Friday 16 th September
We visited the Australian Shearers Hall of Fame in Hay. It was very interesting seeing the old equipment that was used many years ago, well worth a visit if you get into this region .
The local fire station in Hay
An amazing collection of old Shearers blades
John checking out the grading of the wool just been shawn
John standing by a wool wagon . Photo below of one with it loaded up
Record load of 150 Bales of wool weighing 17.5 tons
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We had a walk around the town last night and came across the local fire station .
We traveled to West Wyalong then on to Forbes. This was interesting to say the least many parts of the road were in flood due to the heavy rain we have had in the last 48 hours here.
Check the side mirror a lot of water we went through
Another very deep piece of the road traveling north
This area is known for it canola oil crops. Sadly not today.
We arrived in Forbes around 3.45pm . Time to set up for the night so John can watch the league.
We found a freedom spot close to town within walking distance. The local river had flooded here so.
Saturday 17th September
Woke up to a beautiful sunny day this morning . Leaving early as we want to get to Moree before the rains come again. The roads will be flooded again not wonderful driving when this happens.
The view from our caravan door this morning over looking the river
We arrived in Moree without any rain on our travels . We are staying at a caravan park called Gwydir just on the edge of town. We have stayed here before on a previous visit and found it very comfortable. Great hot pools. We caught up with our friend Mel with whom we met in Alice Springs and is now living in Moree. You can meet some wonderful people while traveling .
19th September we arrived back in Queensland, a quick phone call to Anne (John's sister) to tell her to put the jug on brought laughter to her even if we are still around 1400 k away she knew we were nearly back home .
We made our way to our friends Anne and Keith Nicholson in Millmerran where they have been farm sitting for the last 12 months doing odd jobs. It has been great catching up with Anne and Keith ( Marg knew Anne from the grocery trade in NZ been friends for a long time ).
We went into Toowomba for a day and had a look around. Did a grocery shop at Aldi and got some good specials . Picked up 2 pairs of support socks for John only $4.50 a pair normally up to $40.00 in the chemist.
John and Keith went to Brisbane on Thursday 22 nd to a truck auction , checking out the prices of buying a small truck to tow our caravan with as we seemed to of collected quite a bit of stuff since we have been back in Aussie traveling around. We need to be able to put a little car in the back so we can have a car for running around in.
When the boys came back from Brisbane our ute heated up again and is now in getting looked at . They seem to think it maybe a cracked head. We sure hope not . In between all this John has helped Keith with doing some work on his ute and Keith helped John fix our led lightening in the outside of the caravan. Anne and I have caught up with some craft work and a few repairing jobs that needed doing.
Not good news when the boys came back, our ute has not even been looked at. So we won't know anything till Wednesday. It is a blessing we are staying with Keith and Anne that is for real .
10th Sepetember.
The ute has been in the work shop for 18 days now . They found out that the head was cracked, so that had to be tested and another one found then the radiator was not looking good. Thankfully we were able to stay with Anne and Keith on the farm they a house sitting .
We have a Lovely time catching up with them and playing a card game called 5 crowns every night. We have also met some wonderful people whom Anne and Kieth have met. The 3 weeks we have been here has gone very quick.
We had a wonderful roast meal yesterday (Sunday) cooked in a camp oven for 2 hours over a lovely open fire. It was all very tasty and filling. I think John and I will have to invest in a camp oven in the not too distance future for our travels around Aussie and NZ .
We have been promised the ute back today around midday. Anne goes to a craft morning once a fortnight, I have been invited to go again this morning as we can do nothing until the ute is back. This I'm looking forward to.
Our friends Jimilie and Greg also came and stayed for two days so we could catch up with them and see there little dogs again Digby and Maggie May. We had a wonderful time with them plus Keith and Anne have made some new friends. Sam Kieth and Anne's little dog had a great time playing with Digby , and the laughs we had from watching them play helped pass the enjoyable time away .Life is great.
John went into Pittsworth for the ute at lunch time . Thankfully it was all complete and up and running .
The cost for a reconditioned head and gasket was $1852.90 . The labour was $1450.00 , total for car repair was $3591.30.
Our last night with Anne and Keith we played 5 crowns again and had a few drinks. It will be sad to leave as it has been wonderful spending this time with them. But Malanda is calling us home. Tomorrow we are hoping to get to Taroon.
11 th October
We left Anne and Keith at 6.50am and headed out to Brookstead to get the caravan and ute weighed.
John was pleased with the weight of it. Ute 2800kgs and the caravan 2760kgs yah we are no longer overweight in the caravan .
We travelled up through the Cecil Plains to Dalby then onto Chinchilla , then onto Miles where we stopped for lunch. From here we went to Taroom as everything was going good we decided to continue to Theodore and stay at the Show ground there. It is only $15.00 a night . Plenty of room to park and very quiet.
12 th October
Theodore show grounds camping area
We left Theodore for Mouragoubg the back way. Very interesting , 3 kangaroos decided to run in front of the ute to close to our liking but the made it safely to the other side. We saw a very large eagle and a mother goose and babies going for their morning walk. Sorry no photos it happened to quick .
Towards dusk we saw 5 kangaroos crossing the road with babies thankful we did not hit them .
We arrived at Charters Towers at 7 o'clock after driving 820 k a long day. . We stayed at the Dalyrmple caravan park where we have stayed before , a great park very clean.
It was great to see the different bird life whilst travelling to Innit Hot Springs. We saw several Bustards which is unusual close to the side of the road , these are very large birds, Wedge tail Eagles , Brolgas .We travelled 450 k today and got to Innot Hot Springs at 3 o'clock , Met up with the Tropical tourers groups had a happy hour then it was time for a soak in the pools . The hotel next to the caravan park have wood fire pizza on a Thursday night , we decided it was time for a treat very tasty and one pizza was very fulling Between the two of us .
14 th October
Today brought another beautiful sunny day ,time to go and catch up with Mum and Dad then park up the caravan at Glen and Anne's farm ready for John to start work . Fingers crossed I can get a job at Bunnings in Atherton .
We have now been back 5 weeks in Malanda in that time, John has been busy milking at his friends Ross's farm morning and night 5 days a week.
22 nd November
Glen and Anne have gone away for a well deserved holiday south for 3 weeks. John is busy milking now on the farm here and looking after the rest of the farm. I'm having fun helping with the cleaning every milk .
I have not yet managed to get a part time job other than the odd night at the RSL in Malanda.
I have been for a interview at Stockmans Eggs and have been told that when someone leaves or has a sick day they will ring me to go and work. Still waiting regarding Bunnings. Once again I am just waiting for a night fill position to become available and then I'm in I have been told, which will be great. Apparently there a quite a we kiwis working there and it is a friendly friendly store.
We have just brought ourselves another's vehicle a Toyota Echo 2003 3 door hatch for running around in locally. ( we have named it the bumblebee).
We have the Nissan Nivara ute up for sale, John is wanting to buy a tuck for towing the caravan plus hopefully we can put the echo on the back off it .
The weather has been very warm since we got back , many days into the mid 30s.
On the 12 th of November we had the Small Farms field day in Malanda a great sunny day and a wonderful turn out of people. John and I helped Glen with the selling of raffle tickets .
John selling tickets for the guessing of the young steer 181 kilos was the final weight
Yes it has been a little warm here lately
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