Jack and Jill seats

Out early this morning on a mission. When we had to call RACQ to pick up the car, Lucy's water bowl was left there. We drove out the 12 ks to see if it was still there. Funny thing was, there was a cache 71 metres from where we stopped the car and it was subsequently recovered so I was able to pin point the exact spot.

We continued on and collected eight caches including two more letter boxes before returning to town, a visit to the laundromat and morning tea while we waited for the machine to wash our clothes.

Morning tea with coffee and extra milk just in case it was a bit strong, delivered to us outside.
Very cheery seats and pots.

I had forgotten that these seats were called jack and jill with the table in between.

Letterboxes

Today we drove out onto country roads looking for letterboxes, not just any letterboxes, the ones we wanted were special.

Five letterboxes had been made, decorated and placed by property owners for the purpose of geo cachers, nothing else. The propertys are all on the same road, it is a very long road.

We decided to drive out to the end which was 70 kms from town and find them in the way back. Internet was patchy so we had download the postions beforehand. Information had only been given out this morning so they were very new.

Warrens vote for Rossco truck, made from all recyclables.

Aidans choice. Called I kid you not.

 An emu, with shearers combs for feathers and horse shoes for feet.
Cachers who went and found them to asked to select their favourite one, once the numbers have been tallied, the grazier will win $500.

Real emu and his chicks, there were eleven of them, we had to stop for them to all get across the road. We were back on bitumen road when we saw them.

Musical stock yards

A musical bridge at a stock yards? How can that be? But it was true.

A small town in outback Queensland and as they had reverse parking (such a pain  ut even more so went towing a caravan) we drove into a side street to park.

I made coffee and then Warren had a short rest while I toured the township.

 Bit hard to see here but in the middle is the musical bridge, Adian is next to it as they caught up to us. Either side of the pipes were two rubber dongy things to hit the notes, they were attached to the bridge and long enough to reach all the notes. The nites were etched into the pipes.

This was one of the gates to get into the middle and therefore the bridge, of course there just had to be a cache up inside the cowbell! We also discovered that there was an actual Bonus Downs property further on out the road.

Ready to go

Our trip north has arrived, green ribbons are on the car. It was decided to have green ribbons to indicate to others that we are travelling to the same event.

A couple of pics of interesting things along the way and there may have been a cache nearby

A Rainforest Walk

Last week we drove to Maleny and visited Mary Caincross park. Last time we went we only did a short walk which was called the butterfly walk,  only about 500 metres.

Ha, this time we did find the entrance to the rainforset walk, had to go through the reception area. Entry to that was by gold coin donation.

Lucky enough to see a family of pademelons, a very small version of kangaroos. The adults stood about half a metre tall with the babies or young around six inches. One young one was trying to get into the mothers pouch, she boxed his ears and wouldnt let him, we thought that she may have had another smaller one already in there. These were just off the path, in the bush, very hard to see and I did take some photos but couldnt see them against the foligage.

Massive trees and tree roots

 Warren with sister Val. We had scones jam and cream for lunch and enjoyed fantastic views.

Ladies in Black

An Aussie movie set in Sydney in 1959. A new temp aged only sixteen starts work in a department store.

She did really well in her final exams and had to be a bit devious to get her father to sign the paperwork so she could apply to uni. He was old school and stated that he didnt go to uni and h.it didnt hurt him, besides, "More educution is just wasted on girls".

Words like refo and new australians were used though out and then there was the "foreign foods" which are pretty much common place these days.

A nice movie which showed how life used to be.

Footy Finals

Both Warren and my team just got into the finals at three and four. Both played last week and we didnt expect either of them to go any further.

Friday night was the Hawks and as we thought, they were beaten so time fir them to put away the boots until next season.

My team played Saturday night and boy oh boy, they came out on fire, well blow me down, they continued and ran out winners. Last night they played the top team who had not been beaten all season, well again they won so grand final next week.

Currently watching the other game to determine who is their opposition. It is almost like last night with one team dominating, looks like it will be a great game next week.

Carn Collingwood only one more game to win to hold up the cup

While the cats away......

I get sun blinds made! Usually in summer when its too hot to do much, we talk about how to shade or cut down on sun coming into the house. Its a great topic when we are away from home and beleive me we have come up with some dozies on how and what to do about it. Some have included building on, but that would take mobw ey and council approval, so def in the too hard basket. Tinting the windows, again then need to find a person to do it or do it ourselves, hum easier but still too hard basket in the end.

Finally a solution, shade cloth shelters thingies!

Warren had made one in the first year we were here back in 2003 and while it was only going to be there for summer season, it has never been removed and it doing well. He said he could make them. Yay a solution at last. Shopping for materials meant a trip to Bunnings. Had to buy all at once as I would have the car. I was hoping for one to be completed when I returned but this was what I arrived home to see.

Tiles

Love walking along a path and suddenly seeing a mural. There was no message, sign or any indication of what or why this was there but I liked the colours and it certainly broke up the boring grey of the path.

Breakfasts

I thought breakfast in the UK were big. These were country breakfasts.

This was shared.

Aidan's breakfast on Sunday morning, it was an event called waffles.

Not sure that I have had waffles and ice cream for breakfast but they were pretty good.

Rural Safari

Spent the weekend out west driving around the countryside, looking for things. There were 70 way points, a question to answer at each one. Some could be done as a drice by, others had to get out and go and find something, or count things.

There was also 20 images to find and note down where they were spotted.

Approx 16 teams entered, we were each given seven hours to complete and sent out every two minutes. At times there were up to four cars pulled up, other times we were the only vehicle around. Yay, it started to rain, mid afternoon, definately something that the country needed if not us at that particular time.

Organizers had put in alternate roads just in case of rain, which we took at one point, however it didnt help the car.

It had been messier than the photo as more rain had washed some mud off. No prizes for guessing what I did this afternoon. Well, I started and then I did have help, we now have a nice clean tidy car although I still have to get the vacumn out tomorrow.

Magpies!

It has been on the news that the magpies are swooping early this year, it is usually late Sept and October.

There used to be a bad one around here and it would swoop the kids going to and from school. It was before Lucy so it didnt bother me that much, I would just drive that area. One time about eight years ago, I was riding my bike and I felt something hit my helmet, I thought it was a branch come down from the trees but then it happened again and again, it was a blasted magpie, got that close that he was hitting my helmet. I got off the bike and crossed the road then returned home, keeping my eye on him. He didnt swoop me again as I was watching him.

Saturday we were walking with Lucy in a newish area about 20 kms from home. A maggie came and swooped Lucy, coming down about a foot off her head, we heard and saw the flap of wings at the same time. She was on her lead and about two metres in front of us.

The ones around here must be a bit slow as Lucy and I have just come back and we saw a couple in the park but definately not in swooping mode, will have to start taking a long umbrella with us and just put over my shoulder as a deterant.

No Baggage

Thinking about what I need to take with me for the weekend, made me think of one of the books that I read in my bag from the library last time. It was called no baggage and it was a factual book rather than the ficton that I usually read.

Anyway the title of the book was No Baggage and the sub title stated Eight countries, three weeks one dress.

It was written about a couple who had got together and decided to travel together after onky knowing each other for about eight weeks. The male had done this type of gravelling before and invited her along. No plans at all except the first flight to Turkey from USA.

He had fairly quirky ideas and before they left, he wanted them to put things together that they were taking. He laid everything out on the kitchen bench and from scratch (read birthday suit), got dressed and packed. One Tshirt, one pair of knickers one pair of red jeans, pair of socks and shoes. One pocket had passport and $200 cash and money card, other front pocket had mobile phone and charger. It took him just under two minutes to get dressed and pack.

She had knickers, bra, dress, sandals, a shawl and a very small handbag with wallet, passport, two extras pairs of knickers, deo, half a toothbrush and two tampons, plus a small comb, phone and charger.

They caught trains and did use internet to get beds through couch surfing. Since that trip, they have done two more. She ditched the sandals and bought runners on day three.

I think that I pack reasonably light but no way could I do that. Four weeks in UK and my bag was 12 kgs for the trip, a little heavier coming back but not much.

Doesnt really help me to pack for the weekend and I will have almost the whole car to myself, it could be cold too, possibly wet. Do I take stuff to cater or do I just brave it out? Time will tell, maybe I will check the weather and decide from there

At the beach

We visited the beach a few days ago.

Quite used to seeing sail boats in the distance, sand sea and blue skies.

These I had not seen before, Warren said they were recently stingray holes. He said that they hover over the sand flapping their wings which stirs up the sand so they can get a meal. These are just two that I took a photo of but there were about twenty
such holes in a small area. The water had receeded so we could see them.ands

A trip to the big smoke

We needed to go to Childrens hospital earlier in the week, afterwards Aidan and I walked to South Bank, I hadnt realised it was so close, and then along the river.

Very nice walk and we saw a very different things, I also didnt realise that bush turkeys could fly! We spied this one up a tree, he was sitting on a branch about three metres up then walked up a branch for another couple of metres when I took the photo.

Further along was an interesting piece of art, could step down along it but the steps were very high, I went around through the garden and down the slope but Aidan took great delight in going up and down.

Every so often there were mosaic tiles in the broadwalk.

A pleasant walk to the convention centre where we caught the bus to the train station, so much easier than driving and try to park in the city.

Our home away from home

Warren got an invite to go bike riding in a few weeks. When upgrading to a caravan and then trading the ute for a car to tow, we are short of  being able to have living space and space to transport bike.

We had discussed this problem being changing things and this was our solution.

We hadnt purchased it until he got the invite, then thought sh.....we had better do some thing about it. We were out at the time so wheeled around and went to BCF ad bought the above. Its big enough to stand up in, big enough for two camp beds, had a floor and a fly, even a flap from the door that can be peggedm out to sit under.

We had not priced them so didnt know how much we would need to spend but price tag stated $200 off so we bought it there and then.

It has all the pegs and ropes and poles with it. We put it up in the house first, then Warren put it up outside by himself as the first trip, I have another engagement so wont be going.