Ettamogah Pub & Rainbow Beach

No QLD trip can past this pub

Up to the Sunshine coast and Rainbow Beach. We are camping at Inskip Point which overlooks Fraser Island. Camping is only $9.85 per night. I haven’t fished for nearly 3 weeks. Only Sand Whiting lots of them. It is good to be out again and this place is beautiful.

I’m up early for a fish but no luck. We go for a 4WD along the beach and try some fishing but there is nothing. Over to Butt Point and we try a fish off the old wharf . We catch some Perch & Bream but to small as usual.

Tina finally brought a watch after 9 months of looking. We had a great day the weather was fantastic and the scenery to match.

Lazy Days at Wynnum

We completed the Bar & Hospitality coursedoing our RSA.

Down to the local church markets and then off to Dick Johnson Racing. Well the website talked it up but it was a little disappointing. In the afternoon we worked on the car taking one of the guards and cleaning out leaf trays in the vents. I managed to find an 80 series design fault where the floor pan joins the inner guard. The passenger side has rusted through to the floor but the drivers side is OK. This design is based solely to rust out the floor. Apparently there are two drain plugs under there, good work Toyota.
We are off to visit relatives again today, Nana’s nephew Ken & Gloria. We ahd a 3 course lunch and a good chat.
Today we did our Blue Card course which is a minimum to work on any building, construction, mine & road works site. It is a Health & Safety course and the card is valid for 3 years and is excepted in most states.
Graham & Joyce came down to as Nan is getting her roof insulated thanks to Mr. Rudd and she’s of to the hospital on Tuesday
We are packing up today and getting ready to move on although we could not find any picking work here we did some courses and spent some time with Nan which was good.
Back to Windscreen’s O’brien to have the Windscreen refitted for the third time. Hopefully this time it seals. Some shopping and packing up so we can hit the road again.

Back to School and Rainy Days

We booked in some courses for next week with Tina and I both getting our RSA, RSG and Bar certificates hopefully we will be able to get some bar work further up the coast when we get to the Whit Sunday region. We are also going to get our Blue cards which you need to work on any building, construction or road work site. We may get a traffic controllers certificate as well.
A drive out to Wendy’s house in morning and a chance for Nan to catch up with her Great Great Grandchildren Jake & Riley. In the afternoon we walked down to Wynnum Vikings AFL club to watch a game of footy. It looked all over at quarter time with Wynnum down 9 goals to 1. At ¾ time they had only narrowed the deficit down to 32 points and a win never looked possible. But footy is a funny game and they kicked 10 goals to 1 in the last quarter leaving the locals in a frenzy. A great game and cheap beers made for a good afternoon not to mention the 5km walk.
We did some serious exercise today power walking down to the footy club & back as well as some, running. I hope we pull up OK tomorrow.
Our first night of the bar & Hospitality course at the Newnham Hotel. It has been a while since we did any learning but it was good. It started to rain tonight and they are expecting big rains this week.
They weren’t joking when the said rain it wasn’t that heavy but it rained all day. We took Nan to the doctor and shopping. My back has been holding up really well until the other day when I pulled that shoulder blade area of my back. I contacted Rob in Adelaide and he put me onto a Chiro in Wynnum who did a great job in popping my back into place.
Our second night of the course in Uniform, & learning how to pour beers. It is now pissing down an the drive home is a bit scary on all the unlit highways with ongoing road works.
A pretty lazy day sitting around with the rain pouring down, we have had 200mm in Brisbane and 430mm at Bribe Island. Driving around in this is crazy and the new windscreen we got leaks so I had to take it back to get them to refit it.
Tonight’s course started with a test and then cocktail making. This was fun and we all got to make known cocktail as well as our own invention. We spent a lot of time behind the bar tonight and this was good experience.

Brisbane

Today is the first day in QLD that we have woken up and the sun isn’t shining. But today is going to be a good day I can just tell. A bang on the door at 7.00am and it’s the SEQ Water guy telling us off for camping here. Big Deal, we have some breakfast and check out Somerset & Wivenhoe Dams. Somerset is 91% and Wivenhoe just about empty. They supply most of Brisbane’s water. Its 120km back to Wynnum and a nice drive. Straight down to Manly beach and a drink at the Wynnum Point Hotel.
We are staying at Nan’s trying to find some courses we can do.
The windscreen man is coming on Thursday to put in a new windscreen and we are off to Brisbane tomorrow to look around the city.
Get this we have a room in a house with a toilet and shower this is pure luxury.
We are off to the city today and catch the train into town. It is great to go to places where they have a proper transport system. It is possible to get one in Adelaide but that would take some forward thinking.
We finally bought a Telstra Next G phone so we will have coverage now not like the old Virgin phone. We picked up another external hard drive so we can do a back up and post it back to Adelaide. Brisbane hasn’t really changed that much in the city but the never ending highway building is in full swing.
The great weather continues with nights getting a little cool down to 10° but 25° each day. I have not fished since we got here but I will try some next week if the weather keeps up like this.
I was off to do some shopping this morning while Tina did some weeding.

The Great Toowoomba Rail Incident

We packed up had a talk to a couple who are camping here but don’t live far away. He owns a farm and can’ stop working on weekends unless he leaves so he comes down here and camps for the weekend. They don’t do anything just sit around, what a great idea.
We drive through Laidley and head towards Toowoomba. It’s a big town but you have to drive up a huge mountain just before you get there. We have a bit of a look around and find a windscreen place as the rock chip finally gave way. Then just as we drive down the main street in front of the Westfield the Axle spring shackle broke on the Caravan. The axle twisted back and locked up the brakes and skidded us to a halt right on the middle of a railway line. At first I just though the electric brakes must have locked until and inspection found the snapped axle mount. This was not only serious. but bloody scary as well. I had to jump back in and drag the locked van off the railway line before a train comes.
It would only move just enough to clear the track without snapping the axle off completely. A tow truck pulls up behind us and put son his flashers and this stopped the car problems a little. Di I mention the embarrassment factor as well? I jacked up the caravan moved the axle forward and used a G clamp and chisel to hold it in place. Lowered the jack and drove off to the place the driver recommended, unfortunately 5km away. This 40 minute drive in 2nd gear was such fun.
Anyway $ 284 & 4 hours later it is fixed with new shackle brackets both sides and all new welds (the other side was cracked) we are off again. Apart form the obvious dangers of this happening on the railway line and massive social embarrassment it happened at very low speed in a town where we could get this serious damage repaired in the same day. Bloody lucky compared to all the places we could have been.
We try not to complain you have got to expect some repairs if you are going to drive around Australia and take all those back roads I love.
We headed off to Somerset Dam another windy mountain drive about 80-100km away. It got late and we stopped at a rest area next to an outlet for the dam, No Camping allowed but 3 other RV’ had already pulled in. We were buggered and needed a rest.
Thank god that day was over.

Laidley - Gatton

We pack up and headed off, QLD here we come. We are going to Laidley where there is a camp with the first 2 nights free including power. We decide to cross the mountains through Tamborine. Lucky we made it up some of the steep mountains. Once we got inland it was very dry and you can see where the floods stopped. The camp site is on a dam that is practically empty.

Gatton & Laidley are vegetable growing districts but there are no crops ready so we might have to hang around for a couple of weeks if we intend to get work here. We walk into town and have a couple of beers at the local pub (they have 3 to choose from).
Finally we get One HD range and I get to see the T20.
Another beautiful day in Paradise and it is funny to here locals complain about the cold nights. It is 22-25 during the day and down to about 10-12 night. We walked into town again and had to stop off for another beer its thirsty work. This is a nice place and it is nice to spend 3 days in the same place.
We are moving on today and have gone to another free site 20km down the road at Thornton. Free power & Hot showers for up to 3 nights. It is in a valley with the Great Dividing Range on one side and the Liverpool Ranges on the other and in between cabbages & cauliflowers.
We sat around in the afternoon and played some soccer. No channel 10 lucky anyway Carlton lost to Freo.
Its Mothers Day so we are off to Brisbane to Tina’s Nana. She didn’t know we were coming so it was a nice surprise. There is non stop road works most of the way into Brisbane. Its only 110km from where we are camped. We had a nice day and drove back in the afternoon. A stop off at the Walloon Hotel to pick up some beers and we made it back before dark. (Which is not long after 4.30pm in QLD) Not surprised its bloody light at 4.30am its no wonder I can’t sleep.

Brunswick Heads

We drove Coffs towards Grafton stopping in at Red Rock for a fish, lots of small Bream & Mullet but nothing we can keep to eat. We went to a couple of National Parks but they are all $28/night. We have decided to stay at Bookroom Campground near Woolie.Sat-02-May-09There has been a bit of rain overnight, but it’s another nice day. The walk along the coast is nice and we end up in a bay watching some surfies. We decide to walk along the beach on the way back which involved quite a bit of rock climbing. Before dark we head off in search of some fish. It is very quite with hardly a bite until just before dark when the Bream are on the bite but all but one is undersize.


Along the coast today, we stop in at a little village along the river for coffee and then to Evans Head. We head inland slightly to Coraki and stay at the caravan park on the river. I’m getting good at only catching one fish and Evans Head was the same and now on the river I pick up a big cat fish.


We are looking for some work but it seems there is no fruit picking or similar work in this area of NSW. There are plenty of adds in Lismore but only for real jobs.

We arrive in Brunswick Heads which was one of our favourite spots when we travelled here last October. Some dark clouds arrive and we get some afternoon rain but it is still warm.
Tue-05-May-09
We do some light repairs, the forest tracks continue to make things fall apart in the van. We head down to the beach Tina is reading and I’m after fish again the current and tide are very strong and fish are taking the bait off and I cant even tell with the big sinker I have on. Once again I go back to the smaller rod and first cast hits a Flathead. Then a Dart is caught but most of the bait just falls off in the big surf. The bait in NSW is crap. We move over to the Breakwater and there are heaps of small fish and a couple of times we see some big fish swim past but I can’t land one. Once again no one else can catch anything either.
We get cleaned up and head down to Sticky Fingers for the best Pizza in Aus. It was beautiful just like last time and after we head back to the pub for a couple of beers. It’s a shame there is no work around here because we would both like to spend some time here. It is raining again in the evening but not much falls.

Heading North chasing the sun

We spent most of today packing up it is bitterly cold in Canberra and they have had heaps of snow in the mountains. This is our cue to move north, if we wanted the cold we could have stayed in Adelaide.
Up early and we are on the road. We are heading towards Taree it’s a long drive.
It’s not long before we are greeted with some sun and we drive 560km north and end up staying in a national Park
It’s a beautiful morning and we make our way to Taree after we stop for a spot of fishing the surf is huge and current to strong. There is no work in the Taree area so we are going to keep heading north towards Lismore. The nice lady at the NAB told us of a place called Ellenborough Falls. It was a fair drive up the mountains with the van but well worth it. Next stop Coffs Harbour, we weren’t expecting to make it today but the GPS picked a special route for us. A 60km drive through mountain tracks in the wrong direction, boy was that fun. Lucky Tina got to drive that leg. After a long detour we made it to Ellenborough. Strangely enough the falls are over 100km form the town. We are staying at the rest stop which is a camp ground which is fantastic.
The river is flowing very strong and not long ago when Northern NSW got their floods this river must have been another 3-4m deeper by the look of the bent over trees.
It is another 250km drive today mostly on actual roads not like yesterday. The evidence of the floods is everywhere to be seen and this is the greenest & lush country I have ever seen.
We have driven to Coffs Harbour and are staying at Moonee Beach CP. There is no fruit picking work here so we will move on towards Lismore, Byron Bay. Coffs is a big town and we stopped in at the Big Banana.
We drove Coffs towards Grafton stopping in at Red Rock for a fish, lots of small Bream & Mullet but nothing we can keep to eat. We went to a couple of National Parks but they are all $28/night. We have decided to stay at Bookroom Campground near Woolie.
There has been a bit of rain overnight, but it’s another nice day. The walk along the coast is nice and we end up in a bay watching some surfies. We decide to walk along the beach on the way back which involved quite a bit of rock climbing. Before dark we head off in search of some fish. It is very quite with hardly a bite until just before dark when the Bream are on the bite but all but one is undersize.
Along the coast today, we stop in at a little village along the river for coffee and then to Evans Head. We head inland slightly to Coraki and stay at the caravan park on the river. I’m getting good at only catching one fish and Evans Head was the same and now on the river I pick up a big cat fish.