Cloncurry To Hervey Bay

Then onwards to Melbourne

It Seems like only yesterday that we that we left Mt Isa so I thought I should catch up with my blog, here goes. We made it without incident to Cloncurry and set up in the Caravan Park for 2 nights then went for a look around town, had a swim in the pool (cold) checked out the museum featuring John Flynn from flying doctors fame and then another display featuring an old Chevy rail car.

We moved on to Winton next and from here on I suffered with a pinched sciatic nerve in my back and the Queensland roads didn’t help, this was the worst section of road we have travelled on in 40,000k and our first broken glasses were experienced on this section. After some extra stops to rest my back we made it to Winton and booked into the cheapest park there which was ok but they had the dirtiest toilets we had experienced on our trip (excluding free camp toilets) and the water was bore water which came from about 1000m underground and reached the surface at about 60deg, it was like showering in a room full of rotten eggs.

We toured the Waltzing Matilda display here then the Opal museum where Marion brought a few pieces of raw opal, then the dinosaur display which was in an old store which had the old overhead money chutes, after that it was up to the  truck display where I found an old “1950s Commer Knocker truck” which I used to drive ( surely I can’t be that old?) . After exhausting our touring here we made our way to “Longreach” or longpockets as we called it because the touristy things were plenty but expensive, we decided on doing the ‘Quantas’ museum which we enjoyed very much and I paid an extra $25 to go into an aircraft simulator but I was disappointed as it was basically a sophisticated video game. We had a look around town the next day then continued on towards Barcaldine, we did not stay here but had some lunch then did a walk around town, took some photos of the Tree of Knowledge monument (monstrosity) then travelled further to ‘Jerico” where we stayed at a free camp on the banks of the Jordan river, (I think we were in Aus.) from there we travelled to “Emerald” which is a pleasant town but growing quickly due to local mining operations, we stayed in a c/van park here but there is a free camp in town which was a beehive of travellers, it was under the road and rail bridges so would be very noisy. We went for a walk through the botanic gardens and there were boxes of mandarins at the entrance for the public to take for free, supplied by a local farmer because he was unable to sell his crop. We also had a couple of swims in the local pool which is currently being upgraded to a complete Aquatic centre.

 After this we moved on to a free camp at a place called “Moura”, We met two different couples here who were from “Hervey Bay” and while we were having a chat another van came in and proceeded to settle in when we noticed smoke coming out through their fridge vent some went to retrieve fire extinguishers while I ran to the van to help the chap was inside trying to get at the source of the smoke with his extinguisher but to no avail we raced outside and I ripped the fridge vents off while he used the extinguisher where ever he could, luckily we managed to get it out but all I could picture was a burnt out shell, they were very lucky it did not happen on the road, the wiring at the rear of the fridge was the cause so they decided to move on to see if they could get it repaired because it would be impossible to sleep in the van that night because of the fumes. After that excitement we settled in for the night before moving on to “Maryborough” the next day.

We needed to get petrol on the way so while driving through “Eidsvold” we could not see a roadhouse so we decided to go to the next town but while looking for the roadhouse we missed the turnoff to “Mundubbera” and ended up driving about 50k on the road to “Theodore” so I had to do a 3 point turn and return to Eidsvold where we found out our mistake and the roadhouse was on the road after the turnoff but that was only the beginning of our bad start to the day.

When I pulled into the servo there was a car where I needed to go so I pulled up and waited then as he pulled out and I began to move up but an ignorant driver flew in in front of me (I swore but still did not panic because I parked my bull bar about 2cm from his) so after he moved I was filling up and a truck pulled  across in front of me to get diesel which meant I had to back out or wait again, In the meantime another chap came in and wanted me to back up so he could get fuel, and that’s when I lost it, so after some heated words the chap had the cheek to tell me to chill out and enjoy life? To which I replied I was until all you @#*# entered into my day, then, to finish everything off we were passed by a hoon on double white lines while we were pulling out. We managed to make it to Mundubbera for lunch without incident where I was able to chill out!!!! . We then proceeded on to Maryborough and booked into the park for a couple of nights because we had made prior arrangements to meet some fellow travellers there.

Then we made our way to back Hervey Bay where we had left from almost over 2yrs ago so now we have joined the dots on our map and from now on we have to fill in the spaces. We have done some horse riding since arriving here (first time) at Susan River which was great fun then kayaking and fishing not to mention swimming & cycling and cleaning our van, we are now house sitting with a week to go and I am doing a triathlon as a team on Sun. the 14^th then we are going out to Boondooma dam for a week holiday with friends and maybe catch a fish??  It has been full on since arriving back here so we are looking forward to it.

We had a great week at Boondooma, even catching some fish (a Bass and 2 Yellow belly) but they proved to be very costly because we lost a few lures catching them, I would highly recommend this place for anyone who is looking for a few days to chill out and if you want to fish a boat is the best option.

The rest of our stay in Hervey Bay has been taken up with catching up with friends etc but a trip to the doctor proved to be a bit of a problem for me after a blood test showed that I had an enlarged prostate and a high PSA reading, then after having a biopsy all is well I don’t have any signs of the big C so we can continue on our journey with no worries.

Thursday 15^th and we are back on the road again on our way towards Melb. Our first stop was Coolum where we met up with some friends who are staying at a property about 7k from Coolum beach and we were invited to join them, we managed to pay our way as Marion did some sewing and I did a sewing machine service for the owners of the property, we went for a drive to Noosa and got caught in the storm that went through the area on Sat. Luckily there was no damage to the car or van. We stayed 4days then proceeded on to Jimboomba to visit some people who we house sat for about 2yrs ago managing to get some petrol for $1.30lit on the way which we found accidently because we went the wrong way???? We are now here at their place for a couple of nights enjoying their hospitality.

Sorry about the length of this blog but am trying to catch up, Get Photos Here