Winter of 2012

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Well here we are at long last with our next Blog. After arriving back on the big island from Tasmania (the small island) we spent two weeks in Melbourne and once again the weather was not the best for the whole two weeks, showers most days and chilly, we were wishing we were back in Tasmania. We picked up our new vehicle, a Chevy, whilst there and the hitch had to be transferred from the Ford to the new truck, hence the two weeks in Melbourne. My sister lives in Melbourne so she came and spent a day with us. We also met up with a lovely couple from Adelaide who were over in Melbourne visiting their family and were kind enough to delay going back to Adelaide for a day and come and have lunch with us on the day we arrived from Tasmania so it was great to see them. Driving from the ferry to the caravan park was a small adventure as Trevor had looked up the internet for any low bridges on the route he had planned as our 5^th wheeler is 3.8 metres high and there are a lot of low bridges in Melbourne. We were coming along one road when I noticed in front of us a bridge 3.7 metres high, but luckily I noticed it in time and we were able to take a quick turn left which is not all that easy with a big 5^th wheeler on the back so we will remember that next time. We spent a day at the Dandenong Ranges which is a very pretty area with wineries, lots of cafes and many shops to wander through as well as the lovely colours of autumn.



From Melbourne we travelled to Shepparton where we loaded up with goods from the SPC outlet shop, very good. We stayed there for three nights and then on our way to Moree we free camped one night at a rest area and then onto Moree the next day. Moree is one of many townships in the area that has artesian pools so we spent three nights here and just relaxed and had a good soaking in the pools each day. They had five different temperature pools so it was great to try them all, very good for your aching body and a great place to socialize except no drinks or food are allowed.



We then ventured onto Goondiwindi in outback Queensland so we had made it back to Queensland after being away for six months. Whilst at the caravan park we met a couple from Brisbane whom we hadn’t seen for 5 years , what a surprise and we discovered they were on their way to Warwick next, the same as us, so we had a few drinks with them. At Goondiwindi we rode our bikes around the township and along the river and it is famous for the racehorse called Gunsynd “the Goondiwindi Grey” and there is a statue and a small museum in the visitor information centre on the great horse which was very interesting. The horse was purchased for next to nothing by three men and of course it won many races for them so I suppose they did very well from that purchase



We spent three nights at Warwick where there are many historic buildings. They have farmer’s markets each Saturday and also an auction takes place for the selling of chickens, ducks, bantams and pigs which we have never seen before so it was quite interesting.



The Chevy is a dream to drive and I didn’t get to drive it with the 5^th wheeler on the back until the second day as Trevor was enjoying it so much, but after that I drove the majority of the way back to Brisbane. After Warwick we drove into Brisbane and our first stop was at the Redcliffe Showgrounds for a week and we caught up with our friends Owen and Lea who have been receiving all our mail and forwarding it onto us on our travels. We had my Dad for lunch the first Sunday as it was his 85^th Birthday and my Sister Julie flew up from Melbourne for the day which was a surprise for Dad and he was very happy to see her. They hadn’t seen each other for almost 18 months so we had a lovely baked lunch. As usual we have been to see our GP, Dentist and skin specialist for check-ups and Trevor has had a tune up so he is working better now.



We attended the Brisbane Caravan and Camping Show to see what is new and we only purchased a couple of new tent pegs and a small dish drainer made especially for caravans, a good day although Trevor was had it by the end of the day. Winter is generally fine in Queensland as rain is mostly received in the summer, but we have had quite a few days of showers and rain since our return ten days ago so we are hoping it fines up soon and we get some of the lovely sunshine Queensland is well known for.



It is off to Southport on the Gold Coast for our 5 weeks of house/dog/cat sitting. The house is set on the Nerang River with a great view across to Surfers Paradise and whilst there we had an enjoyable time meeting up with friends who live at the Coast. It was then back to Brisbane for a week before heading to Bargara, a small town on the Coast out from Bundaberg to meet up with some more friends. We had a great time as the weather was just perfect and it is such a nice part of Queensland. We visited the Bundaberg Rum Distillery and took the tour which was very interesting with tastings at the end. I am not a rum drinker but their Liqueur is delicious so I had a few tastings of that much to Trevor’s disgust as he thought he was going to get my two tastings as Bundy Rum is his favourite drink, sorry Trevor. We then travelled onto Kumbia, a very small township south west of Kingaroy to visit friends of ours who have just built a lovely home there and we had a great weekend with them. It was off to a dam about 2 hours drive south to meet up with Trevor’s brother and his partner for 4 days which was most enjoyable, very quiet and peaceful. After Atkinson Dam we drove down to another small town just outside Boonah to stay with friends who have around 35 acres with a couple of dams which are stocked with blue claw and fish. Unfortunately, the weather was still quite cool during the nights so we didn’t catch anything much. That’s what we are blaming anyway. They have chickens, ducks, lambs, a couple of goats and some cattle so we had a wonderful time and really enjoyed our time with Mark and Chris. There was a vintage car rally at Boonah one day so we went and had a look at all the very old cars which were magnificent and most of the drivers and their wives were dressed in vintage costumes.

After all those stops we finally arrived at Boonah to do our next house sitting job. We are in the Scenic Rim area around 1-1/2 hours south west of Brisbane on a 40 acre property. We have 3 horses, 5 alpachas, 2 dogs and 3 cottages to look after as well as wallabies, lorikeets and king parrots we put food out for each evening. We have plenty of bookings of their cottages to keep us busy and they also have a great vegetable garden we collect veggies from each morning. The mulberries are plentiful also but we have to beat the birds as they also love them.



After a lovely two weeks at Boonah we drove to Stanthorpe for a few days of relaxing and to visit a couple of wineries which the area is well known for. Our next stop was Belmont at Lake Macquarie to visit friends for a couple of days before taking off to Melbourne. We stopped at Wangaratta for a week which is in a lovely part of Victoria with picturesque wine growing areas and pretty little towns so of course we had to taste a few samples of the wine and found Brown Brothers was a great winery with many nice wines. (We enjoy our wines as you may have guessed buy now and it is interesting tasting wines from different regions.) It was then off to Melbourne for the week before catching the ferry across to Tasmania. We stayed at Dandenong where we had stayed previously so we know the area quite well. We stocked up on some food items from Aldi and liquor supplies from Dan Murphy’s as there are no Aldi’s or Dan Murphy’s in Tasmania, a bit of a bummer but we guess we will survive.



Unfortunately our Ford F350 hadn’t sold while we were up north so we had to load it onto the ferry as well to take to Tasmania. Trevor drove the Chevy and 5thWheeler and I drove the F350 (I picked the short straw unfortunately) onto the ferry and we had a nice calm trip over. We have been here for three weeks now and really enjoying the Tasmanian lifestyle with very little traffic and all in all very slow paced. We are waiting on our planning and building applications to be approved through Council and also quotes from different tradespeople so we can start on putting up our American Style Barn which is ready and waiting for delivery to the site.



So keep posted as we will take photos of our progress to place on the Blog.

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Comments

[Viv and Terry]

we are looking forward to seeing the progress of the 'Barn' and hope the next Blog is sooner rather than later, xx