Hughenden - Cloncurry - Karumba on the Gulf - Cloncurry

Monday 6.6.2011:    Temperature on waking 16 degrees getting up to close to 30 in the middle of the day.    Decided to stay another night and do the washing, to give Lloyd‘s back a chance to recover from the trip from Winton.  Went for a walk to the shops which was a few block away, it was very hot . Came back to the bus and had lunch then caught up with the trip diary.

In the two caravans beside us were Lorraine & her husband and Rita and her husband, very nice people, they were waiting for a part to be delivered for their four wheel drive, so they could continue on their way fossicking for zircons, and catching up with their lapidary club somewhere north west of Hughenden.  Lorraine showed me the jewellery her husband had made since joining the lapidary club, he had cut the gems and melted the gold to set the gems in, very nice.  They also told us the address of the place in Thailand where they cut the gems very reasonably and to look up Lambert on the internet and read about them.  She also advised me how to word the letter requesting they cut our garnets to Australian Standard Size.  They were very helpful.

Tuesday 7.6.2011:  18 degrees on waking in the van - temperature in the high 20s, sunny with a bit of cloud.  Lloyd noticed the Fiama awning had a broken rivet on the support bracket at the front end of the bus, so our first stop was at the garage to buy diesel and to find out where we could get the rivets replaced.  The guy was very close only a couple of hundred yards down the road, turn right and he was next to the Bakery, so I checked out the Bakery whilst the guy replaced the rivets with bolts, it only took him about ¾ of an hour to replace the rivets and he charged us $50.  We were both very pleased to secure the awning in place.

We drove around the corner, had a cuppa and something to eat, then went to the Flinders Discovery Centre where we saw the skeleton of the Muttaburrasaurus, as well as lots of other fossils and strange rocks they called dinosaur eggs.  We discovered that Porcupine George road has been updated and there was only 12 kilometers of dirt road to contend with in stead of the 65k it was last time we went there, however, we decided to leave that trip for another time as Lloyd’s back was not good after walking to the shops the day before.



Flinders river at Hughenden - almost dry



Drove west across to Richmond  - (112  kilometers)  the road is the same as the Winton to Hughenden road, flat with a bump every so often, however I think this was worse than the other road as Lloyd’s back was bad on arriving at Richmond Caravan Park and I was also grotty.   The park is on the edge of a man made lake and has a pathway which is lit at night, the length is 1.2 kilometers or 10,000 steps,  We had happy hour at 4 pm then walked around the lake, Lloyd was feeling his back again, so he had a rest and I read a book for a while.

Wednesday 8.6.2011:  Temperature in van 18 degrees - a bit of cloud about and sunny, up to high 20s.

Decided to stay another night to rest Lloyd’s back.  I did my knee exercises and Lloyd did some back exercises, then we walked around the lake again to get the inflammation down, had morning tea, caught up with the trip diary then lunch and walked about a block to the Kronosaurus Corner Museum.  Very interesting moon rocks and mostly underwater creatures, but too much standing and reading didn’t do Lloyd’s back any good.



Pliosaur

  

Kronosaurus



Thursday 9.6.2011:  Temperature in van 18 degrees, dark clouds and cold wind - temperature reached about 20 degrees.  Lloyd’s back still very acute, so we decided to book in to Lakeview Van Park another night and see how he goes.  We walked the 1.2 kilometers around the lake twice, we were doing the 20 minutes of walking to reduce the inflammation in his back, went back to the Coaster and had morning tea and hooked Lloyd up to the tens machine to further reduce the inflammation.  After lunch we walked to the shop for groceries, which we thought might continue to help his condition.

Friday 10.6.2011:   8 degrees overcast, windy and very, very cold, temperature only got up to 16 degrees.  Drove out of Richmond and the rain started, the countryside is very flat with Mitchell grass which is a straw colour and trees dotted here and there as well as cattle, the landscape gets pretty boring after a while, all you see in the distance is the straight road and the telegraph poles give a strange dark shadow effect, the rainfall in this area has been very low not the usual amount and the country is very dry.  Our excitement for the morning was the sight of a train coming, it had lots and lots of carriages from Mt. Isa direction so I guess it was carrying copper and zink ore.

Arrived in Julia Creek about lunch time, checked out the information centre and went through their new centre and learnt about the people of the town and the Dunnart which is a very small marsupial mammal, it can have two litters of eight babies in summer, the babies are born very, very small, then attach to one of the eight nipples in a pouch while they grow, then by the time the wet season starts, they can fend for themselves, as there are plenty of insects for them to feed on , they only exist within an area of 100km around Julia Creek.

As it is raining and cold, we decided to give the free camp by the river a miss, and go for a powered site in the McKinley Shire Council Caravan Park, so we can put the heater on and keep warm.

Saturday 11.6.2011:  12 degrees very chilly, overcast.   Took our time packing up and drove across to Cloncurry to go to the Chemist there as there is none in Julia Creek, just as well we did as there is also none in Normanton either, this was the only pharmacy for two hundred K‘s in any direction.  Made it to the chemist at 11.45 am just before it shut for the long weekend, We also wanted to get a wheel alignment done for the bus as the tyres are showing uneven wear, but will have to go to Mt. Isa after we have been up to Karumba.  Booked into the Cloncurry Caravan Park Oasis.  Had lunch, did the washing, went for a walk then got on with catching up with the trip diary.

Sunday 12.6.2011:  9 degrees - 22 degrees - sunny with southerly wind.   Woke early, packed up and went to Church to find the Anglican service would be at 6.30 pm, so we went looking for a Uniting Church, they were a very friendly family church, the couple taking the service and playing guitar were from Townsville,  the Pentecost Service was very interesting using fruit tingles to illustrate when the Holy Spirit is in us it‘s like having a tingle in our speech people recognize we belong to the Lord, the music was happy songs with a touch of country and western.   We met a couple who were in an Toyota Coaster and stayed at the same Caravan Park.

Continued on our way to Kurumba, staying at Bang Bang jump up bush camp, where we met up with the couple we had met in the Caravan park the day before, also the couple from Narrandera, whom we met at church and another couple we had met at Hughenden a few nights before,  it was a free camp spot, and we all felt comfortable we knew each other.

Monday 13.6.2011:  11 degrees - 23 degrees - sunny, southerly still blowing.  Left Bang Bang camp site at a leisurely pace,  and found Bang Bang jump up was a small hill and we were on top of it, there was water to our right and we heard lots of birds the evening before.  As we traveled north we passed lots of rodeo trucks with horses and a lot of equipment in them, it was OK when the road was normal two lanes, but we were not impressed with having to pull over and stop to allow all the trucks and cars to go by, we found it we didn’t pull off the road they would drive half on the bitumen and half on the dirt, which meant they tended to throw stones up at our windscreen, another broken windscreen is the last thing we need.

 

The countryside is extremely  flat, you can see how it floods, we saw lots of cattle, eagles, kites, road kill, and I even managed to spot a bustard bird which is light grey, bigger than a crane and shorter than an emu, and it’s distinguishing mark is a red top on its head.

Arrived at Sunset Caravan Park, Karumba Point about 3 pm, set ourselves up, had lunch and met a couple from the previous night walking around the camping ground.  Walked around Karumba Point stayed in the built up area to avoid meeting any crocodiles.  Lloyd’s back still playing up.

Tuesday 14.6.2011:  14 degrees - 22 degrees - sunny, southerly still blowing strong, but eased off by 2 pm. Lloyd did his back exercises and I washed and cleaned the Coaster.  Had lunch went for a walk down to the point to check things out, Lloyd decided to do some beach fishing, we feel this will be better than banging around in a boat which could send his back into spasm again.  Joy oh joy, Lloyd came back with a decent size bream, he couldn’t tell a lie, he did not catch it, one of the guys who was leaving in the morning couldn’t fit it in his freezer, so he gave it to Lloyd.  We had a lovely fish dinner baked in our little oven.

Wednesday 15.6.2011:  14 degrees - 22 degrees - southerly still blowing stronger up to 35 knots, wind chill factor made it feel so much cooler, went for a walk to the waters edge and it was very unpleasant, so we walked along the road to the airfield then walked along the beach  which was protected from the wind, the sand was normal sand colour, then it became grey like wet cement and along a long part of the beach it was like walking on cement rocks with shells embedded in them.  Lloyd told me he was standing in this yucky grey wet sand when he was fishing the day before and it took forever to clean it off his crocs and chair.  Walked back to the Sunset Caravan Park and ran into Heather and Alan Lee, whom we had met at the Oasis Caravan Park in Cloncurry, we told them we had booked to have dinner at the Sunset Hotel to watch the sunset, they said they would come over and have a drink.  They arrived and another couple whom we had been talking to so we invited them all to share our table and we all enjoyed the beautiful sunset, the colour for ½ to ¾ of an hour after is just beautiful brilliant red.  Had salt and pepper squid for dinner then walked back to the Sunset Caravan Park.

Thursday 16.6.2011:  14 degrees - 25 degrees -  Wind chilly from the south and still strong. No good for fishing. Packed up and headed for Normanton, saw the fruit & vegetable guy as we were leaving, with his big refrigerated truck and lovely fresh  produce at a reasonable price, so I stocked up the fridge.  Called in at Normanton to fill up with diesel, then took our time travelling down the Burke Developmental Road, there are a lot of one lane only parts of the road, so each time we pulled over to the side and completely stopped to allow the oncoming cars, trucks, caravans, campervans or road trains to stay in the middle of the bitumen and hopefully not throw rocks at our windscreen.  We saw lots of  large cattle with a big hump on the back of their necks, I think they are Brahman cattle.  We also saw, brolgas, magpie geese, eagles,  kites, crows and willy willys.  The countryside is very flat as far as the eye can see the scrub is lower and thinner towards Normanton and you have the impression you are traveling down, then you come to a small jump up and up then down again.  There are flood warnings all along the road and you can see where the land floods in the wet season. 

We pulled in at Bang Bang Jump up which is a free camp and stayed there, the people near us were Lyn and Laurie from Evans head, they used to have a Coaster which he had fitted out and he had a bad accident falling off his roof and had all sorts of complications and had to sell the bus, but has now bought a caravan which is easer or him to manage with his bad back etc.  They were lovely people and invited us to the campfire that night, so we met all the other happy campers and had a lovely night around the campfire, one of the guys even made a damper. 

Friday 17.6.2011:  13 degrees - 25 degrees, a slight breeze blowing.  Took our time leaving Bang Bang Jump up, traveled to Burke and Wills Roadhouse only to find six road trains full of cattle, so we had a quick morning tea and got on the road again before the road trains, traveled half an hour up the road and stopped for lunch only to have the road trains come in at the road stop and park right beside up, so we really took our time having lunch so we would not catch up to them.  Arrived in Cloncurry about 3.30 pm checked into the Discovery Holiday Park nice park full of caravans and a few motor homes.

Tomorrow we will visit the Cloncurry Rodeo then the next stop will be Mt. Isa to go to the dentist, get a front wheel alignment and possibly new shock absorbers fitted to the bus.

Yetman to Winton

Tuesday 24.5.2011:   Today we meet up with Di's brother Graham and wife Barbara and their friends Paul and Jenny to travel to Longreach and Winton together.Temperature 10 degrees to 19 degrees – rainy to start.  Only had about 60 kilometers to travel today, arrived in Goondiwindi shopping area and walked around the shops then went back to the car and rang Graham, he had just arrived, so we all went on to the The Top Tourist Caravan Park & set up for the night, Graham, Barbara, Paul and Jenny in cabins and Lloyd and I in our Coaster, we introduced them to disc bowls and they all enjoyed the game, then we went to dinner at the caravan park where they cooked Spanish mackerel fish and salad, followed by chocolate pudding and custard, very nice.

Wednesday 25.5.2011:  7 degrees - 20 degrees windy cloudy and cold.  Drove 315 kilometers, stopping at St George on the Balonne River for lunch, then drove on to Surat as Graham phoned ahead and that is where they could get two motel rooms, he asked the owner could we park nearby and he said we could park in the car park at the back of the property, it was very, very cold but we did survive.  We walked up to the main part of Surat and went in the Cobb and Co Museum which was very interesting.

Thursday 26.5.2011:  6 degrees - 24 odd degrees - hot day no clouds.  Drove 153 kilometers to Injune, as Graham rang ahead and they could get a motel room there. We stayed in the van park.

Friday 27.5.2011:  5 degrees - 25 odd degrees - hot day.  Drove all day long straight road, we didn’t stop at Carnarvon George as Graham’s hip couldn’t take walking too much, very boring run to Emerald, where we shopped, then drove on to the Gemseekers Caravan Park at Ruby Vale out past Saphire.  Graham, Paul and Jenny had lovely accommodation, the owner had recently built the cabins, they were very nice.

Saturday 28.5.2011:  Went on a tour of an underground saphire mine, and Barbara did some fossicking through a bucket of rocks.

Sunday 29.5.2011:  7 degrees - 27 odd degrees - sunny hot day.  Long drive stopped at Jerico for lunch. Jerico has a open air theatre in the main street with comfortable looking deck chairs. The park toilet block had murals on each side but not too sure what they are saying.

Went on to Barcaldine the town where the labour party was founded after the shearers stwike and the formation of the AWU last century. The tree under which the shearers met has been preserved as a memorial. Arrived at The Discovery Holiday Park, Longreach late in the afternoon had dinner at the woolshed with entertainment. Todays drive was mostly over the Mitchell Grass plains - very flat country with sparse trees but the roads have many bumps which make the bus bounce a lot.

Monday 30.5.2011:  8 degrees - sunny & windy.  Today we walked across the Van Park to the next street and up a short distance to the main road and walked along the Botanical Walkway to the Qantas Museum, Graham, Barbara, Paul, Jenny and Lloyd all went through the museum, I stayed at the café and had a break as I thought it would be the same as when we were there five years ago, they must have added more as it took them quite a while to go through.  Lloyd and I went on a tour of a 747 plane, it was very interesting, we walked up the steps, its like walking up two or three stories of a building, we sat in each section of the plane, saw the black box at the back of the plane invented by an Australian by the name of David Warren, the cockpit with a million and one switches or buttons amazing.  We saw a film on the emergency escape chute which becomes a raft that was also invented by an Australian Jack Grant.  We walked back to the van park and drove into Longreach to look around and have lunch in the Bakery and we booked a McKinley river cruise followed by bush tucker and damper for tomorrow night.  Happy hour was at Graham and Barbara’s cabin.  Caravans and campers just kept on coming in as well as a school group from Brisbane.

Tuesday 31.5.2011:  8 degrees - sunny and warm.   Walked up to the main road again and followed the Botanical Walkway along past the Qantas Museum to the Stockmen’s Hall of Fame our entry price included the Hall of Fame an outdoor show with a youngish bush guy with two beautiful horses he rode bareback, played his mouth organ, then his guitar.  He had four sheepdogs, two of them rounded up some sheep and bought them in, the other dogs had a turn of rounding up the sheep as well.  Then he bought eight bullocks in to the arena and yoked them together, he then walked them outside over a small hill to get a big log and drag it into the arena and pull it up onto the dray, he was an exceptional guy gifted with music and had a lovely way with animals.  The other part of our ticket included our lunch at the heritage centre which consisted of a lovely Stone cottage with a large patio area come café at the back.  We had BBQ hamburgers with chips followed by a cappuccino.   After we walked back to the Holiday Park we just had enough time to get into warm clothes for the campfire tonight as the temperature really drops once the sun goes down. 

We were picked up in a bus at 4 pm and driven the other side of town and down to the edge of the Thompson  River for our sunset cruise when we came back we sat around the campfire and the captains, and deck hands put on different caps and became chefs and waiters, serving stew and bread followed by apple pie and cream, then we had damper and a cup of tea.  While we were finishing our tea, one of the guys Scottie came out in his moleskin pants and vest and no shoes, I guess he was aboriginal he was quite happy walking on stones here and there, he didn’t seem to notice them, anyway he had a very cheeky sense of humor and told up quite a few bush poems, he quite was quite a character.  We had a good night and it was very cold, they took one bus load of people back to their accommodation, then they took another bus load of us to Discovery Park.

 

Wednesday 1.6.2011:  12 degrees - 30 degrees.  Drove from Longreach to Winton over the Mitchell Grass plains, long boring drive 280 kilometers, Graham and Paul like to drive without any breaks in between - no morning tea, doesn’t do Lloyd’s back any good.   Arrived in Winton around lunch time so we walked a little way on the main street, saw the Matilda Centre which is all about the song Waltzing Matilda, its origins and verse by Banjo Patterson, then had lunch at the hotel.  Saw a willy willy in the main street while we were walking back to see through the Matilda Centre.   We booked into the Matilda Van Park, dinner was on with a show by Mel & Suzie, bush poets, so we booked Graham, Barbara, Paul and Jenny in to have dinner and hear Mel & Suzie, they all thoroughly enjoyed it.  We said goodbye to Graham, Barbara, Paul and Jenny as they decided not to go to Lark Quarry to see the dinosaur footprints the next day, but to head home to check on the building of their house.

Thursday 2.6.2011:   14 degrees - 30 degrees.  Stayed at Matilda Caravan Park at Winton  and had a lovely day resting and reading.  Saw Mel & Suzie again at night.

Friday 3.6..2011:  14 degrees - 30 degrees.  Decided go out to the Dinosaur Museum just south of Winton, however , Lloyd  discovered the bull bar was sort of  loose and  you  could push on it and it moved about a bit, he thought something was broken underneath, so we went to the garage to check it out and the mechanic told us to go out to see the Engineers as it needed welding.   We found the Industrial Area and the Engineer who had just pulled a dif out of a big truck, so he told us to come back at 9 am next day.  We decided to go back to the Caravan Park and have a quiet day resting and reading.  Had dinner then went to the shed to see Mel and Suzie perform their bush poetry.  Lloyd’s back not good.

Saturday 4.6.2011: Beautiful cloudless day 15 degrees - high 20s.  Woke early to be over at the Engineers workshop on time at 9 am, we drove in his driveway with him hot on our heels, good timing.   He put his head down and tail up lifted the bull bar with his forklift to take its weight, then got down underneath and found that two bolts had broken that fastened the brackets to the frame and  they couldn’t be removed. He decided that the better job would be to weld the brackets to the frame which he did. The whole job took him just under an hour, he was a very nice chap and did a good job.

With the welding complete, we felt confident to get on with our sight seeing by going out to the Australian Dinosaur Museum Stage 1 which was about 6 kilometers south of Winton on the Longreach road, then you turn right and travel on a dirt road for 10 kilometers winding out to a jump up which is an aboriginal term for an uprising of the land like a Messa with a flat top of mostly of hard rock which had not worn away like the rest of the land.  We arrived about 11.30 am and the next tour started at 1 pm, so we had a cuppa as we had missed morning tea, then had a walk around looking at the view, we noticed the trees seemed to be all growing in lines,  running in the same direction, so we thought there must be water under the soil which feeds them.  We had lunch and were ready for our tour at 1 pm., our tour guide was Freddie an aboriginal with a lovely face, he was very good at explaining all about the dinasours, he spoke very fast but explained how the bones were first found, then how they dig the bones up today, they are about 1 and a half metres down,  and how they are treated and secured in plaster and sacks to preserve them, volunteers then work with small drills like dentists drills to clean up the bones and finally the paleontologists identify what the bone is.  It was a very interesting tour. 

After the tour we went on a short walk to a lookout and saw where they are starting to build the new Reception Centre, shop and café.  We left the jump up and headed back to the main road and back into Winton, then found the road out to the Long Waterhole in Bladensburg National Park, more dirt road, so we took it very easy, we found a lovely spot beside the water and spent the rest of the afternoon watching and listening to the birds.  The Crane was lovely to watch gracefully walking along the edge of the water with hardly a ripple coming from his feet, he walked up one side then flew across to the other side, he looked so graceful when flying and his wing span was very wide about 4 feet or more.  We watched him catch a (yabbie NSW) red claw (QLD), then the chap next to us walked down to the edge and frightened him and he flew across to the other side and dropped his red claw.  Shortly after the sun went down with a beautiful pink glow in the sky, we watched our lovely crane fly off after all his searching with no dinner.  We then cooked our own dinner, had an early night after our early start to the day and lay in bed with the curtains pulled back watching the myriad of stars in the night sky, amazed at the wonder of  God’s wonderful creation.

Sunday 5.6.2011:   13 degrees - high 20’s.   Bladensburg National Park, woke at 6.45 am peeped out the window,  dawn was starting to break and the colour was beautiful brilliant red glow on the clouds which had appeared in the sky and black water, with the birds starting to wake up, what a magic peaceful place.   Left about 10.30am to 11 am drove into town and dumped the grey water, then went to the SPAR shop to pick up some groceries and on to the garage to pick up some diesel.   We then started on our 214 kilometer trek to Hughendon.  The countryside is very flat from horizon to horizon, every now and then you would come to a dip in the road where they have added a culvert under the road,  this really made our bus really bounce up and down, I guess this is what caused the damage to the bullbar and Lloyd‘s back.  This part of the road reminded us of the Nullabor, not many trees.  We looked around and found the trees seemed to be in lines running mostly east west, we figures with what we had learnt the day before  about how they found the dinosaur bones about a metre and a half down in the large cracks in the earth, these trees must be growing in small creeks which run underground.   We saw very few stations, cattle, sheep, emus and a willy willy..

Arrived in Hughenden about 3 pm checked into the Allan Terry Caravan Park and relaxed with a cuppa.

Grafton to Casino and Yetman

Tuesday 10.5.2011:  Left camping ground at Coffs Harbour by 10 am, looked at shops - Di bought a new pair of slacks as I couldn’t find my old slacks, thought I had left them at home.  (About a week later I found them hiding in the cupboard.)    Drove up highway to the turn off to Moonie Beach on the right, then the next left to Nana Glen, then drove on to Glenreagh Recreational Reserve, (50 kilometers south of Grafton) it is surrounded by high cliffs on the west, north and east, lovely peaceful spot.  Showers were lovely and hot, good design of a bush shower.  Very cold night 6 degrees, opened curtains about 7 am and the sun started to come in, all along the passenger side of the bus and warmed us up, at 9.45 am the temperature in the Coaster had reached 22 degrees.

Wednesday 11.5.2011:  Left Glenreagh at 9.55 am for Grafton, to get a stone chip in the windscreen repaired.  Di had a haircut in Grafton.  We then drove to Wooli on the coast, booked into the Wooli Caravan Park for two nights..

Thursday 12.5.2011:  Rest day, went for a walk along the pathway to the breakwater wall, very cold and extremely windy, came back to motor home along the sand as it was very firm on the edge and I thought it would not affect my knee.   I caught up with typing the trip diary.

Went to dinner at the Wooli Bowling Club.

Friday 13.5.2011:  The chap next to us told us about a house in Ulmara with bananas for sale for $2 for 12, and directed us how to find the house, so we followed his instructions and found the house, bought the bananas, then drove on to Grafton, where Lloyd found a barber and had a haircut, very short, he won’t need a haircut for a couple of months. 

We found the Grafton Showground dump point, then drove up the Summerland Way to Braemar Park which is a free camp.

Saturday 14.5.2011:  Cold morning about 5 degrees - temperature got up to early 20s.

Drove into Casino to stock the fridge up before the Disc Bowls Rally, was just about to go to the check out when I spotted Aileen in front of me, so we had a good chat, then met outside with the guys and they decided to come down to Braemar Park for a free camp with us.  Played disc bowls for a couple of hours in the afternoon, just to practice.

Sunday 15.5.2011:  Another cold morning about 5 degrees - temperature reached the early 20s.  We had more disc bowls practice with Aileen and Brian and made our way up to Casino to be there by 2 pm.   We set up camp, Lloyd and I put the annex on so we would have somewhere to play cards at night.  Rosemarie and Bob arrived  little later and we all had a practice for disc bowls, then happy hour, dinner then played cards.

Monday 16.5.2011:  Put our names down for the Disc Bowls Competition for the week, practiced disc bowls, then went to happy hour with everyone and found out when we would be on the next day. 

Tuesday 17.5.2011:  Cold with southerly winds.  We were all bright and early 9.30 am at the court area to find a table in our Sydney Wanderers uniform.  We all played one game of mixed pairs and one game of  ladies or mens’ tripples in the morning and the same again for the afternoon.   We finished about 3.30 pm.  So we had our own happy hour in our annex, then had a late dinner, too tired for cards.

Wednesday 18.5.2011 :  Still cold and windy played our games the same as yesterday round robin style.

Happy hour, then caught the courtesy bus into the RSM club and had dinner. 

Thursday 19.5.2011:  A bit of rain.  Lay day, so we all took it easy and rested  -  Rosemarie, Bob, Lloyd and I caught the bus into Casino to look for ideas to decorate our hats for the dinner on Saturday night.  We were all birds the girls tripples were Swans, the guys tripples were Rosellas, Brian & Aileen were parrots, Rosemarie & Bob were ducks, Lloyd and I were swifts, so we had fun in all the $2 shops.  Lloyd had found the birds on the internet and copied them to a memory stick, so all we had to do was get them printed and tart the hats up a bit.  We found a big blow up parrot and a picture of Pirate Parrot for Brian, the Rosella tomato sauce picture blown up for the guys and white swans for us.  It was a bit of fun. 

Practiced disc bowls, had happy hour, dinner and cards but not too late  to be ready for tomorrow.

Friday 20.5.2011:  9am start, same round robin arrangement, then we came back to the motor homes and had happy hour for a long time, dinner and bed, as we had all made it to the ¼ finals.

Saturday 21.5.2011:  9am start again we all played our games in the morning and the girls made it through to the finals and came second..  A great thrill.   The dinner was at 7 pm.  Brian won the hat as the Pirate Parrot with the blow up Parrot on a stick poking out of his pocket, he won a bottle of wine, and the girls were presented with a cheque for $150 which we cashed the next morning and shared $50 each.

Sunday 22.5.2011:    A bit of rain about.  Brian, Aileen, Rosemarie & Bob all left early this morning,  Lloyd & I went to Church, then shopped and came back and did the washing and I hung it under cover outside the laundry blowing in the breeze, I only had to put it in the dryer for about ½ an hour at the end of the day.

Monday 23.5.2011:   11 degrees - 20 degrees.  Whilst we were in Casino yesterday, we went to the Information Centre to check on the road across to Tenterfield and Goondiwindi, we found out the bridge about an hour out of Casino would be closed between 11am and 2pm for roadwork, so we made sure we were on the road early enough to be over the bridge before they closed the road.  Driving along the road you could see the devastation of the floods along the river, where lots of huge gums lay in the river where they fell, you could also see the debris in a line in fences and trees, in the trees the debris was about eight feet above road level.  We drove into rain and the closer we got to Tenterfield which is high up, the colder the temperature became.  Had lunch in a Bakery at Tenterfield, then drove on toward Yetman about 180 kilometers from Casino, there were a few washed away bridges with detours around them whilst road and bridge repairs were being carried out and a lot of damage from the floods earlier in the year. The ground was very wet with all the creeks and lowlying areas full of water it‘s not safe for us to venture off the bitumen. At Yetman we stayed beside the tennis courts in the sports field and paid $10 for the night, the others staying that night were very nice invited us to happy hour, they had an old gas cylinder cut back for a fire and plenty of music, we all had a lovely night,  next morning everyone said goodbye.