Tag: Blog

When Things Just Go Wrong4 Comments

Don’t Mention the ‘L’ Word

Itching for Hitching

Woody’s brother has been staying with us for a few days. That’s Woody the Elder. Being an old caravanner he’s been sleeping on our van for old time’s sake, whilst visiting. During breakfast the other morning he wanders in and casually says “You know you’ve got a leak.” Not “You know you’ve gotta leak…” But “You know you’ve got a leak.” Mid mouthful of muesli I’ve dropped the spoon and we’ve all headed for the door. Overnight it had rained, no pelted with rain, for hours. Woody the Elder being from the tropics probably thought it was just heavy mist … Continue reading Don’t Mention the ‘L’ Word

Qld, The Pubs3 Comments

Club Hotel, Croydon, Qld

Itching for Hitching

Croydon is in the Gulf Country, the Gulf of Carpentaria and yep, you can call that the outback. The GPS tells us that we’re 3.3kms from Croydon but where the hell is it? We emerge from the scrub to find half a dozen wide dusty streets. This is a gold mining town whose heyday ended at the outbreak of the First World War. It now has a few houses, a pub, a take away/ store, an historic general store, a police station and the shire council. In fact the council has to provide all of the other services that are … Continue reading Club Hotel, Croydon, Qld

Vic, Well Bugger Me!7 Comments

Moments in Time

Itching for Hitching

Up early to catch the autumn sunrise on the beach at Marengo, near Apollo Bay, Vic. It’s chilly and invigorating and certainly long pants weather. The rock shelf is tessellated and very flat. I find a family’s names carved in the rock and dated 1913 and what looks like a return visit of the same family in 1936. I can’t stop thinking about them. Who are they? Continue reading Moments in Time

Why Caravanning3 Comments

10 Reasons to Try Caravanning in Retirement

Itching for Hitching

Outdoors. Fresh air, open skies and the chance to camp in the most amazing places, dare I say it again, beside stunning beaches and wild rivers. A simpler life. With little to do other than enjoy your surroundings. Housework is reduced to minutes and mowing the lawn is replaced with sweeping the mat. Shucks that’s hard, not. Relaxation. Throw in a line and catch a fish, get immersed in a good book, raise a toast to a desert sunset and watch in awe of nature’s star show at night. Food tastes better in the outdoors. It’s a fact, just like … Continue reading 10 Reasons to Try Caravanning in Retirement

Qld, Wildlife4 Comments

Gone batty

Itching for Hitching

I ride my bike down to Tooan Tooan Creek in Hervey Bay, Qld and in amongst the mangrove swamp I’m captivated by four different types of butterflies flitting about in the sunlight.  To onlookers I must have looked like some sort of mad woman dashing back and forth about the swamp wearing a bike helmet and waving a Nikon. On the north side of the swamp the flying fox colony is chattering and screeching in the trees, so before long the whole dashing performance thing is repeated. Continue reading Gone batty

Freedom Camp, Places, Vic4 Comments

Worth More Than Gold, Walhalla

Itching for Hitching

Australia’s Great Dividing Range is the spine of eastern Australia. Stretching for 3,500 kms down the full length of the east coast before turning westwards and dividing most of Victoria as well as influencing the climate. “Ah the weather will improve once we’re over “The Divide.” As we often say, because it is much drier inland of ‘The Divide’. There’s a tiny town called Walhalla nestled in a steep valley in the southern slopes of the Great Divide in Gippsland in Victoria. There are only a handful of permanent residents, less than twenty according to Wikipedia. Yet in its gold … Continue reading Worth More Than Gold, Walhalla

Freedom Camp, Vic3 Comments

Never Look a Gift Pub in the Mouth

Itching for Hitching

The wee town of Port Albert is a fisherman’s paradise. The free camp is actually a parking area for cars, boat trailers and RV’s right on the sea front adjoining the boat ramp. There is supposedly parking space for six RV’s. So a bunch of us new arrivals all stand around debating how and where we are supposed to park. We later find the parking instructions and yes we have parked our vans incorrectly, but it isn’t busy and we aren’t blocking anyone. We should have parked the van on the lawn with the car on the asphalt. The town … Continue reading Never Look a Gift Pub in the Mouth

Qld, The Characters You Meet2 Comments

Free Entertainment

Itching for Hitching

It’s Monday morning in Rainbow Beach in Qld and in front of us there is a rather noisy camp of people who we’ve noticed won’t walk to the toilet, they drive! And no, they’re not disabled, we’ve checked that out. This morning ‘the boss’, as we’ve begun to call him, is pacing back and forth talking loudly into his phone. I think that he wants to feel needed but isn’t, the staff are probably glad that he’s away with the family for a few days. We hear all about a concrete pour that went wrong last Friday because one of … Continue reading Free Entertainment

Qld, The Pubs5 Comments

Lion’s Den Hotel

Itching for Hitching

We take the short drive from Cooktown, Qld to have lunch at the famous Lion’s Den Hotel. It is a curiosity pub of the highest order. Set on the banks of the Little Annan River the back paddock is spacious and available to campers for a small fee. The pub has been operating since the tin mining days of the 1880’s when the miners would record their beer tab on the walls. Tourists still write notes on the walls. Hanging from the ceiling there are: shark jaws, cattle skulls, T shirts, bras, g strings, ski goggles, caps, miners hard hats, … Continue reading Lion’s Den Hotel

Bush Poetry9 Comments

Australia Day 2016

Itching for Hitching

My Country The love of field and coppice, Of green and shaded lanes. Of ordered woods and gardens Is running in your veins, Strong love of grey-blue distance Brown streams and soft dim skies I know but cannot share it, My love is otherwise. I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror – The wide brown land for me! A stark white ring-barked forest All tragic to the moon, The sapphire-misted mountains, The hot gold … Continue reading Australia Day 2016