Sunday 28 October 2018

21 - Canberra to Queensland Sunshine Coast 17th - 29th Oct 2018




Leaving Canberra, we started driving at 9.30 am with a hypothetical destination of Geurie Sports Grounds about 400 kilometres north which was located about 30 kilometres south east of Dubbo.

The weather forecast prediction was for significant rain fall along our intended route. Initially it was pleasant driving conditions aided by overcast skies and pleasurable scenery. We even got to see humpty dumpty in his fallen position.


Early afternoon the skies darkened with some threatening looking cloud formations similar to many of those tornado movies we have been exposed to over recent years. The 1st below picture shows a narrow black cloud formation appearing to reach down towards the land. It is directly over the left corner of our vehicle mirror. The cloud formations certainly looked intimidating and we endeavoured to put as much distance as quickly as we could away from that area.


About 10 minutes after taking the above photo’s the trees around us began to move about rather fiercely followed by heavy rain. The noise from the rain and water covered road was very loud, where we immediately were on the alert for a safe roadside stopping location.
our view between window wipers operating flat out
We stopped in a parking area about 50 metres away from the edge of the road, sprinted into the caravan where we obtained some calming medication, home-made pasties, (left over from tea) followed by an afternoon siesta. About 1 ½ hours later the rain stopped and with the time at about 5 pm our thoughts were for consideration of our camp location for the night.

The passing traffic noise was loud, (exacerbated by wet roads) and we decided to continue driving for about an hour to the quieter camp located at the sports grounds at Geurie where we had a lovely peaceful night.

That same day Prince Harry and his bride Meghan were visiting Dubbo for the day and in that last hour of driving we saw many police vehicles heading away from Dubbo, providing some different scenery viewing.

A morning check on the BOM site for our planned route north showed the weather forecast had changed from the previous days prediction for one day of rain over the next week to daily rain over the next seven days. With the map book out we explored other route options, which in our mod-con world now included weather predictions for the week along each route. As it transpired our best “weather,” option was the route we had previously travelled to Pilliga Hot Artesian Baths which we thought we had already utilized extensively enough for the year. The hot artesian waters won out again, but it wasn’t all smooth driving. We still got wet and needed to stop to let some rain pass.
Not a happy Mary


When we arrived at Pilliga Hot Artesian Baths there were no vehicles parked on the larger clay parking surface with the small raised gravel area congested with other campers. We found a spot on the outer edge of the gravel area with our closest neighbours arriving a few hours prior whom had gotten bogged when they travelled just off the edge of the gravel only to end up sinking into the soft wet clay soil, taking 2 hours to get out of the bog. Apparently most of the camp ground occupants came out with their deck chairs to watch them digging out of the bog providing plenty of encouragement. Evidently the previous night about 36 mm of rain had flooded the camp ground.

The following morning most campers moved out and we relocated to a more pleasant safer location in the camp ground. It was still very nice soaking in the artesian water. The ambient air temperature had risen by nearly 10 degrees during the day since our last visit making the hot artesian pool feel a bit on the muggy side.



Most week-end evenings into the early hours of the following mornings the pool would be occupied by the “locals,” which sadly came with an anti-social element, thus late afternoons Friday, Saturday and Sunday we kept away from the pool area till the following morning. One of the hot evenings the pool was quiet, and we decided to experience a night dip for ourselves. Our night time dip turned out as our most pleasurable dip due to the cooler night air conditions whilst in the hot artesian waters. Luck was on our side that evening as a mob of the locals showed up shortly after we got out of the water and it wasn’t long before they started squabbling amongst themselves.

Around 3 pm on the Saturday the skies became very dark accompanied by plenty of lightning strikes. It was very noisy where we were surrounded by the sound of thunder for about 15 minutes before the clouds dumped a lot of rain on top of us. The subsequent flooding vilified our decision to change from our initial planned route to camp on a non-clay surface with the predicted rainfall. Our fingers were crossed hoping the wet might deter some of the Saturday night hoon element which was one of our initial reasons for not planning to travel via the Pilliga route due to closeness of a week end. A bonus provided by the rainfall, we were presented with some great additional water views.






We still thoroughly enjoyed our time in the Pilliga Hot Artesian Baths appreciating the therapeutic qualities it provided for our bodies. There were the constant good conversations with many other happy pool occupants and yes predominately around week end time you needed to utilize various strategies with the people out for a good time lacking consideration for others. It seemed around October the volume of visitors dramatically dropped, possibly due to the increasing day time temperatures in this region of Australia with most days around 30 C during our stay.

With predicted day time temperatures rising into the mid to high 30’s it was time to move on, though we still spent 5 nights at Pilliga. We headed north aiming for another new location for us, Boomi a small town west of Goondiwindi, taking a couple of days to cover the required 400 kilometres. Boomi had a small gravel surfaced caravan park with a swimming pool and artesian bath alongside. Unfortunately, its opening hours had been shortened due to now winter time, 1 – 6 pm, it was 10 am with nothing else to entice us to stay so we didn’t.

We headed north travelling along some quiet back roads eventually stopping for the day at Meandarra. There were two camp ground options, one $10 with power for three nights or the caravan park for $10 a night with power. Another small town doing their best to attract tourists. We chose the lesser crowded caravan park thinking one night would do us. We had a lovely chin wag with a couple staying in the caravan park whom provided the route for a nice walk around the outer perimeter of the town. What a lovely walk it was where we got to view the towns rubbish dump, cemetery, sports grounds, and a beautiful cement walking path along the towns river edge with several bench tables and through the town centre. It was a great way to explore the town and we almost wished it wasn’t quite as hot, 34 C where we could have stayed longer, exploring the area further.



Continuing north east along back roads at a slow pace we eventually stopped for the night at Wooroolin, the location of a wetlands with plenty of bird life to view. We enjoyed time spent in a bird hide watching the birds moving about in the wetlands. The campground was on a busy road accompanied by lots of noise, something we rarely experience travelling along back roads. We decided to move up the road to a quieter location.






Just as we were pulling out of our camp site our phone rang. It was the caravan repairer enquiring if we would still like to have our repair date brought forward. That was a “YES PLEASE.” It was Friday midday with a request to drop our caravan at the repairers the following Monday at 7 am. Before proceeding any further, we got our laptops out and researched available options for accommodation via the internet while the caravan was having repairs over the following two weeks. With our faces glued to the computer screens over the next couple of hours, several phone call enquiries, we finally secured a rental house at Coolum Beach in the Sunshine Coast about 100 kilometres north of Brisbane and around 15 kilometres from the caravan repairer.

We continued driving north towards the sunshine coast stopping at a couple of small towns searching shops till we found one with some cheap storage bags for our clothing, linen and gear requiring removal from the caravan. Murgon our camp location for the Friday and Saturday nights where we prepared ourselves for moving out of our home, (caravan) for a couple of weeks.

Sunday, we travelled about 170 kilometres to our rental home where we transferred some gear out of the caravan freeing up areas we anticipated they may need access for repairs. Monday we were mobile to the caravan repairer at 6 am leaving our caravan with them for the next two weeks to complete repairs.

Tuesday 16 October 2018

20 - Canberra - 10th to 16th October 2018




The last couple of hundred kilometres driving south towards Canberra the parched brown landscape we had been travelling through over the last three months started to turn green. It had been winter in the area we were presently travelling through. Normally accompanied by good rains over this period of time. It wasn’t a vibrant lush green but was still heartening to see. Stock was still quite sparse and what few crops we did see looked thin and barely established.

Our eyes had also started to monitor the outside temperature shown on the tow tugs display screen. The temperature was on a downward spiral. We arrived at our destination around midday with an outside temperature of 13 C. A noticeable change from daily temperatures in the mid to high 20’s we had been basking in over the last few months.

Once we had established setting the caravan in our kids’ front yard (a narrow street with the need to remove the caravan from the street asap, so not to block the flow of traffic,) it was straight onto family time.



It was the last four days of Canberra’s Floriade Festival with many activities run over the duration of a month, with a primary focus on tulip flowers. It was located in Canberra’s Commonwealth Park where we spent a morning walking around, viewing fabulous flower displays, predominately many different types of tulips.


























The below fella was poking his camera lens into people’s faces. We would always like a better camera lens irrelevant of what we have. Not sure about this lens?


A group of people made 5000 poppies in honour of the men and women who have served our nation. “Honour Their Spirit.”


Whilst staying at a location which can provide most of our immediate needs we obtained a new watch battery, new walking shoes for both of us and several other necessities within our radar.

There was the daily family time, so busy with a 3-month-old, not so little baby, expecting lots of attention. Pippa providing a good work out for our bodies with her weight approaching the 7-kilogram mark. She was a happy grand-child except when she deemed it to be feed time.

On the same day back in Adelaide our other grand-daughter was enjoying beach time.

We thoroughly enjoyed a week in the company of our family. Good family time providing a delightful self-sense, of positivity settling over our souls.



Leaving Canberra, we headed north.