Winter 2016 We catch the ferry over to Magnetic Island. Ferries run every hour and the trip only takes 20 minutes. We’re on the aft deck beside two young ambo’s and a nurse. Laden with a gurney and equipment they … Continue reading The Lazy Tourist’s Guide to Magnetic Island
You know the ones and we’re all guilty, they fly in for a few days then fly home and talk forever about when they ‘did’ Rome or Mauritius. Or the cruise ships that once stayed several days in port but these days only give passengers 6 or 8 hours to see a city in its entirety. Oh dear as I write this Woody has just stripped naked and dunked himself in the river! Thinks he’s 17 not 71. Now where was I? Yes, 6 hours in port “Oh yes, we did Barcelona, Kyoto or Vancouver.” The antithesis of this is … Continue reading FIFO Travellers
Nine kilometres north of Rutherglen, Vic on Murphy’s Creek an anabranch of the Murray River is the 1880’s Police Paddocks reserve. It was here that the police once spelled their horses on the large grassy islands. We have a level … Continue reading Police Paddocks
Winter 2017 We’ve been out of TV range for the last few nights so we started watching Season 4 of A Place to Call Home (a family saga set in New South Wales). After a big night at the bowling club where we are camped we thought that we might just watch the first episode. We had awful trouble trying to remember who was on with who from the last series but what the heck. After all it had been quite a few years since we saw the last season on TV. Needless to say we fell into bed feeling … Continue reading Are We Losing It…again?
Several months ago we dropped in to see for ourselves what everyone was talking about and we were very impressed. We vowed to return and stay at Broken Creek and a couple of weeks ago we did just that with … Continue reading Broken Creek Bush Camp Revisited
I do feel sorry for caravan manufacturers and their design teams. It seems that the public requests and they build, grand luxurious vans with full gleaming bathrooms and kitchens that have all the features that one would expect at home. Yet so many of the vanners that I talk to refuse to use their showers, favouring the park shower blocks and turning their shower cubicle into a hanging wardrobe space. The same folk also loudly declare “Oh we’ll never cook inside!” and rain hail or shine they cook outside on their Weber Baby Q’s. Perhaps a large box containing just … Continue reading It’s a fickle market
Winter 2015 We pull into the Billabong Roadhouse in WA for fuel and I’m taken aback. They’re selling healthy food and the toilets are spotless! A bloke tries to walk in with a cockie (Cockatoo) on his shoulder and is smartly refused entry for health reasons. Bring back the good old days I say when a roadhouse smelt of dirty cooking oil, all of the food was fried, the toilets were vile and one had to wipe one’s feet on the way out! Continue reading Roadhouses
March 2015 There’s so much discussion about van weights and towing capacities these days. I feel that we are somewhat overloaded as we set out for Perth but what with the Jeep’s 3½ tonne towing capacity it isn’t a problem except of course for the cost of fuel. Woody has packed more shoes than Imelda Marcos. Now I know that the reason for this trip is Jordy and Megsy’s wedding in Margaret River and Woody doesn’t want to arrive looking like ‘trailer trash’, but I’m sure Megsy will be the centre of attention, not Woody’s shoes. Continue reading Weights and Measures
The New South Wales, Queensland state border is an unusual delineation. At Wallangarra the state border crosses through the railway station platform. At bustling Tweed Heads, NSW in the Summer Time you will find that you can put half of your body in a different time zone as its twin town of Coolangatta is in Queensland and doesn’t partake in Australian Eastern Summer Time, thus it remains an hour behind the rest of the eastern states for nearly half the year. Alcohol isn’t sold in supermarkets in Qld but it is in NSW, so for convenience sake you can duck … Continue reading Bordering on Madness
itchingforhitching 