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