Walking on Sunshine (Oh Yeah.....)

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As you probably have worked out by now, these blogs have been typed by me (Lisa) while we are on the road when travelling between townships (coz I ain’t tugging no big thing behind me other than my butt). Then of course Mr G adds in his additions, quips and any wise words of wisdom that he may fancy at the time when we arrive at our destination (GS – all the funny shit....). We have put on our R M Williams gear and are boot scooting our way through QLD, listening to lots of country and western, talkback or gospel and Christian stations (not too much choice when the iPod runs out of batteries). So we hope you are enjoying our blogs. Get yourself a cuppa and sit back for a read.

Well here we are in Townsville and LOVING IT......what were we thinking when our itinerary had us heading to cold and cloudy Rockhampton. There is nothing like being over 700kms off your intended destination and happy about it.

After one of our shortest drives ever (only 10 “Are we there yet’s”?) we arrived on Wednesday morning and got straight into the action of unloading the van so that we could make the most of the day which included spending time in the pool and.....well that’s it really, just spending time in the 28 degrees weather by the pool. Do you hate us yet, go on admit it. We know you do!!!!! The pool area has a kiddie pool with spouting water features and a big water slide shaped like a snake in the deep end. The girls and G had a lovely time annoying the crap out of each other while I did 40 thousand loads of washing (GS- Yeah, yeah. I’ve told you a million times not to exaggerate Lisa). (LVS -just want to know why someone has not yet invented disposable clothing for people on holidays, so you can just whip them off and bin them. Now what a great idea!!!! ). I also managed to shave my legs, otherwise I was considering donating these hairs for wig making or to knit a scarf and mittens with the remnants to keep us warm when we get to NSW. I just need to say that beauty salons are in short supply throughout the rest of the country. They are as scarce as hens’ teeth and I’m getting pretty desperate now. What do these cowgirls do for maintenance (GS – usually get the child’s father to pay it......).

Having done some research of the local area I (G) discovered that there was quite a thriving soccer community up here. After all this was the hometown of the now defunct NQ Fury. I also discovered that most games were played at Brolga Park (there’s that friggin' bird again....it’s haunting me) about 3km from the RV park. So that evening I was dropped off to watch several hours of local soccer which was most enjoyable even though the standard wasn’t great. The girls drove to McD’s for a Sundae and went back to the RV to watch a couple of DVD’s while awaiting for a call from daddy advising he was ready to be picked up.(“ hey barman, can I have another beer mate, hiccup”.)

Our nights have returned to warmer weather with us being able to open all windows and the door, discard all doonas and bedsocks and being able to wear our summer pj’s again which has been a bonus.
Thursday we headed into the city which despite looking very nice resembled a ghost town. There was literally no-one there. We were actually a bit concerned that an H-bomb may have gone off during the night but then we saw a couple of workers having a smoke so all must have been well. We headed to the Strand for our first view of a beach since we left Darwin. The Strand is like a boardwalk, approx 5km long which has numerous things to enjoy. And it was fantastic. The first thing the kids spotted was a free ‘water park’, like a mini Wet n wild with slides, water cannons, fountains and a great big bucket which dropped water onto the kids every minute or so. There was only about 5 – 6 other people enjoying the park so the kids (and me, GMan) had a great time running around in the water. After several hours Lisa (who was sitting on a bench watching us and minding our crap) decided that we’d had enough fun and it was time to move on. We wandered about a km or so along the Strand to have some lunch and found a burger place which at first appeared to be less expensive than the other offerings. Both Lisa and the kids really enjoyed their burgers. Mine was ok too but I’ve had better. (LVS- and he said I was whinging about the fare at Barkley Station, at least it was all fresh, not frozen, made to order just for us and this burger didn’t have any of the side effects of the Humpty Doo burger, which was thankful by all of us).

After lunch we had to walk off our lunch so continued up the Strand to the jetty and kids playground where the kids ran amuck for another hour or so. One thing we noticed was the lack of graffiti or vandalism anywhere. The Strand was a lovely initiative and it appeared to us that the locals genuinely cared about it. It would be great to have something similar along the beaches of Melbourne (without the crocodile or stinger warnings of course.....). Free 8 hour parking bays also helped.

One of the first things we noticed when we got to the beach at the Strand was the numerous warning signs and holders with bottles of vinegar inside them. Now I like my fish and chips but offering free vinegar seemed very generous until we realised this was used to reduce jellyfish stings (it doesn’t help with the pain though). Later in the afternoon we went back to the car and had to go past the water park again for one last splash about. We then realised that we would be going back through town in peak hour as it was now 5.15pm. It was a huge struggle to get through as there were about four cars already on the road. Hmm, What shall we do? (These schmucks don’t really have any idea what peak hour is really like). Then back to Grey Nomad city (the caravan park) for the rest of the evening until its lights out at 7.45pm of which G and I then buck the system and stay up til at least 10pm and then go inside to read for a little while.

Friday we returned to the city to have a look around however the first place we came across was the Reef HQ Aquarium where we decided to have a quick look and ended up spending the rest of the day there. While you could probably look around the whole place in about an hour it was fascinating with plenty of things to touch, see and do. They have a shark named “Cuddles” who loves to be you guessed it......cuddled. We watched two women diving in the tank while taking footage of the fish and one of them gave Cuddles a huge hug and patted him for about 10mins while he was lying on the floor of the tank. We thought he was dead at first, but apparently he is quite a lazy shark and doesn’t move around much. We had a great time and the highlights for us were walking through an underwater tunnel where we could see numerous fish and sharks up close (GS-and take the piss out of them...fish lips etc), visiting a turtle hospital where they treat sick turtles until they are well enough to be returned to the wild and a short movie on “Stingers”, not the show, the movie all about the evil jellyfish up here and the pain they can inflict. As such none of us wanted to swim at the beach after viewing this footage.

There was also some great interactive stuff for the kids and they had a great time chasing fish all over the floor (a water scene was projected onto a carpeted floor area which constantly changed when the kids ran on it) as well as touching leopard sharks as they swam past us in a small touching tank. We were finally the last to leave, just about kicked out at 5.00pm.

As we got into the car we decided to head up to the Castle Hill lookout. As we started to ascend the hill the first thing we noticed was the number of idiots, sorry people on foot. Surely not all these people had cars broken down had they? No. We soon discovered that locals actually walk up the lookout of their own free will. The hill is about 300m high although the incline was steep and the road about 3.5km long to the top and there were hundreds of people walking, running and cycling up and down it. At first we thought we should get out and walk but then thought, “Bugger them, it’s dark and we’re on holiday, ” so drove up waving to the sweating masses. At the top the view was spectacular, probably one of the best night time views of a town we’ve seen on this entire trip. We could even see the ferries on the ocean heading towards Magnetic Island. It was also bloody cold up there, as we were dressed for the sunshine and remembering that we didn’t come here to get cold we headed back down the hill taking care not to knock a few people into the abyss as we went.

Saturday was another day hanging out at the caravan with not much to tell other than to say the weather was beautiful and we spent most of it in the pool. I (Lisa) took this opportunity to colour my hair as I was giving a few grey nomads a run for their money in the hair colour stakes. I purchased myself a colour that comes in a box from the chemist. I have not done this since I was about 22. Hairdressers, who needs a hair dresser, when you can create your own and it comes from a box and it’s so easy to do!!!!! What a fabulous idea to buy a home kit hair colour. Yep! Its looks great. Don’t understand why I have not done this earlier. I’m happy with the colour shown on the outside of the box. It appears to be a nice warm chocolate colour with shimmering gold tones throughout (I’ve probably lost all the fellas by now). What I’ve got is a beautiful shade of EMO/GOTH black. Not warm brown, not dark brown, but jet bloody black. Now for those of you who don’t know me I do wear a lot of black clothing (for slimming reasons, we all know the rules for tubbies), but all I need now is a pale face, heavy black eye make-up and some doc martens and hey presto we now have LiMo (Lisa Emo). I was thinking of walking around with a depressed look on my face, shoulders drooping and getting a few piercings but I reckon that would take too much energy to act depressed. So with that said I was in hiding for the rest of the day and I’m still suffering now hoping the sun and chlorine from the pool may lighten it. Hairdresser appointment is the first stop when we get home thanks.

Magnetic Island was our desired destination on Sunday and what a great way to spend the day. We left early to get on the ferry and managed to get on the top deck which was windy but gave a great view of the Island ahead. Then 20 minutes later we were disembarking and on our Island adventure for the day. Once on land we found “Topless”, no not a titty bar, but the car rental business that we were hoping had vehicles available as it was threatening rain and there were limited cars with rooftops. Scarlett wanted the bright pink car but the lady managed to find us a small white jeep type car with a soft top which excited the girls because they have never been in a car where you can remove the roof.

We drove to Horseshoe Bay and found their Sunday market on at the foreshore, so we investigated this for some time much to daddy’s disgust. The girls then played on the sand, building sandcastles and an assortment of things and we then ate brunch for the day. When heading back towards the parked car we decided to surprise the girls with a go on the paddle boats. It cost $10 for 20mins and this was long enough for G as when he returned to the shore he looked a little puffed. Apparently Scarlett was steering and had no idea what she was doing, while Charlize couldn’t quite reach the pedal properly, so most of the effort came from him.

We got back to the car and removed the soft top off the car. The clouds had blown over and we wanted to feel the breeze in our hair. We left Horseshoe Bay and wandered around the Island with G driving the manual car and needing to reverse every so often to pick up the gearbox that he dropped when grinding the gear shift. Hopefully we ticked the box for extra insurance!! (G- It’s a rental, they actually encourage you to do that!!!). We came to the township of Arcadia. They were celebrating Seniors Cits Day and had a concert on at the foreshore with singers and a Big band playing “the oldies but goodies”. We did stop for quite awhile and after being eyeballed by the oldies as our age was not of the appropriate vintage we then meandered down to the beach for a swim between the flags. Afterwards the girls frolicked in the waves while we sat on the foreshore tapping our toes to the tunes.

Off in the car again and not sure what to do, we managed to find another township to visit but it was all closed for the day except for the pub of course. After looking around and walking along the beach we found a shipwreck on the shore which was covered in barnacles and moss. We then came across the pier which had been refurbished in late 2010 after the government gave a donation to bring it back to its former glory. It had just been finished and reopened when cyclone Yasi hit and destroyed it and now it is closed and unusable. By this stage it was 4.30pm and we decided to head back to Nellie Bay where the ferry is until we read a notice that there was a function on this day at the All Seasons on the Island, so thought we should investigate this further. It turned out to be a Jazz Festival over the entire weekend and lucky for us they had a buffet dinner afterwards, so of course we stayed there for dinner: prawns, snags, steak, lovely salads and potato gratin...yum!! Afterwards we dropped the car off, with the gearbox in the boot, then back onto the ferry at about 8.00pm and by now the temp had turned cold from the breeze off the ocean. The trip was non-eventful and a lot quicker than the trip over. We enjoyed our time there and it reminded me of my trip with my girlfriends to Cook Islands last year. We hope to go back to Maggie one day and maybe stay and hire a house (they don’t allow caravans). I suggested that when the girls are old enough maybe they would like to get married there.....Start saving now people!!!!
Monday was very quiet and the full day was spent at our RV park. Graham put the car in for a service at Ford and we were unable to obtain a courtesy car. A swim for all of us in the morning with an afternoon nap for G, book reading for me and the girls did some postcard writing and playing on the computer along with numerous games of Uno. Not much else to report other than it was a LLLAAAAZZZYYY day all round.

Tuesday was again another lazy day and some packing of the RV was done, a visit to the Townsville branch of mecu for Graham and the girls then a few hours in the pool with some unwelcome photos taken of me on the slide at the pool and that was pretty much it for the entire day.

Wednesday 31st Aug, we left Townsville at 8.30am and found ourselves heading south hoping to get to Rockhampton for one night. No sightseeing other than what we could see out of the car window, although we are on the lookout for all things “BIG”. We have only come across the “BIG MANGO” so far. We travelled through as much as we could but for some reason we stopped for too many toot stops. The girls seemed out of sync. They must have forgotten how to hold on for a while as every hour or two a frantic request to pull over was screeched from the back seat, along with that little seat sitting dance that is done when you can no longer hang on. Obviously in most cases we were in no condition to stop as we would be either on a hill, have a truck bearing down on us or the roadside drops away sharply with nowhere to pull over. After a word from Il Groucho the driver to “please give a bit more warning so we can facilitate such stops”, we finally made it to our destination by 6.30pm and unpacked in the dark.
Scarlett had the quote of the day when she stated “Daddy, look over there, the cows are having a meeting in their paddock”. Daddy inquires “Why, what do you mean?” “They are all standing in a circle and chatting to each other” she claimed. How right she was!!

Thursday, we left Rockie at 8.30am and have seen a train with at least 120 carriages carrying coal, which would have to be the biggest so far as previously we counted 71 carriages. They are amazing to watch. Now at 10.40am we have been pushed to the roadside by three cop cars hurtling down the middle of the road with lights flashing, advising of an oncoming wide load. Well we have been in the middle of many wide loads all of which they allow on single lane highways but this took the prize as the biggest. It was three lorries with the biggest truck tippers on the back which were obviously heading to the mines to deliver them. They took up two thirds of the road which meant that we and all other vehicles on the road had to pull over and park off the road, just so they could get through. I would love to see what happens when the side of the road drops away like we encountered the previous day. After that we watched about another 20 wide loads go past with houses and an assortment of big loads during the rest of the trip.

Today (Friday 2nd Sept), while getting ready to leave we bumped into our neighbours from both visits at Katherine (on way to Darwin and then back again). We have met some fantastic people on this trip and swapped details with each other. Generally most have been older than us with kids our age, but all have been inclusive of our kids in conversations and made a fuss of them with the majority having been from Victoria. We are heading towards Brisbane and will be catching up with my (Lisa) cousins Tania and Adrian and their 4 kids and then leaving on Monday to head further south.

I shall warn you all that when we get back we may seem a bit pudgy, rotund, tubby, lard arseish or tubby can you float in a rubber boat, bigger than when we left. Well, we have been walking if you count back and forth to the pool, toilet and the odd walk on a tour but pretty much most of our time has been spent in the car travelling for hours at a time, maybe arriving at night. In some cases limited or next to no fresh produce leaves you feeling sluggish and your belly looking a tad bigger. It has cost us up to $30 to buy basic salad vegies in some remote areas, which leaves you looking at lots of pastas and bread items being consumed instead to keep the costs down. So Word up..when we get home, I do not want to hear you all say “Hey Guys you look...um... can we say.. Well (meaning FAT)!!”. No shit Sherlock, we already know we are bigger. Now WHO HAS MY TREADMILL??? I may need visitation rights to it when we get back.

Well what more can we tell you other than when on a trip like this and living in each others’ company the ENTIRE time, there is no choice but to get along with each other. Graham is in his element having a captive audience to practise his humorous repertoire. Bad breath, smelly armpits, sweaty foreheads, mood swings, gas emissions and the like are all the joys of being on the road. We have had a minor altercation, usually from tiredness and for some reason Graham’s odd grunting at us while driving or pointing a finger at something in a paddock, somehow made sense when he chose to use no words. The girls have been great with each other and surprised us a lot. They have not seen any TV during our time away and have had to use their imagination to keep themselves amused. Scarlett, who had absolutely no interest in reading before leaving home, now reads two decent sized books and looks forward to reading at bedtime. So in other words this trip has been a great experience for us all and we will have many happy memories for a lifetime.

Hope you are all warm and keeping well and we miss you all heaps.....

Take care and stay safe until we see you again

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