Friday...31 August 2012

Yesterday we travelled from Charters Towers to Moranbah. This is a coal mining area in inland central
Queensland. It is also where one of my nieces lives so we dropped in to say hello. Like all mining towns the one and only local caravan park is full to overflowing so no room for wandering nomads. We spent the night camped under a No Camping sign in their local picnic spot! At last we are rule breakers!!!
Had a lovely evening with the niece and her husband who came out and had dinner with us. We are going to push our luck and stay another night then will move on tomorrow.

Wednesday...29 August 2012

Just before we left Townsville we had visitors. Some folk we met in a free camp way outback on the way to Normanton last year dropped in to say hello. They were heading north and we of course are going south. We had a lovely day together before we both went our separate ways again. Good to catch up and have a laugh.
We have started moving again and first stop is Charters Towers. Old gold mining area. Full of history and lovely old buildings.

Sunday...26 August 2012

I got this photo yesterday. I have sat for hours looking at it, thinking about it and blessing my sister in Townsville for letting me look through her old photo albums. She took this picture about 57 years ago. It is the first photo of my parents and us four kids and the only one that contains both my parents that I have ever seen. So it is my 'baby' photo. Life is full of surprises!

Thursday...23 August 2012

Where do the days go? Nearly the end of the week and I feel like we have only just made camp. When we are in the Townsville area we stay at the Black River Rodeo Ground which is 20km out of town and marketed as an over 50's park. There are no fancy facilities or entertainment or playgrounds for children. What there is, is a lot of quiet! Sometimes a bit surprising as they do allow dogs here but all of them are really well behaved and there is a big enclosed off lead exercise area that other places could do well to copy.
It has been a busy time for us, travelling into town every day to visit my big sister. She is a walking history of our family. It has always been assumed, by me anyway, that our family was of Irish descent. Well guess what? We are Scottish! That seriously threw me for a bit. Then I found out that my dad was one of five children which included a sister and three brothers. I only ever knew about one of his brothers and without asking had assumed that was all there was. Each day I am hearing something new about my family. As soon as we arrive Elsie puts on the kettle, makes a pot of tea and we settle down to chatting. I will miss our chats when it is time for us to move again.
Yesterday another fifth wheeler the same as ours pulled into the park. They are working as they go and have been on the road for nearly a year and have not even made it out of Qld yet! Still it was good to chat to them and they were pleased to find someone to ask all the questions they want answers to. This did not mean we had all the answers, but we are a good starting point now that we are a bit more experienced. Later today we are going down to look at their rig.
Tomorrow Himself is giving the caravan and ute a service and I am spending the day with a friend from the north-west.

Monday...20 August 2012

Happy Birthday Andrew.

Well we packed up camp and headed off and after a couple of detours to look at stuff we ended up in Townsville. We had planned to stop about half way between the two towns but the weather was bad and the traffic not much better so we just kept going.
My half sister lives here so I am going to be spending as much time as I can with her. Yesterday Himself set me up a family tree program so that I can pick her brains and fill in some of the blanks in my life.
The caravan park is a rodeo ground but this year they are showing outdoor movies as well. As the caravan park residents cannot escape the associated noise we are allowed to walk in and watch the movie for free. This week the movie was the new Batman one. Next week it is the movie called Ted! Will definitely be watching that one.

Wednesday...15 August 2012

Well our time at Mareeba has come to an end. Tomorrow is moving day.
We have enjoyed being here but we have given up waiting for the weather to warm up down south so we are biting the bullet and heading on down and hope that we take this nice weather with us.
Having decided that, it promptly started to rain. Just a light misty rain but wet nonetheless. Himself says I have an over active imagination but I swear every time we have to pack up camp after a bigish stop, it rains! You know how it goes. Sit here for weeks in nice warm sunshine, not even the hint of bad weather, but mention packing and down comes the rain, making everything just wet enough to be annoying.
Maybe where we go will be dry! No idea where we are off to. Much discussion but no decision yet as to which road we will take.

Sunday...12 August 2012

Today was the annual North Queensland Warbirds Airshow at the Mareeba airport.
Himself duly went off to have a look.
Lots of planes on display.
Some classic cars too.
Fair few people showed up too.
The organisers will be pleased with themselves.

This is a trojan. 

And this is a P40 Kittyhawk.

Hope they are a good selection of the days display.