Last Week at Yeppoon

We spent a lovely three hours listening to Jazz at The Coffee Club in Yeppoon – this time we were more warmly dressed because believe it or not sometimes we have to put on a jacket in the afternoons! We have had two great sessions of jazz now and will miss our leisurely Sunday afternoons there.
This week is our last at Yeppoon, and today we booked to go on to Smalleys Beach which is in Cape Hillsborough National Park 12km East of Seaforth, only 10 or 15kms from Mackay. We have stayed at Seaforth twice before and Smalleys Beach was suggested to us by one of the campers here at Yeppoon. It certainly looks lovely so we will report after our stay. When we move on next Monday, we will not have any power or water there so we’ll have to be organised again just as we are when we free camp. We also will only have very poor reception for phones and internet so there will probably not be a post until we reach Townsville after three nights in Smalleys Beach.
Our weather here continues to be lovely although there has been quite a lot of fog in the mornings which clears about 10am after our beach walk and thereafter is lovely and sunny. Ian has now read four books and Sue has finished the embroidery for one nursery quilt and is half way through the blocks for a Christmas embroidery quilt as well finishing a block of the month Christmas quilt so we have been well rested and now we’re eager to see some new things.
Thanks again for your helpful suggestions, we’ll keep them all in mind!

Yeppoon

For those who are experiencing frustration with our lack of correspondence I apologise and will try to do better in the future. We consider ourselves told – a testament to the many emails we have received ! Actually we’re flattered to have so many watching and waiting for our news. Yeppoon is treating us well and to date we’ve only had one really unsunny day each week so we’ve been enjoying our daily walks along the beach in the mornings and then catching up with reading and sewing on most afternoons.
Last Saturday night we took ourselves into Rockhampton to watch the basketball which was fantastic. They are certainly very enthusiastic and supportive of their local team and it was good for us because we really didn’t care who won and could just enjoy the game as Sue usually gets very nervous when our team isn’t doing so well!
On the other less than perfect day we went into Rockhampton shopping and had (I think!) a very successful day. Ian thinks it’s lucky the weather is so good for the rest of the time.
Ian, David, Elaine, John and I have been trenching this weekend as David, who was a fire fighter in New Zealand before he and Elaine bought the park, is concerned about having water and electricity cables and pipes above the ground as the fire risk is quite high here. It’s a beautiful park almost in a forest but of course therein lays the risk. So today a trenching machine manned by David has been making the trenches for the pipes and Ian has been backfilling them with Elaine and John who is another camper. Surprise, surprise Suey has been catering for the hungry souls, now isn’t that a change, but there were no complaints either!
I’ve also planted a herb garden which has come in handy already which Pete gave me a great chicken recipe which needed rosemary and I just happened to have planted a very healthy bush. The last time we stayed here Elaine and I cleaned out the fish pond so that job has been done again and the fish are looking very pleased with their new clear water.
So you can see we have been very busy, well sort of at least in the mornings and after all we are retired now and according to our children very OLD so we shouldn’t do too much!
The jazz we went to after the Yeppoon Show was so good we’re going again this Sunday which will be great as I’m sure Ian will be exhausted after all the work today . Oh, I nearly forgot we have cut down another tree too!
We have only one more week here and then we’re off travelling up towards Townsville to meet Kate and Warwick (after the Townsville V8 car races) who are coming up with friends for a few days which we’re really looking forward to.
That’s all for now, from what we hear the weather we’re missing at home is something we’re happy for you all to tell us about but not what we want to come home to so we’ll stay away for a while longer!

Yeppoon Week Two

We’ve had a lovely warm week at Yeppoon and kept ourselves busy again. It was the Rockhampton Show so we went to see how different it is to the Shepparton Show. The sideshows are the same we have to report but the beef cattle are certainly big which bears out the local declaration that Rockhampton is the beef capital of Australia. There was also a petting zoo and Sue found a pig which under sufferance allowed her to have a photo opportunity. Boy did it squeal so needless to say I had to let it out of the handbag and walk on. We also watched the axeman and decided that they earnt their prize money the hard way.
We also went to the Yeppoon Show on Saturday and it was all the same sideshows which had followed on from Rockhampton but nonetheless we enjoyed watching the wood chopping again.
There is a kangaroo called Molly who Elaine and David have had since a little joey who is very friendly and just hangs around the vans waiting to be admired, even letting me pat and scratch her under the chin. We let Molly out whilst Elaine and David were away in Rockhampton on Friday while we were gardening and she took off giving us all a scare only returning late on Saturday night.
Saturday we spent cleaning out the fish pond so we’ve had a really productive week.
On Sunday we went to the local shopping centre and sat down for a couple of hours listening to a jazz band. What a great way to spend a Sunday.
Monday we’re planning another tree cutting down episode so that will be fun.

Yeppoon

For those of you who have unkindly suggested that we are just having a truly lazy holiday here in beautiful sunny Yeppoon I present to you today evidence to the contrary!
Our hosts David and Elaine have provided us with a beautiful site, great amenities and company but we were a little dismayed at the amount of shade our site had as the trees had grown considerably since our last visit in 2008. On mentioning this, David suggested that we could cut down the offending tree as it was ‘on the list of jobs ‘, although not a very high priority. As some may recall we departed from here in 2008 by cutting down a large tree on our last day so it was an idea that had considerable appeal.
This morning we decided to go to the market, return and begin. Hence the before and after photos. We did decide to relocate the van for this exercise as Elaine and I are of the rather delicate and conservative type and didn’t fancy having to explain to the insurance company how we avoided being squashed in Gosford in 2007 but managed to do it to ourselves in 2010!
David is a fine craftsman with the chain saw and in two hours we had completed the task including Elaine, Ian and I loading up the ute a number of times to take away the tree pieces to the bonfire site on the property and making a very fine stack of timber suitable for the fire we enjoy each nite in the lodge.
After which we sat back with a beer and reflected on another perfect day in paradise on our new site complete with maximum sunshine!