Advertisement
Published: November 10th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Monday morning, the 1st of November, and we guessed that it was a bit warmer here (approaching 30 degrees most days now) than it was back home in the UK!
I was very sloppy in the last blog by spelling the make of Graham’s Aussie hat wrong - it should have been ‘Akubra’ and I forgot to put in the photo of some of his pressies - oh dear!
We needed to get a small problem sorted on our computer so we popped down into town and went to ‘Major Bytes’ a computer shop that David had recommended. After explaining the problem the very helpful young bloke there said that it would take about an hour to fix and he would give us a ring when it was ready. We wondered about having a coffee in town but decided to go back to David’s and had only just pulled up outside when the phone went - it was our friend at the shop saying the laptop was fixed and all ready to go. After worrying about whether we would have to buy a new one that was brilliant news. We had offered to do some housework/gardening for David to
help earn our keep so Graham mowed the grass (as mentioned in a previous blog this is no easy task!) and I vacuumed all the floors in the house and did some washing. We had lunch and then picked up the laptop which seemed fine again.
On Tuesday we both got stuck into some more gardening - it’s a very big plot and a lot for David to keep tidy - maybe we should stay and do some more? We had stayed on an extra day partly in the hope that the car rego paperwork that Grant had posted nearly a week earlier would turn up but it still didn’t arrive. Oh well, never mind - in these days of hand held computer systems hopefully the Police could soon check that we had in fact paid and were on the road legally.
Later on that afternoon we collected Sweetie from her holiday home to prepare her for the following morning’s departure. We had enjoyed our stay at David’s and it was really nice to spend some time with him but now it was about time we moved on. We (I) seemed to have taken all sorts of stuff
out of the caravan while at David’s so it took a long time to fit it all back in and we also had to fit in Daphne’s coat that she had forgotten and our big suitcase that we had left on our first visit.
Early on Wednesday morning Graham cycled into town and checked David’s PO Box but there was still no rego. We had a casual coffee, said our goodbyes to David, although we’ll see him again in Melbourne at Christmas, and a little sadly left Warwick. It’s a great place to live and visit so no doubt we’ll be back one day and, with an open invitation from David, that may be sooner rather than later.
We headed north, and after getting a little confused in Toowoomba we eventually found the road to Dalby, our intended destination, which was some 100 kms further on. We had a break in Oakey and, as for once I hadn’t made sandwiches, we decided to have lunch out, although it was difficult to find anything that didn’t consist of burgers and chips. We got to Dalby early in the afternoon and decided to stay at the Pioneer Caravan Park that
was a couple of kms north of the town. It was old but OK although there were hardly any other touring caravanners there - only workers - so it felt a little strange. Still that meant we had the amenities more or less to ourselves. To get used to life in Sweetie again after the comfort of David’s we booked in for 3 nights. Once we settled in we headed off to the Information Centre where a very pleasant young man gave us some useful advice about where to visit in the area. We stocked up at the local Woollies store which was in a nice new complex and while I was busy grocery shopping Graham mooched around the other shops and found a Troy Cassar-Daley CD. It was a double CD and a newly released live recording, just what we had been looking for (since our stay in Tamworth) so once I emerged from Woollies with some cash we went over and bought it. So that was another birthday present for Graham sorted although I like this sort of music as well.
On Thursday morning we drove to Lake Broadwater which was only about 30 kms south-west of
Dalby. There was a campsite there with just a couple of campers enjoying the peace and quiet. It looked a great place to camp and there were loos and showers (only cold ones though!) as an added bonus. Soon we’ll hopefully feel confident enough to go out to this sort of place and stay for a few days. We walked alongside the lake and then a colourful flash caught my eye - I saw it again and recognized it as a rainbow bee-eater. It was a surprise because I hadn’t expected to see them in this area although I have since read that they are common throughout Australia. We walked on hoping to see more but what we did see were plenty of kangaroos, huge dragonflies and a fairly large goanna who didn’t seem at all bothered by our presence. We got to a bird hide, sat inside for a while and saw a pacific heron and a wedge tailed eagle but nothing else much. We strolled back through the trees and were nearly back at the car when we saw first a pair of bee-eaters sat on a branch of a nearby dead tree and then several other pairs.
Once we were back at the car we could still see them flitting backwards and forwards catching insects. We had our picnic with them still in view which was great. We didn’t manage to see any of the ‘yellow-footed pouched mice’ that are found in the area but we’d probably have to stay a few days to see them!
When we got back to the caravan park Graham went for a swim and said it was OK although cold but I didn’t quite fancy it and spent my time sorting through photos!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.064s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0371s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb