Committed Travellers

It was another warm sunny day after a cool start. Anita put through two loads of washing, forgetting to move the drain hose. I returned from a coffee run to find lots of water around our van. Fortunately it drained away into the sandy soil. My contribution was hanging the washing in the sun and turning it a couple of times to make sure it all dried in the absence of any breeze.

We have both come down with colds, testing negative to covid. We had planned lunch with our friends, but cancelled to make sure we didn’t share any germs. Instead we ate takeaway orange roughy and chips sitting beside the Myall River at Tea Gardens. Blue had not been keen on fish until he tasted orange roughy, eating his share of our fish and chips.

We were near the Singing Bridge which connects Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest. The pelicans were hoping for scraps from the man cleaning fish. Several jetties provide resting places for pelicans, seagulls and shags.

Jimmy’s Beach is on the Myall River close to the mouth where it flows into the Pacific Ocean. It is generally clean and quiet with no waves. Unfortunately dogs are not allowed on the beach, but are permitted in the caravan park.

Ironically dingoes roam freely on Jimmy’s Beach and around the caravan park. I spotted a male dingo wearing a tracking collar. He was only 50m from our caravan, but we are being very careful with Blue and Tilly.

There was a lot of dew on the grass this morning when I took Bluey for his first walk of the day. Anita needed to have damaged fingernails repaired so we headed for Taree, the largest nearby town.

Instead of going back to the Pacific Hwy, we drove the potholed Lansdowne Rd criss-crossing the railway line. The scenery was interesting but there were literally thousands of filled and unfilled potholes along the route, with reduced speed limits due to damaged pavement. There is a multi million dollar project in waiting, probably one of many in the State following the damage caused by heavy rain and flooding.

We stopped at the Information Office in Taree to ask if there is any RV parking in town. A helpful volunteer showed me where to go and correctly predicted cars would be in the designated caravan parking bays. I managed to squeeze into one bay and made time to complain to the Council about the absurdity of providing caravan parking, but not ensuring it is available for caravanners wanting to visit and spend money in town.

We enjoyed breakfast sitting in the sun outside the Little Eaterly Cafe. When Anita headed off to get her nails done, Bluey wanted to follow her. I persuaded him to accompany me on a walking tour of Taree.

The refurbished Masonic Temple building houses one of the many Op Shops in town. In Jaycar I found electrical connections needed for the Bushtracker, a short walk from the Manning River Stage.

We walked a kilometre to a disapointing off leash dog park, but passed two well maintained old schools. The Taree Public School was established in 1864, and has celebrated its 150th anniversary.

The Taree High School was established in 1908. The impressive building looks like it has recently been painted.

The 1876 Protestant Hall is now ironically home to a BWS outlet. The smaller writing states England’s Glory above a statue of a Holy Bible. At least the building is being protected by having business occupants.

Anita was frustrated by the time it took for her nails to be done – 2 hours! We finally left Taree and drove to the caravan park at Jimmy’s Beach. We visited a friend living nearby and her 10 year old Border Collie, who clearly remembers us from earlier visits.

Tilly was keen to try out a new bag, sit on the silicone oven mitt, and keep warm on Bluey’s jumper in the crate.

After 3 weeks at home we are back on the road. We are going to Newcastle for the Beccy Cole concert at Lizottes that was cancelled last year due to the Omicron variant of covid. On our first day back on the road we decided to only do a short trip so our critters can get used to the travelling routine again.

We are parked behind the New Italy complex, two hours drive from home. This is a free overnight stop which invites visitors to make a donation, which we did. The original New Italy Settlement was established on this land in the 1880s. Now there is a good cafe, the Italian Pavilion and a museum. We first visited here years ago when there was a motorcycle museum. This old photograph in the cafe has been blown up to almost lifesize.

There is a covered outdoor area with more large pictures of Italian scenes. The monument near the flags describes the terrible circumstances of the original Italian immigrants, next to an optimistic wishing well.

The nearby pine trees have an interesting bark pattern at this time of year.

About a dozen caravans and motorhomes have stopped here for the night. There is no water or drainage facility so we have a bucket out to catch our waste water. Toilets are nearby but a torch will be essential. We have TV reception but needed to connect our Telstra booster to use the internet.

Tilly demanded walks and a chance to say hello to other campers. She disappeared down a drain but it was big enough for her turn around and get out. Bluey hasn’t eaten all day but I am certain he will eat his nightly Greenie.

To prevent total strangers from viewing this blog, each post from now on will be password protected. The password will be emailed to friends and family and will need to be entered to see each post. I have had some anonymous comments bordering on creepy which have limited the content of my posts.

My job list includes washing the car and caravan, but I haven’t been able to start because of the rain. Today between showers I cleaned most of the outside of the Bushtracker, but couldn’t use a ladder to clean the roof. That job has to wait until my helper is available and the sun is shining.

While the gerni was out I cleaned moss from small areas of paving, but the rest of that job is for another day.

Tilly keeps bolting out the front door if it is not raining. She wants cat grass so I pick some for her and leave it inside the house. She and Blue spend a lot of the day chasing and playing with each other. Tilly claws her way upside down across the bottom of the bed. Blue doesn’t crawl under the bed so she can escape from him under there.

During the night toys migrate from the toy box at the front of the house all the way to the back of the house. Sometimes 4 or 5 toys migrate at night. During the day one of those toys was carried from the bedroom downstairs to my study. She miaowed to let me know she had brought me a gift. Blue interfered with her game so Tilly took her toy into the wardrobe.

During the evenings I spend time crocheting, but sometimes that is difficult when Blue needs to be so close he is resting his head on my arm making it impossible for me to continue.

As we had lodged absentee votes in St George, we didn’t have to line up in the pouring rain. Instead we had breakfast with a friend, satisfying Blue’s need to socialise with one of his human friends.

We put the air conditioning on to heat our house to reduce the risk of mould developing during this latest rain event at the Gold Coast. Blue and Tilly continued their rough and tumble games, while we pottered. If the weather had been better we might have enjoyed more of the Blues on Broadbeach Music Festival. Over 150,000 visitors were expected to visit the Gold Coast to attend the festival. Those who came have had to contend with the weather and inevitable program changes and cancelled shows.

Anita had threatened to slash her wrists if ScMo was re-elected, so I had another reason for being very happy with the outcome. The prospect of Dutton becoming the Leader of the Opposition is both good and bad – good because it will mean the Libs failed to understand why so many Teals and Greens were elected, and they reduce their chances of being elected next time around. The bad is Dutton will be on our TVs way too often!

We planned our day around seeing the Hussy Hicks perform at the Blues on Broadbeach Music Festival. I had arranged doggy daycare for Bluey, but when they asked if he needed a bath and trim I lept at the offer. He was trembling when I handed him over but I knew he would soon be playing happily with the other dogs.

The rain started the minute we left home. We found a parking space in a 3 hour zone, only a five minute walk from the Surf Pde stage. There is minimal seating at this festival. It is either BYO chair, stand, or find a table in a nearby cafe. The Koi restaurant is immediately opposite the stage so that was where we found chairs and stayed put.

We lingered over wonderful coffees while I slowly ate the fabulous pannacotta with fresh fruit and house made granola. To prolong our occupation of the table, Anita ordered a juice. I then booked us in for lunch and after paying a $50 deposit we were able to stay provided we each ordered a meal. The menu includes small plate offerings and we chose tempura prawns and bugs with a tasty dipping sauce. The other benefit of securing a seat in a restaurant is access to a toilet! The Koi facilities were very clean and tidy.

The Hussy Hicks performance was from 12 to 1. We first sat down in Koi about 10.30 and stayed till the end of their show. There is very little shelter from the rain on the small stage. Lots of electrical equipment would need to be protected in a heavy downpour. Fortunately there were only a couple of showers and most of the crowd stayed put under umbrellas, shop awnings or just standing in the rain.

A woman who had been on an Aussie Road Crew tour spotted us and had a chat. Ali the drummer was there too until she went on stage. Ali is often the drummer for Beccy Cole in her Sisters of Twang band, along with the Hussy Hicks.

After the show we left Broadbeach without breaching the 3 hour parking limit. Our first stop was to retrieve the beautifully groomed Bluey, then drop Anita at the hairdresser a couple of doors away. When it was time to pick up Anita Blue and Tilly came for the ride.

The rain was a poor excuse for not doing more sorting out of the van, but the clothes dryer got a workout dealing with our pile of laundry. Blue and Tilly played together while we humans took it easy for the rest of the afternoon.

I walked over the bridge crossing Myall Creek for coffee from the Corner Cafe which used to be a good venue with interesting food. Two lukewarm coffees cost $12.50 and the only food was packaged cakes and yesterday’s  sandwiches. Next time we are in Dalby I will walk further.

We followed the Warrego Hwy then opted for the Toowoomba Bypass. Trucks must use this road which has some significant hills and low gear truck and bus zones. I put the Toyota into low gear and followed one of the trucks until it was almost travelling at walking pace.

It was sunny when we left Dalby, but as we passed the Harlaxton Toll Point we lost the sun and had clouds for the rest of the day.

By the time we were on the M1 southbound, we were surrounded by trucks. I moved into the left hand lane but of course some of vehicles joining the motorway pushed in aggressively. Some drivers will act irrationally or dangerously just to be in front of a caravan. Soon after we left Dalby a white car overtook us by crossing double white lines and driving about 120 kph in a 100 kph zone. For several kms we followed that car doing 100 kph so they had not gained anything from the illegal manoeuvre. The same car appeared in front of us again as the bypass rejoined traffic from Toowoomba.

The space in front of our house was vacant so we were able to park, unhitch and start unloading. Blue and Tilly played in the garden and ran chasing each other in the house almost non stop. They had only been able to play and wrestle inside the van and miss these chasing games.

From about 3.30pm Bluey kept telling me it was time to catch up with his friends. I took him to the park to see our regular group of four dogs and three humans. He was greeted by all of the dogs and even went walking with the group. Close to off-leash time he had a run chasing one of his friends.

We had dinner at home and an exhausted Blue was happy to sit on my lap while I brushed him and removed all of the small grass seeds from his coat.

With the prospect of more rain at the end of the week, we abandoned plans to drive home via Goondiwindi. Instead we drove north to Surat. We have never been to this town before so we made it a lunch stop. The only cafe in town served lovely quiches with flaky pastry.

There was still a lot of water lying around but not covering the road. The fast flowing Balonne River on the northern side of Surat was just washing the underside of the bridge. It is in major flood at 10.75 metres and likely to rise by the weekend as water from the Condamine River flows into the Balonne. That is likely to close the bridge to all traffic.

There are several abandoned buildings in Surat, but basic services and retail outlets exist. The Shire Hall is an impressive building with interesting features such as the windows.

By way of contrast this old unloved building is opposite the Shire Hall.

We continued driving north and turned east onto the Warrego Hwy on the outskirts of Roma. When on the Warrego Hwy we passed through several small villages and well known towns like Miles and Chinchilla. There was no flooding affecting the highway.

We stopped for the night at a caravan park beside Myall Creek in Dalby. Hundreds of homes in this town have suffered repeated inundations of floodwater. This building is in our caravan park. The bridge over Myall Creek is in the background. In January the height of the creek was above the timber work of the building so all caravans were relocated out of the park.

The westerly wind was cool but it was a sunny day. Anita put through three loads of washing and I got the job of hanging it up. The clothesline in morning sun was lower than the other end that is only in the sun in the afternoon.

Anita cleaned inside the Bushtracker while I did repairs and maintenance outside. Blue and Tilly had lots of walks and time in their playpen. Some of the dust under the car and van has been washed off when we drove through water over the road – only very shallow still water. There is  still dust on the roof of the van and rear of both vehicles. The dust on the rear window of the Landcruiser created an interesting pattern.

We left Bluey and Tilly in the van and drove to the Cobb & Co pub for very nice steak lunches. Again there were leftovers for the grateful critters. Our next stop was the Balonne Shire Council Chambers to cast our absentee votes, which was a lot easier than joining the queues on Saturday.

Other people in our park had been told travel to the west and north is possible, but roads east are cut off by floodwater. We checked road closures for ourselves at Visitor Information and decided to stay put for another day. This post beside the Balonne River shows major flood heights. The bridge goes under when the flood is at 11 metres, and the worst flood in 2012 was 14 metres, just shy of the top of the levee. During that flood everyone except emergency service workers were evacuated from St George.

We spent some time in Golders country clothing store and Anita bought two pairs of jeans. I would have bought a lovely shirt if they had it in my size.

Bluey was interested in these lovely black faced sheep, sticking his head through the fence immediately behind our van.

A couple of vans arrived at our park late in the day. I asked which way they had come and learned they had taken a 2 hour detour around a blocked road. Two hours travel for us at say 90 kph would be about 180 kms. Our fuel consumption is around 20 litres per 100 kms, so we would use about 36 litres of diesel. At $2.10 per litre that costs about $75. We can stay an extra day in our caravan park for $35 and wait for the roads to open, rather than drive extra distances to get around the floods