Yes - It Happened In "3's" Again

Another blow-out - same left hand side of rig but front tyre!  What The !?!?!?  Changed it off down the water table on a bit of a bend.  Thank goodness this road wasn't very busy.  Got to the Boondooma Homestead and Museum and setup for the night before taking a look through all the interesting buildings.  The whole village is as the original set out since 1846 and would you believe that Buddy Thomson, an 80 year old, is a descendant of one of the families that farmed this many years ago.  When his father died, Mum moved to Toowoomba in 1978 and was told she could take the roses from the extensive gardens which she did.  When Buddy moved back to live up the road from the Homestead she asked him to take the roses back to the homestead.  So you now see not cuttings but the original rose bushes over 100 years old.

Also plenty of grapes which port is made, about 200 bottles, Robert the caretaker tells us.

What a coincidence - he came from Alexandra Hills with his wife to "Do The Big Trip Around", and only got this far.

The South Burnett Shire Council now own the 40 acres and a t least twice a year, one for Anzac and another in August for "Scots" week rallies are held here with up to 600 caravaner's.

The Post Office

Bumpy Leichhardt Highway Takes It's Toll!

We took the Leichhardt highway north from Goondiwindi and bounced along the road.  It was very uneven although $3.5 million had been spent on the road in 2012.  Only half and hour or so into the journey we got a message over the two-way that smoke was coming from the rig!!!!  Yes, the brand new tyre that had just been put on the day before, now had an extra groove in the centre imprints as the back left springs had snapped from the uneven road.

Wayne had a spare spring in the truck so he tried to jack the rig up on the side of the road.  Not successful with the slope off the highway so he put a block of wood on top of the broken spring allowing us to keep going!!(He remembered this would work from when he was a young man about 20 years old).  Slowly at first until we reached Moonie about 30 kilometres north where we stopped and put air in the tyre, refuelled the truck and ourselves.  Deciding to proceed on to Miles where we could get help if needed.  Limping along only going at 60 klms/ph and stopping each 10 - 20 kilometres to check all was still OK.  Slow going but we finally made it to Miles on the Warrego Highway but no help there.  Advised to continue on to Chinchilla so we keep going another 46 klms to the showgrounds for the night.

Spent the following day working on the spring!?!?  Finally finishing the job half an hour after sunset under torchlight.
Thanks to the caretaker here who helped push out the bolt off the hanger then lend us another jack to get the job finished.

A big day but at least we got the job done.  Bodies very weary tonight.

Back In Our Home State - Queensland

Yep, this was our event for our trip up to Goondiwindi on the Newell Highway.

Lucky for us we were on a long straight and quickly found a bit of bitumen to pull off on to change the tyre.  This happened on the back left tyre of the rig not the truck thank goodness.  All is well, we got ourselves a replacement in town before tripping around to see the sights here.

Very interesting Information centre at Narrabri with this display of the local industries - cotton growing and grain growing as well as stock farming.

Goondiwindi has the Macintyre River flowing through it with a picturesque Lions Park beside it with the statue of "Goondiwindi Grey" horse that was a renowned winner of many races over its four or more years of racing.  That stands alongside the old bridge that one used to drive over from the south.

The Old Victoria Hotel has been restored and is still offering accommodation to its partons as well as the bars etc.  I noticed at the Information Centre, one can go on a tour at 11am through the old building.

 Stayed at the Big 4 Caravan Park which is one of the nicest, friendliest parks.   Tony and his couple of helpers offer cuppa and damper each day 4.30pm Monday to Friday.

Tony hands out his sheet of recipe dampers for all campers.  Will go back tonight after a soak with Wayne in the hot artesian swimming pool and spa.

Mount Kaputar National Park

Thanks to Steve Foster telling us about this National Park we stopped at Narrabri for a couple of nights so that we could travel out to Sawn Rocks the first day and walk into the park to view these awesome rocks up close.

Sawn rocks are 40 metres from the top down to the creek bed and then another 30 metres below the surface

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When walking out on the track from Sawn Rock we took this photo as this is where we will drive up to the top the next day hoping the weather will be finer than this.

Luckily the day turned out to be just perfect for a drive up to Mount Kaputar.  On the way up we drove higher and higher, stopping at Coryah Gap which is the "Gateway to the Mountains", Bark Hut camping area and the lookout to Eugloh Rock stands guard over the headwaters of Black Mountain Creek.  We heard the sound of running water made by the waterfall below.  It doesn't always flow so its a good indicator of recent rain.

This view is from Doug Sky Lookout looking south/south west to the fertile plains below behind Eugloh Rock in the foreground.

Still climbing up the mountain we stopped at West Kaputar Rocks Lookout which looks north beyond the cliff face of the Mount Kaputar summit which stands 1510 metres above sea level.

Still climbing up to the summit of Mt Kaputar

On Top Of Mount Kaputar - Whew, after 57 stairs to the top!  360 degrees views - truely magical.

Enjoyed this beautiful sunset after a very fulfilling day up the National Park

Taronga Western Plains Zoo

Dubbo in Central New South Wales has this zoo that I have been interested in visiting for years since Tony and Tracey told us about visiting here years ago.  Visited Marg and Keith in Wellington whilst passing through the other day.  Lovely to see them keeping so well.

When we heard that one gets a 2 day pass for the zoo (I guess it allows you to see all the feeding/talking attractions) we decided to only spend the one day and so we put the bikes on the back of the truck and rode around the zoo getting our exercise for the day!!!!  I probably enjoyed the day more than Wayne as he says it is not really his type of attraction.  After saying that, he did love watching the siamang apes.  Would you believe they actually "sang for their supper".  The mother starts then the male joins in and even the baby (3yrs old) was also making the noises.  Very unusual to see this loud noises coming from these apes.

You can see the one on the right has its throat (grey area below the head) protruded and that is how they sing.

We also watched the keeper talk/feed at the hippopotamus enclosure and realised how these huge creatures are so endangered and could easily kill when you see their size of the mouth open!!  

Yes, we did only scratch the surface visiting today, but one can also stay at Savannah cabins, billabong camping in tents or a luxury African safari style lodge overlooking the savannah.  The ride took us on a 6km loop road and passed by the many rare, endangered and native animals but we did not want to spend any more to experience the behind the scenes animal encounters and tours provided.  

The Road North

Leaving Canberra, we headed north through sheep, cattle or farmers growing grains and the rain coming down is a "God send".  Stopping at the Ramage Park camp site for the night.  This is situated 2.3 kilometres outside of the township behind the Europa Park that has the history of Cowra.   POW camp during WWII, Immigrant camp 1949 to 1956.  It gave plenty of reading for us to take in the extend of the history here in this town.   So we got out the bikes and peddled into town to post correspondence then take a look at the World Peace Bell and the Monument in Memory of Australian and Italian service personnel who died during WWII and the Italian immigrants and families in the district.

A gift from the World Peace Bell Assoc Japan is a replica of the original World Peace Bell which is located in teh inner court of the United Nations Headquarters in New York.  Like the original, this bell is cast from melted down coins and medals of member countries of the United Nations in the hope that world peace will be realised.

After the ride back to our camp site, we realised we had to visit the Japanese Gardens before leaving Cowra the next morning.  We were not dissappointed as you can see by my photos of this beautifully presented garden.  Driving past the gardens we left Cowra via the remaining buildings at the Prison Of War Camp, the Avenue of Japanese Cherry Trees and the The Cemeteries where the Japanese POWs who died in the breakout were originally placed in mass graves.  On 5 August, 1944, the POW Camp became the site of the largest mass POW escape in British military history.  It was also the only such escape attempt to occur in Australia.  Once again, Wayne and I have learnt something new of the Australian history.

Japanese sculpture deplicting peace between the two countries

The garden was designed to reflect the total Japanese landscape.  Mountain with streams flowing down through a waterfall to a lagoon representing to the ocean.

A replica tower that stood within the POW camp

Crisp, Clear, Canberra

We woke to an overcast cloudy day so got on with a few chores around the camp before we headed out to see more of Canberra's attractions.

Firstly, we drove up to the Telstra Tower to have a 360 degree view of this Canberra.  By this time, all clouds had cleared so Wow,  great views today.

Looking eastwards to Canberra City left over the bridge in the foreground to Capital Hill and Parliament House.

From there we called into the Botanic Gardens but decided to drive on over to Parliament House and look through there for an hour or so and then on over to ANZAC Drive to the Vietnam Memorial.

How about this picture postcard that I took.

Main Foyer with the marble columns and timbered parquetry

The House of Representatives

From the upstairs balcony looking down to the old Parliament House

Vietnam Memorial on ANZAC Drive

I love this picture as it depicts Canberra in winter to me.

AIS Tour and Rugby at GIO Stadium

Madi mentioned the AIS so we looked up their website and found they conduct tours so off we went and went through a very informative tour of the Australian Institute of Sports.   This was so worth every minute seeing the complex and all the sports involved in the training of these athletes.

Athletics Sydney 2000 Dias

Wayne attempting to kick a goal!!!

Kathy Freeman's medals presented to her after the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

As we heard on the radio yesterday, the Crusaders from Christchurch were playing their final game of the Super 15 for this season here against the Brumbies in an afternoon game so Wayne got on the net and booked two seats for us to watch the game.

From the AIS, we only had to walk 50 metres to the GIO Stadium to watch the Crusaders beat the Brumbies.   Oh.  I had a ball watching the men warming up right in front of us as we were only in row C.  Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, the legends got a happy send off in their final games for the Crusaders.  What a bonus for us to see this game while we where here.

Dan Carter kicking one of his many goals for the match

Foreground, Richie McCaw going through his warm-up drills with the team before the match

Canberra With The 0 degrees Mornings!

Well, we did not feel those cold mornings because we stayed in our cosy bed until it warmed up.  Ha ha!  Last Saturday morning I received a call from Craig who put Madison on the phone to read out her essay that she received an A mark for at school.  I was crying by the time she finished as she put so much feeling and passion into reading it to me.  It was "Your favourite City"  She chose Canberra, and opened our minds to see so much more when we arrived here.
 Soo.... today we spent the whole day at the Australian War Memorial.  Both Wayne and I had been looking forward to seeing the recently refurbished First World War galleries.  The hardship those men had to endure fighting for their country leaves me so thankful we have not had to face those atrocities in our lifetime here in Australia or New Zealand.

This is one of the boats our troops landed on the shores at Gallipoli with the bullet holes

Landing at Gallipoli

We took a break for lunch at Poppy's then headed back into the rest of the areas depicting WWII, the navy, air force with their visual and audio presentations left me thinking of my uncle Bob in the air force in England.  He was in bombers.  Tracey and Craig's Grandfather was a gunner in Egypt, Italy and not sure where else.  These exhibits bought it all to reality.

The "Icing On The Cake" for Wayne and I was to stay and Join The Last Post Ceremony held at 5pm approx. each evening.  Incorporating the stirring sounds of a bugler and a piper with the story of one of the Australians recorded on the Roll of Honour.  We watched as two wreaths were laid during the ceremony.