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Published: August 2nd 2014
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The Entourage
Setting out on day One with Ford Ranger, Home built 5th Wheeler and Das Boot on the roof rack. It is holiday time again. For reasons know only to others, I have had requests to write another holiday blog, so this is it.
Today is the first day of our pilgrimage to warmer climates. Normally I enjoy winter, but this winter seems to have got the better of me, particularly the last week or so, so the Fraser Coast in Queensland sounds ideal. This years sojourn sees an addition to our entourage. We now have a roof-top tinny, affectionately know as Das Boot (The Boat - suggested by Frank's brother Wally). Eventually it will have a name on it, just like the van will have some colour applied so it doesn't look like a mobile fridge anymore. But hey, it has only been four years, so what's the hurry. After all, there is a wall unit sitting at home waiting for completion since December 1991! Sorry, i digress. Anyway, we bought a secondhand tinny and Frank lovingly painted it and altered a side loading boat loader so that we can carry the boat on the roof of the car.
The plan for this trip is fishing, of course, whale watching and adventuring on Fraser Island. As with all our holidays, nothing goes to plan. We had planned to return to the caravan park at Burrum Heads, because when we were there at this time of the year two years ago, it was very quiet. Wrong. As I kept forgetting to book it until Thursday (yes two days ago), when I did get around to it, it is full. As is the other van park in Burrum Heads. Never fear, we decided to try a couple of different areas on the Fraser Coast. So it will be 10 days at Rainbow Beach near the south end of Fraser Island, and 10 days at Woodgate near Bundaberg. There is nothing wrong with trying new locations. I hope you noticed how I just turned a negative into a positive.
We had planned to depart yesterday, but because the weather was so revolting and the wind was horrendous, we postponed it until today. The fact that we weren't ready, as usual, is moot. We departed around 0900 this morning, after packing the van. The trip was uneventful, with Bryce Courtney's Tommo and Hawk as company, making Narrandera out first night stop. We didn't travel as many miles (kilometres - miles sounds better) as we probably should have. This could have something to do with our late start. We will be heading off much earlier tomorrow morning.
We decided against stocking up on lots of fresh food before leaving home because we always get caught out at quarantine checks at the border. I thought it would be nice to give the cook/driver a break and have a pub dinner. There isn't a quarantine station on the Newell Highway, so we could have brought our fruit and vegies with us. There isn't a pub near the caravan park either, just a roadhouse over the road. A very mediocre dinner was had there. While waiting for our meal, we observed many of the truckies who had also opted for roadhouse delicacies. Most of them were wearing thongs. I am referring to the open rubber footwear type thong. We couldn't tell what sort of underwear they were wearing. The reason this had me so intrigued is because it is freezing up here. One of them was even wearing shorts. A quote about sense and feeling springs to mind. As I am writing this, we have our ducted diesel heating and our reverse cycle air-conditioning running to make the van nice and snug before we go to bed. It is going to be freezing in the morning packing up the hose and power cord (my job). Perhaps I can hide away in bed and hope that somebody else will do it. Or perhaps I will put on my hooded coat, scarf and gloves and just get on with it. We'll see.
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