Our Travels So Far...

Well we have been on the road for 10 or 11 days (depending when I manage to get this posted)

We left home, 10^th July at 6:30am heading down to Port Macquarie. Ray had a 10:30am appointment with his Doctor before we left on our trip. He was given the ‘all clear’ so off we went.

Our first nights camp was just north of Walcha, off the road and in the bushes. It was very cold, so we had a fire, glass of wine and then a little port after dinner. Here’s Ray enjoying the fire...

We had a very early start the next morning, stopped at
Uralla for some lovely fresh bread and milk. Then on the road again, stopping for lunch and a cuppa along the way, we had a great day. Ray was very happy with the way the Cruiser was towing the caravan, and how the caravan was traveling. After driving through all the little towns along the way we arrived at Mungindi and thought it was time to stop for the night. So we drove out of town and found a roadside free camp spot to stay the night. This is a view from my door, am I glad we had our own “5 Star” toilet...There were so many burrs in the grass as well, big dry ones, the ones that hurt like hell when they stick your foot…

            Friday morning and another very early start, so that we may get a fair bit of distance in the day. This time we got to Augathella and beyond, and stayed at another “free camp” this time we weren't there on our own. There would have been about 12 caravans there before we arrived, then another three or four drove in after we had set up.

            Yet another early start, to make a big dent in the day… The view from my window while I had breakie...

           We wanted to get to Longreach for Saturday night. This time we booked into the Caravan Park we usually stop at when we’re there. Other than the fact that it was in the same location, we really didn't recognize it at all. It has been taken over by new people about three years ago, they have done so much to improve things, it was very full as well. School holidays in Queensland, so there were a lot of families camping. We wanted to catch up with our old mate Peter Sams, who we meet on our first trip out to Longreach in 2001 and who we called in on when we were out there in 2006, with Helen & Daryl. Ray went for a drive down to fuel up and it see he would be able to locate him somewhere, but all he found was some bad news, that he had a massive stroke in 2010 and died. But it was pleasing to hear that he was doing something he really loved and that was ‘fishing’. So we left Longreach the next morning with a heavy heart, but we still have some fond memories of the times we had seen him in the past.

           Our next stop was at Corella River roadside stop, just west of Cloncurry. It is a Burke & Wills Memorial. Didn't get much sleep that night, as we weren't very far off the road and the road trains were very noisy.  As we were both wide awake we decided to get on the road about 5am (still DARK) which meant we drove through Mount Isa in the dark, but the lights of the town were as we drove around the mount were gorgeous.  It was like looking at a huge pot of ‘gold’…

            After phoning Helen & Daryl along the road, to see where they were, we decided to meet at Barkly Homestead on the Barkly highway. There we had a lovely dinner at the pub, and a great night catching up with Helen & Daryl.  Again it was a lovely spot, but no rest for the wicked and we were away again in the morning, this time heading for Cape Crawford.

            We had a big day’s travel, stopping at Cape Crawford for fuel and an ice-cream.  We bush camped about 100ks west of Cape Crawford, there was only one other camper there. They were a young couple with a hard floor camper, they has two very little kids, who played happily while their parents set up the camper;  the memories of struggling with canvas, very distant. Although we did seem to have a problem ourselves, as when tried to run water we found our tanks were empty…  So Ray set about to work out why, as he had filled them back at Barkly Homestead. It seems that a couple of the connection had worked themselves loose. We were very lucky to have a huge tank at the camp stop so we filled up again. The next morning we headed off towards Daley Waters, for Beef & Burra dinner at the pub there and to enjoy the entertainment they put on, each night. It was a nice night, ‘Happy Hour’ started about 4:30pm unfortunately the ½ price for the drinks were only on selected drinks, and they knew how to charge for anything else… We had our ‘Beef & Barra’ and listened to the entertainment, then watched the State of Origin game for a while…

                                                                      Go Queensland!!!

             It’s the 18^th July 2013 and we’re off to Mataranka. We stayed in the “Bitter Springs” caravan park, lovely and cool under the shade. We decided to stay 2 nights here as it is so peaceful and quite. Ray & I both went for a couple of swims in the spring creek. It was so lovely and thermal and to just float down with the current was so nice.

            From Mataranka we drove up to Adelaide River on the Stuart Highway, we are staying here a couple of nights mainly to explore the town of WWII history. We visited the Military Cemetery this morning; here are some photos to show you how lovely it is. This is a wonderful place of rest for so many fallen comrades of WWII. All from the attacks on Darwin and northern Australia in 1942  
   

                                                             The entry to the Cemetery

             Here's Ray reading the Honor Roll of all the names of Airman, Soldiers, & Sailors buried there...

                                             This Daryl, wondering among the headstones...

                                                    This is a wide view of the lovely grounds...
                                  The youngest buried is 16 years and the oldest we could fine is 62

There are so many of these unknown buried here as well...

"Known only to God"