May 22, 2013 - CHARLEVILLE QLD

23rd May 2013 Decided to do the housekeeping today......A woman's work is never done.....sigh... sigh Big clean from top to bottom, front to back and Essie is looking almost brand new again. Rob is at Erin's place doing some odd jobs for her and when he came back he did some more reinforcing on the bike rack. Shouldn't move at all now. Tomorrow it's shopping and museum, well at this stage anyhow. You know what they say about the best plans......etc.

May 21, 2013 - Mungallala ,Wallumbilla & Morven

19th May Moving day, heading towards Charleville. First rest stop of the day Wallumbi just in time for morning tea. Calico Cottage served a great devonshire tea. Lots of arts and craft and a museum to browse in. Worthwhile stop about 13kms out of Roma. After fueling up at Roma we continue on our journey. A slow trip lots of roadworks, making for a long day. The Warrego highway needs a name change maybe the Bouncy Highway is more apt. We pull up at our stop for the night. Mungallala, very little here, a small caravan park and a very old...

May 21, 2013 - Morven To Charleville

It's on to Morven now, a whole 45ks up the road. Found the Morven Recreation Area which was said to have had power and water but even though we were there around 10am all those sites were taken so we camped over on the side of the billabong which we found to be better in the long run as it was quieter and there was more room anyway. We set up camp and then walked into town. A bit of history for you now: Morven is on the Warrego Highway and was originally known as Saddlers Waterhole and named after Captain T. J. Sadlier, who camped with his...

May 17, 2013 - RELAXING TIME

18th May 2013 Our stay at Doug's is almost over.....(read sad face here).... We will pull out on Monday but in the meantime I thought I better make use of all the coals from the campfire and do a brekky damper. Turned out great, slap on a bit of butter and some cream cheese and you have a feast. (Guess who forgot to pack the Golden Syrup?) The peace and quiet out here is DEAFENING. The wind in the trees, the early morning wake up Kookaburras and the smell of the open fire, you can't beat it. It does wonders for the stress levels and the...

May 17, 2013 - Out & About - Chinchilla

17th May We had a miserable cold,wet start to Thursday,clearing in the afternoon. Finally got to meet Doug who owns the property. He will be here till Monday. The sun is out and we have a beautiful morning. Time to head into town to do the washing and fill the cupboards. Before heading back to camp we had a walk around town. Strolling on the pedestrian walkway over the modern bridge [Eric Stewart Overbridge Walk]. There is a good view of the old Club Hotel, built in 1907. It is the only wooden hotel in Chinchilla that has not been razed...

May 14, 2013 - Chinchilla weir & Miles

12th May Mothers day was spent quietly, after a chat to Steve & Nome we head off into town. Blu has offered to take us in his hire car. Driving through town heading to the weir we noticed that not many shops are open. Living in the ACT we are use to every thing being open 7 days. Chinchilla Weir is a concrete faced earthfill structure and is the only storage for Chinchilla Weir Water Supply Scheme. The weir was officially opened in 1974. There is free camping for a maximum two nights. A shady relaxing place, quite popular with lots of...

May 13, 2013 - More interesting places

In the past few months we have explored a few areas around Brisbane including the Glasshouse Mountains, St. Helena Island, Mount Tambourine & Toowomba. The Glass House Mountains are named due to their shape which is like the glass factories back in northern England in the 1800s. We took a boat out to St. Helena Island which is just off the mainland very close to Brisbane. It was a prison for criminals in Queensland from 1860 - 1930 os so. We took a final weekend get-away and visited Jondaryan Sheep Station - like a pioneer village type...

May 11, 2013 - CHINCHILLA

12th May 2013. MOTHER'S DAY. Sure seems different being out here. We went for a drive out to the Weir this morning, plenty of vans making themselves at home but still prefer to be here at Doug's Place. It is a lot greener at the Weir than when we went out there a couple of years ago and there is actually water coming over the spillway too. Back into town and lunch of fish and chips from Salty's. Was quite nice too. We have a stew in the camp oven cooking nice and slowly and judging from the aroma wafting in the door it is going to taste...

May 10, 2013 - Doug's Place

11th May We left Meandarra Wednesday morning. On our last evening we wandered up to the pub to partake of their $10 whiteboard menu. Excellent value, I enjoyed the crumbed steak with veges while Greg had the curried chicken. Blu and Elaine also had the crumbed steak a meal enjoyed by all. Always get good value meals in the small town pubs. I know I have been talking a lot about the condition of the roads but travelling from Meandarra to Condamine was a very scary drive. The roads were very narrow in very poor condition. A road train...

May 10, 2013 - From the beach to the mountains

Leaving Dawn and Les with a promise to visit again on the way home we headed off to tonight's stop at Bemboka before taking on Brown Mountain. We drove through lovely green dairy country - Mogo, Moruya, Bodalla, took the scenic road through Dalmeny and Kianga then on to Narooma, Cobargo and almost to Bega. Turning off there we headed west to Bemboka at the foot of the mountain. We were going to camp alongside the sports ground and when we arrived there were soccer matches in progress so there were people and cars everywhere. It wasn't long...

May 10, 2013 - On the air again!

By now you must be thinking we've fallen off the edge of the world, but never fear, we're still here. We've been plagued with computer/Internet problems - my modem had been deactivated by Telstra because I hadn't used it for a while; my E-Pad (which holds my life)shut down and had to be replaced and that took time, but hopefully everything is ok now. We're now at Bright in North East Victoria after spending time in Wagga with Mum but I'll start where I left off weeks ago. April 7 Through Kempsey to Crescent Head to find Point Plomer for a...

May 10, 2013 - Meandarra To Chinchilla

8th May, 2013 We left Meandarra this morning and headed for Chinchilla. We thought we would have breakfast and fuel up in Condamine but it is even smaller than Meandarra. The Roads were slightly better, although still not up to scratch really. Thankfully the bikes are travelling a lot better since Rob fixed their mountings. There are a lot of Gas Pipeline/Drilling activities in the area and quite a few "camps" for the workers since we were this way two years ago. We arrived in Chinchilla and headed out to Doug's Place. It was almost a...