We reluctantly left Woolgoolga yesterday in the worst possible conditions - a dust storm, smoke from bushfires and very strong wind. We would have liked to have had a couple more nights there but it was too unpleasant. We had a last look from the headland, a drive around Coffs and then visited Doug's sister Barbara at Macksville before turning off the highway and booking into the Big 4 caravan park at South West Rocks for the night. This is a great park for children and was choc-a-block with holidaying families - they have so much entertainment and fun places for [View Full Entry]

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It is 31C degrees here at Woolgoolga and it’s windy. Every afternoon a wind comes up which shakes the motor home and blows over tents. We’ve given up having the awning and our table and chairs out and instead are cooling off in the air conditioning - chilling out. Yesterday morning we walked along Woolgoolga’s beautiful beach to the lake. Because of the recent high seas, and 'Woopi' (as it's called by locals and we who've spent our lives coming here!) losing a lot of the beach, the wreck of the ‘Buster’ is now exposed. Buster went aground along the beach [View Full Entry]

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I love the drive from the border down to this Byron Bay/Ballina area. The hills rising above the coastline are green and lush and the beaches are long and tempting. Driving beside the Tweed River and seeing Mount Warning rising above the cane fields is always a thrill. From Murwillumbah we made a little diversion to the rather hippy little town of Uki, then continued on our way to busy backpacker/beautiful people Byron Bay. A must is always a walk along the long and fabulous beach there, but a wind had come up and put paid to that, so instead we [View Full Entry]

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We are staying overnight at Tweed Heads and are on daylight saving, which Queensland doesn't do. We survived the drive down the Bruce Highway and over the Gateway Bridge, (yikes!), called into a shop I love in Brisbane, (Lily G) and then drove on to the Gold Coast. From Bundaberg we have been thrilled to see the jacaranda in flower all down the coast and there were many beautiful flowering trees in Brisbane. Perhaps we'll actually see them in Grafton, we're always a week or so early. We'll be home to see Sydney putting on it's November jacaranda cloak too, so [View Full Entry]

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We’ve been having a great time around Noosa. Yesterday we went in early to get our great parking spot in the shady car park near the beach. The heavy seas earlier this year did a lot of damage to the beach and the boardwalk but they’ve pumped a lot of sand onto the beach and the boardwalk is being rebuilt. We enjoyed walking along the beach, sitting watching the passing parade, then looking through all the nice Noosa shops. We finally got to celebrate our anniversary with lunch at a beachside restaurant; I had spiced Algerian duck with a sweet jus, [View Full Entry]

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How awful to see on TV the terrible pictures coming from the Samoan earthquake and tsunami. We feel so much for those who have lost loved ones. We have had two restful days at pretty Burrum Heads. We always enjoy our little stays here. We've stayed when all the campers are the retirees who have been coming for years to spend the winter months here, gradually 'working' their way to the front riverside sites. They all know each other and share recipes, patterns and fishing spots. Last year and this, we've arrived when it's school holidays and the grey nomads are [View Full Entry]

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We are at Bundaberg after a night at Tannum Sands, just past the very industrial town of Gladstone. It is very dry around all north Queensland, they could sure do with rain and the air is a bit hazy from bushfires. We will be here another night before heading to quiet and pretty Burrum Sands. We called into the twin towns of 1770 and Agnes Waters on our way to Bundaberg. A thrill on the way out there, we saw two more Brolgas - the first time I'd ever seen them was at Geike Gorge so a rare sighting. One day [View Full Entry]

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We have spent the last three nights at Yeppoon, the coastal town in from Rockhampton, on the Tropic of Capricorn. We picked up our mail - thank you Nicholas - and mostly lazed about, though we did have a swim in the ocean one day. This time we didn’t go over to Great Keppel Island - we had intended having lunch at the Mercure there to celebrate our wedding anniversary yesterday. We found the resort is still closed for renovations so decided we wouldn’t make the trip to the island this time. Instead we will celebrate later when we’re around an [View Full Entry]

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We have been staying at the Big 4 Whitsunday Park at Cannonvale, just out of Airlie Beach. We like staying here because it's out of the busyness but handy to shops and transport and Airlie Beach is the jumping off place to cruise around some of the 74 Whitsunday Islands. Yesterday we picked up a bus at 7am and were taken to Shute Harbour to catch our boat. This firstly took us to Hamilton Island, privately owned and quite upmarket - on the way we were thrilled to see a whale - we thought we were too late to see them [View Full Entry]

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We had intended heading north from Port Douglas to Cooktown but a wind had come up and we remembered what a windy place Cooktown can be. So we headed south instead. It's a shame we missed going back to Mossman Gorge and the Daintree but we'll do that again next time! We had a couple of nights in Rollingstone .. again .. which always recharges the batteries, and took off again this morning. It's a pretty drive through all the sugar cane which is so much part of Queensland, especially the far north. At Ayr on the Burdiken River and, thanks [View Full Entry]

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