The DavLin Rig

Goondiwindi to Tocumwal 2011

2011-12-04T15:45:00.001+10:00

GOONDIWINDI

Are we there yet, are we there yet. Not quite as still doing catch up but I'm not too far away now so should be back on track in a few more weeks.

Left good old Scarborough for Goondiwindi which we deemed the first leg of us heading to Melbourne, had to stay 3 nights here as I had pre booked the car in for it's 30000 service

We stayed at the Goondiwindi Top Tourist Park; the park has quite big sites and most are drive through, the sites alternate in & out (one van in one way and the other in the opposite way). We had plenty of room even when we had neighbours; the park caters mostly for passing through overnight stays which seemed to be the norm all the way down the inland highway (Newell), same as us really but we were in less of a rush.

Pricing at the park was okay at about $28 p/n; amenities were clean and tidy and kept that way throughout the day, park facilities were of the basic type, laundry, BBQ's etc. The park is about 6km out of Goondiwindi township so not really walking distance for shopping but it is in a quiet location, one problem in some areas of the park is power tripping out even just using 2 appliances at one time, it does need some work done on the electrical supply to power heads to accommodate today's power hungry vans.

The park is good for one or two nights (longer if you need) but as with most of the caravan parks down the Newell they are mainly used as overnight stays to somewhere else. Short term managers were in place during our stay but were very helpful and polite.

Our site; as you can see plenty of room even when unhooked.

NARRABRI

We stayed at the showgrounds in Narrabri for one night and glad we did, these places are fantastic for one or 2 night stays as you can stay hooked up and most grounds are in walking distance to town, as usual tons of room with power and water points everywhere.

Cost was $14; the amenities were okay toilet wise but we opted to use the shower in the van. There were around 15 vans when we arrived and some had been in the grounds for a week or so, give me showgrounds any day for overnight or even a few nights stay (cheap roomy and very friendly places).

Shows where we parked within the grounds; every van had about half an acre so no noisy neighbours.

The showgrounds had a race/trotting track so in the afternoon some locals came with their horses for exercise; even if the horses did not want to go they had no choice as they were tied to the back of a commodore (above)

GILGANDRA

We stayed in Gilgandra 3 nights, the main reason was for us to head out to Gulargambone on one of the days. Nice little town with the main shop being an IGA which is about all that is need for a population of around 3000; it has the normal array of small shops, pubs & clubs so you won't do without.

We elected to stay at the Gilgandra Caravan Park which is located on the northern side of the bridge into town on the highway; the park is situated back far enough from trafic noise and after looking at the other parks in the area would (in our opinion) be the best.

The park has good basic facilities including a pool which in the warmer periods would be most welcome; amenities were good and the sites were once again very roomy. Site fee from memory was around $26 p/n; good place for one or a few nights stay.

Above is our site; no complaints about room and shade is good without having trees directly over your van.

First time I have come across this; for those that have eyes as bad as mine the sign on the laundry dryer says” This dryer is free to use. Please do not overload”. Good to see something like this and for those just staying overnight and wanting to get laundry done and dry before leaving the park it's a godsend.

GULARGAMBONE

Well I hear you say “what is so important about Gulargambone”, for you probably nothing but for us it was a significant (but not lengthy) part of our lives. Dad bought the lease on the hotel and us in a moment of madness we agreed to help run it; so it was me off to West Ryde Tafe to obtain the publicans licence.

We drove from Gilgandra to Gulargambone without the van (50km) just to have a look around to see what if anything had changed; you guessed it in one, not much at all.

We did find the Gulargambone Caravan Park which is not bad; we had a look around and the facilities were quite good for a small town and the park was clean & tidy. Not a bad place to stay if you are heading out west via this route. Price for the park was at the time $22p/n. There is a bowls and golf club along with the pub, a small grocers shop and a few take away places but be aware you are limited and it is expensive so best stocking up as best you can before heading west.

Above is the Gulargambone Caravan Park; quite tidy when we had a look around.

No star rating here but note the sign; this is a 6 (Galah) rated park.

The caravan parks camp kitchen; a real bushies paradise. They also had a large fire pit external of the kitchen which was still smouldering from the previous nights cooking.

At the side of the camp kitchen is this great looking “Dinkum Dunny” so the sign on the door says; not sure if it is a working loo or not as I did not have a look inside.

Above is the inside of one bar at the Gulagambone hotel; as soon as we walked in all the memories of this place flooded back, some good, some bad and some really horrid. Can't remember too many weeks without there being at least one fight either inside, outside in the beer garden or in the pub car park. We worked with my mum & dad for 6 months whilst they got going but it seemed like 6 years, start time for Lin & I was 6.00 am and I would be closing up and stocking the cool room as late as 1.00am (18 – 19 hours a day). Don't miss the place one iota.

DUBBO

Sorry but we did not take any pictures of Dubbo; the place is just like a mini city, very busy and lots of shops and traffic.

We stayed at the Dubbo City Holiday Park for 2 nights which prides itself on having the best security in town; seems like some of the parks are targeted by thieves, they did tell me the main culprits involved but best I not put that on here or I may get sued. First time I had seen this; the park had a fully planted herb garden with a sign saying “These herbs are for the use and enjoyment of our park guests”, nice touch with several fresh herbs available for you to pick and use in cooking.

The park was clean and tidy and the amenities very good; the park is surrounded by a high fence with barbed wire at the top; entry to the park during daylight hours is as normal, after that the security gates close (security gates not boom gates) and pass codes are required to enter or leave the park.

Dubbo is a very big town with everything you would be able to get in a city centre so it is a good place to stock up on reasonably priced food and grog.

PARKS

We only passed through parks on our way to our next stop, West Wylong but we towed the van out to the Dish. Some of you would have been here or would remember the Australian movie of the same name. They have plenty of room for parking cars and vans and a lovely cafe so it is well worth the stop, it is only about 15 minutes off the main highway.

Linda is the little dot just to the right of the bush. Just a couple of statistics for you; it has a diameter of 64m, weight of the dish alone is 300 tonnes and it has a total weight of 1000 tonnes above the control tower, it cannot operate in winds greater than 35 km hour.

In front of the entrance they have 2 dishes called “The Whispering Dishes”; they are situated about 100m apart. Lin stood at on and me at the other and if you whisper into the dish your partner can hear you at the other end, very weird when you first do it (whisper, that is).

WEST WYLONG

Stopped here for a couple of nights at the Ace Caravan park; it is just about in town on the left heading in but it is back enough off the road that noise is at a minimum. Most of the sites are drive through but no slabs and it can be a little dusty if the wind picks up.

The amenities were good, nice and clean and the showers were separate from the loos, nice to have a shower without listening to someone having a s#*t, top marks for this. Everything was clean & tidy both park and facilities wise; the park did have a pool so in the hotter months would get a fair bit of use. Site fees were $22p/n so once again good value. The town has a population of about 3000 and does have an IGA which is sufficient for shopping needs, the usual shops exist and “Her Indoor's” managed to sniff out a small scrapbooking shop, it was at this point I headed for the pub.

The sites at West Wylong; plenty of room to stay hooked up and town was an easy walk.

Could not resist taking a photo of this building in town; as you can see on the top of the place it says “Thoms Corner 1894 – 1923” and the front facia says “ Thom, Dick & Harry's”. Not sure what it all means but it was just an unusual name and made for a good picture.

TOCUMWAL

After leaving West Wylong we headed for Tocumwal which is just on the NSW/VIC border; classed as NSW as it is just north of the Murray River. We stayed at the Boomerang Way Tourist Park and they were kind enough to give us 2 sites (one in front of the other); It allowed us to stay hooked up and wonder in to town for a look around.

The park was very good and the upkeep of the grounds & amenities first class; the park has a pool so once again good for the hotter spells. The town does have some quaint buildings but little in the way of shopping; has the usual foodworks, pubs & clubs along with a few cafes & take away places. Great for an overnight stay.

Above our site at Bomerang Way Tourist Park; a slab for the van and another for the car. It was good for us as no unhooking and a walk to town.

Had to stop at the Big Strawberry; yes it is Linda with her head through the cutout.

Okay all that completes this post; next stop for us after here was Seymour; we decided to stay here for a few nights before heading into Melbourne (on a Sunday).

Hope you have enjoyed the read of this section of our travels; the next post will have Melbourne (and our exit north). Tassie or bust did not happen and I will cover the reasons why next time.

Until then keep well, stay safe and if I don't get another post up beforehand have a great Christmas & New Year. We will be bedded down at Scarborough Holiday Park from the 16^th December to about mid Jan to avoid the road warrior's and Richard Cranium's.

Love to all our family & friends and hope to see you somewhere, sometime soon.

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

NQ Floods - Burnett Heads & Other Stuff

2011-11-25T12:15:00.001+10:00

Well here I am back at it again trying desperately to catch up (and I seem to be getting closer) ; following this post the next one will cover our trip down to Melbourne down the inland highway and the stops on the way so I'm nearly there.

PROSERPINE & BOWEN FLOODS

After “Yasi” and our stint at Kurrimine it was time to head back south; sounds easy enough and would have been if not for the floods at Bowen & Proserpine. To give you an idea of how the trip was we left Ayr to get to Mackay, a total of 306km. It took us 10 hours to do the trip and the time taken was because of the floods not because I drive a Nissan!!!.

The above was the queue of traffic waiting to run the gauntlet at Proserpine. The only chance to get across was at low tide when the waters would be at the lowest; main roads came out at low tide to check the situation and refused to take down the “road closed” barriers as they believed it still to deep to cross. After they left the scene a number of trucks and 4 x 4's decided to go; we were the tail end (last vehicle) to take the plunge.

As we were approaching the food waters we heard on the two way radio from those that did not go that a highway patrol car out of Proserpine was chasing us for not obeying the “road closed” sign ($300 fine); fortunately we made it into the water well before the police arrived; a radio call later confirmed they had turned back (too deep for their car}.

Must admit it was deeper than expected and the distance from entry to exit of the water was approximately 8km. Don't think I would do this again as it was difficult to define where the road was.

After the usual overnighters we ended up in Scarborough for Easter; caught up with all our family & friends in the area. Our daughters partner, Nick had his parents coming over from New Zealand so we spent some time on the sunshine coast telling Kiwi jokes (not really).

AGNESS WATER / 1770

We were offered to do a shared management role at the park at 1770; this would be a three month on, three month off share with the current managers. We decided to give it a try as it would give us all the experience of front & back office (wages, banking and invoicing). We did learn an awful lot but we decided against this as we have not finished our travels; it would have been a good position to be in if we were another couple of years down the track.

The parks booking system; it looks a bit like an excel spreadsheet but it is way more complex than that.

Linda on mail sorting after Australia post drop off the daily delivery of boxes, letters & parcels.

Cabin keys; to explain, the keys you see at the back of the cabinet are the cleaners keys, there are normally the guest keys hanging in front when they a vacant; as you can see by this shot all 28 cabins were booked out, the park does get very busy at times.

BURNETT HEADS

The Lighthouse Caravan Park – This is a great little park and we would definitely stay again; the park is run by the son & daughter in law of the managers of the Elliott Heads park, both are council owned, we went and had a look at the Elliott Heads park but location wise we found this to be the best. The sites are a mix of grass and slab so if you want a specific type best you book.

Rates for the park were $144 per week so a great price; the amenities were keyed and kept fairly good, new cisterns were being installed so some mess and noise during this was unavoidable. Burnett Heads has a new IGA, yacht club, chemist, bakery, newsagent come post office and a very good pub which does not look like much from the outside but is very nice inside. Major shopping should you need it is at Bundaberg which is only about 12km away.

This is a good spot to sit and relax for a few nights or a week plus; the park is more set up for the older traveller as there is no pool, jumping pillow, mini golf, peddle carts and the like, suits us as you are only paying for what you need, not the things you don't use.

Our site, we had plenty of room and the grounds are kept clean & tidy.

This is the historical Burnett Heads lighthouse which stands next to the caravan park; it was relocated to South Head from Morton Island in 1873. It was moved to it's current location under the ownership of the Bundaberg Historical Society in 1972; it is now under the control of Bundaberg Council, they spent $17k in 2002 refurbishing the building.

BEC'S 30TH – FATHERS DAY & THE TEN TENORS

We had to make sure we were back around south east Queensland for these events; our daughter, Rebecca had her 30th birthday bash and it was one we wanted to make sure we were at.

Linda & I are not late nighters but we managed to hang in until it got well under way; there was plenty of food and even more in the way of drinks. I am a little more wiser these days and just stay on my beers; no spirits or mixers for me and just the odd glass of wine or Bundy & Coke for Lin.

Linda with our daughter Bec and her partner Nick; the night was a blast.

The above is what's known as a beer bong (half a plastic coke bottle with a pipe attached) although it does not seem to matter what concoction you mix up or pour in it.

The way you use it is pick your poison, put the pipe in your mouth blocking the outlet with your tongue, get someone to hold the contraption as high as the pipe will allow then remove the blockage.

The result is 500ml of alcohol going down your throat in about 4 seconds; this brings on a lot of burping but can also lead to alcohol coming out your eyes and nose and may even cause you to throw up. You will also get the added benefit of hearing fits of laughter from all your mates, this could be followed up the next day by an embarrassing picture of yourself being put on Facebook. Anyone want a go??? certainly not me!!!

Our two boys; Jay on the left and John

The grandkids on Fathers day; left to right (excluding the old fart) are Shandelle, Karly, Ruth, Cayle, Healy & Jaxon.

Much to my surprise (and horror) whilst we were at 1770 “her indoors” had booked 2 tickets for the Ten Tenors at Queensland Performing Arts in Brisbane; seems I was about to be introduced to a cultural evening so no ruggers and thongs for this do.

To top of this night of nights I booked a hotel at Southbank (Rydges) on the internet; the package on the web site offered an upgraded room, valet parking & a full breakfast for 2 at $170, quite good deal considering a standard room here is normally the same price with no breaky or parking, the hotel was only a 5 minute walk from QPAC

We near died when we got in the room; it had a separate lounge which was huge. I discussed it with Lin and we thought about giving the van a miss for a while and squatting here for a week or two

The bedroom; better known as the “den of iniquity”

Dion Molinas; one of the Ten Tenors.

Stewart Morris; Linda's favourite (after me that is).

This was a great night and not what I expected as they do a lot of the modern songs in an operatic way, if you get a chance to see them it is well worth the money.

Hope you all enjoyed the read; the next one will be our southerly trek to Melbourne and Canberra and a heap of other places as we went. Should have another post done in a few weeks (prior to Christmas).

Love and warm regards to all our family and friends; until next time stay well and travel safely.

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

The A/C Saga & Cyclone "Yasi"

2011-11-19T13:23:00.001+10:00

Well I'm back again still doing my best to catch up with the site; only got me to blame for being so lazy and disconnected from keeping things up to date

Okay, let's start with the A/C saga or as referred to in a recent post “the shuffle & chase”. After the bloody thing broke down again at 1770 and several calls to Dometic they advised me that in travelling north if I stop at Rockhampton they had a service agent in town who would evaluate the problem and fix or replace as required. So off we went happy that we could get something done, never drive away happy based on Dometic saying “we will help you”.

We arrived in Rockhampton and proceeded to the address we were given which was in some back street where it was even difficult to park; considering this guy is an agent for Dometic and services A/C's on vans it was tight to even park on the street. The service technician came out to see us mainly because we were blocking his driveway; we explained our problem and he advised us he would get a ladder but also said he was not sure what he could do for us as he was only an agent for Waeco fridge's (Dometic own Waeco). Keeping this part short we checked in to a caravan park to sort out the mess with Dometic in Brisbane

Above is our site at the Discovery park just north of Rocky; I have put this on the site in a past post but it is one of the better parks and in a good location. I believe at the time it was under the $30 mark; amenities were good and always clean, sites had plenty of room and they asked if you would like them to put the van on the site, good marriage saver if you need help.

Okay, back on to the A/C problem; after a few call to Dometic they assured me that they had a very good agent in Mackay, as we were north bound we set off after spending a couple of nights in Rocky. we arrived at Andergrove van park (previously blogged) and were told to call Patrick from the A/C company on arrival.

He came out to the park which was good for us; his first question to me was “have you got a ladder” and “i need a pen and paper”; I thought here we go again what sort of tradesman for air conditioners does not have a ladder. He proceed (up my ladder) and took the top off the A/C; he advised me the compressor had lost all the oil and was buggered. The unit was not repairable and another new roof section was needed.

Patrick filled in all the warranty paperwork and sent it to Dometic, they approved a new roof top section under warranty and would arrange for it to be sent from Brisbane. Patrick told Dometic that if the despatched it Wednesday to Mackay he could fit it no problem on the Friday, any later and he could not do the job for another week, Dometic advised Patrick “no problems”, another non trustable statement as they did not despatch it till Thursday.

I contacted Dometic to let them know the A/C (already despatched) would now need to go to Townsville; TNT Transport were contacted and we were assured it would not go to Mackay but head further north to Townsville. When we arrived in Townsville we contacted the new agent that was to fit the new unit; he in turn advised me that he had contacted TNT Transport and they had lost it (a 2ft x 4ft 50kg package had been lost).

The final outcome it was found, it was fitted and it is still working.

One of the parks on our way to Townsville was the Burdekin Cascades park in Ayr; this park is council owned but leased by the current managers from council. This is a great little park and I would recommend it over the others in the area. The amenities block you can see on the left was new and each is like an on-suite, inside each of the doors is a shower, toilet and vanity. Some areas of the park can be quite ground sodden during heavy rain so best staying to the higher ground. The park is just about in town so it is easy to access all of the shopping by foot if you like. Would stay again here as it is great value and a good location; the park managers are very helpful and friendly.

One of the parks at Ayr has a large snake; bigger than my pet python or more commonly known as the one eyed trouser snake.

On the road but the police make sure you get off when one of these big buggers comes along; this was just outside Ayr.

KURRIMINE BEACH & SILKWOOD Vs. CYCLONE “YASI”

I must thank Troy & Abby for these photos as when we arrived the cleanup had been underway for some weeks; even so when we did get into town it was a totally different place. Linda & I love Kurrimine Beach and the surrounding area so if you do head through these places think of stopping for a few nights; the parks at Mission and especially Kurrimine are great places to stay and unwind.

A bus stop at Kurrimine Beach with someone's roof sheets wrapped around it.

The boat survived but the shed it is housed in could not stand up to the cyclone.

A caravan on it's side; it is hard to comprehend the force that can upend something this heavy.

The front reception at Kurrimine Beach Holiday Park

Some of the tree damage within the park at Kurrimine Beach

A tractor mower that was upended and blown to the back of a shed.

Garage roller doors were no match for “Yasi” with all within the town being either blown in or sucked out of their frames.

The structure you can see poking out of the water is a picnic area; normally this is a creek and a nice place for a BBQ, not so during “Yasi”

This is not a partially constructed house but a partially deconstructed house; the roof has gone and the windows have been ripped out by the force of “Yasi”

Another house which was damaged but it could have been worse; note the power pole laying over.

Expensive bananas!!; the above shows what was done to most of the banana plantations in the area, absolutely flattened.

The above is the swimming pool (25mt) following the cyclone; it had to be drained, refilled, pumps and filters replace and repainted. This was a very big job and very expensive for Marcus & Kay (the owners of the park).

The scope of work involved in getting the pool back to normal; Bob (Abby's Dad) did the sand blasting and repainting of the whole interior of the pool, the size of this thing can be seen when you consider Abby & Linda were standing at the deep end.

Abby doing the fishes and other features of the pool; she did a magnificent job in getting it looking aquarium like.

Linda (right) getting involved; more so with advise and encouragement than actual painting.

One of the pictures by Abby.

Linda helping with paints and the odd brush stroke on the pool artwork.

Abby and husband, Troy with son Zac; everyone was involved in getting things back to as close to normal as possible.

Alan (left) who was also helping in getting things back to normal had a birthday in March; it was later we all celebrated as our birthdays all fell in the same week. The huge camp kitchen at Kurrimine Beach came in handy for the celebrations.

Well that's about it for this post; still plenty to do to catch up. We are currently at Hallidays Point (just below Taree) after leaving Victoria and heading north stopping at another couple of places before reaching home for Christmas (Scarborough Holiday Village).

Hoping you, your family and friends are all well and if your on the road, travelling safely. The next post should be on the airwaves in about another week or so but as always you will get an email to confirm. Hope to see some or all of you in the near future.

Love & warm regards to all our family & friends.

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Mission Beach to Scarborough & Then 1770 for Work (only a bit)

2011-11-09T13:52:00.001+10:00

Well I'm back to doing another catch up post in an effort to get back to the normality of only being a few weeks behind, not several months behind.

MISSION BEACH

After leaving the Tablelands we headed of to Mission Beach for Linda's Birthday and the AFL Grand Final (last years) before heading in to Kurrimine Beach to help out at Marcus & Kay's van park (Kurrimine Beach Holiday Park).

Linda put up all Collingwood gear and I put up a timber fence to stop the rocks hitting the van; they did win so her indoors was happy. The park we stayed at was Dunk Island View and it is one of the cheaper (if not the cheapest) parks at Mission Beach; I may have blogged this previously but just to clarify the rates are good and they offer seniors and the 7 for 6 nights deal, it does have a pool but no other equipment kids wise. Amenities are clean and plenty of shower/toilet cubicles. The park is opposite the beach (one road to cross) and is approximately 2km from the small shopping centre that has a Woolies.

Above: Lin's Collingwood gear out and just before I built the fence.

KURRIMINE BEACH

Post Mission Beach we headed into Kurrimine Beach; Marcus & Kay needed a break and we offered to manage the park for them for a few weeks. This is a great little park situated between Mission Beach & Innisfail, it has around 50 sites and 10 cabins and is great if you want to fish or just relax without the hustle & bustle.

Kurrimine has a few shops but the majors are either Mission or Innisfail. I have blogged this park previously.

Lots of palm trees within the park so it is a constant battle keeping it neat and tidy.

Linda in the office checking site availability (or playing solitaire).

When it comes to the shed Marcus keeps a lot of his gear in it is definitely a mission to find anything; Marcus had a knack of finding what he wanted but for me it took quite some time.

Whilst we were in Kurrimine the A/C in the van decided to die in the backside; after a lengthy battle with Dometic the best they would offer was to replace the complete rooftop section for $1000 plus I would also have to pay the $200 labour. Admittedly the unit was out of warranty but given the low usage it to me was a bit off. Following Marcus & Kay's return we headed to Townsville to get the new A/C fitted before heading further south

On our way back to Brisbane we stayed at a few overnighters (no pictures, sorry) they were Home Hill (after the A/C was fitted), Kutabul & Malborough. All of these were okay for overnight stays which is what they are on the main highway for; any longer and you would go nuts.

CALLIOPE

We made it into Calliope to stay with our Niece Tara, hubby Shannon and their daughter Sarina.

I just love these free stays; gypsy trash in a new housing estate, who cares; not I.

AGNES WATER / 1770

After leaving Calliope we headed into Agnes Water / 1770 as we were contacted by them to see if we wanted a few weeks work following Christmas. We agreed to this so further on you will see more on our time at Captain Cook.

The park is Captain Cook Holiday Village and it is situated between Agnes Water & 1770; the park is very rural and is well treed so if you are not fond of the bush and a heavily treed environment then it is not for you. The park is very peaceful and quiet so is more suited to the mature generation. It has a pool which good but no other kids equipment (suits me); the amenities (2 blocks) are first class and kept in an immaculate condition and maintenance within the park is always up to date. Prices here at the time were $32 per night; it is a Top Tourist park so 10% discount applies but if you are not TT the you can still get a week and pay for 6 nights.

The main shopping is at Agnes Water with an IGA and Foodworks; there are several smaller shops, cafe's, eateries etc. The town does have a pub and service station. As far as major shopping goes it is either Bundaberg or Gladstone which are about 130km away; it is best to stock up on food lines as the IGA & Foodworks are not the best place to be doing a major shop for food as they can be quite expensive.

If you are intending to visit I would check availability as coming in all this way off the highway to find all the parks are fully booked can be quite upsetting; there are 4 parks in the area so plan ahead to avoid disappointment.

One of the sites at Captain Cook; as I said most are under trees.

View from the back of the park; as you can see there are lots of trees (you know my thought on trees).

MUDJIMBA

Decided to stay at our Daughter Rebecca & Nick's place in Mudjimba for the Christmas week; we could fit up the driveway and get the awning out but to do that I had to drive the car into the garage with the van so as still to leave room in the driveway. It fitted perfectly with the only downside being we could not use our car once in and set up; Bec & Nick had cars so no big deal as we used their's when needed.

Made for a great Christmas with all the family turning up over a three days (Christmas Eve, Christmas Day & Boxing Day). It was good times for all with Kid's, Grandkids, Nieces & Nephews all turning up.

Above is our van tucked neatly into Bec's driveway; the car was in front and stayed there for the duration (1 week).

One of the many gut filling meals we all ate over Christmas; there was never any shortage of food.

After the main Christmas week we headed off to our usual Christmas place of residence, Scarborough to catch up with a lot of our friends for a few weeks. I have not bothered to blog this as it is always where we will be if we are back in Brisbane for Christmas.

1770

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it's of to work we go; yes we did agree to do 4 – 5 weeks managing Captain Cook Holiday Village in February whilst Tim & Vanessa (the usual managers) took time off.

All up we were at the park 6 weeks doing hand over on the first week; we used our van on this occasion although we could have used one of the cabins, as all our stuff was in the van we opted to stay on one of the sites. On the 3^rd week of us being at 1770 our new A/C unit died again (3 months use); bit of story to follow about this but I'll leave that for the next post, I call it the “A/C Shuffle & Chase”.

To give you an idea the park has 28 cabins of various sizes from basic bungalows to 2 bedroom villas; there are about 70 sites, most powered. The park has a general store, incoming mail boxes for 1770's mail and a restaurant & take away. There are approximately 12 staff which alternate on cleaning duties (depending cabin usage), office relief and a cook a waiting staff. There is also 2 grounds staff that assist throughout the park.

Above shows the general store and check in area; the managers residence is above the shop.

Above shows part of the general store and the shop counter.

After the mail was delivered each morning it was sorted and put in the relevant pigeon holes behind the counter for collection by 1770 town residents.

Front of the Deck restaurant; it was closed when this photo was take as some renovations were taking place. Must admit the food is very good here and well priced, it is also fully licensed.

Above was Linda at the till which at times seemed to be a little possessed; the bloody thing would sometimes lock up and not open. When it happened it would drive you nuts especially when the shop and check in area was busy.

If anyone tells you that managing/working a caravan park is easy or “it's a doddle” don't believe them as it is not so much hard as continuous and pretty much seven days a week. Just because the office says hours of 8.00am to 6.30pm be assured the hours are much longer than that.

Whilst we were here it was during the period that cyclone “Yasi” hit far north Queensland; it did not affect us directly but it did cause serious damage the Marcus & Kay's park at Kurrimine Beach.

After we handed Captain Cook back to Tim & Vanessa we headed north to Kurrimine to see what had happened and also give them another break. This was also where the A/C Shuffle & Chase began.

That will be in the next post along with some photos of the outright destruction caused by “Yasi” and why the sudden jump in banana prices.

Hope to do another catch up run and have it up in a week or so but will always email to let you know about the update.

Until then stay well and travel safe; our love & warm regards goes to all our family & friends.

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Atherton Tablelands & Surrounds

2011-10-19T16:37:00.001+10:00

Well it is time to get this blog up and going again or should I say up to date; what with how busy we have been and work commitments it has take a back seat; well that was a heap of bullshit, it is just plain laziness on my part.

Thanks to the ones who have been at me to get it back on track and also the constant nag, nag, nag from “Her Indoors”

The next few posts may be a little lacking on all the details but there is a fair bit to get through considering it has been 12 months since I fell asleep on the job.

MILLAA MILLAA

After being out west we ended up at Millaa Millaa van park for 3 nights; not a good park as the amenities are fairly old and the sites are very run down and messy; price was around the $23 mark per night but they did throw in 3 nights for the price of 2.

Good place to camp to see the falls but given how the park was it would be a better option to stay at Atherton and doing trips from there.

Millaa Millaa van park and the sites; as it is quite wet up this way the mud, mess and cold is not worth the stay.

Above and below one of the 4 falls in the region; these can be easily driven to and visited in a day.

Above – all the falls are very spectacular.

Beautiful scenery in the Millaa Millaa area; the above was taken at the working cheese factory.

Above is the old Millaa Millaa cheese factory which is now closed and in a poor state of repair.

The above is the “Giant Kauri Pine Tree” the dating and story behind the tree are as follows.

1137 – Pine seedling.

1947 – 5 acres of land and walking track gifted to the crown for “Special Purposes Reserve”.

2003 – The Kauri Pine crashed to the ground; the root system could no longer sustain the tree.

2006 – Dept of natural Resources gave permission to the Chamber of Commerce to truck the tree to town following cyclone “Larry”

Result was 3 sections trucked (3 x 4mt & 1 x 2mt) with an average girth of 10mts

The tree was carbon dated by Dr Les Moore at 870 years.

Just out from Atherton is the famous curtain fig and is a must see if you are in the area; it is amazing to see just how a fig can develop from a seed in a host tree. Linda is standing in front which shows the size it has grown to; there is a timber walkway that circles the tree.

Above is an explanation on how the fig started and grew over time.

YUNGABURRA

Also in the area there is the quaint little town of Yungaburra; it has a few arty/crafty shops and the Lake Eacham Hotel which is well worth a walk around, the internals and back gardens are very nice.

Above is one of the dinning areas of the hotel.

ATHERTON

Whilst in Atherton we stayed at Halloran's Leisure Park and we can certainly recommend this to anyone who wants to stay a few nights or a week in the area.

The park is owned by a young couple who have put a hell of a lot of work into the park grounds, cabins, sites and amenities. The sites are very big so you have plenty of room and the amenities are kept in a pristine condition. The rates at the time were around the $28 with a weekly discount of the seventh night free. Great value and a lovely park to stay at; it is about 2 km from town.

Above is our site at Halloran's; heaps of room as behind our van was the same distance you can see at the front.

Above – just out of Atherton is an attraction that combines two taste sensations of dairy & chocolate; Gallo's Dairyland produces cheese and chocolate (Lin was more interested in the chocolate side of the business). It was lucky the chocolate bath was behind glass

Above – Lin having a “serve yourself” moment.

Above – The Peanut Place is situated approximately 10km north of Atherton on the way to Mareeba; plenty of flavours to choose from and when you get to where your heading you can feel proud about buying Australian and show everyone your nuts.

Hope you enjoy the very delayed read; I am now on a mission to get things up to date.

Love & warm regards from us both.

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Mount Surprise - August 2010

2011-02-27T16:52:00.001+10:00

If for whatever reason you are only planning a couple of stops on the Savannah Way make sure that Mount Surprise is on your list; it was one of the best stops we made on our way to the coast.

There are 2 parks in Mount Surprise, one of these is behind the service station but the one of choice is Bedrock Village on the left hand side on your way out of town heading west to east.

If your like me I thought it was named from the cartoon “The Flintstones” but not so; the whole of Mount Surprise and surrounds sits on Basalt rock hence it was built on a bed of rock.

The park is really good, kept very tidy and most sites you can drive through then unhook. The amenities are first class with huge showers that are spotless; the staff and owners are terrific. The park has a pool which is somewhat of a godsend out west. Pricing during our stay was $27 per night or stay for seven & pay for 6; we were here for 8 nights and enjoyed every day of it.

Our site above; plenty of room to move and quite private; no slabs but the area under your awning is quite good, a rubber mat helps if you have one.

Wood fired pizza oven (I'm in heaven).

The park has its own bakery producing bread rolls, coffee scrolls and some other yummy things; the park also has a menu up each day and you can put your name down for the evening meal if you wish (the food is fantastic). On some of the days they put up a pizza menu to choose from, again you must order in the morning and nominate a time slot, everyone gets together in the outdoor eating area and the atmosphere is sensational.

Linda had a vegetarian pizza and I had a supreme; I had to take a picture of Linda's as by the time the camera came out I had scoffed half of mine. What you don't eat you take home for the next day (not me – non left).

On one of the days we drove down to Einasleigh which is where Copperfield Gorge is; we mainly went to see the pub that houses one of the biggest collections of miniature cars, dolls houses and furniture, entry is by donation and it is well worth the trip.

Getting to Einasleigh can be either from Georgetown (better road longer distance) or from Mount surprise (20km bitumen, 45km of pretty shitty dirt). We took the short shitty way and I am still trying to find one of my fillings.

Einasleigh Pub; quite well patronised when the Savannahlander train brings the tourists in, yes if you want to do the train trip from Mount Surprise you can; it covers the pub, Copperfield Gorge and includes “smoko”, the cost at the time was $84 p/p.

The rail bridge just out of Einasleigh; as you can see by the tree jammed halfway up the supports it can flood down here.

One of the crossings which when in flood is not passable.

Mount Surprise has a free car wash (I towed the van through on one occasion); they encourage you to wash the dust off you vehicle whilst in town; nice gesture and I had 3 or 4 goes during our stay, it was great after you had been out to some of the sites on dusty roads. Mount Surprise is a gem fossicking area and you can hire equipment and a map from one of the local businesses in town.

Hard to see them in the photo but Mount Surprise is well known for the black cockatoos that are abundant in the area.

Linda & I went on the Undara Lava Tube tour and this was a highlight for us; it would take ages for me to explain but if you are interested it is worth using Google to get some information.

In brief the tubes were formed by hot lava running some 160km; as the outer lava cooled from the external air the internal continued to flow leaving these massive tubes of lava.

Some of the access points are quite steep and good footwear is essential; above is Linda heading down one of the rock formations, hanging on to the rope rail is needed to keep upright.

The photo of us was take in pitch black darkness; when the flash goes off it brings all the colours of the lava tube to life. Cost for the morning tour was at the time $74 p/p including morning tea; you can do an all day tour but be warned it is quite exhausting, it runs from 8.00am to about 5.30pm and includes lunch ($120 p/p).

Photo above of the Savannahlander train stopped at Mount Surprise station; this train on certain tours starts in Cairns and includes overnight stops at some of the tourist spots on the way to Einasleigh.

Mount Surprise railway station; not very big but it does not have to be.

This is a great place to stop for a day or so or a week; if you are travelling east from Normanton or west from Ravenshoe put this on your “must do list”, we would certainly go back again (unless they have got rid the pizza oven).

Hope you enjoy the read and as always we wish you all well and safe travelling; we look forward to catching up with all of you at some stage.

Warm regards – David & Lind – The DavLin Rig

Croydon & Georgetown - August 2010

2011-02-12T15:01:00.001+10:00

CROYDON

I am still trying to catch up but I believe I'm getting a little quicker; this may even end up being a record of the shortest time between posts (or not).

If you do travel the Savannah Way please make sure you stop at Croydon; it would be one of the best little towns we have stayed. The history, tidiness and hospitality was exceptional.

The caravan park is looked after by the council and they do a bloody good job considering the total council work force is 4 for the town. This is the only place I know where the council mows everyone's nature strip. All of the heritage buildings are kept in very good condition; the local all take pride in the town and it is spotless in appearance.

The park has very good amenities and the sites are very big and most being grass with some slabs (at least not dirt), the park even has a pool. The price was $25 per night and good value as there is plenty to see in town and close by.

Our site above; plenty of room, dusty in some spots but good grass on the awning side.

The Croydon general store is the oldest in Australia; almost on par with the sausage roll I bought (only kidding).

Some of the old heritage buildings with the original street lights.

The loo's near the information centre; doors are marked “Croydonettes” & “Croydonites”, there is a ladies and gents sign for the totally dumbfounded (like me).

Croydon being an old gold mining town has a lot of old stamp mills and equipment dotted around the town on display. The structure above is outside the information centre. Also make sure you go in as they have a great 20 minute show which is very good to watch and free to boot.

One of the old cars on display in Croydon at the information centre.

The old lock up; lots of posters and information boards are placed around town giving a run down on the local history. You can spend quite a few hours looking through all the old buildings.

This is Lake Belmore and is only 5 or so km from Croydon and is the largest body of fresh water in the region. The facilities here are really good with free (spotless) BBQ's, huge covered area with tables & chairs, free power points for jugs etc, enclosed swimming area with a pontoon and diving platform and all this is free. Great place to spend a few hours; this facility is once again kept immaculate by the council. BTW – no camping is allowed.

As there are a number of disused mine shafts (most have been discovered and are sealed) the warnings are in case you find a new one so watch your step.

GEORGETOWN

Not too keen on Georgetown; the information centre is about all that is in town, there are some other places you can drive out to but for us we could not be bothered as most were quite a few hours away.

We stayed at the firs park as you come into Georgetown on the left hand side heading west to east; it is situated at the roadhouse; it was dry, dusty and the amenities were a little on the nose and not really kept to a good standard. We did pay for 2 nights as we thought the town may be a little like Croydon (not so).

We found out that just before leaving town before you go over the bridge there is a caravan park down the street on the left about 500m; we did have a walk past and it looks a lot better than the one we stayed in so keep this in mind if you plan to stay over.

Our site at the Georgetown “Dust Bowl” roadhouse; could not wait to get out of here.

Photo through the windscreen as we were heading out of Georgetown; even the cow's had had enough and were pissing off. Best view of here was in the rear view mirror or what the cows arse could see.

Well another post bites the dust; our next stop was Mount Surprise as we headed back to the coast, we had a ball there so that will be the next episode. Until then take care and travel safely (those that are).

Warm regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Karumba & Normanton - August 2010

2011-02-04T16:06:00.002+10:00

KARUMBA

Still trying to catch up and not doing a real good job of it

We stayed at Karumba Point Tourist Park and were lucky to get in; it was only by luck that someone had moved out for a week to visit elsewhere that we secured the site.

Very nice park with friendly management and a great atmosphere; we were not sure if we would like it as this is mainly were all the fishing community meet this time of year and tend to stay for 3 – 4 months. We had a great time even though we did not fish.

Every day something was on in the park and Saturday night was a free fish BBQ; bring your own plate and salad and they supplied barbequed blue salmon and it was beautiful.

Park amenities were good and the price was very acceptable @ $28 per night. We would certainly recommend this park for a week or so stay (if you can get in).

Our site: you do need a dish if you want TV.

The park was full to the brim but very well catered for.

The Sunset Tavern was approximately 1km from the park; being on the western side of the Queensland mainland it makes for spectacular sunsets

One of the sunsets from the pub deck; the meals here are very good and the vista is magnificent.

Good friends we met at Karumba and stay in touch with on a regular basis are Dave & Mez; Mez is well involved in cardmaking, craft and handmade jewellery. The photo is of the small but well attended Karumba markets that are held at the pub grounds on a Sunday morning; although the bar is not open they do well selling breakfast, coffee and doughnuts.

We had a great time here and would love to go back some other time.

NORMANTON

Not so impressed with Normanton; it does have quite a few things to see and do but the caravan parks leave a little to be desired. We stayed at the Normanton Tourist Van park; the other park in town is part of the motel, we did look at this whilst we were in town but it sadly is not well looked after as far as amenities go.

6 weeks before we arrived the owner had leased the park and there idea of cleaning the toilets and showers was to hose them out. The cleaner was an old bloke, fire hose in one hand and a fag in the other; we queried the new owners why toilet rolls were not replaced on certain occasions. The response was people steal them.

The park is all dust and dirt so it can be quite messy; would not stay here again which is a shame, businesses in town are aware of the parks new reputation and are not happy as it will drive tourists away.

Our site; if you do want to stay in Normanton this is the pick of the 2 parks; my advise would be try to stay at Karumba and drive to Normanton for a visit.

The above shows the flood level on the Norman River bridge in 2009.

The big Barra; what everyone in the main is fishing for in this area.

The above is the old town well which was used for the towns water supply until 1965; next to it is the original light pole which was forged at the Stuart & MacKenzie foundary in Croydon.

Krys – The Savannah King is an accurate artists impression of the largest saltwater croc in the world. It was shot on the bank of the Norman River in 1957.

The croc measured 28' 4” (8.63m) and weighed in at over 2 tons; only a couple of photos remain, the rest were lost in the 1974 floods.

The famous Gulflander train that still runs overnight trips to Croydon; also does “Billy Tea & Damper” and “Sunset BBQ” trips.

The famous “Purple Pub” in Normanton.

Hope you enjoy the read and will get another post underway; stay well and keep safe.

Love & warm regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Gregory Downs - Lawn Hill National Park & Adels Grove - August 2010

2010-12-08T20:46:00.001+10:00

Well about bloody time me thinks; I've been a bit slack what with travellin, relaxin, workin & boozin. The blog is way behind so time to kick things along from where it was left off.

Gregory Downs

We did get a reasonably early start from the Burke & Wills roadhouse to Gregory Downs; we had made the decision to stay behind the pub rather than at the free camp on the river. As the pub only has 8 powered sites it pays to get in early, also if you are planning to free camp at the river it does get quite busy and sites are at a premium; also it is a bit of a hike uphill to get to the free loo's and showers. The pub charges $30 per night but if you are not intending camping at Adels Grove then it is a better option to camp here than free camp and leave your van unattended for the day, we did hear of a couple of bad experiences of some unfortunate free campers taken to the cleaners.

The pub camp ground amenities were okay and the shower toilets were unisex; in other words go in a vacant one and it is complete with toilet, shower & vanity etc. We did not eat at the pub so unable to comment on the meals; drinks prices were high as to be expected in this area. Overall the Gregory Downs pub is a good place to stay for a couple of nights as we did, you would most likely need to take out a bank loan if you intended staying longer.

Our site at the Gregory Downs pub; plenty of other campers arrived throughout the day but if you want power make sure you are in before noon as they do not take bookings.

A pic of the free camp area which is only about a km from the pub; it was quite full when we went for a look.

The river that runs next to the free camp area; a very nice place to set up camp.

The above picture shows the pub at left and and yes it is a helicopter that is parked on the road in front; this bloke decided it needed a wash so he landed in front of the pub (we watched him coming in), grabbed a hose from behind the pub fence, produced a yard broom a washed his chopper where it sits. Happy with the result he put the hose back, packed up his brush, started the helicopter and took off. The things you see out in some of these places is quite funny to say the least.

The above sign is located approximately 10km from Gregory Downs; mainly used for the Royal Flying Doctor service in emergencies. The below picture clearly shows the runway markings on the Gregory Downs Highway.

Lawn Hill National Park

I know, I know; a National Park is a National Park and they all seem to look the same but this is not the case with Lawn Hill. Considering where it is situated and the vast amount of dry & barren countryside that surrounds it the visit is well worth the trip.

The park itself along with Adels Grove seems to come out of nowhere; from dry dusty roads with a spattering of common variety trees and scrub springs palms and lush green rainforest, hard to believe this exists some 1100km west of Townsville.

One of the pathways that leads down to a major part of Lawn Hill.

You can hire canoes if you want to see the area from the water; there are places where you have to pull the canoe out of the water and drag it to the next section, they have made it easy by installing slide rails for the boat or mats in places.

A sign that reminds you not to be too complacent; we did not see one but the sign is enough to make you think twice before jumping in.

The view from the top part of our 6km walk (climb); I could not convince Linda to let go of the bushes and get closer to the edge.

Linda & I being the top notch bush walkers we are set of on what was noted as a 6km walk with an approximate time to do this particular track of 3.5 hours. We had a bit of a chuckle as we were sure we could do the 6km in about 1.25 hours; how wrong we were, a bit different from walking flat track to scaling mountains like a bloody mountain goat, I almost called the SES for an oxygen tank and tissues for the high altitude nose bleed.

Another great picture over the park.

Lawn Hill N. P does have a camping ground but not for vans; you may get a small pop top in but it is really only meant for camper trailers and tents.

Adels Grove

Hard to describe Adels Grove, it is the last stop before going in to Lawn Hill (10km) and does have cabin and caravan site accommodation so if you do want to be at Lawn Hill for say a week this would be the preferred option, but be advised it is not cheap to stay here.

Caravan sites for 2 adults was $32; does not sound too bad but there is no power out here; also the cost of staple food items is expensive to say the least, Adels Grove has a cost to bare so it is obviously passed on to the consumer.

The above is part of the coffee shop, bar and meals area; make sure you bring a recent bank statement which can prove you are good for any debts incurred.

This is part of the Grove (looked more like a swamp to me).

The sign from the shop give you a good idea of the pricing structure used out here; all the bread is frozen. The prices shown reflects on the overall cost of other items you buy, tinned food, ice creams etc.

Not a real good shot but the caravan sites are just beyond the trees; reception is the just visible building to the right.

One of the road signs on the way out of Lawn Hill; hard to see for you guys but the top is “Gregory – 77km” and the bottom is “Hells Gate Roadhouse – 194km”.

I must say the road is not bad from Gregory Downs; the first section (40km) is well graded as it leads out to Century Mine, the road after that was still fairly good. We did see a number of vans heading in and out without problems but who knows what the end result was when they got back to bitumen. All in all if you did want to spend more than a couple of days in Lawn Hill then it maybe worth pulling the van in; in our case we were happy with the 2 night stay and drive in considering what was on offer at Adels Grove.

Sorry for the slack upkeep of the site and I am hoping to do another post (Normanto / Karumba) within the week and will mail out when done.

Take care, travel safe and keep well.

Love & warm regards to all.

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Cloncurry and The Burke & Wills Roadhouse - August 2010

2010-09-13T19:04:00.001+10:00

CLONCURRY

We arrived in Cloncurry towards the end of July to meet up with Joe & Glenys; they were bringing the bus they have been working on converting for a few days break away from the farm. It tied in well as I needed to get the car serviced at Mount Isa before heading further north.

We stayed at the Gilbert Caravan Park which is the first park on the left if you are heading west. The park is run by a great couple (Peter & Cheryl) along with the the rest of their family, they are constantly on the go and nothing is too much trouble. The sites are roomy and mainly drive through for the larger vans; the amenities are clean and checked periodically throughout the day and tidied up as required.

The park is pet friendly and the rates are quite good; it was $26 p/n but they did have a special of $140 for the week. The park has a pool, camp kitchen and entertainment 3 – 4 nights a week during the tourist season. The roadways are gravel and this is the first park we have seen were they use a water carrying ute to keep the dust down, great idea and it works well.

Many of the sites are drive through; they try to keep the grass as best they can but it is typical “outback couch”, dusty grass or just dust.

Cloncurry does have an outdoor cinema that runs a couple of nights a week; it is part of the cafe / take away so settle back with some fish & chips with and couple of tinnies.

There is a market one one Sunday of the month; we went along for a look and they had 6 stalls. Apparently we did not get there early enough as there was 7 stalls but the lady selling home made Anzac biscuits sold out and went home; better luck next time.

Joe & Glenys rolled in on the Friday and parked next to us; Joe was not real good at putting the pegs in so I proceeded to show him how to bend them whilst trying to peg into rocks. Joe was not impressed.

Some of Glenys & Joe's handy work in getting the conversion on the way; a little way to go yet but it's looking very good.

The outside of the bus; we all had a great time over the weekend and hopefully we will see them again over Christmas.

Well the car has been serviced so time to head of towards Adels Grove and Lawn Hill National Park but we are stopping at the Burke & Wills Roadhouse on the way.

BURKE & WILLS ROADHOUSE

This is like an oasis in the middle of nowhere; it sits at the junction of the Burke (Matilda Hwy) Developmental Road & the Wills Developmental Road. From here hading further north takes you to Normanton & Karumba or turning left (west) to Gregory Downs and Lawn Hill NP.

We stayed one night here and the way you park is 4 around one central slab with a roof over the top; sort of gives you a communal happy hour location even if you did not want to be involved. Price was $18 for the night each van has access to a power and water connection, the amenities were okay and the people we met were very friendly.

Parked for the night at the roadhouse; power, water, satellite dish up, what more could you want.

Unfortunately the picture does not do the roadhouse justice as it is set over a large area with outdoor tables, chairs etc. It has a bar, take away come restaurant and souvenir shop. Just the perfect spot to get rid of more cash. notice the sign “Welcome To The Burke And Wills”.

The below sign is not so welcoming to the weary who just want to use the roadhouse loo's to pee, eat their own egg & lettuce sangas and in the main make use of the free facilities. No freeloading here (if they catch you).

We did enjoy the nights stopover and we wanted to get to Gregory Downs by mid next morning so by staying overnight it gave us a good start after breakfast.

Hope you have enjoyed this section of our travels; the next post will be Gregory Downs, Adels Grove and Lawn Hill NP.

Love and warm regards to all and those that are on the road travel safely.

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Life After Boulia - Middleton - Kynuna - McKinlay - July 2010

2010-08-25T10:40:00.001+10:00

MIDDLETON

Well we left dusty Boula and drove to the Middleton Hotel which lies between Boulia & Winton (194km); it was just as dusty here and quite strong head & cross winds were a battle of power in the tow tug against mother nature, added to this was the odd road train.

Middleton pub is on of those top 30 Queensland pubs I keep mentioning and this one is the only stop in town; it is in the Camps 5 or earlier book for free camping and it did get quite a few in later in the day. The free camp sits directly opposite the pub and they have a sign up calling it “Hilton Hotel”; if you do end up this way make sure you call in or even camp over the road. Whilst we were there a single seat mustering helicopter landed next to the pub and the guy went in for some supplies and then took off over the roadway, interesting to see all this unfold.

The Middleton pub taken from over the road at the free camping area

The Hilton Hotel sign; you may struggle to read what's written at the bottom of it but it says “No Air conditioning, No TV, No Pool, No Charge”.

The main road that runs in and out of Middleton; even Linda was able to cross this road without holding my hand for fear of getting run over.

Inside the pub is a strange set up as when you walk in the door if you turn right you are in the owners lounge room with the kids, dog and TV or turning left puts you in the bar. Apart from beer, wine (limited) and soft drink the pub does have a few spirits but best not ask for a Bloody Mary or Strawberry Daiquiri, you may get chucked out.

Everyone at the free camp over the road from the pub; the pub meals were not too bad, Lin had pie, chips & gravy for $6.50; I had a beer, piss & look around ($5).

KYNUNA

Left Middleton towards Winton to get fuel; we did not stop here but turned north and headed to Kynuna for the Blue Healer pub & caravan park. Obviously it is not much of a park but a great little stop; the price was $15 per night with power & (good) water connected to the van. The amenities were okay from a blokes perspective but Linda opted to use the shower in the van.

One couple were staying there after being up north for 2 months; he told me that on the way up he paid $10 now on the way back it was $15, so much for increases based on the current CPI!!!

The Blue Healer pub and before you ask yes it is in the top 30; I can't have too many more to do, shame really as it would be nice if there was a top one hundred. I may make up my own list.

The sign above was when our Son John & partner Marie passed through here with our 3 granddaughters Ruth, Shandelle & Karly in June 06. He told us he had written on the wall but when you go inside the pub there is not one area of roof or wall left to write on so finding it was difficult. We added Nana & Poppy and The DavLin Rig to it for the photo.

The wall of hats inside the Blue Healer.

And for the blokes quite a number of bras we scattered around the walls; would have been a great place to be when some of this sort of stuff was happening.

McKINLAY

We rolled into McKinlay after leaving Kynuna for Cloncurry; we did not overnight here just stopped for a couple of pictures. Not much here just the pub and van park and a service station.

The sign that advertises the Walkabout creek hotel & van park.

With McKinlay only being a short distance from Kynuna the pub was not open when we arrived (much to my disgust) so we could only get a picture of the outside, we did not want to hang around until opening time.

It's now of to Cloncurry where we are stopping for a while; Joe & Glenys are bringing the bus out for a few days break from the farm so we will spend more time with them before heading off to our next destinations. Our next stops will be the Bourke & Wills roadhouse, Gregory Downs, Adels Grove and Lawn Hill National Park.

Hope you all are well and enjoy this post; until next time take care and if you are travelling do it safely.

Love & warm regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Boulia Camel Races - July 2010

2010-08-18T16:13:00.001+10:00

We finally made it to Boulia for the fun, frivolity and shit loads of wind & dust at the yearly camel races; the races follow a circuit around several country towns but Boulia is the cream of the crop, if you see any forget the rest and make your way here and see this one.

Once again make sure you stock up as there is only one store here that sells everything and I mean everything, from bread, milk and normal grocery lines to TV's, tiles, hydraulic oil in 44 gal drums, hardware, generators and bags of cement. Suppose they have to as either way (Winton or Isa) to buy anything is 300km +.

Cost per person for the 3 day event was $40 and for that they open up the grounds for free camping for the week prior and up to a week after the event so it is not a bad deal. The ground has an amenities block with hot & cold water and showers which is bore supplied but very clean and drinkable (no smells or bugs to worry about). You had to pick your time for the showers; mid morning and mid to late afternoon may see you short of hot water.

The road to Boulia from Isa is 320km or from Winton 360km so it all depends which way you want to travel. Either way the road is single lane with a wide shoulder either side, if road trains approach make sure you get completely off the bitumen and stop. These rigs are 53mt in length and 3 or 4 trailers long; the last thing you want is the oncoming rig hitting the dirt on one side (40 plus tyres) and throwing stones and dirt everywhere.

The above is part of the morning training on the lead up to the events which take place mainly Saturday & Sunday; we arrived on the Tuesday to make sure we got a good spot for the van. The training involves a lot of camels being let out on the track and 2 or 3 guys on quad bikes behind the pack giving them some encouragement to get a move on.

Boulia's red stump advising that west of here is the Simpson Desert.

Boulia's only pub the Australian Hotel; this one is also on the top 30 to see in Queensland; beer is $5 a can to either drink in or take away, glad I picked up a few in Isa before heading here.

Market stalls were set up by some visitors (6 or so stalls in total); this guy seemed more interested in knitting hats for his stall stall rather than get involved in the race events, this is the second bloke I know who likes this sort of stuff; one of our readers knows who the other is.

Getting here early was a good choice as we managed to get a good camp spot near the amenities; from here we could reach with about 3 hoses to fill the tanks up when required rather than cart water in containers.

Although there was quite a few in when we arrived the camping ground swelled considerably from the Wednesday on, from a town that normally boasts a population of 300 the numbers go out to 3000+ for this event.

One of the races in progress; over the weekend there was about 16 in total.

This was another event to behold called “camel tagging”; it is quite simple to explain but not so easy or quick to do. Several camels are let loose in an arena where the object is to tag the camel by sticking a piece of duct tape to the camel, run back to a marker and then chase the same camel and retrieve the tape, fastest man (or woman) wins. You can see the duct tape near the camels hump which has just been put on.

A photo with the winner of the cup and in case you are wondering the winner is the beast in the background with a hump, not me.

The blokes had to be quick at night time if you wanted a bit of you know what; the trick is be early so you don't end up with an ugly one.

This was one of several signs around the camp and racetrack area; apparently there have been some quite painful but funny accidents like people being so pissed they have fallen into camp fires, it seems if you do this you sober up quite quickly.

This was our Boulia family; a great crew that got together to enjoy daytime races and nighttime happy hour and a good camp fire. Hope you are all well and still living the dream and hopefully we will catch up soon (don't forget we need side access!!!!).

Don't know if anyone watches channel 7 and the morning show Sunrise but if you do you will know this guy David Koch, nicknamed “Kochie”, how he made it way out here had me stumped.

One of the many nightly fires enjoyed by us all at Boulia.

This was a fantastic place to be and we would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to experience the raw environment and great hospitality Boulia has to offer. The people we met and the friendships we made will stay with us for a long time to come; the deeper you delve into what these small outback towns and communities have to offer the more you want to see.

Hope you have enjoyed our Boulia experience; take note this event is on every year on the second weekend of July; you can find out more by contacting the Boulia tourist info centre and if you go make sure you see the Min Min lights show in town, the cost is $15p/p and it is worth every cent.

Love & warm regards to all – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Julia Creek & Mount Isa - June/July 2010

2010-08-16T06:45:00.001+10:00

JULIA CREEK

We arrived at Julia Creek caravan park after leaving Richmond; we wanted to stay here for a couple of days to have a look around before going out to friends Joe & Glenys on a cattle property 40km out of town. Once again it is advisable to stock up on as much food as you can carry before visiting a lot of these small country towns; availability of some food items is limited and the prices are very high. Choices for major food shopping on the Townsville to Isa route is Charters Towers then nothing much else until Cloncurry and then Isa; its okay if you do not intend to stop for any length of time but if you are intending to stay a while here and there then stock up. Most small towns have good and reasonably priced butchers but is the other food and dairy lines that are expensive.

Julia Creek caravan park was closed for a week or so and had just reopened a couple of days before we arrived; all the drive through sites have been done up with a bitumen surface so nice and tidy sites. The park is pet friendly and at $18 per night ($108 per week) very good pricing; bins were placed at almost every site and the amenities were cleaned regularly.

The town has 2 mini supermarkets but as said before the prices are high; as an example a 500g block of cheese ranged in price from $14 – $16. Gannons Hotel is the local pub and is on the top 30 list of pubs to see in Queensland; needles to say I had the odd one or two at this establishment. The town has a few variety type stores but nothing major; Cloncurry has a Woolworths but Mount Isa is the first place you will find K Mart, Bunnings and now a newly opened BCF. Overall the town is nice and the caravan park is clean & friendly so well worth a day or so.

The drive through sites at the Julia Creek caravan park.

After our short stay at the caravan park we headed off to the 40 thousand acre cattle property Joe & Glenys are managing. The property is situated about 40km from Julia Creek on the Wills Development Road; we were asked if we could check the mail box (an old fridge) at the start of the driveway to the house; believe it or not the length of the driveway to the house is 4.6km which is a long way to go just to check for mail. I let Linda do the checking just in case of snakes; don't want to get bitten do I.

Our parked position for the week at Joe and Glenys house on the property.

Sunrise over Werrina Station.

Not sure what Joe had been promised but by the smile on his face it must be something pretty special; another cup of tea maybe.

Lin & Glenys at the property.

After the week here we were of to Mount Isa; we had a great time and it was really good to catch up with old friends that we have known for over 20 years. Thanks for having us, thanks for the entertainment and a big thanks for letting me work on your computer.

MOUNT ISA

We were invited to spend time with Gary & Maureen who are friends of ours that we met on one of our travels about 3 years ago; we hit it off with these guys straight away and we do have a lot in common (hey Gaz). They were working at the golf club and they had use of a cottage, we parked alongside, connected water & power and settled in for a week or so.

We are unable to comment on any of the Mount Isa parks as we did not stay at any whilst we were here so you may have to do a little research if you intend heading west. We did hear several comments from people at Isa and Cloncurry but it maybe best to form your own opinion as there were good and bad comments about most of them.

The Isa township sits on one side of the Barklay highway and the mine occupies the other side; the bad part about this is if you live here you can never get away from the mine view, it is quite predominant from wherever you live in town. It does have all the services, Woolies, Coles, Kmart, Bunnings, McDonalds etc but strangely there is no Big W or Target stores, a new BCF opened on the weekend we were in town so plenty of people in for the opening specials and sausage sizzle.

We were not overly keen on the town itself even though it did have the best shopping available since leaving Townsville; the streets look unfinished and dirty but it is a mining town. Some things are expensive as they charge like everyone is working in the mine and earning $150K + a year so be careful what you buy. Fuel was by far the cheapest and the woolies servo had diesel at 126.9; funny the price at Cloncurry was 146.9 and the fuel trucks have to go through Cloncurry to get to the Isa, so much for blaming transport costs.

Parked at the side of Gary & Maureen's cottage; bindies were the only downfall.

Another day of craft; Linda & Maus making cards and crocheting beanie's.

Part of the Isa township with one of the stacks in the background

Linda visited the underground hospital; this is a must see tourist spot, one of many things to see and do.

Check the stirrups out at the right hand end of the chair; sort of open wide and smile for the camera.

“You want me to do what with the ball”

Gary, Maureen, Linda & me at the 18^th hole; we started on the 18^th and finished on the 18^th, check out the latest Tiger Woods clothing label worn by us all.

Once again we had a ball; Gaz & Maus left the Isa for Melbourne a few days after we left for the Boulia camel races. We have spoken recently and they are not liking the weather that much after the heat of the Isa. Don't worry guys it will be summer there soon but unfortunately winter shortly after that.

Hope you all are well and looking after yourselves; our next update will be Boulia and some further posts after that.

Love and warm regards to all – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Hughenden - Richmond - June 2010

2010-08-12T08:42:00.001+10:00

HUGHENDEN

Time for a bit more catching up so Hughenden & Richmond are on this update and both places are well worth a day or 2 (longer if you like). We stayed at Hughenden overnight only as the park is very basic and the rail yard is directly opposite so the train shunting early in the morning is not so nice.

We stayed at the Allan Terry Caravan Park, the cost of this park was from memory $20 so quite cheap; almost all the sites were drive through if you were early, arriving later meant you had to back the van in so you were back to back with the other van (see picture). The amenities were again very basic but kept clean

Hughenden being Hughenden is mainly only used as a stopover not so much a tourist spot although there is a few things to see around town, also this are is part of the “Dinosaur Trail”.

Our site: bitumen drive through, the site next to us shows the back to back configuration.

The town has all the dinosaur artwork that is prevalent to the towns that come under the “Dinosaur Trail” umbrella, including this winged metalsaurus.

Linda's new pet; we were going to take it with us but she would not get rid of all her craft stuff to make room in the van; how selfish!!!

One of the many 4 long road trains that move along these outback roads; they are okay on the wide roads but meet one of these on the development highways (single lane) and you will know what it's all about. The drivers of these rigs are very good; on single lane roads it is pretty much mandatory you pull completely off the road and stop.

RICHMOND

We stayed at the Lakeview Caravan Park which has great views as it looks over Lake Fred Tritton; it was very relaxing here so we stayed for a week. Every so often we feel it is good to settle for a period rather than the hurry of one night stops. We met up with a great couple that introduced Linda to redclaw; they are a big yabbie, obviously not to my liking.

The park was kept very clean and tidy; the hard part out in these western towns is trying to keep water up to the lawns, the park managers were doing a great job in keeping it somewhat green and the dust down. Price for the park was $25 per night or $22 per night for seniors, we managed to get the $22 per night rate and for staying 7 we paid for 6 ($132) so very economical.

The water is palatable (just) but does have a strong sulphur/magnesium smell and the brown staining is a fair indication of bore water. We have been in bore water towns previously but the smell is quite strong, very similar to Winton for those that have been there.

The park layout; you can see the lake at the end of the road.

We were given directions to a few fossil hunting sites; our biggest find was a tooth and a small piece of a bone, the tourist / fossil centre told us they were nothing more than part of the remains of a kangaroo (thought we were going to be on telly with our find).

A lot of crocodiles seem to launch themselves out of the foot path here and devour the rubbish bins; saves on council garbage collection I suppose.

This is the “Kronosaurus Korner” tourist & fossil centre; well worth a look around, there is also a great cafe & bakery inside the complex.

Quite a mouthful.

One of the great sunrises at Richmond.

On loan; one of the redclaw caught by our friends at Lake Fred Tritton, Lin was a little unsure about holding one of these.

4 of the cooked redclaw; Lin may have been a little nervous holding them but she was definitely going to eat one.

Hope you enjoy the read and will post up again soon.

Love & warm regards to all – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig.

Charters Towers - June 2010

2010-07-30T12:23:00.001+10:00

Back to the old way of doing the web site after the long version of Cape York. After the C.Y trip we did stay on in Cairns for a couple more days before heading south back to Townsville for our trip west for the much awaited Boulia camel races. We did stay at Kurrimine for a week and then it was on to Charters Towers.

We stayed at the Aussie Outback Cabin & Van Village which is the first park you will come to on the way into town travelling east to west. The park is a Big 4 but the weekly rates are quite good ($172 for our stay); most of the sites are a drive trough configuration and almost all have slabs. The park had plenty of room but one of the smallest swimming pools I have yet seen in a park; lucky if you could get 10 people in it.

The park has 2 amenities blocks but they did have a problem with hot water (lack of); it seemed there was issues with the water either being hot, lukewarm or cold. Park management did confirm they had had the issue looked at but had not been rectified during our stay, the other amenities block was okay but the location was nowhere near our section of the park.

Overall it was a nice place to stay but in saying that there are 3 other parks in town which may be a better option.

Nice drive trough sites and not too many overhanging branches.

The photo above is taken from Towers Hill; the secondary main street is shown running bottom to top of the photo, the actual main street runs from right to left and is where the clock tower of the post office can bee seen (center).

Gold was discovered on Towers Hill and it's 3 peaks in 1871; there are several storyboard's at the lookout which tell the history of the hill. In the evening a film is screened in the small amphitheatre called “Ghosts After Dark”.

This sign was spotted on Towers Hill; it may not be such a good place to roam around at night or for playing hopscotch.

One of the old WW2 bunkers on Towers Hill and soon to be Linda's new nursing home once I put in a new door and window.

Charters Towers has a lot of older buildings that have been restored and are very interesting to see both inside and out.

Above is the Northern Miner newspaper building; the newspaper was established in 1872.

The Charters Towers police station which is in the main street.

The post office of which the tower can bee seen in the photo taken from Towers Hill at the start of this post.

Wierry House above is one of the old Bank of N.S.W (1889) buildings; it now houses Century 21 Real Estate and is also an agency for the Bendigo Bank.

Anyone want to buy a camouflaged caravan and 4 x 4; we spotted this on a property on our way out to the Burdekin Weir, it maybe a good buy if you want to be a “Weekend Warrior” and join Dad's Army.

The old Charters Towers ambulance station is now a museum for a lot of the Q.A.T.B memorabilia; the place has some of the most interesting equipment and historical records. The cost is a massive $3 (my sort of entry price) and is well worth a visit.

One of the old ambulances; it even has the old stretchers in the back.

One of the rooms in the ambulance station; great place to have a few teeth extracted.

In case your eyes are not so good the visitors book has the entry of Mr & Mrs Alexandra Graham Bell; thought he might have rang, it would have been cheaper.

Spotted this letterbox on leaving Charters Towers for our next stop (Hughenden).

Hope you enjoyed this part of our trip; our next post will have Hughenden, Richmond & Julia Creek.

Until then stay safe and keep well.

Love & warm regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Cape York Final (Part 3) - Weipa to the Top & Thursday Island

2010-07-26T16:22:00.001+10:00

Well this is the last post based on our Cape York trip; with being out of service (no power) for a time it has been almost impossible to update the site. We are now back in the land of the living (power, water and phone service) so time to get the last bit done.

Hope you enjoy our last leg of Cape York and beyond.

Arriving at Moreton Telegraph Station was like walking back in time; this was one of our overnight stops. The place runs on a huge generator. During the wet season anything of value is dragged on skids to high ground as most of the property goes underwater. The homestead is on stilts which sits just above the highest flood ever recorded.

Above are the bush showers; you have to hang on to the curtain at the same time as washing otherwise your private bits are not so private to other campers. The high flood mark is approximately where the base of the tank stand is.

Above is Bertiehough Homestead (Steve Irwin’s wildlife sanctuary).

The above photo was taken at Bramwell Station; this would have to be one of the biggest I have seen.

The sign at Bramwell Station advises you not to be late leaving otherwise you will miss the last Jardine River ferry and have to camp there.

Anyone want to buy a cheap caravan that needs some serious TLC; the story behind this is that it only made it part way on these roads so was dumped by the owners; the council has since pushed it off into the bush with a grader (out of sight out of mind). Most vans will not make it up to the top on these roads.

One of our overnight stops was at Fruit Bat & Twin Falls; really clean and tidy loo’s here but no shower facilities. The water in the falls is natural spring water from limestone and is crystal clear and beautiful to drink; also makes for a great shower to clean off the dust, we could have stayed for a few days here, the same water is also fed to taps in the camping area.

Some of the roads are not so good; minimum requirement is at least 4 wheel drive.

One of several river crossings on our way north.

The famous Jardine River ferry; cost for a 4 wheel drive with passengers is $88; although this seems expensive the ferry money also pays for a lot of the road upgrades for the council as the revenue from other sources is minimal. You can opt to cross in your own vehicle further downstream but beware because if you get stuck the river is heavily infested with crocodiles and the price for vehicle retrieval is very high (best pay the $88).

The above is the last 1500mt walk after a 1hr drive out of Bamaga to reach the top of Australia; the views from the point are amazing.

What we all at the end of the day came for was to reach the most northerly point on Australia's mainland; the sign that was here a few years ago was more interesting than the one shown but unfortunately someone decided to take it home (stole it).

The ones from our group that made it over the mountain track (moderately difficult) to the point for a picture.

Our last night of camping (wont be missed by me) was at Loyalty Beach, Bamaga. The next morning was our boat trip over to Thursday Island.

Whilst at the Bamaga Jetty waiting for our boat to TI this bloke caught this Barramundi on a hand line; no shortage of free feeds in this neck of the woods.

Above is us arriving at Thursday Island after the 1.5hr boat ride; it was a great trip with lots of commentary on the surrounding islands and the history of the region.

The view is from Green Hill Fort on Thursday Island

One of the 6’ guns at Green Hill Fort; they were placed in case of attack from foreign shores. The gun and mounts weigh 10 tonne and fired a 45kg projectile up to 8.5km; they were used in practice but never fired in anger.

The above is Australia's top pub; it is the furthermost north drinking hole that comes under Australia's rule. You cannot go any further north in Australia for a beer.

This little boat was a beauty; the timbers and furnishing was magnificent to see. This took us on the last leg of our journey (45 minutes) from Thursday Island to Horn Island for our plane trip back to Cairns.

The crystal clear waters of Thursday Island.

Our plane arriving at Horn Island; we departed at 3.20pm and arrived back in Cairns at 5.25pm.

We had a fantastic time and would highly recommend this to anyone who is thinking of doing Cape York; there are a number of companies that do these trips and Oz Tours that we went with were very good.

Linda & I would like to do this again but in our own vehicle maybe with others that are interested in doing a similar trip; by doing it on your own you are not restricted to set places for a set amount of time. There were places we would have liked to stay longer and see more of but being on a time-line tour you are restricted; on the other side of the coin if you don’t have the right vehicle or are worried about how you navigate the are then a tour would be a good option. Also remember if you drive up in your own car and did not like it you still have to turn around and get back (worth thinking about).

Hope you enjoyed our Cape York adventure and for us it was well worth the money and time invested.

I will be doing some further web updates as we headed west to Mount Isa and the Boulia camel races; the first I am hoping to get done this week.

Until then we do hope you are all well and those that are on the road are travelling safe.

Love and regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Cape York Part 2 - Cooktown To Weipa

2010-07-12T11:03:00.001+10:00

Ah well back on to the Cape York trip; I will be trying to keep the reading to a minimum based on the amount of pictures in this blog. I know what your thinking, Dave never can keep things brief but I’ll give it a try. Hoping you enjoy the below post.

The above is a serpentine feature at Cooktown marina/harbour; the top is all done in half inch mosaic tiles in the Aboriginal style colours, the snake is raised and runs down the center of each of the sections (not sure if it is visible on the blog).

One of three sisters of the Wujal Wujal tribe that guide you to the falls of the same name; they are very interesting to listen to as they are very knowledgeable on the area and the flora & fauna.

The Wujal Wujal falls are quite spectacular; the river they run into is half freshwater and half saltwater, crocs do roam these waters but only in the saltwater sections of the river.

On another of our stops we met up with a real character named Willie from Gurrubbi Tours; Willie had a great sense of humor but also a vast knowledge of bush tucker and bush remedies and what different plants can be used for. Above a bunch of leaves is rubbed down to small pieces, water is then added to produce a soap that is a great moisturiser.

Willie also introduced us to several spots in the area that had Aboriginal rock art; it was also explained what the pictures meant and why they were made.

This was one of the most unusual hills Lin & I had ever seen; it is a mass of black rocks hence it’s name “Black Mountain”, it does have a few trees that have managed to grow and survive. The hill became as a result of molten rock exposing itself and evolving into fractured granite, this has supposedly taken place over 260 million years.

The local indigenous people are very frightened of the hill as on occasions the rocks get that hot they become unstable and explode (bad karma).

As the sign says it is Laura General Store; beers here were $5.00 each. One of the couples on the tour after being told the price each asked how much it would be for a six pack to take away, the reply from the girl behind the bar was “you may not be smart but surely you know that 6 x $5 = $30”. The couple left empty handed.

The old “Laura Lock-Up”, not used today.

I had to check the lock up out, by gee it brought back memories of my days in Bogga Road & Pentridge.

Taken at the Hann River Roadhouse; it shows all the distances to places from the roadhouse, we at this point were 592km from the top.

One of the Hann River Roadhouse residents; if you are unsure which is the resident it is the short bird on 2 legs with an odd looking head, I suppose thats still left you guessing.

Not all of the roads are like the one above, we did see a lot of graders and the like on our way. We were told the wide roads were done to accommodate mining if it should happen; seems this may be on the books as a lot of mining exploration is taking place, wide roads such as these are not necessary unless it is a requirement for future mine traffic.

The above sign is shown on the end of a large fuel tank at Musgrave Station, once again it is adorned with the distances as a constant reminder how much longer we have to go on the bloody bus.

Musgrave Station homestead and general store.

Another one of our lunch stops on the banks of a river; no swimming allowed here, although no crocs have ever been sighted it is not worth the risk. We were told it would be safe as the water is shallow and clear, 2 of the things crocs don’t like.

The stop we made had this unique loo; you may not be able to read the name on the gutter rail but it is called “The WindyLoo”, named because of the gap at the bottom which acts as ventilation.

The above is the most northerly set of traffic lights you will see; they are situated as you enter Weipa to control traffic crossing the haul truck road for Weipa mine site. The lights are monitored by camera & operated from the mine control house; big fines here if you run the gauntlet.

Weipa loading facility for Bauxite; this is loaded on to ships and sent to Gladstone for processing into alumina powder, some of the powder is converted into billets at Boyne Island but most is exported to overseas countries.

Weipa hotel bottle shop; take a note of the prices and believe it or not this was the cheapest seen since leaving Cooktown.

Hope you have enjoyed the read and I did not ramble on too much; I will start work on the next episode from Boulia (the camel races) and hopefully post up again in a week or so.

Hoping you are all keeping well and those that are travelling are doing it safely.

Love & warm regards to all – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Cape York May 2010 - Part 1

2010-06-26T17:08:00.001+10:00

We here we go with the Cape York trip and it looks like this will be part 1 of 3 given the size for the blog page to fit it all on and to avoid a brain fade on your part with information overload.

Before you continue reading Linda & I enjoyed the trip to Cape York immensely and we had a great time; the accommodated tour (which we thought we had booked) would have been a better option (in our opinion).

I thought the best way to explain this is to open with what we as a couple were required to do on this trip; from here on in I will be referring to this as a “trip” or an “experience”. Why you may ask not call it a “holiday” and the following few photos and subsequent explanation should give you the answer; if it doesn’t then may I suggest you start reading from the beginning again when the alcohol and cerapax wear off.

A holiday to me brings visions of getting up late, having a slow continental or cooked breakfast, relaxing at your leisure throughout the day, buffet style lunches fit for kings, dinners to match the best a la carte restaurants and the best mattress and duck down pillows to sleep away the nighttime hours ready for another day of luxury living and entertainment.

That is why this will be referred to as a “trip”, “experience”, “must do”, “have to see” etc. etc but it never will be discussed (by me) as a “holiday”.

The bus we travelled on was brand new and Oz Tours had not long took delivery of this purpose built machine; it has a seating capacity of 17 plus 2 crew (driver & cook). Our group was 11 so we had plenty of spare seats and could move around; leg room was not great but the seat did recline a little so not to bad to travel on, sort of like a council bus on steroids.

The tent you see above was handed to Linda and I in a bag marked “Number 5” and we were told “this is your home for the whole of the trip”; we said “very nice but who puts it up for us”. This was the time I realised the accommodation was not what we thought it would be.

All of us were given instructions (a bit like the scouts) the correct way to put the tent up and how Oz Tours expected it to be packed away each morning. One thing that seems familiar on all tents is the bag you pack it back into; it seems to shrink overnight and the bag always ends up smaller than the tent when when you are trying to re pack it.

We were also told how each morning would unfold; this revolved around the 6, 7, & 8 rule, 6am everyone up and pack the tent, 7am breakfast and clean up, 8am all on the bus for more thrills.

Each day in driving along to our next destination the bus would suddenly come to a halt at the side of the road, our next task was to collect firewood; I realised that BBQ’s and camp oven cooking did need a fuel source but I did not have a clue that we were the labour force expected to collect it (silly me).

Being able to have a cooked dinner at night seemed to be a good incentive to get everyone off the bus for a timber run.

Every meal time held a special treat (washing up); yes we had to wash, dry and put away our own plates, eating utensils etc. All part of that Cape York experience.

On one of the rivers we crossed on the Bloomfield Track this strange boat was pointed out to us, looks a bit like a train. It is a crocodile viewing boat; tourist board one of the carriages and it travels along the bank looking for crocs for photographs.

One of the morning tea come loo stops we made; most of the facilities were waterless or had manual water pumping handles.

Because of the flex in the bus between cab and the bus seating there was an open divider through to the driver and front cab section; on some of the roads we went on you could see quite a twist and deflection between the coach and cab sections.

The Lions Den was a pub stop along the Bloomfield track; we only stopped 15 minutes but just enough time for me to drink 2 stubbies (mine) and another half a one (Linda’s).

Sign outside The Lions Den hotel.

We arrived in Cooktown mid to late afternoon and the above is called “The Musical Ship”; in a blog I did some time ago of Winton they had a “Musical Fence”, the ship worked in a similar way, there were tubes and other objects with notes on them, just bash the bits and it’s music to you ears (more like a lot of noise).

The above is the Captain Cook statue on Cooktown harbour; he’s the one with bird shit down the front of his shirt. I will put up another couple of Cooktown pictures on the next post.

I am hoping to complete part 2 of this trip over the next week or so; this should take us up to Bamaga. Part 3 will most likely have The Tip, Thursday Island & Horn Island.

Until then we hope you are all well; if you are travelling keep safe on the roads.

Love & warm regards to all our family and friends.

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Cairns - May 2010

2010-06-11T15:44:00.001+10:00

It’s been a while but I have finally got around to updating the site; on top of this I still have to do Cape York, Mission Beach and a couple more so I need to get a move on

Prior to our trip to Cape York we wanted to sight see around the Cairns area so we stayed for 9 nights at Crystal Cascades Holiday Park at Redlynch, this is about a 15 minute drive to Cairns city center. The park is a Big 4 and our decision to camp here was based on some friends of ours (Des & Kath) having done the Cape York trip and previously stayed at this park. We left our van on site whilst we were away hooked up to power at a cost of $30 for the week, the car also stayed on our site so it is a good service they offer. Des & Kath also told us the park was very good and being away from the city is quiet and safe for travelers. On our return from Cape York we had a further 2 nights (washing of clothes & scrubbing the dirt off us) before moving on.

We were not disappointed with the staff being very friendly and most helpful during our stay; even though we were left on power they suggested we pack up our fridge and freezer in to bags and put them in their freezers just in case our power tripped inside the van, there would be nothing worse than coming back to a freezer full of rotten food.

The amenities were spotless and shower curtains were changed on a daily basis; the grounds were kept well and the sites were of a good size (van, slab and car at the side), the park had a good sized camp kitchen, pool and BBQ’s. Price here for us after discount was $31 per night but come the 1^st June it hits peak rates until the end of October (Victorian Migration) so the prices were going up. Overall in our opinion this is a great park with very helpful management & staff.

We have all heard the term for us travelers, “Gray Nomads” “Sundowners” “Geriatric Gypsies” etc but at a park we stayed at just recently they referred to the Victorians as “Silver Tsunamis” because they come in waves; quite funny I thought.

Our site at Crystal Cascades; plenty of room with the sites being a typical layout of most parks.

The above is the esplanade in Cairns and the great water facility that has been built; this is a beaut area for families to enjoy the fantastic weather. If you look closely you will note how the pool complex blends i with the ocean in the background.

The above birds are Curlew’s and they make a weird sound mostly in the evening or early am; not sure how to describe it but Linda says it is a like ghostly wail; to me it sounded like some poor bugger having a red hot poker shoved where the sun don’t shine. Women have weird ways of describing things but us blokes can always paint the right picture (mine is the closest to correct).

The birds are like an oversized plover (for those that know what a plover is); the bodies of these birds seem so out of place on the long legs they have. There is a family of 4 at the park and they make home each day on one of the empty slabs; walk past these birds and they growl like a dog.

The above is Palm Cove just north of Cairns; the palm trees all lean towards the ocean, this is to give them strength against high/cyclonic winds. The beach here is quite good but again the stingers keep most out of the water during the stinger season.

We drove up the Gilies Highway towards the Atherton Tablelands to see the Cathedral Fig; my advise would be don’t take your van up here unless it is reasonably small as the climb is quite steep, very windy and the distance of the climb is 18km. This tree is huge and the walkway you see at the base is about a 50mt walk around the base; at one part of the tree you can walk towards the center of it and looking up through the branches is quite amazing.

Above is a photo zoomed in of the upper branches of the fig tree; there are large moss like clumps on the branches and ferns are growing quite well, if you are in the area it is a sight to see. There is an animal that lives in this area called a tree kangaroo; I know what your thinking but it is true (google if you like), people we met at Crystal Cascades showed us the photos they took on their trip to the fig.

Well that’s it for Cairns; I will now be starting Cape York but will most likely do this in parts 1, 2 & 3, I promise it will not be as long winded as Home & Away.

We are currently in Richmond and our next stops are Julia Creek, Cloncurry, Mount Isa and then Boulia for the camel races (mid July); following this it will be (at this stage) Winton, Normanton/Kurumba, Georgetown then out to the coast.

Until the next post stay well and drive safely.

Love & warm regards to all our family & friends – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Kurrimine Beach - May 2010

2010-05-25T14:33:00.001+10:00

After leaving Rollingstone we moved a little further up the coast stopping at Kurrimine Beach which lies about 27km south of Innisfail. This is a Big 4 but very reasonably priced at $180 per week less the normal Big 4 discount; the 2 year Big 4 membership we paid for is working well and thus far we are well in front of our joining fee. The “pay for 6, stay for 7” discounts offered by a lot of parks makes sense if you are staying for a week or more but at times it can be limiting as to where you can go.

There is another park here which is at the Reef Hotel; this is only 500m from the Big 4 and is $30 per night or $180 for the week (dearer) and does not have anything like the facilities here.

Available for guest use at the Big 4 Kurrimine Beach is a massive pool, jumping pillow, playground, outdoor chess set, table tennis, games room (coin machines) and kids toys, another games room with a 42” plasma and Wii console & games (free but $20 deposit on controllers) and a gym with all equipment (free).

On top of this the park has one of the best kitted out camp kitchens we have seen on our travels; it has every appliance you would need along with pots, pans, crockery etc, it also has projection equipment for movies on a big screen along with a flat screen telly.

The amenities are cleaned at the nominated time and checked regularly throughout the day and kept spotless. Kurrimine is a small town with a servo with some grocery lines, cafe, fish & chip shop, motel (does meals) and a great pub (food is very good). It is advisable to stock up if you are going to spend a week or so although Mission Beach now has a woolies (25km) and there is plenty to chose from at Innisfail (27km).

Our site above; all sites are slabs with 1 or 2 grass sites if you prefer. Grounds are well maintained. If you like peace and quiet with plenty to see in the surrounding area Kurrimine Beach is worth a week at least.

Shady looking characters I know (only joking guys); Marcus & Kay are the owner managers and are eager to please and will ensure you have a great stay and is on our list as “must do again” (we had a ball).

Above is the pool at the park with all the flotation gear you could want; you can also see the jumping pillow in the background.

During our stay we drove out through Silkwood and headed to Paronella Park; briefly it was the dream of Jose Paronella to build a castle which he did do on 5 hectares beside Mena Creek Falls. It is surrounded by approximately 8’000 tropical plants.

Construction commenced in 1930 and was completed in 1935; over the last 2 years the original 1930’s hydro power plant built by Jose has been restored and is now fully functional so all power in the park comes from this original hydro power generation plant.

Above is moss and grasses that grows on most of the original structures.

Above is the suspension bridge that swings well above the falls; I made it out for a photo.

Linda did not; this is as far as she got before her knees locked up. I was waving a $50 note as bait but to no avail; she still got the money off me later anyhow.

The above winery is just as you turn off the main highway to Kurrimine Beach; the name comes from the road it is on (yep, Murdering Point Road). The winery has some great wines mainly made from fruits such as pineapple, passionfruit etc are very nice and well worth calling in for a taste. Wines are $20 (750ml) and they do some very nice ports at $25 a bottle.

Not only is there heaps of banana trees in the area but also plenty of Paw-Paw trees; Linda & I hate these things but we know a lot of people love them, each to their own.

We ran out of sugar but up this way you don’t need to panic; Linda just headed of into a cane field with a spoon in hand to stock up, in she went and was chased out 20 minutes later by the irate property owner and a rather large rottweiler. Think we will just buy the stuff from woolies after this; after all $1.20 kg is not to bad a price to pay.

We are now back at Kurrimine for a few days having left Cairns after doing our Cape York trip; the next posts will be Cairns and then will probably post Cape York in 2 or 3 parts.

Our plans are at this stage leave Kurrimine Beach (Thursday 27^th May), catch up with friends at Mission Beach 2 nights before spending 2 nights in Townsville to see family friends. We are then heading out towards Mount Isa but our first stop is Charters Towers (3 or 4 nights). If you are traveling in a similar direction let us know; it would be great to catch up.

Until our next post ( I have some catching up to do) stay well and if you are on the road drive safely.

Love & regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Rollingstone - April 2010

2010-04-29T13:33:00.001+10:00

We traveled a massive 68km north out of Townsville before pulling in to Rollingstone Beach Caravan Resort. This park is absolute beach front; when you drive down the road to the park it ends by you driving in to the park gates, no other traffic comes down this way.

This is a Big 4 so no dogs allowed, it is also quite expensive ($240 to $280 per week less big 4 discount if you are a member) but after the Townsville rat race we decided on some peace and quiet. We arrived on the Friday morning but come the evening there was quite a few in the park; seems like it is a favorite with the locals (Townsvillians etc) for a weekend getaway.

Come Monday morning the park had about 5 or 6 vans/camper trailers so back to the quiet. The amenities here were spotless and so was the huge BBQ/camp kitchen area. All the sites are very big and some are capable of taking 2 – 3 camper trailers (happy family types). Be prepared to do bugger all here as there is literally bugger all to do; the general store at Rollingstone is 7km away and close to this is a BP service station and the Rollingstone pub.

Another part of Rollingstone is the Mystic Sands area (12km from the park); this has a fish & chip shop, golf club and community hall. At the community hall you can do line dancing on Tuesdays and play carpet bowls on Wednesdays, Linda went to the Wednesday bash and I stayed back at the van (thanks very much), I don’t think my poor old ticker could stand the stress and strain of carpet bowls and I almost broke into a sweat thinking of the line dancing (Yee Ha).

Our site above right on the beach, the road in front is one of the many that circle the park for access to sites all of which are grass but well maintained (no slabs here).

The above picture was taken at about 5.30am; it is a gazebo which was just opposite us, it was a great place to have breakfast and also had a small BBQ separate from the camp kitchen.

The free-form pool is very big and has a nice easy beach access for the oldies and kids. Linda enjoyed it (yes, that’s her) especially after the Sunday when all but a few buggered off.

Found this “Thong Pole” at Mystic Sands; there was a sign nearby that said “donations accepted”. As you can see at the base of the green bush some have been donating more footware but I am thinking the owner of the pole may have preferred cash.

You can see by the above sign that the Rollingstone pub is doing it’s bit to stamp out passive smoking; they must have a close relationship with the bloke upstairs to guarantee the correct wind direction.

I did say in my last post I would show you my nuts but first I have to get them out; this is a bugger of a job and I can see why they give the bloody things away as it is quite difficult to get the husks off.

Well here is one of my nuts (what was you expecting!!!); I was too knackered to get the other one out but it would look pretty much the same with maybe a slight difference in size, colour and fluid content (it still would be quite hairy though).

Hope you all enjoy the read and are fit and well; we are currently at Kurrimine Beach (another quiet location) and enjoying ourselves. We will be in Cairns on the 7^th May so will post this location (Kurrimine) then.

Keep smiling and safe travels.

Love & warm regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Townsville - April 2010

2010-04-24T18:35:00.001+10:00

Arrived in Townsville about the 2^nd week in April and the park we decided to stay at was Rowes Bay Caravan Park which is on Heatley’s Parade, this is approximately 4km from the city center and 1km from “The Strand”. Across the road is the beach and a great walking/bike track to either the strand or to Palaranda. The sites are quite big and the amenities block we were close to was almost new so great facilities; the park has 2 other smaller amenities blocks; they are older but still kept in a very clean condition.

The bad issue with the park is booking a site as they do not take bookings; if you ring after 10am on the day you would like to check in they will then allocate a site and hold it for your arrival (with a deposit). Seems a strange set up and I would be reluctant during peak periods to try and get a site. When I spoke to the park they advised about the book in arrangements (or lack of) but also let me know that with it being outside peak we would not have a problem getting in. Price for us was $195 for the week, not bad given the site size and location; no pets are allowed at this park.

The sites are quite large in most of the main area of the park but some of the trees are a bit of a pain, location wise it is well worth staying, the park has a small pool and a half size tennis court; this assisted me in keeping my abs, pecks and other parts of my tight,taught and incredibly muscular body in good shape (well at least my 4x gold can opening finger). Townsville is very big and suburbs around the city center stretch out for 30 – 40km so it is very busy (too busy for me).

Linda arrived here from the UK in 1968 so it was great for here to visit some of the places she remembered; with so many changes since then it was hard to imagine 1968 to now and the growth Townsville has had. Townsville was one important place for Linda to visit having not seen it since that time; this was a “must do” for Lin and filled in another page on her life in Australia.

Our site above; the tree was a bit of a pain with some small leaves and pods creating a bit of a mess.

One of the many views from Castle Hill, not much you cannot see from up here.

We spotted the above house (there are several of these) jutting out the hillside to take up the view. It looks incredible but not sure how I would go after a few grogs; I could see myself waking up in the neighbors yard.

We did go to the ReefHQ but not into the aquarium; we went to the dome I-max (see below model).

The seats seem to sit at about 45 degrees and viewing area is the whole top of the dome itself. The movie goes for about 40 minutes and 5 are screened a day, we watched an underwater one but there is a thrill ride movie that could be a rush to watch.

The above shows one of the stinger enclosures on the strand; these are quite common on all the northern beaches.

The above is the rock-pool on the strand which in the main is stinger free; council still have notices up warning it is not a guaranteed stinger free environment (typical council statement; “all care taken but no responsibility accepted).

Our next posts will be Rollingstone (just left there), Kirrimine Beach (just arrived) and Flying Fish Point (next park).

Stay well, travel safely and we hope you enjoy the read.

Love and regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig.

Bowen - April 2010

2010-04-24T18:33:00.001+10:00

Traveled from Mackay to Bowen the home of the movie Australia and got bedded down for the Easter break; we arrived on the 28^th March and stayed until the 9^th April. Bowen is a relatively small town but not lacking on services (Woolies, IGA, Pubs etc). After trying to buy a computer in Mackay which has every shop known to man the best decision I made was to deal with Bowen Business Machines (fantastic service, great help and very efficient).

Well, the caravan park we stayed at was a Discovery (Big 4) picked mainly based on the location but given the parks we looked at whilst in Bowen we should have stayed at either the Tropical Beach Caravan Park or Wangaratta @ The Beach Caravan Park; both these parks were significantly cheaper, in as good a location but the sites were larger than the Big 4 we were in.

The Big 4 sites were very tight with just enough length for our van and the car was parked at the back at 90 degrees to the van (parallel to the road); not so bad until the park hired out 2 red peddle carts to kids that seemed to think that by looking backwards at your mate in hot pursuit somehow was okay and the bloody thing would stay on the road (not so), expect damage if you stay here in peak.

This park is for sale, seems Discovery has purchased to many so looking to off load a few; this one is $5.3 million. The park has had several managers over the few months and things are not well according to another source. The amenities were spotless and stayed that way until the start of the Easter break when they were not cleaned from Good Friday until late Easter Monday; the same source told me the management were told not to bring in cleaning staff on the Easter Weekend (cost).

If you do venture here and consider this park do your research on the owners/management first, otherwise stay at one of the other parks. This was in the $240 a week slot and no where near worth it. The above is our opinion only and may have been different for others that stayed in the past and may get better in the future.

Our site above; it should be classed as “Water Front” not “Beach Front” as the park describes it, the sand is almost three shades blacker than a crow.

Great butcher in Bowen as you head into town on the left; I think it is called Riches but not sure but if you are here the meat is really good (steaks, mince chops etc) and all the snags are made on site. The prices for snags is not cheap but well worth trying a few of the flavours.

Bowen has some 20+ murals that are painted on the side/front of some of the businesses; all done by local artists. Looking closely at the above mural you can make out the outlines of thebesser block wall.

Above is the Grandview Hotel in Bowen that was dressed up to be several shop fronts of the movie and the name of the pub was changed to the Territory Hotel for the movie.

We met up with a couple on a 10 week holiday from Sydney (David & Janet); they a considering taking the plunge in to full time traveling. We all got on really well and especially Lin & Janet (craft nuts). Both Dave & I were glad the only place you could get craft stuff was a a Sam's Warehouse in Bowen; heaven forbid if Bowen had a dedicated scrapbook/craft supply shop, Dave and I agreed it at least kept them out of our hair, anything for a peaceful life (Amen).

Townsville will be up at the same time as this post.

As always stay well, travel safely and hope to see you soon.

Love & regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Mackay - March 2010

2010-04-07T09:18:00.005+10:00

Well this turned out to be a real hoot; been through a couple of hail storms which are now quite boring so thought we should give a cyclone a go just to get the old adrenalin pumping, I was never quite sure what adrenalin was but after this episode I can certainly tell you what color it is.

The park we stayed at was the Andergrove Van Park on the northern side of Mackay, the park sits about 8km from Mackay City and 4km from Mount Pleasant shopping center. The park is well maintained and the owners are very sociable and good to deal with; nothing is to much trouble and they are very eager to please. The park has a pool and is a Top Tourist; rates are $29 per night less the top tourist 10% if you are a member, even if you are not a member the rate of $174 for the week is pretty good.

Our site above and this is typical of most sites with concrete pads for the van wheels, awning slab and runners for the car to the awning side of the van. We were booked and paid for 7 nights but on the Saturday (6^th day) we left the park to take shelter from the pending cyclone. We towed the van out west of Mackay and over the Clark Range in to Nebo; we stayed out at the Nebo showground along with another 4 vans that had pulled out of Mackay and headed in the same direction as us.

It was a wild and wooly night even at Nebo with several trees and large limbs from trees falling at the showground; we all made it through without any damage but it is not something we would want to go through again.

We headed back to Mackay on the Sunday and to get the 100k in to town took about 4 hours; we were delayed by a lot of debris on the road and on one section a low hanging power line. Above is the same site we were on in the Andergrove Park so compare that to the first one; most of the caravan park was in the same sad state; the park had an abundance of fan palms all of which had suffered damage of some sort and required trimming back.

we headed off on one of the days on the Pioneer Valley scenic drive which ends at the Eungella (pronounced yungala) Range & township; the range is above and has an incline of 12% so quite steep and some of the bends are hairpin and not the place for larger vans as noted on the signpost some 10km before the range.

Camper trailers and maybe small vans but a definite no-no for the big ones; there are campgrounds at the top and in the national park.

Mackay harbour; there is a good marina front here with several cafes, restaurants, fish & chip shop (good fish here) and a pub.

The photo above is taken from the large deck of the Pinnacle Pub which is on the Pioneer Valley drive; make sure you get to this place either on your way or on your way back at lunchtime. The pies are all made on the premises and are very very good.

The above and below photos show why we stayed at the Nebo showgrounds; the sign should read “Don’t Stay At All” Caravan Park; even staying at the showgrounds had power, water with tiled showers and plenty of hot water. By the way there are no camping signs at the grounds but the council don’t seem to mind; it was in one area of the grounds a caravan park as there are plenty of caravan park style power heads and taps to connect up to.

Nice park to stay at in Nebo if you are blind and have no sense of smell.

“Excuse me please”; above is just on of several rigs we met between Rockhampton and Mackay. These rigs carrying mine equipment have police as well as wide load escorts and you must clear the road completely and stop, failure to do so earns you a ticket to the policeman's ball.

We are currently in Bowen until the 9^th April then on to Townsville; from there a couple of stops on our way to Cairns for a week before we head up to Cape York. We catch the Trinity Bay boat from the Cape to Thursday Island then launch to Horn Island before flying back in to Cairns; from there we head west (I think).

Keep well and drive safely and hope to catch some of you on the road somewhere in this vast country of ours.

Love and warm regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Rockhampton & Yepoon - March/April 2010

2010-04-07T09:18:00.003+10:00

The park we stayed at in Rockhampton was a Big 4 Discovery Park on the north side of town; very close to the major shopping center (Canelands) and pretty much local to everything. We were quoted a big 4 rate ($27 per night) even though we were not big 4 members, this was most likely because of it being a quiet time of year. The sites were big with concrete sections for the van wheels and concrete tracks on the awning side for parking the car. We drove around to our site and was greeted by a member of their staff who asked if we would like the van parked on the site for us; great service and we are never ones to knock things like that back “go for your life”. The park was very clean and tidy with the amenities being very clean and tidy, the park has a pool and games room and is very quiet, it is on a main road but all the sites are well back and traffic noise was not a problem.

Our site shown above; plenty of room and very tidy.

We visited The Caves which are about a 30 minute drive north of Rockhampton; this place is quite spectacular and if you do spend tourist $ then this should be on your list. The cost is $22 per person and lasts an hour or so, each tour leaves on the hour commencing 9.00am and the last tour is 4.00pm.

Above shows the stalactites and stalagmites formed by water dripping of the limestone; these have been formed over quite some years.

The caves also houses a cathedral for weddings; without the lighting it is pitch black; we were told many opera singers perform here as the sound from the natural formation of the caves is equal to the Sydney Opera House. The tour guide put on a CD which was truly amazing; what Linda did not find amazing was how black it was when he turned the lights off for 30 seconds, also the words she said “shit, what's going on” seemed to be quite loud and echoed for quite some time.

Linda in the caves; don’t be fooled by the smile she was pooping bricks.

We went to the Rockhampton zoo and gardens; no charge for this but not too much to see. They had a few different types of lizards, a few roo's, a dopey looking emu and the usual koala, ducks and birds. It was a good couple of hours looking around and we worth the visit, good place for a picnic with plenty of places to set up and the gardens does have a kiosk.

One of the many residents of the zoo was the bloke shown above; he seemed to like sleeping a lot with his fingers up his nose and had about the same amount of hair on his back as Linda’s brother, Steve.

The water catchment or lake that is part of the gardens was abundant with turtles; all you needed was a few slices of bread and these little buggers came in by the hundreds.

We drove out to Yepoon for the day and the photo above was taken from one of the steep hills in the area, this shot overlooks part of the township. There is about 6 or so caravan parks here but we did not check any of them out. If you do the tourist drive Rockhampton to Yepoon it is about 90km and well worth the trip.

The above stands elevated close to the water at Yepoon and is called “The Singing Ship”; the mast is made up of various pipe lengths and diameters. When the winds hit the pipes they put out musical notes which is quite eerie; near this is a time capsule which was placed in May 1975 and is due to be opened in May 2070 (look out for Auntie May’s knickers).

The next post will have Mackay and how we faired in tropical cyclone Ului.

Keep well and stay safe

Love & regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Emerald - March 2010

2010-04-07T09:18:00.001+10:00

A bit late in posting but a major hardware failure on the computer caused a bit of a problem but all is well now and we are back up and running.

After Cania Gorge we headed to Emerald to catch up with our son John. We stayed at the Emerald Cabin & Caravan Village; the new area is called the development as it is all new sites with drive through’s. The amenities block which you can see in the foreground to the right was being refurbished so it was a fair walk to the other block; the amenities consisted of 12 en-suite type rooms, you pick an empty one and then lock it from the inside, each one of these had its own toilet, shower and hand basin. This is a good idea but the older block was not well maintained.

The park is pet friendly and priced at $30 per night; don’t bother asking for a weekly rate here as it is still $30 per night. The other options are the Nogoa Caravan Park (named after the river) but on checking this place out it definitely is a NO GOa. The other option is the park at the dam, this is about 18km out of Emerald and 2 days after we hit town was cut of and the roads closed due to localised flooding. The other place is the Emerald showground and van park; we have stayed here before and was our first point of call when we arrived but owing to all the rain it was too boggy, price here is $15 per night and is quite good when dry.

Above are the tourist sites at the Emerald Cabin & Caravan Village; drive through slab sites (2 on each run through). The insects (biting type) were very bad and I still have some scars from these buggers almost 4 weeks after being bitten.

Above shows the extent of the flooding through the Botanic Gardens; this is also part of the Nogoa River.

The sign above says it all; just hope the car and passengers have a snorkel fitted.

Sadly to say on this trip the best view of Emerald was as above in the rear view mirror.

Keep well and keep in touch.

Love & regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Scarborough - Mudjimba - Pialba - Eidsvold & Cania Gorge

2010-03-10T12:59:00.001+10:00

Well we are finally on the move once more and will be meandering north for our Cape York trip mid May; we have plenty of time in our migration to Cairns so the below post may have some stops we have made in the past.

SCARBOROUGH

Firstly congratulations to Digger & Sara on the birth of their second son, Hunter a baby brother for Chase.

We seemed to have made the Scarborough Holiday Village (Link Here) our home for the Christmas breaks each year; it is ideal for us as we have our kids and grandkids in the area around Brisbane & the Sunshine Coast. The park is still good value at $30 per night or $180 per week; the Christmas period is a little more but it only rises to $200 per week and only for a 4 week period (Mid Dec to Mid Jan); this is not bad if you consider most parks in this type of location (coastal) are significantly dearer and stay elevated for most of the school holidays.

Peter & Pauline intend to pave or concrete most of the annex areas over time, we were lucky enough to get one during our stay; this means the drive through sites will be staggered slabs, this will be better as they are then all weather suitable. The park is still pet friendly for those with dogs etc.

Australia Day at Scarborough with (L – R), Karly, Ruth & Shandelle.

MUDJIMBA

Yes this was a big trip; Scarborough to Mudjimba was 2 stops, 2 pies, a little nap; all this in a space of 90 minutes (just kidding – only one pie). We spent a week here so we could spend some time with our daughter Bec and partner Nick. Whilst there Nick made up a support frame for the drawers in the back of the car (thanks mate).

The park is a council owned so no pets allowed here; most of the sites are slabs but they do have grass sites for tents, camper trailers and vans (if you like grass). Most of the sites have plenty of shade of which I am no big fan if the trees are overhanging the van. The park has 2 amenities blocks, one a fair bit older than the other. The facilities were clean and I would class them as average plus; during the peak season it seems they would barely cope. The park has a swimming pool but you would struggle to find room in it come holiday periods; TV reception can be a bit hard to come by on some sites, even satellite my be a problem given the abundance of trees.

There is some small shops within a few hundred meters and a Bi-Lo about 3kms away; the bigger shops are at Maroochydore. Plenty of bike/walking tracks and the park is only 300m from the beach.

Price is a little high at $225 per week ($37 per night).

Our site at Mudjimba; one of the few without trees.

PIALBA

We went to Pialba again to catch up with friends we met at Scarborough (Phil & Marg) so we stayed at the usual haunt (Pialba Beach C/P); not much changed here other than a bloody big water park next door (and its free). The caravan park is $186 a week but if you stay on the beach-front sites (shown just in front of us) they are $216 a week; Linda called me a tight arse for not paying the $30 more; me – I just prayed no one parked on the sites in front or “her indoors” would have given me heaps.

Our site above; I did have several poo’s around the sites in front of us to keep other caravaner's at bay. Cheap my arse – thats another carton.

This is the water park next to the Pialba caravan park and it is totally free; some of the Hervey Bay residents are not so happy about it as they believe the money could have been better spent on health care etc. My understanding is $8 million of tax payer funds built the park.

The above is part of the park where a bucket fills and tips water on to a corrugated roof.

The kids get a great waterfall on the bucket emptying. There are no swimming pools here as such, just water features for kids to play in.

Part of the water park is a wave pool for the body boarders; the whole complex is supervised by about 6 council workers.

EIDSVOLD

On our way to Cania Gorge we decided to stay over at Eidsvold; a small country town with plenty of hospitality. On getting to Eidsvold the first place we came across was the showgrounds The service station told us vans park there); it had just been mowed and plenty of power boxes and taps available so we pulled in and set up.

We thought we had better check with the council if it was okay so walked a few hundred meters in to town; the lady at the council advised us there was a van park (council owned) in town that charges $15 per night. She then advised us that it was okay to stay at the showgrounds for a donation ($5); we paid our $5 and the council offered to come down and open the locked shower block and turn on the hot water. We declined and said the toilet facilities that were open would be fine and we would use our own shower. We had a couple of beers at the pub on our way back to the van and had a great nights sleep. Stay at least one night if you are passing through.

Set up on the showgrounds; it was as good if not better than the caravan park.

CANIA GORGE

After leaving Eidsvold our next planned stop was Cania Gorge (on our way to Emerald) but we did do an overnight stay at Dululu (in the camps “x” book). Heading north the Cania road is about 10km from Monto; there are 2 parks with the first one being a Top Tourist (about 12km in on the Cania Road), the second is a Big 4 (20km in).

We did end up staying at the big 4 for 3 nights; price difference was $27 at the Top Tourist vs. $32 at the Big 4. The Big 4 has 3G mobile and wireless internet (Telstra only – other service providers do not work here), the Top Tourist does not. You take your pick; we could not comment on the T.T. park as we did not stop to look.

The amenities were well maintained and had good sized showers; be aware that water is supplied via tanks and bores on the property so if you want to keep bore water contaminants out of the van then it is best to have a filter between the tap connection and your van. The park has swimming pools and a massive jumping pillow for kids so it does lean Heavily on the family side of things. This is a great bush park and we would go again. we were parked next to a lovely local couple (Brian & Ann) who invited us to their farm for afternoon tea. It’s amazing how many friendly locals we have met so far in our short time on the road.

This is a great stop for a few days or longer; it gets fairly busy on weekends and holiday periods are fully booked so in these times (holiday periods) ring ahead or your drive may be wasted.

Our site at Cania Gorge.

Shamrock Mine is between the caravan park and Cania Dam; a hilly walk up the track and if you stop make sure you keep your feet stomping as the ants here are quite big and don’t mind a chomp on your leg for a quick feed. Linda was winding the rope up; I offered to tie it round her waist and lower her down for a closer look and wind her back up, she flatly refused; no trust in our relationship lately!!!!! can’t think what she thought my intentions were.

Shot of the rocks at Cania; the picture does not capture the colours and beauty of the area.

The Kangaroos are all over the park; they seem to co-exist with all the visitors and you can get quite close to them. The above is not an uncommon sight.

King parrots are fed at the park on a daily basis near the office; from that they tend to move from van site to van site.

Well thats about it for now; we did get to Emerald and caught up with our son John. There was a lot of flooding in the area; we are now in Rockhampton and leaving here on Sunday 14^th March.

The next post will have Emerald, Rockhampton and a couple more; until then stay safe and well

Warm regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Tamworth-Bingara-Inverell-Tenterfield

2009-12-27T11:33:00.001+10:00

We are now safely tucked away at the Scarborough Holiday Village park (Redcliffe, Queensland) and will be here until the end of Jan or maybe even mid Feb; so I thought It would get the last of the updates for 2009 done before 2010 gets here.

Both Linda & I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and do have a fantastic New Year; we wish you, your family and friends all the best for 2010. Stay well and drive safely over the festive period (look out for the lunatics).

TAMWORTH

After leaving Forster we headed down to Raymond Terrace to pick up the New England Hwy to catch up with friends at Branxton (near Singleton); stayed on there property for a couple of nights before heading up to Tamworth.

We stayed at the Paradise Tourist Park ($29 p/n); this is a Big 4 which we are not normally keen at staying at but the park was in a good location to town and we were only staying for a few nights (ended up 4 in total). The park is divided into 2 areas but it does not matter which one you end up in; amenities were good and well maintained and the overall maintenance and cleanliness of the park was very good. Sites were a mix of slab and grass but with a large van the grass sites would be the pick with plenty of room to move; they did have some shady sites but as always my opinion is stay clear of trees; bats, bird shit, sap, leaves, seeds, twigs, branches falling on the van does not make up for the shade (up to you). The park does have a pool, & BBQ’s, a little disappointed of them charging $1 for 20 min cooking time on the BBQ’s (penny pinching in my opinion), being a Big 4 no dogs allowed but there are a few parks in the Tamworth area that allow pets.

Tamworth is a good place to visit and if you were going during the country music festival (mid Jan) it would be a blast; it is not my cup of tea as it is more a very busy regional centre rather than a country town and very commercialised. Don’t get me wrong, it is just the population of 40’000 leans it to just another place to look at shops. We seem to enjoy ourselves more in the smaller towns of say 10’000 or less, they are certainly more friendly and “Major Retailer” free apart from maybe a Woolies, IGA or Coles.

Our site at the Paradise Tourist Park (no trees for us).

The Golden Guitar; thats me with the training bra and money belt.

Chad may have had the biggest teeth but was no competition for the biggest ……………………NOSE (what else did you expect).

Part of the walk in Tamworth of the bronze statues; the kookaburra did not seem to care who’s hat he shit on!

BINGARA

After Tamworth we headed up the “Fosikers Way”; this is classed as Nundle, Tamworth, Manilla, Barraba, Bingara, Warialda, Inverell & Glen Innis. Our first stop after Tamworth was Bingara; the main reasons we did not stop before then was the bush fires and the extreme temperatures. We stayed overnight at the council park in Bingara ($20), it was 43 deg C. The park had good amenities and they were clean; we were told it was only $8 a night but council bumped it to $20 just recently (only what I was told).

The Roxy cinema in Bingara; tours cost $3 and well worth a look at the old cinema complex, we could not go on the tour owing to a catered function being set up but thanks to the staff taking us inside we did get a couple of pictures.

Inside the Roxy; brings back some memories of how it used to be.

INVERELL

What a great place this is for a relaxed break from the travelling; so much so we started here paying for 3 nights but ended up staying 2 weeks. The population here is just under that magical 10k and it is somewhere that will be on the repeat visit list.

As I always do the park review comes first; the park is called the “Inverell Caravan Park” and is closest to the town centre, it is owned by a fairly young couple who purchased it from council some several years ago. The work put in here by the owners should be highly commended as it is hard to fault. Amenities are first class and are spot cleaned throughout the day. The slabs as shown take you van and awning; we have our van on the slab with legs down plus the awning out and we are on a one complete slab. The park only has tourist sites along with the usual holiday accommodation cabins; the mix is 60% slab, 40% grass and all have plenty of room. The park is pet friendly, has a salt water pool; rates are $25p/n or $150 p/wk.

We are the van in the centre of the picture; note the size of the slabs in the foreground

Copeton Dam is 30km from Inverell; the catchment area is 5360 square km and has a submerged area of 4600 hectares, when full it holds 3 times the volume of Sydney Harbour. You can drive over the dam wall and continuing for another 3km will bring you to Copeton Waters State Park, not sure what the camping fees are but once paid it includes the use of a camp kitchen, BBQ’s, 9 hole golf course, adventure playgrounds and floodlit tennis courts. Boat hire is also available (or take your own).

One of the days whilst at Inverell we headed down to Tingha (25km from Inverell) and above is the Tingha post office; all of the businesses here had wire security screens, the ones at the post office looked like they had been made out of reo. Tingha was involved in tin mining and was mostly mined by the Chinese which kept the town thriving in its early years. The town has a population of around 900 so only a pub, general store and newsagency plus a servo here.

The above is typical of the houses and landscape with exposed rocks everywhere from the old tin mining days.

The above is a picture taken from the lookout at Inverell over the town.

TENTERFIELD

Stayed at the Tenterfield showgrounds overnight; fee was $16 and the amenities were okay, nothing flash but at least clean with soap & paper hand towels. Plenty of power and water points available but if you get in late you may end up on the more uneven parts of the ground and need to level up. The town has just been graced with a target country and a Bi-Lo and has a good array of the small country town stores; having a population of approximately 7000 makes it big enough to warrant some larger stores (like the Bi-Lo and Taget) but keeps it very sociable and friendly.

Above is where we set up; we did stay hooked up as town was only a 500m walk away.

Above is the Tenterfield Saddler; the song written by Peter Allen was about his Grandfather (George Woolnough) who was the Tenterfield Saddler for 52 years. The building dates back to the 1860’s.

Above is the oldest cork tree in Australia; it was brought over from England and planted in 1861, the thick trunk and branches are covered in a thick textured cork.

Above is St Stephens Presbyterian Church; this church was the venue for the marriage of Australian poet A. B (Banjo) Paterson to Miss Alice Walker.

We were told of the butcher in Tenterfield (above) which sits opposite the Tenterfield Saddler; the meat sold here is all local and the various flavoured sausages are well worth a try. We bought several different cuts of beef, pork, lamb etc and all so far has been first class. Typical of an old butchery the meat is all wrapped and packaged into the old style brown paper butcher bags. Tenterfield is well worth a few more days than we had and there is lots to see and the history goes well back to the mid 1800’s.

Well that is it for 2009; we are hoping to get further afield in 2010, it has been a mixed year with my Dad’s health but overall not too bad considering. Linda & I hope you enjoyed the Blog this year and follow the updates we do next year.

Have a great New Year and stay safe on the roads; looking forward to seeing you somewhere on the road in 2010.

Will post again soon – The DavLin Rig – David & Linda

Port Macquarie & Forster

2009-11-16T15:27:00.001+10:00

PORT MACQUARIE

I will start with the usual park information and where we stayed; The park is called the Sundowner Breakwater Tourist Park and for obvious reasons (it sits on the breakwater for the slow thinking folk). It is tagged as a Big 4 and does at this stage carry the Big 4 banner, however the park has been recently acquired by the local council so it offers the Big 4 rates if you are a member but if you ask for a weekly rate it works out cheaper without a membership. The normal rate is $32 p/n or $189 for the week; if you quote your Big 4 membership the rate is $32 x 7 = $224 less 10% = $201.60.

The park is in a prime spot; from our site below you can just make out the rock on the breakwater in the background; the main town beach is approximately 200m from where we were parked. The amenities consisted of 4 blocks and they are average and a little dated and the quality in the 4 blocks varies by how much refurbishment work as been done. The park does have a large and very appealing pool so ideal for the non beach-goer (like me); the park is located right in the heart of town so the car can be left parked if you wish. All (99%) of the sites are grass and some are a reddy type soil so it would be best to pick your own site if possible as if it rains it does become quite messy (we fortunately missed the rain at this park). This park is not pet friendly but there are a couple of other parks that are.

Above was our site.

We were at Port Macquarie during the half iron man competition; I did enter and if you look closely you will see thats me in 5^th position. It was a hard race and gruelling race but I managed to take out 4^th spot (better luck next year).

I did find myself a surf board but and angle grinder to remove it was a little harder to locate (no power point to run it either).

Linda found this big spinning top which proved a little hard to upright and get going; it is actually a “Folly”.

The history is that Windmill Hill was originally known as Gillman's Folly until Major Innes had a windmill built there in 1825 to grind wheat and corn for government contracts. The windmill had large canvas sails driving a hand-milled wooden shaft with a stone grinding wheel. The remains of the windmill were accidentally destroyed by fire in 1900.

In 1971 the Port Macquarie Conservation campaigned to save the site from development and to turn this vantage point into a reserve. Windmill Hill is one of sixteen sites of heritage significance adopted by Port Macquarie-Hastings Council.

Just out of Port Macquarie is a farm (Riccardo’s) that grows hydroponic tomatoes and strawberries; the tomatoes grown here are always in the top 3 winners for all the shows each year. You cannot pick the tomatoes but you can take a container and pick your own strawberries, there is no bending down as they are all grown on upright frames. When you have picked enough they are weighed and you pay for what you have got; I found it much more economical to just eat as many as you could without being sick and pay for bugger all.

This large reptile was photographed near our site at Port; he was after the baby plovers and was about 1.4mt in length.

FORSTER – TUNCURRY

What a great place this is and the park again was the pick for location; if anything it was only 100m to the beach and a nice one at that.

We stayed at the Forster Beach Caravan Park which is located on the southern side of the bridge that divides Forster and Tuncurry; price for the park is a flat $25p/n (no weekly rate), the amenities are very good and kept clean, the down side is it has timed showers but you do get plenty of time. The park is right in the Forster main township but if you want Woolies and Coles etc they are about a 5km drive.

The only down side to the sites is they tail down into the gutters quite sharply so with a large van be prepared to lift the front end quite significantly to level off, if your van is low to the ground you may scrape but they do have some boards for laying in the gutters on arrival and departure. Once in it is a great spot and we would definitely revisit here. This is a no pet park but for those with pets the Lakeside Caravan Park is quite nice and situated on the river in Tuncurry; the rate here is $175 a week.

Our site above; the gutters are quite deep.

A view of the park from Pilot Hill; we are where the little white bubble is.

Same picture showing more of the park as it looks over the Forster – Tuncurry bridge.

Same area of Pilot Hill but taken looking north towards Coffs Harbour and also showing Tuncurry beach.

Linda has been working on (and now completed) a Teddy for our Grandson, Jaxon; it has been made with love by Nanny Stevens so I thought it should be posted up for all to see.

We have been travelling up through the Hunter Valley and stayed at a friends place for a couple of nights at a place called Glendon (near Branxton) and are currently at Tamworth (bloody hot here).

We are leaving here on Wednesday 18^th November and heading up the “Fossickers Trail” so will post that one in a few weeks.

For those that are about in Brisbane we will be at Scarborough for Christmas from the 7^th December to the end of January 2010 (look forward to seeing you).

Love & best wishes – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Bexhill - Sawtell - Sth West Rocks

2009-11-01T16:10:00.001+10:00

Well we finally left Tweed Heads and made our first stop at Lismore; we wanted to catch up with Robert, Kerry & Luke. We met up again with the rest of the family at a great barby held at Robert & Kerry’s place (thanks to you all for the hospitality & risotto pie recipe).

The Roadrunner Caravan Park has not changed much; the price is now $22 a night or $132 for the week. The 9 tourist sites are very nice and the view form all of these sites is as you see it below; the permanent sites are still pretty rough but all in all the park is the pick of the lot. This is a great place to stay for a period if you want to do the Nimbin, Bangalow and National Park trips. The park does not allow dogs.

BEXHILL

Bexhill is approximately 15km east of Lismore as you head toward Bangalow; there is an outdoor cathedral which overlooks valleys to the east.

The seating is by way of what can only be described as horizontal telegraph post sections; the views from here are spectacular and is a must see if in the area.

The sign above is as you first walk toward the cathedral; have a close look at who the caretaker is which is shown on the last line. Also at the site is a visitors book that can be signed and a secure box for donations.

SAWTELL

This place is a must see if you are heading down the coast; the town is situated about 12km south of Coffs Harbour and is a coastal township.

We stayed at the Sawtell Beach Caravan Park which is about a 10min stroll to the surf; the park does have its own private access to one part of the beach but the track was a little steep. The park is situated within a 5 minute walk and is next to the bowls club. This would be the pick of the 2 parks in Sawtell; very good amenities and they are cleaned at the times stated.

The park does not have it’s own pool but next door is the swimming centre; the cost for entry is $3.50 per person but the park will reimburse one admission per day per adult so not a bad deal. Although this is a top tourist and usually you only get discount with a membership card we secured a week here for $185 which is a one night free deal (always worth asking), maybe because it is off peak. The down side is there is only 5 slab sites, the others are all grass (so to speak) and are in some places difficult to level off unless you have ramps. This is a No pets park.

Our site is shown above; we managed to get a slab as the mass exodus had just taken place with all the NSW schools heading back.

The above is taken from the Sawtell lookout; the shot is looking north towards Coffs Harbour.

The above is from the same lookout; the view is to the south and shows the Sawtell township. The area has a population of approximately 15000; the township is very village like and has some boutique type shops and cafes; the pub and the RSL reside in the same street. On leaving Sawtell for the suburb of Toormina (4km away) you come to a Centro shopping centre with the usual Kmart, Coles, Woolies etc. It seems like you move from a small country village to a major suburb in a matter of minutes.

The birds above are a from a pair that nest in the same spot in the Sawtell main street every time; the day before this picture was taken 4 babies lived here; the day of the picture we were told one had flown the nest. Two days after the picture all of the babies had taken to the skies (or been eaten by a pussy cat); we prefer the “taken to the skies” story.

On walking the Sawtell beach at the end you come to a timber stairway which leads up to a paved walking track; the track leads to the other side of the lookout to a small inlet. Quite a number of people walk this to swim on the incoming tide; The walk takes about 1.5hrs from the surf beach to the other side and back, some of it is quite steep but is very good exercise and well worth the trip.

Above is a picture of the main divided street of the Sawtell township; very picturesque.

We did do an overnight stop at South West Rocks which as you can see by the above shot is right on the beach; the park is called Horseshoe Bay Beach Park. We did want to stay and did book a full week but they messed up the booking; it is a long story but in the end we headed of the next day to Port Macquarie.

This would have to be the pick of the parks in South West Rocks purely for the location; the park is terraced and bigger caravans & 5^th wheelers can accommodate on the upper level (where we were; the picture is from our site). The amenities are average and most of the sites are grass with a few slabs; price is $32p/n or $189 for the week, the park is council owned and is pet friendly.

Be aware if you are going to this park that it is best to get confirmation of your booking; only 27 of the 67 sites have sullage so unless you specify you want sullage for a large van (or motor home) you may end up on a site having to empty a bucket positioned under your drainage point.

We would stay here again if we are down this way for a week or so but would be more aware of the blasé nature of the park management and staff.

We are currently in Port Macquarie and leaving for Forster on Wednesday 4^th November for more sun and sand (lucky me). From there we are then to Hawks Nest (more bloody sand); we will catch the ferry over for a day at Nelson Bay. On leaving here we will pick up the New England Highway heading for Singleton.

We will post up again in a few weeks time; until then hope you all stay well.

Love & regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Winton - July 09

2009-09-29T09:50:00.001+10:00

Well this is the last of the catch up posts and hopefully we can keep this updated more regularly; we did have a great few days at Winton which you will read later on but lets start with the van park and other options available.

The caravan park at Winton is the Matilda Country Tourist Park and comes under the Top Tourist banner (you definitely need to book); site fees were $27 per night and they do have everyone by the nuts as it is the only park in town. They tend to cram as many in as possible with some parking on the roadways within the park and a mass of extension leads running all over the place. One of the mornings was quite cool and the amount of heaters tuned on based on the power load available tripped every power head in the park on 2 occasions.

The amenities consisted of about 3 demountable buildings for male and the same for female; the mens had the standard trough, 4 loo's and 3 showers. The showers were the fibreglass base with a shower curtain and then another shower curtain where you got dried; I personally hate these curtains, as soon as you get in the shower it seems the bloody thing wants to eat your legs and part of your arse and they are an absolute mongrel to keep off your body.

The park had a camp kitchen which had some form of entertainment each night (bush poets, solo singers etc); you could also have a roast meal each evening which was as much as you like for about $12; every night you had a choice of beef or beef (it never changes).

Other option are you can free camp at the rear of the Gregory Hotel in town but you have to be quick and lucky to get a spot in here, no power available but water can be obtained by bucket only, you are not allowed to connect your hose for direct supply. There also is a free camp 4km South of Winton called the Long Waterhole, it does take big rigs and phone service is available and dogs are allowed. The other option is a farm stay about 15km West of Winton but they only have 4 powered sites.

Above is the Winton caravan park; plenty of dust here.

Winton boasts a population of approximately 1000 and is part of the dinosaur trail as it has the most concentrated areas of dinosaur finds. If you are keen enough you can trip out to Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackway where they do have the world’s only recorded evidence of a dinosaur stampede; the drive is 110km from Winton so you will need to be keen on the subject.

More to the things I like – PUBS; there is what is known as the “Greatest Outback Queensland Pubs” (30 in total) and Winton has 3 of them. These are North Gregory Hotel, Winton Hotel and Tattersalls Hotel; above is one of many unique parts of the hotel walls, they all are adorned with all types of memorabilia.

Above is the old dining room at the Tattersalls Hotel; this is small and cosy, there is plenty of other eating areas in and outside the pub and the food at all the hotels is very good.

Above is what is known as Arno’s Wall; this is an architectural marvel (or disaster) either way it is very unique, it stands 2m tall and runs a total of 10m and it has every sort of object built into the concrete. As you can see it has everything from motor bikes, hub caps, sinks and dunny’s; very interesting to look at but it makes you wonder about the mental capacity of the builder who maybe has the IQ of a Wombat (my apologies to the Wombat's).

Above is another free attraction at Winton; yes it is true and yes you can play a tune on it; one section is tensioned between 2 timber posts and in tune should you be musical inclined. There is a bin close by with various sticks and metal objects that can be used to play the fence.

With me not being that good on the strings close by was a drum set; I bashed the shit out of these whilst Lin struck up a tune on the fence. It’s a good job this attraction is nowhere near any residential properties.

We found Banjo Paterson situated outside The Waltzing Matilda Centre; this is the only museum in the world dedicated to a song. This is a great place to visit and you can purchase a ticket for here and it also gives you access to other paid town attractions as a package.

All in all Winton was great for a visit and if you wanted to take in all the sites at a relaxed pace it would be best to allow 4 days to a week.

Will try to be a little more regular once we leave Tweed Heads which will be 12th October; the only firm commitment we have is from the 14^th December 2009 to the end of Jan 2010 we will be at Scarborough in Brisbane for the Christmas period.

As always we wish you all well and hope you stay safe.

Will post again soon

Regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Ilfracombe - Longreach July 09

2009-09-03T21:08:00.001+10:00

We decided to stay at Ilfracombe rather than going on to Longreach; we had been told by several other travellers that if we were heading west stay at the Ilfracombe park based on their experience and we are so glad we did. Longreach is further west by 27km so it is no big deal in getting to the tourist attractions but my recommendation would be to stay at this family owned park, not just for the great rates ($22 per night during our stay) but for the whole atmosphere of the place, friendliness, and great entertainment late afternoon and evening. The park facilities were spotless and a pleasure to use.

Jesse & Cathryn are the owners and involve themselves in every happy hour; fantastic humorous bush poetry and yarns by Jesse makes the place so welcoming and the family hospitality shown by Cath and the kids tops it off. We also met up with Dennis & Shirley at the park (along with many others), they were great long time friends of Jesse & Cathryn and were helping out on there travels as they often do; in all we had a great time and would stay for longer on our next visit.

The town has a population (according to my research) of approximately 300; if I have got it wrong my apologies to the more knowledgeable, apologies also for any names spelled incorrectly.

Above shows part of the park and our location, the grounds are a typical “welcome to the west” environment; this for us was well received as it was the first slab site we had been on since Gayndah.

Happy hour in the shed; this shot was taken late afternoon (based on my normal bedtime) but it kicked on well into the early evening with heaps of fun for all.

The pub above sits proudly on the main highway through to Longreach and my understanding is the whole area was originally the Wellshot Station property; the beer was cold and the hospitality was great.

Ilfracombe boasts several points of interest all of which are free but it is appreciated if a gold coin donation is made to assist in the maintenance and upkeep of some of the displays. The above is what is called the “Machinery Mile” which displays along the main highway some of the oldest and most extensive equipment displays. Most have been donated and moved to site at no charge to maintain the history of the region.

Above is the “Hiltons Bottles” display; the photo does not really do justice as this would be only 5% of the total collection; there is also a lot of other memorabilia to look at and on entering the gate a small steel container is there if you wish to donate to the upkeep and cleaning of the bottles.

There is a lot of other historical places and must do’s in Ilfracombe (Langenbaker House, Romani Hall, Wellshot Centre, Memorial Park etc) and we would certainly go back for another bash, by the way the cafe and store on the highway is well worth the stop for coffee and food (full on espressos,cappuccinos etc).

Summarising this is a great place to stay for a few days or longer (we would have loved a week or so); the park, staff and management are first class and you would need your head read if you bypass this for Longreach, ring ahead to book as you could be disappointed in just rolling up as the park is well patronised.

ON TO LONGREACH

Headed in to Longreach for the day to take in some of the sights; the town is quite substantial in services and has a population of around 4000, plenty of pups along with an IGA and a Crazy Clarks for those that have the “$2 items” withdrawal syndrome. We only did the one main tourist venture and we (Linda) decided on the “Hall of Fame”; my choice would have been Qantas but thats for the next trip when we roll back in from Townsville.

You know what they say about a woman being a perfect height (somewhere to place your stubbie etc) well Linda is just at that right height for the “Ringer” which stands just outside the Hall of Fame. Not sure what she found behind his leg but he seemed to have a smile on his dial.

The sign is just in front of the ringer.

One of the exhibits inside the hall of fame; it is a great place to visit but it is fairly dark inside and there is a lot of reading involved. In talking to other visitors it seems to be divided opinions on this tourist venue and Qantas in “bang for your buck”. Entry into the hall of fame is $22.50 each and for an extra $5 each includes a 1 hour show with cattle dogs (highly recommended). Not sure what the Qantas venue was charging but I believe it was a similar amount.

Will post again soon. Regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig.

Alpha, Jericho & Barcaldine - July 09

2009-07-22T20:13:00.001+10:00

We have not stayed overnight at all the places we have visited but we have stopped to take in the small townships and have thoroughly enjoyed some of the local history and atmosphere.

Alpha is a small town which boasts a population of approximately 360 so no K-Mart, Coles or Woolies (most likely to the towns pleasure) but it does have the usual pub, general store and servo etc. Friends of ours (Barry & Anne) did stay overnight at the local caravan park and did make favourable comments so it sounds a good place for an overnight or more stop.

Alpha is known for the murals which decorate some of the private and public buildings which depicts the area;s history, all of these were painted by local and ex local artists.

Above is on the local butcher & deli business.

The above is painted on the still used railway station.

Our next stop was Jericho (just passed through) which has half the population of Alpha (180) so once again very hard to find a Golden Arches or Hungry Jacks here. Yes we all know the biblical story on the battle of Jericho and the locals are quick to tell the story if you don’t know. The town certainly fits in with the story as it is built on the Jordon River, south of Lake Galilee.

The town has one of Australia's smallest drive-in theatres, it holds 36 cars and can accommodate about 40 walk in people who take to the double deck chair set up. The speakers that Lin has hold of are the old “window puller's” if you forget to take it out before driving off.

The deck chair set up is positioned both sides of the outdoor projection room; information is that the drive in runs every second Saturday. We looked for the popcorn machine but it must be BYO.

Above is the Jericho feature of the Crystal Trumpeters; the “Crystal Trumpeters” were constructed in memory of the story which involved the Israelites marched around the walls of Jericho for 6 days then blew their trumpets on the seventh day and watched the walls of the city collapse (a bit like “Ripley’s – Believe It Or Not”) sounds like a lot of puffing and blowing to me.

Our next stop was Barcaldine where we decided to stay for 3 nights; the reason behind this was it had a population of 1200, plenty of pubs and an IGA supermarket. No fast food chains here but someone in town recommended the local bakery pies; I am still looking for this bloke to punch him out as they were bloody awful after the first bite. Even “Her Indoors” gave it the arse so they must have been crook considering what I've seen Lin eat. STAY AWAY FROM THE PIES; whatever the meat is in them it cannot be found or purchased from any butchers shop I know.

There are some beautifull old pubs in the town which follow the heritage trail signs; they all provide information on how they came to being and the changes they went through.

The signage runs down the main street and outlines the history of the old town business that go back over a 100 years.

Above is the “Tree of Knowledge” (did not help me much) but it is now a town memorial; the tree was poisoned in 2006 and this monument was erected as a memorial to one of only seven nationally listed icons in Australia.

We stayed at the Barcaldine showgrounds; these were well kept and as always had plenty of room. The birds above are the Brolga which are quite large standing around the 1.2m mark; they were at the showgrounds every afternoon for a feed from any of the many caravaners. They were quite friendly and had in tow 2 babies (not shown); the babies are about the same height but have not yet got the red hood as on the adults. The birds were happy to take bread from your hand and would always pass it on to the youngsters before feeding themselves. They can be quite daunting to feed as they extend their wings fully as they come towards you and make a terrible hissing noise (a bit like Linda just before breaky).

Barcaldine like Alpha has plenty of murals painted by a diverse range of artists; the most famous is the mural in Oak Street by Darcy Doyle.

Well I still have Ilfracombe, Longreach, Winton and a few others to put together for the next post but thats for another day (not to far away).

Will post again soon.

Regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Sapphire - July 09

2009-07-12T15:12:00.001+10:00

Well we made it to Sapphire in a hope of making a fortune by finding that elusive large gem stone; not to be but we did have a great time looking and finding several smaller stones.

Sapphire has 3 caravan parks and a further 2 are at Rubyvale another 6km down the road; we stayed at the Blue Gem and we were pleased with the park, it amenities and the great social atmosphere of the owners and other campers. We originally booked for 3 nights but extended this to a week, the cost here is $20 p/n or $120 p/w so very good value. The park had activities on most days and in the early evening which made for a very enjoyable stay.

Above shows one area of the park; we are on the left about half way down. No slabs but good grass underfoot.

No, Linda has not shrunk; outside the park is a giant shovel, pick and sieve. The normal sized ones of these are used in abundance in this neck of the woods and it is very tough going. You can buy buckets of wash from the miners and wash and sift for your own stones; it was a heap of fun but can be expensive if you get the bug.

After the sift and washing the remaining stones are tipped onto hessian and the keen eye takes over looking for sapphire's; stories are that the miners keep all the big stuff found and the use the small stones to “salt” the buckets of (dirt) wash. They say it is like sideshow ally for kids; hand over your money and everyone gets a prize even though it maybe only 1 tenth of what you paid (roll-up, roll-up).

No chance of getting pissed at this RSL as it is only open 3 days a week on limited hours; there is a bottle shop and pub at Rubyvale. I was going to buy a carton til I saw the price, I decided to get the roast off lay-by instead.

Barry and Anne above were also hot on the trail of gems; they were a little luckier than us as they probably got 12% of their money back.

This is known as the “Thong Tree” just out of Rubyvale and is set amongst some of the hundreds of mining leases; the people who own and mine these are very wary of trespassers and whenever you see the white lease markers it pays to stay out.

A mechanical repairer in Sapphire; not sure how much work he gets mechanically or sexually but the sign says it all.

We are now at Ilfracombe but following this post I will finish and upload Alpha, Jericho and Barcaldine; Alpha & Jericho we passed through but both places have some great history and sights to see and photograph. We stayed at Barcaldine for 3 nights for the “heritage trail”.

We are moving from Ilfracombe tomorrow (13th July) on to Winton for 2 nights before we head to Boulia, we did the Longreach tour from here rather than stay in Longreach itself.

Will post again soon

Regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

On The Way To Boulia - Some Stops

2009-07-03T10:45:00.001+10:00

The day or so stops included Kilcoy, Kingaroy, Gayndah, Dululu and Emerald.

23rd June – After being at Hervey Bay we needed to get a window seal fixed in the van, we decided that before we took off out west we would head back to Sunland at Caboolture. We did not get away until 4.00pm on the 24th so we only made it a short distance before camping overnight.

We stayed at the Kilcoy showgrounds and there were plenty of other campers to keep us company; not bad value here at $8 per night which includes power & water to the van and good showers. The grounds are approximately 2km west of Kilcoy and are set about 1km off the main road so it is very quiet with little or no road noise.

The caretaker has a motorhome and enjoys a lonnnnnng chat; on the night we were in he was well involved in happy hour (or 8) and did not get chance to collect everyones camp fees till the morning. The only down side is the caretaker has a bloody big rottweiler (we called him Cujo) that barked off and on during the daylight hours but at night was completely quiet (best arriving late and leaving early).

Us parked at Kilcoy; the polo club had been at the grounds the weekend before so plenty of free horse shit if you wanted some, even if you didn’t it was glued to the bottom of your shoes (at no charge).

25th June – Next stop was at Kingaroy. Linda has a bad back so we are taking our time, no more sex on the front draw bar for us as the satellite dish tends to get in the way and can easily cause disc bruising.

Kingaroy showgrounds are only a 10 minute walk from town so shopping is easily accessed and the town has a Woolies, IGA etc; the grounds are flat with plenty of power boxes and water connections. The showers are good and the ground managers live on site; price here was $15 per night but well worth the money.

26th June – Arrived in Gayndah to the fruit box and picked up a 5kg bag of mandies for $5; these were straight off the tree and bloody good eating, just shows how much profit is in the supermarkets and no where near the quality of this local produce.

26th June – The caravan park we are staying at (Mandy Inn) is a little like the Lismore one and in the main has a lot of park owned small vans which are for the seasonal fruit pickers. The park is at the back of a Caltex service station; the amenities are only just and the park is full of back packers & fruit pickers, price is over the top considering the location and services available ($23 per night). I would suggest you give this place a miss unless you are very desperate (or stupid like us).

June 27th – Decided to stay at Dululu which is north of Monto about 30km before the Capricorn Hwy which takes you west; we arrived at around 1.00pm and already 8 vans were in place. This is a free stay rest area run by the progress association but if you want to plug in to power and get a key for the showers it costs $5 per night; yes it is only 5 bucks. They do have a maximum stay of 2 days but it is not enforced; great place to stop over and we had a great arvo session with the other campers who were in the main full time on the road travellers, one couple had been on the road full time for the last 7 years and had recently upgraded to their 3rd van.

28th June – The last stop we made was the Emerald showgrounds; we decided to stay for 3 nights just to take some time out from the day to day set up and relax for a few days. The grounds are good and very quiet; the amenities are okay with plenty of pressure and hot water, at only $15 per night it is good value.

The army arrived on one of the days for an overnight stop; they were in a separate part of the grounds which was fenced off. I was thinking of yelling out “Hello all you Dad’s Army Wankers” but visions of me being taken to Emerald base hospital and a team of surgeons toiling to remove a 5 inch mortar shell from my rear orifice made me keep my mouth shut.

We re off to Sapphire, Rubyvale and Anakie tomorrow (1st July) for a week of R & R and try our luck at gem fossicking; following that we will be off to Jericho, Longreach, Winton and then Boulia. We will post up the gem chipping trip when we move to Longreach.

Will post again soon.

Regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

On The Road (Finally) - Farewell Scarbourough

2009-06-22T09:06:00.001+10:00

Contrary to popular belief we have not spontaneously combusted and are alive and well; we apologise for the delay in getting the site moving again and thanks to those who have contacted us on when we will be back on air.

Closing off some work issues and Dad’s continuing illness has kept us stationary for several months at Scarborough but we have now decided to move on for a few months travel. We have stopped at Hervey Bay to catch up with our 3 granddaughters before we head off to Boulia (400km south of Mt Isa) for the mid July camel races. We will be stopping at several places on the way such as Cania Gorge, Rubyvale/Sapphire, Longreach, Winton and finally on to Boulia. From there we intend to catch up with friends at Mount Isa and then Julia Creek; all going well we will have a slow trip back to be in Brisbane by Christmas.

If you are ever staying in the Brisbane area or just passing through make sure you visit the Scarborough Holiday Village park; prices are very good and the park and amenities are first class. Other than the perimeter sites they are all drive through (marriage savers) so nice and easy access. The park also has several self contained cabins which accommodate up to 6 people.

Above is the recently opened park cafe (Cafe Deckchair) which is open Wednesday through Sunday, the cafe opens at 7.30am and does light breakfasts & lunches etc.

During our stay channel nine morning show did their weather crosses at the park; this was presented by Steve Jacobs (above) and sponsored by muffin break. Our van was used for some of the show; you will note in the background the bloody big muffin trying to get in (or out) of our van. It was a great morning with the caravan park owners & managers providing free coffee and a fantastic sausage sizzle at no charge.

The motley crew above were our (and will be your) hosts at the park; they are from L to R Peter, Pauline, Digger, Sarah, the little fella at front is Sarah and Digger’s son, Chase. Pauline & Sarah do most of the admin and general running of the park, Digger does most of the ground and park maintenance and Peter does….. Did I mention that Digger does the ground & park maintenance?

This was our last night at the park and we would like to thank Peter & Pauline for opening the cafe after hours as a function room to allow us all to meet for a farewell bash; with us being packed up and the weather not so good it helped us all enjoy a few drinks and nibbles. To all the new friends we made see you again soon; I know some of you will be back at Christmas.

The Scarborough Holiday Village which is located on Reef Point Esplanade can be contacted on (07) 3203 8864; Email: peter@scarboroughholidayvillage.com.au. They also have a web site so you can check out the park on line, the site address is www.scarboroughholidayvillage.com.au.

Above is our outlook from the Hervey Bay (Pialba) park we are currently at; Lin spotted the camels on a trek along the beach.

Will post again soon (now we are on the move).

Regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Scarborough Storms Nov 08 - The Morning After

2009-01-04T16:24:00.001+10:00

Firstly if you would rather not receive an email advising of the web site updates please let me know and I will remove you from the list (I don't want to be a nuisance).

These bloody storms seem to follow us but fortunately we had no lumps (hail) in this one; the damage done just 1km from the park was unreal but I will get on to that later in this post.

Firstly the park itself and the good and bad. Scarborough Holiday Village is situated at the harbour and is a prime location; it used to be similar to a lot of the older parks on the Redcliffe peninsular, very run down and full of permanent residents. This is not the case now as it was completely refurbished with new amenities, roadways and great drive-through sites. The drive through's are all but on the perimeter and have great easy access; the sites are long rather than wide so parking is either behind or in front of your van depending on how far you take the van through.

Good & Bad – nothing really bad at all, maybe it should be “would have liked” and in this area a pool would have been a plus, also the area for your annex or awning is grass only, the drive in tracks are concrete so the van levels okay but grass may put some off. I must say that the drainage on the sites is very good, even give all the rain we had once it stopped raining the sites were dry in no time flat.

The good is – great staff that run and look after the park and it makes for a very comfortable atmosphere, the amenities are first class and are always clean and they must be the biggest showers we have come across to date, the location is brilliant being at the harbour it is close to all the shopping facilities. The park is walking distance to Scarborough and local shopping, major shops are about a 5km run in the car; there is great walking and bike tracks (15km of them) and the scenery is very enjoyable. With the park having limited facilities it tends to keep families with kids at bay (Brian; you would love this as no constant itching).

Price – $30 per night or take advantage of the $150 per week (pay for 5; stay for 7). Our opinion is this is well worth a week or so stay and is one of the better parks we have been in. Pauline, Peter, Sarah and Digger are the managers; Phone: (07) 3203 8864 : Web: www.scarboroughholidayvillage.com.au.

Now the storm at Scarborough which cut a path of around 500m and certainly caused a lot of local damage; the photos we took were the morning after and shows the devastation done by the wind and rain. Fortunately it was not as bad at the caravan park although at one stage I thought our awning was going to be blown off; along with all the tie-downs we also found a new use for a snatch strap which I put over the full length of the awning following the predictions of severe winds (keep this in mind: 4 wheel drive recovery gear has multiple uses).

The other things that went through my mind during the height of the storm was how am I going to put in a third claim to APIA telling them that the new awning they replaced under insurance from Byron Bay is now floating in the ocean somewhere between Scarborough and Morton Island (not good thoughts).

Above is a sheet of roofing iron off the Scarborough hotel roof which travelled mid air for approximately 50m and bent around a tree 4m above ground level.

The Scarborough hotel in the above photo is in the background; the foreground is a council BBQ seating area; all that is left are the brick support pillars for the roof. The photo below shows the roof that was thrown about 20m on to the beach area.

The photo below is one of the section of the Scarborough hotel which at last call was still being refurbished.

Lin & I are not sure why we are an attraction for these storms; we certainly have been through our fair share of these things. We did ask a couple of travellers if they would like to join us on a few caravan tag along ventures to various place but they all seem to want to travel to locations in the opposite direction to us (not sure why???)

Apologies for the delay – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Hail @ Byron vs. The DavLin Rig (Sunland - Longreach)

2008-11-22T08:59:00.001+10:00

Before looking at the hail we came head to head with at Byron Bay I think it best I clarify a few points on our relationship with Sunland/Queensland Caravan Centre. This is being done following several discussions held with fellow travellers and as we all like to do check each others vans out, not as nosey parkers but more so to look at designs and van layouts, it is always good to pick up some new ideas. Caravan parks seem to be a better proposition for viewing vans and talking direct to the owners rather than caravan shows talking to a sales guy from a caravan manufacturer/supplier; the opinions you get from us the owners are or should be unbiased.

On our web site we are totally honest and provide comments and our opinion on parks we have been in along with what we think on the area concerned. I must emphasise OUR OPINION as this is what it is; all of us have an opinion and just because we provide ours yours may be totally different. You may thoroughly enjoy a park and township that in our opinion was pretty ordinary; this is your opinion and also warrants comment.

Our caravan was completed in July 07 after over 9 months of design considerations and the the standard build time. It was important to Linda & I to customise the van to some extent as we are looking at a long term adventure. During this time we got to know the team at Sunland quite well as we went through the wants and don’t wants and several design modifications. Sunland are very accommodating in most changes but unlike some other manufacturers Sunland will only make these changes as long as it does not affect the safety and towing dynamics of the van.

On completion all was well but we did have an electrical fault at the batteries and some minor problems with a stereo system, water pump and some air bubbles on our floor. The water pump was a pain as it was intermittent and hard to track down but this has now been resolved, the stereo was also replaced with a better unit (in our opinion), the battery system was replaced and the floor fixed. It was frustrating for both parties however Sunland were committed to fixing the problems and did so without confrontation and to our satisfaction.

Our first hail storm was at Bribie Island in November 07; APIA approved the repairs and we opted to get these fixed after our Christmas holidays. We booked our van well in advance with Sunland and the whole roof, hatches and some side panel were replaced and the van ready for us to collect 2 weeks later. The repairs which totalled $9800 were first class and done in quick time considering how busy they were.

In summary, we are not paid, sponsored or subsidised on our travels by Sunland / Queensland Caravan Centre. When we discuss our caravan and experiences with other travellers these are our thoughts and opinions, we do blow the Sunland trumpet as we are very pleased with our Longreach and the service we have received, however we do also discuss the problems we have had. We are pleased to show others and our home as we are very happy with our lot; we do this because we want to not because we have to.

Now onto the Byron Bay hail. The duration was 3 – 4 minutes with stones up to slightly larger than golf balls; it was probably not the size but the force and sharpness factor. In the van it sounded like canon fire.

Above is under the awning about 5 minutes after the storm; the wind and force was strong enough to bring the hail well inside the awning.

Above is the ground cover sometime later; the motorhome you see next to us (Terry’s) ended up with a severely damaged awning and all of the plastic covers on the roof were holed.

Above is our awning; we had 18 places where you could see daylight, the awning did not have holes the skin had been stretched which de-laminated the colour.

Above shows the main size of these stones; note the spikes which in the main caused most of the damage.

Above is one of the hatches in the bathroom, both suffered the same fate; you can see the split that opened up about 25mm. during the night half of this hatch blew off onto the grass; fortunately we had no further rain after the storm had passed through.

Fellow travellers now ask us which way we are heading and usually go the opposite way; seems we have a reputation of hail going where we go.

Hoping this is the last we see of hail although we are now getting belted with high winds and rain at Scarborough just north of Brisbane. The Scarborough hotel lost part of its roof and several windows 2 nights ago (20th) and there has been major damage to houses in the area, we are about 1km from where this happened. This story along with pictures will be in the next post.

Will post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Byron (Bloody Expensive) Bay - Oct 08

2008-11-13T16:57:00.001+10:00

We thought Nimbin was an eye opener but Byron takes first prize thus far for entertainment and life in general; if we did see any locals it would have been by pure accident as I am sure they stay well out of town given what goes on here.

Byron thrives on the tourist and backpacker fraternity and every day here is like a Saturday and/or Sunday; the streets are awash with people no matter what time or day you venture out.

Firstly lets get the normal stuff out the way. We stayed at the First Sun Holiday Park which is right in the heart of Byron Bay, 20mt walk and you are amongst it all. The photo below is taken from our site and shows the beach-front sites on the right; these are the best sites as on the other side of the cabins are where most of the overnight wicked type campers stay (zip bangers), zip the sliding door opening and bang the door closing.

Not cheap here at $37 per night but quite good and no need to use the car. Beach access is by way of 2 gates along the back of the vans you see; the good part is the park is fully fenced, secure and the beach gates are padlocked at 7.00pm.

The photo below is of Byron Bay from Cape Byron lighthouse; the views from here are nothing short of spectacular, it did not mater which way you turned the views were awesome.

As the sign says Cape Byron is the most easterly point in Australia; it is also the most windy so hang on to your hat. The photo was taken courtesy of a young couple on holiday; they were blown out to sea just after this shot but I was fortunate enough to grab the strap of the camera so we avoided a major loss of funds in a replacement (they were young and looked like good swimmers).

The track below is a climb you can make to Cape Byron; there are quite a few lunatics around that run up this and then do several push ups at the top. This is not for me and apparently not for the paramedics who seem to be kept quite busy taking them to the local hospital suffering cardiac arrest.

Byron Bay mmmmmmm Byron Bay. This little temple was on the beach about 2km from the caravan park; on one of Linda’s beach walks she spotted this gem complete with a little lady sitting cross legged wearing a green pointed hat and praying to the moon god, sun god, demy god or maybe just plain oh god.

The Balcony below is on of the must visit eating places in Byron; the side you see in the photo is where we sat, as it is on a corner the side running down the left hand side is the same but has couches where you can indulge in a 3 hour coffee if you wish. The food is very good (BLT for me and a Tapas for Lin); about $20 for this pair and they do have cocktails at $14 each (we both had water for free).

The photo below is taken from the beach and directly behind these characters is the Beach Hotel where all the Thursday through to Sunday entertainment comes from. The early hours start with this group affectionately known as “The Bongo Trio”, they are accompanied by slide guitar (might as well slide it as he couldn't play it) and Phil the flute player. As far as flute playing I could fart a better tune.

Now this may seem amusing seeing them humming, bongoing, smoking, drinking and scribbling peace signs on the footpath until you realise the whole concert is sponsored by Centerlink. Following the early start here the pub rolls into action around 9.30pm until 1.00am; to be expected on a weekend and accepted by most residents of Byron. It is only when the crew below believe they should not be out-done and kick off again at around 1.30am.

The pub revellers seem to think it is a great idea as there is nothing like a six pack and 2 kebabs to keep all entertained until 5.00am. If you do stay in the heart of Byron I would suggest the weekend evening meal should consist of 250ml scotch, 2 x Cerapax and a pair of ear plugs; waking up at lunch time is not so bad after all.

Had to take a picture of this little beauty that pulled in a few days before we left; not sure of the age but it certainly is a classic.

Whilst we were at Byron Bay our pride joy the The DavLin Rig (Sunland Caravan) was hit yet again by hail; this is the second time in 12 months and the next post will have all the details so stay tuned.

Will be posting again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Lismore & (Lets Have a Puff) Nimbin

2008-11-05T15:42:00.001+10:00

Moved out of Yamba and in to Lismore for a week away from the coast; this was a good location to travel without the van to Nimbin, The Channon, Nightcap National Park, Casino and other surrounding areas.

The Caravan parks in Lismore are not really for the tourist set as they are 90% plus permanent residents. The park we stayed at was Roadrunner which was about 5km out of town near the airport but well back from the main Bruxner highway so relatively quiet.

Our site as shown above was one of only 9 sites available for the tourist or overnight stopover; these are at least at one end of the park away from the permanent dwellings (approx 85). One section of the park the homes were quite good but in the main it was old vans converted with the addition of solid wall extensions. Park cost was $132 for the week; it does have a pool, is fairly quiet and the casual sites do have a good country outlook.

The amenities whilst in fairly good condition were a strange set up with the male and female blocks running off the same corridor; hard to explain but 2 male and 2 female facilities were located in a common hallway, on alternate days they opened one of each and closed the other. This has been the only park where Lin used the van shower for the entire stay after some bloke was supposedly checking the female door for security reasons.

On to the good stuff. Lismore does have all you need some very good shops and a main city block which is quite extensive. Plenty of pubs, clubs, eateries and the regular markets.

The picture above is of Lismore’s famous pie cart which is a permanent fixture in the main part of town and the pies are to die for; they have tables and chairs to eat in or you can take-away, my recommendation is sit down with a pie, peas, mash and gravy, knife and fork and a few dribble cloths (napkins). DO NOT MISS THESE PIES IF YOU ARE AROUND LISMORE; DISMISS AT YOUR OWN PERIL. YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.

Well lets move on to blissfully beautiful, off the planet, organically minded and totally spaced capital of NSW, if not Australia. Some of the characters we came across here are beyond belief; it was hard to comprehend how some of the locals could be in our opinion comatose but still move around, cross roads and be in the main oblivious to reality.

Good on em I say; as long as they do not make this lifestyle compulsory. Lin and I did have quite a few good hours in the town and it is somewhere that you should visit if you are nearby.

There are plenty of local artworks & crafts for purchase providing they are open when you want to buy, note below this joint opens at Noon; doors of business premises seem to open and close for siestas throughout the day, as they say “a puff a day keeps the customers away”.

We visited a small town called “The Channon” and the photo below is the view on our way in; this is the road into the Nightcap National park. The town for it’s size has a beautiful hotel (pub), well worth calling in for a quiet one.

Below are the “Nimbin Rocks”; this photo was taken on the way in to Nimbin.

On leaving Nimbin after a coffee, several home made biscuits and a few breaths of the townships fresh air they looked much more spectacular on the way out of town (don’t know why????).

We had a ball and please visit if you are near here; Nimbin does have a caravan park but I did not check it out. If anyone has stayed maybe add a comment to the comments section at the end of this post.

Will post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Yamba / Maclean - October 08

2008-10-12T13:03:00.001+10:00

We arrived at Yamba on Monday 6th October for a week to check out the local area; we stayed at Yamba Waters Holiday Park based on information we received when in Coffs Harbour; the information was good and the park is excellent.

Yamba does have a small shopping centre with a Bi-Lo and small Target; there are eateries, cafes a pub and clubs so no shortage of supplies.

Yamba Waters Holiday Park is a Big 4; although this was the second week of the NSW school holidays, however the park had plenty of sites available as it is mainly Queenslander’s that pack the park out. With the discount the park cost $215 for the week, not bad given the time of year.

All the sites are large and have no shortage of room; as you can see by the below photo plenty of shade in the warmer months is of great benefit. The park has 3 amenities blocks (Kept spotless), 2 laundries, 2 pools (in separate areas), a good playground for the kids, games room, indoor camp kitchen and very well kept free barbecues. Linda and I were very pleased with the park; it is located approximately 2km west of the Yamba township so it is an easy walk or bike by very good bike tracks. We did have a look at the Calypso park in town; it is just about on the beach but the sites are a little cramped. There is another park called the Blue Dolphin Resort which is a similar distance from town as Yamba Waters but they wanted $420 for a powered site for the week; Linda & I decided we were not paying that unless it included 3 meals a day, 2 cartons of grog and tickets to the movies.

Met up with one big happy family enjoying the same week we were in the park; their setup had one huge tent, one camper trailer and a pop-top caravan. They are all Lismorians which is where we are heading next so we will be catching up whilst we are in town (thanks guys for all your friendship during our stay at Yamba).

Below is a shot of the Yamba lighthouse.

Within a couple of hundred meters of the town Yamba is fortunate to have 2 deferent types of beach areas; the first shot below shows the beach at the breakwater giving an opportunity for body boarding and the like.

The second photo shows the beach on the inlet side of the breakwater giving calm waters for smaller kids and those that want to relax in calm water. Yamba does have many more beaches on offer but these 2 shown are very close to all the amenities in town.

Whilst in Yamba we drove to the “Scottish town in Australia”; Maclean, which sits approximately 20km west of Yamba and sits right on the Clarence River. This place is very nice indeed and house prices here are very good; it is only a small town but has all you would need. The photo below was taken in the middle of town at a small boat ramp onto the Clarence river.

All Macleans telephone/light poles are painted in different Scottish clan tartans; the town also has a Scottish information centre run by volunteers. Should you be mad enough the local butcher's still make and sell haggis and lorne sausages (no meat in these just horses hoofs, pigs ears and arseholes).

We drove up to the lookout and below shows the Pinnacle Rocks with the Clarence river in the background.

Below is a shot of the Maclean township as we drove down from the lookout (could certainly live here).

Linda fell in love with Maclean; she was so pleased to see they had a street which recognised the vertically challenged (wee Scott people and others).

Hope you are all well and will post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig.

Minnie Water/Wooli - Oct 08

2008-10-09T08:38:00.001+10:00

Rolled into Minnie Water on Friday 3rd October for a 3 night stay; Dad asked if we could check out a small town called Wooli and send some pictures to him, Dad wanted to see if the place had changed much in recent years.

In checking with some other travellers it was decided it would be better to stay at Minnie Water and visit Wooli for the day as it was only 15km from Minnie and supposedly Minnie would be the better place to stay (NOT SO).

If you do want to see Minnie Water and Wooli do yourself a favour and stay at Wooli as it has 2 van parks, a pub,a couple of shops, ATM and mobile service. Minnie Water has 1 van park (not the best), 1 shop and no mobile service.

The park at Minnie was $23 per night or $138 per week; the amenities are small and not the cleanest. The van park is really only for campers (tents, camper trailers etc) and has only half a dozen powered sites for vans, the rest of the park is permanent residents.

During our stay the park held a fish auction to raise money for the Minnie Water/Wooli surf life saving club; all the fish were donated and in the main were large snapper as shown above(3kg plus), this particular fish went for $30, a very good buy considering they normally sell in fish markets for $30 – $35 per kg.

During the auction several seafood trays were raffled off and Linda scored a good one; the tray had about 1kg of prawns, 1 dozen oysters and 4 bugs. Total investment by us was $10.

The above shot is the Minnie Water general store which sells a bit of everything; it also the local servo and take away. Prices her were quite high for food items (All Bran $9 a box) so if you do go into Minnie or Wooli for a few days best stocking up as the neares majors are at Grafton which is about 60km away.

The above is the Minnie Water SLC; reading the local paper tells how they have just approved $340’000 to build a proper building to house the club volunteers, you can just see the beach to the left.

Close up of the sign showing when the patrols operate.

The above is the Minnie Water community hall which sits opposite the shop and adjacent to the SLC; it was all locked during our stay but they do have some local club meetings here.

The sign shows the hire cost should you be interested in having a wedding for any of your family or maybe that special birthday or anniversary.

Above is the Wooli breakwater; Wooli sits between the open ocean and the clarence river so you get the best of both worlds.

The beaches here are really good but unless you like just beaches and fishing a week may be a bit long to stay. Of the caravan parks our pick would be Solitary Island Caravan Park at Wooli, from Wooli you can visit Minnie Water.

Post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Coffs Harbour - Sept/Oct 08

2008-10-08T16:26:00.001+10:00

Arrived at Coffs late September for a week stay and used the Park Beach Holiday Park; the week we were in was the 26th Sept to 3rd October which was end of the Qld 1st week school holidays and the start of the NSW first week so it was quite busy. This is a family park with plenty for kids to do (pool, games room etc, etc) and the location is very good being close to the beach and central shopping. The park has quite strict rules and regulations (no skateboard's, no scooters, no roller blades etc), all of which were never enforced, given it was school holidays the park management did not seem to worry about it.

Price was not too bad considering it was a school holiday period at $215.00 for the week after the normal Top Tourist discount.

Two major events were on in Coffs Harbour during the week we were in town, one being the Coffs Harbour Air Show on the Saturday & Sunday and the other was the International Buskers Week. The air show was $20 for either day but we took the free option as most of the planes took a flight-path over the caravan park; the buskers were a little different in being able to fleece anyone and everyone at most parks and street corners (they were good and worth the gold coin donations).

The busker above has a steel helmet on with a small frying pan and burner welded to the top; he set the thing on fire and tossed an egg in the air and caught and cooked it in the small pan. You cannot see it but he is standing on a balance board and also juggling a flaming torch, egg and knife at the same time.

Linda’s Birthday was on Wednesday (1st Oct) so as requested lunch was a seafood platter (for one as I hate the stuff); we went to the Coffs Harbour Deep Sea Fishing Club which has some spectacular views of the ocean and surrounding beaches. The only draw back on the day we went was the winds; but seafood for Lin, meat for Dave and champagne for us both made it a great day.

Yummy – best keeping your fingers clear whilst Linda is eating seafood; beautiful views of the back beach at Coffs.

Both of us a bit wind blown before heading in for lunch.

Will post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig.

Woolgoolga Beach - N.S.W. September 08

2008-09-24T15:52:00.001+10:00

We arrived at this beautiful spot on the 19th September for a week of sun and fun but it turned out to be quite windy. We had north east winds for part of the week followed by south west winds later in the week. We stayed at Woolgoolga Beach caravan park which is absolute beach front and is part of the Coffs Coast Parks; the other local park which is part of the same group is Woolgoolga Lakeside and this park is only a couple of hundred meters off the beach. Given the high winds the Lakeside park may have been a better option.

The park is good with very clean amenities; some of the park sites are slabs with others being grass so if you have a preference best specifying on booking. Price during our stay was $160 for the week (low season). Not much to do here but it is very relaxing; the town has a couple of pubs, bowling club, RSL and has 2 large supermarkets (Spa & IGA); the usual take-alway joints and a couple of restaurants are also in town.

Our site set back about 30m from the beach.

The view from the front of our van.

Woolgoolga lookout. The view is south to Coffs Harbour across Woolgoolga Back Beach (hang on to your hat).

Woolgoolga lookout. The view is looking north onto the main Woolgoolga Beach.

The lighthouse at the lookout; not that you can make it out but the windows of the lighthouse are only painted on for appearance sake.

This is the bloody hill we walked up to get to the lookout from the Woolgoolga township (should have took the car).

Linda’s herb garden; every time we park up this gets put out in the sun, water added and a few leaves munched off. Just in case you are wondering the plants are basil, parsley, mint and oregano; just thought I would clarify that for the dope smokers (their herbs not hooch).

Some baby ducks we had at the van site; they went down well with an infused orange sauce and a bottle of yellowtail chardonnay.

Wishing you all well and will post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Bundaberg & Bargara

2008-08-27T18:45:00.001+10:00

We had a great time at Bundaberg and Bargara; we went into Bundaberg to go on the rum distillery tour. It took about 1hr and ended up with a couple of tastes of the good stuff at the distillery tours bar.

The Bundy rum bottle at the old store at the sugar mill & distillery; Linda has a lot of growing to do.

Within the tour center there is a fantastic interactive walk around and several great displays; by pressing the various buttons below it gives you smells of the rum at various stages of the process. Some terrific aromas come out of here when the button is pressed; so good it is hard to go home.

Having a hooter this size does come in handy; cost almost nothing to get half pissed.

Bargara beach is not much sand but it is a very nice and quiet spot; Bargara has grown in size since I was last here and now has along with the IGA a new woolies store. It also has a few good fish and chip shops along with a pub and golf club; the normal cafe’s and eateries are all available locally.

The van park is quite big and has 2 amenities blocks; both are cleaned at different times and the facilities are very good. One of the blocks is more modern but a little smaller but whichever you went in they were clean and had plenty of hot water. Price at the time was $152 for the week so pretty good pricing for the facilities and location.

We ended up on a grass site owing to the majority of interstate visitors but we were pleased we did as it was a very social environment with plenty of “lets have a chat” people.

We met up with Jack & Yvonne who were heading back from further north to home in Hervey Bay; we had a few daily get togethers and afternoon teas. If you do get to see this Jack make sure you turn the telly off and make the tea when we finally catch up,

Post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Agnes Water & The Town Of 1770

2008-08-18T17:59:00.001+10:00

Agnes Water and 1770 are only about 6km’s apart and would have to be one of the best places to visit; we stayed at the Discovery Coast Caravan & Camping Park which is approximately 5km before getting to Agnes Water.

The park is set on a 40 acre property and is very much like a bush retreat or farm stay; most of the sites are slabs and have power & water. Next time through here we would stay at this park or the 1770 camping grounds and would stay for a week or longer.

TV is non existent unless you have a satellite dish; the park is very roomy and behind all the back row sites were you had your own open fireplace/BBQ. Getting on with the neighbors was easy as fires were going every night. Showers were timed at 4 minutes but they were full bore and very good; no problems getting showered in time. Price was $22 per night and not sure if they had a discounted weekly rate as we did not stay a full week to find out (I probably should have asked). Either way we would stay here again.

Above is a photo at 1770 and below is the memorial built telling of how the town got it’s name (the date it was discovered).

Below are the words on a book-stand at the side of the monument.

One of the many lookouts along a walking trail at the heads of 1770.

Above is a nice quiet inlet that with care could be accessed down some non official walking tracks; we did spot some people walking on the cliff edge shown.

On another part of the walking track we came across some people rock fishing (below); again getting down to this area could be a little dangerous given the way to it is by another scrambled track made by the fishing fraternity.

Post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Boyne Island

2008-08-18T17:10:00.001+10:00

The caravan park here is situated approximately 20km out of Gladstone and is before you get to Tannum Sands; the park is in a great location being situated on the Boyne river. It is very quiet and within 1km is a bowls club and golf course (no club facilities, meals bar etc) and I was told the golf course is public and very cheap. The park was very busy being the winter season for lots of interstate groups who have been coming to the same location for many years.

Roadways and sites were well kept with rubbish bins at each slab; during our stay the weather was good (warm days, cool nights) and we were not bothered by midges if there were any.

Sites were very roomy and car parking could be either at the side or at the front of the van.

The amenities do need a little TLC as you will see by the photo below; the divider wall between showers was almost knee height and you could hold a face to face conversation with the next door neighbor. The shower roses were the water saving type but these ones seem to save quite a lot of water as only about 3 of the 20 jets worked; maybe an over exaggeration but it was a battle to find a good one.

There is another park at Tannum Sands and we did have a look during our stay at the Boyne park; if we were to visit the same area again we would stay at the Tannum park. Prices for the week were about the same ($160) but the Tannum Park as far as facilities goes seemed to be much better.

Post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Gladstone Show - August 6th 2008

2008-08-18T16:37:00.001+10:00

We were in Gladstone for the show which took place on Wednesday the 6th of August; it was really something to behold and certainly rivaled the Brisbane Exhibition (not). The show consisted of sideshow ally (bust the balloons, knock over the cans, shoot the ducks etc) and food stalls. The show did have a few rides that had obviously dodged the scrutiny of workplace health and safety.

The food stalls were a gourmet dinners delight with 4 times cooked dagwood dogs, 5 day old re-heated doughnuts and a pasta van with what looked like a meat sauce topped with cheese.

Linda had a ride on the camels; the one at the back kept trying to overtake the one Lin was on and tended to dribble a lot, the one in front of Lin (not in the shot) was aptly named coke (based on it’s drinking not sniffing habit).

I was not quite sure what smelt worse, the owner or the camels.

Linda took a photo of me next to the rig below; I am not sure if it was going to do any stunts on the day but I never saw it move while we were there.

The entry cost for this one day event was $10 each; someone told us that on previous years it ran for 3 days, the organisers opted to change this to one day as the patronage over 3 days was not worth it (3 days!!!). Linda and I spent 2 hours at the show and walked round twice just to make sure we did not miss anything.

All in all it was not too bad and worth going if you are in town but don’t make a special trip.

Will post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig.

Gladstone - Barney Beach

2008-08-03T18:54:00.002+10:00

Barney Beach caravan park is very good and is centrally located to all the main areas of Gladstone; just after we arrived it was just becoming a big 4 member. The park is very secure being fully fenced with keyed gates and amenities. You would have to give this park 10 out of 10 for the camp kitchen and amenities which are kept absolutely spotless, this so far would have to be the cleanest to date. The park has had the same owners (by generation) for the entire parks existence. The staff are first class and escort you to the site and get you on as a matter of course.

If you do stay make sure you take the mystery tour (short walk involved) which give some good information on Gladstone and Barney Beach. The cost is $5 per person and finishes with a free coffee, port and chocolate (yep, only 5 bucks), well worth it and it is good fun.

Now the bad bits.

The park has quite a number of trees which are an attraction to bats and parrot type birds; the photo below shows one van that is totally covered with a blue tarp and the top of this shows the amount of mess created by the trees wildlife. The van in the background is where we located for 2 days; the first day we asked to be moved but had to wait another day before another site became available. The park again is in a residential are so dogs let loose now and again; one other downside is if you are at the top end of the park the rail line is close by and can be a little noisy with train shunting throughout the night. If you do intend staying make sure you specify not to be under the fig or mango trees.

Below is a shot of QAL; the view is only a 100m walk from the park and the outlook to sea is very nice.

Will post again soon. David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Hervey Bay - Point Vernon

2008-08-03T16:38:00.002+10:00

Hervey Bay does seem to have a certain attraction, the Granddaughters seem to be the main one but on heading north it seems a natural place to stay. We only stayed for 3 nights at at the big 4 park at Point Vernon. The park is quite small with permanents at one end; the roads are narrow and the sites are a little cramped. The park is is surrounded by residential estates so the odd barking dog is to be expected. There are a few local small shops but in the main the park is nowhere near anything walkable; you pretty much need to drive to pubs, clubs, supermarkets & eating areas.

The park owners/management are very friendly and committed to helping wherever possible; assistance with backing in is done on all arrivals without asking. The amenities are clean and bins are provided at each site. Given the parks location the price in our opinion was a little high but this time of year is whale watching season and there are plenty of southerners to fill the sites available.

Nanny and Poppy with the girls; still trying to get the footprints; cordial stains and ice cream spills off the bedspreads and seats in the van (only kidding).

Post again soon – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Free Camp - Granite Creek

2008-08-03T16:17:00.002+10:00

Granite Creek is 63km north of Gin Gin and although is advertised in camps 4 as a 20 hour stopover it is actually signed at the location as being for a maximum stay of 48 hours. It does have toilets and drinking water. It is only about 100m off the highway but surprisingly quiet after several beers and a set of ear plugs (not that bad).

On the day we stayed (28th July 08) it had about 10 campers in through the afternoon with seven of these staying overnight. All that seem to stay at these overnight free stops are very sociable and this even crosses between the motorhome and caravan syndrome (all get on well).

I would suggest we picked a bad day for free camping with the south westerly winds making it very cold come late afternoon; we could have fired the generator up but opted for a heat bead fire which was warm but the sparks landing on your feet was a little annoying. Linda did have a smile on her face as below but it was soon removed as the winds got worse and numbness set in.

The next morning the winds were no better nor was the temperature; on my way to the toilet the wind and cold was so bad I had no need to shave, the hairs on my face were all frozen so a quick rub removed the lot (Gillette & Schick have nothing on this type of shave).

Sanity may prevent free camps such as this in the worst period of winter.

Post again soon -David & Linda – The DavLin Rig.

Standown Park - Our Second Visit

2008-07-23T17:10:00.001+10:00

After our free night in Gympie it was great to get back to Standown Park on Tuesday 22nd July; we arrived at around 10.00am as the free camp was only an hour away. It was good to get back onto familiar territory and set up for 3 nights.

Neil & June arrived mid afternoon and set up and it was good fun talking about some of the places they had been up north and catching up on other news on friends & family.

The first night was a beauty with 3 large and 1 small camp oven with stews/casseroles in the and one huge camp oven with 3 large dampers. The stews were all finished off with dumplings and washed down with beer and whatever else you could get your hands on. All the cooking was done by the owners of the park Rod & Pam.

Following dinner a singer/guitarist played on singing some great country music; it started to get a little late for me (gone 8.30pm) and it was also getting quite cool so we headed back to the van.

The photos of this visit are below; and I must say if you are ever this way it is definitely worth a stay. Most book for a couple of days and end up staying a couple of weeks; price is $18 per night for 2 or $15 if you are a veteran.

As I am writing this it is 5.00pm on Wednesday; it has been very cold today and has been raining since around midnight. The weather is supposed to be clearing tomorrow; lets hope so as we move to Hervey Bay Friday to see the granddaughters for a few days and then on to Gladstone to meet up with friends for a week.

Post again soon. David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Blackbutt - Alan & Janets Homestead

2008-07-23T16:19:00.001+10:00

Finished off 4 weeks work and we were staying at Aspley during this period; given it was a suburb of Brisbane city I decided not to blog during this period. Following this we stayed 4 nights at Bribie whilst some work was carried out on the car and a couple of mods done to the van.

As Dad is still not well we will still only be able to travel to locations where we can get back if needed within a few days so we are trying to get a little further North to some warmer weather.

Alan & Janet invited to stay for a few nights before we moved off; they have a property at Blackbutt and given there was heaps of room available we decided to stay for a few days. It was good to catch up and have a couple of beers with Alan and Linda was in her element making cards and decorating tins with Janet. Below are photos of where we parked for the stay; this was when we were just about to take off, Alan and Janet are shown on the front veranda of their beautiful country home. Alan & Janet are now both aware that the air conditioner is reverse cycle (private joke). Thanks a heap to both of you for your hospitality and friendship.

After leaving Blackbutt we decided to meet up with Neil & June who were on the way back from up north; what better place than Standown Park where we had such a good time the previous occasion.

We did decide to try a free park for one night on the way just to see what this was like and how many travelers use these types of free stops. We stayed at “Six Mile Creek Rest Area” which is 6km south of Gympie on the western side of the Bruce Highway. When we arrived (around 2.30pm) the place was already filling up and any latter we would have struggled to find a good site. The area is maintained by main roads and has toilets, fresh water and pergola style seating and tables, it is set back approximately 200m from the highway and surprisingly fairly quiet given the expected highway traffic. We ran into several couples traveling around; one couple in particular had been on the road for 8 years and had never stayed at a caravan park, only free sites.

It is okay as far as we are concerned for one or 2 nights a week but having to be very conscious of water usage from our water tanks is not our cup of tea on a permanent basis. Linda called her shower a sparrow bath, with turn on, wet down, turn off, soap up, turn on and rinse off; this all done to try and only use say 10lt of water. Below is a photo of all the vans and motor homes at six mile creek towards the end of the day, we are the car facing you on the left of the photo.

Post again soon. David & Linda – The DavLinRig

Tweed Heads - May 08

2008-06-03T12:40:00.001+10:00

With Dad being ill we spent up until the 1st of June (almost 3 weeks) at Tweed Heads; the first couple of weeks the weather was beautiful winter days and cool nights but the last week turned into pouring rain and very high winds which made life a little uncomfortable. We have now moved to Chinderah / Kingscliff; this would have had to be one of the most tiring drives as it was a grueling 6km distance (yep 6, I repeat 6km’s); needless to say the weather was just as bad. It has abated to showers off and on currently so maybe some cleaner weather coming up. At least we faired better than most traveling the east coast of Queensland with floods and road closures.

Boyds Bay Tourist Park is council owned and is part of the Tweed Tourist Park group, it is quite large and has 4 amenities blocks with different cleaning times allocated to each block; this is fine provided the times are correct but is was not always the case. The facilities were good with plenty of hot water and were clean & tidy; there were no paper hand towels or a hand dryer although hand soap was supplied. Some of the sites close to the river easily accommodate large vans but you need to book well in advance for these as the southerners turn up for the “Winter Sun” rock and roll festival and the bowling. Price was reasonable at $164 a week but it does go up to $189 from the 1st June (shoulder/winter period). Our site is shown below along with the parks own boat ramp into the Tweed river.

We are quickly learning that the free and easy life style is never free and on occasions not so easy; having to park on some sites under trees does take its toll and you soon learn that tree sap, leaves and seeds, bird shit and bat crap has to be cleaned off the van. Whilst the roof takes the brunt of it the whole van needs a good wash at least every 3 months and even more regular if you have the time.

The cleaning by me (Feral Dave) is shown below; the picture is taken by (Lovely Locks Lin) who is hoping to get a better shot of me falling off the roof rack (not to be).

We met up with another couple in the park (Malcolm & Maureen) shown below; they are there until the end of July and maybe then tripping up to Gladstone following the Tweed stay. Maureen was into craft (kept Lin busy) and also liked the Bingo; Linda won a bottle of wine in the raffle which was worth the $2 it cost her to play.

Will post up Kingscliff and Chinderah over the next couple of weeks; we will be in Brisbane from the 14th June to 6th July (3 weeks) so we hope to catch up with a few of you then. Not sure yet where we will go from Brisbane we will most likely play it by ear depending on how Dad (Ralph) is.

Love and Regards – David & Linda; The DavLin Rig

Pialba 08 - Beachfront Sites (No Roads to Cross)

2008-05-16T20:00:00.001+10:00

Pialba Beach front Tourist Park would have to be the place to be if you truly want “Beachfront”; this is a council park (one of 3 in Hervey Bay) and is quite large, good amenities and in the main is very quiet. One word of warning is to lock up your gear as it does attract some undesirable’s that come in off the beach. Our site is as below and shows the great location.

During our stay we remained unaffected but on 2 Saturday nights some lost fishing rods and the like that were left outside vans so lock up and it will save you some dollars and stress.

Also be aware that at times the winds can be quite annoying and can last for a period of weeks if the easterly or westerly winds blow in.

We met up with some happy travelers; Malcolm & Nyrell (right) were on holidays with Malcolms sister Lynn and hubby Peter who are permanently on the road. We were offered a few games of “Bochie”, not sure if the spelling is correct but it is tossing big balls at a little ball (seems familiar as I remember something about tossing and balls as a kid). We did win one game but Linda & I seem to have forgot how many we lost.

With Dad’s health not being good we are now down at Tweed Heads which is quite along way from how far north we intended to be; stops on the way down were Maroochydore and Miami.

Look forward to posting again soon

Regards – David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Standown Park - Hospitality at it's Best

2008-04-27T09:42:00.003+10:00

Standown Park lies between Gympie and Tin Can Bay on the Tin Can Bay Road approximately 28km north east of Gympie. The park is well maintained and pretty much is for the senior travelers and does not cater for children. Standown Park is an original farm in the are which now has 28 sites all equipped with power and beautiful pressurised spring water. The sites are large and the grounds are kept in first class condition; the amenities are very good but could struggle at peak times, there is handicapped facilities and a laundry, apart from the magazines some DVD’s are available for loan on a please return when finished basis. Price for the stay was a very acceptable $15 per couple per night and the park would suit from one night to many weeks as it is a place you could certainly call home.

Apart from the peaceful surroundings what makes the park a place to come back to is the genuine hospitality and community atmosphere. Just about everyone meets in the camp kitchen / BBQ area at around 10.00 (or thereabouts) for a chat and morning tea; around 4.30 (or thereabouts) for happy hour at a large open fireplace which goes on for as long as you want to stay, you will note there are a lot of "therabouts" as it can start whenever and finish whenever (relax & enjoy). Everyone gets together on Sunday morning (BYO bacon etc) for a BBQ breaky; our hosts were Rex & Liz who did a fantastic job of making everyone feel like part of the family. Our stay coincided with Anzac day and it was good to see a small service taking place and the Anzac’s remembered; all that were in the park attended the service.

As we all know the Hobbit population is dwindling so Linda ventured into the long grass (where they are known to hide) and low and behold she found another Hobbit friend (Neil). Linda continued to search but without any further success; seems like there was only one to be found.

Both Linda & I would recommend Standown Park for a visit based on the great time we had; surrounding Gympie, Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach can all be reached within 30 minutes.

Look forward to posting again soon.

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Woodgate Beach - Shhhhhhhhh; Quiet Please

2008-04-22T10:56:00.001+10:00

The township of Woodgate is approximately 40km due east of Childers and is untouched by the likes of Woolies, McDonalds, Bunnings and the likes. The town has a general store, mini market, bakery (of sorts), post office, bowling club and a pub; if you are here for over a week put your lotto on before coming or you will need to drive to Childers to do so. The caravan park is called Barkala and is quite large and very pleasant. Most sites have slabs and in the main quite level; the van sites are boxed in with blue metal to ensure the van is automatically level on parking, some of the sites are quite big so letting them know van size ensures you get something that suits. The amenities are very clean and well maintained and they are all in the center of the park. The park has a small store and cafe dishing out breakfasts and light meals throughout the day. Below shows the front of the park and the site we were on.

The local wildlife consists of kookaburra's, kangaroos and flies, flies and more f*%!ing flies especially around meal times, the flies are that used to humans they even bring their own knife and fork.

The stretch of beach which is directly across from the park runs for 16km and is most spectacular; this along with the fishing makes the trip and stay worth while. it is very peaceful and if you are looking for nothing to do you have come to the right place. Below shows half the beach looking south to Burrum Heads; the other gives you an idea of the town showing the main street looking south also, as said earlier the park is just across this road.

Fish for breakfast; not likely as we arrived just after the school holidays so my excuse is that the little buggers had fished it out. Never caught a thing but did suffer with a little sunburn and chapped lips; not to worry nivea cream, lip balm, coffee and toast will fix most of the problems.

Heading from here to Standown Park soon to meet up with Neil & June and Greg & Wendy (other caravaning mates).

Will post again soon; until then hope you all keep well

Warm regards

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

Magnificent Maryborough - April 08

2008-04-04T15:56:00.001+10:00

Pulled into the Wallace Caravan Park which is just located on the Hervey Bay side of the Mary River. The park has very large drive through sites and once set up there is plenty of room. The amenities were very clean and the park is fairly quiet. We were paying $138 per week and given the facilities it was a fair price to pay (pool, BBQ's & Lge Camp Kitchen)

There is a fully preserved general store (Brennan & Geraghty’s) which is the largest of only 3 left in the world today; the store began trading in 1871 to 1972 and after closing down was purchased by the National Trust with all of the stock. This is as the store stands today with all the original items in place.

The old Banyan Fig in Queens Park is said to have been first recorded in 1889; the tree now requires special attention and is propped at several of the larger limbs.

Maryborough is also home to Pamela Lyndon Travers who was the author of the fictional Nanny, Mary Poppins; apparently Mary Poppins was a little taller than Nanny Stevens.

As you can see I had no trouble finding some mates to chat to; several schooners and we were getting on like a house on fire.

Will post again soon

Regards – David & Linda

The Davlin Rig

Bribie Island - Hard to Take.

2008-02-20T20:16:00.001+10:00

Almost away from the hustle and bustle of Brisbane only approximately 1 hour north; cross the bridge and you are in a great close to Brisbane holiday place.

Bribie has a choice of calm and surf as the bridge crossing gives you the inlet side and the far point gives you the surf side.

Three caravan parks are on show and our experience at the Bongaree Caravan Park (Welsby Pde) was most enjoyable; overlooking the calm side waters with good security and lighting and well maintained amenities. The park has no pool or other over the top not required items for regular travelers. The park is located next to the bowls club (50m) which offers great bistro and coffee shop meals.

The price for us staying for 6 weeks including Easter was $132 per week and in our opinion was without doubt the best value for the location and park facilities (Les will help out with van parking if required).

Great place, great park, and without doubt great value and location.

David & Linda

The DavLin Rig

Van Repaired And Ready To Go

2008-02-06T16:57:00.001+10:00

No pictures as nothing really to show; from hail damage we got at Bribie APIA cleared the claim for the van to be repaired. APIA could not been better in their assessment and approval of the claim; we held back on the repairs owing to our Christmas holiday, with the damage being only superficial it could wait.

The repairs were done at Sunland Caravans which is where we purchased the van and all went well and to a set time line which was vitally important given our future plans.

We did require a few modifications undertaken while the van was with them which were all completed to our satisfaction.

We did have some issues with the DVD/Radio/CD player and our Dometic fridge (the fridge only turned out to be a fuse problem). As with all builds some minor problems may evaluate over time; with Sunland offering a 3 year warranty it adds to peace of mind in being able to get these things rectified.

Sunland could not be more helpful in getting the CD unit replaced and Dometic involved to track the fault with the fridge.

I would like to thank Richard and Roy at Sunland for the modifications, repairs and getting the radio and fridge problems sorted. Thanks also to all the crew working with Richard and to the guys in sales (John especially)

David & Linda Stevens

The DavLin Rig

Hope to be posting again soon.

Christmas 2007 (Wet, Wet, Wet)

2008-01-04T17:59:00.001+10:00

Not the best of holidays thus far; we spent the first week at Maroochy Palms Caravan Park at Maroochydore (22nd to 29th Dec) and had at least 3 days of rain. At least we were able to do a few walks and scenic bike rides; once the rain set in with scuds off and on it was pretty hard to do much in the great outdoors.

The worst was yet to come when we moved to Tewantin; the weather turned quite bad with 2 lows and expected cyclones. The cyclones never eventuated but the lows gave us some very high winds (90km/hr) and bucket loads of rain.

This being the 4th Jan we still have a week to go; the lows have passed and the prediction for clearer skies is encouraging so we are hopeful of a better week ahead.

The photos are of Alex beach which as you can see is empty of the usual influx of holiday makers; over past years it is hard to find some spare beach space. The other photos are of Lin and I at Mt Tinbeerwah with brollies in hand; normaly you would have fantastic views over Noosa and surounds but all we had was mist and rain.

Post again soon

David & Linda
The DavLin Rig

Where There's Smoke There's !!!

2007-08-26T15:46:00.001+10:00

Hervey Bay & Alexandra Headlands August 10th – 27th 2007

Yep; you guessed it. Our trip to Hervey Bay was not all plain sailing owing to a short in the boot of the van at the battery terminals. It seems some wiring on the positive side rubbed through on the negative terminal on the dual battery system.

Fortunately this occurred just as we arrived and started setting up; any other time and it could have been a lot worse. At least I became very familiar on the workings of a small but very useful fire extinguisher.

Sunland organised an electrician for us and we were fully operational within a couple of hours; Sunland then followed this up by driving from Brisbane to Hervey Bay to replace the damaged battery and re-wire back to the junction box.

On to the good stuff and the time we had at Hervey Bay; we happened to be in town for the official start of the whale watching season which kicked of with a street parade and fireworks on the Saturday evening.

On Sunday there was a wine tasting with jazz bands followed by the “Blessing of the Fleet” this involves all of the whale watching vessels coming into the harbour one by one and being blessed for the whale watching season; quite an emotional event especially after several reds.

Hervey Bay is a very nice are with beautiful beaches; it has many eateries and pubs on the esplanade but if you are not into this there are plenty quiet areas and beaches to read and unwind; Linda and I are certainly looking forward to a longer stay when next we visit the area.

We did do a whale watching trip on Wednesday 15th; it was aboard a boat called “Whalesong” and I must admit it was a great trip; not only did we get to see the wales close up but a rare event happened where the wales actually stay with the boat. It is called “Mugging” and the skipper is not allowed to depart until the wales leave otherwise they may get injured. We did get away about 90 minutes late but the pictures and the sunset on the return trip was spectacular.

If you are in Hervey Bay during the season it is highly recommended and the boat we went on was first class in presentation and service. The Whalesong web site is HERE ; there is a choice of a morning trip (breakfast and morning tea supplied) or a lunchtime trip (lunch and afternoon tea supplied), the boat is also fully licensed.

Our trip back down the coast to Alex was uneventful (thankfully); we arrived on Friday afternoon (17th) and the storms and 100km per hour winds arrived on Monday afternoon. Not a good end to the 2 week break as we were van bound for almost 4 days. We had to drop the awning as we were concerned the winds may cause damage; glad we did do so before the storms arrived as a few people in the van park got caught short and had to make 2.00am dashes to get the awnings down. The van did suffer a leak in the boot but non internally; the van is due in for its 1000km service on Monday 27th so Sunland will be making some repairs and doing some minor fixes during that week.

All in all we survived this trip but not without what seems like a common saying with me “it’s a bloody nightmare”; an over exaggeration on my part and Linda keeps reminding me by saying “stop being such a drama queen”.

Well we have had the wind; fire and rain so lets hope we have a bit better run next time; we look to be doing a 2 nighter in October and then we have 3 weeks planned over Christmas (Maroochydore and Noosa – Tewantin) so will post up after the first of these. In the meantime more photos of Hervey Bay and the Alex trip can be found by clicking HERE

Look forward to posting again soon

David & Linda – The DavLin Rig

The First Trip - Caloundra

2007-08-01T08:59:00.001+10:00

Well we had to start somewhere and what better place than Caloundra for the Davlin Rig’s maiden voyage.

Once set up the couple of days we had were very relaxing and it gave us the oportunity to test all the equipment; given we were not to far from home if anything was wrong it was no major drama but I must say all of the appliances worked faultlessly.

Very good friends of of ours, Pat and Trish, also joined us for a little rest & relaxation; the van they have is 23’ so a little longer than ours. The whole weekend was sunny with temps in the mid 20’s so very pleasant indeed.

By clicking HERE you will be able to view some pictures of the interior and I must say it is very comfortable and has all the the stuff we have at home; just that it is in a much smaller area.

Once again thanks to Ozzie Off-Road and Sunland caravans for bringing our plans and expectations to fuition.

Until the next post it’s by from us.

The DavLin Rig - David & Linda

The Van - Not Pretty Yet (But Getting Close)

2007-07-03T13:21:00.001+10:00

A long time in the making but it is now very close; this is the Sunland Longreach Series III Semi Custom Build.

It should be completed in the next 2 weeks and ready for the road; notice the full insulation on the walls (not just the roof). The inside timber-work (real timber) is all but done and it will be soon off to the finishing section of the factory for the fit out.

Our first trip is planned for August (2 weeks) for her maiden voyage; a few trips following that before the great escape for a few years.

Sunland Caravans (Roy Wyss) and his team of designers and builders have done a magnificent job to date on the custom features we required. We were somewhat of a pain but Roy and his crew came in with flying colors with all the design changes and additions we threw at them.

Ozzie Off-Road assisted Linda and I in the selection of a camper trailer a few yeas ago; we needed information on what to buy; do you want galvanized, zinc annealed, painted, electric brakes, type of canvas materials etc, etc (the list goes on). Their information and guidance made for an easy selection.

Having decided to travel Australia by Caravan our first point of contact was with Ozzie for some advice on caravans; they in turn introduced us to Sunland Caravans for this build and have helped us all the way. Both Kerry and Cameron from Ozzie Off-Road have been tremendous with their patience in this whole process; honesty, integrity and sincerity seem to be the key with Ozzie’s business practice.

Ozzie Off-Road apart from their extensive range of on and off road campers are also distributing “The Blue Healer” off road caravan. The Blue Heeler is the result of countless hours from the Ozzie team as well as Roy and his crew at Sunland who build the Heeler exclusively for them.

Over the last 12+ months Roy (Sunland), Cameron & Kerry (Ozzie) have certainly showed Linda & I “That A Caravan Ain't necessarily A Caravan”.

SUNLAND CARAVANS – ROY WYSS:
Phone: (07) 5499 2250 or Mobile 0410 574127
Email: roy@sunlandcaravans.com.au
Web: www.sunlandcaravans.com.au

OZZIE OFF-ROAD – KERRY & CAMERON WHITING
Phone: (07) 5495 5333 or Mobile 0427 084680 (Cameron)
Email: sales@ozzieoffroad.com.au
Web: www.ozzieoffroad.com.au

Be back with more pictures and news as things progress.

The DavLin Rig

David & Linda

The Early Days

2007-05-18T14:42:00.000+10:00

Well it is time to set up a blog spot so we can keep all our family and friends informed on how well or badly we are doing on our travels.

Over the next month or so we will post up some photos of the new mobile home (caravan) and let you know where we are at on our plan vs. actual; things do change but we needed to get this page up and running for future events.

Keep an eye out periodically for any new postings we make; also feel free to post your news back to us, the link is below; it will always be good to hear from friends as we travel which is some time away yet but we will post up or email replies as time and internet facilities are available.

Until the next posting keep well

David & Linda (The DavLin Rig)