Not even day light saving

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DAY 53

30th December 2008

We surfaced just in time for breakfast, and with all that rain I thought It may have extinguished the sun forever, but thank the lord the sun had risen again today and was breaking in to the bedroom. It was so warm and muggy last night I slept on top of the bed all night whilst Caroline went for the sausage role effect.

Breakfast at our choice was a fruit breakfast, toast and tea, ever since we stayed at the Sebel Pier in Sydney I just love a mixed fruit breakfast, with Vanilla Yogurt. Don’t misunderstand me if “Jenny” had asked me once more If I would like a full English I would have cracked, and told her my name rank and serial number. I could never have been a spy, imagine it, tied to a chair, lamp shining in your eyes and the whiff of a bacon sandwich, “who cares about national security!”, I would tell you anything.

We got away at 10.00am on the dot, once Caroline had taken some shots of the Clarence River. The Pacific highway was fairly busy, with holiday traffic in both directions, a constant stream of 4x4’s and campervans towing jet ski’s, and boats and carrying surf boards, etc, all travelling somewhere. We had already covered just over 400 klicks yesterday, and knew we had around 500 to go, we needed to get on with it and just keep driving.

The Air conditioning was on full blast, it was just nice cruising down highway 1, look to the right and you can see Lennox head and Byron bay, and just slightly further on the sea.

We stop at a service station to grab something to eat, its busy, we have a short stop then off again. At exactly 1.00pm we cross the time zone at Tweeds Heads, this gave us an hour back and it was mid day, Queensland Time.

Skirting around Brisbane skyline, and over the Gateway bridge, we have a simple run in to Golden Beach at Caloundra at the sunshine coast.

We have managed the whole trip back without having to fill up, just under 900 Kilometres, and we coasted in on fumes, well we did have another 25 litres of Diesel in the Jerry can just in case. The cost of fuel in Queensland in so much cheaper than New South Wales, by about 15 Cents per litre, but more importantly is we know how long the tanks will last whilst towing the trailer, before we need to refuel.

This is important as when we head down south next, possibly in a week or so, but I will have to check with mission control (aka Caroline), we intend to go to Melbourne, Adelaide, and get down to Tasmania for the first week in February and cross the Nullarbor, from South Australia to Western Australia, possibly around March.

We have started to do some web research on our trip across the Nullarbor. Historically, the Nullarbor was inhabited by the semi-nomadic Spinifex Wangai Aboriginal people. The average rainfall on the Nullarbor Plain is about 200 mm per year. European settlers were determined to cross the plain, despite the hardships created by the nature of the Nullarbor. The first European to make the crossing successfully, Edward John Eyre, in 1841 described the Plain as "a hideous anomaly, a blot on the face of Nature, the sort of place one gets into in bad dreams". The Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country immediately north of the Great Australian Bight. The word Nullarbor is derived from the Latin nullus for 'nothing' or 'no one' and arbor for 'tree', and is pronounced "NULL-uh-bore"

It is the world's largest single piece of limestone, and occupies an area of about 200,000 km² (77,200 square miles). At its widest point, it stretches about 1,200 km from east to west between South Australia (SA) and Western Australia (WA). 'Crossing the Nullarbor', for many Australians, is a quintessential experience of the 'Australian Outback'. Stickers bought from roadhouses on the highway show 'I have crossed the Nullarbor', and can be seen on vehicles of dubious quality or capacity for long distance travel. The process of 'beating the crowds' on overbooked air services at the time of special sporting events can also see significant numbers of vehicles on the road.

Back in the 1950s and earlier crossings were significant as most of the road was unmade dirt track. Round-Australia car trials (The Redex Trials) utilised the Nullarbor crossing for good photo shoots of cars negotiating poor tracks.

Anyway, enough about what is coming up. We arrive in Caloundra about 2.00, at Derek and Karen’s and drop the trailer off and go in to see the dogs, Moffy and Charlie. We let them out and have ½ an hour with them, and have to go to Camping Country as our Evacool fridge has packed up.

This fridge is essential, when we are out in the field, and as the truck has a dual battery system, the 12v DC supply in the truck keeps the Evacool “nice “N” cool”.

We have checked with Ruth, about the details of the New Years Eve party and all is OK.

We leave the fridge with Jarrod at Camping Country and he said give me 24 hours and I will have it sorted, no more then ½ an hour later he is on the phone advising us that the unit is to be replaced, what service.

We get back to the house, and try to settle in, its been so long since we have had a takeaway curry, that tonight’s the night.

We look on the internet for an on line menu, but the site is under construction, when we phone up the woman exclaims she can fax me a menu, she obviously thinks I have a fax machine built in to my wristwatch.

Jesus my Chicken Vindaloo was hot, usually the Auzzies Hot is not that hot when it comes to curry but this could have fuelled the space shuttle. Talk about hot flushes, toilet paper in the fridge please.

We let the dogs out, after checking for cane toads, if the dogs lick a cane toad, it could be an ex dog, certainly for Charlie the puppy.
The natural range of Cane Toads extends from the southern United States to tropical South America. They were deliberately introduced from Hawaii to Australia in 1935, to control scarab beetles that were pests of sugar cane. In 2002, Cane Toads occur throughout the eastern and northern half of Queensland and have extended their range to the river catchments surrounding Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. In New South Wales they occur on the coast as far south as Yamba, and there is an isolated colony near Port Macquarie.

Heather, a friend of Caroline’s who has moved to Townsville recently had to give her dogs away to a good home, due to that possibility.

Caroline had received this e-mail from her friend Heather (they used to work together) who has moved to Townsville from Stubbington, in Hampshire.

G'day all!

Hope everyone back there in ol' Blighty is well, and you're not suffering too much with the weather! It has been awful here - dipped below 30 degrees today because we had a bit of rain (tee hee)! Had cleared by lunchtime though, so can't complain!

Was Father Christmas good to you all? He certainly looked after us! He did have to leave a note for the kids, though, to explain that we had helped him deliver some of the presents by putting them in our container (which is still in Brisbane!), which meant that he wasn't able to deliver them on Christmas Eve. He assured us that he's had words with the Customs officers, and they're going to hurry things along so that we can have a second Christmas when our container arrives!

We had a lovely day on Christmas day. It was gloriously sunny, and we spent much of the morning in the pool (photos to follow as soon as the container arrives, and I can upload them!). We then sat down to a traditional roast dinner (our first since arriving in Aus), one which I managed not to burn in the very dodgy oven at the holiday apartment we are staying in! There was one element missing though - I couldn't find brussel sprouts anywhere! Don't think Ian or the children were too bothered, but I was as they are my absolute favourite!

We are starting to get the house organised now (well, as much as we can without our furniture being here!). We've bought the electrical stuff we needed, plus the BBQ (Ian's choice, and as you can probably guess, it's huge!) and lawnmower. Having already bought a car, we're all but brassic now, so Ian will just have to work a bit harder eh!

Thi kids do love being able to swim every day, and the weather has been so warm that by mid afternoon a cooling dip is just what the doctor ordered!

Ian is well settled at work now. He is still finding it slow compared to home, but has said that you couldn't work too fast, as you would just end up drying out! He decided to work this week (as if he didn't he would have been in "holiday debt") and duly went in this morning to be sent home by 9:30, and told not to go back for the rest of the week as a good will gesture! They really are great (although it is a quiet time of year for them).

So, as you can see, life is good for us here! We really are enjoying it, and are settling as well as can be expected when we still don't have any furniture! I'm sure once our things arrive it will really start to feel like home, although we still miss you all terribly!!!

So bloggers its time for bed, we have to keep our strength up so we can produce the blog.

Until tomorrow, if we are spared.

p.s. Heather may be disappointed to know that Caroline found Brussells for our christmas dinner

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Photos

The Lovely B&B Ulmarra
Very colonial surroundings in Ulmarra. This place is a treasured find.

B&B courtyard
The day was already hot but the shady courtyard was lovely and cool.

Colonial Ulmarra
Step Back in Time, the village itself is like stepping back in time with its colonial heritage.

Scary Hotel
Well, how different it looks in the day time. This place looked quite ok and has been used in film and tv locations.

Contents
This is the contents of the Clarence River. I am not sure if you can see it but there are two sharks listed. People swim in this river.

White Flower
This was one of the cut flowers on the table at the B&B, even the flower somehow manages to be colonial and fit its perfect surroundings.

Calm after the Storm
The Clarence River, so tranquil after last nights storm.

On the Road
Just to show you the "dreadful" views we have had to endure on our journey.... tee hee.

Brisbane Skyline
I can do nothing about the railings as we are on the move over the Gateway Bridge, it is very high, but the view of Brisbane is magnificent.