We make our own busy.

We certainly do make our own busy!  Since we have been home, can you believe just three weeks, it has been go, go go.   In our first week home most of our time was spent cleaning out the caravan and washing every single linen item including the mattress topper.  That meant a trip to the laundromat to use the industrial size as my washing machine is nowhere big enough to cope with that size. We also had a trip to the dry cleaner (aren't they expensive!) to freshen up our woollen overcoats. I'm not going back to the one I usually use as I swear they never cleaned my overcoat.

When we were away we decided to bite the bullet and buy me a town car.  I have unfortunately dented the Holden more times than I care to admit so we will take it to the panel beaters, have all the dings removed and then wrap it in cotton wool :-) 

Between the two of us we did a lot of research regarding a town car.  We were certainly restricted sizewise because, although we have a two car garage, it is more like one and a half cars.  Another problem was how long we wanted to wait for the perfect car.  Most salesmen we spoke to said that if we wanted a specific colour/transmission for our desired vehicle we would have a wait of around six months.  We had condensed our choices down to three, a Fiat Abarth, Toyota Yaris or Suzuki Swift.  The decision was eventually made easy for us because the only vehicle available to us in Cairns was the Suzuki Swift.

It was the right choice. I love it.  It is sunflower yellow and every single time I get behind the wheel I start smiling.  It is a great little car to drive and I really love the manual transmission!  I wondered how I would go with a manual after driving automatic cars for such a long time but it somewhat surprisingly came back to me in no time at all.  It is so easy to park after the Holden and I wondered why we hadn't bought something like this years ago.

After going to the movies in Hervey Bay when we were away we decided to make it a more regular thing and have now made Tuesdays Movie Day. We have seen Cruella, Dream Horse and the Hitmans Wifes Bodyguard.  All three were great albeit very different. The next we want to see is Buckleys Chance.  At one of our movie dates we were joined by our friends Michael and Jane.  It was Michaels birthday so after the movie we drove the short distance to the Bluewater Tavern for a delicious lunch where we were joined by Kate and Michael.  There was so much food on our table but we seemed to eat almost everything! It was great to get together again after being apart for so many months.

Last weekend we drove to Charters Towers for another friends 70th birthday.  I used to work for Robyn and Tony as a bookkeeper when they had the BP fuel run.  I enjoyed it so much as they are such a lovely family.  They have four kids, all now married with kids of their own.  The whole family has the greatest sense of humour and laughter comes easily. Each one of the kids had a story to tell at the party and were not worried about taking the mickey out of each other. We had such a great night and I was not surprised that we didn't get to bed until after 1.00pm.  

The next day we drove back to Townsville to have a night with our lifelong friends, Kevin and Karen.  K & K have completed a beautiful renovation on the old family home on the Strand in Townsville.  It's just so lovely and the minute you walk in the door you get this wonderful "at home" feeling.  We sat around shooting the breeze because as is always the case when you catch up with old friends, you have a lot to catch up on.  No siting up too late this night though as we all needed to catch up on sleep after the previous late night.

So that brings me to today where I have been to my first Zumba class.  I was totally out of step with everybody else but I enjoyed it and I'm sure that with time I will get to know the routine.  I'm also going to try the Zumba Aqua in the heated pool.  It sounds like fun.

Take care my friends.

Judi xx

A milestone birthday

Our son turned 40 on the 8th June and his birthday party was on the weekend. 40 really is a milestone birthday with it being the halfway mark.  For my 40th birthday I took three of my girlfriends to Karumba for a girly weekend. It was a lot of fun and it was a perfect birthday for me as I'm not big on parties and being the centre of attention. My son, however did not inherit that trait from me.  He is like his father and doesn't mind a big splash up party.....

We arrived at our sons place at Gundiah on Thursday and were quickly put to work with party preparations.  We had, of course, offered to help with whatever we could. My daughter in law is a dab hand in the kitchen and can cater very easily for a crowd.  They were expecting 70 guests and that is a large amount of people to cater for so they decided on a spit roasted whole lamb and rotisserie chooks with lots of vegetables to be cooked in camp ovens.  Suzie and I chopped all the vegetables on Friday morning.  Baby potatoes were scrubbed, carrots were julienned, zucchini was sliced along with beans.  Broccoli and Cauliflower was tossed in a huge amount of cheesy white sauce that took around five litres of milk! Three large pumpkins were de-seeded  and stuffed with lots of garlic and then wrapped in foil to be placed on the fire coals.  All this chopping took us a couple of hours.  Once we had finished and the vegetables were placed into the camp ovens and taken to the coldroom, it was time to make our way down to the camp ground on the banks of the Mary River where the party was to be held.

It is a beautiful spot with plenty of room for all the caravans, campers and tents to set up their respective camp.  The ground is grassed and flat and Marco and Suzie had slashed and mowed the whole area.  Quite a few of the guests arrived on Friday and it was decided that we all head to the Gundy Pub for dinner that night so that nobody needed to cook.  It was a good choice and the meals that the publican served up were bloody delicious!  I wish I had taken a photo of Philips Chicken Parmy.  It was humungeous.  Most of us oldies left the pub quite early but the young ones stayed till quite late. A decision I think they regretted the next day!

The day of the party Marco got the fire going early because he needed the coals to be just the right temperature for the spit roasted lamb and camp ovens.  He really deserved a medal for the effort he put into the cooking.  For hours he never stopped moving coals around.  He was offered plenty of help but I think he enjoyed doing it himself.

The guests started arriving around 3pm for a 6pm dinner.  They arrived in dribs and drabs with their chairs in one hand and esky in the other.  It was very cold so everyone made sure they were wearing plenty of warm clothes.  Philip stole a friends hat/beanie/thingy.....looks cute doesn't he 😩😩

We had an absolute ball at the party.  There were so many of our Julia Creek ex-pat friends at the party and we spent a great deal of time talking old times. I looked around at the diverse crowd.  The age group was from 8 to 80 and came from so many different areas but everyone just mingled.  I think that says a lot about the circle of friends that Marc has in his life.  Nothing pretentious or shy about this lot!

The meal that Marco and Suzie presented to their guests was delicious with a capital 'D" and it was the perfect amount of food.  There were a few vegetables leftover and Suzie and I commented that we would rather be accused of over catering than under catering 😂. For dessert we had cupcakes.  Wow.  They were the best.  I have never seen so many different varieties.  There was Turkish delight, Lemon Meringue, Black Forest and Salted Caramel to name just a few.  They certainly went down a treat especially with both big and little kids!

We only camped for two nights. We had very cold nights but beautiful day time temperatures. We were going to stay the third night but I was quietly pleased when it was decided that the few of us that were still there on Sunday should move our camps up to the house (and power!!!).  

It was much warmer on Sunday night and I wasn't surprised when we woke to a rainy day.  We are now in Mount Larcom at one of the local caravan parks where it is raining steadily and I love the sound of rain on the roof. This will probably be my last holiday post as we plan on being home on Friday.  We have quite a few kilometres in front of us so it will be early morning starts and early bedtimes for us.

Take care friends xx

It's all about the (sea)food....

We had a very enjoyable time in Hervey Bay for the lead-up to Marco's birthday.  As our holiday is drawing to an end we decided to indulge ourselves with a few good restaurant meals before making our way home.  The first meal we had was at the delightful Aquavue Cafe where we were given a table that looked out over the bay towards Fraser Island.  It was a gorgeous sunshiny day so it was the perfect venue.  As Hervey Bay is renowned far and wide for its seafood, in particular the Hervey Bay Scallops, we settled on a share Seafood Platter. 

The platter was made up of the freshest seafood including oysters, mornay scallops, fish cakes, calamari, battered fish and fries with a healthy salad on the side.  The two dipping sauces were to die for and complimented the seafood beautifully.  I'm not a great oyster lover but as Philip wouldn't touch them I decided to have a go. Oh....my......goodness.....they were everything that people say an oyster should be.  Plump, creamy and tasting of the ocean.  I'm now a devoted oyster eater but I do wonder if I will ever get to eat another as good. It took us a good while to get through this huge platter, but eat it we did!  We were very appreciative of the walk home, I can tell you.

The next day I made a lunch reservation at Cafe Baleana down on the Hervey Bay wharf.  It came with recommendations so I knew it was going to be another great meal.  

The menu here is extensive and it was difficult to chose a dish when confronted with so many choices but in the end I chose Scallops for entree and Chicken Supreme with a prawn and scallop sauce for main. Philip chose the seafood chowder for entree and a pasta dish for main.  The entree came to our table quite fast and they were delicious. The scallops were cooked to perfection and the butter and chorizo sauce that accompanied them was a perfect match.  Philip's chowder was also outstanding.  We all know how difficult it is to cook a seafood chowder when the different types of seafood have to be added at the right time so that none of it becomes overcooked and rubbery.  The chef certainly has it perfected. Every morsel of seafood was cooked to perfection.

As we were finishing the last mouthfuls of our entree our mains arrived!  A little too fast for my liking but I guess it's better than a long wait.  It was a bit of a shuffle though as the waitress tried to take away our entree plates and place our mains in front of us!  Once again this course could not be faulted.  When I first saw the size of my main I thought I would never be able to eat it all, but once again, eat it I did......

I sipped on a delicious Aperol Spritz during my meal and recalled the time we were on Lido Island in Italy doing the exact same thing. My cocktail complemented my little handbag don't you think...........

After our meal we strolled the short distance to the Hervey Bay Yacht Club Cinema.  Oh boy. It was such a great little theatre and I highly recommend it if you are in the area.  There are only two cinemas with just 50 very comfortable armchairs for you to lay back in and enjoy the movie.  Our movie choice was Wrath of Man.  It was a fast paced action movie with a bit of twist at the end.  I would give it 3.5 stars.

So that was our time spent in Hervey Bay.  I walked every day (my apple watch told me I walked 48 kms) and Philip cycled even further around the coastline.  One evening we did the touristy thing and walked the 800 metre Urangan Jetty for a bit of sunset photography but actually the best sunset photo was taken from the shore line. 

We love Hervey Bay and as Marco lives very close we will undoubtedly return for many more enjoyable stays.

  

Burnett Heads, Bundaberg

I love it when you stumble upon a place that was never on your radar and yet it should be.  Bundaberg is just that place.  My DIL mentioned in conversation that there was lot to see and do in the Bundaberg area and she had that on good advice from family members.  So when we decided to stay for Marco's 40th birthday we found we had time on our hands and I started searching for a place to put up camp for a few days.  Wikicamps once again was invaluable and after many glowing reviews we booked into the Burnett Heads Lighthouse Caravan Park. This is a council run park so daily rates are a lot less than the privately owned parks. But the undeniable beauty of his park was that it was small with only 50 sites and most of these were large drive through sites.  It is shady but not enough to stop you getting good satellite reception and most of the sites are quite private.  We had a hedge between us and the site next door.  And of course the biggest bonus is that it is close to the ocean with a lovely coastal walk that stretches for many kilometres.  It is perfect.

So how did we fill in our days. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon around 3pm so apart from setting up camp and going for a leisurely stroll that was the sum total of Day 1.

Day 2 we drove the 12kms into Bundaberg as it was recommended to us to visit the Bundaberg Rum distillery.   This hour long tour is so much fun and it is all down to the fantastic tour guide that we had.  She told lots of jokes and her story telling was fun and no we didn't see any drop bears! We visited various sections of the distillery that have been limited since Covid restrictions came into place last year.  The culmination of our tour was a rum tasting.  We were given two samples and we chose a smooth rum and a rum liqueur.  We ended up purchasing the liqueur that will be delicious either in a Tiramisu or drunk straight over ice. It is a tour I would recommend with a 4/5 stars.

Day 3 we purchased rail tickets to Brisbane.  It is a four hour journey into Brisbane but as we both enjoy rail travel the time passed very quickly.  We boarded the Spirit of the Outback in Bundaberg at the very early hour of 5.30am.  As we boarded we were greeted by our hostess who guided us to our very large comfortable seats.  The dining car opened for breakfast at 6.30 so we made our way there and enjoyed a cup of tea for me and coffee for Philip.  The hot breakfast of sausages and frittata was quite delicious.  The train was slightly delayed but we were standing outside Roma Street Station by 11.00 am.  We made our way along the very windy George Street and headed towards the Queen Street Mall.  I commented to Philip that this was my regular route when I worked in one of the Government departments in my youth. Once we reached the mall we found the Apple Shop where I purchased an Apple Watch.  Philip received a free apple watch from his surgeon when he had his knee operation and I had been wearing if for the past six months but it was now time to return it to him. After we had completed the transaction at the Apple Store it was time for lunch and we found a restaurant in Queens Plaza that served up quite a respectable meal.  We lingered over our meal and after a brief shop in Queens Plaza to buy some necessities we once again headed back to Roma Street for our return journey to Bundaberg.  The return journey was on the Spirit of Queensland that was not as comfortable as the Outback.  The seats were leather as opposed to the fully upholstered on the Outback. We arrived back into Bundaberg around 8.00pm a little weary but glad we made the journey.

Day 4 we decided to visit the Mon Repos Turtle Centre.  Turtle laying season is from October to April so we didn't get to see that sadly, but Mon Repos has a fantastic interpretive centre.  Each group is allocated a guide to talk about the turtles life cycle.  (Did you know that once the turtle is hatched and makes her way into the ocean to South America, she does not return to Mon Repos to lay her eggs for 30 years! How earth does she remember where to go!) After the talk we were lead into a theatre.  The movies that were shown were not exactly 3D but certainly give you the impression that you were swimming with the turtles.  I can't wait to return in the turtle laying season.

Day 5 was our exploring day.  We drove from Burnett Heads south to Bagara Beach and on to Elliot Heads.  It took the best part of the morning as we stopped at lookouts and beaches to explore each area.  It really is a lovely coastline.  Elliott Heads was impressive with its miles and miles of white sand whereas Bagara is very touristy with its high-rise apartment blocks running the length of the esplanade.  Burnett Heads was still hands down the best.  This was our last full day at Burnett Heads and we treated ourselves to fish and chips for lunch. The proprietor assured me the fish was fresh and local.  It was delicious.

So that was our time at Burnett Heads.  We walked/cycled every day along the extensive pathways and decided to have a healthy eating and no alcohol week.  After 10 weeks of doing the exact opposite we certainly felt a lot better for it.

We are now in Hervey Bay and enjoying some lovely warm weather.  Cheers for now.

So slack.

You would think with all this time on my hands I could at least TRY to post more regularly on my blog.  The truth is I am a slacker.....

So to fill you in on our travels, after we left Marco and Suzie at Gundiah we made our way inland to Pittsworth.  This took us around five hours with a few stops along the way.  We travelled the back roads with only one wrong turn that once more saw us turning around and putting another hole in the caravan hatch.  When we get back to Cairns we are taking the car to a place that will chop 6 or so inches off the tray because this is the second time that this has happened!

Anyway, where was I. So we took the backroads and came on to the main highway at Jondaryn.  We only stayed on the highway for a couple of kilometres before turning off and heading towards Mt. Tyson and Springsure.  Springsure is where my mum grew up on a farm that incorporated a dairy and piggery.  As a child I used to love going to "the farm" where Nana would cook us delicious home cooked meals and Pa would take us for journeys around the farm.  I can remember very vividly sitting on a chair watching Nana cook while at the same time being intrigued by the yellow strip of sticky paper hanging from the ceiling that caught flies.

We arrived into Pittsworth mid afternoon and made our way to "Hawthorn" where my Aunty Ann and Uncle Ken have a few thousand acres of very productive farming land.  Two more aunts and uncles and my mum were here to greet us as they were all here to celebrate a couple of the Aunts birthdays.  It was a truly memorable time as we sat around the table filling each other in on family news.  I treasure these moments as my aunts and uncles are now elderly and their memories are fading. It is very important to talk to them now and not wait for a better time.....

After an overnight stay at Hawthorn we bade the relatives farewell as we drove the short distance to Toowoomba where we had booked into a caravan park not far from mum's place. After unhooking the van and setting up our camp we drove into town where Philips new "fold up" bike was waiting.  He has been missing his cycling so when I saw this bike online I ordered it straight away.  It is a "cheap and nasty" but it has everything that Philip needs and he seems to be loving it.

There are some terrific walkways/cycleways just behind our caravan park and each morning (or afternoon if it was too cold) I walked and Philip cycled the almost 10km pathway. It was very cold in Toowoomba  but the days were quite lovely if the wind didn't come up. We wanted to devote as much time as possible to mum and we asked that she make up a list of jobs that she wanted done while we were there.  Each morning we visited mum and worked our way through the list and stayed until lunch.  We either had lunch with mum or went back to the caravan.

On our second last day in Toowoomba mum wanted to take us out for lunch so we made reservations at George Banks Restaurant.  The food here was delicious and we walked away with very full bellies.  Our starter was a platter that was enormous and really too big for just three of us.  It had calamari, arancini, spring rolls and chilli chicken nibbles and every morsel was delicious.  I chose the seafood and corn risotto as my next course and we all shared a chocolate lava cake for dessert. 

We dropped mum home after lunch and said our farewells as we had to pack up that afternoon for an early start the next day.  It is always hard to say goodbye.  We are now at beautiful Burnett Heads (Bundaberg) and enjoying this lovely little place very much.  The caravan park is everything we love.  Small, large drive through sites, and close to the ocean.  This was our view from our site this evening.

Take care folks and I will fill you in on Burnett Heads in my next post.

Where are we?

We are at Gundiah on our sons property, "Evergreen".  We will be here for the next week while son and DIL take a well earned break.  Not that they have ventured very far as they have set up camp on the banks of the Mary River on their own property!  It has actually worked out well for all of us as we get to see them as often as we want or need when we have a caretaking question.  They have a great camping set-up with their camper trailer and as we all commented yesterday the hardest thing is the setting up and pulling down so when you go camping it's much better to stay for an extended period of time.  It's not much different in the caravan I guess.  We would prefer to stay in one place for 5-7 days as you really don't want to be setting up every day.  Marco and Suzie invited us down to their camp for lunch yesterday where they cooked us a very tasty camp oven meal.  We have never used a camp oven so I was very impressed with how fast it cooks in the coals.  I think this chicken and vegetable meal took less than two hours.  Apparently it is all in having the coals the right temperature.

So, how have we been filling in our days?  Very leisurely. I can assure you of that. Philip has been doing all the chores that really don't take up too much time and in between the chores he has been watering and mowing Marco's lemon, grapefruit, fig and pomegranate orchard.  This year is their first producing year so it is very exciting for them.  They have been disappointed in the figs and will probably remove them as we all know how finicky they are to grow.  The worst thing with figs is that once you finally get the fruit, if you're not fast enough to pick them, the birds beat you to it. Marco has had weaners in the yard that need to be tailed out each day so that has also been on the chore list.  Philip loves his cattle and has been enjoying this job more than he admits. 😉 But now the weaners are out of the yards and back in the paddock so that job has finished. 

We have also been going for long walks most afternoons as it is way too cold for me in the morning. It has been down around the 4-6 degree mark that is quite chilly.  Our walk takes us past the dam where two black swans have made themselves at home.  They were here for the first few days but have now sadly moved on.  I could never close enough to photograph them as they are quite skittish.  Philip and I even tried to sneak up on them but they are smarter than us and made their way to the farthest point away from us...

Oh yes, before I go, where have our travels taken us. After we left Cowra our next stop was Coonabarabran, but at a different van park much closer to town so we could walk to town to replenish our perishables.  

The following night was Goondiwindi followed by Dalby.  We are still only trying to do just a few hundred kilometres between overnight stops so that we have plenty of time each afternoon to do a little washing.  That didn't work well for us in Dalby though as we had no sooner set up camp and I had hung out a load of washing when we had a tremendous downpour of rain.

We have decided to extend our time away so that we can be back at "Evergreen" for Marco's 40th birthday party on the 12th June.  There are quite a few people coming so it is going to be a camp-out on the banks of the mighty Mary River in one of the many registered HipCamp campsites that  M & S have on their property. The camp sites here are fabulous.  They are flat and grassed and would put a lot of caravan park sites to shame! But before we get back to "Evergreen" we still have Toowoomba, Bundaberg and Hervey Bay on our list.  I think we will definitely be ready to head home after that.......maybe.....😉

Cowra, NSW

We drove through the very picturesque Yarra Valley after we left Gundaroo.  Wineries are interlaced with sheep and beef grazing and many many acres are under cultivation.  Philip and I laugh because we have no idea what the crops are.  To us they are either Sorghum, Lucerne or Cotton  because that is all we know 😂😂

Cowra is a gorgeous place.  It is just under 200km north of Canberra and around 300km west of Sydney (please don't quote me....just guessing).  I was doing a little research on Cowra as we were driving along and I had forgotten just how much history there is to Cowra.  Philip and I had both read David Crookes fiction novel "Someday Soon" that touches a little on the POW camp established in Cowra and the outbreak of prisoners in 1944 that saw 234 Japanese prisoners and 4 Australian soldiers killed in combat. This terrible incident was kept under wraps for a long time because of the devastating loss of lives. 

Since WW2, Australia in true blue Aussie form, has forged a friendship with Japan and that friendship is abundantly clear in Cowra where the Japanese have contributed many $$$'s into the town in a clear showing of mutual friendship. 

As soon as we arrived into Cowra and unhitched the van we walked the short distance to the Information Centre that has showing a hologram presentation where "Claire" tells her personal story of the POW breakout. I can understand why 60,000 visit this information centre each year.  It is amazing. After talking with one of the volunteers at the information centre he suggested that we make our way to the Cowra Art Gallery where there was a John Gollings photography exhibition depicting the "history of the built world" on display. I love anything photographic and this was right up my alley! 

There are so many things to see and do in Cowra and we only had one full day so we earmarked the Japanese Gardens, the POW Camp, War Memorial and Peace Bell as places to visit.  The Japanese Gardens were first on the list.  We have been to quite a few  Japanese gardens around the world and this one is right up there with the best.  It is spread out over 5 hectares and even though there were many visitors here the place just exudes serenity.  I love the Japanese use of water.  No matter where we were in the garden the sound of water was tinkling away in the background.  I didn't want to leave here and if we had packed a lunch I would have gladly stayed here all day!

But we still had places to visit so next on the list was the POW camp.  My first thought was "it's huge" but considering it held more than 1000 prisoners, it was not so big.  In fact the number of prisoners is what caused the prisoner outbreak.  It was decided that 200 of the Japanese prisoners should be moved to another camp and the prisoners rebelled at being segregated.  The very next night the prisoners decided to breakout.  It is a little sad that Japanese considered death to be better than being held a prisoner. 

After the POW camp we drove to the War memorial.  We didn't spend much time here as I just feel so sad when I think about the horrendous loss of young lives. I was reading something today that just horrified me.  It is estimated that between 50-85 million lives were lost in WW11.  It makes Covid seem like a trivial matter......

And last but not least of our things to do in Cowra was to ring the Peace Bell.  

AUSTRALIA’S WORLD PEACE BELL…

Made from melted down coins donated by 106 member countries of the United Nations, Australia's World Peace Bell is a testament to Cowra’s long-standing contribution to world peace and international understanding. Recognised by the World Peace Bell Association in 1992, the bell is proudly housed in Cowra's Civic Square where visitors can read the interpretive signage, listen to the audio presentation and even ring the bell itself.