BRETT'S 40th

Well yet another trip back home for a few meetings and then back to Ipswich where we took a quick trip to Warwick to pick up the other vehicle and back to get ready for Brett's 40th.

Instead of a full pig on a spit he decided to go with 2 legs still on a spit and Vegies and salad.

About 30 people were there to help him celebrate and the kids had a great time. 

Bretts Photo Board

Looks good enough to eat

Just because I am going to make a speech doesn't mean they have to time me

Brett with Mia and Eithen

Eithen engrosed in Grandma's speach

Mum and Tracy

Mia and Dad

Andrew, Tom and me

Obviously Dad didn't teach Andrew not to poke tongues

No explanation needed

Eithen in his sports chair

After a few drinks, it is a bit hard to know where to place your feet

After bad behavour he is sent to the enclosure to light the fire

Over the few days Stuart had our camp cooker lit and the kids did toasted marshmallows til they all had major sugar fixes and grandma was sick of sitting in front of the fire.

  Unfortunately large fires over towards Brisbane caused a lot of smoke haze and the spectacular mountain views were not as nice as usual.

We left Ipswich for Toowoomba on Tuesday morning to catch up with expats from Mackay the Thessmans and Phill Daley who is stationed in Warwick.

We had just collectively put $2 each on keno and won $1.50

I now know why I don't bet on Keno!!

Phil had a bet on the pikies and ended up a little better??

 

Doug and Kaye also make the yearly pilgrimage to Toowoomba in October and plans will be made for the same time next year.

With Victoria beckoning us we left Toowoomba Sunday morning and after a free camp near Narrabri we stopped for smoko about 10 am.  A little van pulled up near us and the driver and his partner were on their way home from a country music festival where he plays a gum leaf and recites his own poetry, so we were entertained with an impromptu poem or two and then he played happy birthday to me for today on a gum leaf. The entertainer was Gary Lowe who turned out to be very talented and had appeared on Red Faces, Australia's got Talent and a few other shows.

 

MUSIC AND CAMP OVEN FESTIVALS



An aerial photo of the showgrounds at Nanango left over from the previous post showing the 803 vans parked very precicely in place.  We are parked in the top right area second back row about 1/3 of the way across.

 

Before we left Tambourine we celebrated Stuart’s birthday with dinner at this lovely Italian Restaurant.

I also had a day in Brisbane catching up with Pat, Chris and Shel,  Had lunch at a lovely restaurant and talked for hours

On our way through we stopped to photograph Shane Webke's pub at Layburn

On our way to Texas for the Country music Festival we decided to stop off for lunch and a catch up with our friendly police Sergeant Phill Daley in Warwick.  Phil was heading off for a weekend with his family and we ended up in Warwick for over a week as we had fairly serious vehicle trouble.  With the car at the Mazda doctors Stuart flew home to get the Iveco which we hadnt sold at that stage while I stayed in Ipswich for a few days and caught up with Brett and family.  They have just moved into their new house at Peak Crossing.

The final diagnosis is a new? Short motor for the mazda so we'll pick it up on our way back to Brett's for his 40th and hopefully leave it there for a while.

Meanwhile we travelled on to Millmerren for the bi-annual Camp Oven Festival which has attracted over 2,000 vans apparently?

As it is over 30 years since I cooked seriously in a camp oven I indulged myself in a couple of quick hands on lessons and had a great stew for one nights dinner with enough left over for the next. 

  

Then next morning I lined up with another dozen would be camp oven experts and made  damper and scones - yes Jenny scones and they were great.  See all I needed all along was about 40' in the water bag, a raging fire with coals and a camp oven. Lol.

Yep, checking to see if it sounds right

Just Right!!

Scones just about right

Tasted good too!!

The next day all the campers around us were hanging out for my rendition of syrup dumplings in the Camp Oven. 

Getting down and dirty with the syrup dumplings

 

There are some serious camp oven cooks here this weekend with some of the professionals cooking for the multitudes using modified truck rims with iron bases and lids for camp ovens that hold about 50 Litres of stew or curry or whatever and there are about 15 of them on the go at any time.  They stir them with a big wooden paddle nearly the size of a  squash racket.

We bought yet another cooking appliance (to Stuarts dismay) the other day and used it to cook tea on that night.  Can't wait to try the camp oven in it soon.  It's made out of a large gas bottle on one leg about 3 ft high with a chimney even higher.  It has 2 plates- one for grilling on and the other with mesh in the centre for heating the billy.  We ran it just for the fire effect the other night and although contained it was still good to look at.

Our new camp cooker

Our version of lamb chops on the barby

We all have a job to do and this is mine (making sure the lamb cooks properly.  It gets a bit hot around the fire but I found a way to fix that

Our neighbours on the other side of the fence at Millmerren

It's quite hot here one day at 35' under the awning and 41.5' in the sun thank God there is no humidity.

But every now and then a sneaky breeze comes through and dries the perspiration and cools you down a bit.

We have seen a few Lotus vans here and one is owned by a lovely couple Peter and Maree who have just sold their house and are on the road full time. It will be great to keep in touch with them and maybe catch up somewhere down the track.  Our last night on Millmerren we caught up with another one of the Lotus family  in the form of Judy and yet another Peter and sat til well after dark swapping stories. 


Stuart, me, Peter Judy, Peter and Maree in front of Peter and Judy's Lotus

 As we pulled out of the show grounds on Monday morning following a goodbye to Maree and Peter we had a quick chat with 2 other Lotus owners who all agreed, we had a great time.  Some will be back again to the next one in two years time but for us it will be wait and see where we are.

Our next stop was Widgee for a country music festival.  Not a big one and only a few artists that I know including Dianne Lindsay

and of course Mackays singing cane farmer Col Edmonds. (Chris did you know Dorrie (of Charlie and Dorrie on 4crm country music) passed away a few months ago from cancer.  Charlie is still hosting the segment.

Widgee had an old time dance advertised for the Thursday night so Stuart and I put on our glad rags and fronted up to be one of 5 1/2 couples one of whom wasn't going to dance. 

Widgee's big dance night brought out a total of 14 dancers and 3 lookers but we didn't miss a dance (Stuart even did the Swing Waltz which isn't a Stu-ie dance).  After more than 4 years off the floor except for a little twirl around on the cruise my knees knew about it next morning.  We also won the door raffle of a basket of goodies and a bottle of wine.
While in Widgee we caught up with another couple who own Lotus vans, Ken and Jenny who we met at Nanango a few weeks earlier.

 

I'm off home for a meeting on Monday and back again for Brett's 40th next week.

 

 

NANANGO

We arrived in Nanango to find that the battery in the van wasn't holding a charge and so Stuart’s Cpap machine is turning off about 2-3 am and he stops breathing through the night, and the Waeco Freezer in the back of the car isn't charging as low as we would like. Problem!!

If it isn't one thing it's another these days.  Once again an auto electrician wired the car all wrong - this is the third time we have had wiring done and it has been wrong.

Stuart took a drive around town and charged the battery a bit The other day and next day we went up to the Bunya Mountain. 

A huge Bunya Tree

 

 

A statue depicting man's melding with nature in the Bunya Mountain with the hand and the vines intertwining

 It was so lovely and peaceful up there with bush wallaby's all over the place and most with joeys in their pouches  - well the females anyway. 

 

The Bunya Pines are huge and magnificent and so uniform in shape with very spiky leaves and relatively smooth trunks.  Stuart got some lovely photos of blue wrens....

 

among other birds On the way back we came into Kingaroy to the tourist information where apparently someone with far too much time on their hands and a knitting skill went to work on the back garden including a full sized Alice Chalmers tractor.

It was finished off with some chain link along the fence in bright shades of pink, orange, green purple, blue and lemon.

Next day, Stuart went into town to do the washing while I battled the bank recs. in readiness for the BAS.

With the Waeco up to -11' it is a bit of a worry so we need to sort out power as a matter of urgency.

Thursday saw the first day of the music festival with walk ups doing their stint behind the microphone.  From where we are camped we think some of them should do their stint in front of the microphone - with it turned down.

Looking forward to Ted Egan on Friday and Anne Kirkpatrick amongst others.

Friday saw us lining up for the bush poets breakfast before the start of the real artists .

This is the tenth year the Nanango Country Music Festival has been running and at last count Saturday there were 801 vans in the show grounds.

The showgrounds

An aerial photo was taken on Saturday morning which was just amazing.

After Nanango I went home again for a few days as the Director of Boarding has resigned and I had to go home for his sendoff.  If was great to catch up with the kids again anyway.

Stuart picked me up at Brisbane Airport and we had a whirlwind of things to do including having a day with my sisters Shel, Pat and Chris which was spectacular, dinner with Andrew and Tom, the night after we went to Andrew and Tom’s for Dinner where Andrew again excelled himself with a night of Tapas and wine.  We caught up with friends in the north of Brisbane and then on to Mt Tamborine for 6 days of rest from our hectic lifestyle these days.

Stuart's birthday on the 23rd was pretty uneventful but we had a lovely italian meal in downtown Mt Tamborine and on a drive through the countryside found a great spot where there were a lot of hang gliders and parasailers taking off and disappearing out of sight over the next hills.

Early morning rays peeking through the mist at Mt Tamboring

Beautiful trees surrounding our camp site at Mt Tamborine

Our next destination on the calendar is Texas for the Country Music Festival but on the way we had coffee with Phil Daley in Warwick.

A small setback in our plans has been a nasty sound in the engine which might be the tappets in the BT50 so we are at a caravan park in Warwick and the vehicle is at the doctors at the Mazda dealers.

Leaving Mackay (again)

Leaving today on another leg of our journey.  After weeks at home and coming back and forward a few times from all over the country I know now that we are fully staffed at home with reliable people and with Kath at the helm I think I can now retire (almost) with ease.

It has had its ups though – as without a home to come to I have shared myself with Kathy and Kylie and their familys and have had a great time on a personal level.  Unfortunately at times Kylie and I had toooooo great a time with a third party (grapes) but we had the best time together in years.  Thank you to both my Mackay girls.

Looking forward to catching up with Tracy this afternoon in rocky on our way through and of course Nana.

We will not be back this way until about March 2013 but I will still have to return twice before the end of the year for school business.

From here we go to Nanango for the Country Music Festival and then points south and so hoping to catch up with sisters in Brisbane and looking forward to Brett’s 40^th birthday in October  where he is going to have a pig on a spit.  They will be settled into their new home on the outskirts of Ipswich by then and as it is on an acre block there will certainly be somewhere to park the van.

It will be a double celebration when we get to Ipswich as Eithen turned 7 yesterday and a birthday wish on the phone just wasn't enough.

DARWIN - Last Days

View , Our Trip 2012 in a larger map

It seems I am getting a little out of sinc. With my story and photos but I will do a catch up and be ready for the next adventure.

We spent some very memorable days in Darwin taking in some of the places that I visited in the 80’s and also some new ones.

We took a magnificent dinner cruise in the Darwin Harbour which lasted for 4 hours with lovely local oysters and barra on the menu along with a beautiful sunset.

Crocs at Crocodylis Park including this albino one

At the Military Museum sitting on the same gun the kids sat on all those years ago

Around about the spot Kylie tripped up the stairs in the 80's

Darwin city from the Harbour Cruise  

The sun setting over Darwin Harbour in behind smoke

The sun setting behind a pleasure craft going past us on the Harbur

Sitting back relaxing on the Cruise

Feeding fresh water rays at the Wildlife Park

Fish feeding in Darwin

Standing in front of the Top End Hotel where Tracy and Kathy worked in the 90's

We also went to the fish feeding and on a type of boat ramp we stood in water up to our knees and fed barra and other species of fish which were up to 3 feet long swimming around our legs.

Stuart organised for a mobile caravan service person to do a wheel bearing service on the van and found that 3 of the 5 leaf springs on one of the wheels were broken and so averted a very serious and dangerous situation.  He got the springs and as they couldn’t be put on until Tuesday he gets to spend a few more days in Darwin before heading east to join me in Mackay.

Just before I left, the caravan park had a sausage sizzle and mini market to take in the park guests who do “things” on the road and might like to sell them, so we were invited to set up our candy and licorice.  We sold enough to pay for 3 nights’ accommodation and then they bought in a bloke up the road with a 4 ft crocodile for everyone to hold.  Not for me but Stuart did.

I got home to a very stressed Kathy and still no end to the staffing problem so worked all weekend which was a task as I am not used to it any more.  Hopefully by the time I leave we will be fully staffed and Kath can breathe a sigh of relief.

This weekend I am off to Rocky to see Tracy and aq trip down to Yeppoon to catch up with Joe and NIcki and Nana.