Hardly a straight line, don't you just love it.
Well we have been caught out yet again. Our plan was to do the shopping, get the mail, stock up on bits and pieces for free parking over the next 3 weeks and off to Charters Towers tomorrow for two nights. WRONG, it's "Show Day " here at Townsville so everything is closed. LOL Oh well I guess it's off to the beach.

Good News - The Lyns are coming, flights are booked, Cabin is booked, Wine is chilling, Borocca is ready and our livers are on standby.

What can I say..........................

We went to the Townsville show yesterday and these little fellas were the star attractions LOL

What am I ?????

We went for a walk along the Strand yesterday and amongst the palms are these amazing flowering trees, Yellow with red centers, bright red with white centers, are they magnolias ?
The trees are very big and you can see the leaves in the pic - HELP

Townsville, an interesting place

Yesterday we headed off to get some new lights for Miss G, we are changing all the halogens into LED's as they use much less power. Ron got his "Bob the Builder" mindset happening so I headed off into town to do the aquarium and Art Gallery. I accidentally walked into the aquarium via a cafe and didn't realise that I had by-passed the entrance. The aquarium was really good, it has obviously been there for a long time as all the coral was well grown in and the animals all look to be in great condition. From there it was off to the gallery which was closed on the ground floor for an exhibition that is opening today, so I bluffed my way into it by telling the receptionist that if anyone asked I was an art critic from Melbourne - and she did LOL LOL so I got to have a look by myself.

Magnetic Island and Townsville

The weather is great - temp 28, clear blue sky and dry

I never thought I would say it, but so far I really like this place. It is the home of a Hornet squadron which can keep me entertained at the end of the runway all day ( I am sure Hans will remember me begging to stop at the Swiss fighter depots in the mountains), we have found the best seafood outlet and the park is really nice with a great pool.

Last night we had Chili Mud Crab for dinner YUM and very messy, $14 a crab and they are BIG, so of course we had one each LOL. Today we are off to find LED lights for Miss Guided so our off road power load will be much lighter. School hols start again at the end of this week so we might go and get lost in the bush for a week or so.

The backside of Bowen

They thought they could hide it, but we found it - the beach. For such a dull town they have the most wonderful beaches. It's a shame because most people would take one look at main street and head back to the highway LOL. Of course this little cove is just at the end of "Queens Beach" which is just down the road from the nude beach and yes Ron took me on a guided tour of the rocks and the many lurking things that could be found there LOL, very interesting.

We decided that we would head back into town for lunch at a cafe, being a Monday we would not have the problems of trying to find somewhere to dine on a Sunday - wrong, there is not one cafe in the town, so it was back to the pub.

Today we head up the highway to Townsville and from there it will be out west for a month.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAh Sarina

Sorry about the lack of updates but since Emus park we have been on the road moving north. Our first stop was at sarina where we found a great park with an owner that was totally anal about his gardens. No grey water, no turning cars on the lawns (mind you we had to park the van and car on the lawn) no hot pots on his benches LOL. We also ran into two couples we met at Emu Park so a couple of nights of wine and laughs were had. The comments from the stay were from Helen who felt sorry for the tyres and thought that RT (Rons Truck) must be feeling tired after carting us around for 60,000 klms LOL. From there we moved up to "Bleak city" Bowen and found where all the qld trailer trash hang out. We are only stopping here to pick up the mail so it had better turn up today because staying here any longer could be a health hazard to Miss G and us. Apparently this is where they filmed alot of "Australia", sort of makes you think that it's not worth seeing, unless of course they had a great props dept. LOL

I'm Back

A BIG thank you to everyone in Melbourne for making my trip such a great time. Just to put things in perspective, the dinners were:

Ocha

Kuni's

THY THY 2 (twice)

Alba's

Ink

Florentino

Floflai

Tea House (City)

I am fast approaching the size of a house LOL.

Melbourne was living up to its reputation this morning. I was on the 7.40am (YES AM) flight and arrived at Tulla at 6.30 and check in went almost smoothly. I was a tad overweight on my carry on luggage and they were going to charge me $25 in excess weight which had to be checked through. I agreed to this and removed my book so I could read on the flight and this made all the difference, suddenly the weight came down to almost ok, so they just waved me through.

We boarded ahead of schedule as a fog was starting to settle and was rapidly becoming a pea-souper, when the captain informed us that we were listed as no 4 to leave but that could only happen if they had 500 meters of visibility (which I think is only far enough, I like to see where I'm going). An hour later we headed off to the runway and finally got airborne, only to be told that the airport was now totally closed to all in and out going flights, we just made it.

Rocky is sunny and 24, Ron was waiting and I think happy to have me home as the park has now become a retirement village with the average age heading into the 80's. Those dam Mexicans have arrived on mass.

Good Afternoon from Melbourne

Now we all know Melbourne is the entertainment capital of the world and that the shopping and food is the best in the Universe, but I have to tell you the weather SUCKS. LOL. I arrived on Saturday night and the temp was 5 with a small gale blowing (which would explain why for the first time in my life my flight arrived 20 minutes early). Sunday was an easy day - showers for most of the day, temp 14. I headed up to INK restaurant for a great dinner of Tassy oysters (Kilpatrick and Mornay) and a bug risotto YUM. Monday hooked up with Bruce and headed up to Warburton to visit DW and Peter. The winter garden is fantastic as is the new fern and Maple gully plus water feature, can't wait for another year when it has grown in. Dinner last night was at Abla's, Kibbies and the worlds best chicken rice Lebanese style. Today the weather has really turned. Top temp 12, rain, hail, sleet and I bet snow nearby - aaagh home again LOL

Ron tells me the Ahearns have all left the park and have been replaced by mexicans that have been crossing the border for the last 50 years to holiday at Emu Park, sounds like he will need resuscitation when I get back.

It's a fungi thing

Good morning from Emu Park. We arrived on Thursday and the weather has been fantastic, 27 and clear sky each day. This weekend is Queens birthday holiday (It's our holiday, how did the straight community get in on it ? ) weekend so all the beach areas are full of "weekend warriors" and we have managed to be in the middle of the O'Hearn family reunion which is very messy, very loud, very drunk and totally obnoxious. If you combined the lot of them you wouldn't find a brain cell anywhere - totally feral. I suspect the management is too scared to say anything to them. I fronted them on the first night re noise and we have now been picked out for special attention.

I fly off to Melbourne tonight (thank god) and leave poor Ron to put up with it all. I think several bottles of red are going to be drunk between now and the exodus on Monday LOL.

Congraulations Hans

your prize is an all expenses paid trip to Zurich with a special day pass on the trams. Now doesn't everyone wish they had got the answer in first ? LOL Standby for the next mystry pic.

It's the "Where and Who" game

You can tell from the above title that is was wet and we had a lot of time on our hands up at Byfold park, so we came up with the "Where and Who" thingy. There is one of us in this pic, huge prize for the winner.

We have arrived back at Emu Park and the weather is glorious, sunny and warm and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach is lovely after all the rain in the rainforest. Too bring everyone up to date, Tania is due about now and we are eagerly awaiting the news, Bec and Tim have just been told they are having twins which is fantastic news and it means Bec and I will have to do some serious shopping when we hit Melbourne together - Ron and Tim had better start saving LOL. I fly off to Melbourne on Saturday and wont have the computer with me so updates will probably grind to a halt for ten days and the caravan count so far is 3041.