Searching Further North

The week before last, Rosy had a cooking accident. Well, it wasn't so much about cooking, but seasoning a new wok I bought. The hot oil splattered over her left hand fingers and the pain was most intense. We went to the Emergency ward at the local hospital. Rosy had put her hand into some water for about an hour and then another hour at the ER, before they smothered it in a special burns cream and wrapping it up. They gave her some pain relief so that she would be able to get some sleep during the night. The bandages are off now and the skin is starting to heal. Rosy knows why it happened (there are no accidents) and has promised not to do it again.

On Friday we dropped Angel off at Doggie-Day-Care at a kennel located near Tumblegum called Home For The Paws. It's run by Susan and her husband and they look after the dogs really well. Angel loves going there and bossing the other dogs around. She reminds me a little of Lucy from Peanuts as she says "I'm the boss of you". Each dog has a separate lock up area, which opens up to a grassy area where all the dogs get to run around. It gives Rosy and I a break from Angel, and it helps with socialising. We decided last week to keep Angel there for the week that Rosy and I go to Norfolk Island on 14 May. We have also decided to stay at Murwillumbah until after our trip to NI, so it gives us a chance to scout further north for a place to go to next.

Heading north via the Gateway bridge at Brisbane was not difficult, but the number of semi-trailers is something to be seen to be believed. It took us just over 3 hours to go to the first caravan park at Landsborough. It's near Australia Zoo and about 20km from the coast. This is where the Glasshouse mountains are. One of them looks like Devils Tower from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". The driving was fine until we hit the mountain to get up to the park. It was about 2 km of 10 degree incline. The Landcruiser handled it OK, but we were both a bit concerned about pulling the 2 tonne caravan. When we got to the park we went to the office and the manageress was on the phone to a long distance caller. She didn't get off the phone and gave us a map of the park. Rosy and I had a look around and considered it too difficult to manoeuvre our rig into such tight spots and narrow roads. It had a great view, strong winds and was about $30 per night. We decided to look elsewhere.

Our next stop was Caloundra. Again the tariff was $30 per night, but it also had tight spots and high rises all around looking down on the grounds. It was more suited to small pop-top caravans. We went to the main street of Caloundra and had lunch at Gloria Jeans. Do you know, how hard it is to get a nice tasting GJ coffee in Queensland? We still haven't found one. Must be the water. Caloundra is quite busy and much bigger than our first visit about 20 years ago. I can't personally think why someone would want to vacation in such a place. It's not for us. Oh well, the search goes on.

Rosy and I share the driving so the ritual we go through is that before we leave the caravan a coin is tossed and the other person calls it. If they win the toss, then they get to pick whether to drive or navigate. Rosy called it and loss the toss, so I said that she could drive there and I will drive back. Boy did Rosy get the good deal this trip. On our return trip it took us an hour and a half more. There was a break-down on the Gateway bridge and the traffic queue was about 2 km long, inching along like a slug. And we had to pay $2.60 for the privilege. Absolutely hideous. Then after the tolls we had about a km of driving at 80kph and then back to a slug crawl again. Lanes merging and merging and merging and merging. They are actually building a second bridge to the Gateway to relieve the traffic chaos. Why the hell didn't they think about this when they built the Gateway Bridge? We left Caloundra at 2pm and we thought we would have missed the peak hour traffic, but oh no. By the time we got off the Gateway Bridge we had struck peak hour head on at 3:30pm. It then took another three hours to get back to the caravan (including a mini stop-off). It was dark and rainy and a most hideous experience. After this trip Rosy and I decided to head inland and start to explore the parks at our next opportunity. Probably Toowoomba.

Congratulations to Rosy for getting her first paying customer for some sewing mending jobs. I'm very proud of her.

It has been a bit wet here at Murwillumbah for the past few days. The park is awash...there is a new lake in the camping area and everything is damp. The sun came out today, so we went off to the beach at South Kingsliff. I think we were all getting a little cabin fever. The other thing about heading inland is that it is not so wet there.

I am constantly amazed at the scenery around here. It is never the same. Such beauty.

Shade, roller coasters and mountains...

We're still here in Murwillumbah and have decided to stay put until the end of April when all the school holidays should be over.

Our new annex walls made of shade cloth are working out great. If you need anything made up of canvas or shadecloth, I recommend you contact Tony at ULTIMA Canvas & Vinyl Products, Lismore.

Last week we made it into Queensland, at last! We had a day riding the roller coasters at WB Movie World. If you are after a VERY fast , VERY smooth roller coaster, try out the Superman Escape ride. For $63 though, I think the park needs to offer a bit more as there didn’t seem to be that much there. Afterwards took a drive back down through Surfers Paradise and stopped off for a bit of shopping at Pacific Fair. Surfers hasn’t changed much except for a few more extremely tall buildings.

Yesterday , we took a drive up into the Boarder Ranges National Park. The view from Blackbutts Lookout is spectacular. The drive up there is a long, narrow, winding dirt road and unfortunately, it was a bit of a hazy day so I didn’t bother taking a photo. Hopefully, we’ll get up there again on a clear day.

While we were gallivanting around, Angel had a sleepover at the Home for the Paws kennel. It’s set on a cattle farm nestled on a hillside in a pretty place called Dulguigan. It’s run by a lovely couple who clearly love dogs. Angel was made very welcome and was given lots of play time with her neighbours, a pair of poodles. We've booked her in for one day a week for the next 3 weeks to give us some doggy free days.

Well, not much more to report for now. Take care all.