Townsville August 2013, Week 1

August 14^th, We travelled to Townsville today, only stopping for a coffee break at Ayr and the numerous road works along the Bruce Highway. Townsville is dear to our hearts because this is where Val and I met 50 years ago. Since starting out travels, we have been to Townsville before, possibly in 2008, but this time we didn’t recognize anything driving into Town and our navigator was also totally lost, due to someone not updating her maps for some years now. After getting on to a Motorway that took us miles out of our way before we could get off, we made our way back to our destination, where we booked into the Coral Coast Tourist Park, for a 2 week stay. It’s a Top Tourist Park, so is very nice and our site is under a shady tree, which I was happy about, as the Temperatures up here hover around 28deg every day. We got fully set up, met our next door neighbours and all went to the Wednesday night “meet and greet” sausage sizzle at the Parks camp kitchen. Val put together a salad for us to take and when we got there we found that they already had salad, but it all was eaten by the group at our table anyway, so not a problem. Tonight we had a BBQ meat patty with salad and then they brought out dessert, so add a few wines with all that and we had a great time. Back at our Van we were soon aware of the fact that this Park is next door to the Townsville RAAF Base and they were obviously doing night flying practice in their huge Helicopters and that went on continuously till 11pm.

August 15^th, We did the nostalgic drive around town and found the Criterion Hotel, where Val and her parents had stayed, while they were looking for a house in Townsville. We went along the full length of The Strand, saw the Tobrook Baths where we first met, and around to Jupiter’s Casino. We had another attempt to locate where I had lived but couldn’t positively identify the exact spot, too long ago, too many changes to this Town. The streets in the CBD are now covered with parking meters and heaps of tall buildings. There are huge Shopping Centres all around the suburbs, just like Brisbane or Sydney.

August 16^th, Having logged onto the Centrelink Web site and recorded our new address, I still have to lodge the signed form at a Centrelink Office. So off I went to the address of the nearest Office, as told by their web site. Using my doubtful navigator, I did get to Centrelink after a 10 minute drive and got on the queue. The place was full of people; I estimate possibly 100, sitting around waiting to be attended to! When it came to my turn to be evaluated by the “meet and greet” person (as I call them) he wanted to take my form and pop it into an envelope and send it to Canberra for processing as they were very busy and the wait would be about an hour. No way, I said “I’ll wait an hour to see someone and get my problems sorted out, the last place we stayed at did that posting off thing and I was paid short in my pension”. He then decided to tell me that I was at the wrong Centrelink Office and needed to go to the Willow Shopping Centre office, a further 10 minutes away, who look after the Pensioners! To cut a long story short, it’s all fixed up now. I did the same drive after lunch, as Val wanted to go to Rivers to look at their shoes and we went across to the Willow Shopping Centre and did the rounds of the Shops. For Val it’s called Retail Therapy. They had animated "Dinasour Displays" right through the Shopping Centre which were entertaining the kids. We found a Dan Murphy Outlet on the way home, so now we know where to go to get the cheapest wine.

August 18^th, This morning we went into Town, to the Flinders Street Markets. They close off 2 blocks of Flinders Street and have stalls along both sides. As usual there were a lot of stalls with the same products, but we bought some fruit and checked all the stalls selling jams, pickles and chutneys. The “home made” jams etc. were very expensive, 275g jars @ $7.80 a jar and smaller @ $4.50 a jar. After we had been right around the Markets we went to The Cowboy’s Leagues Club for a light lunch and a flutter. A nice Club and the food was good. We left the Club and drove along The Strand, then headed out past Rowes Bay to the end of Cape Pallarenda. We watched some people taking their boats out of the water, at low tide, before going back to Pallarenda, to find where Val’s parents were living, in Brisk Street, when we first met. After a chat with the current owners and a photo, we headed home having enjoyed our Sunday outing.

August 20^th, I went to “Skin Repair”, a Skin Cancer Clinic, at 10am this morning and had a full scan, as suggested by Dr. Ghandi in Mackay. I had one suspicious spot frozen on my right ear and a deep tissue biopsy taken from my right shin. I have an appointment for Thursday morning to attend their Operating Theatre to have another spot cut out of my back and get the results of the biopsy. Any further treatment will be discussed and the options appear to be; if the shin problem is only on the skin then it will be scraped off but if it’s deeper, then an operation to cut out the cancerous area will be necessary and a skin graft to cover that area, as their isn’t any loose skin in that area. We may need to have a longer stay in Townsville.

Bowen August 2013, week 2

August 7^th, Now the pressure is off, as far as helping Val to make her jams and pickles, I found time to visit the local Museum. I did look through this one last time we stayed in Bowen but that was a few years ago. It’s always interesting to me to find out what started a Towns existence and in this case it was a financial reward for whoever could discover a suitable Harbour north of Rockhampton. Originally the Town was called Port Denison but was later renamed, Bowen, after Queensland’s first Governor. One of the biggest events, of recent times, was the making of the film “Australia”, which completely took over the Town. When I looked through the albums of photos, compiled progressively through the making of the film, I realized the enormity and effort that went into the making of that film. My favourite display was the slab Cottage, originally built in the district in 1872 and bought into Town, slab by slab and re-erected and restored at the Museum. What a hard life they must have led at that time! One bedroom, Kitchen with an open stone fireplace, a back verandah served as wash up, boot scraping and laundry and front verandah was were the kids slept. The slab walls were simply butted together and I was told that when it was cold they covered the walls with newspaper to keep out the wind. Incredible, no way would we live that way now.

August 8^th, After chatting with a few of our Caravanning neighbours, I decided that I should try to catch some fresh fish for Val. I was told that the Whiting were being caught at Horseshoe Bay, on high tide. Val has now eaten all the flathead fillets that we had in the freezer and was hankering for more. I headed down to Horseshoe Bay, and discovered that we had stayed in the Horseshoe Bay Caravan Park, on a previous visit, and the Bay was small and full of swimmers and snorkelers, not a fishing spot. So, I went back to that end of Queens Bay, where I spotted other fishermen and ladies along the Beach. I got set up, chair in the shade one rod in a rod holder and after baiting and casting my 2^nd rod I would retreat back to my chair. The weather was perfect, the water was clear, with only little ripples at the edge, the beach sand was coarse but what a perfect , relaxing way to spend a couple of hours. Of course, I was using my traditional cooked prawns as bait and peeling them as instructed. I wasn’t getting any bites and next thing I know all my nearest Fishermen packed up and went home. It was ½ hour after high tide and out of the 4 of us, fishing at this end of the Beach, only one had caught any keepable fish and they were there the earliest. Regardless, I decided to keep trying a bit longer and I was happy to feel a few bites, which lifted my spirits. A little while later, I was relaxing on my chair in the shade when my fixed rod was bending violently and would you believe it, a Seagull had flew into my fishing line and got tangled. He was flapping madly and screeching, not a “Happy Camper”. I took the rod out of the rod holder and wound in the line until the seagull was at my feet in the shallows. I used the line to pull him off the sand until I could reach down and get hold of the tip of the caught up wing. I was able to loosen the line allowing it unwind itself and with the wing free I released the bird and it very happily flew off. While all this was going on, all the seagulls’ mates were flying around in circles overhead, screeching their heads off. Wow!  Why do these things happen to me? I packed up soon after all that excitement and went home without catching anything else. After lunch, I was relaxing at the back of the Van and reading a western when a neighbour came over and introduced himself (Neville). They come up here for a couple of months every year and he does a lot of fishing, so we got talking and he gave me a few pointers about catching whiting. So I have to use a smaller sinker, #2 Whiting hook and pump nippers for bait and he guaranties I’ll catch whiting. Looks like I should buy a yabby pump, which I had been talking about for a while now but not doing anything. The main reason Neville came over to see me was to let us know that he was going to be playing some music from 4pm onwards and to bring our chairs over, if we wanted to join in. So, over we went armed with chairs, table and wine ready to be entertained. The Musical Group was Neville on accordion, his wife Beth on the spoons and Lindsey on guitar and Val and Lois (Lindsey’s wife) as “back up Girls”. It was all old time, sing along music that we all enjoyed for 1 ½ hours.

August 10^th, Val felt like going to the beach, to paddle her feet in the water, so off we went to Horseshoe Bay. I had been down there last Thursday and the water was flat, clear and lots of people in swimming or sunbaking on the sand. Today however, was the opposite, as it was very windy, the water was choppy with little waves and very uninviting. We walked through the Horseshoe Bay Caravan Resort and reminisced about the time we had stayed in this park before. We then drove around to Rose Bay for a look and found another Caravan Park right on the beachfront and couldn’t help commenting on how they would cop the bad weather, when it came. This was a pretty suburb with huge houses and nice lawns and garden, definitely the elite area to live in. We drove back along the length of Queens Beach, great water views, on our way to Mullers Lagoon. Mullers Lagoon is surrounded by Parkland and is a great family picnic spot, in the middle of Town, and a sanctuary for a large variety of birdlife. We went up to Bowen Hill where the water tank was, as I wanted to get a photo of the tank which had been painted with the word “BOWENWOOD” at the time of making the film “Australia”. I

took my photo and we enjoyed the great views of the surrounding area. We were amazed to also see that this hill had a house under construction, at the top of a huge drop and a plan to develop the other hilltop land surrounding the tank. I may be wrong but I’m thinking all this development could reduce the view of the tank with it’s historic sign!

August 11^th, This was a quiet relaxing Sunday for me but Val got stuck into making Apple Jelly, so I had to devise a rig, using an upside down chair,  to suspend the netting lines with a new chux cloth (as we didn’t have any muslin), her cooked green apples to allow the juice to drip into a bowl for 3 hours or more. The result was 2 jars of 375 ml Apple Jelly and a bit left over for tasting. It was good!

August 13^th, We did a little food shopping at Woolworths and Val had a haircut. Each time she gets a haircut she is showing more grey/white hair, which she is totally exicited about and looks good, to me as well. I started packing up this afternoon, as we leave here for Townsville tomorrow morning.

Bowen August 2013 week 1

July 31^st, We finished packing up and headed for Bowen. This wasn’t a long trip but we made a roadside stop, for a coffee break, after travelling around 1 ½ hours. We hadn’t made a forward booking, so we pulled into the Bowen Information Centre, at the Big Mango, to get their list of Caravan Parks. The Big Mango was huge, 10 metres tall.We were told that the Parks in Town were mostly booked out and out best bet was the next Park up the Highway, on the left, called Bowen Palms.  We called into the Bowen Palms Caravan Park and after checking their prices and looking around decided to stay for 2 weeks. The weekly rate was discounted by one free night and we were able to pick our own site. After setting up we walked across the Highway to The Homestead Store, to see what was on offer and Val bought a huge bag of red Tomatoes and planned to make some Tomato Chutney, for her Market Stall, of course. They also had “home made” Jams, Pickles, Relishes and Sauces for sale, made by a local woman. We couldn’t believe that they were all in grotty used jars of all sizes, dusty and so watery that they didn’t look edible.

August 1^st, We drove into Bowen, about a 5 minute drive, to have a look around. We noticed on the way in that the Salt Works was closed down, as we were told at the Info. Centre, as it is up for sale. We are now north of the sugar cane area and this is a farming area, famous for its Mangoes but also grows other Fruit and Vegetables. The main streets of Town look just like most other small Country Towns, Shops on both sides of the road and wide streets. We drove around the waterfront of Port Denison to the Marina, where Val bought some seafood for her dinner tonight. A bit further on we arrived at the Flagstaff Hill Interpretive Centre and Lookout. The view was amazing and the Centre had a Café where you could get a meal or just coffee and look at the view. The water was so “blue” and a couple of yachts were drifting around in the breeze, you could sit and watch it all day. Going back through Town we stopped off at the Supa IGA Store, for Val to check out their fruits (for jam making), as she is keen to make some Strawberry jam. We called in to the “BIG RED” Grocer Shop on the way home, to see if he had green tomatoes and he said he would get some for Val when he goes to the Farm, in the morning.

August 2^nd, We drove into Town to do some shopping and called into “Big Red” on the way home and he gave Val a huge bag of green tomatoes (3.7Kg.) at no charge. How generous is that! As soon as we got home, Val started on making up 2 batches of “Green Tomato Pickles”, to add to her Market Stall stock.

August 4^th, Today was Market Day in Bowen, so we went to both to check out the competition and see if they had cheap fruit for Val’s jams. The first Market was at Queens Beach, very small and plenty of “home made” condiments on sale. Very unattractive and of doubtful quality. They were all put up in 2^nd hand jars, of all varying sizes, and some sauces were in soft plastic drink bottles! We couldn’t believe that they would be allowed to sell their products in that condition. The other Markets were at Horseshoe Bay, much larger, well laid out, lots of clothing and jewellery but no jams and pickles. This was promising, for us, as long as we could get a spot under a tree, as we don’t have any shelter and the weather is very hot.

August 5^th, Val decided to put some signs up around the Park, to sell her Jams and Pickles out of the Van. When she went to the Office to ask permission, she took some jars to show the Manager, Jill,  what she was selling and got her first sale for a jar of Green tomato Pickles. As you can guess, Val was “over the moon” with excitement and soon found a box, to keep her sales money separate. We went into Town to the Woolworths Shopping Centre and picked up some nice strawberries that were on special. While in Town we called around to the Information Centre, to get a contact number for the person who organizes the Horseshoe Bay Markets and I was reminded that the Town of Bowen was the Town where the movie “Australia” was made. They transformed a huge block of land and built a Movie Set depicting Darwin, back in that era, as well as dressing up some of the buildings in Town. A local farmer, who was a machinery collector of pre 1940’s era, supplied a lot of the props required for the film. Back home, Val cooked up her Strawberry Jam and packed into jars. Val decided to book a stall at the Horseshoe Markets, so called her contact and was asked what she was selling and when told, was asked if she had her Kitchen Licenced. The Council, for a cost of $245, conduct an inspection and issue licences. So, that’s the end of our selling at any Market that requires a licence. Interestingly, the Council has no control over how the cooked product looks at point of sale! So, it’s been a day of ups and downs. We will now concentrate on selling out of the Van in Caravan Parks.

August 6^th, Val made another batch of Apricot Jam, as she had the fruit soaking overnight. It’s HOT again today, but thankfully we had a nice afternoon breeze to make it a bit more bearable. Val’s adverts around the Park bought in another customer this afternoon, who bought Green Tomato Pickles, Watermelon Rind Pickle, Ploughman’s Pickle and Tomato Chutney. Business is picking up!

Mackay July 2013, week 2

July 24^th, We have now been here a week, and finally, the lids for the jars that Val has been waiting for are in, so off we went down to Payne’s Packaging, at the bottom of Victoria Street, to pick up a carton of 375ml jars and lids. We rushed home so Val could slice up the oranges, for a batch of Orange Marmalade and get them soaking overnight. I had to design a label for Val’s produce, on the laptop, and have it approved by “The Boss” of Val’s Travelling Kitchen.

July 25^th, I went to the Mackay Museum this morning. It’s only open on a Thursday from 10am till 2pm and on the first Sunday in the month. It is a small Museum, but it had the usual collection of historical data that outlined the History of the largest sugar cane growing area in Australia, from its original inhabitants to the provincial City, that it is now. I found it very interesting to find out that, when the men went off to War, the woman took over the role of “Cane Cutters” and that was incredibly hard work then, as it was all cut by hand. We have seen the modern Cane Harvesting Machines working, as we have travelled up through the cane growing region of North Queensland, so now the burning off and manual labour, is no more. The Museum had photos of the early attempts at making a machine to do the job and Mackay was used as a testing area for these early attempts. Val boiled up the first batch of Orange Marmalade and had 5 X 375g jars for her efforts. A check on the consistency in the morning and my taste test, will tell if it meets Val’s strict quality standards.

July 26^th, This afternoon I fronted up to the Slade Point Surgery, for the removal of a returned cancer, on the back of my left knee. My only concern was “did I have enough spare skin at the back of my knee to get it cut out the 2^nd time? Val had assured me that I had excessive skin around the knee area, so would be no problem. I was called into Dr. Murshed Khan’s room (no relation to the Aga) and he said “what can I do for you today?” I thought, this a casual approach is to put me at ease, Eh! I said “you’re going to cut out this cancer from the back of my knee. “Oh, yes” he said. So now he typed up a form for me to sign, giving him permission to operate on me. Next we move into the Treatment / Operating Room and the attending Nurse greets me and as well as doing the hand me this, hand me that job for the Doctor was happily chatting to me throughout the entire operation. I was expecting a jab of anesthetic then the doctor going away for 15 minutes to let the anaesthetic take effect (like Dr. Jim did) but No! Next he says to me “I’m about to cut now” and I feel the drag of the knife on my skin. No real pain but I could feel the dabbing of the pad (no doubt soaking up the blood). I’m still calm as he next says; “stitching up now” and I feel the pulling of my skin (still painless but a strange feeling). All done and I’m told he used a stronger thread, because of the possibility of a thread pulling out in an area where there is a lot of movement, obviously walking. He said goodbye, enjoy your travelling and shook my hand. The Nurse finished off by putting on a waterproof plaster and giving me an instruction sheet on my ongoing treatment. I watched Friday night football, 2 games up here. In Queensland, you always get to see the Queensland team’s matches on Friday night and if they are not the normal Friday night match, we also get to see that one. Tonight was Broncos vs. Titans (Broncos won) followed by Bulldogs vs. Eels. As a Parramatta supporter, I have no comments on this game other than to say the Bulldogs won.

July 27^th, We had noticed that there was Saturday Markets on at the Mackay Showground. Val wanted to go just to buy some cheap fruit and veg. for making her jams and pickles. After breakfast we got ready to go, not particularly hurrying and left around 10.45am to do the 5 minute drive to the Showground. When we got there the place looked deserted and we thought that it wasn’t on this Saturday. We did find an open gate and drove in to discover that it led to a Toy Shop in one of the sheds. On asking, at the Toy Shop, we were told that the Markets were on every Saturday, but finished for today. They open at 6.30am and close when everything is sold, so obviously a very popular Market. After buying what Val needed from a cheap F and V Shop in South Mackay, we went home and Val got stuck into cutting, chopping and soaking ready for tomorrows cooking.

July 30^th, Pack up day, ready to leave in the morning, so it will be busy. We haven’t made a forward booking yet but plan to stay around the Bowen area next. We intend to get a list of Parks from the Information Centre and make a selection from that, unless we pass a suitable looking Park on the way.