Sunday... 31 October

In town for a quick visit to catch up with long lost relatives who have gathered for a wedding. Having fun on the farm, working hard. Will be in Victoria for the Xmas period. We have been sourcing information to access the internet out there in the wilderness and we hope to get time soon to travel the couple of hundred kms to somewhere that stocks the necessary bits to acheive the impossible!!! Would not be holding your breathe waiting though. ..........

Friday...29 October

Just an update from The Parents.

They are in Condo and probably will be until the caravan has decomposed back to its original elements. Mum thinks she'll get out of there before planting the new crops next year, I have my doubts. Dad is currently helping with shearing and has just agreed to stay for harvest. Now I aint a farm girl but I'm pretty sure next after that is spraying and then ploughing and gosh, if you've done all that you might as well stick around for seeding.

No mobile reception and no internet but they do have a mailbox so you can send mail c/o the name of the farm and it'll be delivered 3 days a week.

And the weather seems to have improved so life is good.

Stephanie

Sunday...3 October

Kim & Stephens wedding anniversary.  We arrived in Condobolin on Tuesday and out at Aunty Joans place there is no mobile reception which wipes out our phones AND our internet, hence no blog (but ahhh the blissful silence). Have come into town today to visit with Dianne who is here for the weekend from her place in Orange. 
We are having a fun time at Aunty Joans and Keith has been making himself useful helping out on the farm. Getting a little sick of the rain which seems to be following us whereever we go lately.
We are planning to stay here a few weeks at least till the end of October,  to have a serious visit with them. If anyone needs us desperately enough all our kids have Aunty Joans (NSW)phone number..
See you all the next time I come into town.....

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.