Preparations for leaving

8/1/2013

When we left the UK,  21 months ago, we were travelling light, but, in that time we have accumulated so much stuff we probably now have doubled what we started with. To-day we acquired a tea chest sized box and filled it with clothes, books and odds and sods ready to send back to the UK in the next day or so. We will do the same again when we reach Perth then hopefully we will be travelling light again as we tour New Zealand and south east Asia.
 At the moment we are looking at hitting the road next Monday the 14th, depends on when Paul and Lorraine get back. Already Julie is organising  a ‘leaving do’ to be held at their place on Saturday so we will probably move down there, park up and sleep in the van for a couple of nights. In the meantime we will get the Ponderosa looking immaculate.
Tonight we had set up as per usual, to have our evening meal outside on the deck when we were forced indoors by a swarm of flying termites ( we think that’s what they were ), thousands of them. Whatever they were, they are obviously a cane toad delicacy as suddenly we had toads jumping around everywhere. Time for the toad-ometer to have an outing, I thought, and to date I have dispatched over 20 with a short night shift to come later.

9/1/2013

Not sure how much coverage the bush fires here are getting on the BBC news back home ( no feed back ) but they are everywhere south of us. It is a concern as we have not really got an alternative route to Perth when we leave here. Going across the top of Australia to the west coast then turning south is a no-no at this time of the year because of flash flooding  that always happens up here in the wet season. Get tangled up in one of those and you could be stuck for a week or more. So we are between a rock and a hard place with severe bush fires in south east Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria with more in South Australia. Obviously the Tasmania fires will not affect us. One of our favourite east coast destinations, Rainbow Beach, has bush fires threatening so we won’t be calling in there on our way south.
As it happens plan B/C is now in operation, the result of a call from Paul  to-day, who told us that he is struggling to make  mileage due to very strong headwinds and now won’t be up here until Sunday or Monday. That means we won’t be leaving Clifton Beach until at least Tuesday giving a chance the strong winds that are driving the fires may ease off and the extreme temperatures drop a little. We certainly hope so.
Our leaving party is going ahead as planned with upwards of 25 folk coming along. Didn't  realise so many people were keen to see us off the premises..

10/1/2013

Another minor change of plan, or, I should say, back to Plan A.
Paul, (never one to miss a p…s  up), is making good time, in an effort to make it to our party, and hopes to be with us sometime late Saturday. That’s good, but we still think it will be Tuesday before we can get away.
We are nearly up to speed with our plans to leave this place in pristine condition, I have some more mowing to do, and would have finished had we not been invited out to lunch by Allen and Lorraine ( mowing…. free lunch !!). They took us up to Port Douglas and a waterside restaurant named The Tin Shed, a lovely place not unlike Yorkeys Knob Boat Club. We had a really nice meal and a table overlooking the Coral Sea and mouth of a river who’s name escapes me.
We would have loved to stay for an extended lunch but we had to be back at Clifton Beach to take our van to a mate who is a mechanic and has promised to have a look at the brakes. The good news from him is, no major problem, a small leak in the brake cylinder, so good to go on our way to Perth.
Having had a nice lunch we didn’t feel much like cooking an evening meal so we popped up to Palm Cove for a couple of beers and a Meze  at the surf club. Who should we bump into but the Millers with the same idea. We also chatted with some folk from Clifton Beach whom we know quite well having spent Christmas Day with them. In all a very sociable sort of a day.

11/1/2013

Having spent most of the day getting the Ponderosa in tip top condition, we can honestly say we will be handing the property back to Paul and Lorraine as they would expect it to be. Goodness knows what Ginge  ( cooking fat ) makes of it all, he has just got used to us then tomorrow it will be all change again.

 Our tea chest sized box was posted today, it weighed just over 18kgs and cost us $200 to ship it. The value of the stuff in it can’t be as much as the freight charge, but, it has to be better than being over weight going through the various airports we will be using over the next couple of months.

 Tonight was our last at Centrals Rugby Club, we couldn’t resist the temptation of entering the Friday night meat draw. Luckily we didn’t win, and didn’t want to as we haven’t a freezer in the van.

Last night in a real bed!

12/1/2013

Paul and Lorraine arrived around lunch time just as we were finishing off packing our gear into the van. They seem pleased to be back. We moved out from under their feet after I confessed to the minor damage I had done to Paul’s car, he wasn’t at all bothered.

 So now we are parked in Phil and Julie’s yard and about to start preparations for tonight’s party

13/1/2013

The party last night was a huge success with about 35 people there. Only Kevin and Joan Ranger were a no show as they are away down  south. There was stacks of food and booze, I gave a short speech and the party wrapped up around 2am. 

 Little wonder we were a bit sluggish this morning but managed to recover in time for the next session, an afternoon at Yorkeys Knob.

 The plan was to have our last raffle prize of lamb with Phil and Julie at their unit but that went pear shaped as they phoned us to say they were at the surf club and did we want to join them. We persuaded the boat club bus driver to drop us at Palm Cove where Allen and Lorraine also joined us.

 Sunday night at the club is the members cash draw and Allen’s name came out of the hat, he is now $2,600 better off, well not quite, as we stuck around to help him spend some of it behind the bar.

 The party continued back at the units until some ungodly hour.