Tallebudgera Valley and surrounds

Arrived in Tallebudgera and spent a lovely couple of days with Tonys sister Rosita, during the day she was working so we took the opportunity to go to Springbrrook National Park.  The day was a bit overcast but we got to walk the 4km track down and around Purling Brook Falls, the track ran behind the fall where I got to pose for a photo shoot and Tony got to play photographer - I got soaking wet.  The gorge views and cliff faces were amazing and very beautiful. 

The weather wasnt over startling but we were fortunate to do this walk before the rain really set in.  We had hoped to get in the Twin Falls walk from the Canyon lookout where through the clouds, mist, rain we got awesome glimpses of Surfers Paradise. 

It was too wet to do the walk so we checked out the campground which was very impressive, but we didnt use it, and The Best Ever Lookout from which we saw - NOTHING - only just being able to see what we couldnt see on an information board!!!!  It was quite a walk from the aircraft transmitting tower to the lookout and Tony was lucky enough to pick up a hitchhiker in his sock in the form of a leech!!!!!!  He didnt know it was there until he took his shoes off back at the van and then 'almost bled to death' (men) - two and a half hours after taking the leech off it was still bleeding - disgusting thing.  Tony found the leech really interesting to observe and spent this time playing with it. 

We spent the night in the carpark hoping the weather would clear so we could check out the view from the Best Ever lookout however by 9am it was obvious nothing was going to happen so we made our way down to sea level, 1000m.  We decided to explore the Gold Coast highway, starting at the top of SH2 with our first stop at Labrador where we had breakfast and were entertained by pelicans, asians and their cameras!!!!  The highlight being the pelicans. 

hows this for landing gear

From there we went out to the spit at Seaworld where we cleverly locked the keys in the van.  Fortunately George had a spare key. 

We went for a walk on the spit and people pulling these vicious worms out of the sand to use for bait - yuck i never knew these things were under my feet, not sure i want to walk on the beach again as some of them were over a metre long, the big ones tend to fight back and snap their heads off which grow back - gross.

Next stop Surfers Paradise where we explored the city centre and markets before making our way to Burleigh Heads where we spent the night.

our most elaborate Park bench so far

The next day we spent at Point Danger (Tweed heads/Coolongatta) watching the wild surf and surfers - very entertaining and a relaxing spot.  Only a few days later the breakers were awesome and the beach closed because of the conditions - not that it didnt stop those few hardy or foolish people.

from Point Danger lookout, a couple of days later this track was closed, the grass slope on the left is where we stood to watch the surf below



just before the wave broke - the photographer got wet, the assistant ran for cover



Back to Rositas and Marks place for xmas - a lovely day spent with Tonys family, thank you very much for sharing it with us.

Toowoombah

Just before arriving in Toowoombah at a wee town called Oakey we suddenly noticed that our view was being obstructed by hills and trees, quite a novelty as our last few days have been driving through fairly open country.  We arrived in Toowoombah (a mere 2574km from Wellington)

at midday and had a nosey around town, checking out St Lukes church and their Christmas tree display and finding out about Christmas Wonderland – a Christmas light display on in the evenings.  Its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas……..

From what we saw Toowoombah is a lovely town and there were no signs of the devastation that occurred earlier this year.  We had a tour of the Empire Theatre which is Australia largest regional performing arts venue,

and  had a sqizz around the old railway station

which I believe is still operational.  We spent a day and a half on Picnic Hill chilling as it was such a beautiful park with magnificent views, almost to Brisbane. 

We enjoyed watching the change from daylight to dark and spotting the lights from the small settlements off the highway which weren’t visible during the day and watching and hearing the traffic grind up the Toowoomba hill on the highway. 

After spending a few days looking around the town we decided it was time to move on – not sure where were heading however we knew that Tallebudgera Valley where Tonys sister and her family live would be the final destination for Christmas.  So now it was our turn to wind our way down the big hill.

On the way we had an amazing find on the roadside “The Big Orange” – fruit and veges cheap as – stone fruit 99c per kg, mangoes for 25c each, oranges for 5c each, a 10kg watermelon for $2.00 – fruit heaven!!!!!

Because we can we made a wee diversion to Fernvale and the Wivenhoe dam.  We drove across the dam which had magnificent picnic areas on either side, we stopped at Cormorant Park for lunch, from there we found an overnight stop by Northbrook Creek that the information centre had recommended – it was nothing more than 2 bbq tables and a river, which we put to good use!!! 

A very peaceful night with the sky pinpricked with millions of stars.  From here we decided that we really needed to get to Rositas place to offload our booty from The Big Orange as it would be a shame to have to dump it.

The last few kms of the trip Tony didn’t want to use the toll road so we clocked up a few more kms than we had expected trying to find our way out of the suburbs we found ourselves in – ending up by deciding it would have been cheaper to use the toll road.

Roma

Was initially very wet, the first real rain we had seen for a while and our kitchen was in serious danger of flooding,

so we had a quick breakfast and then relocated to Slab Hut.  Built in 1893 slab hut was approximately 50 sq/m  and was home to a family of eleven!!!!! (it makes George seem downright luxurious).  Now that the family have gone we have commandeered their hut as shelter and to use to charge our toys and update diaries etc. 

Eventually the rain stopped and we went for a wander through town, spotting some big bottle trees

and a beautiful church. 

We did the historic walk through town checking out all the historic sites, but we were exceptionally disappointed.  The next day we walked around the early gas sites on hospital hill (which isn’t a hill at all) although this was a recommended walk it was a fairly run down affair, we walked miles to see this in the hot sun. (5km!!!!)

Romas primary industry is its gas fields.

Day 3 in Roma saw us up early heading to the Roma saleyards, able to put through 12,000 head of stock in one day it is apparently Australia’s largest cattle selling complex.  We wandered around the yards for a while and then ordered breakfast from the canteen with Tony opting for the $14 Big Brekky –

I have to say this is the first time I have seen him almost defeated by a meal – well done ladies, an amazing breakfast.  We had a great morning watching the horsemen take the cattle from their pens after being sold to be weighed

and the auctioneers were a delight to watch. 

Beyond the Black Stump

And this is what it looks like, in a wee town called Blackall, which incidentally smells more like Rotorua than Rotorua does!!!!

Then onto Tambo where we visited the home of the Tambo Teddies, which as you can guess is a teddy bear shop – cute, and boasting a population of 593 there were almost as many teddies as there were people.  A quick stop at Mitchell where we found that in the park the taps flowed hot water so took the opportunity for a wash under our hose (we found out that the water got hotter as it flows as it came from an artesian bore - AWESOME). 

Time for a photo shoot and a play with the trains and then it was on to Roma.

Patriotism the Australian Way

From Longreach we continued West and really started to notice the absence of hills – you can literally see for miles in all directions with hardly a tree to blot the landscape and certainly no hills – at times I think George got quite a surprise to actually have to turn a corner.  We finally reached Winton which was as far outback as we had decided we would be going.

Winton is the home of the Waltzing Matilda Centre and really the purpose of our trip. 

It was well worth the journey, the story behind the song was well told and the Centre and Pioneer museum featuring static displays, holograms and other interactive features were well done and gave an insight into Australia’s history.

Once we left the Museum we wandered down the street to check out Arnos wall which sounded impressive in the brochure but was a little disappointing – essentially it is 2m high, 70m long (but goes around in a square) and is studded with everything imaginable, from motorbikes to machine parts to sewing machines.

The heat outside was stifling and although there was a breeze it was actually too hot to be pleasant even driving in George.

Farewell Mackay - Moranbah to Longreach

Our last day of work at Sugar Australia was 4 December, next stop Moranbah to spend an awesome couple of days with Zoe.  There was not alot to do in Moranbah but we found a couple of parks to kill a bit of time, one being a rest area where we spent a couple of night kipping.  We met Dave, Fiona, Kam and Xanthe and where treated to a very nice meal - they were very welcoming and great hosts - thank you.

Play time

flooded river

Musical instruments at Town square Moranbah

From Moranbah we had an emergency trip back to Mackay as george was not well, after a few attempts we found a mobile mechanic who was able to look at him that afternoon - the source of the problem was when the new timing belt had been fitted they had failed to renew the timing belt tensioner and it was f.......d.  Sooo a new timing belt and tensioner and a few hours labour later we were ready to hit the road.

thank you Ricky

The next morning, early, we hit the road for Rubyvale, passing close to some awesome open cast mines along the way, stopping at Capella for lunch and arriving just short of Rubyvale by evening.

open cast mine on the way to Clermont

lunch at Capella

Next day after breakfast in Rubyvale and meeting a new wee friend

we went exploring the wee mining town hoping for some knowledge on fossicking - Rubyvale being a sapphire area.  After visitng 2 shops and taking some advice we decided to do the Miners Heritage Museum tour - an underground tour of an old sapphire mine.  after the tour we purchased a 10 litre bucket of dirt and I had a fossick through, having many hours of pleasure playing in this small pile of rubble from the Heritage museums commercial mine.  To my enjoyment i found many pieces of sapphire in my lucky dip bucket, sadly though none big enough to warrant cutting and setting. An awesome experience and I can see how people become addicted.

fossicking area

could this be the one.....

After leaving Rubyvale we drove on to Barcaldine, passing through many little settlements and arriving in the later part of the afternoon, awestruck by the cleanliness of this little town with the biggest attraction being the monument of the destroyed Tree of Knowledge (awesome monument and was very expensive to construct).  We stayed the night at a rest area just out of Barcaldine and took some more photos of the Tree by day.

Our next destination was Longreach, stopping on the outskirts to visit the Qantas Museum - an all day event.  We started the tour at 11am and the 3 plane tour took approx 4 hours (an extensive Boeing 747 tour plus the 707 and DC3) it included the wing walk on the 747 which was an experience not to be missed. Then it was through the museum which contained lots of historical information, including visual displays.  Something Ryan would definetely enjoy.

Pilot Tony!!!!!

down into the luggage compartment

wing walk on the Boeing 747

John Travoltas favourite seat

eeek hows this for an exit