Mackay July 2013, 1st week

July 16, We finished packing up and left Keppel Sands at 10am. Today’s trip was only a short drive, so we decided to go via. Emu Park and Yeppoon, to refresh our memories of these 2 Towns. We were surprised to find that Emu Park was a good sized Town, on the beachfront, that had a Super IGA and would have been a few Klms closer to Keppel Sands than Rockhampton, just for Supermarket Shopping. We drove around but didn’t recall ever being there before. We travelled 18klms on and arrived in Yappoon, which did bring back memories of our last visit. The Keppel Bay Plaza was new to us, so after filling up with petrol, I found a place to park the car and caravan in a back street, and we did our big food  We pulled into The Marlborough Motel and Van Park just before 4pm and booked in. This Park is right on the Bruce highway, so as you can imagine, we had the big trucks roaring past all night. There was nothing flash about this park, so it was pick your own site, stay hooked up if you want as long as you don’t block the roads. They were renovating the men’s amenities block, so the ladies had been re-signed to say “Uni Sex”. This was a first for us, all in together but there wasn’t any problems, I just don’t know who came in and used the toilet while I was having my shower. We were surprised how many Vans pulled in to stay over at this very “out of the way” Caravan Park. We went to the Restaurant at the Park for dinner and found it excellent. I had the “chicken
paragama” and it was delicious and so big that I couldn’t fit in dessert, while Val had “prawn cutlets” with salad. There was a flock of very tame guinea fowls running around the Park after everybody that they thought would feed them. It looked so funny to see them run like mad then follow people around, you would have to see them yourself to appreciate the humor.
shop, at Coles. We used our navigator (Doris) to get back to the Bruce Highway. We were a tad concerned when Doris had us do a right hand turn and go through a few little Villages, on a narrow but sealed road and were relieved to see the sign saying “Bruce Highway”. We pulled into a big roadside rest area (Joan Tierney Park) and made lunch in the Van, before carrying on to our Caravan Park at Marlborough.

July 17^th, After an early night and no packing up to do, we were able to get on our way at 9am, heading for Mackay. We have been having great weather, lately, so arrived at Mackay, after a pleasant drive. Unfortunately the street that our Caravan Park was in was blocked off, as they were doing roadworks. It was one way, opposite to the end we were at, but after a bit of driving around several blocks, we arrived at Central Tourist Park, and booked in. I realized that this was the same Park that we had stayed at the last time we stopped in Mackay. After lunch I carried on with setting up and we were all done before dark, ready to enjoy our 2 week stay here.

July 18^th, We just chilled out today, walked around the Park and wondered why they had such huge amenities. This Caravan Park has had the same owners for 46 years. The amenities block was built to withstand Cyclones and Tornados and are big enough to shelter all the guests in the Park, if need be. There are 18 showers and 21 toilets in both the men’s and woman’s blocks, plus 12 wash basins. The reason being, that, 46 years ago the rule was one shower/toilet for every four people. The Laundry has 11 washing machines and ten dryers. There are 38 big green “Otto” garbage bins, all in a row along the back of the Park. Looks very funny! I took a few photos. On the roof of the very long amenities block, at each end, there are 2 huge loud speakers. I guess we will hear the Cyclone warning and Val will be first in the Block, with a cask of wine and a chair.

July 19^th, We went to the Caneland Central Shopping Centre, in Town, which was a huge shopping complex, as you would find in any City. Val went to Specsavers and they virtually rebuilt her broken glasses, at no cost. We wandered around for hours, I found a lot of time to read my western, and after a coffee/tea and cinnamon toast break, we did some food shopping and went home.

July 20^th, We had a big day out today! We started of with a drive down to Mackay Harbour and Marina, the rock wall around the Marina is so wide it has a 2 lane road running out to its end. We timed it perfectly to see a tanker being pushed out by a Tug then heading out to sea. It reminded us of Newcastle, to see the line of waiting ships on the horizon. The Marina was huge with lots of boats at the berths and Resort Accommodation in the precinct. Next stop was the Food and Wine Festival at Queens Park, where parking was hard to find. I had to drive around the block twice before we struck someone just leaving and grabbed his spot. We were lucky, as we only had to cross the road to get to the Park. It was very busy, we think the whole of Mackay’s population had turned up. It was a big affair, market stalls, lots of food outlets, entertainment on centre stage, train rides for the kids and 2 large licenced areas for beer and wine. We were disappointed that there wasn’t any food or wine tastings, which we had expected. We still enjoyed our visit and had some lunch/coffee from the food trail and sat in the shade of one of their huge marquis to eat and listen to the music. Around the entertainment area we had a green crocodile talking to all the kids and 2 guys dressed up as girls on stilts, talking and waiving to everybody. The most amazing thing we saw was a woman being fully body paint decorated. We left the Festival and went to the Visitors Information Centre, on the southern side of the City and picked up some brochures and maps. On our way home we called in to the North Mackay Bowl Club, which was in the same street as our Caravan Park and had been recommended for it very good food. It was a nice looking Club, the menu looked good and we had a chardy and a flutter. The wine was good and we had a good run on the Pokies, although we didn’t win. We sat and watched some of the bowlers having a game on their indoor greens before heading home. It is an indoor bowling club and we had to laugh at ourselves, when driving in to Park we thought their indoor green rinks were a covered car park, Ha! Ha!

 July 22^nd, Val was fired up today, to get into making her “Home Made” Jams and Pickles for selling at the Markets, as we travel around. So, we drove into Town to find “Payne Packaging”, the only supplier of glass screw top jars listed in the Phone Book. Their address was “the bottom of Victoria Street”, so when we reached Victoria Street, we just turned left (not knowing which way was the bottom and having no number) and drove to the bottom of the street and found that we were at the low numbered end. No sign of Paynes! OK, let’s check out the other end of this street. When we got to the high numbered end of Victoria Street, we found a dead end, a vacant plot of ground at the back of Caneland Central Shopping Centre and definitely no Payne Packaging. I pulled over and Val ran into a Tyre Place and asked the dis-interested Salesman, who was talking with a friend, was this the top or bottom of this street? and did he know where Payne packaging was? He had no idea but this was the top end! Back we go (to what we now know is the bottom of Victoria Street) down past all the Shops that we are now getting to know well and still could not find the mysterious “Payne Packaging”. I parked the car and Val went into the nearest Business and asked the question and sure enough, across the street, up a short driveway is where the packaging place is located. No big sign out front, listing the businesses in this little complex, but jammed up in a corner, not visible from the street was Payne’s. We were shown into their (small) wharehouse and shown the 375ml. glass  jars that Val wanted but there was a problem!! They were completely out of the metal screw top lids! They are expected to come in next Wednesday, so that put an end to Val’s plans. Not to be too put off, Val said “let’s check out the Fruit and Vegie Shops that we listed from the phone book”. First on our list was “Mifsud’s Fruit Barn” at 34 Nelson Street, when we got there it was a building site, in progress! So we asked the Traffic Controller where Mifsud’s had moved to? He was clueless! So, on we went to “Vegies Unlimited” at 303 Nebo Road. To get to this shop we had to travel to the most southern side of this Town, anyway their bulk buy of 3 kg of oranges were cheap.  Now we went back to the City to find “Growers Own” in River Street. Doris (our navigator) was totally confused by the road changes, but eventually we found Growers Own, who are just getting organized to sell to the Public and were able just to give us their price list but it was a bulk supply outfit. In other words, they want to sell goods by the case, not what we were wanting. We did find out that Mifsud’s were in Albert Street, so went there to check it out and Val thought they were a bit high priced for what we want. We stopped off at the Sydney Street Markets to pick up a few items before heading home.

July 23^rd, I went to the Slade Point Medical Centre for a Skin Cancer Check, as the growth that Dr. Jim cut out in Feburary, of this year, was still a problem. Val was worried about it and wanted me to get it checked out. The back of the knee thing is definitely a cancer and has to be removed again.  He is going to cut it out on Friday afternoon. It is an area that won’t heal fast, as it’s always moving while walking. When I asked him to do an all over check, he found a few suspicious things around my ears and said that I should go to a Mole Scanning Clinic when we get to Townsville and have a full scan, then get those things treated. He said we were not staying long enough in Mackay for me to get the scan and then for him to do the treatment.

July 24^th, We have now been here a week, so I’ll post this today before you all get too bored to bother reading.

Keppel Sands July 2013

July 2^nd, Finished packing up and left Yandaran for Keppel Sands Caravan Park, 40 klms north of Rockhampton. I went the long way, as I didn’t want to travel on any of the backroads suggested by our navigator. We stopped at the Boyne River Rest area for lunch and made a stop at Rockhampton “Bottle O” to buy our casks of red and white wine. It was a long trip, for us, as we encountered dozens of roadworks and we were stopped in a queue at each one. I estimated that they added an hour to our trip. We left Yandarin at 10am and reached our destination at 5pm. I did the minimum set up but after dinner decided to put the annexe walls up. We booked in for 2 weeks.

July 3^rd, I finished unpacking the car and finished pegging down the annexe walls. Val decided to try selling her paintings at the local Markets, so needed Public Liability Insurance. So, after getting some advice from Steven and making a few stressful phone calls, she has 12 months coverage for 10 million dollars, at a cost of $200. After booking a site at the Arcade Markets in Rockhampton for next Sunday, found out that she didn’t need her own Public Liability, as the Arcade carried their own Insurance. We drove into Rockhampton to do our Shopping and I had to put my paperwork into Centrelink. Back home, I opened up my cask of white wine and it was off. When we looked at the use by date, it was Feb. 13, incredible!

July 4^th, I made up some more hanging hooks for Val’s paintings, from a strip of aluminium  flat bar that I had in the tunnel boot, and cleared space in the back of the car, ready for our trip to the Markets. Val got stuck into finishing off more paintings, ready for next Sunday. We decided to take a drive around Town and check out the shops and sights. We started with the boat ramp just down the street from our Caravan Park. First thing we see is the standard warning sign, stating that “crocodiles” may be in these waters. The tide was out, so the boat ramp went down to the sand and the water was about 70 metres away. So, boat launching at this ramp is a high tide operation only. We were surprised to see people standing in the water, fishing and kids running around in the water also. Obviously they weren’t worried about those possible crocs. We carried on and drove through the shops, which consisted of a “Lucky 7” Store, Post Office and a Pub. The drive along the waterfront, which had a little Park with nice grounds and Amenities, and the Beach would have quite scenic if the tide had been in and sunny.

We noticed that there was a mixture of new and very old (not maintained) houses around the area. We went back to the Hotel to see what was on during the week and to check out the Bistro. The menu looked good and we had been told my our Park Manager that the food was very good. They had 2 Poker Machines, so we had a Chardy and a flutter on both machines. We had a bit of a run but didn’t come out in front. We picked up their “What’s On” sheet and headed back to our Van.

July 5^th, After breakfast I pulled all our tent poles out from the Tunnel Boot and started to decide how to put them together to hang Val’s paintings on at the Markets. These Markets are fully under cover, so no need to worry about the weather. I spent all day making corner braces and eventually had a wobbly structure that I thought will have to do for this Sunday. Val was still doing paintings, to add to her stock.

July 7^th, The Alarm went off at 5am and I jumped out of bed, had breakfast, called Val and we left for the Markets at 6am, as planned. Everything was packed up in the car yesterday, how organized were we? Val couldn’t get to sleep (a real worry wart) and ended only getting a couple of hours. We arrived at the Markets around 6.40am and had until 8am to prepare for Business. The set up was in the ground floor of the Car Park at the back of the Arcade. Nearly all the stall holders were already there, setting up and customers were walking around grabbing some early shopping. Our allocated space was in a very good spot, just opposite the doors leading from the Arcade. It took both Val and myself to erect the stand I had put together, very difficult. I will have to come up with something better for next time. The Markets were fairly busy, with the fruit and veggie stalls looking the most popular. Val did a little shopping herself while I minded shop. We had to stay until 12noon, then everybody packed up and went on their way. Unfortunately we didn’t sell any of Val’s paintings but she did have a few people who said they were very good or how clever she was. At one time, a group of very aboriginal people stopped and stared across the passageway at our stall, which had Val a little wary, but eventually moved on without saying anything. We called into Coles and picked up some shopping then found a “Celebrations” Bottle Shop, to get some wine. We were talked into buying some “just out of date” cask wine, which was reduced by $10. The salesman assured us that wine can be 2 months out of date before it goes off.  Val was very tired, so we went straight home and both had a nap. When we woke up, I opened my new cask of OOD white wine, Bugger me, it was off!! We now have 2 casks of “off” white wine! I stayed up till 3pm to watch Andy Murray win the Men’s Final at Wimbledon, what a match.

July 8^th, Our neighbour, out the back of us, left this morning and just before lunch another Van pulled in and it was a couple, Maureen and Phillip, that we met when we stayed at Wooli. It was good to catch up with them again.

July 9^th, I woke up this morning, in the middle of a dream I was having about how I was going to make a more stable rack for next Sundays Markets. After breakfast, I went for a walk around the Park, to see what was lying around that I could use to make stands to hold my tent poles upright. I had a design in mind, made out of timber. At the back of the Park, the Council have an area where the residents dump all their “Green Waste”, which the Council turn into compost. I wandered over there and found a timber frame, with flyscreen stapled to it, lying on top

of a pile of tree branches. I quickly went back a got my hammer and knocked off a few lengths of 3 X 2 and 2 X 1 inch timber. So now I got busy, removed all the nails and staples, cut up my pieces of timber and built a prototype stand. It did the job perfectly, so I went back to get some more pieces of timber from the frame and it was gone! Un-deterred, I went searching around the various piles of timber and found some bits of treated pine flooring and an old wardrobe that gave me the timber I needed to make 3 more stands. After lunch we drove into Rockhampton to get our 2 casks of “out of date” wine exchanged, do some shopping and go to Spotlight for more painting supplies for Val.

July 11^th, Yesterday, I prepared my recycled timber and cut it to the lengths needed to make 3 more stands. Today, I assembled the 3 stands and did a trial set up. It looked good, so I packed all the bits in the car ready to go on Sunday.

July 12^th, Val finished off 2 more paintings today, so now we have 16 in total. We walked up to the shops to post some letters and get a cask of red wine for Val, so had a drink at the Pub and gave their 2 Pokies a chance to redeem themselves. No luck with  the Pokies, I think Val and I are the only 2 people up here that are playing their machines. I watched the Bronco/ Sharks game tonight, very evenly matched game with the Sharks winning19 to18 points.

July 14^th, Up at 5am again, we are off to the Heritage Village Markets to sell some of Val’s Paintings. The weather didn’t impress, as we travelled into Rockhampton. We had a shower during the night and the dark clouds were still hanging around. We booked in at the Heritage and were given our site and directions to it. There were heaps of sites already set up and when we got to our site, our neighbour at the back of us, recognized us from last week’s Arcade Markets. They were professional Market People and told us that this Market was one of the best and only run every 2 months. It was the biggest we had ever seen, as it had camel, pony, mini train and coach rides along with heaps of other amusement items for the kids. Our

site was big enough that I could park the car on it, which was essential to us, for without shelter we were at the mercy of the weather. Setting us was very easy this time, with my new stands, so we were soon ready for business. 8am they let the customers in and they had huge crowds all morning. We were in a good spot as we were close to the Amenities, so people tracked past all day. For the first hour we were suffering from showers and strong winds, so our paintings were in and out of the car and for a while it must have looked strange for people to see an empty rack and us both just sitting in the car. The weather did improve and we had some long periods of sunshine. Unfortunately, although we had a lot more lookers and comments this week, we still didn’t make a sale. We are now of the opinion that our Dot Art is not a suitable item to sell at a Market and we should try to find a better outlet.

July 15^th, Maureen and Phillip moved on this morning and it is pack up day for us. We leave in the morning for Marlborough, where we will have an overnight stay, before travelling on to Mackay.

Bundaberg June 2013

June 18^th, We finished packing up and left Tin Can Bay, heading for Bundaberg. We are going to Miara Holiday Park, 40 Klms north of Bundaberg, at Yandaran on the Kolong River. We stopped in Bundaberg to do a big shop and have some lunch. I had my photo taken with the One Direction cardboard cutouts outside Bi-Lo Supermarket. Val thought I had lost the plot but it would be fun to send the photo to Jessica and Annaliese, with an amusing letter. As we were nearing our Caravan Park, we couldn’t believe how many Kangaroos we came across, on the side of the road. It was around 3.15pm and this must be the time they come out of the bush, to feed on the green grass on the road edges. They soon hopped away as we approached them. Val was getting worried that we were not on the right road, as we seemed to be

travelling for a long way, winding our way around Cane Farms and then coming to a single lane tar section of road. I kept driving and next thing we turned left, then over a cow grid and arrived at our Caravan Park. I parked the car and we walked to the Office, only to find a notice on the door to say “Closed” and a sandwich board sign to say that the Office would be closing at 3pm today. Oh Boy, we were shocked! I tried the intercom for late arrivals but got no response. We read all the notices on the wall and found a mobile phone number to call, when the Office was unattended. The response was that the Manageress was out on the river, in their tinnie, with her visiting Grandson, so she came in to put us on our site. The mix up was caused by her missing our booking when she checked to see if every incoming caravan had arrived. That problem solved, I did the minimum to allow us to get to our bed and walk around the Van, and I’ll do the setting up in the morning.

June 19^th, I went to the Office and paid our fees, $300 for 2 weeks. Very cheap, as the Queensland School Holidays start next weekend. I picked up all the regulations for fishing and boating in Queensland, to read over later. I put up the whole annexe and took the boat off the car. I’ll set it up tomorrow. Talking with people around us I was told they are catching fish. We had quite strong winds today, so not good for boating. I found time this afternoon to read the literature on Qld. boating and fishing and there are some differences. There was no mention of pensioners being exempt from having a fishing licence and if your boat is powered with anything above a 6HP motor, you need to have a boat licence. I’ll have a chat to our neighbours in the morning.

June 20^th, After breakfast, I picked up the Queensland Recreational Boating and Fishing Guide and studied it more carefully. I now know that a Fishing Licence or Permit is only required when fishing in a Dam or Lake where it has been stocked with fish, so river fishing does not require a Licence. I did confirm that because I have an 8HP motor for my boat that I would have to be licenced or have a passenger who held a current boat licence. So I have decided to take the easy way out and not put the motor on my Tinnie and I will simply paddle off shore and anchor to do a bit of fishing.  We did our washing this morning and after lunch went into Bundaberg to do a bit of Shopping and lodge our Centrelink form. It started raining on the way back to the Park, so we had no choice but to leave our washing on the line. Val is a little down in the dumps tonight; she has lost the urge to continue “Dot Painting”. We have not had a response from Gumtree, from the Paintings that I put up for sale. I am encouraging her to give it a bit longer, before throwing in the Towel.

June 21^st, It has rained all last night and all of today. We will be growing webbed feet if this weather keeps up.

June 22^nd, Finally, the sun is shining in “Sunny Queensland”, so I decided that I should reposition the front seat in the Tinnie. That way, when I have to paddle or row out to get to fish, it will be easier to do, if the front seat is in the centre position. I found the set of rollicks that Robert gave me some years back, dug out my 2 paddles and fixed up my rods ready to go. I put the boat in the river and tied it up to a post on the beach. My boat is the little Tinnie in the photo, up on the sand. Now I’m ready to go fishing when the weather is good. Although it was a nice sunny day we had a strong breeze all day, not suitable for fishing.

June 23^rd, Still strong winds today, so I rigged up some poles in the annexe and bent up some hooks to hang Val’s paintings. Then I made up a flyer, for her painting sale, and put them on the notice boards. In the afternoon I went for a fish off the beach, at the front of the park. It was hopeless, as when I cast my line out the wind was blowing it back at me! I wasn’t getting any bites, so I gave up. Val did some painting tonight, so she is “Happy” again and back into “dotting”.

June 24^th, This is the day, I thought, to go out for a fish. The wind seemed to have eased a bit, so after breakfast I gathered all my gear and packed it into the boat. It was around 10.30am by now and I noticed that the current was running strongly. Undeterred by that, I thought that if the Pelicans can swim against the current, well I could Paddle against it. I towed the boat to the end of the beach, to allow me plenty of time to get control of the boat before the current and wind affected my outward progress. What a JOKE! It didn’t matter how hard I paddled, the boat was quickly swept towards the other end of the beach and I found that I had to go with the current and hang over the front of the boat, paddling madly, to get into the beach before I got swept around the corner. My other idea of using the paddles in rollicks, just like oars, was a dismal failure, as the paddles are much too short to control. I was glad to put my foot onto sand and then I towed the boat back up the beach and tied it up again. I won’t be doing that again, that’s for sure. We have a resident Hairdresser in the Park, so Val had a haircut this afternoon. After each cut she has now, she is gradually showing more grey/white but her natural hair colouring looks great.

June 25^th, On the suggestion of Val’s Hairdresser, I went for a fish off the little breakwall at the other end of the Park. After 2 hours, my only catch was a 3 inch long toad fish. At this time the tide was about half way out and the current running strongly, so I decided to come out and try this spot tomorrow, but fish over the change at high tide. Val is still Dot Painting madly but has still not sold any paintings. The Wimbledon Tennis has started and it was good to see a few Aussies get through to the 2^nd round. Let’s hope they can keep the winning streak up.

June 26^th, I set myself up on the breakwall, 2 hours before high tide and fished for around 1 ½ hours after the tide change. NOTHING, plenty of bites but none wanted to take the hook. State of Origin, game 2, was on tonight and what a “Shellackin” did Queensland give us. The maroons were in their power surging form the whole game. NSW will really come with their “A” game in 3 weeks time, when the decider will be played in Sydney. Sadly, Layton Hewitt got knocked out in his 2^nd round match, tonight, at Wimbledon.

June 28^th, I noticed that my mobile phone wasn’t working this morning. It wouldn’t even switch on and the screen was black. We went into Bundaberg today to do some top-up shopping, I wanted to go to Telstra to see what was wrong with my phone and Val needed more painting supplies. The Telstra Technition tested my phone and on pulling off the back cover, told me it was full of water and would not be covered by the Warranty.  My only explanation could be that while sitting on the kitchen bench it had been plashed with water. So $50 later I had a new phone and was back on the air. I went to BCF looking to buy oars, so that I could use the boat in the River and get out for a fish. The sales assistant at BCF was an ex Maritime Inspector and when I told him what I was planning to do, he strongly advised me (in a nice way) that he thought that would be very dangerous, because of the very strong currents in the river. So, that solved that problem and saved me $95. If we stay where the water is calm, in Qld, WA, or SA, I can still go out using my paddles. There are no restrictions in the Northern Territory but I don’t fancy fishing with the Crocodiles.

June 29^th, Another windy day, seems to be the norm here at this time of year, so Val suggested that I might as well get the boat out of the River and packed away on top of the car, good idea. That sounds very simple, but with the wind and the strong current, I soon discovered that that wasn’t to be. I had to pull the boat against the wind and tide to get to the boat ramp, so after fitting my clamp on wheels and pulling in the anchors, remember I don’t have the motor on the boat, I tried the method of pushing the boat out into the river then dragging it along the shore, towards the boat ramp. The forces of nature wasn’t going to let that happen and the boat simply came straight back into the sand, with practically no gain at all. I then tried gripping the side of the boat and pulling/wheeling the boat along, while it was still in the water’s edge. This was working very well, until I came to another tinnie anchored on the river front and had to work my boat around and under his anchor rope. Having conquered that obstacle, I was only a few metres from the ramp. I had my towing hitch bolted onto the boat and the car in position on the ramp, so shouldn’t be any more

problems, so I thought. When I tried to maneuver the boat around the end of the boat ramp, I just couldn’t do it under the conditions, so I had to settle on dragging the boat up over the edge of the ramp, luckily this ramp is just a pile of stones and the edges were a gradual slope, and angling the car to allow the hitch to fit to the tow ball. I towed the boat back to our Van then got the packing up completed without any more dramas. We watched Australia win against the British Lions Rugby Union Team, in a very close game, getting away with a one point lead. That means now the Series is one game all and the decider will be played next week. I swapped channels to the Wimbledon Tennis and watched Tomic win his game and now he advances into the round of sixteen. Sam Stoser was playing next but I couldn’t stay awake for the final set when the sets were at one each, so I’ll get the results of that game tomorrow.

July 1^st, Strong winds this morning ( can you see the white capped waves going down the river?) , so took it easy until after lunch, then I packed up most of the things that go in the back of the car. That will leave only the annexe walls to get packed away, on the bottom bunk in the Van, before we leave for Keppel Sands in the morning.