Townsville

We arrived in Townsville on Thursday night and of course we hadn’t booked (do we ever learn!). Fortuitously Ian decided to call in at the Visitor Information Centre to enquire where we should go. We were nearly told where to go but the very nice volunteers found us the only Caravan Park that had space (did we not know it was the Townsville 400 Race on Friday, Saturday and Sunday …. of course we did!). We headed off to Black River Stadium where the rodeos are held, making sure we were there by 6pm because they lock the gates then! However it proved to be a great place to stay and we were very grateful for the power and water to restock.
Off to the race on Sunday after Ian initially decided it wasn’t really all that important. Can you believe I had to talk him into going! I must have scored a zillion patchwork points for that one! We were able to pre purchase our tickets on Saturday which made life a lot easier especially when I noticed that there was a bus service available to take us there and return. What a service. Townsville really know how to do it well. We walked straight onto a bus which took us right to the gate and picked us up after the event and returned us to the car at the end of the day. No queuing at either end. Hooray! It would certainly make you go again just for the service.
Now for the race. You will see from the photos that Ian’s interest was immediate when he saw the Jack Daniel Girls. We had to have a picture especially for our friend Scott. Ian remarked to the attractive young ladies that the photo was for the benefit of his friend! He otherwise would not have bothered at all ---- yeah right! They were a lot less attractive than many of the others, but I took a hit for the team, and Scott, anyway!!
The day was full on from when we arrived with lots of activity on the track before the main event which began at 1.30pm. There were a number of races to enjoy and this one with the Mini Coopers was particularly enjoyable right up to the point when one of the cars came into the concrete wall right in front of us. It certainly was spectacular but I suspect not a lot of fun for the driver. Within minutes, all the debris had been cleared, the driver escorted away in the medical car and the race back underway. We posted this picture for David and Diane because David is such a fan of the minis and we thought of them!
The main race was really exciting and as Ian was sporting his new Ford shirt we hoped for the right result. We’ve never had the opportunity to go to a race like this one and it certainly was exciting and the drivers are amazing at negotiating the curves of the track so close to each other as the commentator said “there’s not even room for a chamois between these cars!” On many occasions the commentators kept us very amused.
We also had a big screen right in front of us so we could watch the progress around the track which was terrific although once the main race began there were cars in front of us most of the time. I had no idea who was winning but tried to look as though I did! However at the end of the day Ford did win so that made a good day a great one. It’s a funny thing though I did notice a number of times when the screen featured things off the track like all the gorgeous girls who work for the various sponsors and I did reflect to Ian that I wondered if it wasn’t time for some women to be operating the cameras. I might have a chat to Kate and Wazza’s best man Billy who is a camera man about that when we return.
Anyway it was a fantastic day which we both enjoyed immensely and now we have a couple of days to do some sightseeing before Kate and Wazza arrive.

Smalleys Beach

What a lovely surprise Smalleys Beach was. The campsites were absolutely huge and only 50 metres to the beach via our own walkway. The beach was lovely and we enjoyed our walks around the area. When the tide goes out it really goes out as far as you can see so that in itself is something to see. On our first night we had a visitor, the possum who is in the photo attached to this blog. It was not a small possum at all and really enjoyed the ‘apple core we left out. We expected a return the following night but didn’t see it again during our visit. The kookaburra’s were having a great time, but I felt it unnecessary to give them a snack as I am still very unhappy about the ‘friendly’ kookaburra who took advantage of my kind nature and took a fish from my pond. Henceforth all kookaburras are not my favourites!
We revisited the park at Seaforth where we have stayed a couple on our previous visits through the area and were very glad we had found Smalleys as Seaforth was well and truly occupied with school holiday makers and just not anywhere near as nice as Smalleys.
We also revisited the tea house we had been to from Seaforth and the Devonshire Tea was fantastic as we had remembered. Ian also purchased a pot of the raspberry jam which is the ‘best ever tasted’.
On to Townsville, the car race, Kate and Warwick and …….a wedding on Magnetic Island …. No not one of us but we’ll tell you more later!

Last Day in Yeppoon

Just a short entry tonight to let everyone know that we are on the road tomorrow after our long stay here. We’ve finished our visit with the market today, breakfast at Maggy’s Café and then fish and chips on the beach with our hosts David and Elaine who we are very sad to leave. We have invited them to visit us but the strange thing is that very few Queenslanders think much of visiting Victoria and won’t entertain the thought unless its summer. Somehow after our visit here in their winter it’s really no surprise!
The van is pretty much packed, and all is in readiness for a quick connection to the car in the morning and off.
Ian took this lovely sunset photo to illustrate how beautiful it is here. We’ll be sending our next blog from Townsville in a week so we’ll have lots of news then.

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!