Category: Retirement2024

Home.

We made it!

We woke this morning and it was freezing. Well, maybe not literally freezing, but another 4 degrees and it would have been literally freezing.

The Ikea thermometer said that it was 8 degrees inside Percy, but Elsie said otherwise. 4 degrees.

Brrr.

One of those cold mornings where – when you move you foot around in bed – you find another cold spot that makes you shiver all over again.

I should have worn bed-socks last night 🙁

And because we were off the grid again, there was no opportunity to plug in an electric heater.

We were carrying excess water that we wouldn’t need for our final day, and we didn’t want to haul it home if we didn’t have to. So we both used the opportunity for a hot shower to start the day, and get some feeling back into our extremities.

We were all plugged in and leaving the camping area about 7.20am. Not exactly a podium finish, but not bad anyway for a couple of retirees.

I have to say that our national highways are a disgrace. Bumpy, uneven, potholed, narrow, poorly engineered corners … and those are the positive things that I can think of! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again … when you are towing a van you get to experience every bump twice.

Once when Elsie hits it, and a second time when Percy hits it and sends a shockwave through your spine.

I’d hate to be having an Xray or surgery anytime soon, as I’m sure that most of my internal organs have been reorganised. Although I could probably get a job in a freak show.

“Come and look at this freak whose brain is in his left buttock, and his kidneys are up in his right shoulder.”

The other thing that we have noticed on the trip home is that – the closer we get to civilisation – the less civilised everyone is.

Language on UHF40 is foul and childish. Trucks sit right up your clacker at 100km/h meaning that if we have to stop in a hurry, I’ll be pulling parts of his bullbar out of the back of my head.

And when they go roaring past you, the shockwave of wind that they are pushing in front of them nearly blows you off the road.

Only a relatively short run today – just under 450km but much of that is increasingly complex due to more traffic and busier roads. And less tolerant drivers.

And getting tired.

Unlike other days (eg in the NT) when we have driven all day and not seen any sign of life, today was very different because we were going through small townships.

Speed up, slow down, speed up again.

Places like Gin Gin, Apple Tree Creek, Childers, Duckinwilla, Aldershot, skirt Maryborough, Glenorchy, Owanyilla, Tiara, Gunalda, Curra, and Gympie.

Then through the Sunny Coast and onto the widest and smoothest and fastest road that I have seen in a looooong time.

We were home just after lunch and started the cleanup.

As luck would have it, our neighbours – who have also been on an extended road trip – also arrived home yesterday about an hour before we did, so there was a bit of jostling on the street for position so we could both get our vans in and start the cleaning process.

We got everything out of Percy and MBW did a few loads of washing, but the real cleanup will start tomorrow. Wash Elsie and Percy, put everything away … the list goes on.

Here are the vital stats for the trip:

• Total km travelled (Elsie): 10,990km

• Total km travelled (Percy): 8,896km

• Longest driving/travelling day: 647km (Day 31: Churchill’s Head – WWII Airfield Free Camp)

• Shortest driving/travelling day: 72km (Day 43: Fishery Falls – Paronella Park)

• Total fuel cost: $4,153.15 ($88.36/day)

Yikes. Experience tells me – and I’m sure that my mate Jack Reacher would agree – that it’s never good to ask a question if you don’t want to know the answer 🙁

We had fun. But it’s nice to be home again.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

When we arrived at the BP rest stop at Bloomsbury last night, there were vans parked all around the outside, with one single van in the middle of the oval area.

The only space on the outer circle was perilously close to both the fuel pumps and the toilets – both of which have the potential for unpleasantness – so we circled around and stopped in the middle facing away from the guy that was already there.

We saw a spectacular sunset, and those pictures were posted last night.

Dinner, shower, coffee and ready for bed a bit early because we were tired.

We could hear some other vehicles arriving after dark, so I did a quick reconnaissance under the pretence of ”checking that I’d locked the car”, and found that someone had parked right beside us and was in the process of climbing into their roof-top tent.

That’s OK. It’s not like we paid anything for the site, and we were grateful just to have somewhere to stop for the night.

Into bed and we did some reading, and we could hear other vehicles moving around. A couple of trucks, maybe?

Around 9.15 I was ready to slip into something comfortable – like a coma – so lights out, eyes closed and off to the Land of Nod …

… but why was that truck engine still running?

All night long.

We woke this morning and I peeked outside to see that we were surrounded by a sea of semis. A tidal wave of trucks. A bushel of B-doubles.

Get the idea?

And 2 of them – one 10m in one direction, and the other about 15m in the other direction – were refrigerated trucks … so they had left their refrigerator motors running all night so that the ice-cream (or whatever they were carrying) wouldn’t melt.

We didn’t get much quality sleep, but at least there is no ice-cream crisis this morning.

In fact there were so many vehicles parked around us that I needed to reverse out so we could make our getaway.

We set a new PB this morning. Showered and dressed – although un-caffeinated – we were on the road before 7.00am.

A seriously heavy dew this morning, or a seriously heavy fog. I’m not sure which, but Elsie was wet. We pulled out of the camping spot and turned south, and were on our way.

First stop was Mackay around 8.30am. We found a coffee shop and got 2 coffees and an almond croissant to share.

On the road again 20 minutes later and a brief stop at Koumala. A tiny dot of a township that had the 4 Ps … Post Office, Pub, Phonebox, and Public Toilets. I’ll leave it to you to guess which one of those 4 venues we utilised.

By 10.15 we both needed to get out of Elsie for a stretch, some breakfast and more coffee. We stopped in a Clairview (population 167), a very pretty little seaside township in the Isaac region where I’m certain that the majority of the population collect a pension payment each fortnight, and I’m fairly certain that being a funeral director would be full-time work.

While I appreciate the warnings about box jellyfish, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about point #3 on their list of safety instructions (below).

“Most victims recover …” except for the ones that don’t survive?

I will say however that Clairview has the most colourful and artistic public toilet block that I have ever seen. Well done!

We stopped again at Yaamba for lunch around 1.00pm.

No, not Yamba … Yaamba. Just north of Rockhampton. Or is that Rockhaampton?

We had a long drive yesterday, and we’d started early today, and I was feeling weary … so after lunch I had a 10 minute power nap while MBW read her book.

Through Rockhampton, and through some other small townships. It’s all been fairly mundane. Driving, and more driving, and all of the townships start to look the same after a while.

We stopped off in Miriam Vale to empty the can and MBW located a nice freebie camping spot about 40km further south of Miriam Vale called Gindoran where we have pulled up for the night.

Unlike last night when we arrived late and got parking spot leftovers, tonight we rolled in around 4.30 and got the pick of the spots. It will probably be a bit noisy again tonight because we are about 100m from the main highway and there are lots of trucks zooming past, but I’ll probably experience the sleep of the dead tonight because I’m exhausted.

630km or so today, so it’s been a big day.

But that means that we will be home tomorrow (Monday), which is a day earlier than what we told Zach. If you are speaking to him tonight, please warn him …

Maybe suggest he plans something for dinner?

We have seen a great deal of traffic on the roads heading north today, and I am seriously over waving at every caravan that we pass. We have realised it is the start of school holidays, so that probably explains the people on the move.

I know that I have expressed some frustrations about the behaviour of other drivers, and in particular the lack of awareness of other caravan drivers who just puddle along and ignore everyone else, making it difficult to pass or even know when to pass.

We heard a (I assume) truck driver on UHF40 give an earful to someone today who was clearly being thoughtless.

Truckie: “Hey you in the Newlands caravan. Why don’t you pay a bit more attention and pull your f…”

OK, maybe I’ll turn the radio off until that tirade is over, or we are out of range. MBW doesn’t need to hear those words.

We have seen lots (and lots) of signs saying “take a break and stop at the Driver Reviver station (when open)”. They should say “take a break but don’t expect a free coffee because the Driver Reviver stations are NEVER open”.

We pulled into the free campsite today at Gindoran – in the middle of nowhere – around 4.30pm and guess what?

A driver reviver being run by the local Men’s Shed. One coffee and one tea, please.

A pretty little park with one enormous tree just near us. If I keep eating at the rate that I have been over the last 6 or 7 weeks, that’s what it will look like when MBW tries to give me a hug 🙁

I can hear other vans pulling in now, so I guess it will be filling up soon.

Terrible phone reception here again, so MBW probably won’t be watching Masterchef tonight. Shame. She will have to play catch-up tomorrow.

We ate the last of our frozen meals tonight, so MBW’s planning and timing is impeccable. Or very lucky 🙂

One more day and we will be home. There should only be about 450km to go now, so if we get away early and set Elsie’s turbos to warp speed, we might be home just after lunch if we are lucky.

I’m going to miss the tripping around and seeing new things, but I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed for a change.

And seeing OFLP 🙂

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

Before you start sending in complaints, yes – Bloomsbury is a real place – and no – I didn’t make it up.

Somewhere south of Proserpine and north of Mackay. I’ll explain that soon.

Actually it will be VERY soon, because this will be short.

Today is officially the beginning of the end. Not the end of the world, or anything dramatic like that. The end of our long retirement holiday.

Today we start heading home.

I should start by saying that Jeremy Winter – remember Jeremy? – hadn’t solved the case before I went to sleep last night, so I finished that off this morning while MBW was still asleep. I can be thoughtful like that.

Please make sure that you mention my thoughtfulness to her, next time you speak to her.

The usual start to the day with one exception. Today I took my towel.

Once is an accident. Twice would just be stupidity.

Actually there was another exception today. After 6 (or 7?) weeks of sunny, blue skies, today it was starting to rain. It’s a sign.

Packed up, packed down, connected, disconnected. Hooked up Percy and turned Elsie’s nose south, and all of those horses were champing at the bit.

We rolled out of Paronella Park’s The Paddock around 8.15am and I shed a silent tear for leaving the amenities block behind.

Jolene was in a mood today, and took us on a bit of a circuitous route back to the Bruce Hwy, but we were soon on the way. It’s amazing how Jolene can lift her game when you start ignoring her instructions 🙂

All we really did today was drive, with a stop in Townsville.

It was a completely uneventful day, except for when some turkey with Victorian numberplates decided it was important for him to drag his caravan out onto the highway in front of me when I was doing 100km/h, causing me to take evasive action.

He then consolidated his position as King of the You-Know-Whats by then travelling at 20km/h under the speed limit until I had the opportunity to overtake him, at which point he sped up.

Idiot.

Other than that, a completely uneventful day.

We saw the water at Cardwell which was nice, but decided that we’ve seen water in the last 7 weeks, but we haven’t seen any of our favourite little people … so we kept rolling.

But it did look nice.

MBW has a brother (Chris) who lives in Townsville with his wife (Louise), so we stopped off and spent a lovely hour or so with them.

They don’t live in a fancy castle like Jose Paronella, but they DO live halfway up a dead-end street which made getting Elsie and Percy back out again a bit … challenging.

You will notice that I wasn’t important enough to be included in the photo 🙁

It rained for most the day, so it was good to learn that Elsie’s wipers still work correctly. I mean, it’s been about 6 weeks since we have even seen a cloud in the sky.

We stopped for lunch somewhere by the side of the road around 2.00pm, then kept rolling towards … wherever we were going to stop tonight. We had a couple of options, but we wanted to make as much progress towards OFLP as we could.

The primary consideration for tonight was that it had to be free. Unless it wasn’t …

Which is funny really … driving down the east coast, all we see are signs telling us to stop and rest, yet there are so few (decent) rest stops on the highway that it is absurd.

Sure, there are plenty of tiny little “truck stop” places at the side of the road, but if a passing vehicle lost a wheel as they drove past, you’d be standing at the Pearly Gates in no time at all, and the conversation would go like this:

St Peter: “And what did you die from?”

Me: “Queensland State Government laziness and stupidity for not providing suitable rest stops.”

We had the usual assortment of coffee stops, comfort stops, and stretch stops … but I’m sure that you can create your own adventure with that. I don’t need to go into details.

We ended up stopping for the night at a BP service station at Bloomsbury and found a spot to camp for the night.

We did about 560km today, so it was a big day and I’m feeling tired.

But we were rewarded with an amazing sunset to close out the day.

Now that Jeremy has solved the case, I’ll have to start something else. I bought an autobiography of Paul Burrell at an Op Shop recently, so I might make a start on that. Paul Burrell, you may recall, was Princess Diana’s butler and confidante.

Any disgruntled employee who writes a “tell all” about his mostly dysfunctional employer’s family (my opinion) should be worth a chuckle.

It was a big driving day today, so hopefully we will slow down a little tomorrow and enjoy the ride a bit more.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

I’m sure that you know by now that I do like my amenities block in a caravan park. The one at The Paddock at Paronella Park is the best so far.

The. Best. So. Far.

Eight toilets down one side, eight showers down the other side, and 4 (or 5) basins/sinks across the back wall. All brand new.

But the thing that gets me is that the space in the middle between the toilets and showers is about 8 metres wide.

Seriously.

Big enough to hold a barn dance. Which would be handy, actually, because you wouldn’t have far to go if you needed to pee.

I reckon the space in the middle is big enough to fit three (3) Percys side by side.

It’s enormous. Cavernous. Huge.

But that’s not the best part.

I’m sure you also know that I have to find my favourite shower in each amenities block, and I get a bit … precious … if someone uses my shower.

Yes, I know that sounds like OCD, but … OK, maybe it is OCD.

They are all my favourite. All 8 of them.

A big shower head that gushes hot water, and the kind of water pressure that you’d expect from a fire hose. Every single one of them.

But here is the kicker … they specifically ban you at Paronella Park from filling a bucket and washing your car or van, yet you can stand in there and have a loooooong hot shower, and probably use 20 times the amount of water that you’d need to wash your car. Maybe 30 times.

But despite all of that, I had a lousy shower this morning.

Disappointing.

What’s the one thing that spoils your shower when you step out, scrubbed clean and glowing pink?

Realising that you didn’t bring a towel 🙁

Bugger!

I had to repurpose my PJ T-shirt as a towel.

And what made the situation even worse was getting back to Percy, and finding MBW standing there with a big, stupid, Cheshire Cat grin on her face.

MBW: “Forget something?”

Today was a super lazy day. We started with the usual coffee and breakfast. I’m ignoring ablutions this morning because of the disappointment factor.

The only thing that we needed to achieve today was to do the daytime tour of Paronella Park, and then go for a wander ourselves.

No prizes for being early today – we walked over and arrived in time for the 10.00am tour. Yes, I know that many of you would have done half a day’s work by then, but we are retired.

Nothing to do, and all day to do it. Remember?

The tour was great. Our tour guide was named Bill but he was foreign. Somewhere in Europe, I think.

He was very … animated. He told us about the 47 steps of the grand staircase and how “someone on the spectrum” told him that there wasn’t 47 steps but 45 steps.

Pfft. You talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Look up “on the spectrum” on the Intergoogle and I’ll bet his picture will be there somewhere.

And in usual style, he had clearly memorised all of his 40 minute monologue because if you asked him a question, you could see the wheels turning while he tried to figure out again where he was up to.

But anyway, it was an interesting and informative – and animated – tour and we learned all about Jose and Margarita and their 2 little munchkins, and how and why he created the castle and gardens.

Jose – the clever little chicken that he is (… actually, was) – built everything himself from concrete with his own hands. Buildings, tables and chairs, concrete pots, balustrades, staircases, paths … everything.

After the tour we just went exploring for an hour or so, and fed the fish and the turtles.

Paronella Park is at a place just outside Innisfail called Mena Creek Falls, but MBW referred to it as Mena Falls.

My hearing isn’t great, and I thought she said “menopause”, so that conversation quickly became complex and uncomfortable.

Anyhow, back to Percy for a rest and a cool drink, followed by coffee and Gingernut biscuits (Queensland ones), then a late lunch, then …

It was a pretty low achieving afternoon, if I’m to be completely honest. If I was getting a performance review on what I achieved today, I’d be on a performance plan.

MBW put me onto an author called Tom Thread-something, and I have been enjoying his books. I’ve been reading the last one in the Jeremy Winter series and I read most of it yesterday.

I didn’t read all day, mind you … I did have a nap in the middle of the day too!

There’s not much to see or do at Mena Creek Falls, so no point going sightseeing.

I’m embarrassed to say that was it for the day.

Lasagne and salad and chips for dinner, and with any luck, Jeremy Winter will solve the problems of the world before I head off to the Land of Nod tonight.

Gotta go … Jeremy is waiting for me.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

It was a very quiet day today.

If short drives were an Olympic sport, we would be on the podium today.

Fishery Falls to Paronella Park is only about 65km. That’s about 50 minutes driving time. I could do it in 45 minutes if Percy wasn’t on the back.

The latest we could check out of Fishery Falls was 10.00am, and the earliest we could check into Paronella Park was 12.00noon. If you are struggling with the maths, that’s 2 hours to do a 50 minute drive.

MBW did a load of washing because it is washing day. Fortunately we are back onto the regular Thursday washing day cycle, and I no longer have to guess when it is happening.

When we get home, I guess that we will be back onto a standard Friday washing day, but who knows …? Maybe Thursday will become our new thing?

There is a little creek down the back of the Fishery Falls Caravan Park. People have said that they have been swimming in it and that they didn’t get eaten by a crocodile, but we haven’t even seen it yet … so we went down this morning for a look.

A very pretty creek, in a very pretty and well-maintained park. We rolled out of the park as close to 10.00am check-out time as we could.

Innisfail was only a small deviation for us, so rather than do the entire drive at about 35km/h, we asked Jolene to take us to Innisfail to have a look-see and to kill some time.

We found two of our favourite things in Innisfail – an Op Shop and coffee – and they were across the road from each other. It wasn’t a coffee shop per se, but rather a McDonald’s McCafe. MBW had enough McPoints for a free McCoffee, and I bought a chocolate chocolate chip muffin and flashed my Senior’s card, and was rewarded with a free coffee of my own.

It helps that I look old and grey, but having a young and beautiful MBW by my side makes “looking old” more of a challenge.

We consumed our coffee and 50% each of a CCC muffin, and explored the Op Shop unsuccessfully – or successfully if you consider that we didn’t spend any money – and by then we couldn’t delay our trip to Paronella Park any longer.

We drove through very picturesque cane fields and arrived at ”The Paddock” about 7 minutes before check-in time, which wasn’t a problem anyway.

We’ve heard that the paddock sites are big and comfortable, and they are.

Great amenities block, too.

So we had a bit of a lazy afternoon. Our ticket into Paronella Park gives us free entry for 2 years, and access to guided tours during the day and also at night.

We hadn’t actually checked in to the caravan park (we paid online in advance of our arrival), so we had a bite of lunch and wandered over the road to check-in and book for the evening tour tonight.

We had a quick unassisted and unguided wander around the park, then headed back to Percy in the paddock for a quiet afternoon.

We’d bought some beef ribs on special the other day, so MBW got them prepared for a slow cook all afternoon, and we just lazed around and read our books. MBW played catch-up on Masterchef.

It’s nice to have decent internet for a change.

Paronella Park is a 1930s Spanish castle build by a guy named Jose Paronella. A guy who clearly had too much money and too much spare time. But a great idea!

The castle would have been magnificent in its day, but “concrete cancer”, big wet seasons, tropical cyclones, and fires have all taken their toll and the place fell into disrepair. It was purchased by a family 30 years ago who have had it heritage listed and are doing restoration works.

We headed over to the park just before 7.00pm for our 7.15pm night tour and got to see the castle and waterfall by lights.

And it was pretty spectacular.

And that’s about it for today. Shower, coffee, reading, and off to the Land of Nod.

Tomorrow we do the day/history tour of Paronella Park and we will go exploring the park better equipped with the knowledge of what we should see.

We probably could have stayed here for just the one night, but it is what it is. We will get some rest before we unleash the horses and tackle the 1,600km or so back home.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

If you are of a certain age and you can remember Dragnet on TV, you will probably remember Sgt Joe Friday and the classic line, “Just the facts, Ma’am”.

And that is exactly what you are getting today. Just the facts.

No funny anecdotes, no witty wisdom, and nothing for you to ponder and reflect on. Absolutely no educational or nutritional value. 

Just the facts.

Today was a driving and exploring day. We were keen to get up and explore the Atherton Tablelands. Let Elsie and those horses run free for the day.

We rolled out of Fishery Falls just after 8.30, and pointed Elsie’s nose north and west. I’ve had a few issues with Jolene lately – she sometimes takes us on a wild goose chase – but we gave her the benefit of the doubt.

About 10km north, then Jolene told us to turn to the left (west) and start up the hill.

And what a climb it was. More twists and turns than an Agatha Christie novel.

It would have been a lovely (= fun) road in the Ferrari, but unfortunately we left the Ferrari at home this trip 🙁

First stop Youngaburra.

And what a pretty little place that is. RV friendly, too. We’d left Percy behind, but everything was well signed and easy to navigate around.

And what a pretty little place it is. I’ve said that before.

One of the places that I was keen to visit is Herterton. If you Google “Top 10 Queensland towns to visit before you die”, Herberton is right up there. Maybe not before you die, but … well, before you die.

It was also a pretty little town, but nowhere near as nice as Youngaburra. RV friendly again, but it seemed that many places in town were either closed, or they were closed down (for good).

We found an Op Shop that was open and bought some books we liked for a few dollars.

We had morning tea – coffee and a scone – at a little coffee shop. It seemed as though there was a meeting of the CWA going on at the other side of the coffee shop.

Pretty feisty, those CWA ladies.

We did the walk around town, but we were on our way again pretty quickly.

From there we wanted to see the “highest road in Queensland”, which was only a few kilometres down the road. Except that Jolene – stupid Jolene – took us for a lovely drive down a picturesque road that added about 20 unnecessary kilometres to the drive.

Seriously!

MBW was keen to go and look at a diary because – let’s face it – we do like cheese. One diary that she wanted to see was closed that day, so the second choice was at Millaa Millaa … so off we went.

It was a fizzer. No cheese tasting available, and a bus load of tourists turned up a few nanoseconds before we did, so we couldn’t even get anyone’s attention.

So instead we went for a drive to look at Millaa Millaa Falls.

Shame that we hadn’t taken our swimmers, but then the people getting out of the water seemed … cold. Very cold.

So lucky we didn’t go in.

But we took some photos and had lunch in the carpark.

Next stop Malanda, and specifically to see the Malanda Falls. Not as nice as Mliiaa Millaa, but nice anyway.

Another Op Shop but nothing of interest.

We were starting to feel a little weary, and these little country towns – as pretty and delightful as they are – all start to blend into one another after a while.

We needed to head home via Youngaburra anyway, so we went to the platypus viewing platform to see if we could spot ourselves a platypus.

No luck 🙁

And home. Back down the windy and challenging road down the hill.

One of MBW’s friends from election work (Dianne) is in Cairns for a few days, and MBW was keen to catch-up with her. So we got into some warmer clothes and headed the 45 minutes back up to Cairns and met Dianne for dinner at Muddies on the Cairns esplanade.

Home for coffee and bed, and that’s about the day for us.

We had a lovely time and took lots of pictures. Tomorrow we are doing the KSR which should be fun.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

It was a bit of a lazy day today, I have to confess. Sunday, the rest day, so that was fitting.

We had a tour of the Undara Lava Tubes this afternoon, so we had the morning to kill. It was also quite cool this morning – MBW put her slippers on – so it was a “sit in the sun and drink coffee” kinda day.

I had some administration to do. Just boring stuff – pay some bills, book some more leave (I don’t actually retire until the end of July and I’m on leave until then). Just boring stuff.

MBW went and lay on the bed and read her book.

It was just one of those mornings.

We are staying at Pinnarendi Station. The Undara Lava Tubes are in a national park (or maybe a nature reserve) about 46km back the way that we have already come. There was a reason for that – really just trying to get that bit closer to our next destination for when we leave here tomorrow, even though it means an extra 92km for Elsie and a bit over an hour in the car for us.

But we will be laughing tomorrow because we are that much closer to Cairns already. Well, that’s the hypothesis, anyway.

We could have gone for a drive, but the nearest township (Mt Surprise – population 138) is about another 25km beyond Undara, and we have been there already.

In the other direction is My Garnett (population 532) about 55km away, but experience tells us that it is likely to be a ghost town on a Sunday afternoon.

So we stayed at Pinnarendi Station and just chilled.

We had to be at Undara around 12.30pm for a 1.00pm kick-off, so we left Percy around 11.30am to give ourselves time to have a leisurely trip to Undara and have a look around the resort there before the Lava Tubes.

Just before 1.00pm we were rounded up into a couple of minibuses and taken on a 2km (or so) trip into the bush towards the Lava Tubes.

Our guide either didn’t introduce himself, or I missed it, but he was a South African gentleman.

Not that there is anything wrong with being South African, but we have been to 2 different nature reserves in the last few days (Cobbold Gorge and Undara Lava Tubes) and encountered several South African guides both times.

You have to wonder if South Africa exports tour guides as a commodity.

The Undara Lava Tubes were great. Created by molten lava flowing at different temperatures and at different times to create something like “a skin on boiled milk”.

There goes any desire I have for a hot chocolate tonight 🙁

Our guide said that the First Nations peeps wanted nothing to do with the tubes, because they see them as being a scary spiritual place. Even though those lava tubes were 120 million years old (… and don’t quote me on that …), there were piles of rocks at the entrance to one of the lava tubes that we were told had come down “only last year”.

The Rangers check the rocks every season to see if there are any loose ones.

Now I have to say that closer inspection seemed to indicate some large cracks in the rock, and there were some large rocks in the ceiling that only seemed to be just hanging on.

So if you did a risk assessment on going in there, I suspect that you may not go in at all. We must have signed a waver when we paid for the tour.

We looked in two lava tubes and they were both more like a cave than a tube … when you consider that a tube is normally open at both ends. And these tubes that we saw were both closed off at one end. But the belief is that the tube only appears to be closed – rather it goes downwards and is full of mud.

Our guide was telling us that they can get a build-up of carbon dioxide in the lava tubes and that is one of the reasons that the Aboriginals don’t like them. The build-up of CO₂ can (apparently) bring on a feeling of confusion and impending doom.

I confess that I was also having a feeling of impending doom with the sense that I was at the end of a long cave with rocks that could fall at any moment – potentially trapping or crushing me – and I was reminded of those boys that were trapped in that cave in Thailand in 2018.

I can’t even bring myself to watch the documentary on Netflix about that!

Our guide also told us that the first tube had about 1.5 metres of water through it up until about 6 weeks ago, as a result of the late wet season.

The second lava tube that we went through still had water on it – but only about 30cm deep – and so we were all invited to remove our shoes and go for a paddle along the walkway and into the water.

Cool and refreshing are the two words that spring to mind. It was fun and certainly a highlight of the walk.

We were back to Elsie just after 3.00pm, and back at Percy (Pinnarendi Station) by 3.45pm for a coffee and rest.

It has been funny weather today – cool this morning, hot at Undara but cool inside the lava tubes (as you would expect), and now (5.00pm) it is cooling off to the point that MBW has put on a hoodie.

Tomorrow we are heading off again – north east towards Cairns – although we are staying at a place called Fishery Falls that is about 40km south of Cairns. We couldn’t find anything that we really liked (or could afford) in Cairns.

We had considered staying at Palm Cove – north of Cairns – and having a few days of “beachside” holiday, but there was no availability in Palm Cove for the days we wanted. Plus Palm Cove is about another 65km north of Fishery Falls, so we would need to tow Percy all the way up there, and then all the way back again for our trip home.

It’s a bit of a tricky run into Cairns from here. We would have liked to go up through the Tablelands, but the roads down into Cairns are steep and twisty (some say treacherous), and so instead we are going to head towards Innisfail and then head north.

It only a short run tomorrow – just over 220km – so should be an easy driving day. MBW has advised me that we are leaving early, but let’s see what time we wake up.

3 nights at Fishery Falls, then 2 nights at Paronella Park, and then once Elsie’s nose is pointing towards home and those horses start galloping, there will be no stopping us.

MBW has pulled something out of the freezer for dinner tonight, so it will be a surprise to see what that turns out to be.

There are way too many midges around here and I am getting eaten alive, so I’m going to go and hide inside with the bug zapper.

Maybe I’ll go over to the ablutions block first and have a nice hot shower, and use another squirt of that 13 cent handwash.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife

Did you know that in the 1980s, an American burger joint (A&W) tried selling 1/3 pound burgers at the same price as McDonald’s 1/4 pound burgers, but that they didn’t sell?

Why didn’t they sell?

Because people don’t understand fractions and assumed that a 1/3 pound burger was smaller than a 1/4 pound burger, and figured that it didn’t offer the same value.

Only a short trip today. About 203km from Forsayth through to Pinnarendi Station. About 2.5 hours travel time, not counting stops.

Pinnarendi Station is not a locality as such, but the name of a working cattle station. The actual location is called Forty Mile … which is probably just as unhelpful.

They probably should stop calling it Forty Mile and instead call it 64 Kilometre, but I can’t see that will be helpful either.

Let’s face it. If it was called 64 Kilometre, people would think it’s further away, right? And they wouldn’t go.

So how about I just say that we are about 200km SW of Cairns?

If you can recall me commenting on the gravel road into Forsayth from Georgetown, then I’m sure it won’t surprise you that it is still gravel. I mean, it’s only been 2 days.

Of the 40km road into Georgetown, probably 8km or so is pretty rough and corrugated. So it was a slow old trip out.

When we were at Cobbold Gorge yesterday, there was an older guy talking to another couple and he said that after dragging his van into Cobbold George over 37km of gravel, lights were broken, the microwave had fallen out, and there was dirt everywhere.

I’d suggest that he was driving too fast.

In any case I wasn’t talking the risk, so we did about 8km of gravel from Forsayth to Georgetown at about 40km/h.

You may recall that when we came through Georgetown on the way in, we were looking forward to stopping on the way out and have a poke around.

Bad idea.

Georgetown on a Saturday morning is closed. The coffee van was closed. Everything was closed. I must have imagined that there was lots to see, but clearly my memory isn’t what it used to be. There was hardly anything there of any value, and it was closed anyway.

But despite all of that, it is a pretty little town.

Sleepy, but pretty.

We did a quick lap of the township, then climbed aboard Elsie for the next leg of the journey to Mt Surprise.

Roads were mostly OK, but there were quite a few sections of single lane only that was pretty ordinary.

We rolled into Mt Surprise around 11.00am and were pleasantly … surprised. Another pretty little town that seems to have a history around both WWII and the railways. Lots and lots of vans and motorhomes stopped in Mt Surprise, so we stopped too and had a look around.

Mt Surprise is a very RV friendly town. They have a dump point right there in the main street next to the train station, so if you find yourself in North Queensland with a full toilet cassette in your caravan, Mt Surprise is the place to go.

Just don’t camp at the railway station.

I needed a caffeine hit, so I had a quick coffee before heading off.

Elsie still had a tiger in her tank from yesterday, so Elsie was happy.

I had coffee in my tank, so I was happy.

And MBW is always happy. Well, mostly …

From Mt Surprise it was only a short hop to Pinnarendi Station. About 50km. Good wide, fast road and we sat on 100km/h most of the way. Most of the trip was travelling east, but we hit a T intersection and turned north for the last 10km or so.

We had booked and paid for our space at Pinnarendi Station several days ago, so all we had to do was arrive and be told what site we are on. That should be a quick and straight-forward process.

There were 3 other vans ahead of us waiting to check-in when we arrived, and the process was long and rather tedious. It seems that the lady who does check-ins has a predetermined speech that she needs to give to all arrivals, and she explains all of the features and activities that can be done, whether you actually have any interest in doing any of them.

There is a sign in the men’s toilets that says you are only allowed one (1) squirt of liquid soap handwash because:

a) one squirt should be enough for anybody, and besides

b) each squirt costs 13 cents.

So I did as I was told and gave myself a 13 cent handwash.

MBW washed out some smalls, we had lunch, and now we are just hanging around camp and wondering what the poor people are doing.

It’s pretty warm here – about 30 degrees but there is a nice breeze blowing outside under the awning. Of course it could be a very pleasant 22 degrees – or even a chilly 16 degrees – if we went inside, closed all of the windows and turned on the air-conditioning … but that’s not the point, right?

The spaces here are lovely and (mostly) shady, and I’m thinking I should put my 20m wire up in a tree and see if I can make any contacts on 40m (7MHz).

I’m also debating whether to have a nap, or whether I could get away with a 10m antenna as an alternative to a 20m wire, but frankly my brain is hurting too much trying to figure that out just now, so I suspect that the nap may win the day.

BTW that story about the 1/3 pound burgers is true. You can read about it here.

This is living! Nothing to do and all day to do it.

Ciao

#Retirement2024

#VanLife