30/09/2012
More sporting excitement today watching the Grand Final of Australian Rugby League on TV, another cracking game with no players going off injured with a grazed knee. The rest of the day we spent getting the van loaded as we leave cardiac hill in the morning. We have enjoyed our stay in the house even though there is a lot of walking involved, such along way from the deck to the bathroom, not like living in the van.
We will miss Percy possum doing his clog dance on the roof before he turns up for his nightly carrot, he has been a star. We will not miss cardiac hill and the altitude sickness that goes with it! (slight exaggeration!!) So…..back on the road, next stop Cairns.
1/10/2012
The idea of travelling around in a motor home is you can go practically anywhere you like, road conditions permitting, but you do need some sort of general plan. This morning we suddenly realised we hadn’t got a clue where we were going other than in a sort of northerly direction. What we do know is that we have to keep away from touristy places for the rest of the week, or at least until the school holidays are over, so we have ended up on a showground in the middle of nowhere with one other traveller for company. The town is called Blackbutt, famous for nothing as far as we can see, but we are camping on the cheap so that’s alright.
We didn’t see a great lot on our journey today as we have been up in the hills in the rain and mist. The driving conditions were appalling , visibility down to 20 metres at times. We pulled into a lookout point called Ocean View but whether you can see the ocean from there is any ones guess, so I took a photo of the sign which explains what you would be looking at if you could see more than your hand in front of your face. Don’t know where we are going tomorrow.
2/10/2012
The foul weather we experienced yesterday appears to be the cause of a light aircraft crashing just a few K’s from where we stayed last night. There were 6 people on board and it seems the pilot ran out of fuel looking for somewhere to put down but couldn’t because of the thick mist. It was that bad.
Today the weather is much improved and we have moved on to the small timber town of Murgon, having not travelled too far.
This area still has logging as it’s main industry but also they grow a lot of peanuts around here. In Kingaroy there are huge peanut silos that dominate the town. They also dominate all the smells of the town, all you can smell is nuts!
The town of Wondai has a display of woodcraft with lots of information on how and what the different timbers are used for. South Burnett, as this whole area is called is also a wine producing area with several vineyards dotted around though we don’t recognise the names of any of them. Not a bad place to be really.
3/10/2012
The man in Tourist Info in Murgon told us about a not very well known scenic drive up in the hills. A loop off the highway which brings you back on to it a little further down. It turned out to be a good tip, beautiful views, a bush walk and also we now know a bit more about the crop Dubosia. ….. We had never heard of it either.
It is actually a weed, it’s properties have not long been discovered, though the Aborigines have been using it for hundreds of years ( to catch fish)* It’s a bush type weed which grows for fun and when harvested the leaves are ground down to a powder. This is then sent overseas (probably China, everything else is) to be turned into a muscle relaxing drug called Buscopan. Sounds like a nice little earner to us. Looking at the way it is planted reminded us of the rice plantations in Indonesia, except it doesn’t need a lot of water. Along the way we were told to look out for Boat Mountain which is shaped like the hull of a boat…..upside down. With a lot of imagination I suppose it did.
We are spending the night at a bush camp near the quirky town of Kilkivan known for hosting the Great Horse Ride. This happens once a year when over 1000 horse riders converge on the town. Not sure why! Kilkivan is a nice town, we had a coffee at The Left Bank, famous in these ‘ere parts. It called Left Bank because it used to be a bank, and is now owned by Bruce, who was a bank manager, but left…..you couldn’t make it up!
*To catch fish using Dubosia. Put the leaves in a bag and lower it into the pond. The fish become as relaxed as newts ( paralysed) and float to the surface. Pick out the fish you want, remove the bag. The remaining fish then recover and swim off happy as Larry saying stuff like “ yeah man, some shit that.”…….. Honest!
4/10/2012
Our bush camp last night is just 50K inland of the Bruce Highway ( main road N/S), just over a half hours drive . So close to the main commuter route yet no phone signal and obviously no internet. It’s a bugger when you have a half hour drive just to use your mobile.
We spent most of the day in Gympie as we both had doctors appointments ( we drove in yesterday to make them). We both need repeat prescriptions and I am still having problems with an ear infection.
We also visited our book exchange shop that we had used previously, and having struggled to find any books we wanted , left, and promptly found a much better shop. These types of book shops are few and far between, to find two in the same street of a town is very unusual. While our mobile worked we phoned to see whether we could book into Rainbow Beach for a few nights, but they are still full up with kids, so we abandoned the idea and headed north and inland to another small town, Biggenden. No real plan for tomorrow.
5/10/2012
The cost of a nights stay on a recognised campsite is now averaging around $30, the extreme being $50 in the top holiday resorts such as Broome. Here in Biggenden (where?) we have paid $24 for one night and get the second free. O K it’s the back of beyond but the facilities are first class so we will sit the weekend out here and that will be the end of the school holidays.
The town has a bakery, a butcher, a couple of pubs, what more do you need? Happy hour in the pub this evening included a meat raffle, guess who won a prize? Just limbering up for the Friday night meat and seafood raffles up in Cairns. Roll on!
No comments:
Post a Comment