Gladstone

Hi youse guys.

Annie and I are packing up for the town of 1770 this morning. After we left Rockhampton we drove to Tannum Sands.

I had called in there about 25yrs ago and expected it to be the same. (What a fool!)

What was once a really small little seaside holiday town is now suffering the worst form of brick venerial disease. Absolutely overun by little boxes made of ticky-tacky, along with all the infrastructure, as they call it.

A learning experience for Annie and I though. Never to expect it to be like it was.

The caravan park which boasted sea frontage was divided from the sea by a road and thick mangroves. Very dissapointing.So we headed back to Gladstone.

It seems all the seaside caravan parks are falling victim to greedy developers.

So here we are in Gladstone,an amazingly small town, ( unless we didn't really see it all, though we didn't really try ) Very drab and ordinary.

Annie and I fitted straps to the van so we could roll up the awnings instead of threading them through the sail track each time. ( see picture ).

The town of 1770 boasts a van park with absolute beach frontage, so we hope that''s the case. If that fails we will head to Agnes Waters. 

  

Archer Park Steam train and tram Musuem

Archer Park Station in Rockhampton is now a museum with lovely old trains from a bygone era and even a steam tram.

 

Well worth a visit to see all the memorabilia.

The Mafeking Bell

The Scout hall at Mt Morgan has the Mafeking bell made from pennies (either 8,000 or 80,000, not sure).

The copper bell was made at the mine smelter.

Again Mafeking gets a mention as the founder of the Scouting movement, Lord Baden-Powell, commanded the seige of Mafeking.

Unfortunately the scout hall is no longer in use.

 

An interesting monument

During the tour of Mt Morgan we were taken to a newly constructed swing bridge dedicated to the soldier on the plaque. The first Australian to die in Imperial service at Mafeking during the Boar war.

Australian Army engineers erected the bridge and dedicated it to Private Jones.

 

At the general office on the mine site was an honour roll listing the large number of mine workers who also served and died in the same conflict.

Big Thing

The emailing to Blogger seems to work. The previous post is one of Rockhamptons many beautiful buildings.

 

As always on the hunt for "big things" we came across the bull  statues at the southern end of town on our

way to Mount Morgan. The featured bull is a Santa Gertrudis another is a Brahman.

 

Our day trip to Mt Morgan proved to be interesting. We opted for a 2.5 hour guided tour of the town and open cut

gold mine site. The town like many old gold mining areas has seen better days.

 

 

Emailing: 101_0719

 

Just a test ( email to blogg ) from Rockhampton. Because of our weak wi fi reception we have been having trouble blogging. Marcia the compu guru has given us another option.

Instead of going into our blog and blogging, we now email our blog to our blog. Got that? Let's try!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments:
101_0719

Note: To protect against computer viruses, e-mail programs may prevent sending or receiving certain types of file attachments.  Check your e-mail security settings to determine how attachments are handled.

Yeppoon continued

Annie and I have decided to stay another day in Yeppoon. It's so sunny.
Today is our 2nd wedding anniversary so we will be having a nice lunch in town.
The rock in the picture (when you get close to it) is quite amazing, of the most unusual formation, tilted and in layers.
For those who don't know, Paul has arranged 2 weeks timeshare at the Don Pancho Resort at Bargara Beach, south of Bundaberg. We are really looking forward to our stay and I hope to catch a fish.
Tomorrow we head out for Rockhampton. According to Tourist Info, it appears to be a place of interest, lots of attractions and heritage sites.

Yeppoon continued

A woman's work!!

Now that the chores have almost been done, it's time for some fun.
Tonight we will throw some lamb chops on the barbecue (eat your heart out Paul) in the camp kitchen and enjoy a drink or three.
The trip down from Mackay was uneventful and boring, a long haul, the infamous Marlborough stretch. We unpacked all our sodden gear and had a surprise on opening the camp chairs in the form of a little passenger, a frog. Hope he settles here.
We should have some big things to photograph in Rockhampton tomorrow, big bulls as Rocky is cattle country.

Blue Skies

What joy to see blue skies and sunshine at last.
Yeppoon is a pretty coastal town about 40kms from Rockhampton.
We are in a park at Mulambin Beach which is one of several beaches along a coastal stretch from Yeppoon to Emu Park.

Down and out in downtwn Mackay

I'm afraid it's hard to not be pessimistic about our stay in Mackay. We had to move to higher ground after this photo was taken.
Because of connection trouble we were not able to BLOG during the floods.
We are now down at Yeppoon. Annie will write a BLOG from here this evening.
Mackay as we said in our opinion (and I'm sure we're not the only ones) is a dismal town at the best of times, and it's amazing how an extended period of nil sunlight can dampen your spirits, not to mention tramping around in mud, being wet and with the van growing fungus.
About the only consolation we had we found at the Harrup Park Country Club. A really nice club.
We had a few drinks, a nice roast lamb lunch and Annie gave the pokies a bash, coming out in front.
We made a visit to the Mackay history museum,(open one day a week between 10 and 2) which ended in Steve walking out in disgust after being ear bashed relentlessly by a museum attendant. (Why can't they just leave you alone to enjoy the exhibits).
I remember Paul experiencing (and doing) the same thing at a little museum in the Towers.
We decided to make a dash for it on Tuesday morning come hell (or high water), so I will leave Annie to take up the story from there.

Birds

The Andergrove Van Park, Mackay is home to many cute little brown ducks and birds, Lorikeets in the main. I guess the ducks (unlike us) love all the lakes created by the wet weather. Every afternoon huge flocks of birds gather in the centre of the park for feeding time. The noise they make us unbelievably loud and continues until they roost.

Dumps we have been

ACHTUNG----BEWARE!!!----YOU VILL BE SORRY!!!!!

Give it a miss Dudes. Today we thought we"d check out Mackay- what a mistake!
If ever there was a place that had absolutely nothing going for it this is it.
Annie and I leaped out of bed full of enthusiasm, with the idea of checking out the highlights of the town, and ended up coming home with our (tale) you might say, between our legs.
The picture above is of the harbour and the (new?) marina, probably the towns only saving grace.
If you look in the picture you may be able to make out the new apartments behind the marina.
They are very stylish and behind and to the south of them a sort of exclusive walled estate.
We had lunch at some hotel offering Steakasaurus size crumbed steaks for $12.65. ANOTHER MISTAKE GUYS! Without a doubt the worst steak--- or was it steak? (Annie says she thinks it was manufactured) I have ever had.
And now for the good news. We sighted -- and photographed -- a BIG THING!!

Bye Bye

Mackay

We arrived safely in Mackay yesterday amidst showers of rain. Today is still wet with strong gusts of wind.
Our last blog was a little disjointed as we both had a stab at it. We had trouble adding pictures.
Mackay you might say is flood bound. All low lying areas are under water, the whole landscape appearing as a series of lakes.
We unhitched the van at the park we are at now and drove around looking for a better one-in vain. The parks in Mackay are of a poor standard we found but at least we learned a lesson from it. From now on we will go by the book (the van park guide book that is) and go straight to the highest recommended parks. This one is not that crash hot either.
Today we are off into town in search of employment and BIG THINGS.
Bye Bye!

A Fishy Tale

You may be wondering about the one that got away........sorry no pic. Steve and Richard went out fishing in the river for the day. Steve lost the big one but Richard caught his and released it. They did bring home a salmon for dinner and some delicious crabs which we enjoyed.

Our time in Airlie is drawing to a close. We hope to travel to Mackay Monday morning. It has been raining cats and dogs and it's not a lot of fun packing up awnings etc in the wet. I think we should hire ourselves out as rainmakers as we seem to attract plenty of "weather" Overnight we had lightning andreally scary thunder.

The one that got away

Whitsunday Wonderland

A visit to the lagoon was the highlight of our day today. What a groovy lagoon!
Airlie is such a lovely place- especially for those with money! If you don't have any money you are forced to sit under a tree like the unfortunate lady in the photo or the fellow in the hat who is taking advantage of a free swim in the lagoon and admiring the"scenery"
Seriously though we are having a great time. We are really getting our act together van-wise and feeling more at home in it every day.

Our latest acquisition to warm the heart of that unfortunate lady is a portable ironing board which sits on a table. Those who know the lady will appreciate her enthusiasm.

Tomorrow we may do a walk from the lagoon to shingley beach. It all depends how we feel in the morning after dinner at Richards. His dinners usually start late and one or two tipples before
dinner become several. Also Steve and Richard have some tentative plans to go fishing.

Big Things

We are writing from the BIG 4 van park at Airlie Beach.
The trip down from Townsville was uneventful bordering on boring. The van park (Whitsunday Resort Park) here is excellent to say the least with beautiful grounds, a big pool with slides and spotless ablution blocks, complete with hairdryers.
We have set up under an overhang of trees, the van in shade nearly all day.
The weather has been bad today, wet and overcast so our plans to check out Airlie where hampered.
As you can see we have taken a couple of photos of BIG THINGS. We intend to build a photo library of BIG THINGS as we travel. Dear blog reader, if you know of any BIG THINGS to photograph please tell us where they are so we can photograph them ( A reward will be offered )

The UHF radio provided us with some entertainment on the trip between Tully Heads and Townsville. A truck driver called us up to let us know he was going to overtake. After he passed us he gave us info re van parks in Townsville and chatted about various places of interest.

Townsville

Hi everyone,

Steve here.

Arrived in Townsville yesterday after a mostly wet ride from lngham south. We where glad to find it dry and cool. We are becoming quite efficient now at breaking up and setting up camp.
The camp is rather full but somehow they managed to sqeeze our 12ft van in. We where allocated a spot nearest the ( artificial ) lake. Maybe l can hook an artificial fish.
lt's nice to be back in civilization again. Annie and l have decided not to stop anywhere with a population of less than two million people. Tommorow we will be off to discover more of this wonderful city ( starting with the inside of the casino ). For tips on how to lose at roulette ASK ME.
The weather has warmed up a bit today but very overcast. After nearly being swept away in Cairns we appreciate anything that's not wet. Our van spot has steel anchors imbeded in the concrete (Who knows, maybe things could get worse! ).
l seem to have fixed the water leaks which have made a big difference ( especially to Annie as her bed was getting soaked.