The previous blog ended at Bowen and from there we were focused on catching up with a few friends along the Queensland coast and getting to our daughter Kim and her partner Linda's home in Byron Bay.
The Bruce Highway is not much fun so quite a few towns were by passed but a lunch stop in Gladstone was nice and to see the growth in the area due to the port there and the mining nearby was phenomenal. A nearby satellite town Calliope has tripled in size since our last visit around 5 years ago. The Calliope River is a free camp area we have seen previously and never stopped at so was very handy on this evening Friday 4th Oct '13.
Camping is permitted either side of the old Calliope Bridge ex Bruce Hwy and we did not realise the river although inland is tidal, the locals soon arrived in the evening and are known
to catch barra from the bridge. The water rose to just under the bridge.
What really amazes us is the number of people 'on the road' and off road/free camping like here where there were at least 60 vans/motorhomes!
Town of 1770 and Agnes Waters..not the place to be on a public holiday weekend, narrow roads and crowded holiday villages not the place to be towing a biggish rig!
In, had lunch then out we went...
BUNDABERG..WHOO HOO A CARAVAN PARK!
Saturday we drove about Bundaberg and out to nearby Bargara for the sunset, just checking where we had been before..thru the sugar cane fields and farms.
Many many years ago, like 1999, when Mick and I did a long service leave trip up to the Daly River then down the west coast for 6 months, a trial to see if we could handle each other and the travel!! we met a lovely couple Bernie and Hazel Roots, then from Mt Morgan Qld, sadly Bernie passed away while touring in New Zealand an few years ago and Hazel has moved into a retirement village in Bundaberg.
Sunday morning found us having morning tea and chatting and chatting and laughing and reminiscing with Hazel, such a lovely lady to meet up with again. xxo
HERVEY BAY ...RIVER HEADS
River Heads, is the home base of Phil and Karmen Taylor, we met them around 10 years ago and have been to Cape York with them for about 6 weeks, around Normanton another year for a month and met up at several other locations.
They had been home for a week from their wintering away time in Darwin.
Catch up time with the Taylors, meeting daughter and grandkids and a night out at the Hervey Bay Yatch Club for dinner was very nice.
Phil and Karmen
Byron Bay was beckoning so did a quick call in to see Kim's friend Johnny and his 2 kids near the Taylors home and southward we kept heading...
We poked along the coast heading for Inskip Point near the lovely village of Rainbow Beach.
Inskip Point is in a National Park on the mainland at the southern point from Fraser Island, it is where the ferry does beach landing between the mainland and the island, so lots to watch and lovely long walks on pristine white sand...no fishing for us just looking and relaxing and chatting to fellow campers!
Tuesday 8th Oct..Byron getting closer!! Lunch at Yandina home of the Buderim Ginger Factory.
CABOOLTURE,
overnight in the Show Grounds...then thru BRISBANE, follow the dots, follow the signs and arrows and detours and tolls and we got thru with out a ....***** swear word nearly!
Nearly at Byron, 10km north of...beautiful BRUNSWICK HEADS, just had to call in and it was lunch time and the girls would still be at their work.
The tide was in, the water was crystal clear and blue, the Norfolk Pines looked gorgeous, the bridge rattled when vehicles crossed it, people canoeing, boating, swimming and wandering around happy and smiling..many alfresco, no rush, chilled out..surfies were asurfing and the rock wall to the ocean is awesome, the chooks were scratching along the main in road and the chips at the little marina were as good as ever!!
I LOVE THE PLACE!!
The realestate window was the first shop I went to!!!
(about 4 years ago we spent 4 weeks there and I did some work in a newly opened craft gallery, even sold some of my mades there, I got a very easy local feel for the place)
the news is.... I loose..see later!
BYRON...
Yahoo... our girls, skinny and fit, tired, well and happy, they had just finished detailing and revamping the unit they had bought next to their home. It was great to see them and I think they were pleased to see us, we were relaxed and ready to do some work for them..and we did and enjoyed it...
Tropical storms and a felled tree, some of which was chipped.
One wack with the axe and it was all over..off to the hire place nearby..block splitter for a few hours,too easy!
The wood chips, loads and loads of it..nice work to get some fitness back!
The new wood heap, I had made a nice neat stack and the 'B' thing fell over, and so restructured!
New timber fences all around..equal parts of linseed oil and turps was the go on the hardwood fence.
A mum garden done!!
Byron beach..lovely beach to stoll and run the dog..
Linda's cute mini, so suited to her but has since been bashed up in a recent hail storm
The common/walk track area behind Kim's, kept by the council...Mick got carried away mowing.
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A mum and dad tidy up....pre wood chipping.
within 24 hours the wood chips were all scratched back into the adjoining densely covered area, home of the bush turkey!!!
He had his mound in there....and was impressing the ladies!
the culprit...
did I think I should have wrung its neck, ripped its gut out, boiled it in a pot, made some soup and chewed on the bones!!??
Google them, interesting and frustrating..no beating them and they are protected..say no more!
The girls actually live in Sunrise, a small residential area a few km out of Byron and it is also known as the Arts and Industry Estate. Within a few hundred meters and you can be right amongst the arty artisans and jewellery makers, importers, furniture and clothing designers, garden creations, woodworkers and one of the best shoe shops I have been to..all nearby for a wet day wander.
Hammer & Nail.
In this co-operative of about 5 creative persons I was invited to use this old typewriter to be included on their mailing list, offered coffee and took about half an hour to get out of there! I am not sure whether it was he or me who talked the most!
The fire drums were also made there.
I loved the fittings in this clothing designer outlet, creative young chick designing and sewing funky size 8 clothes!! All the doors on the mezzanine level were sourced from the local recycle centre and the old copper made into a light was too gorgeous. My poor old mind wandered back to 1965-7 when I was a skinny mini wearing coat hanger! I was a 'mod' once and could do the stomp!! then I was a surfer for abit..in Wangaratta!!!No clothes in that shop for me...:-(
.
employer of many backpackers!! pie cooks??? not too sure!
the best smell ever, nice soap and air freshener
BB Cookies recently liquidated but bought by another crew and operational again, employs many people and smells delicious from Kim's. You can find these bickies all over Australia in cafes.
Health foods and coffee, fresh herbs grown on the street front, very busy road and they do not seem to be share farmed!
reminiscing a 50's scene..I was not the yellow bra ed piece!
This is for Mick's mate Darb Schmidt, ex Allans Flat Strawberry farmer wine maker, he now lives in Wodonga, we miss him as he was..but his eyes lit up when we showed him this, Darb loves VW's.
Many think Facebook is something strange and invasive etc..but it is a wonderful communication tool.. so travel friends Peter and Glenda Murray were able to track us down in Byron Bay on their way thru, we had a nice catch up and a barra lunch on Kims verandah.
and so after only 2.5 weeks we had to leave Byron, for special 80th and a land auction!
Our 'wheel-estate' outside Aldies in Casino.
Picnic lunch near Young, a new season box of cherries for the grandkids,
not big on the gift buying but a box of cherries..they are eye poppers!!
THE LAST DAY OF OCTOBER SAW US BACK AT WANGARATTA thenWHOROULY
BEARING CHERRIES!
So exciting to see family and catch up with all their news. Lots of show and tell!
Trent and Hayden's winter project, building the pool decking, great job
Hayden coming home with his swag after a sleepover at Morey's our ex home.
Melb Cup day, working bee at the Myrtleford & District Fishing Club site at Lake Buffalo near Myrtleford.
THE AUCTION BLOCKS WERE NOT US!
This is the right side of town for our family, will be the last residence on that side of Wang, easy pop in spot for many friends. 1km from CBD, so walking distance and nice walks along the levy and it is not on a flood plain overlay! Just enough room for a town house and van storage, only planning courtyards and the treed side is our outlook!!! bush and birds! Tis us....going to take some planning but we are not intending to build until we get back from...around Sept next year.
We have been here at our other' home' on the river at Bundalong for the last month but will be leaving on the 9ht Dec, for Ebony's birthday then a week in Wodonga house idea looking.
Ebony having fun playing sticky ball darts.
Ebony the Sunday breakfast pancake cooker.
The kids spare room for the night, they love their swags.
This is our Christmas tree, a mistletoe branch, rag wrapped and painted,
it is not all about fishing here.
Cod opening 1st Dec, a comedy right in front of us a 70cm 11lb cod
a very funny team effort well done Lucy
So it is action stations back here in camp, the Murrays mentioned in Byron had a few days with us on their way home for a brief stint in Adelaide, they loved this area. We previously have travelled with them to Nhullunby and Willage near Coburg Peninsular.
Jim and Glenys McNamara from Whorouly are next to us now for the weekend, and just back in with an 80cm cod. time for a camp fire drink!
So it is time to shut down this blog for some months now and get on with whatever happens next. House planning, Christmas, house sitting at Whorouly New Year while kids are away, bit of nip and tuck !! late January then off to maybe Mallacoota or South Australia, here for Easter, then back to Byron and to....
Thankyou to the friends and family who have visited us here it is great to catch up, to those who have contacted us and said they have traveled with us via these ramblings thanks, interesting is the fact that the stats I can check show 2300 hits on our 'Freedom Lifestyle!'
Merry Christmas, and best wishes for 2014...
Cheers Marg and Mick the Nomadnewts
I and me = we
