Caravanning and RVing in Australia

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Day 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 & 109 110 & 111 112 113 114

Day 84
I sent this to Australian Caravan Club Webmaster, Rob, last night and this morning this was on the website:

Has our Chairman lost his marbles?
In another of his rash, impulsive and exciting, spur-of-the-moment decisions, our chairman made a last minute application to join the ACC Sunshine Nomads Tag-along Tour of outback Queensland.
 
Not content with travelling from Mornington, Victoria to Katherine in the Northern Territory via the Flinders Ranges, Oodnadatta Track and Alice Springs and then to Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria before heading across the North on the Savannah Way to reach the East Coast at Innisfail, he now intends to add another 800km to his trip to arrive in Roma in time to join about 20 other ACC members (should have said 'caravans' - as there will be about forty people taking part in this historic journey!) on what promises to be a fantastic trip.
 
Lionel is no stranger to Western Queensland as he, and wife Vi, were school photographers at one stage of their chequered careers, and many children, now grown to adulthood with families of their own, would have had their pictures taken by them in schools in places like Longreach, Tambo, Barcaldine and Blackall.
 
In many ways it will be a journey of remembrance – like the afternoon in Charleville when, after taking all the class photos, Lionel discovered there was no film in the camera and had to do them all again before they moved on to Augathella that same day. Yes - Murphy had already showed his hand back then.
 
“The itinerary looks fantastic.” says Lionel. “How could I resist the chance to travel to those wonderful outback towns again – this time with fellow ACC club members?”
 
 I’m sure he won’t regret his decision and will have much to recount when they arrive at the Muster.

I spent a lot of time today wrestling with a web page problem. Although this diary has been loading quite well in browsers like Firefox, Safari, Opera and Netscape there have been a few problems with Internet Explorer and as most PC users still persist in using this browser I felt I must make it easier for them.

If anyone has been having problems loading the pages or of having to scroll excessively to read from left to right I think it should be OK now. If you have a problem let me know - but first reload the page in case you are looking at a cached version.
 
Day 85 or 86 - I seem to have lost a day somewhere!















Trixie took me out along an unsealed road to Belmundo this afternoon. It's just a few houses right on the coast with magnificent sea and mountain views.

On the way you come to a lovely stretch of water but the beauty is spoiled by the man-made littler of empty bottles and other detritus. There's a notice nearby from the Mackay Council forbidding motorcycles and vehicles to drive on foreshore dunes so I suppose they have jurisdiction over the area - if so it would be nice if they cleaned up the junk that's obviously been there for some time.

Day 87
I took my friend Murphy to Mackay today - how can I leave him behind?

He had the time of his life in Coles at Mt Pleasant. I'd done my shopping and was paying with my debit card as I wanted some cash out. Put the PIN in and up came approved - on the customer screen. Declined on the cashiers screen! Everything jammed and the combined efforts of three girls and a supervisor couldn't get it going again. The unanswered question was - had the transaction gone through and the money taken from my account or was it aborted? The supervisor who was as puzzled as the rest of us suggested she do a manual transaction and then if they find out it had gone through tear up the form.

Murphy was laughing his socks off! Then we decided it hadn't gone through after studying the print-out and so put all the groceries through again on a different register! I checked my bank account and it's OK - I was only charged once. Funny thing though - the second scan came out 20 cents cheaper!

I started doing a bit of packing up including putting the solar panels away because I'm out of here in the morning. I'll be a bit sad to leave as it's been a delightful and relaxing stay.

Day 88
Wouldn't you know it! Weeks of fine weather and now on pack-up-and-move morning it's raining quite hard and before I'm ready for the road I'm fairly wet - but not miserable. It's good to be on the road again and my TomTom took me off the Bruce Highway and across country to the Peak Downs Highway - heading for Clermont.

Climbing the range, I caught up a couple of vans held up by a truck and saw that one had an ACC sticker and a sign saying they were on UHF. I called them up and we had a chat until Graham said, "There's a parking bay up ahead why don't we pull up and meet? We did that and we were getting very wet, but - after common sense prevailed - we went into their lovely big Jayco and had a good old natter!

It's the first ACC sticker I've seen on the road and they said it was the first time someone had called them up. I'll see a few more on Sunday when the Tag-along starts I'm sure.

The rain stopped before I reached Clermont so I decided to carry on to Emerald and use a caravan park. It will give the batteries a chance to reach fully charged again after nearly a month on solar. The last time we were in this park we went down to Springsure to photograph the kids but it rained so hard the principal said, "It's no good trying to do it today - half the children live on black soil farms and won't be able to come to school after this rain".

We headed back here in torrential rain and they closed the Springsure road just after we had driven through a flood. The concrete pads here were about 6 inches under water. (If you prefer centimetres it's about 15cm!)

I'll be using the Springsure road in the morning but I don't think there's been enough rain to cause any problems.

Day 89
The road was open thanks goodness but when I passed the road leading to Carnarvon Gorge there was a barricade and sign saying 'Road Closed'.


Earlier in the day I saw the 'Virgin Rock' north of Springsure and took a couple of pics.








Camping Prohibited - but Overnight parking of vans is permitted!

Well done Bauhina Shire Council.




Decided to head straight to Roma early and a couple of other vans are already here. It was raining again as I got set up but not too bad and the forecast is for it to clear tonight.

Day 90
Murphy's day today alright! I went for a shower and when I got back couldn't open the van door. The lock has been a bit dicky so I thought it had given up the ghost. I borrowed a screwdriver to try to open a window but all I managed to do was crack the glass - it was the biggest window as you might guess. Then I managed to open the high window over my bed and by borrowing a step-ladder managed to slide in. I've been using that bed to store all sorts of things so it was an obstacle race.

From the inside the door opened without trouble. I got dressed and put some raisin loaf under the grill. Then I went outside to look at the lock and to my horror the door closed and locked before I knew it. The toast! Oh no Murphy - you are not going to burn my van down, I thought as I rushed to turn the gas off at the cylinder. Once again I had to use the window entry - a bit harder this time as the people with the taller ladder had gone out.

Now it was time for a real look so I took the lock off carefully and checked it's internals. Anyone familiar with the older Camec locks will know how complicated they are - I've had them apart a few times before so knew how to handle it. Everything looked fine and then it dawned. The damn lock was locked! When I had unlocked it the previous night I must have accidentally turned the key as I removed it! Vi always said there was no Murphy - just me being clumsy or careless. She was probably right! I'm afraid there are no pictures - some things are better left to the imagination.

A few more people going on the tour arrived during the day and we had a little 'Happy Hour' tonight despite the cold.

Day 91

Father's Day today -I'd forgotten until I was talking to daughter Jackie yesterday and she asked what was a good time to ring me today. It was good to talk to all three - Chris, Jackie and Sue - but it would have been even better face-to-face.

Today is the first day of our 17-day tour and more people have been arriving here at Roma to join us. 

Our leader, John, has done a great job and is here despite an operation that has left his back very sore.

We all gathered for Happy Hour and Ron, President of the
Qld. Sunshine Coast branch that has organised this event, made us all introduce ourselves.

There are people from all over. Apart from Ron's group we have members from Vic and NSW and other Qld branches.

The caravan park (Big Rig Top Tourist) put on a sausage sizzle for us so no cooking needed tonight.

Day 92
This was a no travel day and I spent most of the morning working on the presentation I'll be doing at the muster at Casino. It's come together pretty well and I think they will enjoy it.

I got scripts filled at a chemist and I think I'll have enough to last until I get home in mid-October. That's a sobering thought - I'm getting quite used to the roaming life!

The mats in the van still had little glints where very small pieces of glass still remained embedded so I took them outside and gave them a good brushing with a stiff brush. They still retain a fair amount of dust but at least the glass all seems to be gone.


 Murphy broke my wine glass before I'd even had a drink! Everyone said "Get a plastic one." I like drinking wine from a glass so they can keep their plastic comments! Ha ha - I have another glass glass.

After dinner we walked to a show at the Big Rig - it was a very well done presentation showing the history of oil and gas exploration in the area.





There was some discussion as to how you would go up on the roof at the dump point!

 When I got to the Romavilla Winery in the afternoon for a little tasting I found some of our group already there. It's a wonderful old winery built last century - the oldest in Queensland. Their port started at $50 for Very Old Tawny but I settled on three bottles of Old Tawny at $14 each and one of Liqueur Muscat. That should warm the cold nights!

Day 93
This was a travelling day so everyone packed up and left in their own time. I was probably one of the last to leave but there was no hurry as it was an easy day's driving of about 260km to Charleville where we will stay for a few nights.

First stop was Mitchell where many people tried the hot pool. By all accounts it was very, very hot - around 38 degrees which would just about cook you! I passed on that one! Most people, including me, explored the town on foot and the food outlets did a good trade.




One couple have just taken delivery of this superb camper.

It's all aluminium, has pneumatic airbag suspension and pneumatically raised roof plus all sorts of goodies too numerous to mention.

Once open and set up it would put many full caravans to shame with its wealth of lockable storage areas, convenient fittings and work space. It has a hws and outside shower plus storage for the sat. dish.











This sign for the 'Ladies Dump Point' caused a lot of hilarity and many posed protographs.





After 'Happy Hour'  everyone catered for their own dinner before we went off to the Cosmos for an evening of star-gazing through very large telescopes. The facts and figures for the stars were mind boggling and it was hard to comprehend that the light from one thing we looked at had taken more than 7,000 years to reach us. It was a fairly interesting evening but very cold.









Day 94

The signs have got even better today

 ........... and this cheeky bird took a liking to my TV antenna!




We all drove out to a property about 30km from Charleville for lunch and a guided tour. The house was built in 1910 and designed by a very forward looking Brisbane architect. He incorporated many ideas that were well in advance of his time including a very effective ventilation system.

Naturally everyone took pictures of everyone else!



The home has belonged to the one family all those years and in the early days a strict, very British, class distinction was practised.

Our hostess Wendy did an excellent job in showing us around this magnificent house.




 















Lunch was not exactly hearty - but it was very elegant!



Dinner was much more substantial - a delicious camp oven stew followed by apple crumble provided by the caravan park. We were entertained by a bush poet before a Police Sgt took over to talk about road and towing safety in the outback.

The busy day concluded with a visit to hear about the 'Save the Bilby' campaign and to look at some very active little bilbies - lovely little animals.
Day 95
This trip is great but it's been full on busy busy plus we are having such a good time chatting to each other so time gets a bit scarce and energy a bit lacking.

Today for instance we went to a huge old hotel in Charleville for a talk, tour and scones. Harry the original proprietor came to Australia from a Greek island with very little money but a penchant for working hard and making money. He became very influential in Charleville and surrounding districts and was a great supporter of local sporting clubs and community organisations. We are suffering from 'Information Overload' and my poor old brain can't remember some of the stuff we are told.

Bill and Shirley who used to own the caravan park at Esk dropped in to see me and we did a bit of reminiscing. They have been working at a caravan park in Brisbane but are looking for something a bit nearer their home at Ipswich.

Day 96


We're on the move again today heading for Blackall - home of the Black Stump. We had lunch at Augathella by the lake and the vans all parked on the water's edge made an impressive sight.

Blackall was our first no-frills stop and we all parked on a grassed area near the river. The weather looked a bit unsettled as we made our way to the bbq area on the other side of the stream and it looked great with all the gas lights and 12volt lanterns lighting up the area.

There was heaps of food - everyone donated fruit and the ladies chopped it up and made a lovely huge fruit salad. The BBQ was good too with steak, chicken and sausages. Unfortunately a slight shower sent everyone scurrying back to their vans and those who had unhitched coupled up agan in case they had to leave in a hurry. The evening turned quite balmy and we enjoyed a few ports in convivial company before retiring.

They tell me there was thunder and lightening and some people moved. I slept through it all and might have been the only one left in the morning if it had turned nasty!

Day 97
Longreach is our destination today and we will be back in a caravan park again tonight.


Before leaving Blackall, some of us went to the Old Wool Scour for a guided tour and to watch a film. The restoration work already done is most impressive.

They've had a lot of rain at Longreach and the park is very wet and muddy. Travelling was OK and I had people looking out for emus as I wanted a photograph for the presentation I'm doing at Casino. No luck - but one of our members is sorting through his pictures for one.







I couldn't let the opportunity pass without having a picture of me and this old derelict caravan.

Our 'Happy Hours' are great and everyone enters into the spirit of things. We had two couples join us here and a few have gone to spend two nights at Winton. I have a feeling the Larks Quarry road will be closed so they won't see dinosaurs footprints.

I decided I didn't want to cook so went to the RSL before returning to watch 'The Bill'.

Day 98




I'm writing a story about a very advanced camper-trailer that's with us - you will have seen this pic early in the trip.

It really is a marvellous machine and a very nice couple own it. With a bit of luck it could go in Camper-Trailer and Caravan World.

What with that and preparing for the Board Meeting at night I was in the van most of the day and people wondered where I'd got to.



Day 99
Today was another of those 'working' days spent mostly at the computer - but of course coming out for happy hour and to polish the story. It was one of the ladies birthday today so a few of us went to the RSL with her for dinner.

Tomorrow I must be a bit more active.

Day 100
Yes - I did do more today!


I drove out to the camping area near the river and it's very nice. It's where I'd stay if I wasn't with the group.



Then I did shopping and had a look around the town before spending time at the QANTAS Founders Museum which was very interesting. They have a 707 and a 747 there and you can go in them for a price. I didn't go on the tours but enjoyed the museum and it's inter-active displays.

Happy Hour tonight was hilarious with a re-enactment of a 'wedding' for a couple who have just had their 50th Wedding Anniversary! Great fun.

I've done nothing towards packing ready for a move off in the morning so I'll be one of the last to leave again.

Day 101
Today was an easy drive of just over 300km in lovely sunny weather. It did get a bit warm in the afternoon - over 30 degrees in the van when we stopped. It was mostly single lane bitumen roads but the traffic was very light and not a problem. The edges have dried and are quite firm so pulling off when passing other veehicles was no problem.

We are all in a little council caravan park at Windora and as usual happy hour has a riot. Tomorrow night is bbq  again and the cooking team have been 'briefed. Tonight most of us ate at the local pub and it really taxed their capacity to have so many extra to cater for. They did a great job just the same although they ran out of a few things.



Before that I went with Vince and Kathy to the big red sand dune just out of town and poor Kathy had to drive up it flat chat in 4-wheel drive. Great adventure!

















Day 102

Today I drove out to the legendary Coopers Creek - this sign explains why it's not called a river but I'm sure you will agree it's big enough even when not in flood to be called something grander than a creek!













Coming back I drove along the interesting 12km Nature Drive where many trees and shrubs have signs saying what they are. I still can't remember most of them





Coming into Windorah you see these enormous reflector dishes and they turn out to be part of an Ergon Energy experiment with solar power.

The huge mirrors concentrate the sun's rays on to a very efficient photo-voltaic array that can provide power for the whole town in daylight hours and save a huge amount of diesel fuel that would normally be used to run the power station generators.





Day 103

Today was an easy drive through the Channel Country on our way to a lunch stop at Quilpie where I did a bit of shopping and posted a book. It was the first time I'd had internet reception for a couple of days and there was a lot of email including the book order. In the mail were four with emu pictures! I've been looking out for a better emu picture for the 'wildlife ' slides in my Casino presentation and must have mentioned it.

One of our members has taken a few for me and then yesterday I came over the top of a hill and there were four of the blighters blocking the road! I'm not sure who was the most surprised but they took off at a fast run before I could get the camera out. Alby sent this one - ta mate. Thanks - but no more pics of emus please folks.


Tonight we are at Toompine Hotel. Just a pub in the scrub - no houses or anything else but lots of room and some vans hooked up to power while most of us were self-sufficient. The owners cooked a nice bbq for us and it was a lovely evening.

I've little doubt that pictures of me wearing a green wig will appear in various embarrassing places!

Day 104


Today we've been on a tour of an opel mine at Yowah ? and we are all convinced we will never seek our fortunes in that cramped, dusty environment!

Aterwards we drove up to a bluff where there were fantastic views of the country we are travelling through.

Unfortunately the pic doesn't do justice to the view but Ross was standing just a few feet from the edge of a huge drop.

We continued on to Eulo where we camped in a lovely green grassy are behind the hotel.

Another bbq tonight - this time provided by the pub.

Day 105

A short hop today to a lovely tourist facility right out in the country about 40 km past Charleville. It's a working cattle station and the amenities were the best I've seen since leaving home nearly four months ago! Ron was waiting patiently for yet another bbq - this time our own
 












The men did the barbie and the ladies produced delicious damper in
 camp oven - with Cockies Joy of course. (Golden Syrup)

DAY 106
Only one more day to go and the tour will be over. Today we head for Tenterfield - over the border in NSW.

This was an uneventful day's travel and the TomTom took me right to the caravan park entrance without a hitch. The day before I'd missed a turn off and was headed for Bourke! The GPS was off as I was charging the mobile phone and I'd just had an important phone call that distracted my attention. Fortunately someone else had done the same trick and only turned back when the got to the NSW border! Lucky for me they did as they gave me a call and I turned round.

Today Murphy played a very unkind trick. The cassette in the toilet had built up pressure during the hot and pitchy day's travelling and when I went to flush it after urinating I got a most unpleasant 'golden shower' and had to change all my clothes and have another shower. What a pong!

 It was a very nostalgic Happy Hour with reminiscing about the trip we had shared. Ron made a pesentation to our leader John for the greaty effort he and Brenda had done in organising the trip.

At night some of us went to the bowling club for a nice dinner

Day 107
A twisty and hilly tow over the Great Divide to our destination at Casino for the Muster. It's a very spacious RV resort and we didn't get off to a good start as the speaker didn't arrive for the first seminar! However everyone took it in good humour and happy hour was a great 'meet and greet' time with most of the nearlt 200 people already here today.

It was good to meet so many people I already know and to put faces to others who had just been names until today. It looks like being a great weekend.

Days 108 and 109
It's been so busy and hectic that I've put two pages together and events are probably not in order.

We've had a variety of excellent speakers plus other activitiees like a hilarious entertainment night. I was in the winning team made up of people on the tag-a-long tour and we re-enacted 'The Wedding'. Happy Hour each night has been well attended and later in the evening little groups congregate at some vans to continue the fun till quite late.

I presented 'Travelling with Lionel (and Murphy)' as a PowerPoint slideshow and there were about 180 people present.

Days 110 and 111
This was the Friday and Saturday of our ACC National Muster and they were full on with activities and speakers, There are about 100 caravans here for the muster and that means about 200 people.

We had our Annual General Meeting on Saturday afternoon and it went very well with Honorary Life Membership bestowed
on our inaugural Secretary for his great input into the formation of our club.

We held our Annual Dinner on the Saturday evening and everyone present recieved a wine glass with the club logo plus complimentary wine. We had a lovely meal of pumpkin soup followed by roast pork and beef plus lots of veges. I was again pressed into action as an auctioneer and we made quite a bit of money selling surplus glasses and wines.

The muster ends tomorrow and it has been a great success. Now the task is ahead to start planning next year's function!

Day 112
Our final muster day today and just two sessions this morning. One was on Bio-magic and I renewes my supplies yesterday as I ran out of toilet liquid about a week ago. The final session was on CPR and a number of members took the opportunity to practise on the life-size doll.

Later we bbq-ed after Happy Hour and this concluded our muster activities. Very enjoyable and successful.

Day 113
This day started early as many members were leaving to go home and we all wanted to be around to farewell them.

Then John - an 'On the Wallaby' fan - came over to investigate the noise I'd experienced one day on the Tag-a-Long and we found the bearings noisy on the off-side wheel. John took them out and I set off for town to try to get new ones. Repco were not very interested and advised me to drive to Lismore and find a bearing place there.

Before doing that I saw a place advertising suspension and wheel alignment work and called in to see if they could help. Here was a different attitude altogether. "I can get them for you this afterneoon ," said the very helpful man. "I'll ring you when they are her. Would you like us to fit the outers and pack the bearings with grease?" Sure would.

Here's where Murphy had his little joke. As they were putting in the cone it shattered!!! Another call to Lismore and another bearing was dispatched. This time all went well and I arrived back at the park just after 5 pm. We finished up the job in the dark but thanks to John I'll have a worry free trip home.

Day 114

As I expected, a pic of me wearing a green wig has appeared on the 'Touring Oz' site and as some of you don't visit there I thought I'd better show you as well!

This was taken during a fun night at the Toompine pub in the middle of no-where and the bbq was provided by the hotel. The wig came from a female person who could have been quite attractive had she lost a few surplus kilos and turned the lights out!

Today was quiet after everyone left and I went for a drive to Kyogle which is an attractive little town.

The final page of my epic journey will start tomorrow and I expect to be home in a week or ten days - there's no 16 week deadline to meet nowadays. Not that I minded.

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