Been in Karumba for a week now, and as much as we would love to stay in such a wonderful community for the wet we have to say goodbye and move on. A couple of things are influencing the direction in which we take, the weather mainly.  Karumba has had one big downpour while we were here, a magnificent electrical storm came over a couple of days ago, and it builds up each day for another but hasn't been dropping its load here, so depending on where it has fallen will determine the route we take out.

 

Also, we have broken the outer door handle to the van and have resorted to opening the van with long nose pliers.  This works efficiently, however the girls have trouble with the operation and need assistance to enter, the closest town where repairs can be carried out is Mt Isa, so we will probably head in that general direction.



The girls will miss having power as they have enjoyed the airconditioned comfort of the van whilst on a powered site and admittedly so have I, especially in the hot still, humid nights. I will also miss

the walks along the beach, the collecting of shells, the breathtaking sunsets and drinks at the tavern.

I wont miss however, the mosquitos, they are so bad we have had the contractors come through fogging a couple of times since we've been here, it hasn't made too much of a difference, or maybe it has and they would be 10 times worse without it (OMG).

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas in Karumba

 

Hoping everyone had a lovely day yesterday no matter how you spent it.

Our Christmas celebrations started by watching Santa in the back of the Rural Fire Brigade Truck, passing out lollies to the kids. Like the pied Piper he led us all to the Sunset Tavern where, while having a few drinks and wonderful meal, sang carols as the sunset over the bay, (between you and I, I just lip synced, anyone who has heard me sing would understand why).
Christmas Day was a time for reflection and Thanks.

 

 

 

Take II Reloaded

4 days since returned to Cairns, Repacked and ready to go again. All systems are go.
This time heading West going to try and beat the rain and see some summer storms over Darwin.
Departed Cairns on Thursday 20th Dec. with hopefully all the little things we had discovered we had left behind on the first trip.
Didn't go too far the first day, I think subconsciously expecting some bad news from home to make us return again, a little further the second day and bit by bit, km by km  by the fifth day (today) made it into Karumba.

As to the things we left home the first time, mainly paperwork, Tax File Numbers, Resumes , the normal things you leave behind when you intend to find work. Also sadly the toasting iron, which we discovered had also been left home this time as well, Ooops.  Much to Grace's pesistance the big Christmas tree had to come with us  this time the small 30cm one just doesn't cut it, how is Santa going to see that??  Well he can't miss us now.

Our new credo is to take each day as it comes and enjoy each sunset that we are lucky enough to see.

It's Christmas Eve and all are excited.

Disheartened journey

Oh My Goodness.
So much for my intentions of updating this at least weekly to keep you all in touch with where we are
up to in our adventure.

We departed Cairns on the 30th Nov, heading South to catch the late season of advocadoes or onions down in the south east, however even the best laid plans sometimes go astray.  Every day we were confronted with some new challenge, whether that being the breakdown of the laptop (first night away) or something slightly more major back home there was always something. After 2 weeks on the road the desicion was made to return to Cairns to sort out the issues we had been facing. We had covered nearly 2000km and reached west of Rockhampton, covering routes we had never been along before and discovering some wonderful camp sites,complete with their unique characters, like at Elphinestone Dam with the fellows who would collect firewood through the day and bring some around to each camp and then use the remainder to light the old boiler so we could all have hot showers at the end of the day. 

Then there was the Bedford Weir, travelling through the coal country to reach it this reportedly oasis in the black. Our itinerary took us down a gravel road, which is fine nothing to stress about, we had been to the tip whats a little dirt now?  Better turn on the Navigator to make sure we're right, yes, just turn left in 300m it says ???? No road appears in 300m, 500m 2km or 5 where the blazes are we? What does it matter, if we keep going in this direction we will hit a main road somewhere, we are self sufficient for at least 5 days longer if we ration the water.  The smoke from bushfires in the district is heavy in the area but not threateningly close. 40km later we came to a junction and a bitumen road, even better a sign post and yes we are heading in the right direction, now anyway.  Not far up this bitumen road we are flagged down, the road ahead into the town of Blackwater is impassable, the fires had brought down electrical lines, hows the road to the weir we ask rather hesitantly but the answer is favourable and no problem to the Weir. It was worth the drama to get there, you can't camp right next to the water like at Elphinestone but who cares, a beautifully treed camp ground and clean amenities, a playground and bbq area by the lake which is only 100m walk, and all they ask is a donation.  Their is a permanent caretaker residing there, has lived there for 3 years, he has nurtured an amazing vegie and herb garden and on our checking gave us bags of cherry tomatoes with the added bonus of please help yourselves to the garden.  The bruchetta and lamb roast had never tasted better, fresh rosmary, basil, spring onions - unbelievable.

 

Moved into Rocky for a couple of days to catch up with the washing and to touch base with Job seekers, missed out on Bundy picking job, never mind plenty more. Decided to head west again and down to St George, another  great camp site found at the Calliopie River just west of Gladstone, and then next stop to Monto, this is where the decision was made to turn around. Day after day of not so good news had taken its toll, so on Sat 15th Dec we headed back to Cairns, and arriving rather disheartenedly about lunch time on Sunday.

 

 

Shakedown Tour

Well, we're back from the Tip.
2 weeks of living in the van and pretty much constantly on the move we have all made it back with the feeling of excitement and a bit of intrepidation I suppose, all went well, not just with how we all travelled together but with how all the systems we had put into place to operate the business actually functioned. The world didn't suddenly crumble to pieces with our absense and now we are fairly positive that a longer trip can be undertaken successfully.

A few lessons learnt along our way.

1. Ensure locking pin on tow bar is locked in ( nearly lost towbar on way to Weipa when stopped for call of nature and noticed pin missing and tow bar tongue just about to release)
2. Tighten D shackles with pliers prior to rough road driving (Noticed van's emergency brak had all but engaged as had lost D shackle from brake cable)
3. Fish hooks do not belong in fingers or any other part of the human anatomy
4. When collecting firewood donot spear one's leg with branch(???)


The date has been set for our departure for "The Big One", three years it has taken to reach this point, and at many times we thought it would never happen.  The white board has been rubbed clean and a new list started with the fiddly details now that departure is a definite possability.

Who couldn't get used to this
Sunset from camp at Loyalty Beach
Cape York