Project Oz - 2019

I thought we had done well “down sizing” when we made the decision to sell up on the Sunshine Coast and move to Finley NSW to be closer to family and have a base for visiting southern Australia.....almost 2 years ago. But, with the overwhelming decision now made to travel full time, “down sizing” has new meaning. We are giving up the home we are renting, selling almost all our furniture and keeping only a few keep-sakes and sentimental things in storage.  Minimilism doesn’t sit too well with me, but I am trying very hard to see it all as just “stuff”.  Clothes, shoes, furnishing, books, craft, kitchenware, these are the hardest things for me to part with.  Derek is much more realistic, but is still being very kind to me when it comes to not being able to let go of something.

We have given ourselves 2 months to sort ourselves out before we do our first smaller trip at the end of February. We are not doing a Big Lap of Australia as we want more flexibility to fit in visiting family and friends and with the Aussie seasons. 

I am calling this year Project Oz. I am more able to prioritise myself if I feel I am working on a project, much as I did when I worked fulltime. I approach it with a more organised and “make it happen” attitude rather than just thinking of it as “this is life” , the reality is just too overwhelming.  Derek assures me I will feel differently once we are on the Slow Road Ahead permanently.

Merry Christmas

The beautiful photo is from our Christmas Tree, the grand kids did a great job.

Fun Fact #2 Dead Strange Names

Australia has a very turbulent heritage and it is recalled in many of its place names - “Murdering Point”,  “Skull Hole” both in Qld and “Murder Dog” in NSW to name just a few - you can see where I am going with this!

We wonder whether this one would make the short list in 2018.

Just before the township of Coolah NSW

Fun Fact #1 With a Twist

I’m starting a new segment to share amazing odds and ends we come across during our travels.

To start off,  Moree in outback NSW has a Christmas connection with a Twist.....

Charles Dickens’ youngest son is buried in the cemetry at Moree.  Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens (13 March 1852 – 23 January 1902). He immigrated to Australia at the age of 16, and eventually entered politics, serving as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1889 to 1894. He died in poverty, childless, at the age of 49...Wikipedia.   It was an unmarked grave, until distant cousins from Sydney errected the obelisk.

It was a must see for me after an overnight stop in Moree.

What a difference a day makes

Our trip back home - sunset near Glen Innes NSW

And today, same time,  one hour north of Finley

Peak Hill Gold Mine

We didn’t find it difficult to spend an hour in Peak Hill. The original gold mines on Peak Hill NSW operated between 1893 and 1917, producing about 60,000 ounces from 500,000 tonnes of rock. They were reopened as opencut in 1996 to 2002 earning $55,000,000 from 4.9 million tonnes of rock. The achievements of modern machinery.

The site is just a mere 300m from the town centre, and you can wander the site freely, which contains 5 opencut mines. It was great to be this close, and couldn’t help scouring the ground for that missed nugget as they say there is still more gold in the remainder of the hill to be found.

Ayla’s 1st Birthday

Not that we need an excuse to come to visit Craig, Sara, Ayla and Lucy, it was great to visit this time with Jess and Jacey to help celebrate Ayla’s first birthday.

We also managed to show Jacey some of the wonderful scenery around Cairns, Port Douglas and the Tablelands. We did a lot in such a short visit.  

It was great for Jess and Jacey to see Ayla for the first time, and we felt very grateful to see our family together again, and able to spend some quality time together. I am always wishing that we all lived a lot closer to each other!

Avoiding the Newell

We tried to avoid staying on the Newell Highway as much as we could so thought we would head for the Warrambungles after leaving Ebor, only to find the walks in the NP were closed due to a high fire danger. We were very dissapointed.

So we meandered through Gunadah, and along minor roads and stayed overnight at Coolah Sports Reserve overlooking the Golf Course, then on to Wellington and climbed Mt Arthur. The mountain was covered in sedimentry rock which is stones cemented together on the floor of an ocean or body of water.....amazing considering how high up we were,  over 500m

Viewing the otherside from Kalang Lookout, which means beautiful. Overlooking Wellington.

My good deed, cleaning up others rubbish from over the edge of the lookout.

We had the mountain to ourselves

Took a back road through Yeoval the childhood place of  a great Aussie poet A.B.Patterson of “Waltzing Matilda” fame, amongst other poems. We love finding these interesting places by chance.  

Then through Goobang NP to visit The Dish, near Parkes, one of the worlds largest radio telescopes, we enjoyed the 1/2 hour 3D presentation about the Universe and the work accomplished by the CSIRO at the Dish. It can be seen in the distance from the Newell Highway, and we always drive straight past it. Then an overnight in Forbes, where Derek took the time to visit McFeeters Car Museum and then home to Finley, the end of our first long trip with MaDie our van.....  she went extremely well, and we were very comfortable. Derek loves how we can do a uturn or turn around in a street with ease!

2 years on!

As the 2nd anniversary of my life saving heart surgery has been nearing, I have been saying to Michelle that it seems like a different life time ago.  I have moved on from my working life with a gusto, and I have moved on literally from all the worldly ties that kept me home bound, and I’m loving it. I am embracing my passion for the great outdoors, which will see us visiting much of Western Australia and South Australia over the next 12 months, and will mean forgoing our temporary base in rural NSW. Everything in life is but a chapter!

I have just had my yearly medical check up, and grateful that all is well. I can’t stress enough the importance of keeping fit and having regular check ups. So today I found myself - on this my second anniversary - beyond “The Black Stump”, nr Coolah, NSW.

Thankyou for following along on our journey.  Kind Regards, Derek.

Ebor Falls

So grateful that we stopped in Ebor for the night next to Guy Fawkes N.P. and took the time to walk to Ebor Falls. Just spectacular!

Crossing the Great Divide

We have crossed the Great Dividing Range many times on all the quickest routes, but now we have a caravan in tow I thought it best we find a not so steep, less travelled route.

It seems “less steep” translates into long and windy (curvy not blowy), but with gradual undulating climbs and descents, not long  steep gradients.

West to East we found a route north of Warwick to Gatton, which meandered over a dozen river crossings but avoided the Toowoomba Range and Cunninghams Gap at Warwick.  East to West we took the now bitumened Armidale Rd from Grafton to Ebor, (Ebor is 1350m above sea level) avoiding many steep routes and our only flatter option of staying on the Pacific Motorway with all its road works and dicing with traffic in Sydney’s western suburbs.

We were very pleased with both our choices.

                                  Cunninghams Gap is in the bottom of this photo

Also,  there are always many interesting things to see whilst driving along countryside roads.

These letter boxes take recycling to a new level - nr Clouds Creek

Beaut Bike Ride

Finally sold Dereks old alloy wheels that we have been carting around in the back of the Landcruiser for the past week......yes, he has new mags! so now we could get to our bikes.

Kirra Beach Walks

We marvel at how inspiring the ocean can be, as we are out walking the beach twice a day. So grateful the weather is finally warm and sunny here at Kirra Beach, where we honeymooned 36 years ago. Kirra is right next door to Coolangatta, and has a great tourist park 300m from the beach.

Gracious Glasshouses

I consider the Glasshouse Mountains an icon on the Sunshine Coast. They can be seen from Brisbane City, and from far away as you approach from the west.  From our home in Caloundra we could see them every day as we walked our neighbourhood and the many beachfront walks. They were a prominent reminder of how close to the coastline they are as we jetskied along Pumicestone Passage.  They were named by Captain Cook after the Glass Houses near his home in Yorkshire.

View from Caloundra

There are 11 peaks in total, now mostly surrounded by farmland and small villages. We are lucky to have spent the last 2 weeks living at Glass House, at the base of Mt Ngungung and we couldn’t resist climbing Ngungung for the second time. Height 253m above sea level, Grade 4 walk. It is a beautiful part of Queensland. Note to self, have breakfast before hiking a grade 4 mountain!  I had to stop for lots of breathers and had all my snacks eaten on the way up.            Spectacular views, such a clear day, could see Brisbane City skyline.

Mt Tibrogargan, after a storm had just passed through last weekend.

Not so sunny Sunshine Coast

As a favour to some close friends we are house sitting at Glass House for a couple of weeks.  In our care are 2 dogs, 1 cat, 4 chickens, and 2 hens sitting on about a dozen eggs which are probably going to hatch into little chicks on our watch. They are a great bunch, and no trouble at all.

We took a couple of days getting here in the caravan, and hope to get some sunshine at Kirra Beach for a few days and then visit the Warrambungles NP in NSW on the way home. The skies have rained continuously since arriving, with only a few blue patches today, so were able to take the puppy dogs out for a walk.

We are catching up on Family History, photobooks, reading, and have been able to have checkups on our health, finances, car and hair cuts.  Enjoying our time with family and friends, and still have Derek's nieces wedding to attend. 

It is very strange being back and even a little sad as we drive around the neighbourhood we once lived in.  We couldn't help picturing ourselves walking TicTac and playing with him at the parks.

Grampians part 2

Venus Baths was very enjoyable for children, but bigger kids found plenty of rocks to climb.

They all managed to get wet to some extent

We shared a fire pit with another family and made “smores” with choc wheaten biscuits and marshmallows.

We collected the sticks from our Venus Baths walk, and also some that would double has hiking poles for our ultimate huge hike the next day.

I hate getting smoky before bed time, so this night we had tea early, had the fire and marshmallows, then showers and hairwash.  I don’t need to say it but the kids slept very very well each night.  Even I was snug in bed by 9pm each night.

The Pinnacle, the majesty of hikes, and the toughest for the kids, it took us over 3 hours for the round trip, with tons of stops, detours to other rock outcrops, snack breaks, quartz hunting etc.  but we all loved it.

The Pinnacle can be reached by extending the Grand Canyon Walk, but we attacked it from the Sundial Carpark, which took us up, then across a ridge, then a final scramble up after we joined up with the Grand Canyon trail.

They all want their own real hiking poles for Christmas....bless them!

Jenna and Jordan did well carrying the backpacks of water for us all.






The Pinnacle....




Our lunch room for today