Making the effort to pack up and go. Breaking the ties of the mundane, the habits, the chores. The day to day takes a hold of your mind and won’t let it go. Yet when you do finally hit the road you always say “Why didn’t we do this sooner?” Then, before you know it you are putting off going home “Oh, do we have to?” Continue reading Leaving Home is the Hardest Part
Cooking for a friend who eats seafood but not meat reminded me of this fish van on the Capricorn Coast. Continue reading Pescatarian Perfection
There is a charming young English biker fellow camped in a tent beside us in Bourke. His name is Andy and his motor bike has broken down. If that isn’t bad enough it is only the first day of his three week outback trip. To add to this he has only just joined NRMA and the rules state that he can’t ring for Roadside Assistance until Monday. He must be a member for 48 hours before requesting assistance. He’s hoping for a 160km lift down to Cobar as that is the nearest motorcycle repairer. Probably scariest of all is his … Continue reading The Biker
It’s July 2014 and we’re hoping to meet our friends G & S while we’re in the Cooktown area. G keeps trying to ring us but his phone cuts out. We drive out to Endeavour River Escape just north of … Continue reading Endeavour River Escape
It’s summer in Melbourne and today is glorious. On the advice of Miriam over at Out an’ About I decide to break from Christmas cleaning scrubbing and relax with lunch and a bit of a read outside in the sunshine. The outdoor umbrella hasn’t been unfurled since autumn. It appears to be all neat and clean except that when I wind it out a pod of spider eggs drops into the garden below and mother Huntsman glares at me. I’m reasonably brave with spiders and I don’t run screaming but they do get my utmost respect especially Huntsmen as their bite, … Continue reading Arachnid Fecundity
Gunnedah in country NSW has a Dorothea Mackellar memorial because she was inspired to write part of her much loved poem “My Country” in 1905 when she visited one of her family’s properties at Gunnedah. The good folk of Gunnedah have taken things a little further by engraving poems on the backs of the public toilet doors. One can choose which poet they’d prefer to read as the names are on the outside of the door. Now after we compared our photos I have a sneaking suspicion that the poets match the gender of the toilet, but that is only … Continue reading Spending a penny and learning a lot
While we are in Emerald, Qld we must visit the gem fields. Anakie, Sapphire and Rubyvale are only 44kms west of here. Woody suggests that we check out the Sunday market as miners like to sell their finds at these. … Continue reading Fossicking on the gemfields
We stop at Causeway Lake near Yeppoon in Queensland and I chat to fishermen who are working the ebb tide. They show me how to use a bait pump and they are sucking Nippers out of the mud. Nippers look like a white yabbie half the size of your little finger but with one giant pink claw as long as their body. Soldier crabs skitter across the sand nervously even though no one is interested in them. The water from the lake gushes out to sea at a fair speed and the fish are biting. Those nippers must taste damned … Continue reading Causeway Lake
Last winter we had a forced stay in Yeppoon, Qld while we waited for a spare part for the car. Our RACV Total Care insurance covered the cost of a hire car while the Jeep was off the road. We caught the local bus out front of our caravan park at Mulambin and toured the suburbs of Yeppoon and all the way to Rockhampton airport ( a little over 40kms) where the hire car was waiting. Woody was right, the local bus was an interesting way to travel and the driver was teaching another driver the intricacies of the route. … Continue reading Civility Costs Nothing
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