Judy & Brian Tour Oz

OK so we weakened and took a drive up to Brisbane, South Bank to be precise. You may recall this is where the Expo '88 was held, an event which transformed an industrial dump into a world class stage for this extravaganza. But that was then and this is now. We have been there since 1988 but this time it was noticeably different, having been made into an upmarket destination for everyone who lives in or is visiting Brisbane. Judy was taken by the market, (but had no cash, so it was safe!) and we walked along the river to the ferry terminal. We have doe this before but we took the river cat up river to the Qld Uni terminal and back, and then wandered back into the South Bank precinct to find a restaurant for lunch. After an excellent meal we went to the Maritime museum based around the original dry dock built in 1888. Its main attraction is the only remaining River class frigate, the HMAS Diamantina. The whole museum is really good and really made my day. After a longish day, we pai...

Finally some weather worthy of that Qld slogan about being beautiful one day and fabulous the next. The wind has dropped and the sun has come out to play. We had heard about Currumbin Rock Pools, which sounded interesting, but then Judy's hairdresser told her that if you go there, you need to go further up into the valley there are some more rock pools and waterfalls that are just fantastic.... We followed his advice and once we had doubled back onto the right road, we found ourselves at the top of the valley where there was a very pleasant walk up into the mountains, meandering alongside the swiftly flowing creek, tumbling over rocky falls from one pool to the next. Actually the water didn't look that inviting, it was a weird green colour and freezing. Obviously didn't stop some from jumping the safety fences and having a dip. The whole area is now a national park but in a previous life had been cleared of all the huge trees and then completely cleared to make way for ...

The wind has abated a tad so Brian went for a walk along the beach. I stayed in bed! The sun was out so we decided to check out the mountains, lookouts, waterfalls and walks in Springbrook. It is only 30kms from the turnoff at Mudgereeba but the road is very narrow and winding through the mountains. It just keeps going higher and higher with a sheer drop and hardly any guard rails. I was keeping my eyes fixed to that road and got a little sweaty the higher and steeper we got. There were even a few sections that were only one lane over little wooden bridges with a drop that went forever. We drove through Springbrook and another few kms to Purling Falls. It was a lovely picnic area where a few walks originated. Some were affected by landslips due to the amount of rain they have been having up here, so we chose to stroll the 100 metres to the falls from the car park along a moss covered path through the rainforest. We arrived at a lookout that ends in a massive drop with a waterfall plu...

Sadly, its the last day of the holidays for the kids. Kathryn & Ben & Andrew took-off fairly early, while Amy&Steve&Emily&Thomas had an early evening flight. The weather continued to be patchy sunlight with strong gusty winds making it a fairly unpleasant day for beaches or fishing, so a quiet hour or so in the park with Emily on the swings and a long coffee in the comfort of the mall. I've added some more snaps to the Greenmount Beach album => https://picasaweb.google.com/CapitalCityWriter/GreenmountBeachQld A snap? Why not have two. Help me, I'm .... ...falling! Later I took advantage of the weather to try and get some wild water shots at the beach, here's one, the others are at=> https://picasaweb.google.com/CapitalCityWriter/DuranbahBeachTweedHeadsNSW

The other day I heard that the house that i was born into and lived in until I was 23 has been bulldozed to make way for some new suburban Taj Mahal. I found the news disturbing because its part of my history, part of me and my family, and it's just not there any more. I have photos of course but it'sjust not the same as knowing it's there, knowing you can drive past and show your kids and grandkids. The house was built entirely by hand by my late father in the late 1940's and was arguably fairly avant guard for its time. This is 1950s at latest. This house had built in wardrobes, and inside toilet, the cupboards in the kitchen had doors that slid up into the roof space and there was a built in 'breakfast nook'. It was double brick and the roof trusses were old school '3x2's spaced 18in apart. It was a home for  two mum, dad and us 4 children. We had birthdays, at least my 21st, there and my sister had her wedding reception there. It hol...

A do nothing sort of day. Paul & Sue left at 7 this morning and we miss them already. had a late breakfast and an early lunch with Kathryn & Ben & Andrew. Even had a short snooze in the afternoon before a bit of a play on the beach with Emily & Thomas, well Emily mostly, Thomas was mostly asleep. Finished the day at the Rainbow Bay Surf Club for an early dinner and then off home for an early night. All the snaps from today => https://picasaweb.google.com/CapitalCityWriter/GreenmountBeachQld A snap of the day

Big day out at Sea World, through the gate at 930 and out at 5. Many changes here since Judy and I were here last: more rides, more displays, changes to the format of the shows. It's still a great day out and still a place of fascination for kids of all ages. Emily found here place at the kids' corner with may rides on the merry-go-round, the flying aeroplanes and dump trucks. Some of the big children found fun in the corkscrew, aka Sea Viper, the Vikings Revenge flume ride, the Jet Rescue. Others took the monorail for a scenic look at the whole park. The ,dolphin show was great, with three handlers in the water and 7 bottlenose dolphins going through their paces. Gone was the normal platform and hoops and balls, instead the handlers rode them like surfboards, rode them a pair of fine horses and were lifted up on their noses. The dolphins seemed to be able to jump higher than ever and all in perfect synchronisation. Back in the main pool we found more changes. Gone were t...

Bit of a boys day out, Paul & I went to find an old wrecking yard we saw from the M1 the other day on our southbound return from Mt Tambourine. Trouble is we were travelling north and there's a big bit of the eastern side of the road you just can't see. Not to worry, we found ourselves at Exit 66 which happily can be taken to get to the Gold Coast Highway where Rare Spares and Route 66 Spares is located. This is a treat for both of us as it's owned and operated by two old mates, Reg & Sandi Vine. Judy and I found them last year and promised to come back and bring my brother Paul. We all first met in the early days of the computer industry in about 1970. Reg worked for Control Data Corporation, stationed at the Bureau of Census and Statistics in George Street Sydney, where I had my first computer job and its where I met Judy who was a Public Servant and was the Magnetic Tape Librarian and later a Computer Operator. Judy and I joined the Renault Car Club where we me...

Rain set in mid-morning, so we wandered back to Murwillumbah again to check out the pool, our intent was to have a swim. We had also taken our internet thingy with us as it had stopped working and thought maybe it was some local problem. Needless to say it wasn't and we went and found Telstra who took two seconds to determine that we had used our entire 12 month allowance in 3 months. Rats. Threw money at the problem and it went away. Had a really nice lunch at a cafe on the main road before having a wander about the shops, replacing the carving knife I seem to have thrown out with the pizza box last night. Drove around the back streets checking out the lovely old houses. Gave up on swimming, went over to the railway station hoping to take a photo similar to one taken by Merv in 1951. Alas, those lovely old station signs have been replaced by 'modern' signs and have zero character. The North Coast line stopped here and folk had to take a bus the 25miles to the start of ...

It’s raining again – our holiday seems to be linked in to old songs! Not a lot of options in the rain so where else could you possibly go but to a rainforest. Mount Tambourine was the destination today and the Rainforest Skywalk. The roads are very steep and winding but the scenery is fantastic. At least the forest we were driving through was, the cloud was all encompassing so none of the views to the coast and beyond was able to be seen. It was a total white out of clouds. But along the road there were tall and straight flooded gums with the most beautiful bark of sleek olive green co habituating with piccabeen palm trees that just pierced the sky heading for the sunshine. Unfortunately, none of that today. The little village of Eagle Heights was a stopping point where we wandered back and forth amongst the shops until we found ourselves on the island of Corfu, or at least we think that was what the café where we had lunch was trying to achieve. Everything, all white and vivid blue,...

Happy Birthday Muriel Slowish day today. Kept myself amused by walking to Coolangatta to find the spot where Merv & Shirley took some photos on their honeymoon in 1951.         This is the edifice that was erected on or about this very spot in 2001 Inside this Border Marker are some old photos, sadly no captions, but this one caught my eye. It's the same house / shed as in Shirley's photo in 1951. I think that it's the Customs House on the border and the man is holding the gate open as the border was originally fenced and closed. One had to pay Customs Duty to take goods across, also it was closed in 1919 as a quarantine measure during a Spanish Flu epidemic. Also during WWII it was not closed, but used as a checkpoint to regulate movement of civilians and enlisted men, many on R&R. The fence was removed some time in 1950. Oh well, I'm easily amused

It's official. It is raining. Has been on and off for the last two days. Not cold at all so that's a bonus. Amused ourselves at one stage by driving up to Murwillumbah and through the mountain roads to Mt Warning, a huge volcano remnant. It's up in the most beautiful rainforest all ferns and strangler figs reaching for the distant canopy of the giant eucalypt trees. The one car wide road winds its way up the mountain side, criss-crossing the tributaries of the Tweed River. We were surprised at the car park to find it chock-a-block. Seems its the #1 walking track with the 9km, 5 hour trek to the top being the attraction. We thought we'd save it for another day. On the way back down we stopped and took a few snaps and were just crossing the Tweed proper when Judy spotted a platypus right near the low level bridge. We went back and forth but apart from my one blurred image, it proved to be elusive. Went out for dinner and a show last night at the Australian Outback Adv...

Long walks along the beach and around the headland. Hopping lightly between NSW and Qld at Dangar Point, a late breakfast, wander through the Coolangatta markets,a quick trip to Tropical Fruit Salad World and then back to a nice little cafe / restaurant overlooking the ocean. Oh, it's just all go! Spot of fishing,nibbles and drinks, a few hundred snaps on show for Paul and Sue, Echuca to Katherine. Dinner and a show... well the TV was on. The beautiful weather held up fine and clear all say untill about 7 when it started to rain for about an hour. Let's hope its all rained out for another fine day again tomorrow. Snap of the day 

The chores caught up with me again and I had two loads of washing to get done with one eye on the weather as showers were predicted. We were wanting to book tickets for the Outback Spectacular so went to find the local NRMA shopfront. Their tickets are considerably cheaper than anywhere else so that was our first stop. Successfully bought the tickets, so went on down to Coolangatta beach for a walk along the pathways. It is the most beautiful spot with the paths meandering along the beachside for kilometre after kilometre. The sand was very white, the sun was glistening on the water, the surfers were patiently waiting for the right waves and all was well with the world. Paul and Sue passed us at one stage on their bikes and were continuing on to see how far they could go. We stopped for a coffee and sat in the sunshine soaking up the ambience. You could get used to this coastal lifestyle. Lunchtime rolled around and we decided to join the locals at Greenmount Surf Club to have lu...

Drove into a buffeting headwind all the way from Tewantin to the Tweed Heads turnoff, very uncomfortable, made even less comfortable by the trucks and buses roaring up behind us and blowing us all over the show. Got into the van park about noon, and as the ubiquitous van park map and notes didn't expressly say we couldn't wash the van, we did so as soon as we stopped. Went to the big shops to get lots of food and came back in driving rain. Paul and Sue turned up later in the arvo and after tea and scones we went for a long stroll down the river, which is just as well because it's now bucketing down again. No snaps to day, it's just not the day for it.

Sadly, the sky is clouding over and the temperature is dropping. Rain threatens so a day at the beach is out of the question. Instead we toured up to the Timbeerwah Lookout for views to the coast and Noosa and right around for 360 degress taking in the rest of the coast and the hinterland. Toured further up through Cooroy, Pomona and Boreen point up on Lake Cooharabaand back down to Tewantin. Went fishing down the river, finally found a spot out of the wind and Judy settled in for a session that resulted in a few fish and one large crab that did the right thing and dropped off before it go to the wharf. Not much else happening, so an earlyish night ready for tomorrows trek. Snap of the Day

Sorry Ben, Happy Birthday! It being a Wednesday and us being within 200k of Eumundi it is obligatory that we travel to the said township and engage in the tradition known as market crawling. We've been here probably 1/2 a dozen times or more over 20 years and you know, I don't think that anything much has changed. Sure the layout is a bit different but the goods on offer? These people are stuck in a perennial craft based time warp. Life is literally passing them by in front of their stalls. Leather belts, skirts and tops, various food items, 'art' made out of bits of coloured tin or scraps of wood. Perhaps a hat or a piece of jewellery? Maybe a anklet or tattoo? You've seen it all before and you can't help but wonder just how much of this stuff any one person actually needs. I notice a few of the stall proudly claim to be 'original' Eumundi Market stall holders, and some of them look it. We stopped and Judy fondled some beads. The head magically appe...

The weather is still quite cold overnight, so stayed in bed for a while – even Brian slept in – then after breakfast went down to Noosa Marina at Tewantin, to take the ferry down the river into Noosa Heads. We bought a day pass so we could hop on and off. It’s a tad difficult to really take advantage of this as it’s just too long between ferries to see much. We disembarked at Noosaville which has really grown since we were here last. There are heaps of eateries and boutiques. We checked all the shops out and then decided on an early lunch at a lovely cafe overlooking the river. Brian had a steak sanger and I had calamari, both really good, and sipped our coffees in the sunshine. We finished in time to pick up the ferry again – luckily it was 15 min late – destination Noosa. Hastings Street hasn’t changed that much except there seems to be a few empty shops and restaurants and perhaps it isn’t as upmarket as it was before. It isn’t really surprising as Noosaville has really taken off ...

I really do like the sunshine coast. Always have. We decided to head to the “Noosa North Shore”, this isn’t a flash suburb like you might expect but the main access to the beach “roads” to camping and fishing spots here. To access the area, you have to wait in line, be very patient, soak up the tranquillity and queue up for the 8 vehicle ferry that takes you across the Noosa River to areas north. We were not silly enough to actually drive onto the beach with our car, but the ferry was very busy with lots of others with their campertrailers and small boats making the trip. This is an amazing area with approximately 75 miles of pristine beach with fishing the major drawcard. You have to wait for the low tide so you can travel the 20 kms to the camp area along the beach and there are plenty of incidents where people get bogged. In fact we witnessed one today.  We were at the first access point and a small 4WD was totally bogged. There was a group of about 5 men with Irish accents – ...

The reason you stay 3nghts in Tannum Sands is so that you can erase the previous days tortuous travel from you mind and refreshed, you go back out to the Bruce Highway (who are they kidding?) and do it all again. Anther 400K in 6 1/2 hours. It's truly atrocious, even the new bits are totally wasted, just a continuous string of potholes joined by broken tar. There's lots of evidence of road work (didn't actually see any actual work going on) and guess what? They are replacing the single lane goat track with an upgraded single lane goat track. It's not that there's no traffic, it's just a solid stream heading north with no letup the entire day. The best part is that they have these 80k / Road Work signs and no work and in the middle for apparently no reason and covering at most a stretch of 50m, a 60k sign! We finally hit a section announced with a Start Motorway sign, and the surface immediately go worse until it to it too had a 80/60 speed sign. Finally, to our ...

Bit of a slower day today, taking a long walk in the morning around the foreshore and finding the inevitable cafe on the headland. From the lookout we could see some 30 odd coal ships 'swinging-at-picks' as they wait to come into the port of Gladstone and fill from some of those many trains we say the other day. Judy decided that she wanted fish and chips for lunch so I went back to the chippy next to the cafe, unfortunately the chips were just a sodden blob of oily potato preserved in salt and the fish, a nice looking sweet-lip, was overcooked to oblivion. We took the opportunity in the afternoon to take the car to the car wash and scrub it up somewhat, now the van looks even more putrid that it did before, that layer of red dust transformed to mud by the three days; drizzle is just clinging on. Ended the day on the wharf at the Boyne Island boat ramp where Judy finally snagged a small flounder after a few hours and given that the tide had turned an hour ago and the sun ha...