there is no 240 volt power.  The second thing was that the engine battery was flat.  Hmmmm?  Geoff realised he had been working on his laptop all day a few days ago which was coming straight off the battery.  Yep, that would do it!  All was well as Jum had a spare battery in the workshop so Geoff jump started it.  The third thing was no reversing camera and this turned out to be a loose connector under the dinette seat.  So, at last we were ready to go.  Geoff drove to the hill where you do your hill start on your test to check out the adjustments he had done to the handbrake.  He was able to lower the seat a tad for me which I found was a bit better but I still had trouble pulling the handbrake on so that the RV would hold and even more trouble letting it off again.  These cabs are made for men and not little short A’s like me!  Eventually we worked out a system that I could handle which was to pull the handbrake up very fast and I was able to get the van to hold.  I was then able to let the brake off but the floor is such a long way down that I really have to lean down to my right to get it all the way down whilst still keeping my foot on the clutch right.  I just need to find a technique that suits me. 

Geoff drove to the back country areas and I took over driving in bare feet to see if I could feel the pressure I was exerting on the pedals better, which I could.  I drove for about 50 minutes down very narrow back roads turning right and then left and trying to keep my road positioning correct.  Geoff said I handled her well.  We had no idea where we were but eventually found our way to the Ring Road.  I pulled over and Geoff took over as we thought we would have more of a chance getting caught on the more busy roads. 

By this time we were not too far from Kalkie so we popped in to visit Maryanne and Owen and the M& M’s. Had a coffee and a lovely piece of cake  -  yum.  We hadn’t caught up with Maryanne for a while so it was good to catch up.  Back to Thebeban via Aldi for a few supplies.  When we got back to Jum and Jen’s we parked in a different spot to allow the grass to grow back.   It is brown where we were parked and it looks horrid! 

 

 

I went to put some of the supplies away in the fridge and learnt another lesson.  You can’t put semi liquids in a jug and just cover it with gladwrap and then go driving.  Gravy just about everywhere so now anything liquidy will go in a sealed container.  These are things which we are finding are so much different from a boat.  You would think a boat would be more rocky but not so!!!! 

Cody arrived after lunch to pick Catie up so now Jess has us all to herself.  So we played ball and played ball and played ball until we (Geoff and I) dropped.  Geoff fiddled around on his laptop doing backups and then went on the web to see if he could get more detailed instructions on how to adjust the handbrake.  He soon found the instructions and found you had to adjust them inside the wheels but there was no way he could undo the wheel nuts. The last person must have done them up overly tight with a power ratchet.  So Geoff is going to book her in to get the handbrake done professionally which also means he will get the wheel nuts loosened at the same time.  They were so tight that Geoff would have been stuck if we ever got a puncture.  I am thinking I will have to look into joining the RACQ or similar if we are going into any remote areas.

The afternoon was spent going through the cupboards and noting where everything was stored then going through my favourite recipes to ensure that I had everything in stock.  Nope, I was short on quite a few basics such as brown, castor and icing sugar, custard powder, cornflour, cocoa powder, breadcrumbs, curry powder, golden syrup etc.  Real basic items that I use quite often in cooking.  So I have made room for them and need to buy quite a few stackable containers to store them.  And here was I thinking I had re-stocked everything!  

Meanwhile Geoff was wandering around looking for ideas and scraps of bits to make a wine rack for beside my bed and to make a base for my loo roll holder.  You know the type  -  a base with a pole that you just slip the rolls over.  Very basic but it works. 

Monday, 8th April 2013

Swept out the house  -  lots of Jess hair/fluff everywhere again.  Also had a clean around as I am not sure when Jum and Jen will be back.

Geoff spent the first part of the morning under  the bonnet sorting out a bad connection on the injector sensors.  The warning light (another one) on the dash had come on once before but had then mysteriously disappeared.  When it was raining yesterday Geoff noticed it had come back on so guessed it was something to do with the rain.  He checked and the water gutter above the engine was letting water leak down onto the engine.  He had checked on the web and it was indicated that the sensors that were getting wet were causing the light to come on.  Geoff sealed up the area which was letting the water through and gave it a good dose of WD40.  When he started up the engine the light came on , as it does in test mode, and then went out.  Great … fixed.

There was then a “hello’ from outside and it was Jum’s cousin Miles who lives just a few houses away.  He works away in the mines two weeks on and two weeks off.  He came to touch base to see if Geoff had fixed the ride on mower.  A cuppa, bikkies and a nice chat, of course.

After he left we headed into town and our first stop was the Tender Centre as we had received an email saying Geoff had won the bid for the Makita drill.  They also notified us of what had been sold of ours.  Seems that everything bar the anchors, inverter, the roller backpack and a couple of odd bits that were unimportant.  We had a reserve of $95 on the 40lb Manson plough anchor (worth over $500 new) and someone had bid $80.  We decided to not accept this bid and put it in the next auction on the 17th.  No bid for the inverter so we have left it in as we are not worried if it doesn’t sell as we are sure we will be able to sell it down the tracks.  What did surprise us was the  bathescope had gone for $65 (we had a reserve of $15).  They are worth $100 new and this one was well used, faded and with the plastic starting to degrade.  In fact, the stuff that did sell was all over our reserve.  Even the microwave sold for $40 (reserve of $15).  Alas, we lose 25% in commission (quite steep) but better than nothing!  We can pick the money up from Thursday on. 

Our next stop was the marina area where we rang Sam on ‘Priority One’ to come and pick up his present.  This was pork crackling which we buy off our little Filipino lady.  Sam invited us over, of course, so off we went in his dinghy.  It was quite strange sitting on a boat again and I couldn’t stop looking out to see where we were swinging.  Shirley soon turned up and it was really good to catch up.  A cuppa and a slice of decadent chocolate mud cake (I must stop eating all of this cake!)  They are probably going to head south in 6—8 weeks time as they are going to make their base at Ulmarra on the Clarence River where they have family ties.  We loved Ulmarra and we reminisced about happier days in 2012 on our last sailing cruise.  We will probably catch up with them again when we head south towards Victoria in summer.

We then ran around town picking up things from my list and booking the motorhome in for a brake adjustment on Thursday.  We managed to get a lot of the stuff on my list but not all.  We caught up with Gerry and Celia in Woolworths  and caught up with all of their news.  They still have a lot of troubles and we feel really sorry for them, especially at their age.  The next people we caught up with were Carolyn and Steve so we arranged to meet them back at the RV as we had promised them the car radio we had taken out of the van.  Also, earlier, Geoff had bought a $50 gift voucher from Coopers Hardware for them just as a little gift to help them along.  We gave it to them as they left and Carolyn gave me a big hug.  By this time it was about 6pm so it was time to cook tea  -  fish.

 

Tuesday, 9th April 2013

One eyelid raised and Jess was all over me like a rash, as usual.  She has started to sound like Tasha when we come back after being away.  A yodel type of howly bark.  I wonder if this is normal behaviour for her. 

Washing day for me while Geoff adapted the cover we had bought for the genny yesterday.  This was a portable dog kennel which was constructed in a tent form.  Geoff cut the bottom out with the hot knife attachment to his soldering iron (so it wouldn’t fray) and it fits over the genny really well.  We may have to scotch guard the top as we are not sure how waterproof it is but at least it will give it some protection. 

By the time he had fiddles around it was time to head into town as I had my second driving lesson at noon.  We had to park outside of the Lern Ezy office as there was no spots where we normally park.  I was a bit concerned about getting out of the spot but all went well and I was off.  Whilst I was out Geoff wandered around the shops and bought a large Australian Atlas and had lunch (don’t worry about me  -  I ate at 4pm).  My lesson went well although I still over rev a bit and clutch coast  -  tch, tch and need to take my left corners a bit wider but he was happy with my driving and made me do a 3 point turn (more like a 5 point turn) and a parallel park (gulp).  Anyway, he must be happy with me as he is trying to bring my driving test forward to next Tuesday (double gulp).  Luckily, I was able to park in my normal spot when I got back and Geoff was waiting for me. 

We rang our postie, Owen, and he said that a parcel had arrived for us so we headed off to Kalkie and had a cuppa with them.  The parcel was the decoder for the Satellite dish.  When we got back we parked down the side of the shed to be out of the way when Jum and Jen coming back.  Greeted by a yodelling Jess … nice welcome.  Geoff then tried to set up the satellite dish and decoder until he got frustrated and stressed out.  So, Geoff will try again tomorrow when he has calmed down!

 

Wednesday, 10th April 2013

Geoff was very frustrated when I got to the van this morning as he was still trying to get the satellite antenna to lock onto the signal.  So, after brekkie we decided to visit Gerry and Celia for a cuppa and a chat and to see if Gerry had any insight into out dilemma.  But, alas, Gerry couldn’t help as the company he bought his dish from set the whole thing up for him.  Never mind it was nice to visit and have a cuppa. 

When we got back Deb had just arrived with some quilts from Sandy and her quilter club and connections. Sandy had asked whether I could deliver them but I was not sure how long I had the car for so she had asked Deb to do it.  The quilters club had decided to donate quilts to all the people who had lost their boats and my friend, Colleen in Bright, said she was also sending up a quilt so quilters must be nice people!  So we got a pretty single and Deb dropped off two for Janine, one for her daughter Lillian and one for her son Hayden.  She had about another three to drop off and I was able to give her some phone numbers to chase up where people now were.  Arnie and Barnie came too so they got some choc drops but were more interested in exploring the acreage here.  Nosy little B’s! 

Once Deb left Janine arrived to pick up her quilts but couldn’t stay long as she had just remembered she had sausage rolls in the oven which she had forgotten about.  Geoff went whipper snipping and finishing of the mowing and I cleaned and vacuumed the house.  He then went up into the luton peak to install another electrical outlet.  He was almost finished when we heard a noise and looked outside and Jum and Jen were back.  Wow … glad we had done all the cleaning and mowing as we hadn’t expected them back today.  Went to meet them and they said they had a good time and Jum had come third in his archery division and had also got third in the axe throwing competition.  Had a cuppa, stripped and remade the bed, collected up all of my stuff.  They said they are happy for us to stay awhile yet as long as we chip in for the power we use which is very fair and good of them.  We will catch up with them over the next few days.

Went on line and registered with the government to receive satellite TV reception as a traveller so we will see if that makes any difference to locking on to a signal!

Thursday, 11th April 2013

Up early this morning, on purpose, as we had the van booked in at 8am at the brake and clutch specialists to get the handbrake adjusted and the wheel nuts loosened.  Once there, Geoff unloaded the scooter whilst I wandered up with two bags of towels and clothes we were donating to the St Vinnie’s Op Shop.  They got heavier and heavier as I walked and I felt that my arms were growing by the second!  I was glad when I got there and then Geoff came to pick me up.

Our first stop was the chandlery to give Sandy a ‘thank you’ card for the quilters.  We also found out that Jan was a Commissioner for Declarations and could do our ‘Proof of Identity’ form for us so we will get that organised so that we can get our Citizen Certificates replaced. 

Next stop was Dimmey’s and River’s to get Geoff some warm clothes as all his winter clothes went down with the boat.  Onto Macca’s for brekkie and to read the papers and then back to the RV to drop off his purchases.  Luckily the RV was just about ready so it was good timing.  The Tender Centre was next where we picked up some of the money that had come in so far, $240, I think.  The IGA for supplies and back to Jum and Jen’s and a warm greeting from Jess. 

Geoff tried, once again, to get a signal lock with the satellite dish and I yelled out that whatever he had just do0ne had resulted in the signal strength shooting up so he went out again and moved the dish a tad here and there until, suddenly, it locked onto the correct satellite.  An Eureka Moment!  Rippa!  We still couldn’t get a picture so Geoff rang the government registration department who said it took up to 24 hours after registration for it to come on.  She said to just leave the TV on and it would come on at some time during the day.  We had registered about 5pm the previous night so still had, maybe, a few hours to wait.  Jum came on-board to look at the info we had on satellite TV as he was debating whether to buy one for his caravan.  Whilst Jum and Geoff were talking the TV suddenly squawked into life.  Fantastic … it works.  Geoff spent the rest of the afternoon putting in connections inside and through the van to put in a connection to the outside. Time for a big play with Jess as the day shaded over and then caught up with some of my journal. 

Easy tea … the rest of the cannelloni!

 

Friday, 12th April 2013

So what did we get up to today?  Apart from sharing our brekkie with Jess I got a thermal pot meal going.  Geoff gave the bike a clean.  He also put up some hooks for keys and got under my feet.  I phoned the fuel tax credits of the ATO (Australian Taxation Office).  I was on the phone for ages but, in the end, it was all sorted.  The lady I spoke to was just great but it just took a long time to get the diesel and petrol onto the same account.  She is sending me a few of the forms for spares.  It was one government department that hasn’t made me ‘jump through hoops’ to get things done.

I had just got off the phone to them when I got a call from ‘Lern Ezy’ saying that they had an opening free for me to go for my test on Tuesday,  if I wanted to take it.  Gulp but I said I would take it as Anthony says I am ok driving the ‘monster’.  I will go out with Geoff over the weekend and get some more practice in and then I have an hour’s lesson before my test.  I am not going to stress over it … if I get it, all well and good, if I don’t, it’s not the end of the world and I will try again. 

After lunch Geoff installed two cigarette lighter type style sockets underneath the dinette bench seats so we can use our laptops on the table on the 12 volt.  Jum popped by and so did Jen.  Geoff and Jum had a beer and Jen and I shared a pear cider.  She had never tried it before but she has a sweet tooth and we thought she would like it, and she did.

 

Jum

 

A nice day with a couple of light showers but heavy rain is forecast over the next few days.

 

Saturday, 13th April 2013

Wonders of wonders … we didn’t get up till just before 8am.  Stripped the bed and did some washing and Geoff printed off the passport style photos so we can get Jan, from the marina and who is also a Commissioner for Declarations, to sign our ‘proof of identity’ forms to say we are who we say we are!  All this just to get a replacement Citizen Certificate.  Bugga … it’s raining so it was a mad rush to get the washing off the line and hung up on the lines in Jan’s garage.  The linen was just about dry but the clothes were still damp. 

In the afternoon Jum and Geoff worked on Jum’s TV antenna on Jum’s van.  I think they worked out that it was a bit of a problem with the TV AND the antenna.  They think the TV doesn’t have a very good receiver as our TV worked fine in his van.  So Jum now has to decided whether he needs to buy a new TV or a new antenna, or both.

A nothing sort of day really.

 

Sunday, 14th April 2013

Bacon and eggs, shower and then off to Sugarland with Jan to pick up some supplies.  Jum had gone off to archery and Geoff decided to stay behind as he wanted to do a few things on the laptop.  Woolworths had really fresh, warm just out of the oven, hot cross buns on special which Geoff and I had (all of them) for lunch.  We then took the van out to the hill to try out the handbrake adjustment.  Bumma… it is no better, maybe a bit worse so that was $127 wasted!  We couldn’t get it to hold at all.  Onto the industrial estate where there was a no through road to practice reversing around corners.  Stuffed it up a bit and also got it right a bit and then we went for a drive around.  We really didn’t stick to the back roads this time.  I also got in a bit of practice doing three point turns and then it was back.  Geoff then worked on the handbrake again so then it was back to the hill… no  better.  Back to Jum’s and work on it a bit more and back to the hill again.  It was a tad better this time, especially if I didn’t stop on the really steep part of the hill.  I could just get it off again.  A little disappointing and Geoff will have a chat with them in the morning but it is not going to be fixed in time for my test on Tuesday so I shall just have to do my best. 

Relax for the rest of the day.

 

Monday, 15th April 2013  -  Day 48 of living on the Land

Up just after 7am.  Had brekkie with Geoff and Jess.  Jum is calling Jess a ‘turncoat’ as she is always in with us.  She just knows a soft touch when she sees one!

Just after 11 am we headed off on he scooter where Geoff dropped me off at the dentist where I had an appointment for a deep gum clean  -  yuk.  Geoff went off to do a few things and came back at 12.15 when all was finished and my agony was over.  A deep clean  is never nice but it was bearable.  Why people pay good money to be put through agony is beyond me.   Owwwwwww!

Onto Dymocks to buy some dictionaries, onto the marina for Jan to sign our ‘proof of identity’ forms, then on to the Tender Centre to pick up the rest of our money and then back to the RV. 

Jum had bought a new 18.5” TV, a Sphere like ours only not so big, as ours had worked well in his van.  Whilst I chatted to Jum and Jen, Geoff went off to Bunning’s (again) to get a few things.  By the time he came back my mouth was coming too  -  ouch!  A cooked a mushy tea of Kai Si Min so I didn’t have to chew too much.

 

Tuesday, 16th April 2013  -  Still at Jum and Jenny’s at Thebeban, Bundaberg

A very warm night!  We fiddled around doing this and that but nothing of note.  Geoff put some outdoor carpet on the RV step and held it in place with press studs and also cut out a piece for the step just inside the door.  Now I just need to get a matching  mat for inside the van. 

Jum was fiddling around with his new Sphere TV for his van.  He could only get SBS on his antenna.  Then he tried it on the antenna in the shed and then got all the channels except SBS and Channel 7.  Geoff went up and got our Saturn antenna down and tried it in in Jum’s van with the TV and he got all the channels except Channel 7.  So frustrating for him so he was thinking about buying a new antenna and went on the web to compare the Saturn to the Wineguard antennas and got even more confused.  But, whilst he was looking on the web he stumbled across a forum where one guy suggested moving his current Wineguard antenna from horizontal to vertical saying that when he did this himself he got really good reception.  Jum had nothing to lose by trying it and ‘low and behold’ he then got all of the channels perfectly.  He is now pleased and annoyed at the same time.  Pleased because he can now get good TV and annoyed as he might not have needed to buy the new TV.  But, as Jen said, the old TV was very cheap and quite small so they are probably better off with the new TV. 

Time for some lunch and to keep an eye on the time as I had a driving lesson at 2.35 and a driving test at 3.35 pm.  Geoff loaded the ebike onto the RV so he could scoot around town on it whilst I was away for 90 minutes.  The lesson went well and it was soon over and it was time to head to Queensland Transport to take my test.  Why was I not nervous?   The tester was the same guy who had taken Geoff for his MR licence so knew my story was very friendly and very chatty.  So chatty, in fact, that I found it hard to concentrate on my driving and hope I grunted in the right places at the right times.  But he was great  -  no school zones, no hill start, no three point turns and no reversing around corners.  Bumma, Anthony (my instructor) had just had me reverse around about five corners non stop.  Basically I did a big left hand around the block with a couple of right hand turns. Stop signs and roundabouts.  He said I was fine and wrote on the report that I drive well and he never even marked down that I made any errors.  Wow … was I happy!  Geoff says it is all down to Anthony who owns and runs Lern Ezy with his partner.  Anthony is a real ‘lay back’ instructor and Geoff says that he, Geoff, was an able assistant with the sneaky Sunday practice runs.  I sent Geoff a text to let him know I had passed the practical and was just about to sit the ten written questions as I didn’t want him to be on tenterhooks as I was when Geoff went for his (Geoff had left his phone in the RV so never got the message).  I got the ten questions correct, as I should as I had been practising on the Qld Transport website over and over to ensure I knew all of the answers.  Anthony drove the RV back to give me a relaxing break and Geoff had just arrived when I got back.  He had already bought the bubbly to celebrate even though I told him not to until I had let him know I had passed.  I didn’t want to mozz myself.

 

 

Geoff had been all over town on the ebike and said there was still plenty of power in the battery.  He was pleased and relieved as it is a weight off both of our shoulders and I can now, legally, help out with the driving.

When we got back Geoff finished fitting up the shelf to go in the overhead cupboard and then we had tea and celebrated with the bubbly and drank the whole bottle between us.

 

Wednesday, 17th April 2013

The morning was spent just working on the RV.  Geoff prepared an area behind the passenger seat ready to install a new 240 volt power point.  I did two loads of washing in my sweet little washing machine.  Later morning we headed off on the scooter to Bunning’s (yes … again) to get yet more stuff and then it was on to the courthouse to get a copy of our passport and driving licence verified/authenticated by a Justice of the Peace.  A quick visit to a few more stores and then it was on to Owen and Maryanne’s who had been down to Maleny for the weekend.   They were interested in buying a unit/house/villa at an over 50’s resort called Sunstone Gardens.  They fell in love with one so have contracted to buy it.  Two years ago it was the resort’s community centre but has since been converted to an 18 square, two bedroom home with large garden and 12 metre swimming pool.  They showed us photos of it which really didn’t do it justice as the lady who owns it is a very cluttered and untidy sort of person and she had stuff everywhere.  Owen and Maryanne had to look past all of this to see its real potential.  They have three months to sell and I think their house should sell quickly as it is a nice, well maintained little house with two garages and solar panels.  They are having new carpet put in the three bedrooms on Friday and then having the real estate agent round to value it. 

Back to the van where Geoff replaced a large electrical cover in one of the kitchen overhead cupboards with smaller conduit so I can stand more things up and, therefore, get ore stuff in.  One thing about losing everything is that you can replace with matching things that all fit in nicely, thank you. 

Soon it was time to freshen up before Don and Vicky turned up to take us to Montezuma’s where we were treating them to a ‘thank you’ Mexican meal for giving us the satellite dish.  They hadn’t eaten Mexican before so, hopefully, they enjoyed it.  We then introduced them to our tradition of Going to Macca’s (or Hungry Jack’s) for dessert of soft ice cream cone and flake.  A good night and we caught a taxi back with them which they treated us to.  Nice!

 

Thursday, 18th April 2013

I rearranged the cupboards a bit more and I think I am getting them to my liking.  Geoff finished installing the new power point behind the passenger seat.  He then put up my paper towel holder and stained the new computer shelf and key holder and installed it once it was dry.  He also had a look at Jen’s computer as it was very slow to start.  So far, no good so he will investigate further.  They are off for the weekend and then may go away for the next week so we are going to be enjoying Jess’ company again.

 

 

We kept busy all day fiddling around with various things and playing with Jess but really it was a very mundane sort of day.

Poor Geoff is having trouble with his teeth as his plate is really hurting when he tries to put it in.  He is booked in to the dentist on Monday at noon so hope they can fix it.  

 

Friday, 19th April 2013

Rang Lauren to see if they were home from Brisbane and if we could pop round.  No … they were still in Brisbane as Hugh was on the operating table again.  He had gone down for a check up and they had found pus in the wound so, to be safe, they opened it up again to clean it out and to also see what was happening.  Hugh is the one that nearly lost his foot during the floods. 

As we were now not going down to Bargara Geoff decided to put the silver quilted sun screens up in the cab.  They work really well and you could certainly feel the difference.  They came with the RV and are quite expensive. 

I went on a chilli hunt as Jum had said there were some chilli bushes down the back.  I cam back with a selection of red and green ones which are in a small jar of olive oil.  They will last us a little while.

Mid morning Jum and Jen left for Gympie and Jen left us her car so off we went to do some chores.  We needed to buy a light summer doona so we went to Spotlight first but they only had medium warmth to winter warmth (well … it is coming into winter).  Onto Sam’s Warehouse where they had a QS cheapie listed but only singles in stock.    We did buy a spare QS doona for $16 (cheap, cheap, cheap) and two more Sistema kitchen canisters.  Onto the marina to pick up a letter from Jan stating we were living in the marina and on the boat when disaster struck for the Immigration and Citizen dept to get our Citizen certificates replaced.  Walk into town from here and manage to pick up a light and cheap QS doona from Crazy Clarks, some decent coat hangers that actually fit into our wardrobes from King Kong Sales and a haircut for me.  Thank goodness, gone is the wild and woolly look!  I had lunch at the new sushi bar in town and it was really good and seems to be run by all Japanese.  Arno would love it! 

Back home to play with Jess and then she stayed with us all night until I took her back to the house for the night around 11pm after watching the movie ‘Skyfall’. 

Saturday, 20th April 2013

Not much of not to write about today.  Geoff went off into town on his scooter and bought some stationery items and 2 computer fans.  He then fitted them to Jum’s solar controller to suck the hot air away from it allowing the solar panels to put in a bit more power. 

I borrowed Jen’s car and bought the cutest mini mortar and pestle from Nana’s Kitchen and it will hardly take up any space in the motorhome. 

 

 

Got some bits in IGA and it was back.  One of the items I bought was a hair colour so Geoff put it in for me … goodbye grey! 

The afternoon was spent on the computer with Geoff on Jen’s computer still trying to get Jen’s laptop to boot up quicker  -  still no luck.  Geoff then went on his own laptop and printed off what Newsletters he could find and what ones we are missing from the floods.  We are hoping that our mate, Wyn, may have copies down in Paynesville as he has saved most of my journals for me.  Jess stayed with us until it was time for our bed when I took her to the house.  Brrrrr  …  getting colder at night!

 

Sunday, 21st April 2013  -  Day 54 of land yacht living

We seem to be getting up later now which is good plus we are sleeping better with the light doona on the bed.  Went to let Jess out and, once again, very nippy this morning.  Geoff had a quick look at Jen’s laptop but is getting nowhere with it.  This annoys him as he hates being beaten by things. 

After a play with Jess we were off to the Shalom Markets on the scooter as it was not far away at all.  The fruit and veg didn’t seem any cheaper than the supermarkets, perhaps dearer, and most of the other stalls were craft or junk which didn’t really interest us.  Our little Filipino lady had her stall there and she had new stock of Pansit Bihon so we bought the three she had with her and Geoff will go round to her place and stock  up before we head off. 

 So, that was it apart from buying a very small metal ruler for our padded stationery box that stays on the dinette table. 

Back to the RV for brunch of bacon and eggs which we shared with Jess.  I then cooked up some rice so I could cook fried rice for tonight as poor Geoff is still having trouble chewing things as he can’t wear his plate until he goes to the dentist tomorrow. 

 

Monday, 22nd April 2013

On of those nothing kind of days , as will be the norm until we start travelling again. 

Geoff went on the web and found a workshop manual for my e-bike but, alas, not an owners manual.  But, by looking at other e-bikes and designs, he was able to work out the pedal assist function.  He tried it out and it works well, then I had a go then Jum had a go as well.  Jum thinks an e-bike would be great to take along on the back of his caravan.  Jen came back from shopping and brought me a present of some pink/purple plastic slip on sandals.  She has quite a few pairs of various colours and they are a bit more dainty than the Crocs I have been wearing.  They are only for popping on to go from the RV to the amenities block or around the outside of the van anyway.  I wouldn’t be seen dead wearing the crocs or these out! 

Jum and Jen eventually got going as they are taking advantage of the fact that we are still here and Jum is still on vacation to go away fishing for a week as Jess is happy staying with us.  They haven’t gone too far, Maira I think, and they are coming back later to pick up the tinny. 

Time for Geoff to head off to the dentist and then pop by the butcher for me.  He wasn’t too long and the dentist had ground down his plate a bit and it feels much better.  No charge, great!  Whilst he was away I itemised the food stock we had and where it was stored.  There’s nothing worse than needing something that you know you have in stock and not being able to find it. 

Geoff is still looking at modifying the dinette table into a trifold table but down the trap sometime.  Meanwhile, it really needs to be lowered or a slide out fitted for my laptop.  We will probably get some ideas from the rally next week. 

Michelle rang whilst I was fiddling around and said she was in the post office and sending off Carcassonne as we spoke.  So we can expect that in a few days time and, I must say, we are looking forward to getting it.  Thanks Moo!

About 4.30 pm Jess came and made it known that it was way past her ‘play’ time.  She was a bit late as she normally wants to play at 4 pm.  Jum and Jenny arrived back in the middle of ‘play time’.  They soon had the boat hooked up and were off again. 

 

Tuesday, 23rd April 2013

A lovely day today.  Up, showered and off early as Geoff was dropping the scooter off to Gateway Motorcycles for its first service.  I borrowed Jan’s car and met him there and we continued on to Kalkie to pick up our mail.  Checked out the new carpet and it matches (colour wise) perfectly with their floor tiles.  Lovely.

From here it was down to Burnett Heads.  There was nobody on ‘Phencara’ but Linda and Warren were on their boat ‘Leisure Lee’ so we went on board for a cuppa and a cuddle with Sayla and to have a look at all the work that is still being done.  The outside hulls look a treat and are still being worked on.  Waz says he is almost on top of what he had to do.  Linda said they had received their Premier’s grant, at last, after an appeal so I hope ours is not too far away!

On the way back we went to the Tender Centre and picked up the sand anchor and suitcase that hadn’t sold then it was back to the Gateway Motorcycles but the scooter wasn’t ready so we went to Sugarland where we bought a new fudge tin (exactly the same as the one from Devon that Jo sent over that went down with the boat) from Australia Post.  I also picked up a couple of tops that were on special plus a few supplies.  Back to 2AB2 for lunch and then pick the scooter up.  They have ordered a new shock absorber for it and a new plastic cover which doesn’t fit properly.  How they will get it to us is still up in the air, we said we would cross that bridge when we came to it.

Drop the scooter off then head to Don and Vicky’s for afternoon tea.  A lovely surprise … Vicky had invited Deb as well so we were really pleased.  Don arrived soon after and we decided we would invite the ex marina dwellers to go to the RSL on Friday for dinner.  Hopefully there will be us, Deb, Garry, Steve, Vicky, Don, Sam, Shirley, Linda and Waz (who were in the marina at the time of the disaster).  Must remember to book!  By 4.30 pm it looked like a storm was on the way so we headed off as Geoff remembered he had left an overhead hatch open.  We got back before the rain and had a quick play with Jess and put out her dinner.  Time to get ours too!

 

Wednesday, 24th April 2013

Up late, nearly 9am … that’s so much better!  Another ‘nothing interesting to report’ day!

I got some Rogan Josh Lamb Shanks going in the thermal cooker.  Geoff had asked the butcher to chop them down as much as he could but one is a little long and pushed up the lid a bit so I was not sure how they would go.  I gave them two reheats during the day.  Geoff went onto his laptop for a bit then went and replaced the flywire to Jum and Jenny’s back sliding door.  I fed the fish, caught up on my budget and just fiddled around.  Geoff gave the mint a very short haircut and made up some more mint sauce.  I did some ironing … boring. 

In the afternoon Geoff went to the Tender Centre to pick up the money for the inverter we had sold.  Jess was soon telling me it was play time and then she conned Geoff into playing with her again when he got back. 

I popped the Lamb Shanks in the oven for an hour, just in case, and they were cooked perfectly and very tasty indeed.  And that was our day!

 

Thursday, 25th April 2013

Still ‘nothing’ days! 

Geoff went up on the roof of the RV to wash it down then cleaned the stainless steel bull bar.  I did a load of washing, harvested two cucumber and some red chillies and that was the morning gone!  Then the afternoon was much of the same.  Lazy day!

 

Friday, 26th April 2013

Geoff went off to Bunnings (what again!) and I did jobs around the RV.  Jen and Jum arrived back with the tinnie around 11am and crab and fish for us.  He really clobbered his thumb when he was disconnecting the tinnie and I think he would have liked to let out a few choice words but held them in as I was there.  They didn’t stay long and were soon off and Geoff must have missed them by a minute.  They drove out one way and he came back the other.  Time for Geoff to go up on the roof and replace all of the rusting steel screws in the air conditioner with stainless steel ones and then he painted the vent silver to cover the rust streaks.  He also did a bit more bull bar cleaning and it is coming up really well.  Crab for lunch!  At 3pm he was finished so we went back to Bunnings to buy some very fine insect mesh to replace the fly wire on the entry door.  Then onto IGA and continue on to Owen’s to pick up a parcel.  The parcel was Carcassonne from Michelle (Moo Moo) so thanks heaps Moo!  Luvya!  Owen said that they were leaving straight after their ‘Open House’ (yep, it’s up for sale) for Brisbane as Natalie was in hospital having the baby.  This might mean that we won’t get to say a proper goodbye to Maryanne before we leave which will be a great pity but I think we may have to come back if the scooter shock absorber doesn’t arrive before we leave.  This will give us the chance to say goodbye until we catch up with them again in Maleny. 

Rush back, freshen up and change and head back into town to the RSL Club.  All the gang from the marina were getting together so there was us, of course, Deb, Garry, Steve, Shirley, Sam, Linda, Waz, Vicky, Don, Gerry and Celia.  What a lovely night to have most of our marina community together again.  It was really a marina ‘get together’ although it also became a goodbye to us as well.  Ray from the marina also came and sat with us for a while and I was kicking myself for not inviting him and the others from the marina.  But I didn’t think about it at the time … silly me!  I also got a nice pressie from Deb and the boys (Arnie and Barnie and Garry) which was a really soft and cuddly toy dog.  It was a Schnoodle which is a cross between and Schnauzer and a Poodle and I was tickled pink.  I love things like that … sooooooo cute!  By 10 pm people were starting to make a move so Deb, Vicky and Linda took photos.  We had forgotten our camera which isn’t at all like us.  We then grabbed Steve from ’Zarab’ to drop off the 20lb sand anchor we had offered to him and which he accepted.  We were glad it was going to someone deserving.  We got back home about 10.30 after having a really good time.  It is the community that we (we, meaning all of us) is really missing. 

Bye everyone  -  see you again sometime and somewhere. 

 

Saturday, 27th April 2013

Up early to tidy up a little, as in make the bed and sweep, as Geoff had invited Connie and Hernando for brekkie at 8.30 am.   Connie came bearing a huge fruit salad which included grated cheese, a Columbian thing apparently, but hey why not?  This was a good match for the pancakes that we were having with maple syrup and cream.  Yum, yum and a couple of extra pounds of weight put on probably.  They stayed for quite a while and we had the rest of the fruit with them for lunch with yoghurt.  We had a lovely chat and it was great to catch up.  We hadn’t seen them since the floods.  Hernando finishes his fitter and turner course in November  but has to find 200 hours of vocational work (work experience) from June on.  Jum said he may have a contact that may, or may not, be of help so we will see. 

Once they had left we started chatting to Jen who then came on for a cuppa and Geoff showed her some flood photos and them some really old photos he found on one of his CD’s of when we were really young and silly!  Now we’re old and silly!  Geoff then started on replacing the insect mesh on the front entry door to make it midge proof.  He has a few other vents to do as well.  Why manufacturers put up insect screens on doors and windows and not vents is beyond me.

Time for dinner so Geoff cooked the fish that Jum had caught and they were delicious.  Grunter and Sicklefish.  Thanks Jum.

 

Sunday, 28th April 2013

Bacon and eggs with Jess and then I prepared beef olives to cook in the thermal cooker.  Geoff went up on the roof and installed a cradle for the Saturn TV antenna which he made out of a plastic colander he had bought for just that purpose.  Jen arrived back from archery with Fritzie and Ruth and Geoff went off to have a look at Fritzie’s laptop to try to speed it up.   Did two loads of washing , mostly bed linen and towels , got them on the line and then went off to IGA with Jen.  When I arrived back Deb and Garry arrived with a very fattening caramel and cream pie.  I supplied a savoury platter as Garry is not a sweet tooth.  Garry had a look around the van and gave it the thumbs up.  We had a long chat and listened to their future plans which sounded very interesting.  Whilst they were here Connie popped around with a pressie of another soft toy, a monkey this time … thanks Connie.  Geoff is despairing as more and more fluffy toys start adorning the bed. 

At 6pm Geoff, Jen, Jum and myself headed off into town to find a Chinese Restaurant (the beef olives will be eaten tomorrow).  This was a little ‘thank you’ to Jum and Jenny for giving us a haven when we most needed it.  It was so very much appreciated and we have grown very fond of them and their woof in a very short time.  Back home by 8.30 and say goodbye to Jum as he will already be at work before we head off in the morning.   

 

 

Monday, 29th April 2013

Up and slowly pack things away, disconnect the power and water, antenna down, hatches and cupboards shut and loose items secured and say goodbye to Jen and Jess.  Bye for now.

Toot, toot as we went past Don working on his catamaran ‘Dumnaglas’ in the paddock at Kentucky Bluegrass.  At Childers we stopped to pop into Woollies to get three cans of the Robert Timms coffee that was on special plus some meat as I had remembered I had left mine in Jen’s freezer .. Silly me. 

Onwards to arrive at the Maryborough showgrounds around noon.  We were absolutely amazed at the sight that beheld us.  Motorhomes and campervans as far as the eye could see.  Paddocks full and it was a bit daunting .  We were held in one of the paddocks for a little while whilst they decided where they were going to put us but eventually we were backed into site 868 and settled in to look into our little bag of goodies we had been given.  We were given a ‘first timer’ ribbon and a rally ribbon to attach to our membership badges.  Once we had settled in it was time to tackle the awning and, after a couple of false starts, it was down and pegged.  No rattles so those awning anti rattle thingamejigs seems to be working. Out with the chairs, tables and BBQ and make some lunch and then it was off to explore and we wandered up to the main area to see what was there.  Trade stalls, food vans, craft shed, woodworking shed, IGA shed (wow) etc.  We treated ourselves to a soft serve ice cream.  $5 each … wow … a bit dear than our 30¢ soft serves at Macca’s but three times the size, if not more.  We had a look at the rally program but it was a bit too much for us to get our heads around at this time.  Geoff got out the e-bike and went for a spin around.

I was sitting outside when the lady opposite us, Genevieve and her hubby, Kevin, came over to join me and Geoff was soon back to join us too.  Then Sue and Kevin to our left also came round to join us so we sipped our drinks and chatted until the sun went down and it was time for us all to head off to prepare dinner.  Ours was easy as we had the beef olives I had cooked yesterday.  Then it was off to the evening’s entertainment which was a comedian called Ken Bennet and he was extremely funny.  We watched for a couple of hours until bed started to call for us.  Buses are constantly going around the grounds so we caught one back (the site is huge) and went up for a shower then bed.

 

Tuesday, 30th April 2013  -  Day 63 of living on the land yacht

Up early to attend the ‘first timers’ breakfast at 7.30.  They put on a great spread although the queue was rather long.  This was understandable as there are supposed to be about 270 ‘first timers’ at this rally. 

Breakfast queue

We have been told that there are well over 900 RV’s here at the moment.  A logistic nightmare but one they seem to be handling well.  All we seem to do at the moment is talk to new people all the time and then never see them again as there are so many people here.  Back to the RV and unload the scooter to cruise around looking for a couple we had spoken to on ebay about the Hyundai genny.  We soon found them and they had a lovely 5th Wheeler and two cockatiels.  They had already bought a new genny so they didn’t need to look at ours after all but it was nice to chat. 

Geoff then went off to a Geowiki seminar which he found informative.  I met him there afterwards and we went and booked a table for the trivia night.  A table for eight.  Genevieve, Kevin, Susan, Kevin and us so far so we only need another couple. 

Off to the ‘first timers’ meeting to learn about the CMCA which was also interesting.  More exploring and looking at the wood turners exhibition and onto the IGA shed to get a few bits and it was very reasonably priced so we will be supporting them, of course.  Back to the RV for me whilst Geoff went off to the other ‘Optimum’ he had found and met the owners and had a chat.  He came back and relaxed for a few minutes until we wandered up to the end of our row of motorhomes with our chairs, drinks and nibbles to where ‘Happy Hour’s being held.  There were quite a few people there, not what you could call an intimate gathering, and there was a lot of story telling, singing, poetry etc.  One younger couple were extremely talented and we could have listened to them all night.  It was very enjoyable. 

Once the sun went down it started to get nippy so we headed back where Geoff fired up our new 2 burner butane stove to cook the lamb kebabs.  It worked well and I think we are going to be happy with it.  It is very light and not at all bulky so suits us well.  The entertainment tonight was a Neil Diamond tribute.  As we had seen Neil Diamond twice, in the flesh so to speak, we decided to give it a miss and just relax for the night. 

 

Wednesday, 1st May 2013  -  Rabbits!  -  CMCA Rally, Maryborough

Another beautiful Autumn day.  I still need the whisper quiet 12 volt sirocco fan on at night but that is just me. 

 

A leisurely start to the day.  We have now made up a table of eight for the Trivia night tonight.  Received an email from Moo saying she has found two of our newsletters, June 2003 and 2004 and Wyn has also found one so we are getting there.  Well … at least getting some.  Geoff printed them off straight away and put them in our new folder. 

Just before 10 am we grabbed our mugs and headed off to morning tea where we chatted to yet more people.  Geoff had a cup cake but I abstained, and then we listened to the announcements for the day. 

After morning tea we wandered around the trade stalls again and I checked with the Saturn TV antenna lady to ensure that the internet/phone antenna we were thinking of buying and putting on the same bracket as the TV antenna wouldn’t interfere with each other.  I then went off to find Geoff who was attending another GeoWiki seminar.  We then went and got them to put the antenna aside whilst Geoff got the money together as they had no eftpos facilities.  Back to 2AB2 for lunch and checked the emails and the draft of the article “The Saddest Day of my Life’ had come in for checking.  We proof read it a few times and it made Geoff ‘tear up’ a bit as the memories came flooding back.  Saved and printed it off.

Later Geoff headed off into town on the scooter to get some money out and to check out where Centrelink was located for my appointment in the morning.  I sat outside and relaxed and wrote up my journal.  Geoff arrived back and went to pick up the antenna but they were finished for the day. 

Popped across the way to socialise and have a drink with Gordon and Kate along with Genevieve and Kevin.    When we had finished we walked up to the main area as we were treating ourselves to pizza for tea.  Nice to not have to cook for a change.  It was then on to the Trivia night which was being held in a large equestrian barn.  There was Kevin, Genevieve, Kevin, Susan, Linda, Steve and us, of course.  It was a little slow to get going but soon warmed up when Table One (us) and Table Eighteen were running neck and neck in first place.  After four tie breaker questions we were still equal first so the placings were decided by the toss of a coin that Susan won.  Well done Susan!  We were tickled pink and the prize was a $25 voucher each from Van Cootens Drapery and Hardware in Howard, about 25 kms away.  Apparently, Van Cootens Store is still the same as it was at the turn of the century so should be interesting to see.  We have only seen Howard’s train station platform as we have travelled through on the Tilt Train to Brisbane so it will be good to have a reason to explore the place. 

By this time we were all getting chilled so it was back to our respective vans and for us to put the diesel heater on to warm up the van and also to try it out.  It worked well and soon warmed us up as did the mug of hot chocolate.  Fall into bed at 10.30 pm. 

 

Thursday, 2nd May 2013  -  CMCA Rally, Maryborough

Another nice day.  Geoff went off to pick up his new internet/phone antenna and seemed to take absolutely ages.  He said he had been talking … who Geoff? … Never! 

About 10 am we headed off to Maryborough on the scooter.  After visiting Centrelink, we went in search of the market and it wasn’t hard to miss.  We wandered around and bought some pork crackling, Indian food, fresh produce etc.  We also popped into the shopping centre to buy a bottle of bubbly to celebrate our win the night before and the fact that our Premier’s Relief money had, at last, come through three months after applying.  It would have been really bad if you were really desperate and had to wait that long.  Anyway, we are pleased it eventually came through as it gives us a little bit more of a buffer. 

Back to 2AB2 for lunch and then Geoff went off to another seminar and to get GeoWiki and the commercial program of Camps 7 loaded on his GPS.  He also came back with the new, large ‘Boiling Billy’s Camping Guide to Australia’ which was a rally special at $10.  It is a big book, as big as the Camps 7 book and I would guess it will retail at around $70.  A good buy. 

Later in the morning the other guy we had met, who owned an Optimum the same as ours, came round to invite us to an ‘Optimum Owners’ morning tea at his place on Saturday so it will be a good chance to swap notes and hints.  Then about 4 pm Genevieve and Kevin came over and had drinks with us until it was time for us to cook dinner.  Thai Chicken Curry  …  yum, yum.  Rained just before we went to bed.

 

Friday, 3rd May 2013

We had quite a bit of rain overnight and the track in front of the RV is getting quite boggy as the rally buses come through.  It is fine at the moment but overcast with threatening  clouds on the horizon so we may get more rain.  Geoff removed the 12v supply wires from the battery and wired them into the solar controller lead connections so he can see what amps we are using in the RV and how many amp hours come in from the solar panels and how many go out with usage.  Hopefully, more will come in than go out. 

Eventually he was finished and we wandered up to the main area, firstly to get his money back on a 12 volt amp meter that wasn’t right, then buy two more for the same price (but different).  We also tried to buy two more ‘Boiling Billy’ books but they had sold out.  They were for Jum and Jenny and Owen and Maryanne as, for that price, they were a steal.  Hopefully they will be getting more in this afternoon so all is not lost!  We also picked up an aerial photo of all the RV’s parked in the showgrounds for $5 which we are hoping to photo/scan and see if they come out well enough to use digitally.  Rush back to the van before it rains and just get back in time.  The rain was short lived and let’s hope it is over.  Toasted sandwiches for lunch and put the genny on for an hour as it is overcast and dull.

 During the afternoon we had a phone call from Michael, the farm manager of Bundaberg Sugar.  He said that one of his workers had found our birth certificates and wedding certificate in one of the cane fields.  They must have either floated out a bit from the boat or had fallen out when they broke her up.  Michael said that although they were dirty they were in good conditions as they were laminated. What a nice surprise so we now don’t have the hassle of trying to get new ones.   He is going to hang on to them until we get back.  This was really good news and we are really happy that they have been found … rippa! 

Popped a roast in the oven and then Kay and Gordon from the Winnebago Leisure Seeker from across the way came over for drinks and nibbles until it was time for dinner.  After dinner we popped up to the main area for about an hour to watch the singer, Don Costas, then back to a hot chocolate and bed.

Saturday, 4th May 2013

A very hot day, especially as it is May and winter is just around the corner.

Today, after a leisurely start, we headed off for morning tea with the Jayco Optimum Group.  A Jayco dealer was also invited and all the men picked his brain.  The only trouble was that he was a sales rep and not one of the maintenance guys so his knowledge was limited.  The ladies also started to talk about various issues and I was starting to think we might have bought the wrong brand.  But I think all brands and models have their problems.  It seems that all the Optimums have a grey water pipe blockage problem and each is slightly different to the others. 

 

After lunch we wandered around the ‘Open Day’ market which was quite large.  Geoff bought a 5 metre string of coloured LED lights that are changeable and can be cut to any length.  When we got back he started installing them and I went for a quick lie down as I was a bit tired.  I woke up just after 4 pm … wow … I must have been tired.  Geoff had been back to the market stall to replace the lights as the first string he bought was faulty.  I never heard him go.  By the time I got up he had finished installing the lights and they look really pretty.  You can dim them, colour change them or have them set on one colour and they look lovely at night.

We had a light tea and then I got some nibbles and drink together and we caught the bus up to the Paradise Pavilion where they were holding the ‘Ghost and Goblins’ ball.  Some people had gone to a lot of effort to dress up and they looked great.  The band was also good but extremely loud and you couldn’t chat.  Because of this, and the fact we are not really into dancing, we only stayed for a couple of hours.  Back to the van, hot chocolate and bed.

 

Sunday, 5th May 2013

Bacon and eggs, clean up, shower and then off on the scooter to find site 630 to see if we could sign up with the Highland Wanderers chapter of the CMCA.  This chapter is, predominantly, for travellers who are mostly always on the road.  Alas, there was no one there so we left a business card and message and went for a burn around the site.  If you could call it a burn as the speed limit was 5kph which was very difficult to do on a scooter without falling off.  We stopped to have a look at the ‘Alien Productions’ double decker bus and trailer.  The trailer holds his helicopter and small 4WD and is a feat of engineering.  The guy who owned it all was showing people around, four at a time, but we didn’t hang around to go through.  We wondered how he managed to find places to stay overnight that could fit him in. 

 

We continued on and found some other Optimum owners, Joe and Sandy.  Sandy was the one who had organised the Optimum Owners meeting and then had forgotten to come.  She was a bit embarrassed.  They have a 2010 Optimum with a bedroom slide-out that they bought about three months ago, at a good price, although it doesn’t have a oven, washing machine, bull bar, tow ball or diesel heater.  All of what the other Optimum’s have.  It was a demo model and had been sitting in a yard for two years.  When they queried the fact that they hadn’t got these things they were told that they were extras.  Strange when you think all of us others have all the extras.  Still, they are still happy with it and, like us, it is their only home as they have sold up and headed out.  Hopefully we might catch up with them on the road again as they are heading north too.  Before we went back to 2AB2  we went back to site 630 and David, the president, was there so he invited us to the Happy Hour where we could join in and also pay our membership fees.  Back to 2AB2  for a coffee and a relax before going back for Happy Hour.  Of course, it chose to rain, but we did get to pay our fees and join in a little before we were driven back inside. 

 

Monday, 5th May 2013

Up at 7 am to a bit of a tummy ache.  We started to pack everything away and then an official CMCA vehicle came round saying they were going to cut the water off at 9am so we wandered up to have a shower.  Slowly campervan and motorhomes started to head out and we left just after 10 am leaving Genevieve and Kevin all on their lonesome.   They had problems with their wiring from the solar panel and parts were getting dangerously hot so they have to go all the way back to Ballina to get it fixed under warranty.  Meanwhile they were waiting for a phone call to be talked through which wires to disconnect in the interim to make it safe. 

We headed towards Howard to redeem out Trivia prize.  We had bought Kevin and Genevieve’s prize vouchers of $50 for $30 as they wanted to head straight for Ballina.  We stopped in at Aldershot on route to see if Brenda and Rick were there but the house was in darkness and there was no little woof, Vicky, there.  Perhaps they have already headed off north in their catamaran ‘Low Profile’. 

Onto Howard where we found Van Cooten’s Hardware, Grocery and Drapery store.  The drapery store was absolutely cramped with stuff higglydipiggeldy everywhere.  There was tons of various goods piled one on top of the other and in no logical order.  How anybody could find a specific item is beyond me.  The stock taking would be a nightmare, if it ever gets done properly.  So … we went back to the hardware store which was small, still crowded but with a semblance of order.  Here we bought a silicone collapsible bucket, fishing gear, Sistema canisters, sealer, tent pegs, food etc. which came to $104.95 so they only made $4.95 out of us.  As we left the store we had some very heavy rain but it was short and sweet.  We found a spot to make some lunch and have a cuppa and then it was back to Maryborough as one of the small gas cylinders had run out.  It had lasted about 6 days when you are free camping as the fridge runs on gas.  It is going to drive us nuts as a 9kg bottle lasted us 2 months on the boat.  When we got back to Maryborough we went into Bunning’s to get the small gas cylinder refilled (Swap and Go -  $18) plus we bought a new 9kg bottle which Geoff will install in place of one of the small ones.  He will have to do some modifications to the bin and we will be able to fit in one 9kg and one 4 kg and keep the other 4 kg plugged and as a spare.  We then got the large bottle filled, bought some supplies and went down to the park by the river where we had noticed a lot of motorhomes had settled for the night.  More came in after us so we had safety in numbers for the night. 

 

Tuesday, 7th May 2013

A quiet night and a few motorhomes had already left when we surfaced.  We slowly packed things up and got ready to leave.  Turned the ignition and nothing … bumma!  Now we are convinced the battery is stuffed and we have one already put by for us in Bundy.  We decided we would have to head straight there and give Mary and Rob a miss in Kingaroy, AGAIN.  Geoff pulled out the genny and slowly started to try to charge the battery with the genny’s battery charger which only puts in 8 amps and hour.  We thought we might be there a while until one of the other motorhomer’s came over with a battery to jump start it.  Thank you.

First stop was to Supercheap Auto to buy a jump starter pack which was on special and also had a compressor built in.  Bugga … out of stock in Maryborough.  It was a good job that Geoff had left me behind with the motor running.  There was one at Hervey Bay which had been put aside for us so of we toodled.  We found the store, bought it and went back to the ‘monster’.  Turn the ignition and nothing even though we had been driving around so the jump start pack was put into action and it worked first time.  Onto the shopping centre where Geoff bought a large baking tin to extend the roof of the gas bottle bin when we get back to Jum and Jenny’s.  We made up some lunch before we headed out, used the jump start pack again and headed north towards Bundy.  We got in at around 1.30 pm and went straight to the Bundaberg Motor Group (BMG) to get the battery.  It is not a Fiat battery, which are very expensive we’ve been told) but a battery for a Mercedes at a cost of $189, not a bad price.  As Geoff was putting it in we had two guys stop and say they would like a van like ours.  It is certainly a conversation starter.  Once in it started easily, of course, so it was onto Kinghorn St to pick up our mail, have lots of cuddles and licks from the woofs, and cuddles from Maryanne and Owen, minus the licks!  Cuppa and chat .. Nice.  We arranged to go to Montezuma’s with them on Thursday as I want to redeem my birthday voucher before we leave and it will also be a ‘goodbye’ dinner with them. 

From here it was on to Jum and Jenny’s to an enthusiastic welcome from Jess, good she hasn’t forgotten us.  Chat, chat, chat with Jum and Jenny then time for tea.

 

 

Wednesday, 8th May 2013  -  Jum and Jenny’s

Up at 7.30 (ish) when Jess came for her treats.  I put in a load of washing even though it looked like rain.  Geoff got cracking cutting a hole in the top of the bin with Jum’s jigsaw.  The noise drove me out. 

Jen and I decided to head into town as I wanted to bank my cheque from Cruising Helmsman for my article on Evans Head (one of the mail items from Owen yesterday).  After we had done that we trolled the Op Shops and I got a leather belt for $1 and 2 wine glasses for 20¢ each.  The wine glasses had initials on them (probably a wedding gift now not wanted for some reason or other) so I put them back. As I didn’t want something with someone else’s initials on them.  Then I thought “hang on a minute, what were First those initials?”  Blow me down, they were G&M so they were perfect … I must have meant to have them.  Now, at least, we have a couple of glasses that are not miniscule.  Grab a few items from the supermarket and then head back, passing Geoff and Jum as they headed out to buy some LED lights for Jum’s van.  They were soon back and installing the new lights on the van, one outside and one in, and Jum seemed happy with them.  We were all chatting in Jum’s big shed when the heavens opened and the rain thundered down.  It was so loud on the roof that we couldn’t hear each other even with shouting.  Wow!  Short and sharp and Geoff got all his tools wet so he had to dry them off and spray them with WD40 to stop them rusting. 

 

Thursday, 9th May 2013

We fiddled around till around 10 am when we headed off on the scooter to Bundaberg Sugar to catch up with Michael who was looking after our wedding certificate and our birth certificates.  They were in good condition considering what they had been through as they were laminated.  Michael thanked us for our kind words in the ‘Letters to the Editor’ in the Bundaberg Newsmail.  He said the letter had done its rounds around head office who had said it was a change for Bundy Sugar to get compliments instead of complaints. 

From here we headed into town to pick up a few things.  I found a nice leather looking well made black/white/blue backpack bag which I showed to Geoff who bought it for my birthday.  Next was Zac’s Meats to stock up and to buy some of their yummy crumbed, cooked chicken pieces and a drink and headed for the park overlooking the river to eat them for lunch.  Back to the van where he dropped me off and went back out.  I vac packed all of the meat and managed to fit it all into the fridge.  Geoff came back for a quick freshen up and change and we headed out to meet up with Maryanne and Owen at Montezuma’s.  I had a yummy combination special and it didn’t cost me a cent as I used my birthday voucher.  Of course, it was Macca’s for dessert for the 30¢ soft cone.  We then said a ‘proper’ goodbye to Maryanne and Owen as we don’t know when we will see them again.  Hopefully, for them, in Maleny some time.  They have been very good friends to us and we shall miss them dearly. 

Back to 2AB, TV and then bed.

 

Friday, 10th May 2013

I woke up a lot overnight.  Once was when I realised I had left our new ‘Citizen Certificates’ (which Owen had brought with him) at Montezuma’s.  After all the hoops we had to jump through and then I leave them behind!  Geoff went out again (I think he is looking for another birthday present I won’t know about) to get some board to make up some more Carcassonne tiles.  Whilst he was away I cleaned, washed the floor, had a coffee with Jen and re-arranged two of the cupboards  -  yet again.  I hope this will be the last change.  Geoff came back for lunch and then went out again looking for some extension packs of Carcassonne, to no avail.  When he came back he took his laptop into Jen to show her how to replace/add more RAM into Fritzie’s laptop .  Had another coffee.  When Jum came home from work around 8pm we went out and said thanks and goodbye to him.

 

 Saturday, 11th May 2013  -  On the road again  -  to Ceratodus Rest Stop (First day of the new adventure)

Apparently I was noisy last night and kept Geoff awake a bit  -  sorry.

We showered, had a last brekkie with Jess, packed up and then Jen came to take photos so we had a quick session with the cameras.  I left a little ‘thank you’ on her dining room table which she would find later, after we had left.  We left about 9.30 and headed off towards Gin Gin where we stopped for diesel and to top up on a few supplies and then it was on towards Monto.  The road was hilly,

narrow, twisty and, at times, bumpy.  We soon learnt what stayed in place and what didn’t.  No breakages apart from a little seepage from the shower cleaner which was in the shower area anyway and easy to clean up.  The rest area at Ceratodus was next to the Burnett River and quite nice although the toilets were out of order due to the floods.  A guy was working on them and said they were about two days away from being re-opened.  There was an historical railway station here which had been relocated to preserve it.  The  area where the station used to be was called ‘132 miles and 22 chains’ by Queensland Rail before being renamed Ceratodus (which is the Latin name for a type of lung fish found in the Burnett River) when it was moved to its present location in 1997.  As we are camped near the river you can see debris high in the trees above us from the recent floods that wiped out 2AB.  This whole catchment area is what caused the huge rise of river levels and, according to the guy fixing the toilers, the area we are camped in was under 20 feet of water.  Wow!  One hell of a flood as some of us know well!  But then, further inland, there I drought.  A land of many contrasts.

 

There are a few vans her with us, one of which I recognised as Joe and Juanita's who we had met at Maryborough.  Had a quick chat but they were just stopping for a cuppa and were soon on their way to the Monto Showgrounds as they were volunteering to work for Blaze Aid. 

Geoff was industrious, as usual, and put up the second book/magazine holder and then went outside to do some preparation work on some new Carcassonne tiles whilst I got dinner ready.

Tried the TV but no reception (and we are only 100 kms inland), bumma, and it is to late to fiddle with the Sat Dish and it is only for one night.  Never mind … we can do without TV anyway. 

 

 Sunday, 12th May 2013  -  Ceratodus to the Dawson River Rest Area

After bacon and eggs I started packing the van up (as in securing things) while Geoff pumped up the types using the compressor on his ‘jump start’ machine.  Although slow it does it ok. 

We left the rest area around 9.30 and headed towards Monto.  Just after we left the rest area there was a large section of flattened trees where the floods had cut a swathe of destruction.  We had been told that a woman had been swept off the roof of her house opposite and found clinging to a tree a few kms downstream.  When you see the destruction up this way you realise why Bundaberg and the boats in the river didn’t stand a chance.  It was raining so heavily everywhere and all funnelling into the Burnett River.  As we headed towards Monto we crossed creek beds (no bone dry) and saw full grown trees littering the water courses.  All waiting for the next flood to be swept further downstream.  Not a nice thought!

We stopped at Monto to have a quick look around and visited the small, unmanned info centre (Sunday) there and picked up a north Burnett brochure.  We saw that the road into Cania Gorge was sealed to the lake so we decided to do a side trip.  We thought it would be a shame to just drive past it.  It was 14 km to the gorge, passing through the tiny hamlet of Moonsford.  We ended up at the lookout above Lake Cania and Castel Mountain which was part of a large escarpment of ochre coloured rocks.  Pretty and scenic but not as spectacular as Mt Buffalo National Park in the Victorian Alps.  We lived right under the gorge at Mt Buffalo and had this as our backdrop everyday for 10 years.  Unfortunately, this makes other places sometimes pale into insignificance which is a shame as the Cania Gorge is a nice place to visit, especially if you have a boat. Plus, you have to seize the moment with what is on offer, which we did. 

We stopped at the picnic ground for a bite to eat and a cuppa and then went for a short 1.3 km walk up to the 2 Storey Cave passing King orchard Crevice on the way.  An uphill walk, easy and enjoyable.  There were plenty of other walks of various distances to do but we wanted to push on to our next ‘free’ camping spot as there was only a caravan park in Cania Gorge. 

King Orchard Crevice

On the way to the 2 Storey Cave

 

We visited Biloela on the way and found their ‘Dump Spot’ so emptied our black and grey water and filled up with fresh and then topped up with fuel.  We had a quick drive through town and then it was on to Moura which turned out to be a huge coal mining area.  Large mines adorned both sides of the road  and the roads were all being ‘done up’.  We saw a lot of ‘donga’ style villages  and they had put in quite a bit of effort to make them pleasing to the eye.  6 kms on was the Dawson River Rest Area.  It was quite a large area with quite a few RV’s already there.  Plenty of room for us and more, though.  Toilets, a pay hot shower for $1 and a donation box for its upkeep.  Nice.  We had only just got in when we were invited to ‘Happy Hour’ (oh … doesn’t sundowners sound so much nicer) at one of the motorhomes.  Off we went but we both drank a little too much and neither of us felt like cooking after so it was the good old standby of chunky soup with bread and butter. 

 

Couldn’t be bothered fiddling with the Sat Dish so we watched the movie Argo and found it was a great movie.

 

Monday, 13th May 2013  -  Dawson River Rest Area (outside Moura)

Achy, cramping legs last night and had to get up to take something.  Slow getting to sleep and slow getting up, past 8.30 am.  Had brekkie and went and had a $1 shower (2 minutes of hot water which is enough for me).  Time to put the awning up … hmmm … how does this work again?  Brain, from across the way, came over to give Geoff a few hints and tricks of the trade and it was soon up.  Geoff then spent quite a bit of time getting the Sat TV working.  We had to re-activate the Vast card online quickly and then we had no sound.  Fiddle, fiddle then turn the TV off and back on and ‘voila’ , sound. 

Time for a cuppa.  Where’s Geoff?  Off chatting, of course, so I took the cuppas and a chair down to visit as well.  Their names were Pete and Val and they were in a caravan and had just started out and were heading north, the same as us (and lots of others, I might add).  Back to 2AB2 to make sandwiches for lunch.   Took them outside to eat.  It was a good job  I had wrapped Geoff’s up in gladwrap as he was off talking to a guy in a Winnebago Leisure Seeker across the way who was from Wangaratta in NE  Victoria. 

Mid afternoon Geoff unloaded the scooter and went back into Moura for some bread and milk etc.  We had UHT milk but this is not realty to his liking.  Me, well I can’t really taste the difference that much.  When he came back we went over to ‘Happy Hour’ again before heading back to have some dinner and watch a bit of Sat TV.   Raining!

 

Tuesday, 14th May 2013  -  Dawson River Rest Area  -  Day 77 of land living and Day 4 of the land adventure

We had quite a bit of rain overnight and it is a cool and overcast day.  Up just before 7.30 and noticed the 12 volt was off.  Geoff looked at it and it was the solar controller which had gone into night mode for some reason or other.  It has done it once before at Maryborough.  Geoff read the instructions and tried to get his head around the bad translation from Chinese into English.  At least it was quick to fix.  Geoff then looked at the 12 volt wiring to see what was dropping the voltage so low at times.  It can show as low as 11.9 volts on the plug in volt meter but the volt meter at the house battery reads 12.6.  It is an existing connection to the TV outlet that is causing the reading.  Nothing to worry about as the correct reading is way higher but weird.  He will get to the root of it one day I’m sure. 

Time to update our Clarence River article as Clare from the Clarence River Tourism had emailed me back with a few minor changes which was really good of her.  Once we had updated it we sent it off to Wendy at Australian Multihull World for her perusal so we shall see what comes of it. 

I also went onto Facebook and saw that Colleen Perry (friend from Bright) had posted that she and Norm were in Longreach the other day.  I posted back and asked where she was now and she said Emerald (our next stop.   She posted back and said they had reversed their route to Mackay so they could catch up with us and would be at our camp site this afternoon.  How good is that?  And they turned up just after 1pm and set up in the spot next to us and I made a cuppa.  We sat around chatting until ‘Happy Hour’ when we drank, nibbled and chatted some more.  We then cooked a BBQ tea and chatted yet some more.  It was good to catch up with all the news, and gossip, from Bright and how people were faring down there.  It was really lovely to catch up and we chatted until Colleen’s eyes couldn’t stay open anymore so we let her go to bed. 
 

 

Wednesday, 15th May 2103  -   To Carnarvon Gorge

My birthday today and I got a nice leather looking backpack style bag in black, blue and white (which I chose) and a lovely little ‘going out’ bag in leather which is really nice.  It is more like a large purse cum wallet with shoulder strap.  I got a lovely call from Salpal and a lot of emails and Facebook messages. 

Off for a shower and put our donation in the box for the upkeep of the place.  If people don’t do this then lovely ‘free’ places like this will become few and far between so I hope most others do it too.  Said goodbye to Colleen and Norm, who left about 8.30 going south and we left 30 minutes later and heading north. 

 

 

We had decided to head for Carnarvon Gorge as it was on the way and it would be a pity to pass it by.  We arrived at Rolleston about 90 minutes later and dumped our black and grey water and filled up on fresh.  On towards Carnarvon Gorge and, en route, we saw heaps of Kangaroos/Wallabies, Emus, wild pig, echidna and two magnificent eagles sitting in a tree by the side of the road.  About 24 kms out of the Gorge we came across a picnic area which turned out to be quite interesting.  It was a memorial in memory of American and Australian personnel (18 in total) who died aboard a C47B Dakota aircraft which crashed during a violent electrical storm on16th November 1943.  Parts of the aircraft had been recovered and used in the memorial which had been erected by the Roma Boy Scouts and the Roma and Injune RSL. 

 

 

After we had wandered around this memorial we continued on.  The road was fine until 16 kms from the park when it turned to dirt. This road was ‘ not fun’ and shook the whole van.  Not the best road for such a large vehicle but at least the road was dry.  4 kms before the gorge was the Takarakka Bush Retreat but we continued on to see if it was worth staying.  We parked and wandered up to the park visitor centre where we found a small interpretive display but nobody manning the desk and no walks brochures available.  This gave me a bad impression of  the place and you couldn’t see any of the gorge from the visitor area.  Still, from the interpretive signs we did see, it seemed worth staying so we made our way back to Takarakka and booked an unpowered site for two nights.  An unpowered site was $38 and a powered one was $45.   Wow …. They know how to charge!  But, we will only being paying these kind of fees when we have no other choice and we have a nice large spot.  We sat outside under the awning  and had drinks and nibbles before wandering around to explore the place.  Nice toilets and showers and they have two huge outside kitchen area as they do not allow any solid fuel cooking outside.  All the people in their own tents, in the Trakka tents ($130 per night!!!!) and the 2 en suite units have to use these kitchens.  There was laundry with two machines but no dryers

Back to the van to cook tea, put on some warmer clothes and carry our chairs up to the area where a ranger, Linda,  was conducting a talk on how water formed the gorge.  As we walked up in the dark we heard someone say behind us “Hi Maz and Geoff: and it was Pete and Val who we had met at Dawson River.  We sat with them during the informative talk.  It was a good talk that went for over an hour and we got more insight into the park and where we wanted to walk, if the body would let us. 

Back to 2AB2 for a hot chocolate.  Geoff got his computer out and it wouldn’t work.  It looks like the Bios chip has gone and we wondered if the shaking it got on the dirt road had caused it although it is getting to be old technology now.  Mine’s ok, thank goodness and we have decided to lay them on the bed next time we traverse rough roads.              

 

 

Thursday, 16th May 2013  -  Carnarvon Gorge

Of course, we spend $76 to stay two nights and now it’s raining … Bloody Murphy!  An expensive exercise and Geoff’s laptop is stuffed as well.

So, not a day to do the washing and hang it on the line.  So whilst it is overcast and drizzly and we wait for the weather to improve (I‘m forever optimistic) Geoff looked at one of the gas burners that doesn’t want to stay alight and fixed it and gave the stainless steel surrounds a good clean and complained about the steel screws they have used.  Geoff’s pet hate! 

Off for a shower and back for a cuppa.   Brrrr … it is really chilly … on with the diesel heater and the place was soon toasty. 

Just before 11am it looked like the rain was easing so we put on some warmer clothes and headed off on the scooter on the dirt road.  We had to take it really slowly as there were quite a few lumpy rocks embedded in the road.  But it wasn’t too far to where we were going, with a tad of sealed road along the way so it didn’t take long.  Our first stop was Baloon Cave which was named after the Aboriginal name for a stone axe.  It was a cave that had some Aboriginal art and it was only a 500 metre walk through rain forest  teeming with large cycads, creeks and birds.  The art was quite nice when we got there and very clear.  The ranger, Linda, had said the art was original but it looked in too good a condition to us to be that old.  Maybe it was, who are we to say?  Well worth visiting when you consider it is such an easy and refreshing walk. 

 

Back to the scooter and head a little further up the road , park and wander down to the Rock Pool, another very easy walk.  The Rock Pool was really anything special but, after seeing the slide show last night and seeing how it changes due to flood and debris,  it was more interesting.  Looking at where the flood waters had risen to Geoff said “They don’t know what a flood is!”  He took off his shoes and socks and crossed the stepping stones (some were missing, hence taking his socks off) to have a closer look at the Rock Pool.  Brrr … rather him than me.  I asked whether the water was cold and he replied it was invigorating! 

 

By the time he came back it was starting to drizzle so we went back to bike and headed back.  We had only just got off the bike when the rain set in.  Not torrential but annoying as it stopped you doing things and it is cold.  Time to put my sheepskin slippers on.  We have decided that we would like to do a couple of walks tomorrow so will stay another day if it is fine, if not we will head off.  This is not really a park for non able bodied people.  You cannot see anything without going on some of the walks, which is a shame especially as they could easily make the Baloon Cave and the Rock Pool walker/wheelchair friendly.  

Brrrr … it’s cold so on with a jumper and on with the diesel heater again.  Geoff got talking to the guy in the caravan next door who needed help understanding his computer so he came on-board and Geoff gave him some help and hints.  We then had lunch and Geoff looked at my e-book reader which had started to freeze up.  He was even having trouble connecting it to the computer.  Geoff eventually got it connected to the laptop and deleted all of my current books and grpahics.  I then loaded on a few books and it is working fine, touch wood.  I think it was just the last book I read.  Maybe it hadn’t loaded properly. 

By 3 pm it had stopped raining and there was a little patch of blue sky so we decided to risk it and walk up to the lookout.  It was a short and sharp climb to the top with reasonable views .  We met the family from the caravan who were parked next to us up there plus another two couples came up after us.  We all got chatting, as you do, and one of the couples had only just started out, like us, and had a brand new Talvor motorhome.  Apparently, their son is one of the head honchos at Talvor but I didn’t ask his name as I’m sure Tom down in Redcliffe would know, or know of him.  They were actually making their way to Darwin, over to Perth and then back to SA, where they are from.  We may see them on the road sometime. 

 

 

 

 

Back down for a cuppa and get dinner ready.  Whilst I did this Geoff downloaded all the photos from his hard drive onto my laptop.  He also replace a globe (bulb) that had blown (another one giving us an error message on the dashboard). 

 

Friday, 17th May 2013  -  Carnarvon Gorge

As the gloom dispersed blue sky and sunshine was spied through the hatch above our bed.  Maybe the ‘weather gods’ had smiled on us and given us a good weather opportunity today that was lacking yesterday.  So, up and pay for another night … ouch!  Brekkie, make us some lunch, get some water bottles etc and off.  We went on the scooter on the 4 km trip to the visitor centre car park and walked down to the first river crossing where I grabbed a hiking stick to help steady me.  I am not too good with stepping stones due to my balance but, with Geoff’s help and my walking staff we were soon over.  We decided to attempt the Moss Garden and the Amphitheatre which was about a 10 km round trip.  We headed off up a reasonable track up the gorge with a few steep steps along the way.  When we got to the Moss Garden turn off , which was 3.5 km along the track, we decided to keep going to the Amphitheatre  as, from the slide show on the first night, it looked something special.  We passed many cycads including the one whose fruit, if eaten by humans, can give you cancer (Macrozamia mooei)

 

 

and also crossed the river many, many times via stepping stones. 

 

 

We soon arrived at the Amphitheatre turn off 800 metres further on and walked another 630 metres to its base where there was a tiered ladder.  Once you have climbed the ladder the canyon narrows to a crack about 1.5 metres wide and you walk along this thin canyon until you reach the Amphitheatre where the cliff walls open out to an enclosed shaft open to the sky.  Mosses and ferns enjoyed the cool damp atmosphere, getting just enough light and moisture to survive.    The Amphitheatre had an echoing ability and we both burst into song which sounded much better than it normally would with the echoing harmonies.   IT had an almost cathedral like ambience and we felt like we were talking in hallowed tones.  Eventually we were joined by other walkers so we departed to leave them to enjoy this serene atmosphere alone.  (It was definitely the highlight of this walk). 

 

 

After descending the ladder backwards down to the base we got talking to some other walkers who convinced us that we should carry on the short distance to Wards Canyon.  This was about another 800 metres further on and we were thinking that every step further away from the start was one we had to do later, still, it was close.  They did say that there were a few steps but when we arrived at the base there were, indeed, 172 steep steps up to the canyon.  By the time we got to the top both our legs were complaining badly and we thought this last bit was going to be the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’.  The creek that flowed through Wards Canyon cascaded over dark red rocks and made for a pretty sight.  The canyon was also home to the last inland remnants of King Ferns as they are now only found on the coast. 

 

By this time we were pretty knackered and were not relishing putting up with the aches and pains that had developed.  My hips and calves were screaming at me and aches seamed to be developing at every extremity.  I thought “I’m getting too old for this sort of thing”.  When we got back to the Moss Garden turn off we decided to give it a miss so that we would be able to walk back the last 3.8 kms and not have to crawl.  The thought of another 1.2 km round trip was hard to take.  We had seen spectacular moss gardens before in Tassie and New Zealand but if we were younger it would have been a different story.  By the time we got back to the Visitor Centre we had walked 12 kms and crossed the river 18 times.  I must admit I found the hiking staff really helpful and will buy a proper one when I next get to an outdoor shop. 

When we got back to the car park we passed a solar bike.  It was owned by someone called Sam.  We know this as he had ‘Sam’s Around Australia Donations’ box still attached on his bike and still with all the money in it.  It’s good to see that people can be honest these days and not take off with it when they see an opportunity.

 

 

I must say that we were very pleased to see the scooter parked not far from the solar bike and we bounced our way back to the campground where we had a lovely cuppa and collapsed into comfy seats.    AHHHHHH  … what bliss!  What will we feel like in the morning? 

After a well earned cuppa and a bikkie we headed off (slowly) to the shower block.  The showers had bases that were like mini baths so we both used them as tubs and had a bit of a soak.  We then sat outside just sitting and relaxing until the cold drove us inside (and it is getting quite cold at night).  An easy dinner of pork chops, salad followed by banana custard and then an early night.

 

Saturday, 18th May 2013  -  Carnarvon Gorge to Springsure (south of Emerald)

Up at 7.45 after a fitful night with calf and feet aches … to be expected.  Geoff cut down some lamb shanks for me and I prepared them and put them in the thermal cooker to cook on the way. 

Geoff put the cover on the scooter to see if it cuts down on the dust (no … it doesn’t) and he packed things away in the outside bins while I got the inside ready for the road.  We left at 9.45 and the 12 kms of dirt road seemed much shorter and less bouncy this time.  It was 24 kms to the rest area of the Dakota Memorial and another 24 kms to the main road between Rolleston, 60 kms to the right,  and Injune, 110 kms to the left.  We pulled into Rolleston around 11.30 to dump the grey/black water and to fill up with fresh.  Had a cuppa whilst I reheated the lamb shanks and then topped up on some fuel and a few groceries and then continued on to the Virgin Rock ‘free’ rest stop near Springsure.  The rest area was overlooked by some pretty impressive and precipitous rock formations, one of which should be Virgin Rock (but which one?) 

 

 

We were soon joined by some more motorhomes and caravans.  There was a Staffy called Coco with one of the groups so I got a nice big cuddle.  The caravanners were from SA and you could tell as they sat outside when it got too cold for us Queenslanders.  Geoff got the Sat dish out and tuned it in really quickly this time.  Maybe he is getting the hang of it.  We then caught up with what had been happening over the last three days.  Geoff also went over to one of the motorhome guys who was having trouble with his fridge and was able to pinpoint the problem even though he couldn’t fix it.  Borrowed some Dencarub for my sore calves as I’m having trouble walking at the moment.  Poor me!