Hobart - Tannum Sands

5th May 2018 we left home and headed north to catch the Spirit of Tasmania to head to the Big Island to escape the Tassie winter. Our friends Gladys and Graeme were staying at the Ulverstone Caravan Park and were kind enough to invite us over for a meal before we left on the Spirit, as we had a late sailing we had plenty of time to relax and enjoy a wine or two with them before we had to board.

 We were hoping for a smooth crossing but upon boarding the crew ask us if we new how to disable the car alarm as vehicles fitted with motion sensors the alarms go off in rough seas. As we had never had the need before to disable the alarm we left the Paj unlocked overnight, we have since read up and hopefully will know what to do in future. The Captain advised that we should expect a rough crossing as there were 40 knot winds and 3-4 metre swells. Shortly after passing through the heads we could certainly feel that we were in for a doozie, we have been lucky for the previous 10 years so it was about time we experienced a rough one. It wasn't too bad we managed a glass a wine and to watch the footy game then it was off to bed. Laying in the bed I would feel weightless as we went down the wave then you feel a pounding as the bow of the boat went into the next wave then up we would go, I thought I would not get a lot of sleep but was surprised that I had a fairly good nights sleep.

We arrived in Melbourne Sunday morning to lovely clear skies and and headed north,we had planned to travel around 600 klms a day and we were really enjoying the warmer weather we were experiencing along the way. Our first overnight stop was at West Wylong in NSW, the next day we travelled further north to one of our favourite stops Moree where we booked in for two nights so we had time to enjoy time in the thermal pools. Leaving the Newell Hwy we headed towards Toowoomba and out to the Bruce Hwy and onto our next planned stop Cooroy, on the Sunshine Coast, where we caught up with our friends Alison and David. We enjoyed a lovely night out with them at a local restaurant, leaving the next day on our last leg to Tannum Sands.

We have spent the last 10 days staying with Anita and Jason and it has been lovely to once again spend time with the Olivia and Archie and be able to see what they are up to. It was so cute to see Archie playing soccer, brought a tear to our eyes bringing back memories of when Jase and his mates were young little soccer players.

 It is seven months since we parked the van beside Jason's house so we needed to give it the once over to make sure all was ok before we head off towards Cairns. One of things we did was cull some of our clothing as we had left all our clothes in the van from last year, then we were back at Christmas and of course we needed clothes travelling up, managed to leave a whole suitcase full at Jason's that we will collect before heading home in September.

Yesterday we spent the day out in Jason's new boat hoping to catch at least a couple of nice Coral Trout only to come home empty handed the only fish we caught were undersized and had to be thrown back. At least we had a lovely day out on the water and had lovely roast meat for Dinner, maybe our next visit we will get a feed of fish.

Lunch time Tocumal

Lunch time Coonabarabran

Enjoying the Thermal Pool

Mothers Day in the park

Tannum Sands 1st Oct 2017

Our time away is quickly coming to an end, how the time has flown this year we can't quiet believe that we have been away for nearly five months. We are once again at Jason and Neat's place at Tannum Sands, the weather here has certainly heated up most days are 27-30 degrees with overnight temps 17-20 degrees, just hoping someone turns up the temperature back home by next week. The grandkids are loving being able to swim in the pool again, poor old Gran can only dangle one leg in and hope she gets splashed!

We are leaving the caravan and car here at Jason's as we are coming back at Christmas time so we need to do our clean up before we go, but Baz and I are finding these higher temps are not productive to work in, much rather be sitting in the shade with a nice breeze

or inside cooling down with the AC.

Today we met up with Annette from home she is in Rocky for work and was heading down to the Gladstone Branch and of course couldn't miss an opportunity for a glass of bubbles and a light lunch. So great to catch up on the gossip from home and to have a laugh or two.

We will be flying home on Tuesday after celebrating Archie's 4th Birthday so this brings to a conclusion of my blog postings for this year, already looking forward and planning next years. Hope you will continue to read about our travels..........

Agnes Waters

Our next stop was Agnes Waters, unfortunately we could only book in for two nights as QLD School Holiday were starting and us Grey Nomads needed to make way for the tents and camper trailers. We would have loved to stay longer as this park is in a great location only have to walk down the track and you are on a lovely beach, it wasn't much good for me with this stupid broken toe/stitches I couldn't go walking or swimming anyhow!!

Our friends Sue and Mike who are our neighbours from home were also at the park so it was great to catch up with them and hear about their time away. We did manage to try out a couple of eating establishments while at Agnes the first being The Getaway Garden Cafe where we enjoyed coffee and lush cakes we must have a return visit sometime. We also made little piggies of ourselves when we went to The Green Turtle Restaurant sharing a couple of Seafood Platters, another place that we must definitely revisit!

Once again our time there went much too quickly the beautiful weather that we have had this year just keeps on keeping on.

Baz, Sue & Michael at the Getaway Garden Cafe

Baz, Denise & Michael at the Getaway Garden Cafe

Getaway Garden Cafe

Agnes Waters Beach

Glamping at Agnes Waters Caravan Park

1770

The Lark 1770

View to beach from van at Agnes Waters

Seafood Platter for Two at The Green Turtle Resturant

Three Little Piggies at the Green Turtle Resturant

Cooroy

We had planned on heading to Carnarvon Gorge after leaving Bargara to meet up with Alison & David, but unfortunately they were unable to get away. As we wanted to catch up with them we headed south to Cooroy which is about 18 klm east of Noosa. Once again we enjoyed our time together popping into Trewantin, Noosaville enjoying a coffee on the Noosa River along with the campfire cooking and a shopping trip to Costco for Al & I, Baz declined the hour drive down to Costco electing to spending a relaxing time at the campground.

A good thing we had an anti slip mat covering our glass cook top, as when Baz was preparing my breakfast he turned the gas knob the wrong way, instead of turning the gas off he turned it to the low setting!, Then he put the glass top down not realising the gas was still burning, sometime later there was a very loud bang when the glass exploded at least the mat kept the glass pretty much contained. Baz said it was the fastest he has ever seen me jump out of bed.

We left Cooroy Friday morning heading north once again, as we were close to Tin Can Bay where Baz's cousins live we decided to pay Judy &  Derek a visit. We were very spoilt with Derek supplying us with home brew Scotch & Southern Comfort also Judy gave us a quantity of frozen fish & Redclaw that they had caught up in the Gulf & dams.

 Things went down hill later that night when I was putting the caravan TV on the bracket, I thought I had it right unfortunately for me it fell off with the corner smashing my fourth toe! I was bleeding heavily leaving pools of blood as I jumped around the van, poor Baz was mopping up with paper towel, eventually the blood flow was under control with ice packs strapped to the foot with shopping bags. I had hoped the next morning we could pull the toe back together with steri strips, no such luck, Judy took a look & said it would need stitches 😱. Our next stop was the Maryborough Hospital where after waiting a couple of hours finally got to see a Dr then an X-ray, finally after four hours I was told I would need to go into Hervey Bay Hospital to see an Orthopaedic Surgeon. Fast tracked at Hervey Bay thank goodness 😅 was then admitted, in surgery at 10 pm, now have sutures & the toe pinned as I had broken the tip off  and it would not of mended. Sutures out in two weeks, pin removed in six no more swimming this trip! All I wanted was a couple of sutures!

Enjoying he campfire at Cooroy

A couple of Old Farts waiting for their coffee fix

Enjoying our coffee & hot chocolate on Noosa River

The Big Pelican at Noosaville i

Glass cook top went off with a BANG !

Oh no an open fracture! Off to theatre!

My lovely footwear for the next six weeks!

Bargara Beach

Monday 4th Sept we left Bargara Beach, once again the time there flew by, where had six weeks gone? The weather that we have experienced this year has been just delightful, most days on average have been 25 degrees, at times we have even enjoyed temps up to 29 degrees. I am sure rain would be very welcome to settle the dust, at the caravan park the grounds are really dry, any grass they have is struggling to survive, they say they haven't had a good rain since Cyclone Debbie. Baz was watering an area behind our van hoping we will still have grass when we come back next year, as once again we have booked the same site.

We have been lucky to have sightings of whales even though they are probably 2 klms offshore they just seem to be thoroughly enjoying their migration putting on a show,  breaching slapping their tails & fins as they head south to cooler water.

Jason, Neat & grandkids came to stay for a couple of nights, it was their first time into Bundy & Bargara, they arrived with all their camping gear. Unfortunately on their first night there was very strong wind from about 2.30 am, Baz was up checking on the gazebo hoping Jase had it peg down OK. We were all a little tired the next day, luckily the wind had eased by daylight, it was the first strong wind we had encountered on this trip. Just unlucky for them it was that weekend. We all still managed to have a great time Liv & Archie loved the playgrounds along the waterfront & the Woodfired Pizza in the park on Saturday night. Sunday we all went to the market in Bundy then headed out to the Port for fresh Prawns, Fish & Chips then it was time for them to head home to Tannum. Next time they will have to stay for a longer time, so much more we could have done.

 Baz & I managed to get a few games of bowls in while we were there, the competition was strong with us only winning a couple of the games, it was a little demoralising sometimes let's hope we play better on the slower greens at home. We also enjoyed our walks along the waterfront & the occasional bike ride, we did manage a 17 klm return ride from Bargara to Burnett Heads before we left!

Hosting a Happy Hour

Carpet Python sunning itself along the
waterfront walkway

Mother & calf

Dog sitting Milly for Denise & Vern

Family invasion

Happy campers

Liv & Archie enjoying the playground

Baby Chino time

Great chair Gran

Mobile Pizza Van

Lunch at the Port

Archie having a chat with Grandad 

Pre dinner drinks, farewell to Ruth & Ian

Farewell meal with our Bargara family,
until next year!

Burrum Heads

Our stay of 2.5 weeks at Jason's flew by it didn't seem any time at all and we were saying goodbye to Jase, Neat, Liv and Archie. Liv had a lovely 6th Birthday Party with Neat excelling herself with the birthday cake, everything went to plan, no dramas this year. We also spent an enjoyable day at the Mount Larcom Show with the family, it is a great agricultural country show with it's many animals and demonstrations to be enjoyed by families.

Baz's burn was healing nicely with daily dressing changes, I was still having problems with my foot and my blood pressure was still on the high side. I ended up having to have a 24 hr monitor which was rather uncomfortable as it was taking my BP every 30 mins in the day and during the night hourly. Yes it came back as being rather high, had thought it may have been The White Coat Syndrome, no such luck, so now on yet another keep me alive tablet.

We arrived here at Burrum Heads on the 3rd July the day after Liv's birthday, it was sad saying goodbye to the family but it will only be for a few weeks as they will catch us for a weekend at Bargara Beach. We will be going back to Tannum at the end of September for a week before leaving the car and van and flying home, then coming back for Christmas.

 Since being here at Burrum Heads I have again been running to the doctor this time hoping for answers in regard to my painful toe and ankle. I think between doctors at Tannum and here at Burrum I have had every blood test possible, also had xray and ultrasound of the foot before they finally gave me some tablets for GOUT! That is what I thought it was when I started taking the anti inflammatory's that then sky rocketed my BP and put me on the Merry Go Round, at least now I am finally able to walk ok again.

Baz was very exited a few days ago when he finally caught his first Bream then again the next day another one, he has only been trying without success for three years so two fish in three years is really putting his average up. He can be down at the river for hours with other fisherman either side of him catching good size Bream and he comes home with nothing.

We have experienced our first rain since Hay, lucky for us it was just overnight which helped to keep the dust down, with days here on the coast averaging between 22 -25 daily, nights down to around 10 just a little hard to take. We have travelled the 30 klms into Hervey Bay a few times to do our shopping and also to catch up with our friends Carlene and Rex also we had Leonie and Richard there as well that we needed to catch up with and relieve them of our caravan cover that they had kindly picked up from the Gold Coast for us.

Once again our time here at Burrum has flown it will be three weeks on Monday since we arrived, and now it is time to move onto our next stop Bargara Beach. It has been a busy time with going for meals, markets, shopping and enjoying many Happy Hours with our friends Maree, Brian, Christina, Eddie, Judy and Merv we never seems to run out of something to talk about and of course there is always a good laugh usually at someones expense.

Liv's Birthday Breakfast

Party friends and one little Batman brother

Family photo and cake

Welcome band at Mount Larcom Show

Baz and I trying Jason's and Neat's Love Seat
Prefer my own space!

Tannum Sands night markets and bands

Baz taking it easy at Burrum Heads

Check out that grin,
 didn't have to get him to smile for the camera!

Sunset Burrum Heads

Lunch at Hervey Bay delicious Seafood Chowder

Celebrating Brian's Birthday at the Tavern