Baker's Beach and Ullverstone

The trip in Tasmania is nearly over now.  We found really beautiful spot to camp in a National Park on the side of a river.  It’s very crowded at the park because it is a long weekend in Tasmania.  Weather is the pits as there is a constant dirizzle with strong winds.  Apparently a lot of people have packed up and gone home as the weather has set for the weekend.  Not us Stephensons though!  Alright – we have nowhere to go!!!  Anyway, last chance to go fishing in Tas.  Alex is out there braving the wind and rain and cursing because everyone else is catching fish, but not him. 

Woke up in the morning, packed up the camper and off for a last bit of fishing before we moved on back to Ullverstone and Devonport.  Alex caught THREE fish and two on the same line (used double hooks)!!!  Hooray!!!!  Threw them back though as they were too small.  I picked up a lot of beautiful tumbled pebbles off the beach.  I am going to make myself a ‘Tree of Life’ mosaic when I get back home to remember our travels in Tas.

Rolled in to Ullverstone (Elle and Damien Shields hail from this tiny town) for a cup of tea and scones with Elle’s parents.  They are both so cool.  Fred and Lynne had been camping on Baker’s beach close to us but had left early because of the weather.  We were lucky to catch them as they were off the next day to help out with a Driver Reviver stand.  It was so good to see them. The dogs were gorgeous – Polly and Lady – had to have their share of scones while we were there.  They were such well-mannered dogs J

Off to Devonport we went to board the Spirit of Tasmania II back to Melbourne.  We were very clever this time and bought a picnic dinner at Woollies to eat in our cabin rather than pay the exorbitant prices on board the ferry.  Although the weather was very rough and the ship rolled around a lot, I slept like a baby and didn’t want to get off the boat.  I think I have the cruising bug now and can’t wait to go somewhere with a big bunch of friends.

Launceston

Dropped Kate off and sent back some of our warmies.  Paul reckons we wont need it that much.  ‘Yeah right’ says miserably cold Christine.  We had a great time with Kate and really enjoyed her company.  It’s great for Alex to have a big sister to boss him around.

The best thing about being in Launceston is that I finally got to catch up with my long lost friend Lee and his family.  The freaky thing about seeing  Lee again was that he left Emirates in 2007 and I joined exactly 12 months later.  We were such close friends in Singapore and I agonized losing contact with him and especially his Mum who I love to bits.  Lee, unfortunately,  has just been made redundant and is looking for work again.  Hopefully he finds one closer to us in QLD.  It was great meeting Lee’s lovely wife Charlotte and son Marcello.  Marcello and Alex got on like a house on fire and played with the Lego the whole two days we were there.  Charlotte looked after us so well especially given I had never met her as Lee married her after he left Singapore.  I also got to SKYPE with Lee’s Mum – Aunty Lumu – who doesn’t seem to have changed much since I last saw her.  She was practically speechless when she saw me on the video and I kept trying not to cry.  Aunty Lumu was like a second mother to me when I went through a rough time at home.  I am so glad to have got in touch with them again. 

Branxholm

Kate’s last night in Tasmania.  She had to be at the airport at 10 am so we decided to stay as close as possible to Launceston. On the way to Branxholm we stopped at a place called ‘Pub in the Paddock’. Guess what – it really is a Pub in a paddock.  They have a pig that is an alcoholic and for a dollar you can get a watered down bottle of Boags beer and feed it to her.  What a waste of good beer!! The pub however makes really good desserts and we all had one with the excuse that we had walked so much the day before, so could afford the calories. J

Pulled up in Branxholm close to the local pub.  Was very cold and wet – so decided not to cook for the night.  We had our showers and went over to the pub which gave us their private dining room with a roaring log fire.  We of course had to have a couple of drinks, real home cooked meals and then dessert because none of us wanted to head back to the freezing camper van. The one great thing about Branxholm other than the Pub, were the showers.  They were absolutely divine and warmed my soul!

Freycinet National Park

Got to Freycient really late in the evening and pulled into the National Park’s camping site.  This place is so popular that ballots are drawn to see who will stay here for X’mas.  This side of the coast is famous for its wonderful beaches that people can hardly swim at because it is so blooming cold with Antarctic water.  Woke up leisurely in the morning packed a picnic lunch and took for to the Wineglass bay walk.  Moderately difficult with steep climbs.  Omg!!!!!  On a positive note, I must be getting fitter as my lungs don’t burn as much and my knees didn’t hurt too bad.  It was a steep climb though and well worth the effort to get to the top and then all the way to the water’s edge.  There were a couple of tame Wallabie on the beach hanging out for some food from the people.  One of them wanted to poke its head into our bag to have some lunch – poor guy struck out coz the Stevos don’t feed wildlife.  Sandwiches are so much tastier when eaten outdoors and we refused to share with the native wildlife.  We had a lazy lunch and did what we wanted to do – Alex rock climbing, Paul fishing, Kate and I walking along the beach and then rock climbing with Alex.  I could have camped the night there quite easily if there wasn’t the long walk back up the hill.  Kate and I got a head start as I thought it would be hard slog for me. Only two stops along the way and we made it to the top.  Not too bad at all, but my body is telling me about it while I type this blog up.

Port Arthur

I had terribly mixed feelings about going to Port Arthur since the massacre there in the 1996.  I expected many memorials to be everywhere as it was such a tragedy and given my intense dislike for guns in the hands of the wrong people, I was not quite looking forward to this visit.  It all turned out good.

No reminders of the massacre and not a single sole mentioned it the whole time we were there.  In fact we were there on two beautiful days.  Got there very late in the afternoon so only managed to make the guided tour and the boat tour around the Isle of the Dead and poke our heads into as many of the houses as we could before they closed at 5pm. 

Had to get back to the caravan park quickly as Alex and Kate were booked to do the Ghost tour that night.  Managed to get some pasta into both of them and saw them off with strict instructions to Alex that if he got scared that was too bad and he had to stick it out the whole tour. (Yeah right – we should have known better).  I still have worked out how much of the tour they actually saw as when Paul went to pick them up at 10pm, they were both at reception waiting to be picked up.  Of course Alex got scared and it didn’t help that people on the tour were banging the walls, but the poor little mite had had enough.  Phone reception being as poor as it is, Kate couldn’t ring Dad to come get them earlier.

Our second day saw us with beautiful weather and the four us enjoyed our walk through the rest of Port Arthur.  Look up the ‘worst’ prisons in the world and you might find out about the ‘Separate’ prison.  Guantanamo Bay is not a new way of incarcerating prisoners – Port Arthur was way ahead of the game!  Very morbid and creepy walking through this section.  We went to the museum and looked up our family names to see if any of our rellies were ever convicts at Port Arthur – there were two John Stephensons (Paul’s family naturally)  and two people with the name Crosby (My maternal grandmother’s side of the family).  Every other name we tried came up with nothing.

Hobart

The Royal Hobart show was on while we were there so decided to go for a look-see.  Paul dropped Alex and me off and then went to pick Kate up from the airport.  Alex and I checked out where everything was first – you were right Gete, the Hobart show pales in comparison to the Ekka!  Alex was thrilled to see his sister and took off with her to do the rides while Paul and I devoured some Devonshire teas at the Country Women’s Association stall – yum yum.  We didn’t hang around too long and headed back to our campsite at Franklin.

Strahan to Lake St Clair

We tried to get away quickly but slept in to make up for the strom.  I didn't think it could get any colder...quick...get out of there!

My luck was not going to change...

I know I love my husband very much because I slept the night in the middle of a snow storm 800m above sea level!  Why, because we (Paul) thought it would be such an excitingly diffierent thing to do.  So who was I to argue when the Park Rangers lent us a heater for the van to make life a little warmer - inside the van - but did anyone tell you that to get to the toilets you had to get OUT of the nice warm van and walk to the freezing cold toilet block with the ice block for a toilet seat???? And...the walk was through a SNOW STORM!!!!  Yes, I love my husband...



Alex all snug as a bug



Besides the drama with the snow, we had a really nice walk around the lake and I got to see a platypus in the lake.  The wonder of Lake St Clair is that it is the deepest lake in Australia and along with Dove Lake is a Glacier made lake while the other lakes we have been too are man-made and for generating hydro electricity.  The glacier lakes are part of National Parks whilst the hydro lakes are managed by the electricity companies and offer free camping along the lake.  The national parks cost money - but we have a 2 month pass so pay only for the nights we choose to stay there.





White Christmas?











Cradle Mountain - Lake Mackintosh - Strahan

Free camping again at Lake Mackintosh.  Another Hydroelectric dam allegedly full of trout!  Paul and Alex were furious as they had been fishing for a while when  a man turned up and threw his line in and BANG caught a trout!  The boys have still not caught any fish...so sad. :-(



It started raining that day so we all decamped back to the camper.  Got the heck out of there in the morning as we were very worried the lake would overflow the spill way and we would get trapped.  I needed a shower too and it was starting to get too cold for my liking.



A cold wet morning at Lake Mackintosh







Not much to say about Strahan - except I hope never to go there again.  We got hit by a gale!  Oh yes siree...just my luck.  Supposed to be feasting on Crayfish...it's not the season till Mid November.  I am so lucky aren't I?  We had a horrible dinner and am starting to wonder whether the Tasmanians are out to fleece the tourists and think us mainlanders are so dumb it's easy to part us from our money.  Imagine paying $6.50 for a hamburger at a fish and chip shop.  Where is Ms Hanson when you need her - I say??  OK, so I am a jobless bum watching my pennies, but I was not going to pay $28 for dinner at a Pub - so the cheapest was the fisho. 

Anyway, back to the cravan park where Paul and I both spent a very sleepless night waiting for the camper to be picked up by the gale and carried back to Cradle Mountain.  Couldn't wait to get out of Strahan...OK...there was one nice thing...I saw a beautiful B&B I would have loved to have owned called Ormiston House.  It even had a widow's walk...wish it was in Queensland though where we have the thermostat up a few notches.

Lake Barrington to Cradle Mountain

Snow still on top of Cradle Mountain

There are so many  beautiful places in the world and by golly this has to be one of them.  This one is worth a visit if you have never been to Cradle Mountain.  It is not the mountain that is so spectacular - I've seen better - but it is the beauty of the lake surrounded by the mountain and the other ridges and how clean and pristine this area is. Thank goodness this is a UNESCO protected site and a National Park so that this can be preserved for our children.  The beauty was breathtaking and to be able to walk around Dove Lake with Paul and Alex was the icing on the cake.  There are many other walks to do around the Cradle Mountain area, but alas I wish I was fitter.  There is even an overland route that takes 7 days to do.  I wish I could do this with you Sandra (if you are reading this). After Kokoda, this should be a walk in the park for you.

Relaxing

Apparently it rains 6 days out of 10 at Cradle Valley.  How lucky were we to get there on a Sunny day.

A whole lot of updates

Again – no access to the outside world!  This is our third night of ‘free’ camping.  When we got past Mildura, we barely went 25KM and found another magical spot by the Murray River and decided to camp for the night.  Boys went fishing again and set up a Yabby Trap (Judy – look up Wikipedia again to see what these little critters look like – they are yummy too) but alas no success again.

One of the simple pleasures of camping (don’t laugh) is going to take a pee under a gazillion stars.  How beautiful the sky looks when you are far away from the big smoke!!!  Unfortunately it was too cold to linger so I didn’t get a chance to see any satellites.

We drove through Swan Hill and for Paul to realise this was not a Gold Panning region and not where Uncle Henry took him to when he was little.  It was only then I realised he was talking about Sovereign Hill near Ballarat and not Swan Hill. J

Our second night of camping was again by the Murray just 8KKM outside of Echuca.  Another magical spot with nothing in front of us but the river and a forest on the other side of the bank.  It was so good, we all lingered and had bucket baths, bacon and eggs and just sat by the water.  We still managed to see a bit of Echuca and made it to Mt Franklin in time to set up camp, cook dinner and go for a walk to the Summit.

Echuca to Melbourne via Ballarat 5^th to 6^th October

A big tourist destination because of its Gold Mining history, Ballarat has a living museum called Sovereign Hill.  I still remember my Mother bringing back a small bottle of Gold flecks from her first visit to Australia in 1982.  I was so awed by it and many years later enjoyed myself very much.  The best part was of course the Gold Panning.  The funniest part was that Alex was so excited he was  nearly jumping out of his skin and wanted to try to find gold so badly.  Now listen close and pay attention – if you should so happen to at Sovereign Hill – this is how you can guarantee to find the most gold flecks – more than anyone else at the park.  Don’t share this secret with too many people otherwise all the gold will be gone too soon.  Now this is not my tip, but Paul’s clever logical reasoning.  Along the stream running through the park, where a hundred other people are frantically panning, look for the foot bridge over the stream.  Grab a shovel and shove it deep in the middle of the stream, right UNDER the foot bridge.  Bring out your shovel and dump the contents in the panning dish.  Patience and swirl, swirl, swirl – chuck out the big stones, wash, wash, wash, swirl, swirl, swirl (remember the patience) – after you are left with a little bit of gravel – look out of the gold flecks.  You will find some.  Alex was told that with today’s prices we had about $50 worth!  Not bad – hey??

Melbourne – 6^th to the 11^th of October

We arrived at my Godmother Jessica’s house late in the afternoon to a wonderful CURRY dinner!!!!  Yummy!!!  Colby did not recognize me from my last visit (big disappointment) and he did not like Alex one bit.  Poor Alex has never met a dog who doesn’t love him.  Took two days for Colby to stop skirting the walls and keeping both eyes on Alex at all times.  Trust Alex to finally win him over though.

I spent the most wonderful birthday with the DeSouzas (Jessica’s family) – this my 22^nd year on Earth(sic).  It started off with Bacon and Eggs for brekkie – in bed of course with my great grandma’s secret grilled tomato recipe.   Alex gave me a whole pile of presents which included, Mango juice, two chocolate bars, a bottle of Shampoo and pack of PINK CHUX (for those of you non-Aussies – they are a pack of wipes used to clean up messes in the kitchen).  The CHUX being because Daddy keeps pinching mine to clean the car.  Jade made me a beautiful Apple cake and we all went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant in Willamstown.

We had some sad news when we were in Melbourne – Jim (Jessica’s husband was laid off).  We hope and pray he finds work again really soon.  Life is unfair when people get laid off in the twilight years of their careers without being given a good reason.  When one door closes another opens, so Jim – you will find work again really soon.

On the 10^th we caught up with a very good friend of ours from the year I was a Project’s officer in Taree for an automotive company.  Alba was the environmental quality co-ordinator and moved to Melbourne shortly after I left Taree.  Alba is one of those extremely successful migrants from Venezuela who met her husband Artu (from Poland) at her English language class in Sydney.  It is so good to see both of them doing so well and the children grown up so quickly too. 

On the 11^th afternoon we left on the Spirit of Tasmania I to Devenport.

11^th Night – Spirit of Tasmania I

Huge boat!!!  But the Bass Strait has BIG waves.  Jessica, Jim and Jeremy came to see us off.  Jeremy’s first flying job was in Tassie and the trip brought back a lot of memories for them.  Getting on the boat was challenging – OK time to stop calling it a boat.  The ship was big enough to take a few containers with us!!  They were all strapped down when we finally made it into the belly of the ship.

We had booked sleeper cabins so as soon as we finished dinner, I went up to snuggle in with my book while the boys went exploring the ship.  The cabins were very much like railway cabin – much more upper class with an ensuite.  Thank goodness we didn’t have to share the cabin as it was very nice having it to ourselves.  Unfortunately I didn’t sleep to well as the noise of the engine kept me dozing and not sleeping.  No rocking like the railway, but a fantastic journey nevertheless.  I can’t wait to now try a cruise to the Pacific Islands.  Hey McInerney’s wanna come??

12^th -14^th Devenport to Lake Barrington

Lake Barrington was only about 30+Km away and after a nice breakfast we drove straight to the camping spot.  You lot are going to  be so bored by all these magical spots we keep finding.  No one else insight except for the wild animals, the wind and the water.  Of course the forests too.  We had prime pick of the site till a man came in the afternoon with his camper and proceeded to use his chainsaw to get some firewood.  Didn’t worry us because we couldn’t see him.  We loved this spot so much we all voted to stay two nights.  Mummy is so tolerant coz I can still have a bath every night even though it is lake water full of tannin!  At least it is warn and I get the important bits cleaned.  J  I think Alex likes his baths in the wilderness as I bathe him, massage him with moisturizer and then help him get dressed before he can even say cold!  Paul would like the same treatment – but alas there is so much of him that he would scream with COLD!!!

Anyway – stop that laughing (or chucking), the lake being so close was ideal for fishing with Alex.  Only he is fishing because he doesn’t need a license.  Paul helps him to cast occasionally and the two of them are having some really good bonding time.

On our second day, we went for a long walk around the campsite stopping to point out the interesting flora to Alex – Huge tree ferns everywhere and many varieties of moss.  Some magnificent gums which are so tall we could picture men from the olden days coming to pick out masts for their ships.

Broken Hill to Lake Pamamaroo to Mildura

No mobile access for two whole days?  That’s because we were in such a magical spot we decided to stay there two nights!  Lake Pamamaroo is about 160Km south east of Broken Hill.  There is a huge lake system that has been built on the Darling River, Lake Pamamaroo being just one of them.  Declared to be one of the reasons why we have so much water trouble on the Murray as the lakes take up a lot of the water meant to flow down the river.  The water seems to be at a very high level and they must be sending a lot of it down river as the river is pretty full too.

We relaxed the whole day – the boys fishing (with bread for bait) and me doing some work (that’s right – drawing architecture models for my project with Andy) and reading a book.  In the evening we went for a long walk to see the Main Weir on the Darling River where Alex had another go at feeding the fish with his bread bait.  The views and the atmosphere were so relaxing we very reluctanty packed up camp and headed to Mildura.


Can a sunset be more magical?





The road from the lake was very tough going and Paul was very tired.  Dirt all the way to just a little bit out of Wetworth.  Great glimpses of the river along the way.  Honsetly, we could not have picked a better time for this trip.  There are so many wildflowers along the roads and the farms that it is unbelivable that Australia looks like one big spring garden!  We have taken so many great photos that we don't know what to do with all of them.  I might have to put them all up on Facebook just to share  them with all of you.  I highly recommend this time of year for a driving holiday.  We are so blessed to live in this country of such stark, but beautiful extremes.



Can you see the two colours?



Wentworth - Stopped here very briefly.  But a must do stop as this is the confluence of Australia's two greatest rivers - the Darling and Murray.  There is a viewing platform that you  must climb up to see the the merging of the rivers.  The slit laden Darling (light beige colur) and the clearer water of the Murray can be clearly seen on either side, till the two waters become one - then it all gets light beige in colour.  Very pretty spot - but we wanted to get to Mildura quickly to settle down for the night.

Stopped along the way to buy some Oranges and Butternut pumpkins.  We bought about 10kg of Oranges for an almighty $6 and 10kg of Pumpkins for $5.  So it's pumkin for lunch and dinner for the next few nights - how many ways can you cook pumpkin.  Anyone know the Gujarati recipe for that yummy pumpkin dish they make?

Don't know what tomorrow brings - only new adventure - Paul is reading the weather reports and it appears we might be in for some rain - I hope it doesn't rain on my birthday though :-()

Wildflowers by the side of the road

Orange to Broken Hill

My Dearest Friend - Val

Whilst it is a great idea to blog every day, it is impossible to get Mobile access wherever we are.  I will have to start keeping the diary in Word and then first chance I get to upload something – scoot it up the wire to the Blogspot.

Orange – There are some people who were put on this earth who are really disguised Angels – that’s my friend Valmae Houlahan.  She still continues to look after her family selflessly one tragedy after the other. Her latest one being her much loved sister-in-law Tammy who passed away with a brain tumor.  Despite all of this, Val still smiles and had lots of cuddles and hugs for the three of us.  I love seeing Val because it’s like coming home to Mum’s house. 

She looks after Me (Paul and Alex get plenty of attention too) making all my favourite dishes (Lamb roast – wonder where I learnt how to make such good roast) and just sits and chats without judgment.  I can talk to her about anything!  It is always sad leaving Orange because I want to do so much more to look after Val and can’t help wishing she was living closer to Brisbane (It’s two days driving to Orange).  I am always jealous of Makita and Glenn (her children) who have her so close and all the time. Speaking of Makita and Glenn – we got to meet the  new additions to their families – Maddison, Taj and Haylee!  Glenn had recently got married to Amanda and is not the proud father of FOUR children.  Saw the huge chuck taken out of his leg from the melanoma (please check your skin every six months) and am so pleased he is doing so well.  Makita is beautiful as ever and her oldest Katelyn, despite being a handful (still) is growing into a beautiful young lady – watch out guys.

We spent two nights in Orange – had to get out of Val’s hair so she could go to work.  Wonder what that is?  Hit the road to Broken Hill with a stopover just past Cobar.



In the Big Chair at the Miner's Memorial

 Cobar – Just a small stop through to see an Open Cut copper mine.  Uncle Henry took Paul underground in the early 1970s and picked up some ore.  We camped just past Cobar along the side of the road right next to a farm.  A really pretty spot!  Paul picked me some wildflowers which are blooming everywhere right now and let me sleep in the next day.  We have been pushing the driving so much I couldn’t get up in the mornings even after 8hrs of sleep.



Open Cut Mine in Cobar



Emirates Flies to Broken Hill




Broken Hill – Got in after lunch to find out that most sights are only open between 10am and 3pm.  So we went to the Line of Lode memorial for a looksee and then went to get some groceries.  Came back to the caravan park and had a nice hot shower , pasta for dinner and then bed.

Mt Tamborine to Just South of Narrabri - Tuskey Creek

Time flies way too quickly.  I can just see these three months zipping by really fast.  We stopped in Brisbane yesterday and had a lovely lunch with Kate (Paul’s daughter) and then drove on to Manly to pick up mail  Didn’t stop to say hello to anyone as we were running late to get to Tamborine.  When we finally got there, Donna just had time to show Paul the garden and get a tour of the house in before the sunset.  There have been many changes to the house since I was last there and it is so good to see Tony and Donna’s retirement plan come together so beautifully.

We got up at 5:30am (cheez – I thought we were on holiday Paul) and hit the road at 6:30 driving down the mountain, through Beaudesert, Boonah – via the Cunningham’s gap, Warwick, Inglewood and then the heavens opened (coz I started driving) and Paul had to take over driving.  Was a little bit scared at how heavy the rain was.  There is so much water lying around and every creek we passed was full or flooded.  Talked Alex through the wash out drill incase a wall of water washed the car off the road.  He started taking his seat belt off thinking it was for real!  Paul had to explain the similarities to an aircraft drill on the plane and then he GOT IT!

It was very wet all the way to Goondiwindi (Gundy for short) where we stopped for lunch.  As soon as we crossed over to NSW, the weather cleared up and it has been lovely and even warm. 

Tomorrow is Paul’s birthday.  He already got his pressie in Dubai – so nothing for him to open.  I bought his some blueberries and I am going to try making pancakes in the morning.  Hopefully the eggs are OK.

Brisbane and then Mt Tamborine

We got to Brisbane last night.  But my battery wasn't charged and the company was too good, so didn't get a chance to log in and Blog.

The boys went off to buy Alex some decent hiking boots.  He has complained long and loud about sore ankles and given how much walking we are going to be doing we figured we had better get him some good quality shoes to wear.  While the boys were shopping, I caught up with Andy to talk about a couple of projects I am helping him with.  He also brought up the question about how my studies were going and I have committed to working out some angles of research to explore while I am driving around.  We got to meet Andy's lovely family - especially Paulie - who is such a handsome young man.

Back to Donna and Tony's in the evening and finally caught up with John (Donna's brother) who flew in from Sydney.  Looking forward to seeing him again tonight at Mt Tamborine where we will be heading for the night at the new house.  Paul and Alex haven't seen it since the blueprints were being drafted.  We were going to sleep in the camper for the first night, but Donna has offered us a nice comfy bed inside (OK, it is a little cold outside).

Don't know how we are going to cope with the cold!  Thank goodness I packed the hot water bottles!!!

Woombye Pub and Mooloolaba Spit

It rained early in the morning so no fishing at the crack of dawn.  Paul took Alex down however at 10am but didn't catch anything except for a new Garmin GPS!

We caught up with the De Veres and Borsatos for lunch at the Woombye Pub.  It has had a big makeover and served up some really good Aussie tucker.  Still not hungry for dinner.  The Turkish delight creme brulle and vanilla bean ice cream did it in for my waist line.

Alex was so happy to catch up with his best mate James who is now not quite so little.  He has nearly finished Grade 11 and imagine when I met him the first time he was still in nappies!!  I can't believe I have lived in Australia for such a long time.

After lunch - guess what we did???  More fishing.  This time at Mooloolaba on the Spit.  This is where the boats come into the safe habour on the Mooloolaba river.  On the other side of the spit is Pt Carthwright.  This is the  magical spot where Paul proposed to me all those years back.  Where has time flow?

Kondillila Falls

The weather cleared up a little today.  Kondillila is an aboriginal name for (you will never guess) - Running Water!  These falls are very close to Ro and Pa's unit, near Maleny.  Ryan's mob most likely visited this place too, but if they haven't then they should.  It was a great walk down to the bottom of the valley and an even better walk back up - huffing and puffing so much I could feel the pounds melting off my hips. (Yeah right!!)  It was those leeches sucking blood - more like it.  Not me though...poor Alex got attacked by two blood suckers.  What drama!!!  Have never seen Alex walk so fast to get up to the top and to the car. 

Here are the fixes for leeches, but first NEVER pull it off otherwise its head gets stuck in your skin, then gets infected and you keep bleeding:
1. Burn it off.  Remember to pull it's backside off the skin before you put a match or gas lighter to it - otherwise - said attached human being does not trust Daddy to burn it off and keeps pulling his leg off just as the flame is getting closer.
2. Salt.  Shake salt over the head of the leech and you will never believe how quickly the leech falls off.  It does help however to carry salt with you when walking in leech infested areas.  When no salt is available, then use method number 1.  If no flame is available then only alternative is number 3.
3. Yank head out.  Only use this as a last resort as the head will break off and you can't get it out unless you go to the hospital.  Thank heavens we had access to solution number 1!!!!

Alright Paul now wants to add another fix so here is number 4 and 5!

4. Wait.  Wait till the leech has its fill of blood and then falls off.  Not a pretty sight for the faint hearted as I am told they can swell quite BIG!!!
5. Kerosense or Metho.  If you have access to either - pour on top of leech and it will fall off - works the same as Salt.


Now for the weather.  It was a nice overcast day for walking and it didn't rain even once.  The sun came out in the afternoon and Alex pleaded to either go fishing or get Sushi!  He got neither - poor little deprived kid.  On the bright side - the alarm clock has been set for 6am in order to catch the tide at 7am.  Hope it doesn't rain in the morning and hope he catches a fish!

The falls from half way down the valley.

Blood filled leech

Welcome to our Blogspot

Paul, Christine and Alexander are off on a big adventure to the Southern parts of Australia!  Our Jayco Hawk has been packed, car has been serviced, tank filled with water, food stocked in the cupboards and fridge and now for a relaxing five nights on the Sunshine Coast at Ro and Pa's unit.

Alex has bought himself a hefier.  Her name is #158 (at the moment) till he thinks of a better name.  She is brown and is very kind and nice and walked up to him in the paddock.  That's how she got picked to be his hefier.  In about 9months time, he should be the proud Daddy of his first calf. 

We will be posting news updates as we hit the road and will also upload some pictures to show you where we have been.  So do stay in touch with us and send us email to paulastephenson@hotmail.com.