Road To Cairns

Cycling Group Rutherglen

 Now it is time to move on again, the owners have returned and kindly took us to their rotary meeting again, we have really enjoyed it here except for a problem that has arisen, but that's another story, we said our goodbyes on Friday  and now we are on our way north, we were meant to get to "Wagga Wagga" but made good time so went on further to "Young" then we were going to "Cowra" to see the Japanese gardens but decided that we did,nt like them enough to pay $13 each to get in so had a change of plans and moved on to "Parkes" to see the huge "Dish" which is continually tracking our universe for anything explaining our existence, we had a snack at the cafe there then continued on to "Gilgandra" staying here the night then on to "Coonabarabran" for a couple of nights so as we can visit the observatory in the Warranbungle Ranges, the car is going great although it did give us a scare when it decided to cut out on a couple of hills yesterday but it seems to have cleared itself today, the fuel consumption while towing the van is only slightly better than the cruiser but it is much better when driving without the van, we have a lot less fuel capacity so we have to make sure we remember to fuel up more frequently.

We made it to Coonabarabran and booked into the park that we had visited about 5yrs previously just after they had been partly wiped out from a severe hail storm and this time they have lost their house and possessions in the recent bush fires, the park needs quite a lot of upgrading but they still make you welcome even with all their personal disasters. We visited the observatory in the "Warrambungle" range and was lucky to get any photos because of low cloud but a breeze came up and cleared the cloud to give us some beautiful views, the next day we moved on to Moree  and experienced a dip in the thermal pools, the hottest one being 39deg and the 25m lap pool about 28deg after that we went for a walk into town (about 5k return) so it was no wonder we slept well that night, we moved on again to "Goondiwindi" where we found a park with a pool and thermal spa so we should be getting younger by the day, then after our dip they had a damper and tea get together which was very tasty.

We have now moved on to "Oakey" where I was keen to visit an army air museum, it was very interesting bringing back memories of my first plane flight in an old Auster plane which I was given the control of for a couple of minutes ( not sure if my mates in the rear seats were keen on that though). Tomorrow we make our way to Hervey Bay which will be our longest day at about 330k but we will be there for a week before we continue on to "Cairns"

We are now settled in at Hervey Bay and already doing the social rounds while trying to get the van & car up to scratch for our next leg north (there is always something to do) I did manage to make my job harder after checking & topping up the engine oil I forgot to put the filler cap back on and with smoke pouring out from under the bonnet I thought we were in real trouble but only ended up with a big mess to clean up but with all this happening I have still managed to catch up on some swimming & jogging (not missing the cold weather).Marion is catching up on some knitting and getting a couple of walks in, we still have some outings to do before we leave Sunday or Monday as we have to be in Cairns by the 28th of this month.

We decided to leave for Cairns on Sunday so we made our way to Calliope Free camp where we spent a comfortable night with about 70 other campers and got to talking to a couple of chaps, one was once the publican of the Torquay Hotel Hervey Bay and the other was the part owner of the car that Peter Brock was driving when he was tragically killed and had done about 4 Targa Tasmania races with the car. the next morning was a beautiful day and we set off with no real plans for our next stop because the road works were changing our arrival times greatly but we made it to our anticipated stop too early so continued on to the next one which we missed because our GPS had the wrong coordinates so we ended up in a caravan park at a small place just south of Sarina which works fine because we will only have 50k to Mackay where we will meet some friends we met in H/B, it poured with rain for about 15min after we arrived. We left the caravan park this morning in fine weather although overcast to reach the friends at Mackay for morning tea then after a chat we left with a bag full of Lemons, eggplant & mandarins making our way to the next camping spot which was full so had to move on further, we were looking for the next camp when we spotted some vans out in a park so we went for a look, it was  previously  show grounds which have been unused for 15yrs and some enterprising people have turned into a cheap campsite with power & showers for $10 night and we arrived in time for 4.30 happy hour then we were entertained by a sugar cane burn off nearby

GPS poem... I have a little GPS I've had it all my life It's better than the normal ones My GPS is my wife It gives me full instructions Especially how to drive "It's sixty k's an hour", it says "You're doing sixty five" It tells me when to stop and start And when to use the brake And tells me that it's never ever Safe to overtake It tells me when a light is red And when it goes to green It seems to know instinctively Just when to intervene It lists the vehicles just in front And all those to the rear And taking this into account It specifies my gear. I'm sure no other driver Has so helpful a device For when we leave and lock the car It still gives its advice. It fills me up with counseling Each journey's pretty fraught So why don't I exchange it And get a quieter sort? Ah well, you see, it cleans the house, Makes sure I'm properly fed, It washes all my shirts and things And - lets me have a shed. Despite all these advantages And my tendency to scoff, I do wish that once in a while I could turn the damned thing off.          

 

We moved on to another free camp at Rollingstone which was almost full but we managed to push our way in (politely) and settled there for a couple of nights as we had caught up with our Hervey Bay friends, they were staying about 5k away in a C/van park so they came to pick us up and we spent the days there, we all booked in to a caravan park at Tully Heads so we are  settled in now for 8 days they had 6ins of rain here in the 24hrs before we arrived but the weather has been great the last couple of days then we will leave for Cairns where we are booked into different parks ( they have a dog), we did a day trip to Innisfail and surrounds yesterday which was a good day out and today we toured around Mission Beach which is very nice then went into Tully for a look, I have also been able to keep my running going and Marion is cooking cakes ? Click Here For Pictures