Orange to Albury

Dear family and Friends

At the moment we are in Albury but as you can see we have had a stop over in Orange and Sydney. Sadly the day we arrived a cousin of mine died from a five year battle with cancer. He was only 51. We were not able to stay for the funeral but Mum tells me it was one of the biggest she has ever seen. He was very well known and very well liked.

We spent time with Mum and Dad, we missed seeing Mike and Cath (as they were out) but we did have a look through their next door neighbours house as it was up for sale and they happened to have it open so we took a look through it. We saw my brother Bob but missed Warwick and Narelle.

We also did a trip to Sydney without the caravan to visit Nanette, Ken's sister who has just recently been placed into full time nursing care. She is not well but we were very happy when she showed definite signs that she was well aware of who we were. She is getting well looked after and the staff are lovely. We feel better now that we have seen where she is.

The church service in Orange on Sunday was great and the message theme was "Be Happy" an appropriate title as one of their parishoners had died the day before and was now with the Lord.

We left Orange on Monday but only travelled as far as Macquarrie Woods which is a lovely free camp half way between Orange and Bathurst. It started raining just as we pulled up and from then on it poured and poured for the remainder of the day. The camp site is spread over a 5 acre area and has toilets (spotless) situated in various places as they do with fires and they leave you with piles of fire wood to burn if you want to. The ranger was there at the time we arrived and he came over to give us a heads up on the area, he was very helpful. There are ponds. rolling hillsides and areas with trees if thats what you like. A great place but I wouldn't recommend it in the winter.

On Tuesday we drove into Bathurst to see Jenson Button and Craig Lowndes take their respective cars around Mount Panorama. What an experience that was. Craig Lowndes took his super car around the track 5 times then Jenson Button took his Formula One car around the track for 5 laps and boy oh boy did it sound loud. It squielled past us and the noise was deafening with just one car, the noise must be incredible with a race track full of them. The formula one car could be heard the whole way around the track but the super car could only be heard when it was coming toward us and then accelerating away from us. We found a spot near the bottom corner of Conrod to watch the braking into the main straight and then the accelerating. We had heard nothing about this promotion untill a couple of days before it was on so we didn't think there would be many there. But there was somewhere between 20 and 30 thousand. Car enthusiasts of all ages turned up for the event. There were families, school students (in uniform) some on class excursions, some with parents. There were business men and women, other grey nomads like us as well as a large number of older folk as well. yes we even saw some wheelie walkers.

After the first 5 laps were done Craig Lowndes and Jenson Button changed cars and then drove each others car for a further 5 laps. Jenson Button said later that he had grown up watching the races at Bathurst and had always wanted to drive on the circuit so it was special for him. And Craig Lowndes got to do something no one else is ever likely to do again and that is drive a Formula one car around Bathurst. No official records were broken but the unofficial times were interesting.

After the event was over we had a look through the car and bike Museam they have there now and found Bryans name a number of times on the winners boards for the different CC races Bryan had won.

After Bathurst we continued on our way and had a free camp that night at Jugiong before coming into Albury where we caught up with one of Ken's cousins and his wife. We have almost caught up with all the extended family on our trip which we didn't expect to do. After a lovely evening with Bram and Judy we booked into a caravan park so I could do washing and Ken could watch the races at Albert Park. We will leave here tomorrow and our intension is to head to Bright to use one of our travel auction packages. The weather will determine how long we stay there as I have been feeling a bit cold after all our hot weather in FNQ. I have put an extra quilt on the bed and I have also taken out a rug I have and thrown it over the bed during the night.

Once we leave Bright, assuming there is no snow (it's a bit early for the snow) we will head over Hotham and head home for a while and see the kids and the grandchildren. We are very excited about seeing everyone again.

That's it for now

love to all and God Bless

Ken and Lyn

N.S.W.

Dear Family and Friends

Last night we arrived late after a long day of travelling at Wellington in N.S.W. We actually left Goondiwini about 8am yesterday and drove the nearly 700 klms straight through except for our morning, afternoon tea and lunch breaks. The day was lovely and though it was hot there was no humidity. From Dubbo to here we could see rain in the distant sky but didn't actually get any rain untill we were tucked up inside for the night. The rain didn't last long and was quite heavy but nothing like what we have have recently experienced.

Having left Rocky we followed the coast line down till we neared Maryborough and Hervey Bay. We had an appointment the next day (Tuesday) to have tyres fitted to the car. Hervey Bay were the only Bob Jane to have the tyres that Ken wanted. We spent two nights free camping outside Maryborough at a little place called Tiaro. I stayed with the van while Ken took the car in early to have the tyres fitted. It was a great little spot on the banks of the Mary River but the grass had not been mown for some time so each time you went outside you had the grass up to your ankles. Once the tyres were all done we stayed the second night and were up and away fairly early the next morning.

From Tiaro we began to move inland via Morgon, Kingaroy and Dalby working our way toward Goondiwindi where we intended to cross the boarder and make our way to Orange. These little places were just lovely but you could still see the effects of the floods. Debri was caught on fences and up in the trees well above the height of our car. One couple we saw were beginning the process of clearing the debri of their fences before the weight of it caused the fences to fall over.We spent one night in Kumbia between Kingaroy and Dalby. It was a sleepy little village and we spotted a park where we could make some lunch. It was quite late so as I made lunch Ken wandered over and struck up a conversation with another couple who were also there.
It was a free camp spot which had a lovely clean toilet block that included three minute showers for just $ 2 and a donation box for electricity. As it was mid afternoon we decided that this was a good spot for the night. Had we not been making our way to Orange we would have stopped here for longer.

Our plans to go straight to South Aus have changed a little. Ken's sister, Nanette, is not at all well and so we decided to make our way to Orange where we will leave the van and from there go to Sydneyto see her and Norm.

This morning we have woken to a lovely warm day and with only 90klms to travel we will get there well before lunch

So for now
Goodbye and God Bless

Ken and Lyn

Rockhampton

This bucket off a dozer was huge. We couldn't tell what it was until it was almost on top of us

fFom a distance, no wonder we had to get right off the road
Taken at Clearview where we stopped for a cuppa

Camilla Beach looking back toward our van. We were right on the water when the tide was in.

Camilla Beach with the tide going out

Dear Family and Friends

We have had our first blow out and didn't it go bang. Thankfully we were just on the outskirts of Bowen. We had left Home Hill reasonably early as we wanted to be in Bowen by 9.30 am so that we could find a church to go to but of course we didn't make it. Because Ken's back is causing him some grief we decided rather than change the tyre ourselves we would ring the RACV and within a half an hour they had the RACQ out and he had our spare on the car in no time and we were off to a caravan park for an unplanned stop over. Having had one blow out Ken wanted to put new tyres all round on the van. They were all the same and getting quite old so we figured if one has blown it's possible the others may blow also. So 8am Monday we were outside the tyre place and had four new tyres fitted and our spare put back on the van to be our spare again. And once again we hit the road and had a smooth run down to Rocky.

On our jouney down into Rocky we had to pull over and get right off the road. this was one of those times when the CB radio can be really helpful. We passed an Anderson's Removalist truck from Maffra, near Bairnsdale, so having used Anderson's a few times to bring something back to Bairnsdale (like our lounge that we had purchased from E Bay) Ken thought he might know the driver so he got on the CB and had a chat to the driver. It turns out that Ken didn't know him but he did say their was a wide load not far ahead of us and we would need to pull over. Sure enough we soon had police cars ahead of us indicating where we were to pull over (the pilot vehicle also were using the CB to tell people what they had to do) Then, not far ahead we could see something coming. We could see the truck coming toward us was driving right on the white line in the middle of the road and it was clearly a massive big thing spanning the width of the road plus some. We couldn't work out what it was until lt was almost on us. We heard on the radio that whatever it was it was 8 1\2 metre wide. It turned out to be a bucket off a dump truck and it was massive and probably was on its way up to the mines somewhere. Thinking all the excitement was over we continued on our way. Before long we could see more flashing lights ahead of us and this time we only had to pull over past the fog line on the road. This one was a large truck with four of the huge big tyres but it was only 5 1\2 metres wide.

This time with the excitement all over we drove to our next layover which was a free camp spot at Camilla Beach. In the holiday season this place is packed but for now it had about 5 or 6 vans that we saw. It was a lovely quiet spot by the beach but again very hot and humid. It is so tempting to have all that water there and not be able to go in it to cool down a bit. We stayed three nights before coming the rest of the way to Rocky.

We arrived in Rocky about 3 pm just after they had a heavy rainstorm. It was raining still on our arrival so we got moderately wet setting up. The humidity was unbearable so we got outside finished as quick as we could and got in the van which by that time was reasonably cool. We have decided to stay in Rocky now for a full week so that we could get a few things done. Ken wants to get the car serviced and new tyres fitted to the car. For me I wanted to do a spring clean in the van. We have been out of our house for a full year so it was time to clean up and throw out. That took me all day on Friday and once again the humidity was almost unbearable even with the air con. Saturday started quite early for me as my goal for this day was to begin cleaning the awning as it needed a really good scrub and I knew I had to start early or it wouldn't get done at all. Surprisingly I got it finished all bar a section that was hard to reach due to the height of the van. We have since moved the van so I will get it done tomorrow then it looks like the new awning that it is. Next is to give the outside of the van a really good clean also.

Due to the floods some of the cement in the park is badly damaged and the park managers came and asked us if we would move to a new site as they were laying some new cement and it would make it difficult for us coming in or out.. So in the humidity on Sat we packed up our van to set up in a different part of the park. We are staying at the Southside Van Park which has heaps of cabins and only a few caravan sites. It is well looked after and this spot is much nicer than our previous position.

Yesterday, being Sunday we headed off to church never expecting to see someone we knew but as we entered the church we could see that Anne whom we had caught up with in Cairns was also there. A new General for the Salvation Army has just recently been elected and it is a woman by the name of Linda Bond. She is a Canadian lady and her current position of Commissioner is leader of the Australian Eastern Territory and one of her farewell meetings was to be at Rocky in the afternoon. Anne was asked to come down as there would be a segment recognising the work of the SAES. (Salvation Army Emergency Services). As it turns out that included us and everyone involved were given a really nice pen in a black velvety cover. On one side of the pen it says "In appreciation" and on the other it has"Thanks SAES from NRMA insurance"

The General Elect. Commissioner Bond, is well liked in this territory and everyone we have spoken to say that she will make a really good General. It was a great service in the afternoon and almost all the songs we sang are my favorites. Once again God's timing is always right and we were both greatly blessed by the service and the opportunity to hear the new General Elect speak. We probably won't ever get that opportunity again.

That's about all for now

Love to one and all.

God Bless

Ken and Lyn