Motley2 Travels

I knew I hadn’t done the blog for a while but didn’t realise until today just how long it has been. My apologies to those who regularly read it. 
Well we headed off from Townsville going North and visited Paronella Park.  Driving through sugar cane for miles was quite amazing.  Paronella Park is an absolutely inctredible place, unfortunately we didn’t take our cameras but look it up on the net if you get a chance.  It was built by a Spanish immigrant (if my memory serves me right) and is the most beautiful place. Waterfalls, streams, the avenue of cypress trees, little nooks everywhere to rest.  Really romantic story too. 

On the way out and back to the highway we passed through this place which has a familiar name to some of our readers.
We headed further up the road and stopped at Cardwell if you are ever driving through here stop at the information centre where they have a beautifully carved display of the area and it’s well worth a visit.  We went for a walk out on the pier, had a read of the signs so steered clear of going for a paddle.  Refreshed by our windy walk down the pier we headed for Cairns.
We stayed at Crystal cascades caravan park.  This one is highly recommended.  The owners are the friendliest people, the park is spotlessly clean and neat and it nestles right underneath the mountain so there is always a pleasant ever changing view.
For the first couple of weeks we were there the weather was overcast although warm and we didn’t get to see that white sand and blue water much vaunted by all the ads and tourist brochures.  We did the markets at both Cairns and Port Douglas for the entire time we were there.
Plenty of changing tourists every week so always successful markets.
Port Douglas market is right on the waters edge and is much bigger than Cairns, Bev, thought you might like to see some different stalls.  The sugar cane
stall where you ride the bike to press your cane and make your own drink and the coconut stall, very colourful.
The marina at Port Douglas was our coffee stop after the market and then the drive down the Avenue of Palms on the way home.
The beach in Cairns itself is pretty much non existent, mud flats is really all there is so they have built, right in the centre of town, a lagoon complete with the white sands and crystal clear water.  This is always busy, with the bodies beautiful parading around every day as soon as the sun comes out.  The market is right by the lagoon so a very pretty setting to spend the day.
We went for a drive up into the mountains to Kuranda.  The train leaves Cairns and goes up the mountain to Kuranda station which is recognised as being one of the prettiest stations in Australia.  Most tourists to the area will do this trip by train and return journey by cable car, called the SkyRail which takes them right over the canopy with views of Barron Gorge. 
Not being particularly keen on travelling by cable car we went by road snaking up the mountain.  It’s a very pretty little town but absolutley everything is designed with tourists in mind.
Crystal Cascades, just a kilometre or two from the caravan park is a series of waterfalls and streams where they have built a walking path.  It’s very pretty but has ‘The Stinging Tree” which apparently has a very nasty sting which requires urgent medical assistance.  There’s always a catch !!!

We decided to go for a drive up to the Atherton Tablelands and once again headed up the mountain.  Everywhere you go here is up hill or so it seems.  We stopped in
Mareeba for a look around and then drove on to Atherton itself.  Here the sugar cane is everywhere again and the sugar cane trains go right through the centre of town.
We stopped in the pub for lunch, had a look round town and then drove to see the Curtain Fig Tree.  It’s gigantic, photographs really don’t do justice to any of the sights we have seen but is the best we can share with you.  We thought we would return to Cairns via Yungaburra rather than return by the same route. 
Here is one road to be avoided unless you enjoy rollercoasters and the like.  19 kilometres of the windiest road ever.  Bend after bend after bend.  I know at least one of the 2jays would enjoy it as much as I did.  Yungaburra was a lovely little spot though, a real country town.

We stopped at Lake Barrine on the way home and had a walk around the lake and a look at the twin giant trees which grow here.  We were too late for a cruise around the lake so settled for a chat with the ever present bush turkeys before heading back home.  Just off the highway is this mountain, surprisingly called the Pyramid, wonder why?
They have a race every year up this mountain, a foot race and we met a fellow stall holder who competes every year, the funny thing is he appeared to be quite normal!!

We had surprise visitors to Cairns, Renee and Pauline flew up for a week, I like to pretend that they came all the way up here to visit but in actual fact they didn’t
know we were here until after they booked. We all decided that we would like to see the Daintree and Cape Tribulation so we headed north for a look.  Our first stop was Port Douglas for coffee and a sit by the beach.  Then we headed for Mossman Gorge.  Truly spectacular, the clearest water ever seen and just like the ads you see with people swimming in the waterholes.  This is Norman who swims there daily and greets all the visitors to the gorge.  I didn’t take to him much after he asked if I was Pauline’s mother!
Motley1, Renee and Pauline went for a walk through the other side of the gorge and I stood guard at the other end of the swing bridge.  Only 20 people are allowed on the
bridge at any one time so someone had to stay and count, right?
Daintree Village is very small, this is a shot of the town store and it’s best known inhabitant George.  George is real but stuffed.  We crossed the Daintree River on the ferry
and headed up to Cape Tribulation.  Again, twisty uphill roads but with the most magnificent views.
We arrived at Cape Tribulation and there it was !  The white sands and blue clear water so beloved in photographs.
We headed straight down the beach, off came the shoes and socks and straight into the warm waters where you could see the crabs and the fish swimming around.  Beautiful, couldn’t understand thopugh how we were the only ones availing ourselves of this glorious experience.  We soon learned, because as we walked back up the beach, the signs read ” DO NOT GO NEAR THE WATERS EDGE”  “DO NOT GO IN THE WATER” “THIS IS THE DOMAIN OF SALTWATER CROCODILES”.  Now when you all read in the newspapers of tourists being taken by crocodiles and as I once did wonder at the stupidity of people, think again,  could easily have been us!

Heading home we recrossed the river on the ferry and just on dark pulled up to make coffee, a mistake for me as the sandflies had a ball eating my legs.
Sandfly bites are much worse than mozzies and the itch was incredible, kindly our next door neighbours in the park, Joyce and Graham, offered some gel to soothe the bites.
Truly grateful I smothered it on that night and the next day.  The itch got worse and spread and the skin started peeling from my arm and leg.  Off to the medical centre to see a doctor.  Should have left the bites alone as I was allergic to the gel and ended up with creams and pills to counteract that.

Renee loves butterflies and on their last full day in Cairns we took them to Kuranda where there is a butterfly sanctuary with the famous Blue Ulysses a truly outstanding shade of blue these butterflies only live for around three weeks.  The Cairns Birdwing is the largest of the butterflies and the colourings are just incredible.
There are so many of them that almost everyone had butterflies landing all over them as they walked around the sanctuary.

The next day we went to the airport to say our sad goodbyes and thank Renee and Pauline for making the long journey just to visit us.

Our last week in Cairns, we have been here for so long it seems like home.  We stocked up at a local shopping centre where the fish are enormous. The night before we were to leave, we headed off to the camp kitchen where we were entertained by a singer who travels to the park every year and entertains the happy campers. 

Our next stop was Tully, the wettest town in Australia, where the claim to fame is the Giant Welly Boot.  The sun was shing by the way!

We free camped tonight at Rolling Stone.  Oh the disappointment though, there was no Mick Jagger.  It was however a lovely spot on the river under the trees.  We sat around the campfire chatting with a few of our neighbours and watching the stars.

Headed off to charters Towers this morning, through Townsville.  the road was quiet, wide and very very smooth so had a great trip out here.  We had to stop at two seperate crossings for the Tilt Train which travels between Cairns and Townsville. We went into town for some shopping and arrived back to find Joyce and Graham were parked just a van or two away.  Lions supplied supper in the park tonight, pumpkin soup, fish and salads or sausages and salads followed by mocha cheesecake and coffee, all for $10.00 each.  very nice it was too.  The lady who did most of the cooking was from Heyfield so had a good old chinwag with her too.

We are doing the market here tomorrow but feel it will be a lot different from Cairns.  Charters Towers has a population of 9500 and a few tourists passing through.

Does anybody have a three sided coin as we can’t decide where to head to next.  Darwin?  Will it be too hot?  Longreach? To see the Qantas museum and The Stockman’s Hall of Fame, Alice Springs and Coober Pedy ?…Oh it’s all too difficult !!!

Our last night at Airlie Beach, Motley1 got the guitar out.  He is improving but not quite busker standard yet.  We went for a drive out to Shute Harbour where all the tours to the reef leave from. Very pretty.
Travelling up the Bruce Highway, we crossed the Burdekin Bridge which is more than 1 kilometre long.  Very impressive as are the mountains which surround you as you drive.  I was surprised by this as I don’t know what I expected up here but it certainly wasn’t mountains.
We arrived in Townsville, booked into the park and went for a drive around.
There is a huge waterfall just outside the middle of town which is lit up at night and looks pretty spectacular.
There are houses at the top of the hill and they have a great view out to Magnetic Island.
Townsville is a huge spread out town overlooked by this hill, called Castle Hill, and we went for a drive up there.  Here you can see just one view of the town which shows how big the place is.
This is Flinders Street, I’m sure you would never get a picture of Melbourne’s Flinders Street with this little traffic.
We visited the NQ Museum and Motley1 fearlessly turned his back on this inhabitant.
We really liked this little gazebo to be found near the Garden of Remembrance in the park.

Yesterday we went down to Giru to see about a job packing zuchinni.  We had a tour around the place and saw how they sort and pack mangoes and zuchinni and are hopeful that we will pick up some work here.

On the way back we checked out an Eco Caravan park, to find that in this instance Eco stands for “Dump”.  I don’t know that I would want to stay there even if we did find work and that means longer travelling every day.
One thing they did have in abundance was wildlife like these kangaroos complete with Joey in the pouch wandering around.

We have the Strand market tomorrow night until 10.00pm and then the Cotters Market in Flinders Mall on Sunday ..so we hope they will be really good markets.

Until next time..

Here we are again, officially in Winter now. 
It was 27 degrees here today, that’s my kind of winter !
As usual we had a change of plan when we left Bundaberg and we headed straight through to Mackay.  We stopped in Rockhampton for a quick look around and
then headed north yet again.
It was a fairly big detour to 1770 but I was detrmined to have a look.  It was beautiful.  I got out of the car and down onto that glorious sand and straight into the water
for a paddle.
We had our lunch at the beach and made up our mind not to stay the night but to head further north. All the way for miles all you can see is sugarcane on either side of the road. For those who have been up this way (like the 2jays) it probably sounds commonplace but I was amazed at the amount grown and we are only seeing a tiny amount.
Driving up the Bruce Highway, we had a look for a free campsite in Camps Australia 4 and saw there was one at Calliope River.  We pulled in there to have a look, drove over the causeway and were surprised to see about 30 other caravans and motorhomes were there already.  Despite this we were able to find a spot right on the riverbank, due to Motley1’s delusion that he is driving a Range Rover and not a Falcon. What a beautiful spot this is and we can highly recommend it to anyone.
Clean toilet block, campfire, friendly neighbours and the chance to catch a few fish for dinner. Not that we did, of course, so we made do with what was in the fridge.
Set off the next morning about an hour or more later than we had planned. (More chatting I’m afraid).  We arrived in Mackay quite late in the day and booked a drive thru site for the night.
Next morning we were on the road to Airlie Beach. 
We booked into a lovely park here but were surprised to find that it was too cool to use the swimming pool and that we were wearing sweaters in the evening.
The marina here is beautiful and the views out to the islands spectacular.

Had a stall at the market here in Airlie Beach on Saturday which was good, right on the water’s edge.
It was windy though and even a light sprinkling of rain to mar the beautiful setting.

Sunday morning, up early and off to the market in Bowen.  Again a windy day but no rain this time.
We had a good market and this would rate as one of the friendliest markets we have done.  Although,
I spent the morning being merciessly teased by the Lions Club about my accent when I said “Bookmark”.

They tried, unsuccessfully I might add, to get me to say book with an aussie accent.

We had today still at Airlie Beach to make some new stock but we are off tomorrow.  We have some
job interviews to go to starting from tomorrow so will let you know how we go.

To finish off..you’ve all heard of the “Big Things” around Australia..here is one we found yesterday.
So what do you think it is?  The Big …………….?

How’s this for two quick entries in the blog !
So no “War & Peace” this time.  We left Maryborough and only got as far as Bundaberg before deciding it was worth a visit here too.  Home of the famous rum, of course, but haven’t partaken of any of it.  The smell is enough for me!

Now the ginger beer barrel is something else and we certainly paid a visit there.  Not only is the ginger beer delicious but their lemon, lime and bitters was just the thing on a hot day.

The Burnett River runs through the town.  This is one of the many bridges which span the river and the parkland surrounding it.

For those who know my aversion to Melbourne trams coming hurtling down the street towards me, how much worse was this.  Driving along the road and all I see is this huge train coming straight for me.  I had actually pulled over before I realised that it was turning.

Yesterday, we went out to Gin Gin to do the market.  This is a one street town with the strangest parking we have yet to come across.  Check out this picture and every car you see is parked and it was like this the whole length of the town.  Two rows hapharzardly everywhere.

The market wasn’t great but Bev, you will be interested in the fact that it was $10.00 for the stall and they then supplied you with a full cooked breakfast, sausage, bacon, egg, beans,onion and  toast included in your stall fee.  Another first.

On the way back to Bundaberg we came across the “Mystery Craters” and couldn’t resist a look.

We are off again tomorrow, further north.  Probably headed for Rockhampton but the best laid plans usually change before morning
 

It’s been such a long time since I typed anything of our travels that I’m having to cast my mind back too far. From now on I will type the blog more regularly even if we can’t upload it until we get access.

Well, we headed off from Coffs Harbour and drove straight through to the Gold Coast. We dropped into to visit Motley1’s sister (or blister as she so sweetly puts it). We spent the night with her and then headed off the next morning for Toowoomba. We booked into the caravan park there and set off to visit Motley1’s grandchildren. As we have decided at this stage (plans change regularly) to head north and then west, we thought we would visit for a while as we have no idea when we will be back on the East Coast.

The weather was lovely apart from very cool evenings and mornings. We drove to Laidley for the market on Saturday amidst the fog. It was very picturesque, turned into a lovely day and a fairly good market. After the market, we headed out to the dam to try out Motley1’s number 1 son’s new boat. I wasn’t too sure about any of this, as I think reenacting “Titanic” was asking for trouble!

On Sunday we had a market at Queen’s Park in Toowoomba where again the day started very cool (or in my words freezing cold.) Bev….the scarves came out of the cupboard and just like Rokeby it was almost midday before I could take it off my neck ! We spent some time with the family and decided that we would try an Agricultural Show the following weekend instead of the markets. Dalby which was about an hours drive away had a two day show on the Friday and Saturday so we booked in to that.

Friday was a good day, Show Day, a public holiday for the town. We also enjoyed the show, especially the camel races which I’d never seen before. There was the biggest carnival that I have seen for years with the most horrendous rides which had long queues all day long. Saturday was hardly worth being there as most people had been during the day on Friday and would only come on the Saturday for the carnival and fireworks.

Sunday we did a market outside of Toowoomba at a place called Carbalah where there is a huge place selling clocks. We were exhausted after three days of marketing (not the work but the very, very early rises).

We made up our minds not to go back to the Gold Coast but to carry on inland and do another one or two agricultural shows and see how they worked for us. We booked Kingaroy Show for the following weekend. Having told Motley1’s sister that we would be back to the coast and not having seen the other sister and brother-in-law at all on our short overnight visit we arranged to drive back to the coast and have dinner with them before we left. It was a long drive, almost 400km round trip. After our farewells to the family we headed for the Showgrounds at Kingaroy.

There was a small caravan park attached to the showgrounds which was very handy for us as the trade hall where we had the stall was just a couple of hundred metres from the caravan. On the way, we stopped at the Cooyer pub where Ben made instant friends with Ryan, the owner’s son. I could have left anytime but he really would have liked Ben to stay longer.

Kingaroy is famous for being the peanut capital of Australia, this is the processing plant right in the middle of town. The Australian Peanut Company has all these silos full of peanuts. Thinking about the peanuts and how could one avoid doing so, I realized that I had no idea how they grew. Were they on trees? Did they grow on bushes? So we set off to track down a peanut grower and ask the relevant questions. I can now with some authority tell you that they grow underground, like potatoes and are harvested in much the same way. Due to the drought, apparently there have been more peanuts grown in the Northern Territory now than in Kingaroy.

The show again was not too bad on the first day and abysmal on day two. We did enjoy the show though. A motorbike stunt rider, the Hilux Heroes ( a ute driving display team) and a huge fireworks display were the highlights of day 1. There was a speedway meeting on Day 2 but by the time it started the weather was bitterly cold and even wrapped up in Bev’s scarves there was no way I was venturing out to stand for hours on end. Motley1 (he’s hardier than I am) went and really enjoyed the meeting.

Monday morning we headed north again to Gympie. We stopped at a Driver Survivor for coffee (It was a public holiday here in Queensland, May Day, no settle down that’s not a call for help that was what the holiday was for!) Gympie is the hilliest city I think I’ve ever been in. The main street of the town is flat and we strolled along here looking in the shops but take any side street and the street rose in an almost perpendicular manner. There are some lovely old Queenslander homes here and some impressive parks.

Tuesday morning and Ben woke up feeling bad and had a sore throat. He continued to get worse over the next couple of days and was running a fairly high fever, so we set off for the doctors. Toxic Tonsilitis was the diagnosis and antibiotics were dispensed. Within 24 hours he was feeling much better.

On Saturday we headed for Pomona for the market. It wasn’t a great market for us, so least said. Pomona is best known for it’s “King of the Mountain” race up the hill you can see in the background here. We didn’t have time to climb up there! You know we would have if we hadn’t been so busy…..

Gympie is known as “The Town that saved Queensland” when gold was found here just as the state was almost bankrupt. So we went for a look at the old Gold Mine. There is still a working goldmine in the area where apparently they still mine a fair amount of gold each year.

On Sunday we headed for a little town called Imbil. There was a market there and as the Valley Rattler (This is the Mary Valley.) steamed into town every Sunday we thought it might be quite a busy little spot. We were mistaken though and again it was a pretty mediocre market. There are signs everywhere that say “Save Mary” or “We love Mary” and I thought finally someone cares, but no, the river is called the Mary River and the state government are talking about building a dam and rerouting the river.

On Tuesday we headed a little further north to Maryborough and here is a real Heritage town. All the old building have been preserved, many of them are heritage trust listed and they boast more trees which are heritage listed than any other area in Australia. There are signs everywhere saying We Love Mary as it’s the town advertising slogan, but I prefer to think that hundreds of people have decided that I’m worth loving. The parks are beautiful, the houses and buildings are amazingly restored and there is even a statue to Mary Poppins , not the Mary of town fame though. The author of Mary Poppins was born here.

We have been here two days now and have taken more photographs here than I think we have taken in the last month. This Banyan Tree in the park is so impressive and Motley1 couldn’t resist climbing. We took an hour’s bus tour today to have a look around town with a guide and be able to see where we might head back to under our own steam to spend some time. We did the street market here in Maryborough on Thursday and it was one of the best organized markets we have been to in a long time. Saturday we went to Tin Can Bay and Sunday to Nikenbah which is just outside Hervey Bay. We went for a night drive through the town as a lot of the trees have fairy lights and the buildings like the Council Chamber and the School of Arts were lit up.

We headed north once more, we are not sure where we will spend our time but I want to see the town called 1770 which sounds interesting before heading any further north.

Arrived at The Entrance on Friday and arranged to do the market at Ettalong on Saturday and Sunday.  We we both surprised by how nice The Entrance is.  The town is beautiful and the Plaza is just something else.  A huge outdoor area, cafes, restaurants, little wading pools for the kids, fountains, a carousel and a band playing all weekend.
We booked into the Dunleith Caravan Park and picked up an information brochure.  We discovered that there was a market in The Entrance on both Saturday and Sunday.  Unfortunately, we were too late to contact the organisers for the Saturday market so we went along to Ettalong Beach as planned.
The market was held in a complex which housed a motel, a cinema paradiso and some shops as well as the market stalls.  We had a not too bad market, not great but not disastrous
On Sunday Chill and Mrs. Chill drove up to the entrance to retrieve their rubber mallet which Motley1 had purloined on our stay at their park.
On our last visit he helped himself to an extra power board, so Chill was loath to see the last of his mallet
The market on Sunday was tiny with just a few stalls and although we didn’t sell that much we made some good contacts for future sales to clubs etc.
We stayed in The Entrance for another couple of days to have a good look around the area before heading off up to Forster.  This has been our third stop in
Forster, you would think we liked the place or something
This time we stayed at Lani’s Holiday Island.  There weren’t a lot of peole around so it was quiet for most of the time.  We caught up with friends
for lunch and spent most of the time working on making new stock.
On the Saturday we went to the market at Bulahdelah, again a small market but not too bad.  The weather had been deteriorating each day for the previous week
and on the Friday night there was an enormous downpour of rain.  Saturday stayed dry until the market was over and we were back in the caravan park and then the heavens opened and it rained for the rest of the day and night.
Sunday morning was rain free, so we set off for Hallidays Point and the Blackhead Bazaar.  This was a big craft market, lots of different stalls and was shaping
up to being our best market for quite some time.  11.00 A.M. and down came the rain..oh how it rained.   This brought the market to an abrupt end as not even
ducks were stupid enough to hang around in this downpour.
Whilst we were in Forster we had an adopted member of the family.  She moved in the day after we arrived, made herself at home and cried, truly, when we
were leaving.  She was a most affectionate cat and obviously lived with someone in the park but preferred our company to her owners.  Well, why not?
We couldn’t get this other squatter, who was living on the awning to move either.  It didn’t want to leave even as we were taking down the awning and folding it up.

We headed North once more and stopped near Port Macquarie where Motley1 remembered that we hadn’t taken a picture of the van for the blog.  So here it is !
Now if you go back to the picture of the cat you will see our new flooring tiles too.  We need to find some decals for the van now, unlikely we will find Viscount
decals but it really does need those stripes or something back on there.

Here we came across the first petrol over $1.50.  It is the start of the NSW school holidays today but we all know we are not being ripped off and having price rises
just because people will be travelling this weekend, don’t we?
We stopped at Coffs Harbour and were in two minds whether to stay here and do the market or not as the weather was still wet and windy and the nights
were fairly cool.  We decided that we would stay and booked into the Woolgoolga & Coffs Harbour markets for this weekend.  We really liked Woolgoolga last time
we were here and had a really good market then too.  The weather was kind to us and the rain showed no sign of appearing but we were given an absolutely
hopeless spot in the market ( this happens sometimes if you are a casual stallholder and it is something we just have to put up with ).  It was really disappointing because it
certainly decreased our expected sales.
After the market we went for a look at the temple.. It is truly astounding to see this in a little Australian seaside town.  There was what we presumed was an older temple further down the road but it had been abandoned and vandalised as you can see here.

Coffs Harbour market tomorrow and then further North.  Will we go to Nimbin ? Broadbeach ? Jimboomba ? Nerang? Surfers Paradise?  Decisions, decisions…

Hi everybody..Happy Easter.  Hope the easter Bunny came to everybody. Here we are again with a continuation of our travels.

We left Swan Hill and headed for Murrabit.  Where? I hear you ask.  Well it is supposed to be the biggest country market in Australia.  Other stallholders that we had met told us that it was a really busy market and that there was camping there and that a lot of the traders went down there on a Friday night before the Saturday market.  So we set out to go there on Thursday.  The showground camping was actually camping in the bush.  The security lighting didn’t work, the toilet doors didn’t close, the lights didn’t work in there either and there wasn’t another soul for miles.  We spent Thursday night there and thought everyone else would turn up on the Friday.  By 3.00pm on the Friday we were still alone and went for a drive into Murrabit to look at the sights.  These are the highlights…the church, the mailbox at the end of the driveway and Murrabit’s claim to fame, the first metal bridge across the Murray.

We then discovered that some traders had turned up at the market but they all just parked their trucks at the marketplace and spent the night there.  So we had another night in the bush by ourselves.  Surprisingly, we slept well and had no problems at all.   The market was really disappointing though, spread over a huge area, no atmosphere at all and dust, dust and more dust.  We were not impressed and had a pretty ordinary day.

That afternoon we decided to head back to Echuca/Moama as there was a market in Echuca the next day.  We booked into A Shady River caravan park which was very nice and proceeded to try and rid the van of the dust that we had accumulated over the past few days.  We took down curtains, we washed out cupboards, all the fun stuff.

The Echuca market was very small but we did ok.  Nothing to set the world on fire , just ok.  On Monday, we were checking out the markets for the following weekend and decided that we would stay put and do the Girgarre, Moama and Echuca markets the following Saturday, Sunday and Monday as it was a long weekend.   As you can see from the last picture, this cowboy hat phenomena is spreading

When we went to book into the caravan park for another week we discovered that they were fully booked out for the long weekend so we had to move parks.  We ended up in a very strange caravan park indeed.  Really it was the size of a town in it’s own right.  All cabins everywhere and really not much in the way of facilities for vans.  Just pull up round the bbq they said and plug yourselves in.  Take as much room as you need.  For the first few days in was lovely a;though very dry.  The cabins on the riverfront were made to look like an old town.  This was the view from the front porch of the cabins.  It was getting hotter by the day and was now in the high 30’s and still rising.  The pool was a godsend.  Everything changed on the Friday, people were arriving from everywhere and the once quiet park became like a city.  Cars everywhere throwing up dust from the unmade roads throughout the park.  The mercury was still rising, the dust was getting worse and there were noisy children everywhere.  We did the three markets but couldn’t wait to get out of there and move on.

Janet, this winery was right next door, I tried to convince them I was a long lost relative and should be invited to try all the Morrisons wines but they weren’t very receptive to the idea.

We had to go somewhere cooler, it really was becoming pretty unbearable.  We hadn’t had much in the way of wildlife here on the Murray since our ducks in the first park but the night before we left Motley1 made friends with this critter and shared his dinner with him.

The next morning we set off for Wagga Wagga, again it was very hot and the airconditioning in the car was working overtime.  We passed through Deniliquin, where we stopped for lunch at the RSL, then Jerilderie, made famous by Ned Kelly.  passed through Blighty and stopped at the pub ( well it was hot folks).  We weren’t too far out of Wagga Wagga when we came upon a dust storm and of course everything was again covered in fine fine dust.  Here we are atWagga, the colour of the sky was caused by the dust storm which was followed by a dry electrical storm.  We didn’t unhitch here as we intended to leave early the next morning as they were also experiencing high temperatures and it had in fact been 43 degrees that day.

We headed for the Southern Highlands and booked into Mittagong Caravan Park.  It was like being in another country, everything was so green and the nights were decidedly cool.  We did Mittagong market on Saturday and I had a wonderful surprise.  I met a friend I hadn’t seen for about fifteen years.  We spent a couple of hours catching up and she told us that the Kiama market was very good and that it was on the following day.  It meant a very early start but nonetheless, we headed off to the market.  It couldn’t get much different than the terrain along the Murray.  These pictures show how green the grass was, the palm trees and what a pleasant, if somewhat large market it was.

It was now the week leading up to the Easter weekend and we couldn’t decide where to head to next as a lot of the parks were fully booked and site fees rocket for these holidays.  We thought we might be able to free camp in our usual Sydney Park and we were right, got in no problems at all.

Whilst here, we have carried out some cosmetic surgery on the van.  painted the outside, cleaned the skirt, laid some new tiles on the floor and of course cleaned from top to toe to rid ourselves of all the dust.  I have yet to take some pictures of the van but will do that soon and post some before and after shots.  Chill laid the new flooring and made a really good job of it.  Motley1 did the painting although he did let me hold the paintbrush for 5 minutes

We are just getting ready to head off once again .your guess is as good as mine as to where to.  This time we will just hitch up the van, get in the car and see where we end up.

Until next time.

Hello again everybody.  Since we last spoke we have been in Moama across the Murray River from Echuca.  The weather has been wonderful for us although the locals here are desperate for rain. 

Our first trip was to the Port of Echuca for a look at the paddle steamers.  The first one we came across was the PS Mary Ann so, of course, couldn’t pass up this photo opportunity.

We were camped right on the riverbank so managed to get some good pictures of the Paddle Steamers as the came up the river.  Here are a few, The Pride of The Murray, The Emmy Lou and The Canberra.   There was only one real drawback to being camped here and that was the cockatoos, this picture shows just a few of them but there would have been around a thousand or more roosted in the trees each night with your young ones and the noise was incredible.

We had our usual duck family who insisted on being fed every morning, there was one difference though, these were mutant ducks about four times the size of our usual visitors and not only that they ate about four times as much.  Keeping them in bread was a costly business

Motley enjoyed his bike rides around Echuca and Moama and made a few friends on his trips around town and along the river.  This pair were artists who paint pictures along the Murray.  He met them on one of his bike rides and stayed and enjoyed a beer with them.

We discovered from our next door neighbours that Moama Bowls Club was a nice place for lunch so we took ourselves along there to try it out.  if you are ever in Moama don’t miss it.   Huge sized plates and lots of food, choice of 5 different main courses cost $5.00 each.  When you pay for your meal you got a voucher for a free pancake.  They cooked the pancakes while you waited and there was maple syrup, lemon, jams whatever you wanted as a topping.  Absolutely delicious.  On our first visit Motley1 had bangers and mash and vegetables and I had fish and chips.   Of course, we went back again for another lunch a couple of days later, I had Lasagna and chips and salad and Motley1 had chicken casserole with rice.  The food was delicious.  Wish there was a Bowls Club like this in every town

We did the market at Tongala on Saturday and I had a strange man working on the stall….now when you’ve stopped laughing have a look at this picture because it got worse !   Chill, Motley1 says to tell you “Well. we are in “Howdy Country” , that’s his excuse and promises to get rid of the hat before we head back

Sunday, we did Moama market which was a good busy market although at the very end of the day a huge gust of wind upended our display and we ended up picking up bookmarks for a while and a few hours sorting them all out when we got back to the van.

On Monday, we worked all day getting out all the orders we had taken at the two markets and making some new stock and on Tuesday we set off again for our next stop.

We were driving along the Murray Valley Highway towards Swan Hill, this picture will show you how flat the area is, not a hill in sight for miles.  Dry hardly describes the place either and I think it has been many months since they saw rain here.   We were approaching Kerang when we took this shot at the level crossing where there was a major accident with a truck not too long ago, the amount of crossings here are amazing.

As we got to Kerang, we pulled into a parking lot opposite the Information Bureau, there was a large water tower which was open to the public.  Motley1 climbed to the top, I just admired it from ground level :)  Not that I couldn’t climb all those stairs you understand , just didn’t want too!

When we pulled into the parking lot there was a car parked there, just out of sight in Ben’s photograph which is a shame.  The guy was standing outside the car smoking a cigarette.  Leaving the centre we pulled back onto the Highway but decided to turn around and go back into town as we needed to find a post office and a bite of lunch.  We had only gone a couple of hundred yards when we became aware of a loud queaking noise and Motley1 thought that it was the wheel bearings so we pulled into a side street to have a look.  Three of the four wheel nuts had almost fallen out of the wheel, he tightened them up and we set off perplexed as to how that could have happened but we had only gone another few blocks when the squeak started again so we pulled into a mechanics yard to have him have a look.  The wheel had come off the hub so when he put the wheel and nuts back on everything was fine.  He was at a loss to explain how it could have happened and we knew the wheel nuts were tight when we left Echuca because Motley1 had painted the wheel the day before and would have noticed if they were at all loose.  We can only surmise that the guy in the parking lot had thought it would be fun to see a wheel come off a caravan or perhaps he had a grudge against all caravanners.

Save in the knowledge that the wheel would now be fine we headed to Swan Hill, I dread to think what might have happened if we hadn’t turned around for that lunch. 

We’ve had a couple of days here now and checked out the Pioneer settlement with the PS Gem, seen the Giant Murray Cod, had a chat with an ostrich and I finally discovered where Motley1 was going when he said he had to see a man about a dog !

We are off again in the morning, don’t quite know where yet but we’ll keep you updated when we can.

Oh, I forgot to show you my favourite paddle steamer at Echuca, so here it is.

Thanks for the emails Bev, we appreciate them even if we don’t get to answer all the time .

We have been to a few different places since we lasted posted on here and as you will no doubt be aware we met with some of our usual weather.  We left Sydney and headed to the Southern Highlands and my famous last words as we left were that we had no need to book a caravan park as school holidays were over and they would be deserted.  I think we should read the newspapers or watch more television as we discovered when we got to Bowral that there was a concert scheduled for that weekend with Jimmy Barnes and Joe Cocker.  As you can imagine there was no accommodation to be had for that weekend.  So we booked in for one night at Mossvale to work out what our plans would be.  We were booked into two markets and here we were with no caravan park.

We went for a drive in the afternoon to Kangaroo Valley and stopped here at Hampton Court Bridge for a photograph before heading into the township to The Friendly Inn.

We wandered around for a little and decided that we had best head back to the van and decide where we would head off to.  Just as we were leaving, the clouds descended and the rain poured down.  As anyone who has been to the Valley will know it is down a very steep, very windy road and there we were driving up the hill, round hairpin bends and unable to see a thing for the rain and low clouds.  A torrent of water was running down the road to meet us and it was a most unpleasant drive.

We got back to the park and decided that we would head off the following morning for Canberra and try and book into a couple of markets there.  As it turns out it was a wise decision as the markets were both cancelled as was the Jimmy Barnes concert due to rain.  Remind me again, this is a drought we are experiencing?

Arriving in Cnberra we booked into the nearest caravan park to the city as we thought we might stay for a while and do a bit of sightseeing and all the touristy things that Canberra has to offer.  We checked out the van parks and were disappointed that we couldn’t find one that was really very nice.  having read on the Cravaners Forum about the Exhibition Grounds we went for a drive there.  It was full of caravans, looked ok and was about half the price of the parks per night.  Great, we thought and headed off to find the office to book in for a week or two.  Just our luck though, the Royal Canberra Show was on and they were closing the grounds to caravans the next day.

Still, the weather was dry and we set off to enjoy our stay.  We visited Telstra Tower on Black Mountain.  It was a long way down to the car park but I’m sure you can spot the car there.  Motley1 had a walk around the outside viewing area while I enjoyed a nice cuppa from the comfort of the cafe.  We visited the National Archives of Australia, the amount of records that they store in this place is astounding.  A great place to check out any immigration details of your families.

Our next port of call was Parliament House gardens (Old Parliament House that is.) They have a beautiful Rose Garden here so we literally “stopped to smell the roses”.

These visits, of course are over the course of a few days.  It would be impossible to see everything in one day.  each place has it’s own attractions.

I should mention that I had a birthday whilst in Canberra, another year older but I don’t look a day over 65 !

Parliament House was our next stop.  ( If you see a pattern here with the photographs, Motley1 had no idea I was using these for the blog )  Getting on a bit, it is hard for Motley1 to keep walking without stopping for a rest every now and again and he reckons these parliamentry seats were quite comfy.  The foyer of the building isvery impressive, marble everywhere.  We were having a wander around looking at the portraits of previous prime ministers when we were joined in the foyer by the Governer General complete with entourage.  It was the day before the first sitting of the new cabinet in parliament and many of the new members were there checking out where there positions in the house would be.  I had mine all picked out.  For me the highlight was going up onto the roof of the building, having the grassed area on the roof was a wonderful idea and it gives you a wonderful view of the flag.  The views from here are some of the best in Canberra, so when you visit take the lift up to the roof as one of your “must do” items.

The next day was “Sorry” Day so we headed down to old Parliament House where the Aboriginal tents were situated.  Here you can see the beginnings of the bonfire being put together.  I was amazed that they were being allowed to have a bonfire on the grounds but a you can see here as the day wore on the grounds were home to cars, vans, tents etc etc.

Next on our travels was the War Memorial.  If you only had time for one day in Canberra then this is the one place not to miss.  From the front of the building you look all the way down to the parliament Houses.  The exhibits and displays will keep you here for hours.  There is a recreation of a night bombing raid in a Lancaster bomber which has to be experienced to believe.   We spent the best part of a day here and could easily have come back for a second day.  Here is a picture of Motley1 on the balcony of the memorial.  Another shot of him in the grounds with a tank and last but not least outside the Hall of Remembrance.  I haven’t posted any pictures of that or the tomb of the unknown soldier as they do no justice to the reality.  I’m sure you would all be as moved as we were.

Our last day, we spent at the National Museum.  Again, this is an all day event, there is just so much to see here.  A highlight is the Garden of Dreams, no ordinary garden this, but I’ll leave you see and experience it for yourselves.

We had intended to stay for longer in Canberra, perhaps another week or so but it was really quite cold and the caravan park was nothing to write home about so we decided to chase the sun and try for a little bit of summer before winter arrives.

We left the next morning to head for Albury and stopped off for a while in Yass.  It seemed a little more run down than I remembered with a few empty buildings around but still a nice little spot.   Albury was to be our stop for the night and we found a lovely little park in Lavington and booked in for the night.  The owner was very friendly and came to the site to check that we were settling in ok.  Motley1 mentioned that he had heard that a couple he knew were managing a park in Albury but he had no idea which one.  Yes, you’ve guessed it, it was the park we had checked in to.  So he had a visit with them for a while.  We were sorry we only had one night here as it was one of the nicest little parks we have stayed in.

We left the next morning around ten not really sure where we would end up.  We stopped, of course, for the mandatory picture of the dog on the tuckerbox.  I still can’t get that song out of my head !!!!  Approaching Holbrook we were taken aback to see this submarine as we were driving through town and of course we had to have a photograph of that too.

Our trusty GPS got us to Mulwala (I’m still sure that’s not where I asked it to take us) and we have been here now for around 5 or 6 days.  We are camped on the lake.  The weather has been wonderful.  The food at the local RSL for lunch was cheap and exceedingly good.  Drinks at Happy Hour were cheap, free entertainment anf two good markets.  We have enjoyed this week more than we have any other for quite some time.  We are still trying to work out how good this pilot must have been to land the plane on these posts outside the RSL Club or to give it its’ proper title Club Mulwala.

We are moving on tomorrow and goodness knows when we will have internet access again and I have had to promise Motley1 that this post would end with a picture of me rather than him.   So here I am, enjoying the sunshine, drinking a beer, the phone glued to the ear and the only thing missing to complete the picture would have been a cigarette somewhere in the vicinity :)  Now …NO repeat NO comments on the legs will be allowed ..ar you listening Gaz ?

Well till next time, take care everybody and we’ll keep updating as long as you keep reading..

P.S. Motley1 has now also celebrated another birthday, I had to tell you that in case you thought it was just me who was getting older.

Happy New Year !!!. 

It’s been such a long time between posts but I can assure everyone we are still alive and kicking.  We haven’t drowned in the floods, been eaten alive by mozzies (although they try) or had any other catastrophies happen so far.

So let me try and bring you up to date on what we have been up to.   We spent New Year’s Eve with Ben’s son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren in Toowoomba and then headed off down the Great Dividing Range.  I refused point blank to tow the caravan ( what I mean is to be a passenger while Motley1 towed) down the Range from Toowoomba, so worked out an inland route to follow.  We stopped in Tenterfield and had a look at Peter Allen’s maracas (stop the snickering right now!!!! ) and headed on to Casino and then Lismore. We should have gone down the Range from Toowoomba because we ended up with a 39 kilometre twisty, hilly drop down from higher than we were above sea level in Toowoomba. 

We arrived in Lismore in bright sunshine but we should have been a little more knowing than we were at that time as the caravan park was a little soggy underfoot.  The following day, a little soggy turmed into a quagmire and on day three we watched the river rise rapidly.  The rain just never halted, day or night.  I’m sure many of you saw the television coverage of the evacuation of caravan parks etc.  We stayed put but kept a wary eye on the river all the time.  I will post some pictures later of the streets around Lismore and you will be able to see why we had to stay where we were.  The driving conditions were horrendous and the roads had potholes big enough to swallow semi trailers.  We had planned to do the market at Brunswick Heads but it was cancelled.

Motley1 turned on the computer to do some work and the monitor went bang which in a caravan was LOUD…..disaster….no monitor means no work.  So off we set to replace the monitor.

Byron Bay market went ahead despite the weather and we had quite a good day.   We did some sightseeing around Byron Bay and drove up to the lighthouse and then walked to the most eastern point of mainland Australia at Cape Byron.  We watched the dolphins from here while battling the wind.  The weather looks great in the pictures though.

We left Lismore as soon as the rain had stoppped, the caravan park was by no means the best we have stayed at and we were glad to be back on the road.  We headed for Coffs Harbour and the hope of some dry if not sunny weather.  It is Summer, isn’t it? We arrived in Coffs mid afternoon, sun shining, no rain ( =big smiles ) and set up in the Coffs Village Caravan Park.  Small park, very neat, nice amenities. 

Do I have to tell you or have you guessed already, during the night it started to rain, by the next morning we were up to our ankles in mud.   I swear if one more person had said  “we need the rain”  I would have been committed for trial for murder.  I would have pled insanity by virtue of a waterlogged brain !

We booked into the market at Woolgoolga on the Saturday and Coffs Harbour on the Sunday but without much hope between us that we would be attending either.

We enjoyed Coffs, rain or no rain, we enjoyed walking, the library had really good internet access and we had a little family of ducks to take care of.  The river behind us was full of water dragons and the biggest eels we have ever seen. 

We met some really nice people here, everyone in the park was very friendly, a couple of young girls who were parked next to us even went out and brought us back takeaway Thai food because we had offered them a cuppa as they had no cooking facilities.

Coffs Returned Soldiers Club was very nice too but we had the worst Lambs Fry ever here, overcooked would be a huge understatement.  For anyone not in Australia, Lambs Fry is liver usually served with bacon and onions.

Saturday morning and we set out for Woolgoolga.  What a beautiful setting for a market.  The park was right beside one of the nicest little beaches we have seen so far and the sun was shining.  We had a great market day.  We never stopped all day long and were worn out by the end of the market.  We packed up and left the car parked where it was and went for a “paddle” , as near as I’ll get to a swim.  The water was wonderful, blue, clear and warm.  A very successful and unexpected day.

The Coffs Harbour Jetty market sounded nice but was in fact in the underground carpark of the shopping centre.  Great for an all weather market I guess but not very preposessing to look at before the stalls were set up.  It wasn’t a bad day though so we had had a great weekend market wise.

We had thought of heading off on the Monday but it had been such a successful weekend and we were enjoying Coffs Harbour (apart from squelching around in mud outside the caravan) that we decided to stay longer.

We went for a drive along The Waterfall Way to Bellingen and Dorrigo.  If you ever get a chance to do this drive, you will love it.  Not a suitable for drive with a caravan attached though!  The waterfalls alongside the road are spectacular (after all the rain they were in full spate).  The little towns of Bellingen and Dorrigo are full of interesting craft shops and cafes.  We carried on to see the Danger Falls and although the rain was drizzling for most of the day we had a wonderful day out.  Motley1 had the biggest vanilla slice either of us has ever seen in a cafe in Bellingen.  It was a triple decker but he still managed to polish it all off.

Bellingen had a market day on the Saturday so we booked in for that and for Coffs Harbour again on the Sunday.  We had to get busy and make some more bookmarks.  The new monitor is really nice and I had just started on the bookmarks when the printer gave up the ghost.  Oh well, off shopping again, this time for another printer.

Bellingen and Coffs markets were both fairly good, a great market atmosphere at Bellingen with buskers, drummers, bands and lots of things happening throughout the day.

 No visit to Coffs would be complete without a visit to the Big Banana so of course we did the tourist thing and visited.

We decided to head down to Port Macquarie for a few days.  The muddy caravan site was really beginning to get on our nerves, so we said our goodbyes to our neighbours in the park with invitations to join them next year as they all spend Christmas and New Year there and headed off.

We were driving across the bridge over the Wilson River and Motley1 mentioned how the wind was quite strong when all of a sudden the towing mirror flew off the door and disappeared.  My heart stopped beating, here we were on a bridge with lots of traffic and I felt sure the mirror would hit the car behind.  It was a terrifying thought as the poor car behind would have no where to go to avoid being hit.  We got the the end of the bridge and pulled into the side of the road.  The traffic kept flowing with no sign of damage to any other vehicles.  A huge sigh of relief.   We did a Uturn and went back across the bridge to find out where the mirror had ended up and there it was laying on the side of the road virtually undamaged.  We drove off the bridge and parked and Ben walked the half mile or so back across the bridge to retrieve the mirror.

With the mirror fitted back on the car we set off again for Port Macquarie.  We stayed at the Melaleuca Caravan Park, a very well maintained park, nice wide sites.  The park was full of teenage basketball players as there was some sort of training of players from all around Australia happening in the town.  We stayed two nights and it was heaven to have no mud under our feet every time we stepped out of the van.  No ducks here but rabbits everywhere.  Domestic rabbits must have got freed around here and bred.  There are lots of them and they are very tame even eating carrots out of our hands. 

We set off for Forster, I used to live around here so it felt a little like coming home.  Still love the drive over the bridge from Tuncurry to Forster.  We stopped in Tuncurry to say hello to friends who live there and then headed out to the Lakeside Caravan Park.

We booked in for  a few days and were given a welcome pack and given a site as near to the water as they had available.  A few steps away :)  The sites here were really big and so well looked after.  We expect it will get busy in the park as this is the Australia Day long weekend.

Woke up this morning another year older

Couldn’t stay miserable though…the sun was shining, the lake looked wonderful, we had breakfast sitting outside the van, a perfect start to a day.

We went to see a few places around town and enjoyed the sunshine.  We drove out to Pacific Palms and Smiths Lake.  The Frothy Coffee Shop was full so we decided to give it  miss and head back into Forster.

We went out to tea at the Forster Club where I had a delicious plate of curried prawns and a couple of glasses of wine.  Motley1 had Hawain Chicken.  All in all a very pleasant birthday.

We booked a site at the Pacific Palms market for the Sunday, giving us another two days to enjoy the sites around Forster. 

The weather remained fine and we went to Burgess Beach and climbed around on the rocks.  The sea is pretty wild around here but it is never crowded and we enjoyed paddling around and wading through the rockpools.  We drove up to Bennetts Head and did the Rotary Walk to One Mile Beach.  We drew the line at walking up Cape Hawk as the last time Ben did that climb he spent two days not able to move his legs.

Pacific Palms market was a lovely market under the palm trees as the name suggests and we did reasonably well.  As the following day was the public holiday we thought we would get an early start so packed up the van after the market, hooked up and were ready to leave the next morning.  The sunsets over the lake here at Forster are incredible as you can see here and here.

Our drive down to Sydney was very hot, not too much traffic although we had a couple of hold ups for roadworks.  There are always roadworks on Bank Holidays!  When we arrived in Sydney it was 36 degrees and despite the best efforts of the GPS to get us to our destination, we took a wrong turn.  My fault though I talk louder than the GPS ever did and sent Motley1 off the freeway 1 exit too soon.

The next day we picked up the supplies we needed and visited the doctor to renew our prescriptions, arrange for blood tests etc. etc.

All these tasks taken care off we arranged a market for Saturday and Sunday,

Yesterdays market was undercover, a huge market which reminded Motley1 of Caribbean Gardens and we had a fairly ok sort of day.

Today, Sunday. we set off to what is regarded as one of Sydney’s most successful markets.  We had only been set up for about an hour when the thunder and lightning and RAIN started..oh boy did it rain.  We were very quickly up to our ankles in mud and rivers were running between the stalls.  Everybody dejectedly packed up their stalls in the pouring rain and loaded up their cars and vans with soaking gazebos and stock.

The joys of a hot shower when we got back ..soaking wet and shivering.  Now we have to dry everything out and hope the rain stops long enough to get the tarps and gazebo dry.

Motley1 has to go back for a blood sugar test tomorrow as his levels were a little high ( 2 hours of doing nothing but sitting in the doctors surgery).

So now you are all to date as we prepare once again to head off into the wide blue yonder…ok it is nice and blue till we get there and then it become the wide grey yonder

Till next time..

P.S. If you read this before I get the chance to add the pictures come back soon and have a look.