After leaving Quilpie we spent a couple of days crossing the Channel Country in south west Queensland and found it to be very interesting, even if the flooded Cooper Creek did mean that we couldn’t go where we wanted to go. All the creeks and waterholes had water in them and grass everywhere is green. It looks great. 

Eromanga is “famous” for 3 things; it is the town furthest from the Ocean in Australia; it sits above Australia’s largest oil field; and recently Australia’s largest dinosaurs (Cooper and George) were found here. There is a very good dinosaur museum and display and still large dinosaurs roam the region.

Further south we had dinner at the Noccundra pub, the only building in this “town” and camped overnight at a permanent water hole just a 10 minute walk from the pub. This was another good camp site, with pelicans, parrots, budgies, cockatiels and many other birds to entertain us. 

Continuing south we entered New South Wales via Sturt National Park and stayed overnight at Tibooburra, an actual town with 80 people, 2 pubs, 2 stores, a police station and a small caravan park. Most travelers who come here are prospectors, looking for gold. Ted used a new friend’s metal detector for a couple of hours and foind 3 screws, 2 slug gun pellets and 2 small pieces of wire. The history of exploration and gold mining at Tibooburra is interesting, especially learning about Charles Sturt’s expedition. With 16 men, 3 large carts, a 10 metre long boat, horses, sheep and provisions he crossed this very arid region. His party stayed near here for 6 months while they waited for rain because they couldn’t find any water to the north of here. 

During our 3rd night in Tibooburra rain fell and all roads out were closed. We are now waiting, probably for a couple of days for the road to open. That makes 6 times during this trip that road closures have changed our plans. Late this afternoon we heard that the road is open again so we will leave tomorrow, heading south toward Broken Hill instead of going west to Cameron Corner as we had intended.

Keep safe everyone, Ted and Jo

We had a great time in Melbourne with our family then flew back to the Sunshine Coast and we have been on the road again for a couple of weeks. Before leaving the coast we heard about massive rains coming to the north and north west of us so we went west, deciding to leave Sapphire and Clermont for another trip. Up to 400 mm of rain fell and many roads were closed so we made the right decision. We did have to spend a day cooped up in the caravan in Dalby but we received only about 30 mm.

Next stop was Judd’s Lagoon, near the tiny town of Yuleba, 60 east of Roma. This was one of the best camp sites we have stayed at so a one-night visit turned into 4 nights. Camp fires beside the lagoon and walking during the day were good fun.

By now we heard that the road to Carnarvon Gorge was closed so that will have to wait until next trip. Continuing west we spent a couple of nights at the nice little town called Mitchell, where everything is named after our grandson. 

At Charleville we spent a night at the Bush Caravan Park 3 km out of town, enjoying a very good camp oven dinner and an interesting 2-hour town tour. Then we took the 200 km road to Adavale, sealed for about 80 km and the remainder quite rough, corrugated dirt road. There is water and green grass everywhere, from the rain about a month ago and again a week ago but the road was mostly dry.  Adavale was formed in 1880 as a centre for agriculture and opal mining and it was a changing station for Cobb & Co coaches. At its height Adavale had 6 hotels, 3 banks, a school with 67 students, a hospital and several stores. Now there are 15 inhabitants with 8 houses, a pub, a community hall with a camp ground and a few dogs, horses and 8 geese roaming free – and the pub was closed for a week.

Another 100 km of mainly rough road brought us to Quilpie. Had we arrived yesterday we could have gone across the Channel Country as we had planned but the road to the west was closed due to the Cooper Creek being in flood so we have to change plans again. The frequent changes to plans haven’t worried us; it means that we are seeing places that we hadn’t planned on seeing. Instead of crossing the Channel Country and Plenty Highway to Alice Springs we could go home via Innamincka or Birdsville but we would be racing to stay ahead of the high rivers so instead we will head south west to Tibooburra.

That’s all for now. Hope everyone is safe and well.

Love from Ted and Jo

It should be called 2016 Not The Top End Trip.  We had intended doing the Gibb River Road and Savannah Way but they will have to wait for another opportunity. Outback Queensland is very interesting so it’s a pretty good consolation prize. 
The highlight at Winton, instead of being the scenery was the busker/bush poet who entertained us after a roast dinner at the caravan park. He was the best we have ever heard, very clever, even with costume changes and multi-accents.  Next stop was Longreach where we had been before so we didn’t do the usual tourist things.  A highlight here was brolgas wandering through the caravan park as though they owned it; beautiful, graceful birds who were not afraid of people.  We did have to buy new car batteries here because our 6-year old original batteries eventually died.

From Longreach we took a short drive on a narrow, single-lane road to Isisford, with lots of water still in low areas everywhere and side roads still being muddy from last week’s rain.  We camped at Oma Waterhole on the Barcoo River, about 16 km from Isisford, where we had a couple of fine, sunny days and cold nights. The river was still in flood but down about 3 metres from its peak so there was lots of grey clay mud – reminded us of Renmark river banks. 

Another one lane road brought us to the tiny town of Jericho where we camped at Redbank Waterhole, about 4 metres from the warter’s edge. Although quite a few vans were here this is a very good camp and we’ll return for a few days after we come back from Melbourne. 
The trip to Maroochydore was to be about 1,000 km which we did in 3 days – 550 km to Lawgi rest area, south-east of Emerald, 350 km to Kilkivan bush camp and caravan park (another very good bush park with grass, shady trees, birds, and a beaut roast dinner), and finally 100 km yesterday to Maroochydore.  We spent a few hours at the beach with Bevan, Jo, Rufus and Harvey.  When we decided to use this as our base for a Melbourne flight we had not realised that they would be here so that was a bonus.  We are looking forward to tomorrow when we’ll fly south to the cold weather to spend time with all the grand children. 
That’s all for now. Hope everyone remains safe and well. From Ted and Jo

Not sure how to start this because we are out of Internet range so I’m not sure where or when we did the last update. 
We are at Corella Dam, about 65 km east of Mt Isa, Qld. Yes I did say Qld. We had intended going west from Darwin to the Kimberley region and especially the Gibb River Road but the fridge problem that we have had for a couple of weeks persisted so we decided to go east and south into cooler Qld instead. 
From Darwin we headed south to Three-Ways then east to Barkly Homestead. It rained heavily for several hours and by the time we got to Barkly Homestead the caravan park was under water. That was not a big problem but it meant that the roads that we were going to take across the Channel Country south of Mt Isa would also be under water so we stayed an extra night at Barkly.

Next stop was a billabong on the Georgina River just out of Camooweal. This was a very nice area, although very slippery on the clay flats and some vans had been bogged trying to find their way in or out of the many camp sites near the billabong. We stayed a couple of days, enjoying brolgas, eagles, kingfishers, ibises and egrets during the day and campfires under a full moon at night.

I left the car ignition on by mistake and flattened the battery which resulted in the backup car fridge blowing a fuse so now we had a suspect caravan fridge and a useless backup. We got a jumper lead start at Camooweal and in Mt Isa we got the car fridge fixed and the caravan fridge is coping better now that we are in a cooler area than a few days ago. This afternoon the car battery went flat again; a battery problem or my mistake? Tomorrow we’ll get a jumper lead start and see what happens. The car batteries are 6 years old so that might be the problem. 

Meanwhile we have enjoyed 3 days at Corella Dam. This dam was built to support the Mary Kathleen uranium mine that operated from 1950 to 1984. The mine closed but the dam remains and is a really good camping area. There are about 50 caravans but it does not feel cramped. The lake is nice and the surrounding rugged countryside is interesting. 

We have left Corella Dam and are heading east toward Longreach on our way to Maroochydore. We have decided to fly to Melbourne from there to see the grandkids during their school holidays. Looking forward to that.

We are now in Internet range, staying overnight at Winton.  It was only 22 degrees today and getting colder each day. Perhaps we should have stayed in the north where it was hot. Never satisfied!

Love to all.
Ted and Jo

We went north from Tennant Creek as planned, stopping at Longreach Lagoon, 11 km along a sandy, corrugated track from Elliott. This permanent water system is great for bird watching, sunsets, swimming, happy hours and camping only 5 metres from the water’s edge.

Next stop was Daly Waters, a dry, dusty caravan park with an interesting bush pub and a few other buildings. A meal, drinks and socialising at the pub was good fun. The temperature was into the 30’s and neither the air conditioner nor the fridge would work. The nearest repair facility was a Darwin so we drove 600 kms and booked into a caravan park. The air conditioner was fixed quickly but the repairer is not sure what is wrong with the fridge so he did a quick temporary repair then went fishing for a 3-day long weekend. Tomorrow he will have another look at it and decide what to do permanently; we could be here for a couple of weeks yet.

Meanwhile we are enjoying 34 deg at a nice caravan park site, with lots of shade and a nice quiet swimming pool nearby. 

We hope you are all safe and well. From Te and Jo

The past week proved to be even more interesting than we expected.

Trephina Gorge in the East MacDonnell Ranges, about 60 km east of Alice Springs, is great – rugged and dry, but also quite beautiful, with really good bush walks. The vegetation all looks healthy after recent rain, with lots of varieties of trees and grasses. During a camp fire session after dark we heard that an 86 year old man had gone for a 30 minute walk at 4 pm and hadn’t returned.  The officials didn’t want untrained people searching so we just provided support to the man’s wife until eventually he was found at noon the next day; after 20 hours he was healthy so it ended well. 

Then the rain started and kept coming down for about 12 hours. After seeking advice from the local park ranger we decided to leave and take a chance on the roads.  The trip to Ross River, then north along the Hale River was slow with water across the road in most of the creek crossings and mud in hollows everywhere. We stayed overnight at Old Amberlindum homestead, still a working cattle station. Luckily the owners were welcoming because we were the only guests there. We took their advice and stayed an extra night because the track to Gemtree, 100 km further north, was still wet. Staying longer was good because we were able to spend several hours helping to drove 140 cattle from the next property, about 7 km through some quite rough terrain. It was good fun. 

The track westward along the Hale River was still wet and at times a little slippery, then we drove north for about 40 km along the rocky, corrugated and frequently wet Pinnacles Track. Many times we were doing only 10 kph so the 100 km trip from Old Amberlindum to Gemtree took 4 hours and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The scenery was quite spectacular.  At Gemtree we heard that there was more rain on the way so we changed plans and headed for the Stuart Highway rather than continue north along Binn’s Track. This proved to be a good decision because soon rain started again and continued for about 12 hours.  By now the Todd River through Alice Springs had stared to flow so the local property owners must be very happy.

Now we are in Tennant Creek where we stopped to do some laundry and shopping. Tomorrow we will head north again then west to Kununurra in WA.

Keep safe and well everyone. Regards from Ted and Jo

King’s Canyon was as good as we expected. The caravan park at King’s Canyon “Resort” is a good outback park, different to most in that dingos roam freely throughout the park, looking for food, day and night. We enjoyed the 3 hour rim walk around the canyon. The first climb was steep but the scenery around the rim is amazing, certainly worth the exertion. Happy hour sessions at the park were good fun although the sunsets were not as good as we have seen elsewhere because the sky was overcast. 

Somewhere along the reasonably good dirt road called the Mereenie Loop to Glen Helen Gorge we were attacked by a rock that broke some pvc plumbing under the van but we could manage without it while staying overnight at Glen Helen Gorge. This is a comfortable park with a bar and restaurant in the old homestead and fire buckets near the caravan sites. 

We are now in Alice Springs, having had the plumbing fixed and the laundry and shopping completed and are about to leave for the East Macdonnell Ranges, followed by a few hundred kms of rough roads before we join the Stuart Highway near Tennant Creek. We will be travelling along Binn’s Track through what promises to be really interesting country.

Love to all

Ted and Jo 

We started with a night at Brighton caravan park so that we could charge up the fridge, only to discover that we couldn’t get 240 volt power into the caravan, so the first 2 stops on our holiday were the auto-electrician and Slades Caravan Repairs to find that we had a burnt-out element in our hot water service. Luckily it was a quick fix so we were able to get to a small caravan park near Port Pirie on the first day.

Since then we have travelled about 1700 kms under a clear blue ski, with the temperature in the mid- to high-20’s and hardly any wind – just about perfect. We bush camped about 200 metres from the highway 180 km south of Coober Pedy then had our first mishap in Coober Pedy – Ted kicked the cap of the toilet cassette into the dump point.  As a result we haven’t been able to use the caravan toilet so have  had to spend the last few nights in caravan parks.  It doesn’t matter because we have still have had pleasant happy hours with lots of nice people.

We have stopped overnight at Marla, Erldunda (the first stop in Northern Territory) and we are now in Yulara. Normally the highlights at Yulara are Uluru and The Olgas.  Sunrise at The Olgas was beautiful, followed by a 2-hour hike. Uluru is magnificent of course so we had a look at that.  This year two other highlights were in place just for us.  Firstly, the Field of Lights display had 50,000 globes installed on thin waving poles in the desert, joined by 380 kms of optic fibre cable.  This was very interesting; Google it for good photos. Secondly, early this morning we were woken by the caravan moving as though being rocked by strong winds. It was a bit scary but we went back to sleep once the wind stopped. Later we found out that it wasn’t wind at all; instead we had experienced a 6.1 magnitude earthquake centred between here and Alice Springs. There were a couple of after shocks but we didn’t notice them. Fortunately no damage was done anywhere. 

We are looking forward to leaving here for Kings Canyon tomorrow because that is one of out favourite memories from our first visit to the red centre in 1995.

Keep well everyone. 

Ted and Jo

Hi everyone. Greetings from Myanmar.

What an amazing country! Yangon is similar to other large Asian cities except less developed. The country is obviously very poor, with average daily earnings being around $5 per day but people seem to be embracing capitalism and there is no obvious sign of oppression. Our guide is reluctant to talk about politics but talks optimistically about the the future with its transition to democracy.

After a day sightseeing in Yangon, including the very impressive Shwedagon Pagoda we were pleased to get out of the city. We flew to Bhamo and boarded a sampan boat for a 30 minute trip downstream where our ship was waiting for us. It had to stop downstream because the river was too shallow at Bhamo.

The ship, Avalon Myanmar, is only 5 months old and very comfortable. It carries up to 36 passengers (30 this time) and 30 crew. It has all the mod cons, great food and great service. With only 3 levels and a 1.2 metre draft the ship can travel in shallow water and beneath the occasional bridge. The Irrawaddy River is about 2000 km from north to south, very wide and with a 20 kph current at present. In the dry season, as it is now, the river meanders through a very wide fertile valley for most of its path. During the wet season the water level can be up to 14 metres higher. There are a couple of gorges through mountains but usually the mountains are in the distance. The valley is mainly sandy soil, covered with seasonal crops and small towns along the bank. Our ship is the largest along the upper reaches but there are thousands of other vessels – for fishing, ferrying people, carting cargo to local markets, carting sand, timber, ore, rice and a range of produce to Mandalay and Yangon. Every vessel except ours was very noisy, belching smoke from long-tail motors.

Our ship is the only cruise ship north of Mandalay and the local people were as interested in us as we were in them. In fact we all agreed that the real highlight of the trip has been the people. Not many tourists come here; in fact we didn’t see any for the first week. The locals speak virtually no English but are very quick with a wave and smile. They pose happily for photos, especially if we join them in the photo. Often they take photos of us and they are fascinated by the family photos that we brought with us. In the towns we have visited we have usually not bought anything because the ship is self sufficient but Avalon makes a payment to the town so that we can wander around without feeling guilty.

We visited some local markets (not tourist markets), pagodas, monasteries, homes, farms, potteries and walked about freely without feeling threatened or even uncomfortable. An elephant camp with about 6 baby elephants was a highlight.

Phones, sms, wifi are all very patchy in Myanmar. We did have wifi on the ship but not very often so communication with family at home and in Melbourne has been difficult and for that reason this update comes without photos.

We are now in Yangon for an overnight stay before leaving for Bangkok, Sydney and Melbourne tomorrow morning. Looking forward to seeing the kids again.

Love to all. Hope you are all keeping well.

Ted and Jo

Hi everyone

Regards to all from fascinating Vietnam. We hope you are all well, as we are.

We are travelling in a group of 16 people, 8 of us who met in the army and our partners. We have met most of them a few times and we all get along really well. The tour is a 12-day Wendy Wu tour with an amendment to suit us; they compressed the normal 12 days into 10 and added a 2-day trip to Vung Tau, and Nui Dat where Australians were based during the Vietnam war.

The tour started in Hanoi where we had been for a few days about 7 years ago so for us it was more about being with friends than experiencing new things. Hanoi is a large city of about 6 million people so it was hectic, with crazy traffic, thousands of tiny shops, footpaths crowded with people, local cafes, parked motor bikes and display stands for shops. With a strong French influence mixed with Vietnamese culture, Hanoi is very interesting.

 

 
Then we travelled to Halong Bay where we took an overnight cruise on a vessel that carried 40 passengers and 25 crew. The weather was calm and cool, maximum 18 degrees and the water temperature was apparently 13 deg – ok for Ted to swim a couple of laps around the boat in beautiful clear water. We visited a couple of islands, went kayaking and walked through a very large cave in the limestone cliffs. 

Next stop was Hoi An, an hour flight from Hanoi. We stayed a couple of nights near the old town and were able to spend lots of time in the narrow streets amongst traditional housing and shops. This old city is heritage listed and there were thousands of tourists here but is was still good fun. The maximum temperature here was a pleasant 24 deg.

Another 1 hour flight took us to Saigon where we were immediately hit by a humid 35 deg. Saigon has about 10 million people and they all came on their motor bikes to see us. The streets are packed and nobody takes much notice of road rules. Cars, bikes, buses and trucks all converge on intersections with little apparent regard to order of any kind but it seems to work. From our base at the Grand Hotel we visited some local attractions, the Cu Chi tunnels and the Mekong Delta over 3 days. The tunnels were part of a 250 km tunnel system where up to 2,000 Vietnamese people lived for 30 years during their wars with the French, South Vietnamese and of course the Americans and their allies, including Australia. Seeing the conditions in which the locals lived during that period was amazing. Even more interesting was seeing the locals go about their daily routine on the delta. They live, farm, fish, travel, work and host tourists on and near the huge river system. The Mekong travels 250 km in Vietnam after leaving China and Cambodia, breaking into 9 main rivers and hundreds of streams and man made canals before reaching the sea.

About 2 hours out of Saigon we visited Vung Tau, staying overnight at the Imperial Hotel, which is on the site of the war-time recreation club known as the Peter Badcoe Club. We then spent a day visiting Baria, Hoa Long, Nui Dat and Long Tan. A brief service led by our local guide at the Australian memorial on the Long Tan battle field was very moving. 
Today is our last day in Vietnam. It has been a very interesting trip and we all agreed that it was a fitting reunion for our group. We drove back to Saigon, had lunch with the group this afternoon we’ll fly to Myanmar for the next leg of our Asian holiday.

Love to all in Australia. Hope you keep well.
Jo and Ted