Well - only 11 days since my last entry and SO MUCH has happened. Been to so many beautiful places. Tassie IS what everyone says it is. So unspoilt (mostly) and rugged and ridiculously beautiful. Driving can get a little testy - continuously uphill and downhill. The whole state is mountainous - well, I haven't reached any L_O_N_G plains yet. After Ulverstone we headed west along the north coast to Burnie - where paper mills used to be the mainstay of employment. However with the cessation of logging to a large degree, tourism is probably now the major employer. In fact, [View Full Entry]

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Well, it seems like AGES since my last Blog. Hope you all had a wonderful and happy Christmas and I wish you all good health and a safe 2009. After leaving Ballarat we headed south to Lake Colac. As with most of the lakes throughout Victoria it was water-less!!! The drought is something that's just incomprehensible to us, coming from the wettest part of Australia, where rain is a darned nuisance !!! It was also smelly and blowing about 60 knotts so we left next morning. Kept going south and ended up on The Great Ocean Road at Lorne. We pushed [View Full Entry]

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Well - it's been a few weeks!!! After leaving Echuca we headed north (back into NSW) to Deniliquin, then east to Finlay, south to Tocumwal (Vic) and on to Cobram. Spent 3 nights 'on The River' at Cobram then back over The River to Barooga. There we met up with Patrick (Sharon's workmate from Ray White). He was recently engaged and has 'come home' to celebrate with his family. It was also his Mum & Dad's 60th Wedding Anniversary and we were all cordially invited to attend the celebrations on Sunday afternoon. At least Sharon KNOWS Patrick - but we were [View Full Entry]

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HELLO AGAIN !! After leaving Gundagai, we headed west to Wagga Wagga where we got our car serviced. We had not expected to need our 110,000 service till Melbourne but we've done a few extra miles to what we had planned when we left I'fail on 1st August !! Geoff also had a car problem that got fixed there too. Anyway, unless you're into old buildings (how many can you look at??) and art deco facades there's not a lot to do in some of these country places, so continued on after a couple of days to Griffith, via Narrandera and [View Full Entry]

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Hello all - we've covered a few miles since Canberra. We decided to go to the South Coast after all, since we still have plenty of time. So zipped down the range to Bateman's Bay for a couple of nights, then further south to Merimbula for a few nights. All that area down there is SOOOOO very pretty (even if still a little chilly and the rain is STILL following us!). Anyway, from Bateman's Bay we did a day-trip south to Moruya and a day-trip north to Pebbly Beach and inspected several beaches all around. At Pebbly Beach we encountered some [View Full Entry]

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So, here we are in the National Capital - Canberra. At least the temperatures are a bit better here - I've switched to summer PJs !!! We arrived on Saturday at the Canberra Lodge Caravan Park. As it happens, there is a Vintage Car Club rally & exhibition here this week and most of the cars & their owners are at this park!!! So I've been gob-smacked looking at them all. The oldest hasa steam-driven engine and was built in 1899 !!! On Wedneday the owners are all dressing in period costume for the official exhibition at the showground - should [View Full Entry]

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Hello all After Goulburn we HAD planned to slip down to the South Coast of NSW and spend a week or so (between Nowra & Batemans Bay) and hopefully a little more pleasant weather, put the boat in the water, do a spot of fishing, eat oysters/seafood and veg out. But when there was late snowfalls at The Snowy, we decided we should bite the bullet, grit our teeth and bear the cold and head there instead, since the other 3 have never seen snow. So we headed off to Jindabyne and did a day-trip to Thredbo. Not much snow left [View Full Entry]

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Hello everybody !!! Last place on my Blog was Lake Keepit - for those of you who don't know- it's after Tamworth, heading towards Dubbo. After Gunnedah we stopeed in at the Waterways Wildlife Park - an absolutely delightly wildlife mini-zoo and exceptional value @ $5/head. They had lots of animals and a myriad of parrots of all sizes and colours. Then on to Dubbo where we went to The Old Dubbo Gaol and the Western Plains Zoo. The zoo is just FANtastic - SOOOOO much better than Sydney's Taronga. Spent about 5 hours there!!!. It started to get a little [View Full Entry]

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Crossed the border from Cunnumulla to Bourke. As I said on a previous Blog - all the towns as far as Inverell have been prety 'hick places' not inviting at all. Being up on the New England Tableland, Inverell was the start of interesting, inviting places - even if cold...... coldest thus far was in Glen Innes - 0.2deg minimum overnight!!! The scenery as you drive along looks just like The Atherton Tablelands - rolling hills of green and trees and very picturesque vistas open up before you periodically. The cooler prevailing weather has made way for beautiful plants and trees [View Full Entry]

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Hello everyone. So hard to get email/internet 'service' all the time. We spent the last 6 days at Copeton Dam (near Inverell NSW) - no service there. Very nice, picturesque, birds, wildlife, HUGE dam, no fish, very quiet, just gorgeous. All the towns since leaving Qld have been pretty 'ordinary' - Bourke, Walget, Colerenebri, Warialda - all seem to be very uncared-for and run down. We stayed in Moree for 2 nights ina van park and the first night was non-stop visits by cop cars looking for 5 kids who had robbed a shop nearby and ran through the park into [View Full Entry]

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