Coolum 2.0 - Friendship & Farewells

Coolum 8th - 21st August

We were now heading back down along the east coast towards Adelaide to spend Xmas at home with family. We had planned to stay in Coolum for 4 weeks before flying to Perth mid September to meet our new grand baby due mid August.

While in Hervey Bay I read a Facebook post from a lady in Tasmania (Liz) asking if anyone would like to park their van at a house in Coolum for free in exchange for helping out an invalid lady (Darien). I contacted Liz saying we were happy to leave our van at Coolum Caravan Park but I may be able to help Darien out as I had plenty of spare time & would be in Coolum for a month.
Liz put me in contact with Darien, a 72 year old lady with severe emphysema who is on oxygen 24/7 & almost totally dependent on carers for all her medical & personal needs.
By her own admission she said in the past she wasn't too interested in having lots of friends so was not particularly 'community minded'. She now regretted this as she needed a friend now more than ever. She had paid nurses & carers to look after her needs but no one to just chat with & help ease the boredom of life confined to her home.
I visited Darien 2-3 hrs a few times a week & we just chatted about her life & mine & anything else that came up. She was a very interesting lady & she thought I was very interesting so it was a bit of a mutual admiration society. She told me she had no appetite & had lost a lot of weight living on tinned pumpkin soup as she loved pumpkin soup...... Tinned!! I was horrified as pumpkin soup was so easy to make. I then offered to make her some pumpkin soup for which she was very grateful. She paid for the ingredients & I made a few batches in her kitchen while we chatted. She thought Gary sounded interesting & wanted to meet him to hear about his work as an engineer. I think she was quite an intellectual in her day.
I offered Gary's services to fix anything she needed but she declined, then one day she asked if he could have a look at a blown downlight in her kitchen. She said numerous people had tried to take the blown globe out with no luck. Gary fixed it in a flash. She was so very grateful to him. From then on she kept calling him her hero which Gary loved.
She was a lovely, honest, interesting lady & was so appreciative of something so simple as just 'company'. I say 'was' because, sadly, Darien passed away just 3 months later......

One of the most difficult things about travelling full time is being away from family. Gary's mother had been in excellent health for most of her 85 years but Late last year her age started catching up with her & 6 months later she very reluctantly moved into a nursing home. Gary's brother & sister in law Mick & Annie took on the almost full time job of making all of the arrangements & helping her make the difficult transition from living very independently in her own home to being fully dependent on others in a nursing home. It was quite surreal for us being so far away & feeling immense guilt at not being there to help but also realising that we couldn't have done any more if we were there. Gary enjoyed phoning his mum every day & most days she loved chatting & hearing what we'd been up to.
At 8am on August 21st Annie called to tell Gary that his mum was about to 'leave'. She held the phone to his mums ear for Gary to have one last chat & to tell her that he loved her. She passed away 3 hours later. Gary & I will be forever grateful to Mick & Annie for so selflessly enabling us to live our dream this past 6 months.
The next 24 hours were a whirlwind of arrangements. We were already booked to fly from Brisbane to Perth to meet our soon to be born grandchild. We changed our flight to Brisbane to Adelaide, then on to Perth mid September. We stored our car & caravan at a storage facility in Brisbane.
We arrived back in Adelaide the following day & stayed with Mick & Annie for three weeks. We spent this time finalising arrangements & the funeral, packing up Gwens house, garage sale & enjoying family time. While it was sad saying goodbye to Gwen, Gary summed it up pretty well by saying "I can only hope I live to be 85 in almost perfect health" She was a lucky lady.

Next stop Perth!!!!

Had A Whale Of A Time In Hervey Bay

Hervey Bay 25th July - 8th August

Hervey Bay was a surprise for all the right reasons. We loved every minute we spent here. This was

to be our furthest point north for this year due to waiting for the birth of our newest grandchild in Perth. We will be flying from Brisbane to Perth to meet him / her mid September so no point in travelling further north only to travel back south to Brisbane in a few weeks.

We stayed at Scarness caravan park right on the waterfront (our preferred spot is always right on the beach). Our site was back a bit from the beachfront as we found out later you have to almost wait for someone to die before a beachfront site becomes available. The beachfront sites a beautiful. No trees or bushes interrupting the magnificent views & amazing sunsets every night.

We learnt from some of the others staying at the park that all parks along the Queensland coast right up to Pt Douglass are fully booked until October each year due to the winter warriors spending 3 to 4 months at the same park every year. Gary and I then spent the next few days researching and booking our trip up the north coast next year.

They have a lovely old fashioned cinema where the latest movies were only $9ea so went to see a

movie (Jason Bourne). On the way there we could hear deafening squawking coming from above. We wound down our windows & looked up to find literally thousands of bats flying around & hanging from the trees above. We don't see bats at home so they were a novelty for us to see in broad daylight in such massive numbers.



The absolute highlight of Hervey Bay & possibly this whole trip so far has to be the whale watching cruise we did. We didn't even know Hervey Bay was known for

whale watching till we saw all the signs throughout the town. We set off around 9am on a fairly big catamaran hoping to see a glimpse of a whale or 2 on this 4 hour cruise along the coast off Fraser Island. We had prime position on the front on the top deck next to a lovely Tasmanian couple. We didn't wait long before the familiar sight of a whale spurt could be seen in the far distance. Everyone (including us) became all excited with cameras primed waiting for the next glimpse. The Tasmanians told us not to get excited just yet as they were on this exact same cruise the day before & saw very many whales very close up.
Sure enough, a few minutes later our boat found 2 humpback whales frolicking in front of us. Our guide told us they were 'teenagers' & therefore very playful & interested in anything different they see in the water. They played right alongside our boat for about half an hour, going from side to side, back to front, swimming under or around the boat as if to let everyone have an equal view of them. It was just spectacular. A pod of whales is generally 2 or 3 but we saw up to 5 playing along in one group which we were told is quite unusual.
We had a lovely cold chicken & salad lunch with plenty of food for every one. All together we

estimated we saw approx 40-50 whales which was just fantastic. The last hour of the trip I put my camera away & just enjoyed watching them through my own eyes rather than through a phone.
It was a truly amazing experience we will treasure for a long time to come.

As I said at the beginning we loved Hervey Bay & have already booked to stay 4 weeks next year. We wanted to stay 6 weeks but they couldn't fit us in.

Noosa ......Not what we expected.

Noosa 18th - 24th July

After hearing nothing but positive reports, we were pretty excited to finally get to experience Noosa. There are 2 main caravan parks with Noosa River CP getting the best reviews on WikiCamps (the app that is the  caravanners bible). I tried booking in about 3 weeks before to be told they were fully booked till October! Next on the list was Noosa CP at a place called Tewantin, just outside of Noosa.

The sites were so ridiculously small that everyone has to be directed in to their spot by a nice old codger, who actually does an amazing job with his directions "left hand down, right hand up" to land us in exactly the right place on the site. The park seemed more like a retirement village with the average age being about 70. After going for our customary walk around the park to suss out everyone & their set up we found we were actually in the not so nice section with the back of the park being really lovely with slightly bigger, beautiful grassy sites with huge palm trees & a lovely little river running right through the middle.

Next day we went to the main street  in Noosa, Hastings street, which is on the beach. The street is only about a kilometre long with one side full of designer fashion labels & overpriced giftware shops & the other side full of cafes filled with 'beautiful' people sipping on their skinny soy mocchacino chai latte's. The street was as busy as the Hahndorf''s main street on a Sunday!

The beach was beautiful with crystal clear blue water & squeaky clean sand. We walked along the waters edge which was really lovely. As it was a nice sunny day the beach was packed as well which was to be expected being such a popular place. We only stayed a couple of hours which was enough for us to decide that Noosa wasn't really for us.

The next day we had lunch at Sunshine Beach surf club on the balcony overlooking the beach. That was really nice & even had a couple of whales slowly swim by just to add to the atmosphere.

One night I went to go outside at abut 10.30pm & the door was locked from the inside! I tried a couple of times but it wouldn't budge. Gary had to climb out through the window to unlock it from the outside. It was pretty funny at the time watching Gary squeeze though the small caravan window but may not have been too funny in the case of an emergency. We knew we had to fix it soon so after investigation, Gary found that his key was worn out which allowed the key to be removed in the locked position effectively deadlocking the door from the outside. A quick trip to Bunnings to get a new key cut & problem solved.

Each Saturday night was 'Pizza Night' at the caravan park. An outside company would bring their mobile pizza oven & ingredients & charge $10 for a freshly cooked pizza. It was really nice standing outside chatting while waiting for our pizza (not to mention having tea cooked for us) Was such a great idea don't know why more parks don't do it.

We're glad we finally experienced Noosa but agreed we can tick that one off our bucket list & don't need to come back again.

Next stop............... Hervey Bay!

Coolum is not cool......it's very warm

Coolum - 4th - 18th July

By now we're getting pretty sick of cold weather so decided to try & get further north pretty quick in search of some warmth. We were hoping to stay in Noosa for a week but after calling a few caravan parks & finding they were all booked out (one of them was booked till October) we ended up at a little seaside town called Coolum.

We were originally booked for a week but as soon as we arrived we straight away booked for 2 weeks. The caravan park is right on the beach with just a few bushes between us & the water.
The town is basically 2 streets. The Main Street that the caravan park is on has cafes, surf shops a hotel & the surf club. The next street has Dan Murphys & Coles. All within walking distance. What more could you want?

We walked along the beach every day. It's a fantastic beach with 'squeaky' white sand & beautiful blue water.

Like most women, I love visiting the local markets, well, we discovered the mother of all markets at a little town 20kms away called Eumundi. This market is held every Wednesday & Saturday & with over 200 stalls is HUGE! They say it gets up to 10,000 visitors every week & after we went 3 times in two weeks I believe it. It was fantastic with everything imaginable from yummy food to eclectic stuff for the home & anything else you could imagine. We became addicted to the sugar cane juice (with ginger & lime) it was amazing!

On the Saturday & Sunday there was a 'thunder boat' racing carnival outside of the surf club. They are like the blow up dingies life savers use. One day we took our chairs down and had front row seats on the beach to watch, it was fun.

Gary's work mate from Futuris and his wife, Clayton and Bernie live in Brisbane, they came and visited us on the saturday and we had lunch at the surf club while watching the boat racing as we had a window seat. It was nice of them to come and visit us.

Coolum is now our favourite place and we have booked to come back for a month in August.

Next stop...........Noosa

Brotherly love in Brisbane

Brisbane - 24th June - 4th July

We left Byron Bay heading to Brisbane to see my brother David, Sister in Law Kathlene & nephew Jackson who is 9. We were very grateful when David & Kath offered for us to park the van on their front lawn. Apart from the obvious cost saving, it meant we could have more time together. With all of my brothers & sister living interstate I do cherish the times we spend together.

We spent a few days at Kirra beach on the Gold Coast on our way to Brissie. The caravan park was quite nice but a bit too far away from the beach. As has been the pattern of our trip since leaving home they had been having unseasonable cold & wet weather so we spent most of the time inside the van watching movies & knitting trauma teddies. There was a small break in the weather, just long enough to spend the morning at one of my favourite Gold Coast attractions ....Harbour Town! As much as I love a good shopping trip, it's not quite the same when you're travelling in a caravan & have limited space & have to check the weight in everything. Not to mention having to live on a budget as there are no 'paydays' any more. 

We arrived at David's & were greeted by Jackson standing by his letterbox with the biggest smile & David. (With a big smile too). After a couple of smooth manoeuvres Gary parked the van on the front lawn & we went inside & Jackson gave us a tour of the house & garden.
After Kathlene arrived home from work David explained that they have a great tradition where on Friday nights they celebrate the start of the weekend by putting music on, having a few drinks & making home made pizzas. It was a great way to spend our first night together.

Next day we went to visit the show home & block of land for the house they are about to build. The house is going to be beautiful & they are very excitedly planning all of the details before the build commences. 
That night we went to their favourite Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. We all had Pho which was pretty yummy. They put 2 little dipping bowls on the table that were made of melamine. I was so excited as we love to eat dim sims & dumplings in the van & I had been looking for little dipping bowls for ages but they're all made of glass & I wanted plastic. As we were leaving I asked the manager if I could buy the bowls as I was travelling etc & she said I could have them. That made my night! 

Jackson absolutely LOVES Gary as he also is a huge Star Wars fan & wants to be an engineer when he grows up so Gary is his idol. He often calls him "Uncle Star Wars". We arranged a sleepover night for Jackson. After dinner we went into the van & they played Wii games for a while. We made up a bed on the chairs just like we did when Ashleigh & Lauren slept over. As he kissed us good night he said, "I love you Uncle Gary because you're gentle & funny & I love you my beautiful Aunty Jenny because you're beautiful". He just melted our hearts & that moment will be one of our special memories of this whole trip.
At 2.30 in the morning I was woken up by Jackson standing at the foot of the bed & his little voice saying "Aunty Jenny, I can't get comfortable" I asked if he wanted to go back into his own bed & he very quickly said "yes". After that Jackson would come knocking on the door at 8am each morning & climb into bed with us & he Gary would enjoy playing Wii after tea in the van but no more sleepovers.

On the Sunday we all went to 'Eat Street Markets' at the port of Brisbane. It's a very cool little food market full of food trucks selling all different kinds of food. Gary & I had Yiros followed by Greek honey puffs. They were amazing!

Our time with David, Kathlene & Jackson was great fun & very special. Jackson summed it up by saying to David the day we left ...... I didn't remember very well who Uncle Gary & Aunty Jenny were before they came here but now I will never forget them"!

Next stop..... Sunshine Coast (Coolum)

Beautiful Byron Bay

Byron Bay - 14th - 24th June

We left Pt Macquarie & headed to Byron Bay via Coffs Harbour.  Of course we stopped for the mandatory photo at the Big Banana & purchase of a bunch of bananas.

We were making pretty good time expecting to get in to Byron by about 4pm.  About 40km north of Coffs Harbour the traffic came to a stand still.  There was a LOT of roadworks along the way so we assumed that was the case this time. We waited about 5 or 10 minutes without moving at all when I remembered we have a CB radio! We had turned it on for entertainment value in the past but it really isn't that entertaining. I'm not easily offended by colourful language but my goodness golly gee whizz  they swear a LOT!!

As soon as I turned the CB on, all the talk was about the hold up near Halfway Creek due to a car accident. Some were saying we would be stuck 2 hours! We were at an intersection so Gary said if we were going to turn around it would have to be now or we will be stuck till the road clears. Next thing someone said a police officer said it would be 4 hours!! With that Gary did a perfect U turn. Gary handles towing the caravan so beautifully considering he had never towed one before this trip.
I noticed we had passed a caravan park just before here so we pulled in there & booked a site for the night. Turns out it was the best decision as the traffic did not clear till 8.30 that night. We would have been stuck on the side of the road for 5 1/2 hours!! In saying that, we would have been fine as we have our own toilet, shower, food etc.
Arrawarra Caravan Park was a beautiful find. Set in amongst huge palm trees with kangaroos grazing casually on the lush, green grass, looking up to greet us as we drove in. It was so peaceful.

Next morning we headed off once again for Byron Bay & arrived with no dramas. The caravan park was lovely & only one street over from the Main Street. This came in very handy as this is another town where you have to pay to park on every street.
We spent every day walking down the Main Street to the beach & just sitting watching the water & the people. Although there was the occasional hippy & shoes were definitely optional no matter where you were, I was very surprised to see mainly families & other tourists just like us.
We had a beautiful Mexican tea one night in Miss Margarita & were hoping for a nice Thai dinner on the Saturday night. Well, our Thai meal ended in disaster with terrible service & a hair in Gary's meal. We walked out & ended up in an awesome little Italian place down a laneway off the Main Street. It was a beautiful balmy night walking through the town. It had a fantastic vibe, with the street packed with people & buskers that were so talented they could have all been on stage. I usually hate being out in town at night as usually they're full of drunks or other idiots. This was so different. We felt very safe with everyone happy & enjoying the casual vibe of Byron Bay. We absolutely loved it.

One afternoon we went to Cape Byron Lighthouse. The view was spectacular. There was a huge pod of dolphins playing in the water & we even saw a couple of whales passing by.

Unseasonable wet weather was still following us with one day Byron having record high rainfall for June. We knew it was coming so just spent that day inside the caravan watching movies & knitting Trauma Teddies. It's now laughable that it seems that everywhere we go rain is following us. Colin even messaged me asking where we were headed next so he could alert the locals to stock up on their winter woollies!

We knew we would enjoy Byron Bay but underestimated just how much we would love it. We can't wait to come back & do it all again!

Next stop .......... Brisbane.

Port Macquarie family fun time

Port Macquarie 24th May - 14th June

Port Macquarie is home to my sister & brother in law Chris & Graeme & my niece Jo (Joanne) & her hubby Luke & four & a half year old son Liam. Most years Chris comes to Adelaide for what we like to call 'sisters week' where we get to hang out & generally have quality time together. We both treasure sisters week so were particularly looking forward to spending a lot longer together.

We stayed at Lighthouse Beach caravan park for the first week. It was a nice, small caravan park but was almost completely, shaded by huge trees throughout the park. Due to the unseasonably cold weather they were having we found it even colder being permanently in the shade so decided to move to the 'Breakwall' Caravan park. This park was much bigger & not so many trees so we chose a site in the full sun. It was also literally on the waters edge between the river & the sea so the view was fantastic. The Breakwall ran alongside the park so Gary & I enjoyed walks along the walkway every day. The walking path also went right to the town to the marina which was really nice to walk along.

Chris & Jo had to work so Gary & I amused ourselves during the day by going for walks (weather permitting), or just hanging around the caravan park. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't very kind to us. Some days were nice & sunny but some were also very cold & wet. By about 4pm every day the temperature would drop & nights were freezing.
One weekend the forecast was for torrential flooding rain & wind. I checked with the park staff & they advised the location of our van would be ok but lower sites could flood.
We decided to pack up everything from outside the van, lock it up & stay at Chris & Graeme's for the weekend. Almost 100mm of rain fell in one day. Although the caravan park was very soggy, thankfully there was no damage.

We went to Chris & Graeme's every night after they came home from work. Jo, Luke & Liam also came over each night & most nights stayed over so they could enjoy more time with us. Most days were beautiful & sunny & the caravan park was one street over from the main town. Chris would walk over in her lunch break to have lunch with us with Jo & Liam joining us when they could.
We took it in turns cooking dinner which was fun. One Saturday we had pasty making day with Jo & I making up the mixture & Chris & Gary forming & baking the pasty's. It was a great day.
Chris & Jo usually have other things they regularly do during the week like going to the gym or choir but such is the special bond we have, for the time we were there they cancelled everything to spend time with us. They certainly make us both feel very special & gave us many happy memories.

One Friday afternoon Gary wasn't feeling very well, he had a pain in his lower abdomen that wouldn't go away. Early next morning he was still in pain. There wasn't a doctors surgery open on a Saturday morning so I took him to the hospital. They ran quite a lot of tests & finally diagnosed a bowel infection. They prescribed 2 lots of heavy dose antibiotics & heavy pain killers for the pain which left him feeling pretty crap for the week & just to top it all of he was unable to drink alcohol either. We really hope this is the last time we have to visit a hospital or doctor for a long time but doesn't make us feel very confident about travelling too far away from larger towns.

With the weather being so cold, especially at night, I spend a lot of time knitting Trauma Teddies to donate to ambulance stations for the paramedics to give to seriously ill children. Gary now helps out by sewing them up & sewing on their faces. He loves it & says they take on a personality with each one being slightly different to the last.
Jo & Chris asked if I'd show them how to make them & from then on each night became a 'knitting circle' with Chris, Jo & I knitting & Gary sewing while talking & laughing. It really was so much more fun than it sounds!

We celebrated the Queens birthday long weekend together at the caravan park. Graeme brought their caravan the 3.6km trip from their house to the park & had the site next to us for the weekend. We had a fantasic time just sitting around talking & generally doing what you do on a camping long weekend. Jo is a beautician & gave me a beautiful facial on one of the days. The nights were very cold but luckily Luke was able to borrow his parents gas heater so we were able to spend the evenings huddled around it knitting & talking (of course).

It was a fantastic three weeks spent with my wonderful sister & family. When Gary & I were planning this trip, one of the things that attracted us was being able to spend quality time with family & we certainly achieved that!

Next stop..........Byron Bay!