JULY

Goomeri to Gympie to get the rig and truck to the "doctors".
Tracey picked us up - Hervey Bay to watch Jayden and Madison play in the state touch tournament.
















Up to Bundaberg to pick-up my car and travelled down to see the rest of the family and watch them play netball, leauge and all grandkids playing together.

Back to Tracey's to spend time watching the bird-life in her backyard, walk Coonar Beach, Port Marina at Burnett Heads.

Lake Boondoomba

What a great peaceful setting beside the dam.  We booked for 2 nights originally but decided to stay for 8 as we will then take our time going into Gympie where the truck and rig are booked for a service.  Want to get things checked out by the experts to make sure all is OK and get another spare spring "just in case".

These are the unpowered sites,  20 powered sites further up the hill above the store.

Great large sites to pull up here and have met and made friends from Phillip Island and Golburn.  Each night we spend a couple of hours around the fire with our drinks for a laugh and chat.  Saturday night we all contributed and had "Banquet Night".  Yum!  I tried the Golden Syrup Damper in our camp oven which took a little longer as the coals got too cold too soon but it was beautiful with whipped cream and a drizzle of golden syrup over.

No boat or kayak to go out on the lake to catch fish or red claw but we got on our bikes and rode around to have a good look.  Barry and Rhondda took the kilometre reading and it was 5 kms to the Dam Wall.  Well we managed it!!  Mostly up hill all the was with a big dip where I started to get the "wobbles on", half way up the steep hill was changing down gears and chucked the bloody chain.   Well do you think we could get it unstuck!!  No so had to go and ask a driver of a water truck if he had any tools to shift it from the guard.  Finally fixed, we rode on to the Dam wall and surrounding views.  Wayne was instructing me how to ride and not chuck off chains when it happened to him.  Haha.  He did the very same thing riding back so I cracked up laughing.  I found a sturdy stick and heavy rock - bashed the s....er and got the chain freed before we headed off back to camp for lunch.  10 km ride done!  Feeling good for our bodies but not going so far the next couple of days.  Plenty of walks to do around the camp.

Lake Boondooma Dam Wall

Fantastic sunsets every night with Pluto and Jupiter shining close together

So relaxing here watching the birds in the grevillia's and currawong's chasing the kookaburras, koala with baby on her back, wallabies or kangaroos feeding, pelicans, ducks and shags in the lake.  Oh and of course the squawking crows all day long!!!

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.