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Published: November 24th 2008
Caroline Skyping the Girls
Saturday morning - 10pm UK time - they had been drinking champers and I was on coffee!I’m up early today 05.45, Caroline has to be up early today as we have to get to Starbucks by 08.00, so she can Skype the girls, as they are having their “Wild” Girls night and it will be the first one Caroline is to miss whilst on our adventure. (It is also the first one that I have missed in nearly 10 years!).
It gives me time to update the blog for yesterday, and have my peaceful thought time.
I take her a cup of tea, and she is awake, we leave the house at 07.15 and head down to Starbucks in Mooloolaba, pronounced (Muh-loo-laba). There are cars and vans parks all along the road side all the way up, Girls and Guys getting surf boards off and easing in to Wet suits, the line must be ½ mile long.
We drive past the BBQ site where we were at last night, then in to Mooloolaba. The car parks are packed, Not a spare vehicle space, it is busier than on a workday. People are out, walking, surfing, running, cycling, and lots more, we wonder if we will find a parking space, so we drive around and
Power/Solar Gorilla/Monkey
This is our means of re charging our electrical items whilst on our journey. The sun (uv Rays) will be very useful to us on this trip manage to park 100 yards up from Starbucks, its 07.30 am.
Arrh, Coffee, I get them in and Caroline sets the notebook up, we are powering it up from the Power Gorilla, just to make sure we have enough battery and to test or kit for the trip.
My wife being a Techno Junkie, suggested we purchased a “Solar Gorilla” for the trip, it’s a Solar panel, that is slightly smaller and thinner than out notebook. We got from a fantastic company in Alton, Hampshire called Powertraveller, who make these amazing devices.
We also purchased a Power Gorilla, which is like a powerful battery pack, the Solar Gorilla charges the Power Gorilla, and the Power Gorilla powers the laptop, which it will do indefinitely as one thing Australia is not short of is “Sunshine”.
This company Customer services, was amazing, they helped us with our requirements, and definitely went the extra mile. Do check them out, they can be found at www.powertraveller.com
This memorable Skype has been arranged with Military precision, its 08.02 and the Skype call is in progress
There are so may people at Starbucks, having coffee and reading the paper and
Pink Swag
Personally, I can see nothing wrong with it, this Pink Swag is ideal for the girl about outback. catching up with friends.
Caroline’s in full flow with the Girls, they seem all to be enjoying themselves. It is a little tricky to have a good conversation because of the background noise in Starbucks (Christmas music!) and of course cannot be as raucous as the rest of the girls as it is not quite the done thing in Starbucks on a Saturday morning.
Caroline was really pleased to be able to see and speak to the girls, it does make things that much easier on the emotions to have that ability although emotionally it is hard at the time.
The call ends about 40 minutes later, and we do some more e-mail and check ours. We have had a response from Australia Zoo about our voluntary work and have our interview on 2nd December, at 11.00, which should be fun.
We head off, Caroline hoping we are going for breakfast, but mean old me insists that we need to go to the camping shop.
The camping shop has an anniversary sale; we think it was their 14th Birthday. We go in its quite busy, and we are mooching around. The one product that we
Nissan Patrol
After a great deal of deliberation this vehicle is man enough for the job that we need it for. are really interested in is the folding trailer tent. We had seen it a few days before and were wowed by it.
Our initial idea was to purchase a roof top tent, made by a company called “Autohome”. This fitted on the roof of the vehicle, and was around 300mm,(12”) high when closed and is extended to make a single bedroom 1500mm high (4ft High) when open. We had seen this product at the Outdoor show at the NEC, last year and this did sow the seed of a brilliant idea.
Caroline specifically liked this as you were off the ground away from predators, (Crocodiles) and creepy crawlies. We had priced the Autohome model at $4685.00 dollars (£2036.00) whilst here, but now were formulating different idea’s, which all revolved around us buying the truck.
In the meantime we bought a 2 man “Swag”, its like a Bivvy bag, that is made out of 15g canvas, that has a built in soft ground role, and is completely waterproof.
A Bivvy Bag A Bivvy bag is basically a waterproof bag, that a solider uses as his outside sleeping arrangement, its like a flat tent but big enough
Nissan Patrol
In fact it is probably more than man enough, but it is nice to know that we have a capable vehicle of tackling sand and mountains with ease. to fit a soldier and all his kit.
A Swag is just the same, when the drovers used to spend months out looking after their cattle and sheep they would sleep in a Swag.
They come in Green, but the also had a bright Pink one for novelty purposes, Caroline wanted it in pink (We got a green one) I am not sleeping in the outback in a Pink Swag.
We leave and go to find a sandwich, Caroline’s Tummy clock is going off and she gets grumpy when she is hungry. Feed it and stay happy!!
The Nissan Patrol is being taken back, and we arrive at the dealership, and the staff greet us like old friends.
They ask us if we liked it and we said yes, but are not prepared to pay what they asking, they had already dropped it by, aus$4135. We made them an offer and we haggled over aus$500.00, in all we got the price down by aus$6485.00 and have a country wide Nissan Warranty.
They are nice people, really helpful and fun, and nearly everyone we talk to know about our adventure.
We will have to
Nissan Patrol
We have not named it yet, I am sure that will come very soon after we have picked it up. get the rental car back to Brisbane by Tuesday, we will drive it there and get the train back which should be fun, which will allow us to pick our new truck up on Tuesday afternoon in Nambour.
Tonight we are having dinner with our friends Karen and Del (Derek) and Moffy the old English Sheep dog. They live in Caloundra, about 20K’s away. They flashed the Barbi up, and we sit out all night talking, eating and catching up, we have got our cozzies with us if we wanted to swim, the night is very warm and their pool looks so inviting.
There is frequent chirruping in the garden its the Gecko’s (Lizards), a green tree frog hops in and sits on the fence, it’s the most beautiful bright green colour, and is not fazed by the camera flashes.
Karen and Del have fears for the dog from cane toads, they are poisonous, I don’t think to humans, but certainly to dogs, as they lick them and they have poison glands on their necks. Moffy has had that experience, licked a toad and nearly died. You need to keep washing the dogs mouth out with water
to wash away the poison.
The night sky is amazing, as it is such a clear night, there are so many stars, I wish we had the telescope with us. We look up, hoping to see a shooting star or even a Satellite. Do we see the same stars in the Southern Hemisphere as we do in the Northern hemisphere? I think some are the same but I do need to check.
We walked a few minutes down to the boat ramp and Karen explained how Bribie Island was formed. It used to be part of the land at Caloundra, however a severe storm, I think in 1958, left a channel of water between creating Bribie Island, that now seems to be changing as the sand is now moving back into the channel and the channel is now becoming shallower.
We leave their house after midnight and drive back; we fall in to bed exhausted from the days adventures.
Andy (&Caroline)
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ThePass
Australia 2008
Had we ever known
Your blog date, 24Nov2008, we were leaving Australia. Little did I know then that we were in pretty close proximity to each other at that time. We were in Redcliffe visiting friends for a week before we left for home. If we had only known then what we know now!!