Kiwikoala: Kuranda to Woodford then onto Adelaide

November 24, 2019

4th November

We went and stayed at Kuranda with Anne and Paul McCorry (John sister) for 3 nights . It was a
lovely relaxing time . Whilst we were there we gave the truck and caravan a good wash and the little car also.
John cooked liver and bacon for tea one evening for the boys this went down wonderfully. Kevin their neighbour came over for tea and ended up taking the left overs for tea . This sure did make Kevin`s day.
Photos below of John cooking and Anne feeding some of the farm animals.

John cooking in Anne’s kitchen on the farm

7 th November

We arrived at Toolakea Beach this afternoon where we are staying with our friends Bob and Dot Burdell for a few days. It is Bob 76 birthday today and Dot is having a birthday lunch on Saturday the 9 th . We had a lovely day on Saturday for Bob`s birthday and met all his grandchildren and children.
A beautiful family they made us so welcome lots of hugs all round.

We are going into Townsville tomorrow to get a new screen door handle . The one we have on the caravan door at the moment is just about to break. Yes found one at cost of $40.00 . John put it on the caravan as soon as we came home.

We were invited to an Australia caravan club member for tea tonight . What a lovely evening it was catching up with other members we had met on our travels at musters. Thank you John and Marissa. I’m sure we will met up on the road.

New Stadium in Townsville

High tide at Toolakea beach

Low tide at Toolakea beach

Cowboys club Townsville

11 th November.

Today we went on a boat trip to Magnetic Island which is just off the Townsville coast.
The first man to recognise the potential of Magnetic Island was Harry Butler and his family who came to Picnic Bay as European settlers in 1876. They built a guest house on the island, a modest thatched cottage . Then built two hotels and the ferry service which they proceeded to run for nearly 90 years.
In 1909 farming land .became available at Horseshoe Bay. Large areas of pineapples and fruit trees were planted resulting in Horseshoe Bay becoming the centre of a successful pineapple industry.

Today there are over 3000 people living in the island full time. Some travel daily to Townsville for work. Once children reach secondary school age they also have to go the mainland for school and catch the ferry every day .
Weather wise they have a average of 300 days of sunshine a year on Magnetic Island . The average temperature is around 29 degrees with a gentle sea breeze all year round.
Two thirds of Magnetic Island is a protected National Park . Millions of trees inhabit the islands landscapes including the sweet smelling eucalypts that is home to northern Australia’s largest colony of wild Koalas

Had a lovely day visiting the different bays and walked over 10 k . It sure did give my knee a good work out. On one of the walks out to the Forts we spotted a Koala in the tree .

Sleeping Koala

Horseshoe Bay

John on the walking track to Horseshoe Bay

Kapok seeds once split open kapok fluff appears

Points of interest from Magnetic Island

Leaving Magnetic Island

View of apartments entrance to island

We left Toolakea Beach and our friends first thing Tuesday morning for Airlie Beach where we visited Shirlz and Steve (kiwi friends) for a couple of hours. This area is beautiful very scenic and very expensive.

We left Airlie Beach and headed towards just south of Proserpine to Lake Proserpine. In this area there the local council have a large dam where they have allocated a large area for freedom campers on the edge of the dam. A very quiet evening was had after travelling 530 k today.

View of the overnight freedom dam parking

6 am photo taken of where we stayed last night

14 th November

From here we drove down to Mt Hay( west of Rockhampton ) and stayed at Mt Hay Gemstone Tourist Park. The reason for driving inland is because of the fires down the coast. At present there are over 80 fires down the coast and slightly inland. . We saw a bad piece that had burned between Bowen and Proserpine that closed the highway for 72 hours.

The steep entrance to the caravan park

The old railway station that has been relocated to Ceratodus for visitors to rest a while.

Lunch time at Mundubbera . Fresh watermelon and pineapple very healthy. Driving down through this area has been very relaxing as there is hardly any traffic just the odd road train. Another lovely sunny day.

Mundubbera is one of the largest producers of table grapes for Queensland and is famous for its variety of fruit produced including citrus, mangoes, avocados, lychees, peaches, nectarines, watermelon, rock melons and blue berries.

We decided that 7 hours of driving was enough for today doing 431 k . We came to a small country town called Gayndah and spotted a lovely rest area close to town where we could park up the truck and caravan. Just before we turned into the park we were pulled over by the local police doing a breathalyser test for drunk drivers. This is the second time this has happened since we left Kuranda .

Gayndah lays claim to be the oldest town in Queensland and was first settled in 1849 maintaining its old fashion charm still today.

Once we set the truck and caravan up we went and had a look around the area. First up was McConnell Lookout situated on Mount Debatable.It gives you a panoramic view of the whole area and views of the Burnett River. Photos below.

Down below the hill is citrus fruit growing along beside the river.

Looking towards Gayndah and surrounding area.

John checking out about the local area in the information booklet

Wharton Weir at Gayndah ( local swimming hole)

Parked up at Gayndah for the night.

15 th November
We left Gayndah at 7 o’clock for Woodford. 275 k exactly. We arrived at our friends place 11.15 . We were very pleased with the time it took us. The roads were busy today lots of stock road trains and caravans on the road. The creeks that we drove over were all dry no water. It sure would be nice to have some rain. The fires down south seem to be under control now . They have been burning for a week now.
Sadly over 250 homes have been destroyed in the last week throughout the region. They have arrested 3 teenagers for deliberate arson which caused 14 homes to be destroyed . The reporter said this morning the firefighters were able to save over 2500 homes .A great effort. New Zealand sent 24 specialists fire fighters and Tasmania sent some up to help with relieving the tired crews.

Maggie one of our welcoming dogs

Digby and Enki saying hi to John

16th November ,

Christmas is coming fast. Jimelie and I went to Bunnings . I brought two little caravan decorations and some other stuff for the caravan at Christmas. Very pleased with my purchases. Then from here it was to Spotlight . Jimelie was interested in Christmas decorations to see if they had anything different. I was very good and brought nothing.

Then it was off to the dentist for me to hopefully have my double molar removed. Third time I had been to a dentist and the other two times they would not pull it out. Yah finally got someone that listened to me . Yes it was pulled out and he said no wonder you have been in pain I had an infection in the nerve. After pulling it out he informed me that if I had left it or put up with it for a few more weeks in would of been very sore. Yah no more pain I’m happy. The second thing was it did not cost me anything as I got it done through the hospital here. As they could not get me into see anybody at the hospital they gave me a voucher for $260.00 to go the a private dentist at Caboolture Dental Group this morning (Saturday) . Fabulous people there very quick . Would recommend them to anyone.

I gave Jimelie the gourd I painted for her . The smile on her face said it all and the big hug I got . One more of my pieces gone to a good home.

I put this up in the back window of the Echo so vehicles knew I was following John . I have had alots of smiles and thumbs up and waves because of this . Thanks Jimelie for printing it for me .

Jimelie’s tame birds she feeds every morning
18th November,

Today we decided to go to the Australian Zoo whilst it was not too hot. The Australian Zoo was founded in 1970 by Steve’s parents, Bob and Lyn Irwin. Steve Irwin - the Crocodile Hunter and Teri Irwin now own it . Sadly Steve Irwin was killed in North Queensland whilst filming a documentary on stingrays on the 4th September 2006. He was 44 years old.
We saw the Wildlife Warriors Show at 12 o’clock in which free flight birds did there thing . Snakes where shown and then Charlie the salt water crocodile did his thing. We had a fantastic day quietly walking around .

We were going to Brisbane to get the awning replaced on Tuesday 19 th . That never happened. We attached the caravan all set to drive out the drive. With one thing left to check the lights. We found out we had no brake or indicator lights . John tried everything to make them go. Eventually went to the auto Electrian and sorted it out . For some reason it had come unearthed. In between this all happening Margaret was taken back to the dentist as she woke up with her face swollen on the side the tooth had been removed and very sore. It ended up dry socketing. She is now on antibiotics for 7 days.

Sun setting with the fire haze around it tonight

20th November

It was early up this morning as we had to go toTamborine south of Brisbane to get a new awning made for the caravan. The old one had spilt and the stitching along the seams we not doing there job, non existent. Once we had chosen the colour and Dave from D&M Truck curtains went into Brisbane and got the material and sewed it up etc we were back on the road heading towards Woodford. A great service Dave many thanks. The cost was $450.00. Whilst we were there Dave also noticed a gas smell coming from our gas bottles . Once we got back to Woodford we got a new gas regulator and put this on. John ordered a new Uniden UHF Radio. That arrived today so it got put in also . A busy day had by all. All set for our next journey inland and down to Gawler.

Feeling a little sad and we are not sure when we will be seeing Greg and Jimelie again. It has been wonderful spending this last week with them and getting the repairs done that John wanted to complete and finally getting Margaret’s tooth sorted out.

A very dry cactus due to lack of water here (Prickly pear)

Morning tea at Moonie.

We went for a drive around this little town and had a look at the old buildings .

Brown all year round Balonne River

45 km south east of George. There is a pub known by locals as The Gully . It sure does have a lot of character inside it. The name of the pub is Nindigully Pub. It is perched on the banks of the Moonie River , having been established in 1864. It is the longest continually licensed pub in Queensland.

the movie Paperback Hero’s was filmed here. Pack your appetite as the challenge of the ‘Road Train’ awaits a whooper 5 kg burger, big enough to feed 10 friends.

We had a jug of Lemon lime and bitters a very refreshing drink, especially on a hot dry day.

John enjoying a cool glass of liquid

Dust storm in distant

No grass just dry land very sad for the animals

From here we made our way to Thallon for the night. We parked up at the camping area next to the grain silos . It cost us $5.50 for the night for power and shower . A very quiet place to stay but a little windy. The only place where green grass was , was at the local pub. This is where the kangaroos hang out as everywhere else is dry and the is no food for them. Photos below.

The only green grass in town

Today we left for Bourke at 6 am . Travelling past Lightning Ridge . We were going to stop for a swim but as we had a few kms to go, we decided to keep driving.

We fueled up at Walgett ( diesel was $156.9 , unleaded premium $1.60 ) . We found when we checked the tyres on the caravan one was wearing on the outside . We had the tyre reversed and back in the road again. On the radio they said this was the driest year since 1903 in the area.

The main river to supply the town sadly no water in it

We stayed at Bourke last night at the Kidman Caravan park . A very quiet park with a refreshing swimming pool. Total travelled today was 511kms from Thallon to Bourke.

Saturday 23rd November

We left at 6 am for Broken Hill a total of 629 km we did. Arriving in Broken hill at 4.15

On our way here we saw a lot of wild goats even a adult Emu and baby’s. Plenty of dead kangaroos on the side of the road. Lots of bird having a good feed.

Wild goats on the side of road

Emus on side of road

We stayed at the Broken Hill Tourist Park . It is close to the end of town so it would be easy for us to leave in the morning for Adelaide. Cost us $39.00 for power and because we did not want to take the truck off the caravan they charged us a extra $6.00 . .Was not very happy about that but we were both very tired after driving 629 km . We left Bourke at 5 am and got into Broken Hill at 3.13pm. Yes a long day was had. We had visited this area before so we did not do any sight seeing.

We had a refreshing swim and was asleep by 830 .

We left Broken Hill for Gawler at 7 am and arrived at around 2 o’clock. We got stopped at the quarantine station for only a few minutes as we had checked before we arrived that we had nothing on board. We are looking at staying with Glen for about a week . John has cousins here he has not met so it is a good option do this.

Morning tea at this little place of Olary

This is what we were not allowed to bring into South Australia. They stopped us and asked very nicely if they could please check our fridge and veggie storage . No problems he said thank you very much and have a nice day he said. Oodla Wirra is where the Quarantine Boarder is .