I can almost see Zurich from up here

We arrived at Blackwater yesterday and had a great BBQ dinner last night with Dan and Tanya, Jack, Noodles and Emma, those kids have grown soooooo much in the last 12 months. Tonight dinner with Walker and tomorrow we are off to Carnavon Gorge for a good walk and prepare our livers for the Lyns.

We made 29

Well as he keeps saying "You get less for murder" but we finally made it to 29 years but who's counting LOL. This milestone was reached in a little town called "Dingo" somewhere west of Rockhampton and on the way to Blackwater. The town has a pop of 200 with one shop, one servo and one pub. The tourist information is at the library, which was closed so they could go to rocky to buy a book !!!!, Lunch at the pub was over when we arrived at 1.15 !!!!! but the shop was open. Everyone in the town is either working at the saw mill or one of the many mines around here and a fair few of them live here at the park.

We contacted Walker in Blackwater and he came down to help us celebrate our anniversary by taking out for dinner to the most expensive place in town - THE PUB. Our first impression was the bar service, I sat and watched Ron moving from leg to leg while he waited for service - two bar staff and 10 customers - ten minutes to get served. A fuming Ron arrived back at the table saying something re sacking said staff LOL. Dinner - when we sat down in the "restaurant" the table in front was leaving muttering something along the lines of "the worst fish ever" and "how can somebody do that to a fish" not a good start. So it was the Rib eye for Ron and the Rump with pepper sauce for me. When the meals arrived they looked ok, but just as I was about to cut into my steak the waitress whipped the plate from under me and explained that "CHEF" had forgot to put the pepper in the pepper sauce !!!!!!!!!!! a quick turn of the pepper grinder soon fixed that LOL - Vue De Dingo it ain't.

Yesterday we set off to do Blackdown Tablelands and the pic above is one of the obstacles encountered on the trip. I will post more pics of that in the next couple of days.

My Bay

Well it's goodbye to our beautiful bay this morning and we head towards Blackwater, which is proving to be a bit difficult. We intended to stay a couple of nights at a park in Blackwater and do the Blackdown Plateau as well as catch up with Tanya, Dan and the kids as well as Walker, but we can't get any accommodation in town as it's totally full of miners.

We can't get Miss Guided up to the camping ground at the plateau so we are not sure where we will end up, probably free camping somewhere. We might be off the air for a couple of days. Hopefully we will get into Bedford Weir 24 hour camp Sun/Mon and maybe Tues before heading down the highway to Emerald.

Tide ? What tide

LOL, well we are still at Emu Park and the weather has been glorious, clear sky every day, temp 30 and a lovely shallow bay to play in. We took D'Luded on her first inter island adventure on Monday, which meant paddling for almost 3 hours but it was great. Turtles everywhere and yes the fish was caught, but an even BIGGER one was hooked but managed to break the line so we can only assume it was "Moby Dick". Went for a drive up to Yeppon yesterday thinking that it would have a couple of nice bistros for lunch overlooking the bay - WRONG, a sandwich at Maggie's bakery was the best Yeppon could manage. On the way we watched a pod of Dolphins and Pilot whales having lunch just off shore. When we got back to the park it was time for a swim, so off I headed. I had the entire bay to myself, not another person (or dog) in sight, which was great until the fish started jumping out of the water around me and I took that as a sign something bigger was down below and yep I chickened out and got out of the water.

Festival of the Wind

We arrived at Emu Park yesterday, just in time for the Festival of the Wind. Emu Park is approximately 40klms from Rocky and on the coast. As we drove into town there were cars everywhere(the total opposite to Rocky on a Sunday morning), it was so busy we were getting concerned that we had miscalculated the ending of the school holidays. The caravan Park soon put us at ease and we unpacked to the sound of waves crashing on the shore 50 meters away. Down on the beach was this amazing sight of kites everywhere, kite dog fights, BIG kites, fish kites, emu kites you name it and it was there. In the park was the carnival with all the rides, fast foods and community organisations raising money. The day finished off with a great fire works display at 6.30 which we got to enjoy from Miss G back in the park. Kerry and Pete (our new best friends for today) called over and a weeeeeee drink was had. All up a great welcome to this small coastal town. D'luded will be going for a swim today so stay tuned for the "One that got away" story.

Just like a real one

It must be the White Man Dreaming coming out but when we saw the red ochre I just had to leave a lasting imprint.

Tick off Cania Gorge
We survived Easter (just) as the hordes of children with couldn't care less parents arrived on the Friday and proceeded to cause havoc for the entire weekend. That said the park is really great and we would love to go back during the "normal" period as it is only small, 40 site set in a beautiful side gorge and close to most of the walking tracks. We were lucky in having two good neighbours who willingly entered the bouche "Expanda Challenge" which was theirs against ours and oooops they won and then the next day was the "Paramount v Jayco" and we pulled that one off. Yesterday we headed done the highway to the Blackdown Plateau national Park and luckily when we reached Biloela Ron checked with the tourist bureau and found out we would never get Miss G up the plateau, so off to Gracemere where we found a nice quiet park (no kids) just on the outskirts of Rocky so we can spend the rest of the week getting some things fixed etc.

The Lyns will be hitting the road on May 7, can't wait for the reunion, the ice is ready, the glasses are flashing and the sapphires are trembling - bring it on.

Off to Cania Gorge

Well it's one of those times of the year when everyone else gets to try out for "Nomad" existence, so we are heading for the hills to escape. We are off to Cania Gorge this morning and I am reasonably sure that we will not have internet out there, so we wish everyone a very happy Easter and hope that rascally rabbit brings lots of good eggs.

It's a Miracle

Tom obviously sneaks a peep at the blog when we are not looking and has had a bit of a shock that he will not be sent to Sydney for a holiday again (repairs) and has decided that there just maybe another 55,000 left. I tried to fire him up this morning before giving him the heave ho and guess what ? up he came bright as ever LOL. 8am phone call from Woodgate caravan park, the phone has been found and for the time being it has stopped raining LOL

We've arrived in Bundaberg and yes right on cue down it came LOL

It's been a strange 24 hours, after 5 glorious days at Woodgate (52 klms away where we only got a sprinkle of rain overnight the first night) things decided that they just didn't want to leave or not without a fight anyway, firstly last night someone who shall remain nameless spilt a full glass of red over the lounge, first thing this morning he then split a full glass of water over the table, Ron's phone has disappeared ??????? last seen on the front seat of RT but we think when we pulled the power cord out it may have got tangled and is still laying around in Woodgate. This afternoon we took a quick trip to Gin Gin to work out the best way to get to Cania Gorge and TOM has decided that 55,000 klms is enough and he has spat it. I can promise you it will be a short funeral tomorrow and the replacement will be happily installed in the blink of an eye. At the moment it is absolutely bucketing down ala the pic, I took that about 20 minutes ago and it has now arrived. The touring puddle continues LOL

Ya right, no new photos LOL

The Easter invasion has started here at Woodgate so we are preparing to move on to Bundaberg tomorrow to stock up for the next week, then off to Cania Gorge National Park to do some walking, kayaking and generally getting away from the coast for the next couple of weeks. We have been incredibly lucky with the weather, Coffs has been flooded, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast as well and each day they forecast that it is coming to us but yesterday it went around us and hit 200klms north of us and we went to the beach to celebrate LOL.

Under the boardwalk, down by the sea, on a blanket ..................

It sort of looks like Fire island but they had real fairies under the boardwalk there LOL

We are at Woodgate and it's a great little town, about 30 klms from Childers and just down the road from Bundaberg and still retains it's small coastal town look and feeling. NO flats, NO highrise very much like Kingscliff of the 70's, could easily fall for this place. Yes we have been to the real estate agents for a weeeee look. Hello to Emilio who has joined us from Argentina - boy we are getting around LOL. Rumour has it that the "Brudder in law" needs a boat LOL, stay afloat down there.

Rainbow Beach

This is not on the Island but is part of the national Park and was a great pic (I think) so thought you might like it.

Some of the oldest formations on the island ..........

Now some housekeeping is required : Hello and welcome aboard to Pat S all the way from USA, and hope the trip home to Brisbane was uneventful for Adrian and Denise, YES Ron is still suffering LOL. PS was it something we said last night ????? there is only your far side and us left in the park OOOOOPS keep expecting a knock on the door from management LOL.