Committed Travellers

The temperature reached 44° but at 7pm it was still 42°! That never happens at the Gold Coast. We have done most of the packing and emptying of cupboards at my father's house, but it was way too hot to be running around delivering boxes to op shops. The Junkman gave me reasonable quotes to move the rubbish to the nature strip and take away anything the Council won't accept, but he can't start the job till the middle of the week. At least the forecast is for cooler weather next week. We picked up Anita's sister and dropped her at a hospital for some surgery - hope she doesn't get the late Friday afternoon job! At the uninspiring South Vermont shopping centre we had a break and enjoyed passable coffee and cakes. There is an interesting Japanese shop that sells cheesecakes, but we didn't try any. Our next stop was Victoria Grange to visit Graham. I am impressed by the staff at this aged care facility as they recognise me as his daughter even though I a

We came to Melbourne to supervise the final clean out of my father's house which sold at auction last weekend. The money will pay the bond and extras for his five star aged care. It has been very hot in Melbourne today. It was still 36° at 8pm! Fortunately his house has air conditioning. We packed boxes of items to be taken to the local op shop. I am hoping The Junkman will deal with everything else! We have decided to relocate to the caravan park at Lilydale on Sunday. It will be closer to Upper Ferntree Gully and other people we want to visit. We were not able to stay there this week as it was fully booked. One benefit of staying in this area is the array of good restaurants we can try. Last night it was Indian and tonight Japanese. There are four Japanese restaurants within a seven minute drive from Crystal Brook. This was the tasty pickled vegetables dish.

We are set up at the Crystal Brook Tourist Park in Warrandyte. Two hundred years ago it may have been a crystal brook, but now it is a muddy creek flowing along the park boundary. It is really called Mullum Mullum Creek and it flows into the Yarra River. I would hate to be here when the park is full as a lot of cabins and sites have been squeezed into a small awkward space. Fortunately we were allocated a large site backing onto the creek, without any overhanging branches. There are a few flowering gums with brilliant red flowers. So far I have spotted ducks and rabbits in the park. Last night in Wagga Wagga we were treated to a delightful sunset. These photos were taken while I stood on our caravan steps. Our route from Dubbo was decided because I wanted to see The Rock south of Wagga Wagga on the Oxley Highway. The Rock is a ridge 6kms long running in a north south direction, with a maximum width of 1.5kms. It is 430 million years old. We drove into the p

It has been hot all day! We left Dubbo this morning and our first stop was Parkes for fuel and food. The heavy vehicle bypass road behind Coles is lined with bright pink crepe myrtle trees, considered a weed in some areas of Australia. It was bone dry everywhere except Forbes where the lake and Lachlan River do have some water. Yesterday we drove past the Warrumbungles National Park, but it was too hot to go walking and we weren't sure about towing the Bushtracker through the park. This is a definite must do in autumn or spring. Anita managed to take these photos between her jobs as navigator, CB radio operator, researcher etc. This is Australia's first Dark Sky Park because it is so remote the night sky can be easily observed. An overnight stop is definitely warranted. Tonight we are staying at the Horseshoe Tourist Park in Wagga Wagga. It has some drive through sites so we are still hooked up. Hopefully the young male manager has learned not to assume all

Today we left Tamworth and drove to Dubbo. We followed the Oxley Highway which had very little traffic until we joined the Newell Highway at Coonabaraban, where there was a constant stream of trucks travelling in both directions. Our regular parking space is by Neilsen Park beside the Castlereagh River. We walked into town for lunch. The Dubbo Tourist Information Office is near this 1881 railway bridge and viaduct  decorated with Aboriginal artworks. We are staying at the Dubbo City Holiday Park because there are restaurants close by. This allowed us to stay hooked up. Two loads of washing dried very quickly in the afternoon heat while I topped up our water tanks. This RFS water tanker is parked outside the caravan park, ready to be deployed where it might be needed to fight bushfires. The Thai restaurant over the road served decent food and we noted the next door cafe for our morning coffees.

We had a slow start before having a disappointing lunch at Deco Restaurant. This venue has been a favourite of ours in past years, but there seems to be a new chef and new menu, neither of which can be commended. Unfortunately we didn't have energy to go to the Lyn Bowtell concert at the Albert Hotel this afternoon. Our friends told us it was a great gig so we will add it to our must do list for next year. We walked over to Wests for dinner where we have discovered a reasonable egg and bacon roll. While most performers and visitors have left Tamworth, there was still music in the Legends Lounge provided by Sally-Anne Whitten and the Rumour Mill. Tomorrow morning we will have to find a caravan service centre to look at our Bushtracker brakes. We have to leave our campsite by 10am tomorrow, but are not sure where we will be heading. We haven't been able to contact the highly rated service centre near Tamworth as it has been so busy. Our next option is Dubbo but we will ha

Late last night we both developed sore throats so have had a quiet day at home in in the Bushtracker. We have been near performers with similar symptoms over the last couple of days. Rather than risk spreading this lurgi further, we gave away our tickets to the Golden Guitar Awards for tonight. We also missed the first Pride float in the Tamworth Cavalcade with Beccy and Libby. Tamworth has been in the middle of two slow moving storm cells for much of the afternoon. The system approaching from the west over the clubhouse looks menacing but so far there has been little rain and not much thunder or lightning. The system to the east is stationary.

After a late start we picked up Chris and Neen and drove out of town to the Glasshouse restaurant at Goonoo Goonoo (pronounced Gunna Goonoo). This modern Australian restaurant is on the Goonoo Goonoo Station which also provides accommodation. We shared the slow cooked lamb shoulder then the others shared the bomb Alaska, while I had the peanut butter cheesecake. It was all very enjoyable. The gardens and modern restaurant building are integrated with old farm structures. Smoke was visible over the hills to the east.   We all went to Wests to see the Libby O'Donovan concert. This was great fun. Libby has written a couple of new songs and had her 10 year old daughter Bootsie sing a song with her. Beccy Cole also had Bootsie up on stage with her during her concert. At the end of the concert I overheard a woman behind me complain that Beccy "was a bit raunchy". She was outrageous and hilarious and sang songs from her Wild at Heart album released 20 ye

We went to a concert today that had a disappointing crowd. It was a fund raiser for the R U OK campaign but some of the artists told the audience about their struggles, which dampened the mood even further than the small audience had. Performers like Adam Harvey, Lyn Bowtell and Brad Butcher should have filled the hall, but this was the third fund raiser this week. In the afternoon I went with Chris and Neen to see Troy Cassar-Daley at TRECC, the entertainment centre. As we parked I saw a dust storm approaching. Our side of town wasn't badly affected, but the airport terminal lost power and a plane had to wait on the runway for 20 minutes till the storm passed. Troy's concert was celebrating the "Ladies" of country music. Kasey Chambers was the only one to complain about the use of the word "Ladies" instead of women, but her reason was because of her "poddy mouth". She sometimes swears on stage and incorporates colourful language i

We had breakfast at the Hopscotch Cafe in Tamworth. The food is OK but I think it was better last year. The two girls in this photo in matching T-shirts are Felicity Urquhart's kids. They were busking with their cousins on Peel St which was much busier than it was last Sunday. We had tickets to two shows today and they were both amazing but very different. The first was at the Tamworth entertainment centre which holds nearly 5,000 people. It was a tribute to Joy McKean who turned 90 in January. Joy was married to Slim Dusty and wrote many if not most of the songs he performed. All of Joy's family were there and many are very talented singers and musicians themselves. Most of the top country music stars were there and did their own interpretation of Joy's songs. "Lights on the Hill" is probably her most well known and popular song, even though it is about a truck driver dying in a crash.  The music is very catchy with an upbeat tempo the truckies love. Lee