2013 Trip Blog,

August

So much has happened since our last blog. It makes me feel guilty that we have had so many wonderful experiences and I haven't shared them, but with time constraints taking us to and fro we have had to skip past a lot of places that deserved to be more thoroughly investigated. We felt it would be better to return to these places another time when we can do justice to them.

In a nutshell, we left Longreach at the end of July and 'limped' down to Sydney sitting on 80 kph via the most direct route. We never would have made it towing the van but the Landy performed admirably. We saw some great things enroute but having to limit the use of the gears we couldn't stop even for photos.

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cattle droving out of Longreach

We traveled to Sydney via Charleville, Cunnamulla, Bourke, Nyngan, Dubbo, Orange, Bathurst then through the Blue Mountains. We tented it until Orange then chickened out when the forecast for the morning was -3° with frosts. Not fun trying to find a toilet in the dark when when it's cold and frosty. We stayed at a nice Motel in Orange and felt like royalty when we only had a few steps to go to the toilet. Even staying in a Caravan Park it can be a hike.

The two weeks in Sydney were extremely fruitful. The new HD Gearbox had arrived from England and was waiting at Graham Cooper's Landy Repairs when we got there. He is professional and prompt with his repairs and we couldn't have asked for better service. When we picked up the Landy we could almost see it smile as it hummed along the Highway, quieter than it's ever been.

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Sydney Sunset

I also took the opportunity to have a bit of a service myself whilst in Sydney where it's a lot easier to get regular health checks done. After getting a camera down the throat and one up the bum (in that order I hope) I came out with a clean bill of health, which is always a boost, even if you've been feeling 100% before the checks. We also attended to all the boring stuff that needs to be done like, Tax Returns, Wills, Real Estate stuff and other equally boring paper-work. The bonus of being in Sydney was of course catching up with Rob, Kirk and Sophie. The plan had been for us to look after Sophie for 10 days whilst Rob & Kirk went to Hawaii but due to Rob's work commitments they ended up with only four days at a small Island just South of Dunk Island but it was still a very welcome break.

We left Sydney and headed up the North Coast camping at Nelson Bay, Nambucca Heads and Ballina. We checked out Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay along the way for a possible 'landing spot' when we eventually decide to find a base but although great places, none appealed to us as a permanent venue. We crossed over the border into QLD and really liked the coastal towns along the Gold Coast. We spent a couple of days here then continued North to Brisbane where we checked out the 'truck' we have been toying with getting. More on this if it happens.

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north coast, … nice !!!

Turning West along the Warrego Highway we passed through Toowoomba and stayed the night at Dalby before continuing on through Roma then NW through Augathella and onto Tambo for the night. We were reluctant to stop at this point as we were only about three hours SW of Longreach and we were anxious to get there but it was right on dusk and it had been a long day's drive. It was a speedy start the next morning as we happily set off with only a short hop to Longreach.

We were quite excited to see the van when we drove into the park and wasted no time hooking up and finding a nice quiet spot down the back to re-organise all our stuff. Shuffling things back into the van from the Landy and back into the Landy from the van. How good it was to be back home. We had a few things to do here and there and stayed at Longreach for a week to get everything back in order, which by that time, we were champing at the bit to get going again.

We left Longreach on 2 September and headed East.

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Longreach caravan park Sunset ….. and more droving out of Longreach !!!

Our movements will still be very time driven for another month so no day to day blog but we have included some photos we have taken over this month and will update at the end of September.

Regards and happy thoughts to all who have contacted us……we really appreciate your messages and encouragement.

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some of the local identities