We have a trip map now.

We have created a Google Map to track our progress, check it out here if you like. (hope that worked). We will venture to keep it up to date as much as possible.

Cheers

June 27, Day 64 Townsville

Well we are 1280 km from home but we have so far managed to clock up 4200km's, not bad, could've done more I'm sure. There were so many places further south that we should've gone to, but in your home state you always think that they are close enough to home to do as short holidays so I'm sure we'll make time for them in the future.

We put new Old Man Emu shocks on the camper, big thanks to ARB Townsville for helping us out there, picked them up for $145 each with 2 yr/40,000km warranty, much better than $600 a pair for Koni's.

We are back on the road again early next week, headed for Lion's Den Hotel, just south of Cooktown, to meet up with Carolyn and Terry again. We also hope to meet the Nulley's (see their expedition page on the right) as they have recently travelled where we hope to go.

While it has been fantastic staying in Townsville and catching up with family and friends, the road calls us and we must obey.

June 26, Day 63 Broadwater Campground

What a fantastic week. We caught up with Carolyn and Terry just south of Ingham on Tuesday and drove the rest of the way together. Geoff and I got a late start and didn't end up leaving his parent's place until about 2.30pm and they drove up from Seaforth, further south so we timed it well. We left most of Geoff's tools and all of Erin's school work to lighten the load and it still took over half a day to get it all back together.

We spent the first day relaxing and catching up, took the girls over to the creek where they waded through the very cold water and had a ball. Carolyn and I are both horticulturists so we set about trying to identify everything around us, as we do.

Yesterday we drove out to Wallaman Falls and conquered the 4 km walk, 2 km straight down hill and 2 km all .. puff...the way...puff... back up… puff.  Definitely worth it though, once we got our breath back and feeling back in our legs.

We went to the campground at Wallaman to have a bite to eat and check it out before heading back to camp. There was mention of turtles in the creek so Carolyn and I ventured down the track to have a look with the girls; we were certainly in no shape to do the complete walk. The girls took off ahead, (where they get their energy from, I don't know) but were back within seconds yelling something about a cow on the track. Yeah right, a cow on the track in a National Park, go figure.  Carolyn and I had to check it out, it couldn't be true. Could it?

This was no cow, this was a big Brahman bull, standing behind the "Walking Track" sign and it was snorting.  As is Carolyn's way, she called him over, not expecting him to come … he did and she went. He followed us up from the creek; we stayed on the path, he went bush. At one stage I thought he had given up on us and I relaxed, until Carolyn yelled and ran. He had followed us to just below the car park where he looked up at us very forlornly, I felt so sorry for him, but not so sorry that I was going any closer. Carolyn even said she wouldn't mind adopting him, if she wasn't so scared of him.

On the way back to camp we passed some young calves standing in the middle of the road, which she was even more keen on adopting, if only until they were old enough to become steaks.

I'm sure Carolyn will tell this story even better than I, and maybe a little differently. But feel free to check out the photos in our album.

 

June 22, Day 59 Townsville

Well not long now until we are back on the road. We ordered another awning today, hopefully it will be ready by Tuesday next week as Monday is Show Day here. It is 2.4m with gable and walls so we'll be a bit more sheltered from wind and rain. We also had to get a new tyre for the camper as the left tyre was looking a little bald. While that was getting changed, the guy tells us that our shocks should be replaced as that was what was causing the wear on the tyres.  Well the camper is 15 years old and has been around Australia twice, I suppose we should get them replaced. Now for the bad news; they are Koni's and apparently $600 a pair. Geoff's doing the ring around to see if someone can do better. ARB is recommending Old Man Emu as replacements at $170 each.

We have got to get out of town, we are spending way too much money. Our purchases over the last couple of weeks include:

-          Toilet/shower tent, to replace one we broke at Blackdown NP and can't get replacement poles for. This one pops up but stuffed if I can get it to pop back down again. I think we'll just lay it on top of the camper when travelling, much easier.  I even watched the u-tube video showing how easy it is on BCF's website, now I hate two things, the tent and the video.

-          Replaced tonneau cover because old one was too small and too tight, new one is great.

-          Bigger camp oven, new one is a 12" Bedourie, can't wait to try it out, it's much bigger that the old cast iron one we have but much lighter. Geoff has spent the afternoon seasoning it in his Mum's oven, much to her frustration as she was trying to bake a cake.

-          IPF Spotlights (second hand) because ours weren't bright enough for night driving, not that we intend to do much, we hope.

Yay, school holidays. Erin finished her school work for term 2 a week early so we get 3 weeks off from school. I don't know who needs the break more, her or me.  

Geoff finished up work last Friday, so he's back on holidays too. Yay for him too. I think though that we spent as much as he brought home over the last month, all necessary purchases, of course. Now we just have to fit it all in the car and camper again.  Oh dear.

We are going on a short trip tomorrow to meet up with our very good friends from home (yes we know you're reading this). They even have a website for their trip http://www.expeditionaustralia.com.au/ontheroadagain/ so we'll have to help them fill their blog with adventures. We are heading up to Broadwater Campground at Abergowrie State Forest for 3-4 nights. Can't wait.

 

June 6, Day 43 Townsville

The trailer lights are finally fixed, it was an earth wire, apparently it's always the earth. The old rear lights acted as an earth for the trailer and therefore the side lights but the new LEDs are independently earthed thus isolating the trailer.  Geoff had to rig up an earth wire for the side lights and attach it to the bolt that fastens the LEDs onto the trailer. It's funny, when we manually held the earth wire to the same area it didn't work, but when he fastened it, it worked. Very annoying.

We also picked up a UHF radio and antenna and are installing that this weekend. I know, it's a long weekend and we should be out camping somewhere, but so will everyone else. We'll wait and enjoy it less crowded in a few weeks.

 TJM fitted our new bull-bar yesterday, looks good. One more task off the list.

Thanks to everyone who has subscribed to our adventure, I hope we are keeping you entertained and/or informed. We would love to catch up with you all on the road somewhere.

Also added a couple of photos, it's so hard to chose from the hundreds we've taken.