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Published: September 18th 2009
DAY 314
17th September 2009
Finally after 3 weeks of being in Cairns I actually get a haircut today. Julie left me the name and telephone number of her hairdresser before she left for England, however when I booked she could not fit me in for 3 whole weeks, so I decided that to get a decent haircut it was going to be worth the wait. So the morning finally dawned, but Andy and I had both slept terribly last night, we don’t really know why, but we both woke up feeling exhausted.
I went to make us both a cup of tea, we sat in bed drinking it but at 8.00 I jumped in the shower, I needed to be there for 9.00 so I got ready straight away, had some breakfast and jumped in the truck.
Marnie’s salon is actually only just down the road at her house in a converted garage, I chose an early appointment so that it did not interfere with plans for the rest of the day. I was the first one of the day and the only one there to start with, it was nice and relaxed so while Marnie
Pylon Down
They recently removed overhead cable so now it is time to take the Pylons down.cut we chatted and I had a great cup of tea.
Marnie asked what I needed done so I explained, she listened which was great because I actually got the cut that I wanted, it has been months since my hair was last cut and my hair was really a mess, it was long, I had split ends, although I have not used a hairdryer since leaving England, I am sure that the sun does not help, today I get a special treat, Marnie uses a hairdryer.
By 10.00 my wonderful haircut was complete, I was back in Bayview and my haircut made me feel just great.
I noticed some workmen were up a pylon, they have been removing the cables recently and now they are taking down the redundant pylons, it is great to see them do the work in just a short space of time and not leave the pylons hanging around doing nothing, they tidy up everything when they leave the site.
We made some sandwiches and a drink then we went out, the first item on the list is to get the truck in for a service, yes, believe it or not
Working...
...yes this is work and how can I resist watching someone work. we need another service, so since picking the truck up last December we are booking in for our 4th service which means that so far we have done 40,000 kilometres. It seems really hard to believe that we have done that much travelling around Australia, although there were days that did really feel like it.
We must have the truck serviced at a Nissan dealer otherwise the warranty will not be valid and as we have warranty until 150,000 kilometres then we must stick with Nissan and the costs. However we also have a problem that needs sorting out.
When we bought the truck we realised one day that the engine was racing, the truck just wanted to pull forward. We found out that the cruise control that was fitted causes a software problem and the only way to stop the over revving is to switch the air conditioning off, switch the engine off and then restart the truck without the air conditioning wait six minutes and it will all go back to normal.
Well, so far this has not really been an issue, it has happened only on a few occasions, however in the last few
How many....
construction guys does it take to bring a pylon down? days the minute we turn the air conditioning on the engine starts revving, so it has now become a nuisance. Now we are not using the air conditioning, that is ok at this time of year, but the problem needs sorting, we find out that the only real solution right now is to have the cruise control disconnected. This is not a problem for me I don’t use the cruise control and we most certainly won’t need it for Cape York, however this problem needs sorting before we leave for Cape York, we want to be sure that everything is mechanically sound as possible.
The truck is booked in for next Wednesday, just another thing to tick off the list before we start our travels again, along with the shopping list that we are also making, that is getting longer by the day!
We head out to Cairns Botanical Gardens, we park and go to the Observation Platform, Andy is on the phone so I sit and wait. I then see a young woman wander onto the observation deck, “Fiona?” She turned to look at me, smiled and came to sit down, another coincidence, we met Fiona in
Port Douglas on Saturday, we knew she was coming to Cairns on her way South, but even though Cairns is a fairly small place, we could have gone anywhere today.
Fiona tells us that she is catching the midnight bus to Airlie Beach, she will sleep on the bus, but they arrive at Airlie Beach at 6.00 in the morning. Fiona explained that it is the cheapest way to do it. We wish her luck in her onward journey and we go our separate ways.
It is hot today, despite the early rainfall, only noticeable in some puddles still visible. The boardwalk is pretty good, nice to be in the shade, we head toward Freshwater, which is on the other side of the road, we did the other part last week. We enjoy the walk, there are plenty of people out and about today, the boardwalk is quite narrow so someone always has to stand to one side while the other walks past.
After a while we went and found a nice seat in the shade and ate our lunch, we watch other people wandering around, taking pictures and generally enjoying the environment, this is such a
lovely environment and it is all free.
Later back at Bayview we do a few chores, Andy cleans the windows, while I tidy the kitchen and sort some washing out, then a spell in the hammock on the veranda with the newspaper finishes my afternoon beautifully, we both had a nana nap, catching up on what little sleep we had last night.
Andy cooked up some mince, onion, tomatoes and chilli also to be frozen ready for our trip up to the Cape, but before we have tea it is time to walk up the hill as we have not had a huge walk, we go up and back in about 22 minutes which we don’t think is too bad, perhaps a little bit quicker than the time we did when we first attempted the walk.
This evening Andy rustles up another delightful evening meal and we settle down to watch a great TV program on ABC1 “Skippy: Australia’s First Superstar”, I don’t think I realised back then how iconic Skippy would turn out to be, but of course now we know different. Hands up who knew that Liza Goddard (popular British Actress, once married to the
70’s Glam Rock Star Alvin Stardust) played Clarissa 'Clancy' Merrick one of the only girls in the show? Neither Andy nor I had any idea, but now we know.
When we came over with Gary and Karen back in 2007 we needed a name for our Motorhome, so we called it Skippy! I am pretty sure there are a lot of tourists (not just British tourists as Skippy was televised across the world) that refer to Skippy when in Australia and that even chat to the Kangaroo’s in Skippy language, we tried but not sure that they understood so well.
Back in 1966 when the idea was conceived, no one ever knew how popular it would turn out to be. A total of 91 episodes were made and at the time Frank Packer the Media Mogul was the only person who could see its value and eventually agreed to bank roll it, and it was watched every week across the world in 128 Countries by an audience total of 300 Million people.
The young lad who played Sonny Hammond who real name is Gary Pankhurst, by his own admission never knew what impact Skippy had on the
world until he was much older and could see the effect of the program, it was interesting how the world looked at Australia, as a country of long hot sunny days with a huge back garden.
Though a bit Cheesy, Skippy was a multi talented Kangaroo, it was interesting to hear the producer say that there were actually 9 Skippy’s and they were so difficult to work with as it is such a shy creature, with a brain the size of a pea, but we cannot accept such inflammatory remarks.
Strangely enough the 9 Skippy’s they used were different in size and even colour, and were all female for some reason, Skippy when acting was put in a Hessian sack to keep her calm before being let out to do her piece of acting which I think was not fair, equally an Emu who was on the show was actually given Alcohol to calm it down which would never be allowed in the world that we now live.
Liza Goddard was saying that she had a part when she had a Wombat on one of her shoulders and a koala on the other shoulder and both creatures
pee’d on her, and as she didn’t have a change of costume under the hot sun she smelt awful.
We are sorry to drive a bus through anyone’s happy memories of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, but can only report what we saw last night but It was what it was a great program from our childhood and the start of many happy memories.
Taking of which, reading the news today I was saddened to hear that Mary Travis, of the 60’s group Peter Paul and Mary, had passed away, they were certainly part of our childhood with fantastic records like Puff the magic Dragon, and others like Leaving on a Jet Plane, and Blowing in the Wind. Sadly another influence on our childhood has gone.
We also see that people from Sea World have rescued a Nurse Shark (endagered species) who had become entangled in fishing line, hooks and lures in its mouth and was unable to eat or free itself, this poor shark was unable to free itself and was unable to regulate its own boyancy. The vet that stuck his arm in the sharks mouth stated that his arm has been in more dangerous places!
The shark is now being cared for at Sea World Byron Bay (I think).
We Skyped the Wallaby Wanderers to see if Sydney with a Y from Cairns was behaving himself, apparently he is and has settled in very nicely, he does not seem to be missing us at all.
So until tomorrow bloggers.
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Darryl and Sarah
Wallaby Wanderers
Great memories - Peter, Paul and Mary
I remember my Dad singing Blowing in the Wind when I was a kid, I don't think I've ever heard the original plus I didn't realise that Peter, Paul and Mary sang Leaving on a jet plane - Dad and I sang that at the folk club just before we came out here. And as for you saying that you've watched yet another TV programme, well, how will you cope back on the open road!!! Great to speak to you tonight. Take care and we'll see you soon Dar and Sar (and Sydney with a Y from Cairns) x x