Well we have finally arrived in Darwin after what seems like an eternity and are staying with Dennis and Edmund for a while. It is great to see them both as it has been a long time (probably 10 years) since we have seen Edmund. However as I am still trying to play catch up with the blog this entry is about Alice. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and were lucky to get a spot in one of the caravan parks for 8 nights. There are hundreds of nomads heading to the top end and they all pull into the caravan parks and sit and wait until someone pulls out so they can set up. It was good to get the camper off the truck for a while and catch up with washing cleaning etc. John ... read more

After leaving Coober Pedy we headed to the Rock with an overnight stop on the border of SA and NT. Near the overnight stop there were large flocks of budgies which looked stunning in flight with flashing green and yellow colour. We fuelled up halfway along the Lasseter Hway into the Rock thinking that fuel would be much more expensive at Uluru only to find that it was 40 cents a litre cheaper at the Rock, Go Figure. Oh well you live and learn. The resort was a pleasant surprise, prices were reasonable, the camping area was huge AND we finally got to shed a layer or two of clothing which was an absolute bonus. We decided to drive straight to the Olgas and stay for the sunset pictures and do Uluru the next day. The ... read more

We spent several days at Broken Hill. It is a typical mining town with the town being built around the mine, after all it was the start of the big Australian BHP. All of the high quality ore has been mined but they claim there is still 35 years left of mining low grade ore which produces silver lead and zinc. At its peak it employed over 4000 people but now due to mechanisation and the closing of many mines there are only about 400 people employed in mining. Tourism is now an integral part of the economy. As it was a prosperous town in the early 1900's there is some lovely architecture in the town. We also visited Silverton which is 25 kms out of Broken Hill and was where silver was originally discovered. When ... read more

Hi All, Thought it was about time we reported in. Not that we have much to tell except for storms, wind, rain, midgees and the odd fish. It seems whenever we are up here the weather is just not quite right for catching Barra. We spent a week at Baffle Creek and then a few days at a place called Maira, which is about 45 minutes north of Bundaberg and a lot of that time was spent waiting for winds to drop or rain to stop. I did manage to catch a grunter at Baffle Creek. Today we returned from a week at Lake Monduran and the Barra were not biting(surprise, surprise). There were heaps of people there and no-one was reporting a catch as the water temp was too low. I did, however, manage to ... read more

Hi Everyone, Since the last blog entry we have had a day trip to Burrum Heads and been back to Geoff and Maries for a few days and had a days fishing at Barumba Dam (about an hour from Gympie) and although we only had one day there we thought it was a lovely spot and will definitely return. Unfortunately I forgot my camera that day so no pics from there. We caught up with Neville and Helen (our Weipa tour leaders) and had a lovely night at their place for dinner. Then it was back to River Heads to get the house ready to close up before heading off to the Muster. Michael and Marilyn joined us for a few days at River Heads prior to our leaving and it was lovely to have them ... read more