Elles’ beauty tips for girls of a certain age

Girls, you know those cold mornings when you’re free camping and you have no power to dry your hair? Well, Elle has the answer. Her dodgy knees prevent her from kneeling on the floor with her head in front of the diesel heater outlet like the young ones (like me) do. Her solution is to fling herself across the bed with her head hanging over the edge to catch the rising air from the heater. For the sake of space and weight everything must have two uses on a caravan. I’m sure those ladies with gas and diesel heaters in … Continue reading Elles’ beauty tips for girls of a certain age

Keeping up with the news

When we’re on the road we enjoy listening to local radio though sometimes things get a little hectic. One can be in the middle of what appears to be nowhere and the radio will be telling us about a rather busy local snowdropper (one who steals undies from clotheslines), our mates will be telling us on the CB of a galloping emu up ahead and then someone will ring with some gossip from back home or a great campsite they’ve found heaven knows where. We can be grateful for the lack of traffic sometimes. Here are a few choice ones: … Continue reading Keeping up with the news

Rollingstone General Store

Winter 2016 We drive into Rollingstone which is a cluster of houses engulfed by tropical gardens, a school, a police station, a pub and a general store. The store is so typical of north Queensland and famous for its ham off the bone. The front door is a roller shutter. When the store is open the shutter is up, no fly screens, just the whole shop open to the warm tropical breeze. It sells everything, fuel, groceries, souvenirs, has a post office agency and even sells chunks of coral for six bucks. Which I might add, anyone can pick up … Continue reading Rollingstone General Store

Early Starts

When we’re on the move and travelling with mates there is always the question of what time will we take off in the morning. It may sound like a simple problem, but our blokes never want to be the one to keep the others waiting. To the point that at the very moment someone is seen to be outside their van there’s a dash to catch up and before we know it what had been planned as a ‘lazy morning with a late start’ becomes a flurry of hoses being rolled up and shouts of “Can I take the power … Continue reading Early Starts

Taking Directions

Spring 2014 Leaving Newcastle, NSW, Gabbi Garmin tries hard to take us via the coast road rather than the Expressway. We lose about twenty minutes trying to get back onto the southbound expressway. We ask ourselves why we are heading south as the air smells of exhaust fumes, the traffic noise is deafening then we crawl through the Pennant Hills bottleneck. Eventually, we join the M7 and in minutes we’re away from Sydney and down in the Southern Highlands. 2021 Note: The Pennant Hills bottleneck has now been removed but thanks to Covid we haven’t been game to go anywhere … Continue reading Taking Directions