Decisions, decisions.

This week has been a lot of driving.

Highway 1 has very nice rest areas at regular intervals just off the main drag that you can stop in for 20 – 48 hours for free, so for three days we’ve been overnighting in them and stopping for lunch somewhere nice in-between. Here’s some nice pictures of what we’ve seen.

At the moment we’re in paradise. We’re at the beautiful Broken River Mountain Resort in the middle of the rainforest in Eungella National Park.

The very helpful lady in the Visitor Information office in Mackay told us they were doing half price deals, so we headed east and for $60 we’ve got a fab cabin with all the goodies and a veranda. It is officially the best platypus spotting place on the planet and we’ve seen some about 100m from our room.

We’ve been for a guided night-time rainforest walk, been swimming in a waterfall,

and everything should be perfect......

However, we have a dilemma. North of Mackay the road to Cairns is closed at Townsville due to flooding. We’ve got two choices; either we wait it out and hope that it’s opened again in time, or we go back to Brisbane, hand the van back in and fly to Alice Springs from there. Obviously we’d rather stick to the plan, but it doesn’t look very promising. The road at Ingham has more than a metre of water over it and has been undermined; it’s not going to be passable anytime soon. Our point of no return is next Tuesday, we reckon if we share the driving and have structured breaks we can get back to Brisbane in three days. We’ve emailed Maui to see if they’ve got any ideas, but at the end of the day we think it’s going to be our decision.

To South Queensland and Beyond

We had 3 totally chilled days with Mary, Steve, Jazz, Zach & Teag. Even though the weather wasn’t perfect, they showed us round Hervey Bay and River Heads; the rest of the time was spent chatting and eating. Such a hardship. Not.

These two lovely dogs live there as well.

Perfect boat dog. If we were going to have one. Which we’re not. And he wouldn’t fit in our luggage anyway.

Hervey Bay is most well known as the place to get a ferry to Frazer Island, but it’s also got this.

This Jetty used to be a lot longer and had a rail track running all the way down it. It was used for loading sugar cane and coal onto boats right up till 1985 and was going to be dismantled till the local people petitioned and got a preservation order on it.

It’s also got the Boat Club where we all went for lunch on Sunday; they do enormous burgers and endless free coffee and hot chocolate. Yum!

Sadly on Monday, after lots of hugs and kisses we had to leave. Northbound on Highway 1 again - here it’s called the Bruce Highway – we stopped at Tom Haigh’s dam and reservoir for a cuppa and spotted these two little fellas.

We also found an Aussie canal.

Not really, it’s a run-off channel from the dam so no water and no boats, but it still made us wistful. We fly out of Darwin on the 31st of March. Not that long really; Dave’s started looking on the web at boats again. This one ticks all our boxes.

Fun in the Jungle

We’d left ourselves plenty of time to have a look round Noosa on Friday morning, but a tropical downpour started around 5am and by the time we got up there was a river running under the van and it didn’t look like letting up all day. It was still 28˚ though, when we had to go outside it was quite refreshing but walking about for any length of time was impossible. We packed up and carried on driving north; the countryside getting greener and denser with every kilometre. When we got to Maryborough it had stopped raining, so we parked up and went for a look round the town that was once destined to be the capital of Queensland before the title fell to Brisbane. The streets are lined with traditional Australian houses dating back to the pioneer days and the centre of the city has lots of grand public buildings that have been beautifully preserved. Although it has a fascinating social history and a wealth of interesting architecture, Maryborough is most famous as the birthplace of P.L. Travers; the creator of Mary Poppins. There is a statue of the nanny with her umbrella and carpet bag outside the author’s house.

Mary is on the right.

In Queen’s Park by the river there is the most enormous fig tree,

and a very aptly named Sausage Tree.

Our final destination for the day, and where we will be for the next few days, was Hervey Bay. Most well known as the ferry port for trips to Frazer Island, this is where Dave’s cousin Mary lives with Steve and their children, Jasmin, Zach and Teagan. The whole family left Adelaide 4 years ago in a converted bus, with the intention of travelling round Oz for a year. After a few months they realised that a year was nowhere near enough, so shortened their sights to Cairns. When they got to Hervey Bay they liked it so much they stopped and have been here ever since. We can understand why; we’d stop here too. They have a the most beautiful house with a fabulous wrap-around first floor veranda and an amazing garden with huge palms and mimosa trees surrounding the lush lawn.

In typical Aussie style they made us feel welcome and at home the minute we arrived and we spent the evening looking out over the bush with a fabulous meal, some terrific home brew and, inevitably, a very competitive game of Skip-Bo.

The Thin Green Strip.

On Monday morning we said a fond farewell to David and Liz and left Sydney via the harbour bridge, heading north on the Pacific Highway. We’re going to spend the next three weeks on, or just off this road so we’d better get used to it.

We had a break at The Entrance, a pretty little seaside town that has a resident flock of pelicans which congregate every day for a free feed. Karma put us there just at the right time.

That night we were at the twin towns of Forster and Tuncurry overlooking Pebbly Beach.

In the morning we had a lovely refreshing swim before setting off again. Tuesday was pretty much a driving day, but we got to Coffs Harbour with enough time for a walk along the creek and round the sea wall.

There was an amazing variety of marine life in the harbour, we saw a big ray and a turtle swimming about. Then we watched as a thunder storm came howling across the harbour mouth, making the rigging scream and sandblasting us as we ran for shelter.

In the morning we walked round the beautiful botanical gardens

before taking to the road again.

We meandered away from the main highway and zigzagged over the big Clarence River on two ferries and a very dodgy looking bridge.

At Lawrence there was a lake beside the river with hundreds of spoonbills, egrets, ibis and herons in the trees.

We had lunch in Maclean; a Scottish town in the middle of eastern Australia. Every telegraph pole has a different tartan.

Nice.

We had Wednesday night in Byron Bay. We walked up to the very famous and very well kept lighthouse,

then had a swim before tea.

On Thursday morning we were back in the sea again, but out fairly rapidly when the bloke next to us got stung by a little blue jellyfish.

Off we went on Highway 1 to Brisbane. We stopped in the city for a walk along the river boardwalk.

It was very hot and these little guys were out all over the place.

When we got back to the van it was 50˚ inside. Thank God for air-con!

Through Brisbane and heading north again we stopped at Noosa Heads for the night, did a wash load in the laundrette, had a lovely evening stroll through the little national park on the Noosa headland

and did a bit of Ty Cheat at dolphin point. Never saw no dolphins though.

We are barely scratching the surface of Oz. We’re doing the equivalent of the length of the UK every three days and stopping six times. We make no apologies; It was always going to be a compromise, but when we go home we will at least know what goes where and what the thin green strip down the right hand side, the red bit in the middle and the top edge feel like.

Into the Blue.

On Friday morning we set off away from the coast, following the Western Highway to Bathurst where two more of Dave’s cousins and their families live. As it traces the path of the railway that opened up the west side of the Great Divide, the road snakes through the Blue Mountains, so called because of the blue haze from the gum trees that hangs over them. We stopped at Wentworth Falls,

and Echo Point.

Looking out over the endless and virtually untouched forest stretching out before us we found ourselves in another of those reality re-evaluating moments. Everything about Australia is so far removed from our reference points that nothing prepares us for the next horizon, the next beach, the next mountain. We’re amazed by all of it and happily gaze about in wide eyed wonder. Aussies must think we’re barking. We’ve been seen lying on our backs looking at bats, jumping around on squeaky sand and licking salt off mangrove leaves. We’re like a couple of kids in a giant sweet shop.

We got to Bathurst and found Bernadette and Pete’s lovely traditional house. Pete took us for a tour of the town; the original railway cottages, the big wide streets and the race-track. Yes, race-track. Most of the time it is a public highway, there are even driveways going off it to private houses, but it is a full blown, grown up race track, complete with tyre walls, pits, paddocks and a Dunlop bridge. That evening we went for a drink and met Alice and her daughters Anna & Rosie, then we all went back to Bernie’s for a lovely meal on the veranda.

On Saturday Pete drove us out to a little known conservation park in the Blue Mountain foothills called Blackfellows Hands. Under the shelter of a massive overhanging rock there are cave paintings made thousands of years ago by Aboriginal people.

A very quiet and peaceful place to be. We all went round to Alice’s house for another delicious meal that evening. It has been really good to meet all these wonderful people.

Back row; Pete, Ann-Marie, Dave, Bernie, Alice

Front row; Anna and Birthday Girl Rosie

Dave’s sister Kate came over here about 20 years ago and met most of them too; we don’t know how she managed it without the electronic gadgets we have today. We’ve needed constant Facebook, email & text messaging just to exist. Now we’ve put faces to all the names we must make sure that we keep in contact.

We crossed back over the Blue Mountains on Sunday, this time we took the road less travelled, the Bells Line of Road, to the north of the main highway. It’s a bit longer and bit twistier; all good stuff, but the best bit is that it goes past the Zig Zag Railway. Trains leave three times a day; 11.00, 13.00 and 15.00. We turned up at 10.55. This sort of good fortune is becoming scary. The rules of Karma say that to have the sort of luck that we seem to do, both of us must have been Mother Theresa for a while.

It was a smashing trip; coming back up was even better than going down; the engine really has its work cut out climbing the steep incline. It’s good to see steam power in action with no holds barred.

When we got back to Sydney, we went  out with David, Liz and Chris to the naval base at Camp Cove where Rosalie and Mike live. They have the best view in Sydney, looking out over the harbour and the city from their veranda.

Mike manned the Barbie and served up a fantastic meal including kangaroo steaks, which were delicious. They have a couple of wild Kookaburras that come and perch on the balustrade and will eat out of your hand.

We watched a perfect sunset

then, as it got dark the city lights began to shine.

One day the navy will post Mike somewhere else and they’ll have to leave this little chunk of paradise. We think they’ll have to prise Rosalie’s hands off the railings for that to happen.

Dave, Mike, David, Liz, Ann-Marie, Rosalie, Chris.

Hello Sydney

After leaving Burrill Lake we stopped first at a little place called Vincentia,

then at Huskisson Bay,

where we went for a walk along the beach and played chicken with some seriously big waves. After that we drove up to Kiama, which is a lovely little town with a famous blow hole on the headland. It’s best seen at high tide with a strong on-shore wind. You know us….Bingo!

After a meat pie and a cup of tea in the town we headed off to Sydney’s outskirts to Dave’s Uncle David’s house. Ann-Marie’s spot-on navigating landed us outside their door with no problems, and we had three wonderful days with David, Liz, Chris and Libby,

being shown around the big city and feeling really special.
On Wednesday David drove us into the harbour area and we parked underground near the wharves. As we emerged at street level we heard a very loud ships horn. We’d heard it before – the last time was in Gibraltar.

By what is becoming un-nervingly fortunate coincidence, we’d turned up on the day when not only the Queen Elizabeth, but also the Queen Mary II where both docked in Sydney Harbour. The three horn blasts were the Queen Elizabeth leaving port.

We strolled round the harbour to berth No. 2 where we got on the island shuttle service. It was doing special sight-seeing tours of the harbour, past the Opera House and the big ships.

We got up close to the Queen Mary and felt very privileged; as we were taking photos, some rich people waved their jewellery at us.

Afterwards we had lunch just outside the Opera House.

On Thursday we were chauffeured to Bondi for lunch in a café overlooking the beach.

We went for a swim, or whatever being bashed about by the most famous waves in the world is called, and after about 15 minutes, came out fully aware of what all the fuss is about. It was the most powerful surf either of us had ever been in.

David drove us to some more of the other beaches round Sydney and he and Liz pointed out lots of places of interest in this beautiful, vibrant city. In the evening Dave’s cousin Rosalie came round and joined us for dinner, after which we got out the family tree to compare notes and looked through lots of old family photos. A perfect end to a perfect day. It’s uncanny; even though David left for Australia before Dave’s first birthday, and the two of them haven’t had any contact since, there’s still an inescapable bond between them. We felt so comfortable with David and Liz, it’s been like coming home.