Home Again

Touch down in Mackay would have been a rude shock when I stepped out of the plane on the tarmac except that the Qantas flight I was on had no air conditioning.
It was back to reality and back into work mode very quickly with students back Sunday and a full barbque for 150 Sunday afternoon.
Stuart is still in Guyra with the Lamb and Potato Festival finishing on Wednesday of this week and then up to Stanthorpe for the show and then back home.
Thank goodness I have great family who came in and cleaned our house and aired it and a very generous grandson Zac who mowed down the forrest before I got home.  Thanks Zac for saving the pumpkin vine that had almost taken over the entire back yard with butternut pumpkins growing on it.
Here it is Monday and I feel as if I haven't been away but for now its "goodby from her and goodby from me" till our next trip.
I hope I have not bored you all with my musings and not taken up too much of your time keeping up with the Hawkes so stay tuned for our next trip.

About 60 stalls along the New England Highway and this is some of them

Our Stall at the Guyra Lamb and Potato Festival

15.1.11 F Guyra NSW Lamb and Potato Festival

At the end of day 4 of the festival and it has been a few good days.  We secured a good spot along the strip on the Highway (a good spot is one fairly near the toilet from my perspective) but wouldn't you think that a town like Guyra where it is about 16' in the morning and gets down to about 9' at this time of the year would come up with something a little more bum friendly than stainless steel toilet seats.  We are all out of helicoptors and the licorice and candy is going well.  We really thought that it would be a quiet festival due to the flooding up north but at this stage you wouldn't know it.  They have forcasted rain in a few days and so that may slow things down a bit.
The Lamb and Potato pies have been selling really well and so have the Lamb and Vegetable meals been going well. They always put on a "Traders Dinner" one night duroing the festival and this year it will be Monday Night so we are looking forward to that.
Stuart has a thing going with the volunteer lady who mans the Icecream Stand and they trade lolly strips for icecream.  She still likes him even though he inadvertantly sold her lemon instead of mango (she only likes mango) when she came back again for more he had to smuggle her more lemon so she would't know the difference.
We attended the traders dinner and heard of the improvements made through the year and they announced the dates for next year which will probably mean I will not be able to be here due to school committments.
Oh well - that's the way it goes.
I was in trouble yesterday as Stuart had gone for a shower early and the icecream lady Enid came up for her mango lolly fix.  I couldn't get her the lemon without her knowing and there wasn't any mango on display thank goodness, but this morning Stuart took her up her "Mango" and she was happy.

Guyra NSW Lamb and Potato Festival

After staying glued to the TV for the last 3 days watching Mother Nature at her worst with the floods in the Lokyer Valley, Ipswich and Brisbane I thank GOD that none of the people I love were not hurt or killed.
I spent a very worried night as Brett and Katrina waited with packed bags in a wakeful vigil in case the water from the Bremmer River in Ipswich rose to engulf their home.  Fortunately they were amongst the lucky ones.
Sadly, Shel and Michael and their family had to move out yesterday from their home in Fig Tree Pocket.  The last look they got of their home was as they were taken away by boat yesterday morning.  This morning the men were going to try to get back and survey the damage.
But still we are among the lucky ones as we have not lost loved ones.
I am concerned about a great uncle and his sons who lives in the Gatton, Lowood, Esk area and I cannot get them on the phone.  I hope they are alright.
My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones and cannot possibly perceive how they are feeling right now.

It is anticipated that a lot of traders will not be making it to the festival due to flooding in the north and of course there will be a lot of travellers who will not be passing through for the same reason but this is a small price to pay in the scheme of things.

Elvis has left the building!!!

ME AND ELVIS



Stuart's cousin Col with his Mustang which he drives in every parade.  You can't see him as it is left hand drive



??? A spiderman Elvis ???



Marilyn Munros 4





The Elvis Car


 Its Sunday afternoon at about 6.30 and nobody could tell that over 12,000 extra people had graced the streets of Parkes for the annual Elvis Festival. There was the occasional very bedraggled, swaying “Elvis” either entering or exiting one of the venues that he frequented all weekend singing and gyrating his hips.
The event commenced on Friday with an Elvis in every club and pub and just as many on the street strutting their stuff. Just in case we missed any music the Council had Elvis music coming from every lightpole up the main street.

Stuart had been up early and set up our stand and as Peter and Sandy came over from Camberra to visit and bring us some stuff left over from the cleanout of Chris’ unit they picked me up from Colin and Robyns house on Friday morning. I had made up some pikelets and we had morning tea before going in to the Market area. The main stage had a full day and evening of events on the calendar and people started arriving. The caravan parks were full and the show grounds were bumper to bumper with every conceivable caravan, motorhome, bus, and tent and it was rumoured that Council were collecting approximately $8,000 per day in rent for sites.

Friday wasn’t all that busy but very steady and Stuart was very happy with the sales. It quietened down after 3 as everyone went over to the railway station to watch the train come in from Sydney. There are about 300 booked on the train which sold out in 22 minutes in August last year. There is an Elvis on every carriage singing and shaking and entertaining and it is a big spectacle when they arrive.

Jeanette (Stuart’s cousin) and husband George invited us to dinner but as Stuart anticipated closing at about 9.00 pm, I went on up and he followed much much later. Peter and Sandy were staying there so we caught up over a few wines and inspected the improvements George has made in the last 12 months to their home.

An Art Show had 33 items entered and all had to have an Elvis theme. Robyn bought one and I would have liked to but I remembered Stuart’s mantra “it it won’t fit in the van don’t buy it” There were some wonderful entries including an Elvis chess set, a profile in black put together with black beads stuck to the canvas, some metal work depicting one of his movies and lots of paintings

Stuart and I went in early on Saturday for and we met up with Peter and Sandy and sat just down from his stand to watch the street parade. I felt it was not as good as last year but still was very good. Lots of Elvi and old cars and American cars.

Later in the afternoon they had the Guinness Book of Records attempt to have the largest number of Elvis Impersonators in one place. Las Vegas currently holds the record with 645 and Parkes had 611 so look out Las Vegas next year.

Sunday morning saw about30 couples renew their vows to Elvis inspired vows and Celebrant and all received an official certificate. In case you’re wondering - No! We didn’t.

When Peter and Sandy were leaving Stuart insisted on me going with them back to our van and resting. I protested but he won out and I had a rest.

We went to “our” Chinese Restaurant with (Jeanette and George who were friends of theirs” that we had had lunch at 2 times before and haven’t had a better chinese meal anywhere. We said our sad goodbys to them and went home where we both fell into bed and were asleep in minutes.

We said goodbye to Colin and Robyn and thanked them with a couple of bottles of wine for their hospitality and headed for guyra.

We stayed at a camp about17kms east of gunnadah and joined about 12 other vans in the pouring rain.  It did ease up after a while but rained fairly consistentlay all night.
After stocking up on groceries in Tamworth at the local shopping centre we saw an ad to say that Chad Morgan was appearing there most days through the Country Music Festival.  Would he be close to 80 by now???? How many years since his hit "Shiek of Scrubby Creek" which he wrote about the local creek at Walkerston where he grew up.
Have now arrived at Guyra and the weather isn't promising with a constant drizzle but we don't start til Friday so have booked into the "Show Grounds Hilton" for a couple of night at $10 per night.  I would like to wash but if I do I will probably have to take the clothes to the laundrymat to dry them.
What a disaster in Queensland with Toowoomba and Brisbane and Ipswich all flooding.
The Caseys are packed and may have to move from Fig Tree Pocket and Brett and Katrina and the kids have been given instructions by Council on where to go.  I hope it isn't during the night.  They have got all their stuff packed and ready to go if necessary, but I really feel for them.  At least they are safe for the while and I will be keeping an eye on the news for the next 24 hours.

3rd January 2011

We left the beautiful spot in the Warranbungles promising ourselves that we would be back one day to observe the observatory. An ex employee who worked as a scientist at the nearby space observatory which is a research centre only has built his own telescopes etc and charge people to view the universe at night.

We moved on to Mendooran? Where Stuart used to work in a bank about 40 years ago. The bank was gone – what is that an indication of?????

Just before Dubbo is a free camp on the banks of the Macquarie River. It is very muddy and fast flowing and where we camped was well below the water line only recently from all the rain.


The fast flowing Macquarie River



 By the time we settled in there were about 11 other travellers with us and we met a young couple from Mackay (Salonica Beach) who have been travelling with their 2 little girls since June and are just heading home.

 

We’re heading into Dubbo soon to revisit the old Dubbo Jail which we saw many years ago but it has been revamped with a lot of animated and electronic type stuff and so will be a whole new experience.


Dubbo Jail was great and gave a wonderful insight into life in the penal system in the early 1900’s. I think today’s penal code could do with a major review.

We stayed the night about 30kms out of Dubbo for the night just off the road at a gravel turn-around about 30 mitres off the road. Just far enough away from the highway that the trucks didn’t annoy us.
                                

An interesting stopover was at a little place out of Parkes called Peak Hill which used to boast a gold mine. The open cut hole is about 100 mitres off the road and looks like a miniature Mount Morgan Mine Hole. There has been fairly extensive re-forestation done on all the truck ramps with eucalypt and bottle brush trees about 8 mitres tall growing on them.








A stop at the Parkes observatory gave us a chance to stretch our legs again.










and then it was into Elvis land for lunch and a visit to “Elvis Central” to pick up a program and an apron and stubby holder for Kathy and even though it was only Tuesday, Elvis songs were blaring out through speakers on every light pole in the main street.
Our first stop in Parkes was the Tourist Information Centre to pick up our tickets for the Poet's Breakfast on Thursday and have a look at what was on.
the Museum is also incorporated into the Information Centre and as well as that was the home for the  Wongalea School where Stuart attended for primary school.  We were fortunate to meet up with one of the people who were instrumental in organising the reunion a couple of years ago and she opened some files presently closed to the public which put a smile on Stuart's face - that is until he spotted the loyer cane standing in the corner and cringed.  Was that because he could feel it again or just imagine how it might have felt way back then.  It was lovely to see photos of his family past on the walls.


Stuart's father Gordon in front on the left


Also at the Information Centre is housed the entire collection of Elvis Presley Memorabilia which is owned by ex Wiggle Greg.  There isn't a larger collection outside Graceland USA.


As we had time to spare before calling in to Stuart’s cousin Colin and wife Robyn we went to Forbes for a drive. Of course a stop at the information bureau was a must and it is located in the old railway station so of course in a few small rooms. Every nook and cranny was taken up with craft type products for sale along with a few cloth dolls and other nick knacks. The lady at the desk said that we could go into a small room where they were playing a short movie about Ben Hall the bush ranger who was killed not far from there. Of course the room was very dim and we walked a few steps into the room and Stuart indicated a couple of people sitting on a bench in front of the tv. I glanced at them and then, thinking they were cloth dummy's sitting there (indicating that we could also sit and watch the movie) I nearly poked my head round in front of them to get a better look at them (to see how well the creator had moulded the head (as in cloth dolls) Just as I was about to do it one of the ‘dummys’ said “the movie is about Half way through” I thanked her and got out of the room before I burst out laughing.

Into Parkes we came and out to Colin and Robyns who live about 5 kms out of town and parked our van in the usual place amongst the shrubs and trees on his block. Following a few drinks and cheese and bickies Robyn put on a great dinner and next morning we went into town then went for a drive out to Stuart’s old farm at Gunningbland and had the afternoon with the Dunfords who now own it.  The Dunfords were on the neighbouring property to Stuart;s parents and subsequently bought the farm.  Wayne and Stuart were very good friends and have remained so.

On the way there we went to a little place called Ootha whose only claim to fame is the “UTES IN THE PADDOCK”
 

                                                http://www.utesinthepaddock.com.au/
where there are presently 20 Holden utes painted to depict all kinds of Australian cultures and way of life. The intention is to have a total of 25. This is a unique display in the middle of the bush.





Thursday saw us visiting Stuart’s Aunty Elsie who at about 95 and lives on her own, does her own cooking and washing and just gets in home help once a week. She is such a lady and is the wife of Stuart’s father’s brother. As she wiped a tear from her eye she genuinely thanked us for coming to visit her and said she may not be here next time we call and even though she had grandchildren in town they do not come to see her but she supposes they will all attend her funeral. “I would sooner they visited me while I am alive” she said. Her son Col and daughter Jeanette visit regularly and do a lot for her and although her hearing is bad and she is a bit unsteady on her feet she is as smart as a tack.

1.1.2011



The early morning suns rays just trying to break through the mist




 Just before we left our last camp spot Stuart got up early and got these amazing photos of the insect world at work

On arrival in Narribri we thought a couple of days there would suit for me to wash and clean the van.  The new washing maching in the Lotus got a work out with 5 loads of washing.  This is because we could only do about 2.5 kilos at a time but we got the sheets, towels, clothes, mats done fairly quickly.
We went up to Kaputar (Cap-U-Tar) as there were supposed to be some really fantastic walks up there.
Yes.... I thought maybe I was pushing my knee a bit too far but - what the heck.  We picked a relatively easy walk about 2 kms long and over bush scrub and about a 1/3 of it was over an ancient lava flow to a view down into the valley far below.  I made it in and I actually made it out.  I must admit,. I checked my phone to see if I had coverage so that if the inevitable happened I could call in the paramedics but I made it.  2,5 months our of a complete knee replacement and I was bush walking.  WOW!!!



Across the lava flow were yellow markers so that you didn't get lost - it was very vast



 
As Friday was New Years Eve we went about a block from the park to the RSL Club for dinner.  What a great place.  We ordered drinks, then a meal all from our table with a button on the table number thingy (technical term for I don't know after 3 wines) and a waitress was soon hovering to get our slightest wish.  we ordered our meal and next thing the lights dimmed and suddenly thundered clashed and lightening struck and I thought a storm had burst overhead but what actually happened was the club had electronically organised the whole thing down to the lights dimming, thunder clashing, lightening flashing then from the corrigated iron roof came water dropping into channels on the floor and then it slowly eased and the frogs croaked and the lights came up and that was the end of that until about an hour it started again.  A credit to the Narrabri RSL for a great night and a very entertaining one..
New Years Eve had little significance for us tonight as we were in bed fairly early and it was all over until 1.1.11.
The first day of the year saw us traveling form Narribri through to Coonabararan where we stopped at the information centre and saw the fossils of an ancient wombat animal called a DIPROTODON .

with a stop off at the PILAGA FORREST POTTERY place where I purchased my first birthday present for 2011.
Yes girls you can guess who it is for - till one of you actually get it.



This is the family home of the German people who own and run Pilliga Pottery.  I can only guess that it is based on traditional country German homes.




This tree is just outside the workshop and is made entirely of earthenware - incredible



We travelled on to theWARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK where we camped up for the night.  For a small fee we got power and that is all.  What a lovely place. 



This root formation has been eroded by the creek that runs down the side of the camp at the Warrumbungles



Stuart went for a swim in the creek nearby but it was too cool for me.  We had to juggle for space with the kangaroos and the lone goanna and that brought back memmories of when we went up to the Blackdown Tablelands with the Moores and Uncle Terry fed the Goanna eggs.  what great memories.!!!!  There were about 4 vans in sight and it was just great.