Sydney here we come.

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Wednesday 14 July 2010
Last Sunday morning we left Camooweal, the first township you reach having crossed into Queensland from the Northern Territories, and journeyed across Queensland travelling down through Mt Isa, Cloncurry and then turning south onto the Landsborough Highway from the Flinders Highway, to cover another few hundred miles that brought us to the next camping site at a place called Barcaldine. Our journey was pretty uneventful although we did have for the first time on our travels, kangaroos jumping across the road in front of us but I am pleased to report that we have no ‘road kills’ to our credit! Our journey on Sunday brought us through major coal producing areas and one felt very much in the outback in this part of Queensland.

Barcaldine turned out to have one of the nicest small camp and caravan sites we have stayed in and we have now experienced several, all except for perhaps one, having very adequate services for our needs over night. This one was exceptional in my opinion, with superb ablutions, wi fi internet for anyone with their own lap top and a very friendly and welcoming couple who ran the Barcaldine Tourist site. It was late when we arrived and the tent was finished off in the dark; thank goodness we now have a routine established that gets the tent up quickly. Across the road there was a steak house, and neither of us could refuse the opportunity of testing out an outback steak. Wow, when asked if we were hungry, to which we both answered that we were, the cook picked up the most enormous couple of steaks and whacked them onto the barbeque, to produce a great meal of steak, chips and salad. We slept pretty well that night and what’s more the rains stayed away to allow us to pack a dry tent for the next day.

On Monday we left Barcaldine and travelled towards Rockampton, a distance of some 400 kilometres away where we stopped to have a look round. Rockampton is the capital of Australia’s beef production, and to see the statues of several different strains of cattle on entering the town and when inside the town, reinforces that claim. Stopping only for a coffee we moved on to Gladstone, which we reached just as it was getting dark, and here we found a camp site where tent pictures were already taken. We decided therefore to take a small cabin for the night.

Gladstone from what we saw of it was very much the distribution point for exporting coal and it also had an alumina refinery to the north of the town; a major employer. While it had a beach to the south of the town, in the main the town was very definitely geared towards being a heavy industrial town.

Yesterday having broken the back of our journey round the top of Australia, we drove down to Noosa Heads where, in the afternoon for a couple of hours, we enjoyed the wonderful sunshine that welcomed us and watched the many, many people on the beach sunbathing and swimming, if not surfing. A far cry from the expected temperatures when a few days ago rain and cloud had been dominating this area. Noosa is a very beautiful place for the right sort of people. It has some excellent restaurants and great retail shops to browse through. Being out of season, the streets and shops were quite empty but I could imagine that in a few months time Noosa will be throbbing with half naked bodies soaking up the sunshine in this beautiful part of Queensland.

After Noosa, next stop was Maroochydore, to my friends, Bob and Glenis, where we are now. I worked with Bob back in the early 1980s when I was out here with the family on a two year exchange with the Australian Navy. We are now finalizing our journey, sorting out kit in the car to ready it for its next sea voyage back to Blighty, and getting the paperwork arranged for the person who has kindly agreed to look after the car for a couple of weeks and deliver it to the dock side at Port Kembla, south of Sydney, to catch a vessel that will bring it back to Southampton docks.

John and I have been extremely well looked after here and we will be sorry to leave. This afternoon Rod turned up in his souped up Hillman Hunter station wagon and spent several hours talking about the cars, taking photos and providing really valuable advice and help. Thanks Rod, it was great to meet you finally after all these emails between us. Tonight we have had dinner with Bob and Glen and some friends of theirs. Both have been raising funds for the prostate cancer charity. Neal works at the underwater sea world close to Maroochydore, while Jeanie works at the Sunshine Coast University - again, a thanks to both these folk for their efforts in raising funds. And tomorrow I am going diving with sharks!! So if John turns up at the final RV alone, you will all know that it is because I could not drag myself away from the sharks!

On an important point for all of you reading this and who have connections in Sydney, I am now able to confirm the final arrangements of our journey to Sydney with timings as far as possible being accurate, to enable anyone of you who have followed our blog and who live in the Sydney area to come along to the Hornsby RSL on Sunday to meet us as we arrive from Singleton with the Sydney Hillman Club members escorting us in, arriving between 1230 and 1300 hours. That is Sunday 18 July 2010.

On Friday, we will leave Maroochydore and head south to spend one more night on the road before reaching Singleton, New South Sales, to meet up with the Hillman Club members to spend the Saturday night with them. They will then accompany us on Sunday morning to the Hornsby RSL. John and I look forward to meeting anyone that would like to come along to welcome us at the end of our 15,000 mile epic journey.

I hope to do one more blog after this one. It will no doubt be a reflection on the 'journey'. Thank you to everyone who has taken the trouble to read my blog of our journey across half the world in which we have travelled so far. Also a huge, huge thank you to members of my wonderful supportive family, my wife, Elaine, Claire's great pictures sent via text, and to all those friends who have added their comments or dropped me a line. I shall keep all further comments until the last blog.

Here's to a safe journey for the last 1000 kilometres of this epic trip. And we are both well!

Barry

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