Day 146 Gympie Wednesday 31st October 2012

Hi Folks,

A tropical day today. At one stage this afternoon it was raining in bright sunlight for about 15 minutes.

Susan spent most of the day sewing cushions for the outside chairs. I spent the day derusting and painting some fluoro lights. It was a pleasant easy days work. One of our hosts Roxy has toodled off for a few days at a women's retreat. Dan went to the local school today to talk to the kids about his specialty bees. he has quite a few hives here. Apparently there is a bee disease American Foulbrood  that infests hives where the only treatment apart from killing the bees and burning the hives is to irradiate the hives. This is done at a sterilisation facility in Brisbane. The weather is gradually improving and we had a nice sunset tonight although not enough for me to walk indie to get my camera. At this stage we move to our next host some time after Saturday.

Before

After!

A nice tea tonight of chops and veg prepared by Susan.

night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 145 Gympie Tuesday 30th October 2012

Evening folks,
and a weary one at that. We arrived at the yoga class at 630 this morning. The 1.5 hours of the class passed very quickly. It was quite enjoyable as long as you didn't try and emulate the flexibility of the instructor. Our next host was there as she is also an instructor. I am sure to be sore in the morning.

On our return and after breakfast we drove to the Dickabram bridge over the Mary River about 50 km north west of here at Miva. We had been told about this by Des and Irene at Woodford. This included the story of the workman who went missing along with his barrow presumed entombed in the concrete of the towers. While we were there we spoke to a council patrol officer who gave us some ideas of places to visit around Gympie.

Fence Skink

Common Koel (male)

Dickabram Bridge (1886)

Returning to the retail area we lunched, after which Susan purchased cross stitch threads at Lincraft while I mooched around Harvey Normans.

On our return home Susan sewed cushions for the outdoor chairs while I used the car ramps to change the engine oil and filter on the Pajero.

Tea tonight was takeaway pizzas so i am feeling rather full especially with a couple of beers thrown in.

With a bit of luck we will get a sleep in tomorrow.

night folks

cheers Simon

Dickabram bridge and the Mary River

Call of the Common Koel, shaky high magnification video with the car running in the background

Day 144 Gympie Monday 29th October 2012

Hi folks,
A short blog tonight since i have to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to attend yoga class. Actually it's a 6 o'clock alarm which is after the crack of dawn in this crazy state where they don't have daylight saving.

We continued on gardening today. Susan pulling out jasmine and me helping Dan remove and shred lots of prunings.

After work Susan and I tripped to town so i could buy oil and a filter. The Pajero is due as it has beens 10K km since the last one. i normally do the oil at 7.5K and the filter at 15K. For some reason i thought we would be back in Adelaide before we had racked up 15k this trip so I didn't bring a filter with me. We did some other shopping and Susan called in at the vitamin shop to show them she was still alive and to give them a box of choccies for their care and attention when she crashed to the ground the other day.

Pale headed Rosella eating grevillea seed pods

On our return home I applied some fresh sealer to the PVC cover on the camper and Susan cut tomato's. That's all todays news.

night folks

Simon

Day 143 Gympie Sunday 28th October 2012

Hi folks,
Another busy productive day.
I helped with the cutting and shredding of the bushes along the western edge of the property. Susan planted seedlings,  harvested tomatoes, repotted plants and cut down "some stuff".

We had 15mm of rain last night and the day was cloudy and windy but with little precipitation.

I hauled down the expresso machine from the roof bag and made coffees for Dan and myself for morning tea. It is now set up in the kitchen.

After I finished my toil i carried on with copying another audio book. Susan had a look at her cross stitch from the point of view of thread colours that are required.

Susan made sticky date pudding for dessert tonight. She has fallen out of practice since she last made one 4 weeks ago.

We are enjoying our time here.

Tired from the early morning light !

night folks

Simon

Day 142 Gympie Saturday 27th October 2012

Hi folks,
A short blog tonight since i am tired.
It was pretty warm today. We started early at 730 to try and beat the heat. This worked for a while until the sun came round to where Dan and I were working on the paving
(pulling up and relaying the pavers as they had sunk). Susan repotted many plants.
Susan continued on working into the afternoon while i took stopped once all the pavers had been laid (Dan had already said we had done enough for the day at lunch time) The rest of the day disappeared quickly. I paid some bills and copied some talking book discs. Tea was a nice spaghetti bolognese plus conversation. The evening was spent doing nothing much of consequence although I did manage to fix Susan's homepage hijack in Firefox.

Yesterdays tidy up

Half way through removing the pavers

Finished!

Potting potting

Filling filling

A well earned rest with new found friend Sophie

As i type this it is raining steadily. The ground is very parched here and rain is certainly required. Dan said that there will be cane toads exploding out of the ground as soon as it rains so that is something to look forward to tomorrow.

night folks

Simon

Day 141 Gympie Friday 26th October 2012

Hi folks,
An eventful day but not for the right reasons.

Our hosts were both out from 7 this morning so we made the effort to arise early (Susan forced me out of bed) to meet Marilyn since she was working last night.

After breakfast we headed into Gympie so Susan could get some cross stitch patterns printed at Officeworks. Officeworks isn't in Gympie so we resorted to Office National. After a brilliant idea from me to use the office XPS document format to get the prints from the proprietary format in the program on her laptop to something that the shop could print from an email the patterns were printed.
I returned to put them in the car while Susan went to buy vitamins. I strolled to the chemist and was perusing the specials table when my phone rang. It was Susan telling me she had fainted in the vitamin shop. I couldn't see her because I was in the wrong shop it was a couple of doors up. I hurried up to the shop where she was sitting on the ground in the aisle with some broken stock knocked off by her head on her descent to the floor. The concerned lady in the shop had rung for an ambulance which duly rolled up. The ambulance officer insisted on taking Susan to the hospital to be checked over. This is exactly what happened. After 3 hours we departed after she had been poked, prodded, monitored and vials of blood and urine extracted. Verdict unknown but nothing sinister detected. The hospital emergency was very efficient and mercifully quite empty.
To say that the episode put a dent in our day would be an understatement. We adjourned to the supermarket for supplies and to a sushi bar for lunch before returning to our concerned hosts house. We undertook our helpx tasks Susan inside polishing furniture and cooking tea and me outside helping Dan put a border around a garden bed and shovelling a cubic metre of small river stones to cover the bare dirt. It was pretty warm outside and the sweat was flowing.

Waiting in the cubicle.

We had a nice tea after which Dan cooked some Anzac biscuits. We had a bit of chat about our HelpX experiences.
The plan tomorrow is to start work at 7 since we need to pull up and relay pavers on the northern side of the house where the sun beats down.

Susan says she is fine so we shall trust her judgement.

Hopefully less excitement tomorrow!

night folks

Simon

Day 140 Greens Creek via Gympie Thursday 25th October 2012

Hi folks,

We have arrived at our next Helpx out of Gympie at a location called Greens Creek.

We awoke to a light dew just enough to wet our crocks on the ground outside. The night in the swag was very comfortable. After breakfasting and packing in leisurely fashion we departed with our first stop about 2 km up the road to see Des and Irene our hosts from about 7 weeks ago and the progress on their house. It was good to catch up and have some of Irene's morning tea. After saying goodbyes we travelled along familiar roads.

This situation didn't last once the GPS assumed control. I missed a turning as i was engrossed in listening to the audio book "The Fourth Protocol" by Frederick Forsyth. The GPS took us along a road to a no through street as the rest of the road has yet to be built. A common occurrence with GPS's according to the gentleman Susan approached for directions.

Eventually we made it to Kenilworth where we visited the Nepalese Op shop, had a tuna salad lunch in the park, a coffee and borrowed 6 talking books from the library. The laptop will be running flat out this week.

The GPS made a better fist of finding our hosts house. Dan showed us round and immediately I felt we will learn some things here.
The ground here is very dry and the whole area seems much drier than our last visit 6 weeks ago. Seems we are no longer the rainmakers.
The house is well appointed and we have a nice bedroom with our own shower etc. We had a nice tea and had a good education session about bees from Dan.

Dan and his wife Roxy will be out all morning tomorrow so we will have a spin into Gympie and work in the afternoon.

night folks

Simon

Day 139 Woodford Wednesday 24th October 2012

Hi Folks,

The weather gods smiled on us this morning after a slow start. By the time we had dried the canvas, packed, gone into Kyogle for Susan to attend to some shopping and departed it was around 1130. We drove steadily along some more windy roads until we reached Beaudesert. A fairly unremarkable town but with a park where we had a tuna salad for lunch. We then headed north to Ipswich and thence past Wivenhoe and Somerset dams. We examined the camps at Somerset, Kilcoy ($15 and flying foxes) and finally settled on one at Woodford we have driven past many times. Susan knocked up tea while I put up the swag, table and chairs etc.

Silky Oak at Beaudesert

This morning at Kyogle

Items of interest for today.
Interviews were being held for caretakers position at Kyogle showground. It is not a bad little park very open and quite popular since it is $10 per night unpowered including a hot shower for 2 adults. We flirted with putting our hats in the ring briefly.
Now we are over the border we have put our clocks back one hour meaning we are now 30 minutes behind central time and obviously an hour behind the rest of the eastern seaboard. Crazy!

Tomorrow onto Gympie and our next assignment.

night folks

Simon

Day 138 Kyogle Tuesday 23rd October 2012

Evening folks,

An unremarkable day. There was little rain overnight and it looked as if we might have a reasonable pack up. However the misty rain drifted in and we packed the camper away quite wet. In no great hurry we departed for the 285km trip to Kyogle around 11. The road between Ebor and Coutts Crossing was pretty average, narrow in parts,  windy and with lots of poor surface. Susan began to feel the effects but managed to battle through without resorting to shut eye.

We stopped for lunch at Grafton beside the Clarence River which is about 3 times as wide as the Murray in SA. Susan knocked up a nice salad with tuna. The wind was pretty fierce around 60kmh by my estimate which made things a bit unpleasant. We journeyed on to Casino where it was McCafe time. We arrived at Kyogle around 5. It seemed we had must have travelled further than 285km due to the time taken but no it was correct. I think my distance driving brain has fallen out of calibration due to lack of use.

On  arrival at Kyogle we did a quick shop and set up in the showgrounds campsite at $10 per night. The wind was still blustery and Susan at one stage was contemplating a Mary Poppins moment sailing up into the air as she held on to the tent. I took the opportunity to repair a seam that Susan pointed out this morning was coming apart. At 7 Susan said she better get tea ready. I invoked the executive override and we went to the Earth Bistro at one of the town pubs. Nice meal and not overly expensive washed down with some decent red.

On our return the wind had died away which is a merciful release from another buffeting night. Just have to dry the canvas from the awning which was quite wet when we packed it this morning. Our aim tomorrow is to get to Woodford-Kilcoy area.

11pm so bedtime.

Night folks

Simon

Lunch spot beside Clarence River

Sunset from Kyogle showgrounds

Day 137 New England National Park Monday 22nd October 2012

Hi Readers,

We arose at 5:45 this morning as Susan wanted to see the sunrise from the lookout as it is supposed to be worth watching. We made it up there about 5 minutes before the anointed time. There was some cloud on the horizon and the result was probably not quite as spectacular as we hoped for but still OK.

Dawn!

Panorama (click to see the big image)

We returned by 7 after publishing yesterdays blog. After breakfasting we attended to chores. Susan washing her hair and hanging out yesterdays washing. I took advantage of the sun to fiddle with the solar controllers. I have lots of readings written down and now have the best running condition ascertained. The weather was sunny and quite breezy and with the bushfires burning and the unknown fire ban status we had decided there would be no fire later on this afternoon. A pity since I chain sawed up some wood yesterday.

At 10:40 we had a short drive into the park to start our walk for the day to the “Cascades”.  We walked along the fire track a very pleasant stroll first through regrowth eucalyptus and then through gnarled old beech trees. We descended down to the Cascades and into the Beech forest. The Cascades were very pretty and it was an excellent stroll along the stream periphery (5 Day creek). We then climbed up out of the gully and rejoined the track for the walk back to the car. Total distance was 6.0km and we actually achieved it in 2 hours 40 minutes well short of the advised 3 hours 30. Susan attributes this to her knees being a lot better of late and being able to walk faster!

Blending into the scenery

Cascade scenery

Where's Wally?

We returned to camp by 1:30 for a tuna salad lunch. At 3 or thereabouts we hopped back in the car to return to Point Lookout to avail ourselves of Telstra for internet (me) and a patchy but functional Optus for telephony (Susan). As we were driving up we began to see a ridge of what appeared to be low cloud or worse smoke. It turned out to be low cloud and by the time we reached the top it was quite misty. After completing our errands Susan drove very slowly back down through the thick and now quite damp low cloud. I kept expecting us to exit it as we descended however it also enveloped our camp site.

Most campers had used this change as a green light to light fires as we did also using the coals to cook vegetables in the camp oven. The weather has gradually deteriorated and it is now raining lightly but steadily and our breath is readily visible.

gloomy

gloomier

gloomiest

We had planned to depart tomorrow and that may now be in doubt. We are unsure of the weather forecast so we just have to wait and see in the morning. It is now blowing hard as well. We have had a nice hot tea and are retiring for a movie in bed.

This camp is 1344 metres above sea level so the weather can be cold and wet for extended periods. Fingers crossed that this isn’t one of them.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Dawn

Cascades

Day 136 New England National Park Sunday 21st October 2012

Hi Readers,

The sun was shining this morning which was a good excuse for me to continue my eternal mucking around with the solar controllers. Susan in the meantime washed her hair. After we had finished these chores we drove the short distance up into the park to Point Lookout. This has the added advantage of phone coverage so I was able to publish yesterday’s blog.

We walked around the Eagles Nest lookout circuit. There was considerable smoke from fires. However there did not seem to be any flame. The walk takes you through Gondwana temperate rain forest. The blurb says it is the same forest that existed 80 million years ago. Fossilised pollen from the Antarctic beech has been found funnily enough in Antarctica. We also saw the weeping rock where a light stream of water runs down the rock face. In winter this apparently freezes to become an ice chandelier.

I did check yesterday’s maximum temperature which was 32.5 recorded at Dorrigo. This camp is 1344 metres above sea level which means it will get mighty cold here in winter.

As we walked a change came over the weather and by the time we started back down the hill it was raining. Mercifully it wasn’t too heavy at camp and we were able to put the awning up before the kitchen was too wet. We obviously didn’t do a very good job since it has partially fallen down 3 times. Mind you it is jolly windy. The rain hasn’t come to much.

Free camp!

View from Point Lookout

The gloomy afternoon was a good excuse for me to renew the cabling on both solar controllers and glue the one that came to pieces yesterday back together. I did some tricky stuff resoldering the Anderson plugs for the sake of saving $10. Anyway they are all working well.

Susan spent time hand washing before retiring to the car to doodle in her sketch book.

I also broke out the chain saw to cut up a large branch I hauled back to camp. We decided against a fire since it was so windy and there was a fire ban sign on the park entry this morning. If it has gone tomorrow we will have a fire tomorrow night.

Tea was a lamb chop casserole very tasty to complement lunch times tuna and salad.

Weather permitting we will do some more walking tomorrow.

Night folks

Cheers Simon

Day 135 New England National Park Saturday 20th October 2012

Hi Folks,

A warm day here today must have been in around the 30 degree mark or more. Certainly the warmest day we have had this time out. If I remember and we have internet tomorrow I will check and see.

Susan and Shunyam disappeared at 730 to the Bellingen market to buy greens from the produce stalls. I pottered away mainly fiddling with the solar panels. I thought I had broken one but was mistaken. In a small piece of good fortune the regulator that I had glued onto one parted company with its base so I can now use it in a more flexible manner.

Crimson Rosellas feeding on grass seeds at dusk

 

After we packed and showered we said our goodbyes to Shuny. We will return here although sooner than intended since we left our container of teas behind.  We departed Bundagen around 1:30 and drove down to Toormina to shop. It was a bit out of the way but they have the big two supermarkets plus lots of easy parking unlike Bellingen. After shopping it was south through Bellingen pausing for hot drinks which was a bit bizarre considering the temperature. We continued on up the windy road to Dorrigo and thence to our free camp for the next three nights on the Little Styx River just outside the New England National Park. By the time we had set up the camper we were sitting down for tea at 8:50. There are about 7 other camping groups here so there might be some socialising. The dishes await us in the morning. I should have plenty of time to attend to things here since there is no internet or mobile coverage.  There are a couple of big fires burning not a million miles away which we will try to keep tabs on. No concerns at this stage but it is supposed to be windy again tomorrow afternoon.

Night folks

Simon

Day 134 Bundagen Friday 19th October 2012

Hi folks,

Our last Helpx day here and it was a busy one as we finished a host of started projects. Susan and Shunyam finished the peach tunnel which looks a bit spooky with the fruit fly mesh on it.

I put the roll up fly screen on the kitchen window. A task that would have been much easier had i ignored the instructions. I also built the steps up to the deck of the unit mortaring the bricks and cutting and gluing the treads. The highlight of the day was the test of the fire sprinkler. It went well with the water covering the house and beyond.

Shuny made a nice laksa for tea, Susan and her are going to the Bellingen market in the morning while i do some packing.

Green catbird through the unit window

Female satin bowerbird

First lily of the season in the pond

The steps

The peach tunnel with fruit fly mesh. Shot after dusk with the flash

The roll down screen in the kitchen window

The screen rolled up

Sprinkler trial

Tomorrow we head off for a few days in New England National park and then pop back over the border to the land of the 5am sunrise for a HelpX near Gympie.

Cheers Simon

Day 133 Bundagen Thursday 18th October 2012

Evening folks,

Apparently when Susan said yesterday she had finished the gardening I misinterpreted this to mean she had finished the gardening. She was back at it today weeding and mulching along with grouting the tiles outside on the steps. I lurched onwards with the sprinkler project and it appears to now be finished, apart from a trial run which due to the distance the water jets, will hit our car and trailer so maybe Saturday when we are on are way out. There are a whole lot of questions that could be asked with respect to the syatem, i.e is it good having a petrol pump in a fire, how long will the pipe last before it melts, what happens if the pipe is full of stale water when you periodically test the system i.e. does it flow down into the rain water tank & do legionella mists waft over the neighbours. Nothing is ever simple is it? Anyway i guess it is better than nothing. Shunyam's plan is in event of fire turn it on and walk the 5 minutes to the beach. Assuming the fire is not that way of course.

The sprinkler stand is made from an old Ipstar satellite intenet base with a 50mm pipe bolted inside. Very solid mount if you are ever looking for a mount to use on a corrugated roof check out Ebay for "Ipstar"

2" pipe with clamps rivetted to the gutter. Hopefully the gutter will stay put when the pipe is full of water.

A man and his obelisk

The stairway to heaven is now neatly grouted.

After work on dusk we once again enjoyed the pleasures of the hot outside bath, very relaxing.

Weather wise we had a Tasmanian day today without the cold. It was grey all day but no rain. Still plenty of projects to finish tomorrow, the window blind and the steps are two that spring to mind.

Bodie the guy who delivered the hardware this afternoon was chatting to me about coming to helpx at his residence in Bundagen. He wants a sprinkler installed and was talking about paying dollars! I don't know if we can squeeze that in. Have to see how it pans out.

Night folks

Simon

Day 132 Bundagen Wednesday 17th October 2012

Hi folks,

There is a sense of urgency as our days here draw to a close. Susan would contend that i need to have that feeling every day. There are many jobs underway that need finishing. Some await materials, other labour.

Susan believes she has finished the gardening well almost. There is the small matter of rebuilding the rockery which requires me to lift rocks and mix concrete. Mixing concrete was today's theme. The concrete mix here has the largest stones i have ever seen in concrete mix. Not the customary blue metal of SA but lumps of granite. I may not be the worlds best concrete mixer but this mix was weird, I mixed two batches in the barrow both not overly wet but after sitting for 10 minutes they had water pouring out of them. Made the finishing off a bit slow since i had to scrape off the water and wait for it to set a bit. Anyway i cast the two pads for the steps and replaced the pavers and their retaining pads removed to pass the 2" pipe through.
It was a hot sweaty day but at the end of it a fair bit achieved.

Step pads

Repaired paving

Pump finished

When i returned from my trip out yesterday someone had dumped the "Car Free Village" sign where I have been parking. I tossed it in the bushes. Today it was leaning against the spare wheel cover and someone had lifted a wiper blade up. Tonight the car is parked out front of our unit which makes things a bit tight but at least i don't have to worry about some moron with a bee in their bonnet about parking damaging it. There has been some speculation as to which of the local nutters it might be. Anyway Shunny encouraged us to park in the yard so that was a good thing.

I wonder how long Bundagen can hide from the realities of planning laws as enforced by the local council. I guess there are many dwellings here that wouldn't comply to any code although i am not sure of how the planning of this place evolved and what the requirements actually are. Certainly adequate parking is covered by planning laws generally.

Petty , petty , petty!

Singing in the rain,  just singin' in the rain

Tonight's movie was Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close which was a bit different, a little bit gruelling but interesting and worth a watch.

Ok bedtime need to build my strength up for another day on the Burma Railway tomorrow (just kidding)

Cheers Simon

Day 131 Bundagen Tuesday 16th October 2012

Howdee folks,
A perfect weather morning saw us having a quick stroll to the beach before breakfast. A large sea eagle perched not too far off the beach illuminated by the morning sun. My camera was of course back at camp. The high tide had washed a good collection of shells up and Susan was picking through them. She tells me she decided she didn't need them and put them back. I wonder what the aliens have done with the original body.

We split our days chores around the community lunch at the house, salad and some vegetarian puff pastries. They had some nice desserts which we availed ourselves of. We walked back along the centre track which  i am sure is shorter than the road. It gave us a different perspective on the houses we pass in the car.

Pump on block complete with monogrammed foundation

 

The outlet pipe heading onto the house roof

Susan is the eternal gardener here apart from putting a couple of knobs on cupboards and helping me.
I continued on with the pump. Progress was a bit tedious and the 2" irrigation pipe is a bit of a wrestle since it has very little flexibility. Early in the day the snakes were keeping me company. I thought one was going to mate with the grey inlet hose but it scarpered when i returned with my camera. They spent the day curled up under the artichokes about 2 metres from where I was working. The bits are coming together and i think it will turn out ok. Shuny is concerned about the visual impact but it should be able to be screened effectively. No one will be saying that pump looks ugly when it is jetting out water when flames are licking at the boundary.

Shunyama was out partying tonight so Susan cooked up sausages for tea along with the usual vegetables. There is a lack of variety in the self sufficient vegetable diet, not that i am complaining, it just is. Before tea I took a spin to Tourmeena the home of the local Woolies mainly to charge the auxiliary battery which had declined to 11.5 volts running the fridge in the warm car. I used the need to recharge as an excuse to buy chocolate and onions.

As promised last night. the outdoor shower. Solar heated

I am trying for an early night tonight. Midnight makes the next day struggle town as my daughter would say.

night folks

Simon