Western Queensland-Camooweal

Yesterdays post got me re-thinking the last couple of months and so, I re-visited those photos from ---Out There..and I came up with this one taken from about the same position as that magic pink/purple reflected sky that was my last post. let me know what you think via the comments at bottom of the page.

Western Queensland

Going through some more of our photos from our earlier trip to Queensland and found this photo. Might I say that of all the place we stayed in Queensland, the most picturesque, the most scenic and the most relaxing was beside a water hole at Camooweal where our good friends Norm and Dot had stayed a couple of years ago and sent a photo of this place via e-mail so that every body could see it. Well we found it Dot and Norm, and pulled in for a day and finished up staying for three or four, not sure now.Cattle coming down during the day, a pair of brolgas that graced us with their presence,and a pair of kites that had a nest high upon a branch opposite us, all shared this water hole.... Queensland magic!!
This photo almost qualifies for one of my  "every picture tells a story" shots but it was such a lovely spot that it deserved some explaination

Every Picture Tells a Story

Post WUDU extravaganza

Well it took more that one day off before we could actually say where we were going or what we were going to do. Then it's not quite all over either. do we free camp or park? we free camp. Will it be Lockwood south or Maldon, no neither, we go on to Newbridge. Aah, peace at last, feel the serenity...
Next day is Thursday 22nd november and it's Claytons birthday so we push on to Echuca Moama and the forecast is for pretty warm weather with 39 predicted for Sunday.So we booked into Shady River for the duration, tea out at the RSL which was a surprise for Clayton.

 Signed the contracts for our house as we had accepted the offer made to us without going to auction.

The Bendigo Leisurefest starts on Friday but we decide to go Saturday. caught up with michael from Epsom Palms caravan centre, Russell Breadmore, from the CIA and Warren Parrot from WUDU. Lynda Groom from Trulux Fifth wheelers was also on their stand. Spoke to several caravan sales people and looked at a lot of vans. And there were a LOT of vans there. bigger than two years ago when we were last there.According to the guy from Elite Caravans, it was a bigger show than Brisbane.
Barbecue tea with jac, mark and the kids here last night was a great chance for a good catch up. The kids took advantage of the jumping pillow and the pool.

Warburton /Healesville to Fed Square

Peter Huth and I 

lovely course at Warburton Golf club

The park at Warburton is tucked away in a lovely setting beside a babbler (brook that is) that becomes the Yarra River. Just down the road and over a bridge is the Warburton Golf Club, the scene for our next challenge.The result of which will be revealed when the series is played from January 6th on OneHD. It's enough to say that we all had a great time....
The concert at hedgend maze Healesville was disappointing, to say the least. We have had greater numbers and a much better response from previous venues. After tea tonight, Dean Allen-Craig (the walking jukebox) played up a storm and Danny P and Wazza both had trouble keeping up with this guys amazing guitar playing knowledge. a SUPER singalong and a great night. We say goodbye to everybody today with a "See ya in Fed. square."We head for the storage yard at Braeside after several heavy showers of rain and a bleak forecast. Get our van and landcruiser hitched up and the gear transferred from one van back into ours and its off to Big4 Dandenong with the Tanami arriving later. Peter and Alison have detailed their van and are taking a cabin at Dandy Big4 as well so it gives us a chance for a last meal together, some wine and a lot of laughs. Their company has been great and they are wonderful people with a great deal of experience and knowledge of the caravan business and park industry. An early rise as the vans have to be located in Fed square by 7.00am so we leave here at about 5.30 and arrived in plenty of time at 6.30. Marg. followed me into the city in the Pathfinder that we have been using on the trip and which had to be detailed for display as well.That was a daunting task, to say the least, get a caravan and 4x4 into fed square by that time,then place the caravan where they wanted it for the mini caravan show, WOW and you know what, It went REALLY well, no probs....

Caravan Corale

Phil Conquest, Marg, Alison Huth and John Adderley

Ivan, Alex,Sally  and Marg.

Now on to the concert and some more rattling of tins and raffle ticket sales. All went well, thanks to the two schools and the lunchtime crowd. Met Ivan, Sally and Alex who were all able to stay for a while. Good to see them again.
Concert went very well, cheque presentation to the Alfred hospital and now a wind down. We take the Nissan Navara ute and the Pathfinder back to Dandy Big4 for delivery tomorrow and end up in a traffic jam on Monash Fwy that meant 1.5 hours home. Now I know why I prefer the bush..Still don't know where we are going tomorrow or what we are doing, anyway, am sure it will happen, WHATEVER....

Castlemaine to Nagambie

This trip was exceptionally good. The Presenters had gone off to Bendigo and Maldon with two other crews and we took a crew along the back roads from Castlemaine to Sutton Grange, Redesdale and on to Heathcote. Through Heathcote to the Nagambie turn off through Costerfield, Graytown and into Nagambie Big4 caravan park. Rattled tins in Nagambie that afternoon and got a great response from the public there. next morning some went back to Maldon and some went to euroa to rattle tins. On the way to Euroa we did several passing shots of the convoy of Nissans and again got a great response in Euroa.Back for lunch and off to mitchelton winery for shoot and a taste before the concert that night back at nagambie lakes leisure park. we were joined by a couple in a Chrysler Royal and vintage caravan, both of who (which) have been lovingly restored. The vehicles, not the couple.......Another great concert with larger numbers there than we had at Castlemaine.

part of the crowd at Nagambie
The trip from Nagambie to Healesville, Warburton was delayed significantly because of an earlier accident at Seymour
so instead of driving the usual route through Seymour, we were detoured by traffic police around the heavy vehicle route, which I was familiar with but I don't think anyone else was. Anyway, we were ably lead by peter huth today and stopped for a fatigue break, morning tea at yea. The next phase of our journey was a bit of a shemozzle and could have been nasty had it been allowed to continue, suffice to say, that I circled the wagons going up Mt. Donna Buang and we had a meeting the result being that I took over the lead and got the convoy arriving safely at Warburton.
GPS seemingly wanted to take us over the mountain and when I passed a sign that read "Not suitable for Trucks, Buses or Caravans", I acted...

Chrysler Royal Duo

Daylesford, Hepburn Springs and Castlemaine

The keys to allow us to fill the van with water have arrived from Brisbane this morning.

The fleet at Ballarat

My poem reading

Danny, Angie and Dean

 After  shooting at the local service station, where THEY still serve you, we headed out of town and stopped in the potato growing township of Dean. After once again mustering the troops, Tania lead the way in the Jayco Conquest motor home.One part of the group kept motoring on to Maldon and we hung back to have a run through the streets of Daylesford rattling tins. The reception was generally pretty good in Daylesford so we then headed to Hepburn Springs. Spa resort is still great. I have a photo somewhere of my great Grandfather and two great aunts sitting on a bench seat near the pavilion in the 1930's and that building is still there today. Up the hill out of Daylesford and heading for Castlemaine. This park, the Big4 is where we stayed about seven months ago and although steep banks run beside the creek on the lower side, the sites are more easy to negotiate today. we arrive en masse and are directed to our sites by Russell. After unhitching and setting up hoses, leads etc, I unlock the water tanks and fill both. we will see how the van behaves tomorrow on the way to Nagambie. Tonights concert was a real winner. John and Ann Westbury did a great job of looking after the barbecue for the crowd, Matt Hollywood was in great form with some new tricks and Danny, Angie Wazza, Dean and Tania sang up a storm. I read the poem of Satnav for the first time and it seemed to go over well.

on The Road Again, Colac and Ballarat

Leaving the magic of the coast, we left Apollo Bay and headed into the hills of the Otway Ranges. Some magic views were taken in as we wound our way up, and up and up higher until the road starts to level out, however briefly and then the descent into Forrest and on to Colac. We circled the wagons by the lake and very close to the Botanic gardens in Colac after observing a minutes silence on the side of the road on our approach as it is Remembrance day.
Some tin shaking in the street were we met a couple of the local RSL members who took us back to their club for some tin rattlin' and that was very well received.

Colac lakeside for lunch

lunch at the lake and hit the road bound for Ballarat via Beeac, Cressy and Rokewood. The Elite caravan is still playing up even though Russell Whizz, had changed the configuration of the tow head, lowered the tyre pressures, it still ducks and weaves.
Ballarat Big4 welcome Stranger caravan park was very "Welcome" as the effort required to keep this unit on the road is exhausting and stressful.

Part of the great Ballarat crowd

Danny and Angie singing up a storm

Preparations were already under way for the mini concert with visitors taking up the car park at the front entrance to attend. From this level of activity, tonights mini concert may be a MONSTER.  Catering girls took the night off from cooking tonight but still managed to get and serve up a massive array of good pizzas for tea. Concert under way and everybody, although very tired, have made another great effort to put on a fantastic show.
Today, a lay day, has started rather lazily. Breakfast was scheduled for 8.00am . After a rough night where awnings were withdrawn because of the prevailing winds, we gathered for brekky served from inside the truck for cooked and outside for cold. Another great serve with eggs benedict being my favourite. How long can this go on?
 Off to Sovereign Hill this afternoon for some gold digging of the tin rattling kind.

WUDU Go Make Some Memories tour

The caravan convoy for charity began at Dandenong Big4 caravan park with each of the participants being introduced to their individual vans and what a display. The best of the Best have been put together to "Go make some memories" around Victoria at the top ten tourist destinations in this great state and within 2 hours of Melbourne.
 So far this trip has taken us to phillip island,where we visited the Phillip Island trout farm at Rhyll. A competition was set up between two teams to catch the most fish and pound for pound, our team won. Then we ate the fish....Yummo.
In the afternoon, half of the group visited the lovely Venus Bay and environs while the other half went into Cowes, strolled the main street and walked up and down the jetty.This was all followed by the first of the mini concerts to be performed by members of our group at several of our stays. a great day/night.
next morning as we hitched up the teams to the wagons, we found the group would travel towards Sorrento with some going to Portsea and others going to Rye. The Rye group went to a natural mineral spa and had a great time. We strolled the street of Portsea and ended up with lunch at the magnificent Portsea Hotel before our cruise across the bay to Queenscliff. The wind had picked up and the crossing could have been smoother. We travelled to beacon Resort Big4 at Queenscliff for the night where the second of the mini concerts was held in appalling cold weather. That didn't stop the performers or indeed, the 100 strong audience either. Tin rattling has produced a better result from the greater numbers obviously. a very funny night with matt Hollywood, comedian magician extraordinaire, doing a great job.
Time to get going again and this morning through Ocean Grove Torquay and stop for a break at Anglesea. Surf carnival attempt at a world record of the greatest number of surfers on the one wave was to be attempted but no news of that yet. Moved on taking several breaks for traffic to pass and our camera crews to go ahead once again to capture the convoy snaking its way along this magnificent piece of shoreline. i must say though, that i believe the road condition is the worst that i have seen it in for many years.I suppose that says something for the traffic numbers along there.
Tomorrow we leave here bound for Ballarat via Colac. Two nights there including a day off so will catch up with some cousins in the area, some shopping and a mini concert..