Where's the Wardies?

Game Over

2009-01-28T11:47:00.002+11:00

After a peaceful three day at Princetown, we decided to skip the next stop (some random location closer to Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road) as it felt like it was time to go home. We stopped for Lunch and a walk at the Otway Fly on the way, and arrived home at about 4PM to be greeted by Mason, Bal and Mat.

It has been an incredible two months that we will never forget, worth every cent we spent. Next week it's time to start looking for work, and just as soon as that is sorted out I reckon it might be time to start planning the next trip... the wanderlust has definitely taken hold!

So here's the map of the tail end of our trip... until next time!

The Great Ocean Road - West of Cape Otway

2009-01-25T14:50:00.007+11:00

Yesterday we drove from Nelson through Portland, Port Fairy and Warnambool to the Great Ocean Road. Surprisingly I've not been past Apollo Bay from the Melbourne Side (though have been to Warnambool and Port Fairy), so this was a drive I was quite looking forward to. We stopped at all the typical locations such as Bay of Islands:

... then after lunch at Peterborough we continued to London Bridge (now named London Arch after the collapse in the 1990's):

... we skipped The Grotto but visited The Arch:

... and the Thunder Cave, Blow Hole and Loch Ard Gorge:

We didn't stop in Port Campbell (though we did drive through to have a gander), continuing on to the Twelve Apostles (now 8 since #9 collapsed in 2005) and Gibson's Steps:

It was a great afternoon of sight seeing, as I'm sure the few 1000 others we encountered at the Apostles would agree! We are now stopping for a few days at the quiet hamlet of Princetown, just a few kilometers up the road. Probably just one more stop before home...

Blue

2009-01-23T19:17:00.003+11:00

In fact it's very blue: Blue Lake at Mt Gambier. It's quite a sight to see. With the day being so overcast I thought maybe it wouldn't be quite so brilliant but it was. For those who don't know, Blue Lake is one of four lakes (two of which are now dry) in an old volcano on the border of SA and Vic. The other large one "Valley Lake" is quite pretty too with lots of parkland around it but it's not blue at all. Sort of weird.

Anyway, today we only travelled a little over 100km to Nelson on the SW coast of Victoria (yup, almost home again!). It's a small fishing village right on the border on the Glenelg River. We're only staying overnight before we head across to stay on the shipwreck coast near the twelve apostles for a few days and celebrate the Australia Day weekend. The trip seems to be winding down now, and we are taking it pretty easy and just relaxing. This time next week we'll be home and I'll have a campervan to clean (and boy does it need it!!)

Naracoorte

2009-01-22T17:53:00.006+11:00

Despite the temptation to head West to have a quick look at the other half of the country (as per Shauno's suggestion), we continued East yesterday for the short drive from Robe to Penola. We quickly decided that we didn't feel inclined to stay there or at Coonawarra, so we drove by all the wonderful vineyards and Cellar Doors and stayed at Naracoorte for a few days instead. Yesterday was spent quietly visiting the stores in this country town, and swimming in the largest public swimming pool we think we have ever seen, and finally enjoyed a really nice Bistro meal at the local.

This morning we explored the main reason for being here: the World Heritage listed Naracoorte Caves. These are a series of limestone caves formed about 500,000 years ago through the action of water dissolving the limestone and have been tourist attractions for about 100 years. In 1969 however they discovered a huge collection of fossils (something like 50,000 skeletons) of marsupial megafauna which had fallen through an opening and died over a period of about 250,000 years before the hole closed over. It has become one of the most important fossil sites in Australia so was heritage listed along with Riversleigh in Queensland (which has fossils from about 20 million years back). It was pretty amazing, and of course the photo's don't do it justice (the guided tours are way too quick to consider taking a tripod). Well worth the entry price though.

The rest of the day has been spent sheltering from the rather strong winds, watching some old Schwarzenegger movies on the laptop :)

Tomorrow we'll pop by Mt Gambier to check out the Blue Lake, and then we will most likely wander on down to Nelson to hide away from the next few cool days forecast. Just one more week and we are home...

Robe (not famous for Robes)

2009-01-20T17:19:00.002+11:00

We've spent the last two days at Robe on the South Eastern coast of South Australia. It's a small-ish but popular fishing village which is a little "commercial" for our tastes but does have a very beautiful beach with crystal clear waters (in which of course we swam this afternoon). I haven' taken a lot of photo's recently but here's a shot of part of the town from the nearby "Beacon Hill Lookout" as well as a late afternoon shot of "The Obelisk", which was a day time "beacon" for the fishing fleet back in the late 1800's but due to erosion of the headland on which it was constructed is just about to fall into the sea.

The drive here from Kangaroo Island started out pleasant enough - through the Fleurieu Peninsular across to Victor Harbour and Goowla (on the mouth of the Murray River), both of which are rather picturesque. After crossing the Murray at the Wellington ferry though our moods for the rest of the trip soured a bit. The road skirts around Lake Alexandrina and heads south towards the Coorong. I'd read and heard a lot about the damage to this area but to experience it was a whole different thing. At first you see large areas of former wetlands that have simply dried out. A little further down the road and you come close to the shores of one of the lakes at Meningie, and you can see that the level has dropped quite a bit ... there are a number of jetties that are a long way from the start of the water. The water level however has probably only dropped about 10cm or so.
Further along you start to drive along the Coorong proper and you start to smell the real damage. Mile upon mile of wetland and lakes that are practically devoid of bird life thanks to the dropped water level. I've seen dry waterways before but this is different. The exposed silt and rotting vegetation is reacting with the soil and producing sulphuric acid. Apparently in the volume of 10's of thousands of litres now, but rising sharply towards millions of litres per year in the very near future. The entire ecosystem is dying, and you can smell the decay as you drive by. It was rather depressing!

There is a whole lot of debate going on about how to fix this ... the Murray's water level is continuing to drop thanks not only to drought (which has accelerated but not caused this problem), but also to increasing populatiion and agriculture in it's upper reaches. The SA governent is currently allocatiing $30m just to buy back enough water to stop the death of the Coorong from accelerating, but that will not fix the problem. How ridiculous is it that they need to pay to have water released from dams and weirs back into the river it was meant to flow down in the first place?? The levels will continue to drop as the growth in Victoria and New South Wales continues. When the new Goulbourn River pipeline sucks more water out of the system for Melbourne it will only get worse. Without actively killing off a town or an agricultural industry upstream (and we know that won't be allowed to happen!) the Coorong is doomed. The goverrnment have also been talking about breaking the artifical barrier to the ocean created at the start of last century and flooding it with sea water, so that at least the sulphuric acids will be washed away and it will not die. Most of the people living and depending on the Coorong are dead against this saying that it will be destroyed as a result, but surely returning it to as near to it's natural state (sans fresh water from the Murray) is better than allowing it to die? I think they are somewhat naive with their continued demands to release more water from upstream - it simply isn't going to happen.

If only the Australian government had listened to the protesters in the 70's who claimed we were heading for overpopulation, then we wouldn't be in this situation where 1000's of square kilometers of a unique ecosystem is being wiped out?

Anyway, now that we are somewhere that doesn't seem to be too severely damaged by man my mood has improved somewhat :)

Tomorrow we are heading just 100km or so up the road to Penola in the Coonawarra wine region, and while we are in the area we'll also check out the Narracoorte caves.

In the meantime here's a few more pics from KI (Kangaroo Island) taken at American River and the Bay of Shoals Winery

Fishing

2009-01-17T11:27:00.002+11:00

We landed 7 good sized King George Whiting (and lost one really good sized one each), as well as a red mullet (which was thrown back). It was a fun day in beautiful surrounds, and dinner was exceptional last night :)

No photo's because we ate the best fish before we thought about taking a snapshot. You'll just have to believe us :)

Flinders Chase and Seal Bay

2009-01-16T10:57:00.009+11:00

After a day of doing nothing at all, we decided to go for a bit of a drive yesterday to the other end of the Island for a look at Flinders Chase National Park. Most of the bushland was burnt away in the December 2007 fires, so for most of the drive all we could see was dead shrubbery but with plenty of regrowth. It'll be a few years yet before it is "pretty" again I think. The landscape didn't detract from our destination at all though, as what we had come to see was Admiral's Arch, a cave/tunnel through the cape sheltering a colony of Australian and New Zealand Fur Seals. Quite a pretty place.

A few kilometers along the coast was our other destination: Remarkable Rocks. This is a collection of large boulders atop a dome of rock at the sea's edge which have been sculpted by years of weather. They are remarkably well named :)

After a lunch stop along the road we hit our final destination for the day: Seal Bay. This is a consveration park set aside for a colony of Sea Lions. We went on a guided tour which took us down onto the beach where we sat just 10m away from part of the colony. It is the breeding season so there was a good mix of males, females and juveniles on the beach, and they were quite active as well. The 45 minutes went by in a flash. We could easily have stayed there the whole day. That was $14 very well spent!

This afternoon we are off on a fishing charter from the American River wharf. Hopefully we'll have a nice feed tonight!

Across the back passage...

2009-01-13T22:32:00.002+11:00

From Port Augusta we headed down into the Gladstone wheat belt area on Sunday, through the picturesque Clare Valley, and across to our destination of Tanunda in the Barossa Valley. Along the way we had a "bit of a scare" when a truck carting a load of hay came around a "65 km/hr" corner at something closer to 100 - he barely took the corner crossing to the wrong side of the road with the trailer starting to lean over. We quickly pulled up to the side of the road fully expecting a face full of sliding hay truck but somehow he managed to stop it from toppling and passed us safely. Our hearts definitely skipped a few beats!!

Once settled in to Tanunda we tried out a few Barossa cellar doors and made some selections to keep us sated over the next week or so. It would take quite some time to explore the area properly, but the three wineries we visited were enough for us for this trip. This morning we stopped in town for a hot breakfast before heading on down through the Adelaide Hills, across Adelaide and then on to the ferry at Caper Jervis to take us to Kangaroo Island. We've decided to stay here at the Nepean Bay Caravan Park for six nights rather than exploring the Flinders Ranges and Broken Hill areas. We can always do that some other time as it is (relatively) close to Melbourne and is better suited to a trip with a 4WD.

Tomorrow we intend to simply relax and maybe go for a swim at the beach next to the park - exploring the island and taking a fishing charter can wait until later in the week.

This is an old sandstone shed in a recently harvested wheat field north of Clare. South Australia seems to be completely littered with old derilict sandstone buildings. This one is "in good nick":

This is one of the many vineyards in the Barossa (this one I think was Jacobs Creek's Cab Sav vineyard):

Here is the street in Narioopta (in the Barossa Valley) where Libby wants to live:

Here we are on the ferry on the way to Flinders Island. We found it rather amusing that you had to drive through "Myponga" before crossing the "Backstraight Passage". Perhaps we are just weird?

Until next time ...

On the road again

2009-01-11T21:44:00.001+11:00

With the car repaired, we hit the road again at about 11:15 for the somewhat sureal drive from cobber Pedy down to Port Augusta. A great deal of the way the area that the highway passes through is prohibited for public entry by the commonwealth government. Some of this land has been used for nuclear testing and rocket testing, and I guess that the rest is reserved for future military use. There still seems to be a lot of cattle stations within the prohibited areas, but we didn't see a lot of cows - except for two dead ones about 100km apart, both being dealt with by Wedge Tailed Eagles. I *tried* to sneak up on the second one, but apparently a campervan doesn't fool our feathered friend and I only got within about 100 feet before it took flight

A little further along the road we started to see Salt Lakes, the first of which (but my no means the largest) is Lake Hart

The road then rises up a little onto a completely treeless plateau. No trees as far as the eye can see in all directions. Then you hit the turn off to Woomera. This is an aboriginal name for a "throwing stick" and is also where the British Military tested various rockets after world war II. We decided to have a look and to check out the camping ground. It wasn't long before I realised that "no way" was Libby going to be willing to stay there. It wasn't much of a camping ground, so I was keen to move on to Port Augusta myself anyway but the main reason we didn't stop was because of how spooked out Libby was. It was like a ghost town .... there was practically no-one around. We did see two kids on bikes and a few others in the local pool but aside from that only one car (driving slowly and suspiciously past us, with two huge pig dogs in the back of his ute) when we were stopped at the missile park. No other signs of life. The wind was quietly howling down the street and bits of tin were rattling in the breeze. It wasn't hard to visualise 100's of zombie eyes watching us from the quiet houses hoping we'd stay until sunset. It was eerily like a bad 50's B-grade horror movie! You have to ask yourself why the government prevented public access to this town for so long. It was the most bizzare town I have seen, largely because it looks normal but lifeless.

I assured her that I wouldn't make her stay awake all night in terror, and we drove on to Port Augusta and arrived around dinner time. Not sure where we are going tomorrow, but quite possibly the Barossa Valley or one of the other winery areas before we venture on to Kangaroo Island.

PS: This is our first evening feeling "a tad cool" in about 6 weeks. It would be pretty easy to turn around and head north again!!

Shafted!

2009-01-10T18:01:00.002+11:00

Well to be more precise "stranded". After our wonderful night living as moles, we had brekky and then packed the van to start on our way to Port Augusta when we discovered that the battery was flat. Arrgghh! We got a jump start and headed into the main street to find a mechanic, and after a bit of a shuffle around different places an auto-electrician (working out of an underground workshop, of course) was helping us out. It wasn't long before we had the "good news" that the alternator was shot, and that if he couldn't repair it a replacement would take until Wednesday to arrive and be fitted!!! Arrgghh! Later next week the forecast is for the heat to exceed 50C, and there's nothing to do here but browse opal shops. Arrgghh!!

By an extremely good turn of luck, Vince managed to repair the alternator and will have it fitted again by mid-day tomorrow. Phew! So we are holed up in the local motel for the night, and will probably only get to Woomera tomorrow. Luckily we are in no real hurry...

The only photo taken today was one of me pretending (rather poorly) to be Vin Diesel in front of one of the left over spaceship props from the movie "Pitch Black", and I couldn't be bothered with that today. I hope the suspense doesn't kill you!! In the meantime here is the map of our travels since New Years Day to tide you over (click for a closer look):

PS: I totally refuse to pretend to be Mel Gibson on any of the left over sets from "Mad Max III" and don't even mention "Priscilla Queen of the Desert" - I assure you I don't look all that good frocked up (I imagine ... honest)

Of Camels, Kings and Gemstones...

2009-01-09T22:35:00.007+11:00

We finished our visit to the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park with a sunset camel ride and a sunrise viewing of the rock. The camel ride was an absolute hoot - Libby nearly fell off she was laughing so hard about the tackiness of it all once we were mounted on our camel (named "Killer"). They are actually much nicer to ride than you might imagine, and it was a really pleasant hour in the dessert as the sun went down over "big red". Definitely a "must do" experience. We loved it.

Yesterday morning there were at least 300 people up well before 6AM for the sunset viewing. It was pretty suprising to see park rangers directing traffic, especially as this is supposed to be the slow season!!!

After the show was over we hit the road again stopping at a road side truck stop along the way for brekky, and we were at Kings Canyon (about 300km away) by around 10AM. We found a nice shady spot (unlike Yulara!) and then headed off to the Canyon itself, which is pretty special. We didn't try the rim walk as it was already above 30C by the time we finished the canyon walk. Definitely that's something I'd do in the cool of the morning or in winter but it would have been a bit much in the heat of summer. One thing that did surprise me on the walk through the canyon was the number of paddy melons along the pathway to the canyon. I'm not sure if they are indemic to the area but I suspect that the rangers would clear them if they weren't. I was tempted to grab a fruit to try it but seeing that it's a national park I behaved myself :)

The rest of the day we spent swimming in the pool and playing pinball machines at the bar, as well as watching the dingo's snooping around the camp looking for food at dusk. A nice relaxing day!

Today we hit the road early again, packing up and on the road by 7:15 with an egg and bacon breakfast stop at the Kings Creek Station 30km back down the road. Almost 700km later we had left the NT and arrived at Coober Pedy in South Australia. What a totally incredible place! There are mine tailings everywhere .... almost from horizon to horizon!

We decided that we had no choice but to experience the place "properly", so we booked ourselves some mine tunnel space in Riba's Underground camping ground (apparently the only underground campsite in the world), and paid the few extra bucks for an Opal mine tour to boot. For $18 each this was too good to give up!

Big Red

2009-01-07T17:29:00.002+11:00

Yesterday we drove the 440 km from Alice springs, past Mt Connor to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). Bloody incredible!! It is impossible to convey the size of this big lump of rock to you in either words or pictures. We have been here 36 hours and we are still gob-smacked every time we look at it!!!!

Tonight it's a camel ride at sunset past the rock, and tomorrow morning we will watch the sun rise over it before we head to King's Canyon.

Gorge-ous Gorges

2009-01-04T19:08:00.005+11:00

Today we ventured out into the West MacDonnell Ranges. We skipped the Hermannsburg section (where Albert Namatjira lived and painted) to keep it to an easy day's trip, but visited most of the major sites (we had to skip Serpentine Gorge and Ellery Big Hole because the access roads are unsealed and you have to stay on sealed roads with 2WD rentals). The drive alone was worth it ... the ranges are just incredible, almost an oasis in the desert and a sight to behold. We decided to drive out to the end of the sealed road at Glen Helen and then work our way the 134 km back to Alice Springs. All up about a 300km round trip with the various detours to visit the sites.

So our first port of call was the Glen Helen "Resort" (their word, not mine) at the Glen Helen Gorge on the Finke River (which drains into the Simpson Desert rather than an ocean):

Just up the road (before it reverts to gravel) there is a lookout that has great views back into Orminston Pound as well as Mount Sonder:

Our next stop was the very pretty Orminston Gorge. A few people (some in wet suits!) went for a swim in the chilly waters but we opted out on that:

Just up the road are the "Ochre Pits" where the aboriginal people collected ochre for face and body painting. There's a lot of Ochre in these ranges so it wasn't traded a lot but in others places in the country the aboriginal people carried Ochre 1000's of km to trade. The various colours were incredible. There is a $5000 fine for anyone who tries to take Ochre from the pits, but this does not apply to aboriginal men (the women do not collect it for traditional reasons):

After skipping Serpentine Gorge and the Ellery Big Pool we arrived at Standley Chasm. This has to be seen to be believed! It's a 20 minute walk from the Kiosk (where we had lunch) but it was well worth the effort!

Our final destination before heading back into "The Alice" was Simpson's Gap:

All up a great day ... but the swim in the pool was very very welcome when we got back to the caravan park!!

The Red Center

2009-01-03T20:10:00.005+11:00

Today we drove the 500 odd km from Tennant Creek to Alice Springs. Along the way we stopped off at the "Devils Marbles", admired the "long term parking" at Wauchope, trading UFO sighting stories at Wycliffe Well (Libby saw some rather strange lights along the Barkly Highway [insert ominous music here]), and gasped at the landscape at Barrow Creek before arriving at "The Alice". Let's let the pictures do the talking:

The day was moist...

2009-01-02T18:12:00.005+11:00

Though moist is a bit of understatement... it had been raining all night, and a few minutes after leaving Mt Isa the torrential downpour began!

We did have a brief break in the deluge at the border to the Northern Territory...

... and then it didn't let up at all until we had the 300km mark! Finally I could take advantage of the 130km speed limit in the NT for some of the trip, but the deluge continued off and on for most of the 661 km journey to Tennant Creek. I think we were about 15 km from the end of our drive when we saw our first sunshine!

The rain aside it was still a good trip. The Barkly Tablelands are incredibly flat ... as far as the eye could see in most places (though at time the rain limited that to about 100 meters!!). Our only real stop along the way was for fuel at Camooweal just before the QLD/NT border and for lunch at Barkly Homestead.

Tomorrow morning we head for "The Alice", a quick 508 km sprint, hopefully in susnhine (the weather forecast looks promising from about 100km south of here). We are pretty excited about finally hitting the "Red Center"!!

PS: Tennant Creek is a bit of a culture shock for two "white fellas" from Victoria :)

Gulf Country

2009-01-01T18:20:00.002+11:00

It turns out that not getting a fishing charter was a good thing. It started raining while we were at the Karumba "Animal Bar" (I kid you not) celebrating NYE with the locals, and by the time we were on the road at 8AM this morning it was showing no sign of letting up. It would have been miserable out there! The drive down the Burke Development Road in the rain however was a fascinating experience. There was wild life everywhere ... kangaroo's, a goanna, a (hit by truck) wild pig, Brolga's, Herons of all varieties, Curlews (which are bloody stupid with respect to road sense - one would have taken out our windscreen if I hadn't had slowed down rather rapidly!), pelicans, galahs, corellas, sparrows and flocks of other various small birds (many of which sadly didn't get out of the way fast enough), and a huge flock of green budgies! Oh, and an incredible number of hawks and Eagles.
The landscape (what we could see of it through the rain) was constantly changing as well. 200km past Normanton (and only seeing 6 other cars in that whole time) we hit the Burke and Wills Roadhouse for "cuppa". The picture below is posted at Libby's insistence and my protest - I swear that I wasn't trying to act "macho"

Another 180kms and we stopped for lunch at the only place open in Cloncurry, and then we hit the road again for Mt Isa. A few km's down the road we spotted a few camel and managed to get a picture before they wandered off

The landscape along this section is incredibly surreal - it's incredibly rugged and breathtaking. I would have loved to see it in the sunshine rather than on the dreary day we had today. Even so I did stop to take one snap - it's a shame that the only safe place to stop wasn't the most amazing view but this will give you some idea. To know more start driving :)

Mt Isa is also rather surreal. The town is nestled in a sort of "bowl" surrounded by rocky hills similar to the one in the photo above, and as you drop down into it and get your first glimpse of it you can't helped but be amazed by the Copper/Zinc/Silver mine and processing plant seemingly smacked bang in the middle of town. It's actually right on the edge but withing spitting distance of the "CBD". I'll take some photo's of that on our way into the Northern Territory tomorrow morning.

>5000km down and the red center awaits us ...

Where are we for NYE? Karumba

2008-12-31T18:56:00.003+11:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR from the Gulf!
Today we drove up here to Karumba - quite an interesting drive and with a storm along the way we had to drive through (very shallow) water crossing the road in a few places. Lots of wildlife (roo's, eagles, a goanna, etc.) and an incredible amount of roadkill. You really wouldn't want to do this drive at dawn or dusk.
A bit dissapointed to find out when we got here that only one operator is doing fishing charters for New Year's Day, and he's booked out ... so no Barra action for Paul. Sigh.
We were going to stay a few nights (to fit in the fishing), but instead we are going to leave for Mt Isa in the morning.
Here's where we have been since the last map I've posted:

The Undara Experience

2008-12-30T19:29:00.004+11:00

Yesterday we left Port Douglas and took the road up into the (rather pleasant) Atherton Tablelands before swinging south west into the "Gulf Savannah". The change in the landscape was as dramatic as the change to the annual rainfall (Daintree gets 4m/yr, The Gulf Savannah gets about 100cm). I think we copped some of that Daintree rainfall as we left the tablelands actually ... it poured so heavy as we were coming down out of Ravenshoe (Queensland's highest town) I almost had to pull over for a while. it was gone before we knew it though and it was not long before we started entering the dry bushland and seeing huge ant hills everywhere. This photo below is nothing compared to the numbers we saw earlier along the road, but it gives you an idea I think. It was also rather strange as we approached Mt Garnet to realise that the single lane road with cattle grids we were on was actually our national highway #1. So different from the multi-lane free ways passing through Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane!

Towards mid afternoon we arrived at our destination Undara Experience and set up camp. We met some people in the pool and later caught up with them at the bistro for a fun night of chatting and laughter. This afternoon we took our tour to the lava tubes. This was an amazing tour. The Undara volcana erupted a number of times around 150,000 years ago, and around 39 individual lava tubes resulted, some up to 160km long. They collapsed in places, and wherever this has happened the Savannah suddenly gives way to pockets of rainforest. Our tour took us into one of these pockets and we entered the tube feature known as "The Arch", as well as a few other sections of tube. These photo's simply dont do it justice. You'd really need quite a few hours (and a tripod) to capture it properly on camera. Our eyes certainly had no trouble soaking it all in - it's truly worth visiting.

In the morning we are off again - this time to Karumba and maybe a "spot of fishing" before we turn back inland towards Northern Territory...

Where the Rainforest meets the Sea...

2008-12-28T12:08:00.003+11:00

Yesterday Paul and I decided to brave the increasingly soggy weather to visit the Daintree National Park. The first place we went to was to Mossman Gorge where we went on a rainforest walk to a suspension bridge over the Rex Creek. Here's me on the bridge:

After that the path followed along the Mossman river gorge back to the car park. There were signs everywhere about how dangerous it could be and how had people had drowned, but even though the river was not in flood (yet) we thought the people we saw swimming were pretty stupid!

There were also a lot of little creeks like this one flowing through the forest into the river. It was really wet from the rain but still hot and humid and it was really beautiful!!

The funniest thing was that it was so humid that when I opened the window of the car, visible steam started to come out of the air conditioning vent! I thought the car was on fire and I freaked out a bit until we worked out what it was!

After Mossman Gorge we went to Daintree Village where we took a one hour crocodile spotting boat tour. Alas! No crocodiles :(

The guide said that the water is warm enough in the summer that they don't need to bask in the sun on the banks to keep warm, so just sit on the bottom for up to four hours digesting the food. It was still a great boat ride, especially when it really started to pour with rain.

Our next stop was across the ferry in the main part of the Daintree National Park in the Rainforest Discovery center where we had lunch and then explored the area using the audio guided tours. They have a whole bunch of boardwalks going throught the forest and huge tower that you climb to get to the top of the canopy. It wasn't raining, but it was so hot and steamy that you still needed an umbrella and it didn't help because by the end we were still saturated.

The rest of the day was spent driving up to Cape Tribulation and stopping at a few beaches along the way. The weather was great for the "rain forest" part of the experience but not so great for the beaches. They would be a lot prettier on a sunny a day we think.

It was a long and fun day.

The Boxing Day Races

2008-12-26T22:36:00.004+11:00

Melbourne has the Aussie vs South Africa Cricket test at the MCG. Sydney has the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race, Alice Springs has the Alice Springs Cup camel race. But only in Queensland...

(The Iron Bar in Port Douglas has these every second night all year, but let's all agree to pretend it was a special event)

Christmas Day 2008

2008-12-25T19:09:00.003+11:00

Today has been a rather unusual christmas day for us, being the first one ever where we have been away from family. It hasn't been a bad one at all though. After breakfast we had a swim in the pool, and then spent a while phoning family and texting friends our seasons greetings before getting ready (by wetting our palates with a glass of the Chombard and lemonade that Deb bought us for christmas) to go to lunch at a local restaurant "Watergate". We spoiled ourselves just a little bit ... check out the entree: Chef's tasting plate containing tasmanian oysters, local tiger prawns, morton bay bugs in rice paper rolls with green chilli soy, seared scallops with coconut cumin dressing and soft shell crab in tempura batter stuffed with local coral trout. It was totally awesome and decadent ... check out the remains :)

After washing that down with a few glasses of semillion sauvignon blanc, the main was served: shaved pickled pork with pecorino & apple balsamic, rare roast beef with horseradish cream, roasted turkey with cranberry relish, roasted butternut pumpkin, new potatoes, glazed carrots, minted peas, broccolini and gravy. Dessert was a christmas pudding with vanilla anglaise and vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmm...
Totally stuffed we went back to the resort for a nap, and then a bit of a wander along 4 mile beach, another swim in the pool and just a while ago we cracked a bottle of Sav Blanc to get ourselves ready for the stuffed rolled chicken that's in the oven roasting

We hope you all had an equally pleasant day. Wishing you all a very merry and safe christmas

(ps: please excuse the camera-phone quality of the pics!)

Great Barrier Reef

2008-12-24T20:49:00.018+11:00

Yesterday we caught the "Osprey V" to two of the outer reefs (Saxon and Hastings) for 5 hours of absolutely incredible snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately there had been a little bit of wind and rain overnight so the previous day's 20m of visibility had reduced to less than 10, but despite the murk it was still brilliant. The 100's of varieties of Corals were just amazing, as were the sheer number of fish of all colors and sizes. We didn't manage to see any Green Sea Turtles, but one young girl on the trip did and had her photo taken with it. My biggest thrill was the giant clam I luckily stumpled across. It would have been about 4 or five feet long, three or four feet high and 2 or 3 feet wide (open). Unforgettable!
The only downer of the day was that they wouldn't let me scuba dive because of one of the medications I am on - they said I probably can dive, but I have to get a medical first. Arrrgh! I was pretty dissapointed about that :( Libby did don a scuba tank though and did a 5 minute trial dive just to see what it was like. We also took the semi-submersible ride which was pretty good too (we saw a "Nemo" hiding in an anemone!)
On the way back to Cairns (almost a 2 hr ride), they gave us free wine (and naturally I also bought a few Crownie's to top that up), and the cook/submersible-guide "Elvis" took out his guitar and amp and played some tunes to entertain us. It was a huge laugh - he kept changing the lyrics of the songs for people on board of different nationality, and made the Aussies (only Lib and Me!) sing along to "Down Under" by Men at Work. Of course he also called out "Aussie Aussie Aussie", so we had no choice but to loudly and drunkenly reply Oi! Oi! Oi! What yobbo tourist's huh??

Last night we went back into the Cairns CBD for a "free meal" at the RhinoBar courtesy of the Osprey V. It turned out to be just a bowl of "Tandori Chicken" (that was actually butter chicken) that you got for free if you bought a drink (which was no challenge at all ... we'd already bought drinks before we checked out the grill options). It tasted ok but we were both feeling a little queasy this morning ... perhaps not so good? While we were eating/drinking on the verandha we "admired" 100's of Eclectus Parrots returning to roost in a Mango tree in the sidewalk. The noise was deafening!! We also saw quite a few fruit bats flying past. After dinner we wandered towards the Casino and we soon found out where the bats where heading: there were a few trees in the median strip outside the Casino covered with little red berries - as well as dozens of bats! This was the first time we got a real close up look at them in the wild (if one of the major streets in Cairns can be considered "wild") as they gorged themselves. They are incredible creatures, many with wing spans up to about a meter.

A few hours in the casino (and too many drinks) we were back in the Caravan Park for a bit of a nap. Bright and early this morning we hit the road again for the short trip to Port Douglas. This is a very beautiful drive ... well worth it if you are in the area even if you aren't staying at "Port". It was also a bit of a reminder about the perils of travelling, as we had to stop for 20 minutes or so while they cleared the winding road of a car that had rolled. Nothing on the nightly news so I guess the guy survived but the car was a mess!
So now we are relaxing in our room at the resort, waiting for Christmas Day to roll in...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!
Stay safe, and love to all

Kuranda

2008-12-22T21:33:00.005+11:00

Today, as promised, your intrepid explorers boarded the Kuranda SkyRail for a fan-bloody-tastic ride above the canopy of a tropical rain forest. The SkyRail is a chairlift with 100 odd Gondola's that take you from a "suburb" of Cairns to the mountain top village of Kuranda 7.5km away. There are two stops along the way, the first has a rainforest boardwalk so that you can see the fauna up close (like the Kauri Pine below), while the second takes you to some lookouts over the Baron Falls in the Baron River Gorge. The wet season hasn't started yet so there was only a trickle of water running over them but you can imagine how magneficent they would look if the river in the river was in full flow!

At Kuranda we explored the many tourist markets in the village - it's a bit like the towns on Mount Dandenong only more so, and set in a tropical jungle! We had pretty decent lunch washed down by a few beers, as well as a visit to the Butterfly Sanctuary. After a few hours we took the Kuranda Scenic Railway back "home" to Cairns. This was a rail system bult in the late 1800's as part of the Gold Rush and has been refurbished for Tourists. It gives you another view of the rainforest as well as a sense of the difficulties the workers went through to construct the railway line. There are 13 tunnels along the way, some of which had to have the rock removed by hand!!

The train ride was pretty good but was a bit cramped and hot. We would totally recommend the SkyRail, so I guess it makes sense to take the scenic railway as well while you are at it like we did.

It was a quite relaxed day, but at the end of it all we are pretty well exhausted. Time to rest up for tommorow's early start for our trip to the Great Barrier Reef!!!

TFNQ

2008-12-21T22:09:00.002+11:00

So we are well and truly in Tropical Far North Queensland. We spent two days in Townsville, and today continued up the road to Cairns for another three days before our most northern destination of Port Douglas on Christmas Eve. We took it fairly easy in Townsville, basically just having some down time wandering the (increddibly quiet) shops, getting a hair cut, and swimming in the pool. I haven't even had the camera out since the Whitsundays, except for a quick phone camera snap of myself for my nephew Tully at the entrance to township of Tully :)

The pace starts to pick up a little tomorrow though. We are taking the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway up to Kuranda, we'll spend a few hours exploring the town and then take the Kuranda Scenic Railway back to Cairns. The following day we are most likely taking a tour out to the "outer reef" for a few hours of snorkelling and maybe even a scuba dive (the tour we have chosen has free introductory dive if we want to take it, and if we like it we can pay for a second dive).

Top stuff!!

The Whitsunday Islands

2008-12-18T22:18:00.008+11:00

Today was nothing short of awesome!

We took the Catamaran "Voyager" on a 3-Island cruise from the marina at Airley Beach. After picking up a few extra passengers at Daydream Island our first stop was Hook Island where we spent 2 hours snorkeling on the fringe reef. I haven't been snorkeling for 25 years, and this was the first time for Libby. We both throroughly enjoyed the experience. The number and colours of fish about was incredible, particularly when one of the cat's crew took a boat out over the reef and started to feed the fish. They were frigging everywhere!!!! I also saw three "very bloody big" fish on the bottom of a deeper section, but with the stinger suit and no weight belt I couldn't dive down deep enough to really check them out. At first I thought they were (the grandfathers of all) Snapper by the bump on their heads, but I think they were actually wrasse.

After the snorkeling we went back the pier where they were also feeding fish - mainly parrot fish but quite a few other varieties including a GT (Giant Trevally) and a monster Wrasse. You could also descend some steps to take you to the sea floor (about 6m below the surface at the pier).

Back on the boat we had a great smorgasbord lunch while on our way to the next stop: Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island. This was another almost 2 hr stop to "just swim" and while not as memorable as the snorkeling it was a great time and an absolutely beautiful location that looks just like it does in all of those "they must have photoshopped that" pictures you have seen. In reality is is just as pristine and beautiful as an postcard, only more so. Back on the boat we had some fruit and other nibblies for afternoon tea, and after dropping a few passengers at Long Island we headed back to Daydream for some shopping, a few cocktails and a swim or three in the resort's pool (with the cocktails on the first swim).

When we finally returned to the Marina we were totally exhausted but were glowing from the incredible experience that the day had provided. If you are ever up this way and don't spend the $130 for the tour (or one very much like it) then you have rocks in your head!!We topped off the day with a bistro meal (and a few drinks) rather than cooking.

Tomorrow morning we'll pack up and head to Townsville...

Airley Beach - Day 2

2008-12-17T18:43:00.003+11:00

We are camping under the biggest Mango tree you could every imagine! We spent the day relaxing, starting with a swim and then caught the bus so that we could wander the local shops and Souvenir (sp?) hunt. We even went into the tattoo parlour shop to look have a look at the designs (rest of sentence intentionally left blank). We had a lovely lunch of Barramundi Burgers topped off by a cold beer at the bar at the local back-packers resort. After the beer Paul went to the loo, and while he was gone this grey bearded hippie guy came up to me and asked me "Can I buy you a drink, Luv?". LOL. I replied by saying "hang on I'll just get my husband and see if it's ok". He said nothing and just walked off!!! ROFLMTO!!!

A little bit more shopping later we were back at our campsite where we have had two more swims (and two more beers). We are just about to cook dinner and then we are taking a cold bottle of white wine to the moonlight cinema next to the pool to watch a movie.

I am so excited like you wouldn't believe because tomorrow we are going on a cruise to three of the Islands to see Whitehaven Beach, and go snorkelling and have a buffet lunch. The other islands are Hook Island and Daydream Island. I can't believe that I am here is such a beautiful part of Australia and we can't until tommorow.

Libby & Paul

From Airley beach looking up the coast:

Me:

The Airley Beach "lagoon":

Sugar Cane

2008-12-16T21:38:00.003+11:00

After our brief stay in Rocky we headed north again this morning, and after about 80km into the trip two things happened: the sugar cane plantations started; and Libby realised I'd left my fishing rods behind at Rocky. I contemplated turning around but decided that they were cheap enough that it wasn't worth it. Surely nothing else can go wrong?? As to the sugar cane ... wow!
There is sooooo much of it. We drove through at least 400km of it through Mackay up to Proserpine where we turned off the highway... I imagine that it keeps going for quite a while yet too. As to how much is used for sugar production and how much is used for making ethanol to add to petroleum I have no idea, but the drop in price from 99c to 92c a litre as we approached
Mackay (where the ethanol plants are) is some sort of clue I guess.

We stopped in Mackay for an hour or two for lunch and to top up on supplies, as well as to replace one of our guy ropes which some parrots nibbled through last night in Rocky. Grrr. I also tried to buy some flippers and snorkels but after trying three or four shops which were sold out we gave up.

As we approached Prosperpine I spotted tow Brolga's in just off the road... I had seen a solo Brolga about a 100km back but it was a long way off - these were MUCH closer to the road. There was nowhere safe to pull over though so I had to let the photo opportunity slide. Sigh...

Tonight we are in a caravan park just outside of Airley Beach, the "Gateway to the Whitsunday's". We plan to spend at least three days here, though I'm somewhat dissapointed that all the caravan parks are a long way (a few kms) from the beach. I didn't expect that. It's not so bad though - the park is pristine, has an excellent pool (with water slides and such), and an outdoor twilight cinema. Our camp site in under a Mango tree completely loaded with fruit - pity they aren't ripe yet!! We are going to spend tomorrow taking it easy, swimming, reading, wandering the shops of Airley Beach (there is a bus from the caravan park so we don't have to break camp), and the next day we are going to take a sailing cruise to one or two of the Whitsunday Islands, and perhaps do a bit of snorkeling on the reef. I wonder what the poor folk are doing?

The only photo I took today was from the beach at Claireview (a detour recommended by Gary Piper). It was our first glimpse of the Whitsunday Islands!

Meanwhile, Libby has worked that there are only three essentials for a raod trip through the tropics: surface spray, aerogard and chilled cask of "chardonay" :) As long as there is a six pack of Pure Blonde in the mix I can't disagree!

Cheers everyone. More in a day or two ...

Where? Tropical central Queensland

2008-12-15T22:27:00.003+11:00

We've arrived at the tropic of Capricorn, camped on the north side of the Fitzroy River. The gecko's are busy eating the insects, and the bats are waiting for lights-out to feed on the Gecko's. all is good in the world. Well almost. Today I got my first (and hopefully last) speeding ticket of the trip ... 118 km in a 100km zone. Now Libby is making me eat bush tucker for the week (mmmmm ... gecko's! [drool]).

Tomorrow it's on to Mackay ... if we feel like it. Map of the travels (google map) so far is below (the Fraser Island bit is wrong ... google maps fails to believe that one can drive on the beach, but honestly that is what we did).

Manana.

P.

Technology FAIL, road-kill & Fraser Island

2008-12-14T22:05:00.003+11:00

Yesterday we left BrisVegas around lunch time and headed a few hours further north up the coast towards Rainbow Beach, just south of Fraser Island. For the first time Ken (our GPS) let us down. He found the fastest route to our destination, which involved taking us off the highway on a rather pretty drive through an area known as Kin Kin. After a about while (40 km or so) to our surprise the road suddenly turned from a sealed surface to a gravel road (which is expressly forbidden by the terms of the rental agreement). Damn! We were only a few kms from our next turn off so we decided to risk it ... we soon found that what we had been led to was a 30 km stretch of 4WD-only sand dune driving!!!! Aarghh! I pulled out the map and it looked like going
straight ahead was our best option rather than turning around, as the sealed road seemed to start in less distance than what we had just travelled. This proved (to our relief) to be true and soon we were on our way again - however the fact that we couldn't physically take our "shortcut" through the sand meant that we had actually lost about a half hour or so of driving. Oh well.

5 minutes down the road and suddenly a pair of ducks flew across in front of us. Splat! Lucky it wasn't a Kangaroo or a Wombat or we would have been in trouble ... as it was the thunder storm later in the night removed all signs of the damage.

After settling in to our camping spot at Rainbow Beach we went online and booked ourselves on a day tour of Fraser Island. We were thinking of hiring a 4WD but decided that for a single day the tour was a better option, and with a 9AM start we had plenty of time to get ready in the morning. We were cooking breakfast at about 7:15 AM this morning when the tour operator rang to say that it was leaving at 7:40 instead because of a "King Tide" blocking all beach access on the south part of the Island. That was the quickest half-breakfast, pack up camp, shower and run to the pick up location I think I ever want to experience! Once on our way we found that we had to catch the barge at River Head (near Hervey Bay) instead of at Inskip Point (just up the
road) because of the tide, so all up it took THREE HOURS before we landed on the island. The barge trip was HOT and everyone on the tour was covered in sweat by the time we started the island tour so we were very very glad of the air conditioning on the 4WD bus!

The tour though made it all worthwhile. Fraser island is about 100km long by 25km wide so there was no way we could see it all, but what we did see was awesome. If you don't know, this is the world's largest sand island and is heritage listed. It used to be logged, so our first stop was "Central Station", the original base of logging operations. All signs of that were pretty much
wiped out during WW1 when the army used the base for target practice - these days it is an incredible chunk of sub-tropical rainforest with huge trees and a crystal clear creek running through it. After that we headed to Lake Mackenzie - this is the one you see in all the brochures ... a fresh water lake formed in a hollow in the sand dunes with crystal clear waters. It's ranked as the #7 best swimming location in the world and after an hour in the water there today I can only agree! The hot trip across in the barge was totally forgetten!

Next stop was the Eurong Beach Resort where we were treated to a buffet lunch (topped up by a few cold beers from the bar), and then it was on to the "Seventy five Mile Beach" which is the major "highway" on Fraser with an 80 km speed limit! We travelled about half way up the beach to the "Pinnacles" (or "Coloured Sands"), before returning to the wreck of the Maheno for a photo break. This is a cruise liner that used to do the Auckland-Sydney route but eventually found itself beached on Fraser after the tow-rope broke when a Japanese company bought it and were taking it back to japan for scrap metal. During WW2 it was also used as target practice by the armed forces so now only half of it is visible.

Final stop before the drive to the southern tip for the ferry back to Inskip Point was at Eli Creek for another swim. On the way along the beach we also saw a young Dingo (Fraser Island has the only pure bred Dingo's remaining in the world). It was a long and memorable day topped off with a nice pub meal and a few drinks... tomorrow we head north again, possibly as far as Rockhampton, but anything is possible

BrisVegas

2008-12-13T00:14:00.000+11:00

Yesterday we headed north from Nambucca Heads towards Brisbane. It's been about 8 years since I've been in the NSW North Coast (for my sister Debbie's wedding in Byron Bay), and since then a new freeway has been constructed... the trip is a lot faster than it used to be, but it has lost something special along the way as well. Progress.
We arrived at her office mid afternoon to nick her house key so that we could use her laundry (& pool!) and then had a pleasant evening with her, the boys and her hubby Greg. Today was "the excursion" to the city with Happy Harry (7) and Mad "Pocket Rocket" Max (5) into the city. We caught the train into Southbank, and spent a while walking/exploring until we reached our destination of the Queensland Museam ScienceCenter (for Melbournites think ScienceWorks + Musuem). We had a brilliant time exploring all the exhibits, had some lunch and then some (more bloody) momento shopping...

Next stop was the Brisbane Wheel (huge ferris wheel where this pic was taken) and then the CityCat down the river to Riverside where we met Andrew Napier (from Quest) for a coffee and chat before returning on the ferry for a swim at Street's beach and an ice cream followed by the train ride back to Ferny Hills (via the bottle shop of course!) and after dinner a few hours in the pool. All up a really fun day.

Tomorrow the trip "really" starts. Next stop is Rainbow Beach where we will stay a day or two and will most likely hire a 4WD to explore Fraser Island before continuing our way up into the tropics...

Nambucca Heads

2008-12-10T17:14:00.003+11:00

After our few days in Sydney we drove up the Pacific Highway about half way to Brisbane, stopping at Nambucca Heads on the North Coast of NSW for a few nights. The caravan park here (the "White Albatross") is immaculately maintained, and is located right at the mouth of the Nabmucca River behind the V-Wall. This is a breakwater that has literally hundreds of rocks "artisticly" painted by visitors over the years. This isn't grafitti, it is actively promoted and is an incredible record of visitors, honeymoons, proposals and sadly a few R.I.P's as well. We were wishing that we had though ahead and brought some paint with us (we had to make do with a CD Marker) - maybe next time.

The weather has been perfect with sunny days (today was 31C) so we spent quite a bit of time swimming in the river as well as the lagoon right in front of our camp site. Its amazing how many fish are about. While swimming in the river there schools of mullet and various other breeds right at our feet. I saw 1000's of bait fish and baby flathead in the shallows, and quite a few
larger fish in the water along the breakwall. While I was swimming in the lagoon there was a plate sized bream just a few feet away. I bravely resisted the urge to bring out the rods only because we were enjoying the water so much :)

Right now though the wind is picking up - we might be in for a bit of a storm...

The replacement fridge is doing a fine job of keeping the beer & wine cool (and the food fresh).

Tomorrow morning we are back on the road and will be spending a day or two with my sister and her family in Brisbane before working our way up the Queensland coast.

Au revoir!

Sydney

2008-12-08T17:06:00.003+11:00

Hi everyone.

Yesterday we arrived in Sydney. We started our visit with a walk to Darling Harbour and then a delicious dinner at a seafood restaurant. I had Barramundi and Paul had a whole Snapper (oh yeah - and a bottle of white wine). After dinner we walked down to Chinatown, taking our time to enjoy the night lights of sydney town, and then we caught the monorail (Paul doing his best Simpson's inpersonation) back to our hotel and it's bar for a night cap.

This morning we had to take the campervan to the place it was hired from because a whole lot of stuff was missing when we picked it up - they were really good about it and wanted to change the tyres and replace the oil so that we had a safe trip. So we left it with them and caught the train back into the city and spent the day exploring Circular Quay, the Opera House and Tthe Rocks. Paul nagged me to go on a jetboat on the harbour, but when we got there they had cancelled the ride we were going to take because a whole bunch of other people cancelled their bookings. Phew!

So we hopped back on the train so we could pick upthe van, and then spent a few hours walking the streets and seeing the sights of the shopping district ... so far I have ONLY bought ONE pair of shoes!!!!

Tonight we are a going to have a pub meal and then another wander to see the night lights of Syndey, before heading off tomorrow for God knows where...

Lib (& Paul)

Struth! The thieving buggers!!

2008-12-06T23:32:00.003+11:00

Day 2 began with the discovery that our camping fridge was stolen overnight :(

We had thought that the caravan park in Gundagai was safe enough to leave it powered up on the fold-up table outside the van, and apparently that is usually true but once every 5 or 6 months some (unknown) teens come into the park and cause minor havoc by doing things like turning off everyone's power. Last night they turned on the sprinklers and knicked our fridge... and the breakfast within... AND a six pack of beer. Bugger!

Aside from the somewhat annoying start it proved to be a good day. After breakfast at McDonalds (not our original plan) we stopped by "The Dog on the Tuckerbox" just out of town and then headed towards Sydney, munching on freshly picked cherries for good measure. We left the Hume between Goulburn and Mittagong to take the Illawarra Highway towards Woollongong. This is a seriously pleasant drive through some rather lush countryside with some very pretty little towns along the way. We decided at Moss Vale to take the Tourist Road towards Nowra so we could visit the spectacular Fitzroy Falls, and then later had lunch at Kangaroo Valley Winery ... we lucked out and scored the opening day of the Cellar Door, so of course we had to buy a bottle of Voignier to have with lunch and another of Shiraz for later :)

Our days driving ended in Dapto (just south of Woollongong) to visit Libby's sister Maureen. A pleasant afternoon was had with family (and beer and wine), followed by dinner at the local Bowling Club. Tomorrow - Ole Sydney Town (and perhaps some camp fridge shopping along the way)

Day One

2008-12-05T18:14:00.003+11:00

FINALLY we are on our way. We left Narre Warren South at about 8:30 this morning, and Libby's tears started at about 8:31 :)

A few days ago we decided to travel up the Hume towards Sydney rather than up the coast to save a few hours of travelling time, and as it was approaching peak hour we took the "scenic route" through the Dandenong's and Yarra Valley before getting on the highway at Euroa. We stopped for lunch about 30 seconds from being "interstate" at Albury, before heading towards our destination at Gundagai. Of course we took the compulsary stopover at the Ettamoogah Pub about 15 kms out of town. If you don't know what that is, you have missed years of excellent "Ocker" cartoons in the "Australia Post" magazine. About twenty years ago they decided to immortalize the "township" for the sake of tourism and have done an incredible job. I was particularly chuffed that they actually have a real bar inside ... Libby for her part was rapt that the shop sold Ettamoogah Pub snow globes. The "collectable" precedent has defintely been set.

Next stop was to wonder at the full size WWI submarine in the park at the small NSW country town of Holbrook - wtf is that about???

Time now to fire up the BBQ at the Gundagai River Caravan Park, and crack that next beer...
(Libby wants to say "stay safe until I get home")

The fat lady really does sing!

2008-11-28T18:10:00.002+11:00

And so it ends.

2 days shy of ten years and my time at Quest Software is over. I had expected it to be more emotional today than it was, but the long lead up has given me plenty of time to become accustomed to the idea of being "unemployed", and of course the big trip in front of us definitely softens the blow. In fact I had some trouble not seeming too excited as I was saying my good-byes...

There were a few people that I unfortunately missed saying farewell to, but I'm sure they know that I will miss them as much as everyone else that I did manage to catch up with. I appreciated the kind words from all, but also the card signatures and the collection: the Borders voucher was well spent, adding Steve McConnell's (almost mandatory) "Code Complete 2" to my bookshelf, as well as one of the many available publications on Design Patterns.

Now there's nothing to do but get ready for the adventure of our lifetime's (so far). 7 days and counting...

19 days to go...

2008-11-12T19:51:00.002+11:00

The plans for our big "Trip of a lifetime" are taking shape, and the day is fast approaching when we head off in our campervan for our 11,000 km trip half way around Australia. Naturally excitement is starting to build. Here's our "home away from home" for the next 2 months:

Roll on December 5th!