Monday...27 September

Packed up and moved camp today. Thinking perhaps we were lucky to travel as far as we did, given that everywhere we looked there was paddock after paddock under water. Couple of times during the day we hit rain too thick to see through. Once was even thunder and lightning. When we left Goondiwindi the constabulary were closing all roads north and manning them to make sure they stayed closed. One Kenworth truck driver that Keith spoke with had travelled through water up to his top step, which means the water was at least 2feet deep. So far it is dry here in Coonabarabran which is south of Goondiwindi. Tomorrow we head to Dubbo, weather permitting.  Had a great time visiting with cousin Beth and will go back and spend more time with her, maybe next year.

Sunday...26 September

Well here we are in wet and soggy Goondiwindi, thank heaven cousin Beth is here too, there has to be something else going for this little town. It is also the home town of the famous Goondiwindi Grey. Gunsynd was a famous Melbourne Cup winner and was born and raised at Goondiwindi. We got 3.5inches of rain in the first 24hrs we were here and they have had 4.5inches this week.  Beth took us for a drive today to see the sights of Goondiwindi or Gundy as the locals call the town. The McIntyre river which divides Gundy from NSW is flowing very very fast and is running at 8metres. Goondiwindi owes its prosperity to the cotton crops grown in the district. While cotton is not everyones ideal crop there is big money in it and that money is what keeps the town viable and vibrant. Tonight we went out to dinner, not as nice as Beths cooking but hope she liked having a night off from feeding us. Beths partner Brian has a harvesting company and he is busy getting ready for the next harvest which usually begins toward the end of October. Tomorrow we set off into NSW, however it is still 800kms to our ultimate NSW destination so will stop off at a couple of places along the way.
Shame the footy Grand Final was a draw, work harder next week Saints!!!

Saturday...25 September

Grand Final Day: Go Saints.
Well I have been both busy and slack.
Our time in Caloundra was wonderful with many visits to and from Cindy and her family. We also caught up with Norm & Noelle who had just got home from doing the Canadian/Alaskan holiday and finished it with a week in Korea on the way home. We went to have a cuppa with them and got to see their photos and the scenery over in Canada is absolutely stunning.
We left Caloundra yesterday morning with plans to toddle down to Toowoomba, however when we got there it was a big busy city so we motored on thinking we would find a smaller place on the outskirts...ha ha. We finally pulled up at Goondiwindi which we were planning to see after Toowoomba. It rained in Caloundra for days and guess what? We passed paddocks with crops underwater along the road from Toowoomba to Goondiwindi yesterday and about 12kms out from Goondiwindi we ran into bucketing rain. The van park here is very wet and soggy and twice last night we were woken by hammering rain. BOM says that today in Goondiwindi it will be 9-24 with scattered rain and thunderstorms. Yep sounds about right.....
We went over to Keiths cousins place for dinner last night and are going back today so that they can play catchup as it has been about 15 years since they saw each other last.
Now remember: Go Saints!!!

Sunday...19 September

Yesterday Cindy and the children came out to visit and we all went hiking. She took us about 15km up the road to the other side of Montville (which is where we had lunch on Friday), and we did a walk to Kondalilla Falls.

The blurb I have says it is a 4.6km walk, what it also says is that the steps back up are quite steep!! Nobody bothered to mention that before we started walking, yeah I know, serves me right for not reading it before I agreed to go. The Kondalilla Falls walk descends to the valley below and up again. There is something to be said about hiking with energetic children who make a game of racing each other to various points on the circuit. There they are having heaps of fun and trailing along in the rear is their dear old nana, wondering if she will indeed make it back to the starting point or even if a rescue helicopter could land in the dense rain forest to winch me out of there and back to the nearest cemetary. The scenery was stunning, the company special. We had planned a second walk to another local point of interest, but ran out of daylight. 

This was a polite way of saying nana is too knackered so we will cancel the next bit!!!

Instead, we came home and Steve joined us in our little house for dinner and we put up our tent and Cindy and the children camped out for the night right outside our carvan door so that they could access our kitchen and bathroom facilities.

After breakfast this morning they packed up and went home and we had a nice slow day just letting the muscles relax again......

Thank you everyone for taking time to be with us. Was a very special day and night.

Friday...17 September

Went to lunch with Cindy today. We strolled up and down and through lots of shops full of art and craft of all sorts, leather work, wood work, hand crafts, lolly shoppes etc. Very pretty, I just love the smell of candle shops and soap shops. Lunch was yummy and the service and location were excellent.
Then Keith and I went into Maroochydore and went to the movies using some complimentary tickets that Cindy gave us. We went to "Tomorrow when the war began". Having read the books (all seven of them!) I was perhaps looking for inconsistencies but they did a reasonable job of sticking to the story line.
Ok thats it for today. I am worn out from all this gadding about today.....and tomorrow apparently weather permitting we are doing a couple of the local walking tracks. Gotta love school holidays and healthy kids!!!!

Thursday...16 September

Just remembered today was Bob Macdowells birthday. Hope it was a good day Bob, sorry I missed it.
Had a quiet day in camp today just chilling out. Himself went down to the Gold Coast to order us a nice new security screen door for the caravan. This will be made and ready for installation late Monday next week. Then we went into Caloundra for dinner with Cindy and family. A good meal and a very relaxing time complete with backyard brazier fire. Adrienne had dance class, Jessie helped her dad cook dinner and Carter played us the piece he used for his audition to get into an elective music class for next year at high school. He plays keyboard and is jolly good at it. Tomorrow Himself is off to follow up on various leads and I am doing lunch with Cindy.

Wednesday...15 September

Today we had a nice new airbag hitch put on our caravan. This I have been told will take a lot of the bounce out of the van during travel. Himself is particularly pleased with this latest idea.
After this bit of excitement we continued down the road to the Sunshine Coast. We door knocked and rang our way around every caravan park in the town but there was no room at any of them. This is probably due to the fact that school holidays start  here on Friday!!
We eventually got a berth in Landsborough, at a park half an hour away from where we really wanted to be. Still tis better by far to be here than to drive past without saying hello to Cindy and the family. And although they had been busy today they still found time to come out to see us. Fair warning to all other daughters, Cindy has put herself in line as a favoured child by telling Himself his weight loss makes him look younger.......
The grandchildren,are of course, wonderful. They arrived, they hugged, they ate and drank, watched TV, chatted to nana intelligently and remembered to leave me a couple of chocolates for my supper. What marvellous kids, a definate credit to their parents. Depending on the weather we are thinking of a BBQ at the weekend with maybe a sleep/camp over thrown in. This would be a good start to their school holidays.
Tomorrow will be a quiet day for me and Himself is off to Brisbane to order a Roamsafe flyscreen security door for our caravan.

Monday...13 September

Playing catch up now.
We just spent four days in Tannum Sands which is where Keiths youngest brother lives, pretty place, huge shopping centre, heaps of industry, its the residental area for the Boyne Smelter etc, but would you believe it, the blessed place had no mobile phone or internet reception!!! The caravan park was one of the prettiest we have been in, right across the road from the ocean and lots of wildlife inhabits the park from birds to kangaroos to foxes apparently which have been known to steal peoples shoes and towels if they are left outside the caravans overnight, but people were not staying long because of the sandflies and the internet/mobile problems. We also had to hire a special cable to be able to even watch tv. The park is in a really bad black spot when it comes to communications.
It was great to see Johnny and I enjoyed our night out at the local Surf Club for dinner on Friday night. A very pleasant little place to eat with the sound of the waves for company.

Now we are in Bundaberg. One of those places you pass on the highway but this time we turned off and came in to see the famous little town for ourselves. We were up early this morning to follow our noses to the Bundaberg Rum Factory. We took the tour and then went down the road a bit to a coopers and watched them making the barrels for wine and spirits. Very interesting to see how it is done.

Tomorrow we head off to Gympie.....

Wednesday...8 September

Tomorrow is Elspeths birthday. Have a good day kid, we will be travelling so may not catch up with you.
Yesterday we ventured forth to view Rockhampton. Lots of cattlemen stores and pubs and plenty of  fiberglass cattle on various buildings and street corners.
Other than that there is a massive shopping centre that goes and goes forever, humungous, had me hobbling at the end of the once up and down stroll.
Today we took the van to be upgraded on the springs from four leaf to seven leaf. This was just us being kind to the van and ourselves with pro-active thinking, you know how it goes, fix it before it becomes an issue....lol. Like all good mechanical stories you go for one thing and they find something much much worse already wrong!! The spring rocker had a crack. Looked downright broken to me. Keith said on the shit factor scale of 1 - 10 this registered as an 8!!!
Problem solved, will redesign, (damn yankees)!!!!  Its been welded and we are back on track so to speak. We got to sit around doing nothing all day then when we went to pick it up at 4.00pm it was "nearly ready". We rolled out of their yard at 6.30pm leaving behind one very unhappy mechanic who had to do overtime whether he wanted to or not.  Now all we need is a someone (like a much younger brother) who works for an engineering place and is a welder/fabricator and we will have nice new rocker bits,,,,,,, wont we Johnny?????
Couple of very tired nomads tonight. We have already cancelled dinner and may have a cheese sandwich later...

Monday...6 September

Had a wonderful time in Mackay catching up with long lost relatives, and they are such a lovely hospitable group. Thanks Coral and Dorothy catching up with you was an unexpected bonus.
Today we moved down to Rockhampton. The caravan park is beside good old highway one, and we have the interstate rail line behind us and the blessed airport somewhere close at hand by the sounds of things.  Ah the sounds of industry to lull me to sleep tonight!!!
No idea what there is to see here. We have booked in for Wednesday to have something done to the underside of the caravan....too technical for me but I am led to beleive it will make a big difference to my long term comfort so am inclined to be pleased.
Have spent the better part of today checking to make sure those near and dear to us have not had to evacuate homes in the floods in Victoria. Thankfully so far all are safe and dry.
Ok, more when I have something useful or interesting to say.

Friday...3 September

So we moved to Mackay, found a nice park with lovely wide, deep, flat sites, nearly as good as a park with drive thru sites!!! We actually think we stayed here in their cabins way back in 1992. Only difference seems to be where we are parked now used to be a cane field back then.
Rang the relations and they seemed happy to hear from me. Made arrangements to have morning tea with them on Saturday. In the meantime Coral called this morning to say if I had nothing on to come on out and visit with her today. Thanks Coral, was a great day out and lunch was yummy. I even got my washing dried!! Tomorrow I meet Dorothy (and Coral again). Keith went out this evening to have an ale or two with Peter Rimington and has plans to return tomorrow afternoon. Its all go in the town of Mackay. Have even been promised photos of Elsie so may be back in everyones good books again soon....go me.

Wednesday...1 September

Enjoyed yesterday. Went to sister Elsies house and showed her pictures on my computer of all sorts of stuff including a photo I had of her. Yes folks you can still surprise an old lady! Then we went down to The Strand in Townsville along the beach front and found a nice little bistro place to have lunch. We did have plans to take a walk along the Strand but the wind was blowing a gale and walking was difficult so we gave up that idea and went back to Elsies to have a cuppa and cheesecake.
I know I am going to be hung, drawn and quartered as I never even thought to get the camera out.........
Was lovely to visit with her and I have promised to return within the next twenty years so that she can shout me lunch. Maybe that time I will rememeber to take some pics!!
Today we packed up and began moving towards Mackay. We had been told to check out Dingo Beach and when we saw the sign we turned off the highway, but the next turn was not very well posted and we missed it and could not turn around, so continued and found ourselves half way between Airlie Beach and Shute Harbour in a little place called Airlie Cove. Very pleasant little park. Tomorrow we move on to Mackay.