Townsville to Rollingstone

Our day didn't start off too well. We took a wrong turn trying to find a free camp so I get out my trusted google maps and tell Brad, its no worries just follow this road for a bit and we will be able to go around the block up ahead a bit further. But NO for the first time google has let me down and what was supposed to be a turn was a dead end! So we have to unhook the car (you can't reverse with an A-frame connected) reverse the bus back up the road turn at the t-section, reverse back to the car and hook it back up. When we get close to the main road we decide to unhook the car and have a drive around to check out the camps in the area, and make sure the bus can actually fit. We get about 2 minutes down the road and find our original destination which has a spot just right for us. We drive back to the bus and Brad drives it into Bushy Parker Park Rollingstone. A beautiful and peaceful spot.

Lucy doing her schoolwork at Rollingstone

We had everything we needed in the car for a day out so we headed towards Crystal Creek to do some exploring. Big Crystal Creek is first and its beautiful. We ran into a ranger there who said people had been swimming in there earlier that day. It was still slightly overcast and after standing in the water for a few minutes my toes started to go numb, so there was no way we would be swimming! The kids loved climbing all over the rocks.

Big Crystal Creek

Then we drove up the mountain to Little Crystal Creek, which has a lovely bridge and small waterfall and a couple of small walks. Brad showed us where he used to jump off the rocks into the water. 

Little Crystal Creek

The kids were very keen to do a bit more walking tracks so we headed a further 17kms up the mountain to Paluma. Paluma used to be called Cloudy Clearing, which was very appropriate for when we were there. The kids were pretty excited to be up in the clouds, it did make the temperature drop slightly though!

Heating up some lunch in the carpark at a cold and cloudy Paluma

There were a few walks to pick from up here. The first one we came across was 1.1km but we thought that might be too far for the kids. So we found a smaller one leading up to a look out. It was such a shame it was too cloudy too see because the lookout on a clear day would be spectacular  There was a walk near the lookout that in total was a bit over 5kms so we thought we would just do a bit and turn back, but we ended up doing the whole thing! The kids were fantastic and didn't complain once, well Chloe did complain once but after a quick piggy back up a steep hill she was fine and did the rest by herself at a run. Lucy did so well and was very proud of herself at the end, she was pretty scared at the start but bravely kept going and ended up having a great time. I had such a wonderful time on this walk, on the way to the lookout and waterfall Brad and Chloe went ahead and Lucy and I strolled behind at our own pace having a lovely chat. On the way back Chloe and I ran ahead (Chlo doesn't like to walk; running or skipping is more her style). I loved this walk, it was so good to spend a bit of time individually with each of the girls, they really do have such different but beautiful little personalities.

The next morning we spent a bit of time exploring the crystal clear creek that runs along the back of the free camp. The creek had some shallow spots that the kids enjoyed walking around in and it got a bit deeper further down where we spotted lot of different size fish swimming around.

We then spent a relaxing few hours at Balgal Beach, playing in the sand of course! Rollingstone has a 48 hour limit so we packed up that afternoon to try and head off early the next morning.

TOWNSVILLE!

We headed to a free camp 30km North of Townsville but we were a bit late in the afternoon and it was full so we backtracked a couple of k's and stopped at a caravan park before heading into Townsville and the beach.

We weren't 100% happy with the caravan park that we were at, so we drove around checking out some of the other parks. Being school holidays a lot were full or just too expensive, then we spotted a Big 4 just North of Townsville, Brad managed to get us a really good deal for a week. 

The CP had a jumping pillow so the kids were stoked and headed straight over to it, where they made some new friends with a lovely family that are also travelling Australia. The kids spent as much time as possible together for the rest of the week. 

The next day the kids were keen to go back to the beach and to try out the water park that they had spotted on the strand. Lucy really surprised me by getting straight into the water and had a great time trying to body surf the waves. Chloe went in the water happily until a bit of something touched her foot and she screamed her head off thinking that a crab was biting her foot, I think it will be awhile before she gets back in the ocean! Then we went further up the strand to the water park, which was absolutely freezing! The kids had a quick play here before it got too cold for them.

Castle Hill was the next stop for the day, where we discovered that Chloe could possibly be part mountain goat. She had a ball running up and down the different tracks at the top of the hill, and I spent most of the time telling her to slow down!

The next day we went to Bushland Beach only a couple of km's away. It was low tide when we got there so we thought it would be fun to walk with the kids out to the waters edge. BAD IDEA!!!! Lucy said she didn't want to go but we thought she was just being lazy so said come on you'll be right! We got about half way out and she freaked out in a huge way. Turns out she is petrified of crabs, sea snails and any other small creature lurking on the sand during low tide. Brad and I ended up piggy backing them both back to the shore - not much fun! The rest of the day was spent back at the caravan park playing with the neighbours kids.

After lunch the next day we went to Pallaranda Beach, purely to play in the sand as neither one of our kids would go in the water both of them now scared of the crabs. 

Lucy and her mermaid

The kids begged to go back to the water park so we went there and of course neither of them would go in because it was so cold, until we spotted the kids we met at the caravan park then Chloe was off running around with them for awhile.

The next couple of days were just spent doing not much at all, just hanging around the caravan park. We did go back to Bushland Beach while the tide was a bit higher, it did get low quite quickly but we had packed the kids 'wet' shoes so Lucy bravely walked out during low tide safe with her shoes on!

A bit more time spent on not doing too much at all, a few bikes rides, lots of jumping on the jumping pillow and a trip into the markets and before we knew it our time at Townsville was up. After a week of staying in the 1 spot Brad and I were more than ready to keep moving. The kids were up and ready early on our last day to get as much play time in with their friends before it was time to go. Brad drove the bus around to the jumping pillow to pick them up and they all went and hid on us! We finally coaxed our kids into the bus with their friends waving and chasing us up the road we headed further North. Hopefully we will catch up with this lovely family again soon!

We all really enjoyed Townsville, probably because the weather was just perfect! The strand is a great place to relax for the day, with plenty of different playgrounds and beaches so while there is lots of people there it didn't feel crowded. Castle Hill has the most amazing views of Townsville in all directions. The Big 4 Woodlands was a great park with really wide sites. 

Brad lived in Townsville for a few years and he couldn't believe at how much it has changed and grown, until we realised it has been 17 years since he lived here! 

Thanks Townsville for a great week we will definitely be back!

Anakie to Townsville

So we headed from Anakie to Emerald to do a grocery shop and bought Chloe some new shorts because she decided that she doesn't want to wear her skirts anymore - which is all she has ever wanted to wear previously! We stopped at Capella for some lunch and a photo with the iron horse.

We drove onto Clermont, where we had planned to stop at a dam, but after ringing the caretaker we decided it might be too busy to try and fit the bus in so we kept on driving. Its a pretty long road from Clermont to Charters Towers with nothing much in between expect for a service station with a small caravan park out the back. This is where we ended up staying for the night - Belyando Crossing. We headed off early in the morning (early for us anyway - Chloe does not liked to be rushed in the mornings!), once we got to Charters Towers we had a run around the park and the kids decided they wanted to keep driving so they could get to the beach. So we jumped in the bus and headed towards Townsville and the beach!!

Rolleston to Anakie

We stopped at Emerald for a bit of a look around before driving out to Sapphire and Rubyvale were I had big plans to find enough Sapphires to pay for our trip or even a week would have been nice! We camped at a free camp in Sapphire which wasn't much and we even had a herd of cows walk thru our campsite towards the end of day!

We ended up doing a self drive tour which was a really good experience. We followed our tour guide out to a spot in the gem fields, were given buckets, a shovel and a pick and you can stay as long as you like digging and washing your own sapphires. We did end up finding about 8 small sapphires before Chloe had enough, so not enough to fund even a week. Lucy worked like a little trooper the whole time, Chloe had enough after about an hour but luckily we had packed some animals which kept her busy for a few more hours.

Brad and Lucy hard at work!

Sorting the sand out

Washing the stones

Picking out the sapphires!

On the way home from our fossicking expedition we called into a little town called Anakie to have a look at the caravan park there and quickly decided to pack the bus up and head here for a couple of nights. This town had a caravan park, a pub, and a school but the park was great, it was cheap and the managers were a lovely couple, we loved a few days here. As soon as we pulled up a lorikeet flew down so the kids grabbed some bread and 1 flew straight down onto Chloe's arm and for the rest of our time there she was surrounded by her 'rainbow birds'. Lucy definitely didn't share her sisters love of birds, at one point she was sitting outside eating a piece of bread (not the smartest thing to do!) and a bird flew down onto the edge of her chair, she threw her bread as far as she could and started screaming until I came and scared the bird away, it was very funny! but on our final day she was starting to feed them just as long as they didn't touch her.

We spent the next day catching up on the washing and Lucy did a heap of school work. Yes we made her do school work during the school holidays!

Later that day we had some friends from home arrive who were on a 3 week holiday and had a couple of kids around the same ages as ours. They just finished setting up and we started to get the fire going when out of nowhere the rain came! Luckily it didn't last long and we had an enjoyable night around the fire with a few drinks. The next day was spent not doing very much at all, Brad must have 'eaten something bad' the night before and struggled for most of the day. It definitely didn't have anything to do with the couple of trips made to the pub the night before.

Bruce is not the 1st bus Brad has fitted out. About 4 years ago he bought a bus off ebay and converted it into a motorhome, we couldn't sell our business so after a couple of years we sold the bus. We have often spoken about how amazing it would be if we ran into it somewhere during our trip....

Later that afternoon Brad & I left the kids with our friends and went for a drive to Rubyvale to see if any of our sapphires were worth getting cut & polished. As we drove past a caravan park in Rubyvale our old bus was in there! We still can't believe that after only 1 1/2 weeks on the road we ran into our old bus!!!

We did a slow pack up the next morning and headed back to Emerald to do a big grocery shop. Lesson learnt here, we didnt think to do a grocery shop in Emerald on the way thru earlier in the week and supplies at Rubyvale were very limited so we had been living on the bare essentials for the past few days.

This is my favourite photo of Chloe!

Surat to Rolleston

We headed off from Surat with plans of staying at Injune but when we got there the wind was still freezing so I decided we should just keeping going as far as we could in the hope that it would be warmer. The kids were not too happy with my decision I think Chloe said to Brad something like 'You know this trip isn't just about Mum, its supposed to be a fun holiday not just driving'  They both did really well as we ended up driving for nearly 5 hours with only 2 very quick stops. We encountered our 1st mountain, which we are trying to avoid at all costs but these ones snuck up on us. Luckily it was only 1.6kms of steep stuff and Bruce handled it nicely! 
We stopped at Rolleston for the night, another small little caravan park in a tiny town, the wind had died down in the afternoon and even the locals were all saying how cold and windy this week had been. 
We went for a walk around Rolleston, stopped in for a quick beer/lemonade depending on age at the pub. As usual Chloe went a little crazy with some lemonade in her system so we headed to the park for awhile to wear her out before heading back to the caravan park, where the kids played happily for the rest of the afternoon with Chloe's animals in the grass clippings under the trees. It really is the small things that keeps them happy!

Lightning Ridge to Surat

The search for warmer weather was not looking good as we crossed the Queensland border and had a quick stop in Hebel. It was too cold and windy to stop for long so we jumped in the bus and kept driving.

 Originally we had only planned on doing a small drive today but because of the weather which was now raining we decided to keep driving. We ended up stopping just outside of St George at Beardmore Dam, by the time we got here the rain and wind had stopped and the sun was out. It wasn't exactly warm but it wasn't too bad either. Chloe wasn't feeling well again today so spent the whole afternoon on the lounge in the bus.
We kept moving the next morning not far this time just up the road to a great camp spot outside of Surat on the Balonne River.

We spent a couple of nights here just relaxing the days were nice as long as you were in the sun, out of the wind but the nights were freezing!! We had planned on taking it pretty steady from here on but we again changed our minds and decided to drive as much as we could over the next few days and get to Townsville as soon as possible! 

Gulargambone to Lightning Ridge

The sun was shining as we rattled, squeaked and bounced our way towards Lightning Ridge on a very bumpy road. Travelling with sick kids does have one advantage they sleep! Chloe slept nearly all the way and Lucy slept for just under half of it. We stopped for a quick lunch at Walgett before arriving at the Opal Caravan Park in Lightning Ridge. This is a great park only about 3 years old with a nice big clean amenities block. 
1st stop was a dip in the artesian bath and at 42 degrees was pretty hot but really nice once you got used to it.
Everyone woke up slightly better the next day and we were all keen to try a bit of fossicking. There is a big pile at the tourist information centre that you can fossick for free and we all managed to find at least 1 opal each. They were all extremely tiny but that didn't matter we were so excited to find any at all!

After lunch we headed to the Chamber of the Black Hand, if you are ever in Lightning Ridge I recommend this tour. A miner who had no luck mining opals started doing carvings in the walls & roof of his mine and now charges people to go into his mine and look. These are amazing and the kids thought it was fantastic.

The weather was just perfect for our 2 days in Lightning Ridge, on our 3rd morning the wind picked up, the clouds rolled in and it was alot cooler so we packed up and headed in search of somewhere warmer.

West Wyalong - Gulargambone - July 2014

As we drive off on a freezing cold, windy and wet afternoon it still hasn't really sunk in that this is it! All the planning and dreaming from the past 4 years has paid off and we are actually doing this crazy adventure. We have sold everything we could, stored what we couldn't, kissed our families goodbye and without any real plan (expect to head for warmth) driven off! 

We were only going to go about 100km but because the weather was so horrid decided to just keep driving, we stopped at a roadside rest area about 15km south of Dubbo, watched a movie and went to bed. Pretty exciting for our 1st night on the road!!

I woke up Wednesday morning sick also and Chloe wasn't looking too good but we had lots to get through that day starting with a quick trip to Dubbo Zoo. We decided to drive the car around to make it a bit quicker and easier. Lucy wore out pretty quickly and spent most of the time looking at the animals from the car.

 The Siamang's put on an amazing show for us. The sounds they make are incredible

We then headed to Dubbo Distance Education to pick up Lucy's school work for term 3.

Lucy going thru her school work at Lightning Ridge

We stayed the night at a small but lovely (and cheap!) caravan park in Gulargambone. This park had some goats, an alpaca and some geese, which would have usually made our little animal lover very happy, but she was going downhill fast and just wasn't interested. So it was early to bed once again.

Last Days

Our last week was a pretty hectic one, we closed our shop down so spent most of the week packing up the remaining stock, cleaning, trips to the tip, trying to finalise all things to do with the business and more cleaning. This doesn't sound like much but it was a big job and I think we did pretty well to get all done in less than a week! We also moved the bus from our house to my parents backyard and did some last minute clearing and cleaning before settlement. Chloe had her last 2 days at preschool, thanks Bland Preschool for making Chloe feel so special on her last day she will miss you all! The weather on our last weekend in West Wyalong was amazing and we spent a lovely couple of days just relaxing with our families. 
Originally we were planning to leave on the weekend but decided to stay for Lucy's Academic Achievement Assembly on the Tuesday. Unfortunately Lucy got sick over the weekend and missed her last full day of school. I did take her in for a bit of a celebration with her classmates to say goodbye and have some cupcakes organised by her lovely teacher. Thanks KH what a fabulous little class, I'm sure there will be lots of postcards written to you!
Our last day arrived and the weather was horrible!! Freezing cold, windy and wet. We headed to Lucy's assembly where she received the Student of the Term Award!!