We took Bluey to the Sunday market held at HOTA (Home Of The Arts). Previously signs have advised small dogs are to be carried through food areas, but today’s signs stated no dogs allowed at the market by order of the Gold Coast Council. There were dozens of dogs at the markets, but fortunately no enforcement officers.
As it was a lovely sunny day in the middle of school holidays there were lots of people. It was so crowded it was difficult to walk in some areas, so not fun for me! As usual the coffee from the 3 Sons coffee trucks was good.
I ordered some items for the caravan from online sellers – catches for caravan cupboards, and replacement filters for the 18v Makita vacuum cleaner that Anita thinks is wonderful. That job is crossed off the list, but when these items arrive installing them will be a new job to add to the list.
At our local shops I could not find baskets to fit into a series of cube cabinets to store my wool and knitting and crocheting projects. I might have more luck at Bunnings.
When I took Bluey to the park he willingly walked, which is most unusual. He didn’t even need enticing with treats, but was happy to have some at the halfway mark.
It was a lovely sunny day all day. We met our friend for breakfast and Bluey was very happy. When Anita went to pay for our meals and coffee, the owner asked her if we had paid yesterday. With the distraction of the rain, neither of us had remembered to pay before putting Bluey back in the car.
When Anita took today’s newspapers inside, she realised she had accidentally picked up two copies of the Australian. Next time we are at those shops we will pay for the extra unwanted paper.
I tackled the window sill job with masking tape, before running a bead of gap filler along the window winder casements, then applying a couple of layers of paint.
Tilly supervised me sewing up the hems on Anita’s jeans, but Bluey stayed on his couch.
We had dinner at our local Thai restaurant, ordering enough for my dinner tomorrow, as Anita will be out for the evening.
Wet and windy weather continued most of the day, but our part of the Gold Coast did not experience the torrential rain that fell over the Hinterland. We took Bluey with us to breakfast at one of our regular haunts which has a large covered area where dogs are allowed.
After dropping Bluey at home we drove around doing multiple errands – pool shop for a water test, key cutting at the hardware store, pharmacy, coffee break, Petbarn for cat and dog food, and Reece to order a shower rail.
Back at home I was applying another coat of filler on the window sill, when we heard a pigeon call! We couldn’t see where it was but hope it wasn’t back on our roof. I pinned up Anita’s two pairs of new jeans, but they won’t be sewn for a day of so.
After the rain stopped I emptied out some excess water from the pool and added acid. I looked twice to make sure this reptile was not a snake. It was resting in our pool shelter, but bolted when I turned on the backwash.
I took Bluey to the park where he ran and chased a 10 month old Cavoodle who is a similar size. The sun emerged along with a rainbow.
For breakfast we went to the MO Wholefood Cafe at Market Organics. As it was raining we drove rather than walk the short distance. Bluey stayed in the car as it was too wet to sit outside. There hasn’t been a large volume of rain here, but the road flooded as the storm water drain at the end of our street was blocked.
Back at home we cleaned pigeon poop from our second floor window sills and sun shades. We had to remove the internal blinds to be able to remove the flyscreens. The awning windows have a limited opening, so we used a rope to pull up the hose to squirt off as much poop as possible. Even after overnight and morning rain had softened the poops, I had to use a dustbroom to remove some stubborn deposits.
While the screens were off I washed the inside of the windows, then the screens before putting them back. I was putting up the first blind when one end dropped out of its bracket. It hit the window ledge on the way down, creating another job!
Since I have to patch and paint, I decided to tidy up poor painting on the window ledge dating back to the original house construction in 2000. That job will take a couple of days as the filler has to dry and be sanded between coats.
I took Bluey to the park and let him have a run off his lead. My neighbour Felicity was taking her 2 and 4 year olds fishing. A friend had advised her to use white bread as bait. The 4 year old was eating the bread while the 2 year old was throwing bread into the river. I left them to it and was heading home when Felicity called me back. She had caught a fish and didn’t know what to do with it! At first I thought the line was just snagged, but she reeled in a small bream. I took out the hook and took photos of her with the catch before releasing it back into the water. None of them wanted to touch it!
We were watching TV and I had to manage both Bluey and Tilly on my lap. Suddenly Tilly lept off my lap and jumped onto the back of Anita’s chair and started grooming her!
A few jobs have emerged since we have been home. The “painting” job became more complex because the repaired area is a different texture to the rest of the wall. I rang Dulux for advice about the best way to improve the outcome, but will have to wait for the rain to stop.
A strange creaking noise in the shower door was concerning. Fortunately tightening a couple of screws with an Allen key seems to have fixed that problem.
I tried to scare away the pigeons by raising a large artificial spider into the gutter using helium balloons. No further noise has been heard from the pigeons, but when the rain started the balloons couldn’t cope with the extra weight and dropped to the ground. It was tricky getting the balloons around our sun shade structures, but we had the spider in place until the rain.
Our garden needs attention with some beds having sunk below the level of bordering paving. Our gardeners have maintained the front lawn, trimmed the hedges, and done some weeding.
We need to stock up on pet food, clean the inside and outside of the car, find a contractor to replace our veranda flyscreens, adjust the locks and fitting of the French doors downstairs, and do a run to the local Op Shop with donations.
Last night we celebrated a friend’s birthday at a new Japanese restaurant. The food was excellent and it was great to not be eating pub food.
Tilly has now taken half a dozen of her largest toys from the front to rear of the house, sometimes after being taken downstairs and brought back upstairs. She is now sleeping on my lap.
This little angel caused Bluey to remain downstairs until being rescued by a human. When this behaviour first started we were worried he had injured himself, then thought he was slipping on the polished timber treads. We trimmed the fur from the bottom of his paws, but he still would not go upstairs. When we realised Tilly had caused this problem, we held her so he could walk up the stairs without being afraid of her causing him to fall down the stairs. If we don’t stop her she runs halfway down as he is walking up, causing Bluey to turn and go back down!
A neighbour has a similar problem. Her border collie refuses to climb her internal stairs because they are open treads. He sits outside her elevator and of course she goes down in the lift so he can ride up in safety!
Apparently there was a snake in the garden of a house two doors away. I need to find out what type of snake and what happened to it.
As the stupid Gold Coast Council unnecessarily made our street 2 hour parking on weekdays, we had to move the Bushtracker or risk another parking fine. Our friends at the Willow Vale “caravan park” offered to let us park there for a couple of weeks.
We took Bluey for the drive and he was thrilled to see Anne-Marie, especially when she gave him coffee froth and cheese treats! An unexpected bonus was the great coffee and pastrami sandwich generously made by AM.
Back at home we had lots of work still to be done – finalising our washing, bathing Bluey, opening mail and filing paperwork. While we were away our builder did rectification work on our upstairs veranda wall. Unfortunately that left me having to remove the safety rail, touch up the acratex finish, and repaint the wall. This has to be done without letting Tilly escape while the flyscreen is not attached.
We have another problem to deal with as pigeons have made a nest in our gutter, two storeys up where ladder access is limited. Bird poop covers window sills and has dripped down the wall.
In the two days we have been home Tilly has managed to disperse toys around the house. This cow is one of her favourites and has been carried from the front of the house to the back, and put up on top of Bluey’s crate. She lay guarding it.
It was a slow drive home because of school holiday and Sunday morning traffic. We had to back out of our caravan park site because it was too tight to drive out.
There are no rest stops along the southern end of the Bruce Hwy, or along the Gateway Motorway. We took the exit to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, which is also the access to the Boondall Wetlands. We stopped outside the wetlands for a short break, but don’t think we should enter the wetlands precinct towing a caravan. It was easy to return to the motorway.
Several neighbours welcomed us home, and we were delighted to be given a box of meat and vegetables so we (Anita!) could cook our dinner tonight. Our friend dropped off our accumulated mail and sourdourdough bread.
We emptied the fridge and defrosted it, carted loads of washing into the house, and emptied the Toyota of valuables. We had forgotten to arrange to have the hot water service turned on, so there will be no hot water in the house until tomorrow. Having a caravan parked outside gave us an alternative source of hot water, so we showered in the van!
Blue and Tilly ran and played for hours. I took him walking with our dog walking group – Bluey only walked because treats were available. He is now exhausted but Tilly is still exploring all doors and windows.
We drove to Earth Espresso Bar for breakfast, early enough to be able to park on the street for 2 hours. Later parking became more difficult, especially along the surf beaches. Breakfast was alright but not brilliant.
Technically our caravan park is located in the suburb of Golden Beach, so named because it once had numerous golden wattle trees. The area is bounded by Pumicestone Passage to the east and Pelican Waters to the west. While mostly new houses have been built in Pelican Waters around canals, there are older houses along the Esplanade in Golden Beach, including this Federation home close to our caravan park.
I walked north along the shoreline to the Navy cadets training centre, where there has been significant erosion. This facility is close to an opening in the Bribie Island sandbar. A mural depicting Navy history extends the full length of the building.
A raised boardwalk through the mangroves highlights the different vegetation that grows along the shore. In places the sand is almost white showing the wave lines from the retreating tide.
The reason we stayed at Golden Beach is that we are only 3kms from the Caloundra RSL where we saw the Beccy Cole & Adam Harvey concert. We queued to order meals and waited an hour for them to be served. We should have gone to MacDonald’s on our way instead!
The concert was good but we were down the back where it was hard to see past tall people. Their album is number 1 on the ARIA chart so lots of people have bought a copy. They seem to have lost a whole box of CDs at the venue they played at in Mackay, so weren’t able to sell any at the show tonight.
We caught up with some other Roadies we hadn’t expected to see. There were probably a dozen or so Roadies in the audience.
There was overnight rain and early morning thunder in Dalby. After packing up we drove to the Urban Paddock Cafe for breakfast, but were again disappointed by the quality of our meals. This is the number one cafe in Dalby and has been good in the past.
The drive was only 250kms but in parts was on narrow, pot holed roads with lots of puddles. The light rain did not last long so there was no risk of flooding on the many floodways. On the New England Hwy there were several kilometres of roadwork, some controlled by long-delay traffic lights.
We stopped in Blackbutt to explore the bakery. Blue kept anxiously looking at the bakery door where Anita had disappeared.
Blackbutt is a place we could visit again rather than just drive through. Perhaps we will return for a festival one day.
Along the D’Aguiler Hwy there were sections of hilly winding road where the speed limit was reduced to 60kph. This helped keep other vehicles from tailgating our slow moving caravan. We turned off the highway onto the Kilcoy-Beerwah Rd and stopped at the Cruice Park rest area. A sign indicates a maximum stay of 20 hours, but about a dozen tents, vehicles and camper trailers were set up as permanent structures for presumably people who are otherwise homeless.
We had booked into the Military Jetty Caravan Park in Caloundra, opposite Golden Beach. The park allows dogs in school holidays, and is only 3kms from the Caloundra RSL where we will see the Beccy Cole & Adam Harvey concert tomorrow night. This is an old caravan park with lots of permanents, including dogs, two cats and bush turkeys. One permanent structure has been badly damaged by fire.
The short Military Jetty is across the Esplanade, with newly installed tidal monitoring equipment. The waterway is Pumicestone Passage which had a sandbar breakthrough in January during a storm. This has affected the tidal flow through the Passage, causing sand erosion along Golden Beach.
I saw a fisher on the jetty catch a skinny fish about a foot long. He threw it back as it was a barracuda and these fish are prone to biting fingers. Blue walked halfway along the jetty but froze and would not walk back. When he stopped he realised there were cracks between the boards and I had to carry him back.
We went to a Thai restaurant at a local shopping centre in search of spicy food. Our meal was not up to the quality of our local Thai back home, but it made a nice change from pub food. There is no photo of the sun setting over the water, but the sun set over the shopping centre.
During the day cloud cover developed and rain is expected tonight in Dalby. We had to search for raincoats and warmer clothes as we are likely to need them for the last couple of days of our trip.
The 355kms drive from Mitchell involved some rough bouncy roads. The A2 Landsborough Hwy became the Warrego Hwy at Morven and continues through Dalby. Theoretically the Warrego Hwy connects Brisbane to Birdsville, but parts of that route don’t deserve the title “highway”.
We passed through recognisable towns Roma, Miles and Chinchilla, and small villages such as Muckadilla, Wallumbilla, Yuleba and Dulacca. At the Miles Bakery we bought a hot chocolate and sausage roll. Sometimes we were caught behind road trains, but there are very few overtaking lanes.
The Dalby Tourist Park had a site available where we can stay hooked up. After having a cup of tea we took Bluey for a walk into town to explore the two country clothing stores, both of which let him go inside. I bought a pair of shorts but Anita left empty handed. She had already bought two pairs of jeans at Worn Out West in Mount Isa.
The main retail street in Dalby is Cunningham St where some buildings from the 1800s are still standing. This quirky mock Tudor building is interesting, but only the top of the Federation shops retain any hint of their history.
The 1933 former Dalby Town Council Chambers building is now for sale as partitioned offices, but the external Art Deco features are striking. My favourite shop is the 1911 Austral Chambers with painted features.
We had disappointing meals at the Creighton Hotel, where we have previously enjoyed good food. Bluey and Tilly enjoyed my leftovers and both went to sleep in the crate.
Committed Travellers 