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Australia
  • Lucy M
  • Colin Martin
set. – nov. 2022

Australia

Uma 66aventura de um dia na Lucy & Colin Leia mais
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  • Australia

    Today’s creatures

    1 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Weird spider
    Frog (or toad!) encounter
    Update: Cane toad - universally disliked by all 😬

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  • Australia
    1

    On the move again…..

    1 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    On the way to our next stop, we arrived at Paranella Park. https://www.paronellapark.com.au/

    As we walked to the ticket office to find out more, we were accosted by the most enthusiastic man on the planet, telling us about the place. Then we went in to the ticket office and the person behind the counter carried on where the man (who turned out to be the owner) had left off. It felt like a hard sell and an assault on our senses. Despite all we bought tix and went in!

    Due to lack of research (courtesy of very patchy wi-fi/ phone signals) I’d made (the incorrect) assumption it was a theme park, so not really my thing. I was wrong. It was actually the site of an old house built by a family back in the 40’s. The grounds were huge, rainforest, bamboo, giant kauri trees, waterfalls, all with a ‘lost kingdom’ ambiance. It was a really lovely afternoon, walking through the forest, discovering remains of the old house, listening to the tree-top sound effects.

    Not far away was Mission Beach camp, our next stop. OMG, the place is packed. We’re literally jammed in like sardines, very little personal space, which after the peace and tranquillity of Millaa Millaa is a bit overwhelming.

    The palm tree encircled beach is beautiful though, with the ocean gently lapping, sporting the tropical vibe of the coast line here. The surf replacing the birdie and insect sound effects.

    After we’ve settled, we pat ourselves on the back, having cooked yet another dinner with our limited facilities. Later, we look up at the sky, to see unknown Southern Hemisphere constellations twinkling down on us.    Leia mais

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  • Australia
    Lounge/bedroom/kitchen/corridorLoo and storage areaBBQDomesticsLofty doing his thingSleep configuration - loving the brown sheets!!Standing up to the bigger guys!Chill out time

    Matty

    2 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Matty (short for Mathilda, as in ‘Waltzing’!)

    Snail like, she’s our trusty ‘house on our back’ for the next few weeks.

    I have a love / hate relationship with her: she’s all we’ve got, she keeps us and our things contained, she takes us to lovely places, but she’s also cramped, hot and stubborn!

    Update: three weeks in, and Matty is our security, she’s home and this trip wouldn’t be the same without her.

    But…. Why do I still bang into that awkward corner bit nearly every day? Do you deliberately shift a few millimetres so my muscle memory never quite gets it right?!    Leia mais

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  • Australia

    Mission beach

    2 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Woke early, just in time for the sun rise, which was beautiful.

    We’ve been out and about for quite a few days now, so think today will be a staying put day….

    Camp life: it takes a while to settle in to a new place, get to know the quirks etc and we’re here for three nights, so should be old hands by then!

    One quirk was using the laundry today. Easy, right? I had my small change ($5), piled in the washing (realising later one sock had escaped), pressed the start button, went back 35 mins later, and the washing had stopped but the machine hadn’t done a spin, so the washing was sopping wet, which was annoying. In the baking sun it’ll drip dry eventually I guess…..

    There was a little local market just along from the camp, so had a meander, a foot massage, bought a small rug for outside for sandy feet and trawled the area for wi-fi (which is becoming an obsession 😬).

    Ended up in a nice cafe, had a nice brekkie, used their nice wi-if, then worked out the experience had cost us a nice £35!!    Leia mais

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  • Australia
    2
    Massive rigs 1Our neighbours forever homeand the lorry he uses for work and stowing the washing machine!

    Is it Monday?

    3 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Really nice to chill (as in relax, it was scorching) yesterday. We spent the late afternoon on the beach, the sun was low, behind the encircling palms, so it was shady with a cooling breeze. Col dipped completely, I dipped feet. Lovely way to end our rest day.

    Camp observations: the rigs here (the word caravan hardly suits, as it bring to mind our modest UK vans) range from huge to absolutely bloody enormous. (Matty barely registers on the spectrum!)

    On one side we’ve got a lovely family, in a split level tent (I don’t get it) but it has a penthouse/platform bed. They have a boat, and caught loads of fish yesterday.

    On the other side, we have a double family group, massive rigs, kids toys & bikes everywhere. We had to ask them to move their huge jeep/lorry thing, when we arrived. On one side of the lorry there’s a sheet hanging, which becomes a projection screen for kids shows and last nights, Aussie rules football game! Very clever.

    They’re leaving today, and I saw them lifting a full, normal sized washing machine into the lorry! This isn’t just ‘kitchen sink’ packing!

    Update: they’re another permanently on the road family, hence having all their mod cons in tow.    Leia mais

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  • Australia
    A lost thing ☹️
    Mussion Beach southSandy balls created by the small crab living in the centre

    Staying local….

    3 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Could have easily stayed put again today, but cajoled ourselves out.

    When leaving, either to move on or for the day, we have to unhook our various umbilicals and make sure cupboards, overhead cubbies and loose items are closed, tethered etc. We’re getting better at this, managing the process in about 10 mins now.

    That doesn’t always mean we’ve done a good tidying away job though, as it’s only when we set off and encounter a bump or two in the road, that we know how successful we’ve been. There’s always a bit of initial clunking, as things settle (my bones included), but if the noise is prolonged or something breaks free - we’re in trouble and have to pull over - not always easy with Matty.

    This is the cassowary coast, which comprises various beaches, all in a row. We drove up and down the road to see them, as they’re a few Ks apart and it’s way too hot to walk.

    Turns out Mission beach, with its bijou cluster of shops and cafes is a downtown hub - the other beaches have very little in the way of commerce, which surprised us until we thought, better that than bucket and spade/tourist ornaments outlets etc!    Leia mais

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  • Australia

    Sand

    4 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Love it or hate it?

    https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/sand.html

    We’re by the coast, only seconds from the beach, so it’s inevitable that sand will be everywhere. Trouble is I’m not a fan.

    Don’t mind walking on it on the beach, but don’t like that it follows me around, in my shoes, stuck to my legs, in between my toes. I’m a city girl, sand wasn’t a thing in north London, and my sensitive feet, feel every stabby grain!

    This is where Matty conspires against me. She’s used to sandy feet and doesn’t mind the sand. Her floors are sandy coloured, perfectly disguising the intrusion 😬

    On the plus side, it only takes a few sweeps with a broom to expel the devils granules, but then mins later they begin to accumulate once again……..    Leia mais

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  • Australia
    Last Mission beach sun riseRainy cardwell

    Adios Mission Beach

    4 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Yesterday pm: Once back from our viewings of the other local beaches, we took a walk along ‘our’ beach and declared it the best. We were shaded by the palm trees, there was a sea breeze - bliss.

    There were lots of fallen pods (coconuts?) strewn on the sand and we mused how far they might drift on the ocean before washing up and taking root on an unknown land (or the next beach!)

    I was aware of someone striding behind me and a women smiled and started talking to us. Her name was Jilly and she had an eccentric but hugely likeable air about her. She was a local, and we chatted for ages. She regaled us with stories of her travels, to South Asia, Bali and around Aus; she commiserated with us over the Queen and remembered the time she’d met and spoke to ‘Prince Willy’; she told us about her photography; she warned us about sun exposure, explaining she had a basal cell carcinoma (the most common skin cancer in Aus).
    It was one of those encounters that leaves you feeling upbeat and feeling lucky to be in that place at that time.

    This morning I woke (too) early, as it was hot through the night. There was then no excuse to miss the sun rise, which was a moody one this time, with dark clouds. Then it actually rained, for 3 whole mins 😳

    Check out time is always 10am, and pretty much on the dot, off we clunk down the road a bit.

    Today’s sound effects are brought to us courtesy of soy sauce and garlic oil, who are getting to know each rather well (I suspect the mixed herbs are feeling very left out).

    More rain as we proceed along, finally arriving at Cardwell, where a sea food place has a big crab on its roof. 📸

    We than see a big mango, so we’re obliged to stop 📸

    It was a place called Frosty Mango, where the woman on the till fully met the frosty brief. I had to return the (incorrect) drink she’d given me and she dealt with it with the snarly, bad grace of a Tasmanian devil.

    So ‘big things’ are landmarks here, we encountered a cassowary yesterday 📸 and we’ll see a few more hopefully, if I’m not snoozing that is.

    In fact, just decided I’ll keep all these ‘big’ pics in one place which I’ll keep updating

    https://www.australianexplorer.com/australian_b…

    Next stop: Townsville    Leia mais

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  • Australia

    Musings

    5 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We have exactly the right amount of plates, mismatched cutlery, a bottle opener, sheets (attractive brown), towels (attractive brown), and bafflingly, one very sharp psycho knife. The sort of knife any self respecting murderer / dismemberer would be proud of.

    We also have two saucepans with lids and a frying pan, which as a unit, are heavy to handle with one small Lucy hand. There is only one unique way these can be stowed successfully in the cupboard and it requires a one handed manoeuvre with all three sitting within each other. If you get the angle of approach right, they’ll fit in the space in one slick action. If you get the angel wrong, the lids dislodge and you’re in all sorts of trouble.

    Matty has a touch screen for navigation, music, etc. When nav is on, it pings for all sorts of (often unclear) reasons. Then occasionally the dash decides to join in / compete and starts ponging about its own stuff. This all happens when Col’s driving and I’m often woken (from a short snooze) to him cursing the pings and pongs.

    Col’s looking for some swimming shorts, considering himself past the ‘budgie smuggler’ look the young or un-self conscious are sporting. Two main issues: the shorts all seem to be the Billabong brand, so quite expensive and they don’t have (modest ahhhemm) a containing ‘pouch’ for his bits and bobs. The search continues…..    Leia mais

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  • Australia
    Magnetic Island
    ❤️Adenium obesum

    Magnetic Island today

    5 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Different camp (Townsville), different sound effects again last night. Lots of whooping birdies (unseen), and we’re under a tree which drops its fruit/seeds/nuts which plink plonk on the roof when there’s a gust of wind! Cooler here relatively speaking, so a better sleep.

    Caught the ferry to Magnetic Island, a short 20 min cat ride, which today was over choppy waters,

    Everyone disgorged on arrival, standing about for a bit trying to get bearings, decide on bus, taxi, loo options etc.

    We catch a bus to Horseshoe Bay and wander along a bit. I’m feeling very dopey (more than usual!) there is a very chilled, soporific feel to the place……

    In an effort to shake this off we wonder if the koala tour is a possibility - but this is booked out.

    You can also see koalas in certain places in the wild here, so we’re currently deciding if our energy levels/legs (in the heat) will allow this……. Pics to follow if they do…..

    Update: Did the koala walk, saw this little fella. I cried.    Leia mais

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  • Australia

    Airlie beach today

    6 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Our koala spotting yesterday meant that we walked a lot and my nose got sun burnt, annoyingly, as I’d been so good up to now.

    We caught the ferry back to the mainland, then motored up Castle Hill, a really steep hill and prob not really suited to motor home driving.

    Anyway turns out it’s where the locals keep fit / work out / instrument of torture as people jogged, walked, hobbled (or in our case) drove up. There were so many people on the up and downward legs. Ascent takes about 30 mins on foot but am sure much longer for the uninitiated. Amazing views at the top, but I was also in awe of the effort made by everyone getting up the steep incline. I imagine going down is only marginally easier.

    We’ve been driving in Matty for over a week now (already!) and we’re still in Northern Queensland, as each hop has been a small one. We’ve driven approx 600k in that time.

    Today’s end point is 3 hours away and is the gateway to The Whitsunday Islands, where Col hopes to dive soon (I’m more than happy to stay on dry land!)

    We’ve passed through Ayr and Bowen and enjoyed a fruit salad of big fruit photo ops along the way. It’s prob the hottest day since we’ve been here: 32 degrees C.

    This site is big and busy but we’ve ‘upgraded’ and gone for a an en-suite loo/shower as we’re here for 4 nights! Our facilities are in a little cabin right next to our pitch.

    Our neighbours are old hippies, so right up our street. There are loads of white parakeets patrolling about, in search of morsels. I am in heaven.    Leia mais

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  • Australia

    Shops we can’t live without!

    6 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Bunnings = B&Q (hello Santa!)
    BCF (boating, camping, fishing) = Go Outdoors? (So many fishing rods and handy camping gizmos)
    K-Mart = Matalan/Dunelm (Lofty’s spiritual home)
    Coles/Woolworths = Tesco

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  • Australia

    Friday, not Saturday…

    7 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    I guess the measure of a good holiday is not knowing the day of the week - I’m scoring highly on that scale at the Mo..….

    Airlie beach is the gateway to The Whitsunday Islands, so we decide to catch a bus (which turned into shared taxi) into town to see what tours we can book. The vibe of the place is very Queenstown like, with a pinch of Key West.

    Over a late brekkie (or early lunch) we select our options and within 20 mins we’ve booked a flight for the afternoon and a pm cruise to Whitehaven beach on Sunday.

    At 2.30 we’re sitting on the baking runway with 10 other passengers in a Cessna Grand Caravan. The pilot is young, and Eastern European and we wondered how he ended up here (although his office is pretty amazing).

    The flight is an hour and we have amazing views of the islands, Whitehaven beach and the reef. The colours are vibrant and alive and majestic. We can’t let this natural wonder disappear into the ether……

    So after dinner, we’re watching an episode of Breaking Bad and out of the corner of my eye I see movement above my head 😳

    Thankfully not a spider, but it is an undesirable: a scuttling cockroach. Thankfully they don’t hold the terror factor (for me) of a spider, but I defo don’t want to spend any time with it (and has it brought any friends or family with it 😱)

    We get our high tech ‘kritter katching kit’ ready - a glass, some cardboard - and pretend we don’t know it’s there in the hope we can encourage it out again. The long wait continues…    Leia mais

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  • Australia

    Whitsunday Dive

    8 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Did couple of dives today from a tiny wee boat on to the reefs off Hayman Island in the Whitsundays. The visibility was not fabulous due to the full moon's high tides, but still great. I guess the perfect visibility day on the reef is as elusive as the perfect flying day. The fishes, reef shark and turtle didn't seem phased by the large neoprene coated lump (me) trying to keep up with them. Heard this morning that Compton Abbas Airfield has been sold to Guy Ritchie. I might not have a job to go back to. Just keep swimming...Leia mais

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  • Australia
    Hibiscus Rose de Chine

    Airlie beach

    8 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Col is diving again today so I have a day to myself. Started with washing the massive attractively ‘brown’ sheets we’ve been given. They’re now clean but still look unapologetically brown and grubby for some reason. Very happy with the laundry facilities here (easy domestics are crucial when travelling!). Had a nice chat with someone ironing (imagine!) then wended my way back to Matty.

    Spent the morning online, with the luxury of functional wi-fi for a change. Booked some accom for next week and attempted to tidy my 6 million photos (failed with that - too overwhelming 😬)

    Had an explore, walking round our site a bit. We usually stay in our immediate patch and tread the same paths, once we’ve found the areas we need.

    Then caught the bus into downtown Airlie beach. Such a nice place, lots of little shops, lovely clothes shops (yes I succumbed). When packing at home you think you know what clothes are right for your given destinations, but they don’t always translate well and you end up wearing the same clothes all the time as they ‘feel right’. I could have left so much of my stuff behind and not missed any of it!

    Had a lovely pedicure, my poor swollen ankles and feet needed a pamper….. Managed to negotiate the bus back, getting off at the right stop which is always a bonus.

    We both arrive back from our respective days at the same time, have a quick cuppa, then go to the daily bird feeding here. Beautiful rainbow lorikeets are already lining the branches awaiting their daily feed.

    A guy comes with a bucket of porridge like stuff which, if you want to be part of the feeding, you have to dip your hand into and I can feel it under my nails. Yuk. However it works and I get some takers. Their claws are sharp on my arm and one lands on my head, digging it’s talons into my scalp for grip. Ouch! It screeches sweet nothings into my ear with gay abandon. Great birds, fun, beautiful and very shrill! Sadly all Col gets out of the birdie encounter is shit on the back of his shirt!    Leia mais

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  • Australia

    Bites

    9 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    There are lots of little critters buzzing about. I’ve been bitten by fair few now.

    The bites start off as small red dots, ‘I can handle this’ you think. Then slowly morph into red itchy pustules, that drive you to distraction……

    Something has had a bonanza on my left leg - expect they’re sleeping contentedly now, with a full tummy 🫤

    Update: the bite situ got so bad (bites on my bites 😳) there was no way I could put soothing cream on them all, it would have taken forever and I’d have been a walking blob of cream! Opted for antihistamines in the end, to stem the itching a bit.    Leia mais

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  • Australia
    Pit stop at Hamilton Island2

    Cruise to Whitehaven beach

    9 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Had an afternoon cruise to Whitehaven beach, one of the ‘poster’ beaches for the Whitsundays. Was glad to see the ocean conditions were looking good….

    Sitting opposite us on the ferry was a family from Scotland, now living in Sydney. Lived here for 16 years, but their accents endure!

    Talking of which, we’re meeting lots of Scottish folk on our travels. We enjoy playing the ‘wonder which bit they’re from’ game.

    We motored to Daydream island and Hamilton Island, both popular holiday resorts. The latter having its own airport, should you wish to park the jet.

    As a non swimmer, I was keen to know (with some trepidation) how we would transfer from the boat to the beach, but it was all good, there were tender boats to ferry us to the edge of the beach and back (audible sigh of relief).

    The beach was the whitest finest silica sand (as opposed to coral sand). It was very beautiful but it was also packed with people and their detritus, which spoilt the look of the place! Before I knew it, the sand was literally in everything (cue anti-sand rant again!). I’m so not a beach person…..,

    Col swam, tried his hand at paddle boarding, and assisted an old dear with a knee high paddle 😊

    The whole cruise operation was very slick, the afternoon went in a flash and the little afternoon tea was a welcome bonus.

    Great taster of the Whitsundays - but as always, loads more we could have done….    Leia mais

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  • Australia

    Road trip

    10 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We put the word ‘road’ in road trip today. Have left the coast for a bit and driven a mere 6 hours inland (approx 600k) and we’re still in North Queensland.

    Fancied getting a glimpse of the gemfields area, so we’ve ended up in Blue Gem campsite, Sapphire (not far from Emerald, which is also near Rubyvale). We will try to make our fortune tomorrow by ‘fossicking’ for gems 💎 ourselves.

    Throughout the whole drive, we passed through a handful of ‘towns’, which were really just petrol stations / general stores and not much else. The rest of the drive was sugarcane, fields, countryside - mile after mile of it.

    Our campsite for the next two nights is pretty much empty. Makes a welcome change from the ‘sardines’ set-up all the beachside camps seem to have!    Leia mais

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  • Australia
    Pre fossickPost fossick - Left: zircon, Right: sapphires

    Fossicking

    11 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Went to the bathroom block before bed last night and there was so much noise outside! We decided it must be mainly amphibian (prob the much hated cane toad, but possibly the humble frog as there is a creek near by), with added insect chatter as backing. Whatever was out there, they were singing at the tops of their lungs. I met a small froggy thing coming out the block, reinforcing our hypothesis.

    Fossicking https://g.co/kgs/8RWs8c

    So a leisurely start to the day, enjoying the ‘quiet’ of the countryside or to put it another way, not a lot of human sound effects but a daytime cacophony of critter sounds.

    Managed to harness two bars of wifi which allowed us to book our accom next week.

    Then we drove off for a gem mine tour. As the town we’re staying in suggests, sapphires are the thing here, so we visited an old mine, adapted for tours. A normal mine would be much narrower, darker and claustrophobic.

    Great little tour below ground, with Lia our guide giving us some great snippets of history and folklore as well as the harsh realities of mining for gems, which requires brute force and dogged perseverance.

    During the tour we saw some of the tiniest bats ever, who make the mines their home - utterly adorable,

    Once we emerged, blinking in the bright light, we bought a bag of ‘unfossicked’ dirt which needed to be:
    💎 emptied into a sieve and shaken to get rid of loose sand
    💎 dunked in to water and swilled to get rid of sticky dirt
    💎 emptied on to a bench
    💎 carefully sifted for tiny sapphires and zircons (having been shown what to look for)
    We then spent an extremely satisfying (and very mindful), couple of hours picking out gems. Got us quite a (small scales) haul of both sapphires and zircons! We could defo see how gem fever can be all consuming…..

    As well as the adorable bats, we encountered a number of other creatures today - see next post    Leia mais

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  • Australia

    Back to the coast

    12 de outubro de 2022, Austrália ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    and vacant thoughts…

    Only a 4 hour trip back to the coast today. Really enjoyed the Gemfields, each town has rusty and (to me) undefinable mining equipment dotted around, exactly the vibe and kit you’d expect to see in a a dusty ‘wild west’ mining hub.

    In between snoozes (there were a few) I started to enjoy some of the random billboards punctuating the never ending, but constantly changing, landscape.

    Personal faves are the laundrette one and what I’m assuming is an MP/councillor in a Stetson, sporting the whitest teeth in the west.

    When we picked Matty up, we didn’t understand why there was an electric kettle and a whistle kettle. We get it now. When on the road we can still use our LPG gas stove (but not the electrics). This means we can pull up anytime and anywhere and make a brew. We have done this and it makes perfect sense.

    After a pit stop at Rockhampton (a large town, sadly), we drove on to our end point for the next two nights, Emu Park.    Leia mais

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