Judy & Brian Tour Oz

Airlie Beach Week 1 Leaving Townsville at a respectable hour, we drove out of town and onto the very lamentable Bruce Highway for 3 1/2 hours of bashing and crashing our way down the goat track to Airlie Beach. We finally made it to Bowen, and as we were still stuck behind something or other travelling at 85, we considered taking luncheon, but then at the critical moment, they all turned into town, so we kept on going. Apart from a rogue ratbag truck driver who attempted to run us and another van off the road, it was ‘uneventful’. Finally we are here The Big 4 Adventure Whitsunday Resort at Cannonvale. As Cannonvale and Airlie Beach are almost the same place, we'll just call it Airlie Beach. Judy is finally in her favourite caravan park and we have been for a swim and been to the food shops and had a wine and all is right with the world. But what to do? There are the magnificent Whitsunday Islands of course, and Whitehaven Beach, but we've been to them all and frankly, are ...

Townsville Qld Three days in Townsville? You must be mad. What will you do? Good point, but let me put the record straight; Townsville has got some great public spaces, some good tourist attractions and a few hidden things that are quite interesting. Our van park, the Big 4 Woodlands at Deeragun is a fair way out of town itself, but provided you book into one of en the suite sites, perfectly comfortable. We stayed here last year, down on the powered site row and it was 'horrible, you had to take the car to the loo. This poor sods have been struggling with massive road works out the front and behind the parker over 2 years. The fact that they have managed to build a huge new lagoon pool, a mini-gulf course and a water play area for the kids is quite remarkable. Interesting signage. Big 4 Woodlands, Deeragun, Townsville Qld  A clean sweep of the 18 hole mini golf. Big 4 Woodlands, Deeragun, Townsville Qld However, with the roadworks goes noise and smell and when the...

Richmond Qld July 20 2016 Early start again, bright clear sky, looks like its going to be a cracker of a day as we drive across to Richmond. Richmond, Queensland, not Sydney or Victoria or the other one in Queensland.We pulled out onto the road and before we had reached to edge of town (its a small town) we were sitting behind a Road Train! 'Breaker Breaker Good Buddy!' That’s what they do in the movies, the rest of us just use the standard; ‘Copy Eastbound road train’ ‘Yeah, I got ya’, the disconnected voice replies. ‘Yeah, hi and good morning. We are sitting in behind you with a van. We’d like to come around when its clear’, we speak into the ether. ‘Yeah, sure, theres a straight bit just past these curves. I’ll let ya know’. 'OK thanks' Now you just have to be patient and wait for the call. Eventually then radio crackles back into life, 'Ok, good to go'. We thank him and wish him safe travels and we put the pedal to the metal and wind up the rig to...

Banka Banka July 18 2016 Up early and down for a lovely swim in the crystal clear waters of Bitter Springs, and almost no one there. After a quick breakfast we headed out to Banka just after 8.  Stuart Highway, somewhere between Dunmarra and Banka Bank NT The Army have been playing soldiers down in SA for a week or so, and now they are all heading back to Darwin. We must have passed 20 convoys of 10 trucks each carrying all kinds of guns and trucks and big-persons toys. A lot of the really big stuff was being hauled by private road trains, driven by their normal driver, but the off-sider was harder to tell, after all they were in camouflage. Army on the move. Stuart Highway, near Banka Banka NT I’m not sure where the actual ‘grunts’ were; they may have been in the backs of the long row of Armoured Personnel Carriers, or more likely in a nice air-conditioned bus or 10. I had no idea that we had so big an Army, and those are just the ones from Darwin. Banka was almost ...