Still in Brisbane

 We feel as if we are in the movie "The Perfect Storm", 

We saw the clear skies and a way out, and then.........

The heater that was meant to be here on Wednesday, still hasn't arrived, well, after some searching we have found it in a warehouse in Caboolture waiting to be delivered to our gas fitter, so at least its now in the same state.

On top of the heater both Les and I have been sick this week, just a cold that cant be shaken, but what do you expect when you live in a refrigerator?

So not our best week, pretty shit really. 

Talking about shit, did a couple of stealth toilet cassette dump runs😄.

We did complete another task this week, had to find water and actually found a paid water filling depot just a couple of KM down the road so that was a first and @$1 for 143litres of good drinking water it isn't a bad system.  (And actually easy to use, lets face it, if we can manage it most people should be able to)

The highlight of my week was having a video chat with family and friends celebrating a certain birthday,💝 Happy Birthday Cheryl.

Looking forward to a better week ahead so stay tuned.........

Back In Bris-vegas

 Yes it has been cold.

How Cold??

Bloody Freezing, -2 down at Glen Innes, but still here to tell the tale.

We spent Monday doing a bit of house keeping and touristy things.

Went for a drive out to the Australian Standing Stones, a small replica of Stone Henge but full of interesting information, like how to read the stones, know when the winter and summer soltice is, also had a human sun dial, which of course we tried out and was correct pretty much to the minute, well definitely within 5.

From Glen Innes we travelled North to Tenterfield, and crossing the border into Qld at Wallagarra, an ancient railway station, with either side on the border, the 2 states have different rail gauges as well as different verandah designs, (Weird).

Our last night before heading into Brisbane was out at a pub, Sandy Creek Hotel, just out of Warwick.

They take in rescues animals and the camp yard was full of their orphaned farm animals, it was all rather quirky but fun.

It was here that our caravan gas heater decided to die. Now we really know what cold is.

Tried everything we could think of to get the thing going again but to no avail.

Added to the list for the Caravan people to look at when they do the front window, in the meantime we have stocked up on blankets, and are having early nights as its too cold to stay up in 4 degrees in a tin box.

Whilst waiting on news of the van, we enjoyed a hot coffee, and also another first for both of us- 

A shop at Aldi, OMG, it is so cheap, well most things anyway, Liptons tea bags (100 pack $3.49) they are up to $7 at coles, bought a few of their meat packs and trying that, along with some chocolate biscuits, to go with the cups of tea, of course.

We are no longer Aldi virgins.

As for news on the van, we now have a front window again, 

YAY.. but as for the heater, that still isn't working, after discussions with the manufacturer they have decided the unit is faulty and are going to swap it out. Looks like we are here for another week waiting on a new heater🤞.

Instead of travelling back to Tully Memorial that night, we were recommended a Farm Stay just around the corner from where our repairs were being carried out.

This place, Westcloud Farm Stay, was incredible, massive space to park up, camp kitchen and endless hot showers, all for $20/night.  Our highlight of the night was bumping into Derek & Sue from Just Vanning It, youtubers that we have been following for a few years now. We didn't embarrass ourselves by asking for any photos, just a bit of a chat,  @justvanningit. I wonder if we will feature in their next You tube episode????

Now back at Tully to be closer to Jess for a few days, so yes once again she gets a free roast dinner😋

She has brought over an apple pie to have for dessert, so I call that fair.

Bucket List Destination Fulfilled

 Finally moved on from our little paradise on Wednesday, hadn't meant to stay that long but the car needed some maintenance issues sorted at Goondiwindi Toyota, which gave Les and I another day to wander around the town.

                                

                                 

And a look in Custom's house Museum and the levy walk, but definitely ready to move on by the time we got the car back. (Which turned out to be a dirty injector and was cleaned under warranty)

We crossed the border into NSW on Wednesday, finally left Qld. But wait for it, we re-entered Qld later that day to make a stop at the famous Nindigully Pub. This spot has been on our bucket list for a while and we didn't realise how close we were to it whilst at Goondi.  A free camp along the Moonie River across the road (more like a paddock) from the pub. Nindigully, apart from being famous for its Truckies Burgers (5.5kg of meat),  also lays claim to holding the oldest continuous pub licence in Qld (since 1864). And finally for the Australian film buffs, it is the set to that Hugh Jackman film, Paperback Hero.

We joined in for Happy Hour drinks on Thursday and stayed for much longer than anticipated chatting to fellow travellers around the huge fire pit in the beer garden, a great time had by all and well worth the stop.

From here we plan to make a huge loop back into Brisbane for hopefully the final repairs on the van window.

So once again across the border into NSW we go, this time at Hebel, before making our way to Lightning Ridge, famous for its black opals and hot artesian spa baths.

Passing the silo art at Thalon

(Here's an idea for the girls' paint days.)

Camped just out of town at "Stanley" the Big Emu.

Moving on from There we pass through Walgett, another free camp just out of Moree at Gum Flat Reserve, before coming into Glen Innes on Sunday.

Gum Flat Reserve

Found a nice free camp just North of the town, have met a couple of locals already, "crazy cat woman", Not really, she was a lovely lady, volunteer for Animal Welfare Association, a fellow camper apparently reported a dumped kitten here last night so she was on the hunt.  She did find it but found herself in a bit of a mess caught in brambles and such in the creek and needed a hand rescuing the poor animal.

A bit worried about camping here, not for feral cats but apparently going down to -3 tonight. Sheep Grazier warning out, and according to "Cat Lady" might snow.

Hopefully we haven't frozen and can still report our tales next week.

                              

                                                       Beardy Waters Camp - Glen Innes

How Cold???!!!!!!!

 Who's idea was it to travel South in Winter??????

It has been a bit on the chilly side to say the least. With 4 degrees the other night both Les and were scrambling for extra layers through the night, with promises to learn to work the heater properly.

The days have been quite lovely though, if you can get into the sunshine.

Found a beautiful spot near Ellangowan, along the Condamine River to pull up for a couple of nights, even threw in the Yabbie nets and caught some Redclaw (a tad too small, even for an entree), so threw them back for next time.

We were also treated to a masterful display of the F18s refuelling in flight whilst here.

Moved just a little up the road to Leyburn, home of the very first Australian Grand Prix in 1949, and now hosts the annual Leyburn Historical Sprints each August. Also home to the WWII Special "Z" Force and the  "Liberator" Squadrons.  Whilst searching for the relics of the old WWII air base we were buzzed by a low flying Hercules (American we think), but no photos unfortunately.

It was here we experienced our coldest night thus far 0 degrees, and yes we have worked out the heater, thank God.

 

Our next stop has been along the banks of the McIntyre River, near Goondiwindi.

Beautiful spot to park up for the June long weekend, trying yabbie nets again but no luck thus far.

Also had our first camp oven roast, YUMMIE, (sorry no photos of that either)

Silo art at Yelarbon

Friday night drinks

Sunday Roast dinner

How life changes on the road, every morning its a case of, checking how much battery power we have left and looking up and seeing how much sunlight is coming our way, Everything depends on how much solar we can get in, from my morning coffee down to having the power to connect to starlink for watching the AFL tonight, and to be able to do Wordle and Connections, of course, and to be able to update this page. Planning to stay in this vicinity over the next week, maybe just over the river into NSW, time will tell.

Hanging Around

Finally, a date. We have news on the front window, parts should be in Brisbane around 21st June. 

In the meantime, we have decided to do some local touring.

This week we have spent our time camped up at Lake Clarendon, a lovely little camp site, near the lake, situated just North of Gatton, in between Ipswich and Toowoomba.

                               Looking back at the camp ground from the dam wall (3km walk)

It has been getting a little cool in the mornings

It's been a test to see how we can make the water last and keep the power up to the batteries.

Happy to say water has not been an issue, even with showers every day still have 100 litres in the tanks, (And the toilet cassette isn't even half full yet either), and as for power, I did have to forgo my coffee this morning😒. But able to have one again now.

Yesterday was the first day we have not seen any sun, pretty much wet and windy all day🥶, but we are thankful it was yesterday and not the previous one as on that day we ran out of gas and had to do all the cooking outside on the single butane gas cooker. But with the sun out again today and getting charge back into the system we are good to go.

Have spent some time sight seeing in the area. Gatton - Lights on The Hill (Memorial to all those truckies that lose their lives on the road) and up to Wivenhoe Dam. We did try to find the old Lockyer Valley Rail Bridges but google got us lost so just have to see those on-line.

Wivenhoe Dam