The Valley (P)rattler

Photo - The Valley Rattler

We have been travelling inland for a couple of weeks since we left Coulston Lakes. We visited a small place called Kilikvan which had some wonderful antique shops shops that I spent a few hours browsing even if I didn't buy anything. I thought the prices were a bit expensive as well, but obviously many people travel this way just to look what is in stock. As we hit the main highway towards Gympie (Bruce Highway) all the traffic was a bit of a shock to the system - it was so busy and fast with many heavy trucks. This is also a notorious bit of bad road and there had been 2 very serious accidents in the week before we got there, both involving a couple of semi-trailers or B-doubles (two semis) and a car.

We found a very nice free camp on the outskirts of Gympie and stayed 5 days in all, enjoying the hospitality that this old gold mining town had to offer. It was the savior of Queensland in the 1860's when gold was discovered here as it was able to free Queensland from bankruptcy. It is an old town with interesting buildings a pleasant main street that is easy to wander along. It was great to find all the shops here instead of in a shopping mall. We also found easy free parking and wonderful free wireless internet access in the library. When we find a town that is like this we always seem to spend a lot of money, so that compensates for all the free services. We also had to re-register the van which was $750 for a year - not cheap! On a hot afternoon we visited the air conditioned cinema to see Mama Mia which was well worth its 2 for the price of 1 'Cheap Tuesday' deal.

They still have one of the original steam trains running 30k's out to the Mary Valley so on Saturday, we took a tourist ride on the old "Valley Rattler " as it is known by. This was a very scenic drive and we were given wine tastings at one of the old stations. They had a scarecrow competition going in the valley and many businesses and farms had joined the competition with all sorts of creations. There was even a coloured hay bale in the form of Spongebob Squarepants. Hard to tell in the Mama Mia scarecrows pictured here, which one is NOT the scarecrow. Thought the railway post men were pretty good - more ideas for the farm when I get back. That night we had to watch the All Blacks Wallabies Bledisloe Cup match and the All Blacks were in great form once again. Caught Allen cheering for Robbie Deans side at one stage when they were leading - 'fence sitter'.

We decided to spend the weekend at the beach near Gympie, so headed into Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach areas. Huge development going on in these areas. Houses for locals as apposed to any high rise apartments etc. This is also where you catch the ferry to Fraser Island but we were not tempted to do this after our bad experience in 1999. I heard on the news last week that a dingo had attacked a small child yet again there but the dingo seem to be protected. They were apparently going to arrest the dingo if they could get a definite set of teeth prints from the child's arm. We have only come across dingoes once, when we were in the outback camping at Devils Marbles. There were a lot of campers there and many of us had fires lit, and the dingoes seemed to be slinking around the outskirts of the camp, but did not attempt to come too near. Allen did a bit of fishing and was rewarded with 2 bream or brim as they are called here. They were just enough to give us a meal for the day, and very nice too.We seem to have been attacked by midges once again at the beach, although not nearly as badly as in Cairns. Trouble is that you don't realize that you have been bitten until a day or so later.

As we left Gympie we decided to take the scenic route and drive through the Mary Valley towards Maroochydore. At the moment there is talk of flooding this valley and to make a dam to provide more water for Brisbane. Naturally there are the fore's and against's and there are many placards showing what will disappear if the flooding is to take place. One thing that will go is the lines for the old steam train. We spent four very pleasant days driving and visiting small townships in this valley. We spoke to lots of people who are against the decision as it is their homes and livelihoods that are at stake. The land is already being bought up so only time will tell if its all to go ahead. We have now arrived in Maroochydore ready to meet up with our friend Jenny visiting from Wellington.

Friends and Family

Its two weeks since we left Cairns and already it seems a lifetime away. I guess when some thing new is happening everyday it makes it seems longer. Alister, Katherine and Alex flew into cairns on 20th August July where we met them at the airport. Baby Alex is 5 months old now and a lovely baby.
We organized them with their camper van and saw them off on their trip to Daintree.We then headed off down south and arranged to meet up with them on the following Monday at Arlie Beach. En route we decided to go back into Townsville as we enjoyed the beach front area there. We had a swim in the saltwater pool and sat and watched the Olympics on a big screen that they had erected on the beach. We cooked our dinner on the gas BBQ and thought how great the facilities are that are provided for the visitors. Next day we visited the aquarium which is wonderful and well worth a visit. Townsville is the headquarters of the Great Barrier Reef and at the present time there is great concern about the livelihood of the reef due to global warming and pollution etc .The reef is actually made up of many many reefs and stretches over 2000 kms from north of Cairns down to Bunderburg. Its one of Australia's biggest tourist attractions.
We headed on south towards Bowen and happened to notice that the Arlie Beach Wanderers chapter of the CMCA were having a weekend meeting there so decided to call in and join them. This is the great thing about the CMCA and the various chapters they have, everyone is so welcoming to the visiting members etc.
We all went to the local club for a meal on Saturday night and we did a tour of the local beaches on Sunday. There are some wonderful beaches around here and this must be one of the few undeveloped areas in this region as there seemed to be very little evidence of any tourist accommodation etc apart from caravan parks.
Here we also met up with a couple (our age) who are doing temp work tomato picking. This is the first time we have met up with anyone doing this type of work even tho we have heard there is plenty of work around. We have found we just don't have the time (or inclination) to look for any!
We met up with Al Katherine and Alex and spent the next 3 nights traveling with them to Yeppoon where they finally departed to travel down to Brisbane at a much faster pace than we go.
It was really nice to see them, especially to see Alex who was only 4 weeks old when we left NZ. He was certainly very well behaved and a credit to his parents! I am looking forward to spending more time with him and our 5 granddaughters when we get back to NZ.
We traveled down to Rockhampton (or Rocky as everyone here calls it)where Allen was surprised to find a steam tram running in the town. (French and very rare) We had not seen anything about in in the tourist books and as Allen does volunteer work at Ferrymead, tram driving and has also been writing articles on Australian trams for their magazine it was a welcome sight.
After this we called in at Gladstone which also has a very nice beach area but some how it seems a bit strange to be having a holiday place promoted when there is a huge power station right next door.
That night we stayed up and watched the Wallabies dismal failure against the Springboks in South Africa.

Back to the beach again a nice swim at Agnes Waters which is rapidly developing beach area and the most northern surfing beach, and the township of 1770. A strange name but named for Captain Cooks arrival. We stayed the night in a caravan park and were surprised at how few campers there were. We seem to have seen less and less people traveling since we left Cairns.

Next down to Bunderburg and a tour of the famous rum factory and more importantly sampling some of the products. It was an interesting tour guided by 2 gals who were a real class comedy act together. We also met up with 3 other kiwi couples one the President of the NZ Caravan Assn who were on a months tour in campervans Cairns to Brisbane. This whole area is devoted to sugar cane and the air smells strongly of molasses
We stayed two nights in Wonga State forest beside a creek where Allen tried his hand at fishing with no luck. Not many campers here either.
The rains came down during the night and continued as we drove to Maryborough. This a lovely old Queensland town with many streets still with the original Queenslander houses all in good condition. It was pouring with rain and everyone was delighted even tho it was spoiling the market day stalls that were erected in the main street.
We headed across to Biggenden and Coulston Lakes where we met up with our friend Alex on his farm. By coincidence his brother Arthur and wife Shirley were also staying in their camping bus and are also fellow members of the CMCA.
Alex was out numbered for a couple of days while we swapped camping tales and picked up more tips from the experts.
For the last couple of days Allen has been out on the farm with Alex doing some 'real work' and has welcomed the change of routine .Yesterday Alex cooked a delicious meal which I thought I should have done being as it was Fathers Day so maybe its my turn today.
The men are both out working and I have been left to my own devices for the day. This is the first day for over four months that I have been on my own for more than an hour or so, so it’s a welcome change. I am pottering about catching up on emails and doing the cooking for tonight in a real kitchen.
We have heard that our yachtie friends Kathy and Pete have arrived in Darwin 12 days after leaving Cairns.
On Wednesday we will be leaving here on our way to meet up with our friend Jenny who will be in Maroochydoor on 21st Sept.for a week.
We will head on down to Coolengata to meet up with Andrew, Michelle and granddaughters Jessica and Emma on the 23^rd.