Quess What!!!!!!!! Only two more sleeps

I am starting to get excited now as there are only two more sleeps before we get home.  It is much cooler here today makes packing up a lot easier.  There is a Christmas Festival here this evening so we will join in the festivities.  They have a chocolate wheel where you can win a ham ( I think there is 60 hams to be won altogether) lollies and goodies for the kids and of course Santa.  My brother keeps telling me that Qantas is going on strike I don't think he is very nice.  Come Monday lunchtime I will be home Yippee!!!!!!!!

Talk again soon

Only Three more Sleeps

I am sitting here in picturesque Lowood writing this blog after having spent 3 lovely days with the grandies.  They were great fun and very well behaved.  It was much cooler in Brisbane, when we arrived back here yesterday the bus was all closed up and the temperature was 45 degrees.  It took a while to cool down.  I am hoping for cooler weather when we are home but knowing our luck WA will be experiencing a heatwave.  Today we are relaxing as it is so hot.  Tomorrow we will pack up ready for the flight home and Sunday we will shift the bus to its storage place and will spend the night in Brisbane and will be on the flight home Monday morning.  Talk again soon

Christmas Party

The showgrounds were abuzz early Friday morning with the arrival of some of the rigs for the weekend hosted by the CMCA Chapter the Albert Valley Rovers.  By the afternoon there were at least 20 motorhomes of various sizes surrounding us on the oval.  They were a very welcoming lot and it wasn't long before we were invited to share in the festivities.  Saturday morning we were treated to a cooked breakfast enjoyed in the breezeway near the hall followed by morning tea, afternoon tea and then happy hour.

Roy, Gloria, Terry, Freda, John & Beth

 At 6.30pm we all dressed up for the Xmas party.  We were greeted at the door with a wrapped bottle of wine and some door prize tickets.  It wasn't long and we were all seated and the meals were served.  Lovely turkey and ham with beautiful homegrown baked vegies, followed by either homemade Xmas pudding or apple pie and custard.  Lots of laughter and frivolity followed while we were entertained by a local two piece band.  They were excellent, they seemed to be able to play all kinds of music, though their jokes were a little less desirable. 

Some of the more agile ones danced the night away although as usual I had to sit out due to my partners lack of interest.  Lots of raffles of hampers of various sizes were won by all and sundry (not us of course).  We did win the meat tray at the local RSL club on Thursday night when we visited with Roy and Gloria.

Roy & Gloria

 Sunday afternoon as I write this there are only 6 happy campers left to spend the night we will be back to just two rigs tomorrow.  I didn't forget- there is now only 9 more sleeps before we fly home.

Santa's helpers in the corner

Talk again soon

Wivenhoe Dam-Lowood Qld 10 more sleeps

The Wivenhoe Spillway

Rain, rain glorious rain!  We have experienced some rain at last our first good dose since we left home in March or I might add since the winter before that.  It brought with it some much welcomed cooler weather.

The Picnic Area Wivenhoe Dam

 We drove out to Wivenhoe Dam where a lot of Brisbane's water supply is distributed.  The countryside around here is very beautiful with lots of green hills and country houses.

Some of the locals (it was most unusual to see ducks gathered around the cows)

Some more locals

 We drove over to Ipswich yesterday to my favourite Riverlinks Shopping Centre.  Didn't purchase much, just a new external hard drive to store my enormous collection of photos, I would hate to lose even one of them.  I have nearly finished putting photos onto DVD's maybe that will solve our Xmas present problem I could give all the family a DVD of our photos won't they all love that?  I think not! LOL you are so naughty Jan.  I am recording our trip into books and DVD's hopefully they will bring us many happy memories in our old age.  I am on the countdown for when we fly home it will soon be in single figures.  Did I mention that it is only 10 more sleeps.  My thoughts have been with my son yesterday and today as he recovers from his shoulder reconstruction operation.  I pray that all is well.  I am thinking of all the members in our CMCA Chapter celebrating Xmas this weekend in Bridgetown.  Merry Xmas to you all and we hope to catch up with some of you soon.

The Brisbane River

Talk again soon

Still in Lowood with only 14 more sleeps

We had a rather quiet weekend. Drove to Brisbane and had the HF radio sorted out. Had an enjoyable visit with the family as always. We have new neighbours move in, they will be here 3 weeks. Next week we will be in Brisbane for a couple of days doing the grandparent thing. It has been too hot to do much so I have been spending the last couple of days creating DVD's of all our photos and talking to family on Skype. On the weekend there will be a CMCA chapter meeting here for a Xmas get together so hopefully we will make some new friends. We are just chilling out at the moment doing the normal everyday things that unfortunately have to be done even when you are on holidays. There are 14 more sleeps before we arrive home and I can't wait.

Talk again soon

Toowoomba Qld

Statues in front of a building in Toowoomba which I took as we passed by as the lights changed

Wednesday we were off to Toowoomba for some retail therapy for the day. Had a lovely time in the Grand Central Shopping Centre right in town. Managed to pick up some talking CD books by Bryce Courtney should give us hours of listening when we resume our travels sometime next year.

A few hours of listening here.

Toowoomba was surrounded by smoke so some of the photos we took had a hazy effect.

A hazy view of Toowoomba

We are experiencing extremely high heat here at the moment temperatures are soaring in the high forties. I had a bad experience in target I brought and paid for two new tops but on arriving home I only had one. So my bargains weren't such a bargain after all. On the way home we stopped at the Big Orange and brought a box of Mangos. They are very nice and cheap here too.

Yesterday we ventured into Brisbane and over to Bracken Ridge to catch up with Carol and Graham we had a lovely lunch at the local hotel and drove home the long way. Bill wouldn't listen to me he followed the GPS and we ended up going right through Brisbane in Peak hour traffic around the most weirdest ways I've ever seen. If we went my way we would have gone up Gympie Rd over the Story Bridge onto the Ipswich Motorway and home. We took the scenic route but on the plus side we saw parts of Brisbane we haven't seen before. Although the air was a bit blue. Today was a quiet day attending to medical matters and other incidentals I did manage to cook up a batch of pumpkin scones and they were very nice too. We have to travel to Brissie tomorrow to have the radio looked at apparently we have another cell call number that we shouldn't have.

Talk again soon

Lowood Qld

We are in the centre of the back row

We arrived here in Lowood Tuesday 10th November after spending the previous night in a free camping spot at Harlem on the road to Esk. We are staying in the Lowood Showgrounds for $9 per night for power and water we will be here for a few weeks as we are leaving the bus in this area when we fly home. (only 22 more sleeps).

The view halfway up the hill

Wednesday we drove over to Ipswich about 30kms away for some retail therapy. Ipwich seems to have had a major over haul it looks quite lovely, a lot of lovely old queenslander houses in excellent condition. Friday we drove to Mt Gravatt Garden City to meet the DIL for lunch and to shop for some chrissy presents.

The view from the Showgrounds

Sunday we drove down to Brisbane to spend a few days with the family and to help Finn celebrate his 9th birthday on Tuesday. He received lots of lovely presents, one was a new camera. We had a lovely meal at the Manly Boat Club but it was slightly marred by an electrical storm during the evening. We arrived back on Wednesday after checking out a place to stay in Brissie. We also called in to see Wayne and Leslie who are camped at the Ipswich Showgrounds for a week. The weather over the past week had been extremely hot and uncomfortable. I hurt my back Thursday and went to the physio on Friday it is still sore but I can report it is easing a bit now.

More happy campers

Everyone rocked up for the HF Club Xmas weekend on Thurs and Fri, I think I counted 36 vehicles (caravans, buses, motorhomes) Plus we have had many day visitors from nearby areas. The Xmas lunch was held yesterday and it lasted nearly all day. Today we have leftovers for lunch and tonight we are dining at the local hotel. We have welcomed some old friends and have made many new friends. We intend to drive to Toowoomba for a visit and hopefully I will have some photos to show you soon. My photographer is having too much fun talking to take any photos.

Lowood

Talk again soon

Wondai Qld

A lovely creek at Finks Crossing

We arrived at Wondai on Tuesday and stayed with our friends Rhonda & John. John is an ex tour quide and we have had a lovely few days being shown around the area with an excellent commentary of the area we couldn't have asked for a better host. We drove to Kingaroy on Wed and up into the Bunya Mountains and surrounding areas, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at a lovely little town of Maidenwell.

Jan sitting on Statue at Bunya Mountains

We also explored Wondai, Byee, Proston and shopped at the local IGA in Murgon. We drove into Wondai last night for a lovely meal at the local RSL club.

Pelicans at Belkje Petersen Dam

We visited the Bjelke Petersen Dam and the Boondooma Dam, water is down as they have had little rain in the last few years.

Boondooma Dam

We are experiencing some of the storms which are effecting the Ipswich area but apart from some threatening lightning and strong winds we have not seen any rain. Our birthdays and wedding anniversary were this week and we received several calls from from family and friends. We were even serenaded by a few. We indulged in a Pavlova on my birthday which Bill surprised me by buying during a visit he made to Kingaroy. We leave today to travel towards Lowood where we are having a HF Radio Club get together and will catch up with new and old friends.

Bottle Trees are in abundance in the area

Only 36 sleeps before we go home Yeh!!!!!!!!!

Talk again soon

Maryborough Qld

We had rather a versatile weekend. We camped at the showgrounds and over the weekend there was a Dog Show on both days, Cross Country Horse events and Radio Controlled Racing Car Races. We made some new friends on Friday night and learnt all about showing Dogs and we spent most of Saturday watching the antics and the preening of the animals. The dogs are treated like royalty with some people spending up to about 8 hours grooming their dogs. I have enclosed a couple of pictures that may interest you.

This was a champion Standard Poodle out from the UK.

I forget what breed this dog is but it sure is cute.

This Lhasa Apso is being groomed by our friend Pam

Sunday morning we watched the radio control cars racing and were they well organised. In the afternoon we took a tour along the Mary River on the Mary.

The Mary coming in to pick up the customers

That proved a very interesting and enjoyable hour.

The Mary River

Maryborough seems to be an older town and there a lots of the old Queenslanders about and I am quite partial to them, I had one in a minute if they didn't require as much maintenence as they do.

One of the newer Queenslanders still nice.

We took the heritage trail around town and we discovered that our trains are made here, so we took a photo of one of our future Perth Trains.

One of TransPerth trains being finished

I wonder how long that will last before it is covered in graffiti. We left this morning on our way inland towards Kingaroy perhaps we will look up Flo to see if she's got the kettle on and the pumpkin scones made. We are spending the night in Kilkivan, a pioneering gold mining town. Only a small town with a few historic buildings but interesting enough. Tonight we may lash out and have tea at the pub, the menu looks ok and it sure beats cooking.

Talk again soon

Fraser Island Qld

The ferry ready to be loaded

We decided to do a tour of Fraser Island while we were here and yesterday was the day. We were picked up at 7.45am and set off by bus to Riverheads where the ferries leave from. On arriving on the Island we boarded a bus to take us on tour for the day. What a nightmare (for me a least) the tour bus is four wheel drive and it is extremely sandy so all day long we were bounced and jolted all over the place and we had the misfortune to be seated at the rear of the coach so we had the backflip as well. We didn't stop for lunch until 1.30pm so by that time my sugar levels were very low, I had a headache, felt very shaky and not so well and we were given exactly 40 minutes to eat lunch, so I couldn't eat. I give the driver his due he managed the tracks very well and was an excellant driver. Bill enjoyed the drive as he loves 4 wheel driving and the places we went to on the tour were absolutely beautiful.

Wanggoolba Creek

Our first stop was at Central station and we went for a walk in the rainforest along Wanggoolba Creek,

we then travelled up the famous 75 mile beach

and viewed the wreck of the cruise ship Maheno

and the coloured sands of the Pinnacles.

We stopped for a swim at Eli Creek followed by a buffet lunch at Eurong Beach Resort. After lunch we drove to Lake McKenzie, a beautiful fresh water lake with chrystal clear water.

Trust Bill to get between two bathing beauties

We finished the tour then and drove to the boat ramp and ferried back to the mainland and dropped at home. We arrived home about 6pm, so I estimated we spent at most 3 hours at the various stops and with the 30 minutes each way ferry trip and the rest was spent bouncing around in the coach. Anyhow I live to tell the tale. We will move on tomorrow probably only as far as Maryborough only about 32kms South and will stay in the showgrounds, we had previously visited Maryborough but unfortunately we didn't take the camera.

Talk again soon

Torbanlea Picnic Races

The Marina near the Boat Club

Hervey Bay Esplanade

Saturday we went to the country races. All the Pomp and ceremony was there, the ladies dressed to the nines in their lovely frocks and high heel shoes and Hats, lots of gentlemen in their suits and ties and the riff raff in shorts and thongs. It included everything even a horse auction and a celebrity race. From there we drove to Toogum for a leisurely lunch at a cafe on the waters edge, then on to Barrum Heads and Dangaragan, both lovely coastal areas with the obligatory beaches and fishing areas. We dined at the boatclub and over coffee watched a demonstration of some Rock N Rollers. Sunday we went to the local markets then visited friends that we met on the way. Firstly Wayne & Leslie and then Ron & Delys. Ron and Delys come from WA from a lovely place called Safety Bay. In the morning Bill went with Rod to the Light Model Aero Club for some flying and I had a cooking lesson with Catherine on Glass Noodle Salad and some other salads, mainly Thai or from Shanghai. Absolutely delicious I know what salad I am taking for Xmas Day.

A little Niche on the Esplanade

I have also been a couple of times with Catherine's walking group doing Pole walking for 5 kmls along the beach. Now don't get excited I said Pole Walking not Pole Dancing. Today we are doing the mundane things like hair cuts and washing etc although we do intend to book a tour over to Fraser Island.

The local Police Patrolling the beach

Talk again soon