Sunday, 4th October 2015 Our big adventure commenced today. Ian, Graeme,Mark and Rags left Perth Airport at 2300 arriving in Prosperine, Queensland via Brisbane. Here we were picked up by Barry and driven to Airlie Beach, arriving about 1.5 hours later. Barry and his wife Diane have an apartment here where they live for several months of the year. The apartment overlooks the Port of Airlie marina where their boats Indian Pearl and Indian Pearl 2 are moored. Indian Pearl 2 is a new Horizon 72 power yacht and the reason why we are here. The four of us are joining Barry and over the next 3-4 weeks intend to drive it around the top of Australia to Fremantle, Western Australia, a distance of 3500 Nm. Ports such as Cairns, Thursday Island, Darwin, Broome, Port Hedland, ... read more

Wednesday 13th May 2015 Today was a day of cold, maybe not for those used to it but it was for us. The temperature never got above 15 degrees all day and this was made to feel colder because of the wind, which seemed to blow all day. Renmark was our destination for the day and after crossing the border into South Australia where we passed through Quarantine without any problems, we arrived there before lunch. This town is similar to many we have been through, with the main street being the centre of activity, although here too, a large shopping complex with Woolworths or Coles as the main business, just out of town, appeared to be affecting the small businesses. The banks of the Murray River dominate the important part of town as have most ... read more

Thursday 30th April 2015 The rain came down quite heavily last night, hardly letting up at all. So it continued for the morning but Rags was keen to get the Thermomix repaired so he left Judy in the van to do her uni marking while he went to find the Brisbane Thermomix headquarters. He found the trip a little arduous as heavy rain was falling and there were many trucks on the freeway for the 40 odd kms to where the Thermomix office is. When the gps told him he was there it took another hour, and a lot of walking before he finally found it. A highway now breaks the road in two and it was by chance the address was eventually found. It only took 30 mins to fix, just cost Rags a total ... read more

Sunday 26th April 2015 We left our lovely camp area and stopped at IGA to get another half dozen T-bone steaks before continuing on north. We had no set destination, we intended driving until we found somewhere we wanted to stop. NSW certainly can’t brag about it’s roads, they are atrocious! We seemed to go between sections under construction, where the speed limit at 60kph had no relevance to the conditions. The roads were usually bumpy with no sight of anybody working. Were the limits for the non-existent workers or for the rotten roads? We diverted off the highway to see Nambucca Heads. What a waste of time. The road in was closed, the detour by-passed the Information Centre, and the roads were narrow, hilly and poorly signposted. We managed to refuel and ended up back ... read more

Saturday 18th April 2015 We drove through Wellington, stopping only at the showgrounds to replenish our water supply and from the little we saw of Dubbo we had little wish to stay there. Our aimed for destination was the little town of Binnaway, Judy having seen this recommended on the Facebook , Free & low-cost Camps Australia group. What a find, clean ablutions, grassy setting by the side of an overgrown river, and power on a user-pays basis. We joined four other vans before walking around the town. It was very quiet, and except for a small group of teenagers assembled in the main street - it seemed deserted. In the past Binnaway was a thriving service town for the farming community. In the 1920s it was the railway centre for the area, connecting the ... read more