OCTOBER

Took a day off and travelled up to Agnes Waters and the township of 1770 where we stopped for lunch.  Another beautiful day in paradise.

Anges Waters Beach

The tree restuarant at 1770

1770

Craig, Kylie and family along with Shane, Jody and girls came up the first weekend of October - Finals weekend of the Broncos V Cowboys game.  Divided room with docorations with lots of laughter and banter throughout the game.  Loved Tracey's blue (for cowboys) wig.  It really suited her.

I love to watch the children have fun playing and the parents etc joining in.

Water bombs on Tracey's lawn

Game of touch before the big game

All of us out for a walk along the waterfront of Coral Cove

Craig and Wayne made some excuse to Tracey they had to go to Bunnings while we girls went shopping for groceries but they surprised her with a Baby Q Webber for her early Christmas present. Her Dad had built a bbq table in the patio but she had not gotten around to buying herself one.  We now had sufficient grills to cater for all staying the weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WAYNE  65 Today  15th October 2015

SEPTEMBER

Spent time cleaning up the garden for Tracey.  On our way home from the tip with the rubbish, we stopped off and got lunch which we ate at Kelly's beach where we could not believe our eyes.
Whale watched for the next hour.  These whales were only less than 50 metres from the beach insde the nets.  Frollicing, breaching and generally playing with the young ones as they made their way down the coastline so we travelled and stopped several times.  A great pity I did not have my camera with me.

AUGUST

Off in our rig again we spent a week at Maryborough at "Cheery Nomad RV Park and Farm Stay".  Deb and Mario's happy hour is a friendly get together around the bar (cheap happy hour drinks) pool table or table tennis.
Maryborough is steeped in history and spent many hours wandering through Queen's Park, down the waterfront and surrounding streets where one can go through the maritime and other museum learning the history of this township.  The floods throughout time is noted on a pole with all the dates beside the historic building that has been converted into the "Muddy Waters Cafe".

Point Vernon Hervey Bay for 2 weeks was our next stop where we enjoyed taking in the "Seafood Festival" celebrations savouring local tastes and listening to some great music.

Fine days enabled Wayne and I to use our bikes all over the district even a 26 kilometre cycle to the Urangan jetty and back. Whew!!  Visited Wayne's aunty Sylvia whom he had not seen since he was 5 years old.  Great to bike down to the waterfront for lunches and coffees BUT did not enjoy getting swooped on by the magpies!!  Obviously coming into nesting season.

Up to Tracey's to stay a while to help her get the grounds etc sorted and cleaned up.

Stevie's 5th Birthday Party - A Real Family Get together

Our Stevie ready to cut her 5th birthday cake.

Steve, Wayne, Mark, Mike, Terry and Matt

Stephanie, Summer, Madison with Alex and Jayden

Our 17 year old Luke with Pop dressed by Alex!

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.