South Past Brisbane

Having now got the excitement of the tandem sky-dive out of the way, you may recall that in our Australian travels, we had got to a little place called Gin Gin which had a small museum and narrow gauge steam engine. We soon pressed on however, heading through Maryborough and Gympie.

It was now the 18th February and we heard that Townsville, which we had left on the 12th February, had been subjected to very heavy rain with some flooding and the likelihood that the Bruce Highway would be closed. Thankfully, the flooding around the country still seemed to be behind us.

Soon we arrived at a place called Noosa Heads and experienced one of the delightful Australian beaches. This picture is of Christine enjoying a stroll along the beach. It was a beautiful sight, straight out of one of the Australian travelogues, with golden sands, blue sea and rolling breakers which stretched for miles.

[As ever, clicking on any of these images should bring up a larger image. Then clicking on your browser back button will return you to the blog]
We continued on down the coast for a time though, passing through such places as; Sunshine Beach, Sunrise Beach before stumbling across a delightful spot called Peregian Beach where we stopped over for a couple of days because it was so nice. I even ventured to get laid out on the beach, and have a swim. However, I was careful not to expose my delicate skin to too much of the harsh sunlight. As you can see below.

Shortly after leaving this idyll, we were once again heading South but decided to bypass Brisbane. We travelled on the motorway (M1) which took us over the toll-bridge to the East of Brisbane with lots of traffic on the road, almost like being back in the UK on the M25. We assumed that most of the traffic was families heading for a day out on the Gold Coast.

We diverted from the M1 onto the Gold Coast Highway and travelled through Southport where we photographed an old steam engine, labelled as the Southport Express. See below.

Shortly after leaving Southport, back on the M1, we soon crossed from Queensland into new South Wales, loosing an hour along the way with the difference in time zones.

Not long after crossing the border, approximately 10 miles south of Tweed Heads, we happened to notice some railway carriages just off the highway and stopped off at what turned out to be a preserved railway at

Melaleuca with a grand entrance and various rolling stock in stages of renovation, as well as an operational steam engine which was offering trips around a fairly small track.  

We had to assume that this railway station once served a local community but one that was no longer apparent.
The map below indicates the route travelled during this post and I will continue from here in a week or so.

By the way, just completed a half day 4x4 course, courtesy of Landrover, in a Freelander. I have to say that I was impressed with the vehicle and the course provided me with insight of some of the difficulties I may experience during my proposed tour of the Kimberleys in October.
See you soon.

Tandem Sky-Dive Completed

Well as you can hopefully see from the above video clip I finally managed to get my tandem sky-dive experience completed. Sunday 2nd May, was a beautiful day at Cockerham airfield with the Black Knights Parachute Centre and following briefing and kitting up in a bright yellow coverall (yellow is not really my colour) we got airborne at about 09.30 and some 12 minutes later we were at 14,000 feet and that is were the video starts.
It was an exhilarating experience and if I were younger, I may have been tempted to take up the sport as a regular hobby as it is however, I think I will leave it to the younger generations. Should anyone be tempted to do a sky-dive I thoroughly recommend the experience.
That,s all for just now but will be back in the near future with more antipodean pictures.

East to Queensland and beyond

Continuing our journey north from the Devil's Marbles we eventually arrived at the Three Ways Roadhouse some 25Kms north of Tennant Creek where appropriately enough we turned right and headed for the coast some 1,500 kms away. A distance we covered in just 3 days, arriving at Townsville, on the Queensland coast on 10th February. As you can see below this is a beautiful place where Christine was to meet up with her penpal of some 40 years standing. It is also the place where we experienced our first ever true Aussie prawn barbie. Brilliant.

Departing Townsville on 12th Feb we headed towards Airlie Beach and a wildlife park run by Rob Bredl, the Barefoot Bushman (he had a series on UK TV in about 1999.) Below is Rob feeding one of his aligators and you can see evidence that Christine willingly handled a real live snake.

Although we don't have photographic evidence, we were fortunate, at this time, to be travelling about 2 days ahead of some severe weather. In fact almost every place we had been through suffered torrential rain and flooding approximately 48hrs after our leaving.

In the next couple of days while continuing to head south along the coastline we deviated slightly inland to Mount Morgan where we hoped to see, and perhaps ride on, the Dee River Railroad. Unfortunately, it was closed, undergoing renovation. However, we managed to have quite a good chat with the chap in the information office, an ex-Londoner, who had emigrated to Aus on a £10 passage in 1965 and who had now retired to Mount Morgan.

Before leaving, we had a wander around the small town and a visit to the local museum before I took my life into my hands by using a rather delapidated swing bridge, as shown on the left, which Christine flatly refused to go anywhere near.

 

Leaving Mount Morgan behind we headed back toward the coast over the gentle hills of the Dawson Range until we once again struck the Bruce Highway and turned South heading for Miriam Vale.

17th February, saw us passing through Gin Gin where we stumbled across a small museum and narrow gauge steam engine.

North from "The Alice"

This is a view of Alice Springs town centre where Christine and I stayed for a few days with Valerie and husband Nick during the first week of Feb 2000. [Clicking on any of these images should bring up a larger image. Then clicking on your browser back button will return you to the blog] We visited a number of places of interest whilst there including the Desert Park, the Telegraph Station, the Aviation Museum and the Araluen Centre for Arts and Entertainment.
We couldn't leave Alice without paying a visit to the Anzac memorial which is shown on the left with the view of Alice from the memorial shown below.
 Leaving Alice Springs, we travelled North on the Stuart Highway, passing over the Tropic of Capricorn . The road seemed to stretch on interminably into the distance with very little but scrubland to either side, until eventually we came across an unusual rock formation known as "the Devil's Marbles". (See below.) Naturally we had to stop for a photo call.
Time seems to be getting away from me just lately and I am aware that it is almost 3 weeks since my last posting so I thought I had better get this latest instalment out for you to see. With regard to the 2010 trip I have now confirmed bookings for the campervan requirements which will enable me to do the travelling I want. This is going to make a big hole in my wallet but I feel sure that it will be worth it. One other bit of news, not related to the Aus trip but, I was due to take a tandem Sky-Dive yesterday, (a 65th birthday present from Samantha- I told you she had designs on the house!!) however, the weather was not good enough so have had to re-shedule for Friday 16th April.

Previous Trip to Australia

In what turned out to be quite an emotional trip down memory lane, I spent a bit of time over the last few days digitizing photos from the trip to Australia I made with my wife Christine in 2000, just after I had retired from the Royal Air Force and I'd like to share a few of those pictures with you.

We departed the UK on 25th Jan 2000, once we were sure that the long forecast millennium disasters were not actually going to come about. We were flying to Perth but had arranged a 24 hour stop-over in Kuala Lumpur where we made sure to get a picture of the Petronas Towers which was the tallest building in the world, at that time. The following day we arrived in Perth in the early hours of the 28th Jan and were well looked after by long lost relatives with whom we spent a considerable number of hours reminiscing over our dim and distant childhoods back in the UK.

The cities of Perth and Freemantle were a pleasure to visit and the picture here was taken from King's Park, overlooking Perth with the temperature hovering around 37 ^oC.

After a couple of days being wined and dined by the 'relies' we flew on the Adelaide. During the flight we were presented with a bottle of Champagne to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.

Following an overnight stop in Adelaide, we boarded 'The Ghan'. The celebrated central Australian rail link to Alice Springs. This line has now been extended all the way to Darwin, at the 'Top End' but in 2000, it terminated in Alice. The journey took some 19 hours but was mostly during the hours of darkness. However, we were travelling first class so thoroughly enjoyed the trip anyway, sampling kangaroo steak for the first time and finally arriving in Alice Springs at 09.00 on the 1st Feb.

Welcome to Alice Springs

A view of the golf course

Alice Springs Water Hole

I will post a few more pictures next time but I must report that for the 2010 trip, I have now firmed up the intention to visit New Zealand and have managed to confirm bookings for all flights. Starting from Manchester to Hong Kong on Friday 27th and arriving in New Zealand on Tuesday 31st August. I will provide further details later but I can confirm that I have been granted the necessary Australian visa to cover my stay in that country.

See you next week.