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.

Tin Can Bay, June 2013

June 11^th, We finished packing up, luckily the rain held off, and left Brisbane for Tin Can Bay Tourist Park. Along the way, we pulled of the Highway at Cooroy, for a coffee break. When we arrived at Tin Can Bay and booked in to our Park, Neither of us could remember where we stayed the last time we were in this area. I went back in my Blog to find out where we had stayed only to find out, it was the same Park. That’s a sign of old age catching up!

June 12^th, I finished setting up and the rain started again. Val filled her time in painting and I did some reading. This Park is not on the River, the boat ramp was 2 klms away, the weather forecast wasn’t great so I decided that I wouldn’t take the boat off the car.

June 13^th, We had a bit of morning rain and then it was overcast for the rest of the day. I joined up on Gumtree and posted 4 of Val’s paintings for sale. We rang Carole tonight to get a report on Robs condition, after his operation today. He came through OK and they didn’t have to sew his lips together, which we were glad to hear.

June 14^th, Val went to the local Medical Centre, as she was suffering with an intense itch in her left ear and was having trouble hearing. The Dr. syringed out her ears and gave her some drops for the dermatitis in her left ear canal. Val made another appointment to see the Dr. next Monday, to check on her ear problems. We had some pies at the Tin can Bay Bakery, then went into Gympie to do some Shopping and I lodged our Rent Certificate with Centrelink.

June 15^th, We went into Town to have a look at their local Art Show.  It was very interesting and covered all the art and craft items, made by local groups. We did a drive along the foreshore of the River to Toolara and then on to Caloola Cove. Caloola Cove is a new housing area and has a Woolworths Shopping Centre. As it was Saturday afternoon, all the shops were closed except Woolworths.

June 17^th, It’s Val’s Birthday (21 again, Ha! Ha!). All the Family had sent her an E-Card and deposited money into our Bank Account, so she could buy whatever she needed. Which is a good idea, when we are travelling all the time, as we can be difficult to catch up with some times. I set an alarm this morning and went down to the Dolphin Centre to watch the feeding. They had 2 Dolphins come in today and you buy a fish for $5 and wait for the handler to call you in turn, to feed the fish to one of the Dolphins. They had a good crowd turn up but I only went to watch and take a few photos. Val went to the Dr’s and got the “all clear” on her ear problem and then we went out to Caloola Cove Shopping Centre and did some Birthday shopping. We called into the Country Club, on the way home, and had a Birthday drink and a flutter. The pokies were kind to us, for a change, so our Club visit only cost us $5. I packed up the car after dinner to make it an easy pack up in the morning, when we are leaving here for Bundaberg.

Brisbane, June 2013

 

June 4^th, Packed up and travelled to Brisbane. We arrived at 12.10pm and saw the “Office Closed” sign on the door of Greenacres Caravan Park at Capalaba. Fortunately, the Manager had spotted us driving in and opened up to book us in and put us on our site. WE now know that the office is closed between 12 noon and 2pm, for lunch. This is our first time at this Park, even though we have been to Brisbane many times and Val had the idea to ask the Information Centre to tell her which was the nearest Caravan Park to Mt Cotton where her Brother lives. We are now only a 10minute drive from Brian and Julie’s house, which is the closest we have ever been. We got set up and I went to Capalaba Centrelink and submitted my rent certificate paperwork, then we drove to Brian and Julie’s to catch up and we all had pizza for dinner. It was good to catch up with Rebecca and Nigel and their 2 girls, Sophie and Abigail, who live with Brian and Julie.

June 5^th, We went to Brian and Julie’s for BBQ dinner and to watch the NRL State of Origin game. We were all “over the moon” when The Blues (NSW) had a win and are now looking forward to the next game in the series that will be played in Brisbane.

June 6^th, It’s my Birthday today, 73 years young. We had a quiet day at home and Val took me out for dinner and a flutter at The Capalaba Sports Club, just around the corner from our Caravan Park. It is a very nice small Club, the food was very good but the Pokies were not kind to us. Julie went into Hospital this morning for a shoulder replacement and was operated on around 4.30pm. We got a call from Brian around 9pm to say all went well with the operation and Julie was settled down for the night.

June 7^th, Julie was OK’d by the Hospital Physio, so was home by lunchtime. We didn’t go over there today, so that Julie could sleep off the effects of her anesthetic and settle back into home. We went down the Capalaba Shopping centre and had a big shopping outing.

June 8^th, We went over to Brian and Julie’s this afternoon and Val made a Chicken Stir Fry for all the Family. Julie’s shoulder was a bit sore, so was taking a few painkillers but otherwise was OK. We watched a couple of games of Football on Foxtel, after dinner.

June 9^th, We had a quiet day at Home with Val working on her latest masterpiece, so we had to go down to Capalaba, to buy more paint.

June 1 0^th, Today is a Monday Holiday, for the Queen’s Birthday (long weekend for the working population). We went over to Brian and Julies for dinner and to say our “Good Byes”. Val made a Macaroni Cheese Pie, a Bacon, Egg and Spinach Pie and a salad for Dinner, which was delicious. It’s been raining all day, but a short break in the rain allowed me to pack up the back of the car, after we got back home. The rest will have to be packed up in the morning, before we head off for Tin Can Bay.