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michelle62

54 Blog Entries
1 Trip
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Trips:

Travelling around Australia

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Trip around Australia

4/5's of the James Family have been planning to go on a trip around Australia for a number of years. We now have the vehicle which we are having modified and we hope to leave late April 2007



Hollywood on the Gold Coast

Surfers Paradise, Australia

Well we made it to Kids Heaven and are staying at a Caravan park close to Movie World. We went to Moveworld yesterday and are off to Dreamworld tomorrow with a rest day in between. It was great and Riley went on all the scary rides and he was smiling in between screaming. Caitlin rode her first roller coaster with apprehension and then got off and said that she was terrified but 'lets do it again' and that was basically the theme of the day with Caitlin, Glenn, Riley and Myself going on every conceivable ride and only stopping for Caitlin to have photos taken with the stars and off course to see the Police Academy show.
This morning I did 2 loads of washing and had my first disaster. I put Glenns PJ's (Jacinta the ones he bought in India) in a load and they ran - badly. Everything was pink, Riley's whites socks, Riley's 'Green Shirt' and also Glenns cream jeans. I tried to act cool as I removed the washing from the machine and secretly slide them into my Ikea wash bag ( Im glad it is not see through!). To understand my unease you have to understand that there is a counter culture of grey nomad women who flock to laundry facitlies to discuss spot stain removal, which machines work best etc. and while ironing all there clothes including their undies. I have observed this at every laundromat and camping ground which we have stayed at, I guess it is a symptom of having too much time on your hands over a long period of time. It makes for an embarassing situation when you are a hopeless housekeeper (or is it mobile home keeper) and the washing chore is one that should be completed in the shortest possible time. To add insult to injury I then had to hang up my pink load and quite obviously this was a poor washing sorter rather than someone who has sorted her clothing into color lots ie. pink.
I survived and they all quietly laughed behind their hands about my disaster and it will make good conversation for the 4.00 happy hour this evening.
We will concentrate on school work today so that we are reenergised for the Dream World onslaught.

permalink written by  michelle62 on May 22, 2007 from Surfers Paradise, Australia
from the travel blog: Travelling around Australia
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The Princess' Birthday

Goondiwindi, Australia

Well the day has eventually come. We stayed overnight at an oval (actually a concrete cricket pitch, heaps of dust, toilets and lots of Horse manure) at a place called Weengallon on our way to Goondiwindi. We woke early and wore our 'brats' party hats for breakfast and sang happy birthday. Presents were opened in the Master bedroom with all four of us squashed in. She received a lovely card and money (she cant wait to spend it) from Grandpa Bryn and Granny Sue, three great books from Gran, a Teddy Bear, CD Player, Personalised CD from Glenn and Michelle and a Simpsons Comic and Sponge Bobs Square Pants First Season DVD from Riley. Quite spoilt I would say. We went to Goondiwindi McDonalds for lunch ( her request) and she wanted a proper McDonalds birthday party. I asked the manager and she kindly set us up with a Quasi McDonalds Party with party games, party hats and helium filled balloons. So again we were sitting around the McDonalds table in party hats. And it continues. It is currently 3.00pm and we are now going to organise the evening party which will be in the truck at some truck stop out of Goondiwindi and again we will don the party hats. There are photos and I hope to get them on the site soon. Happy Birthday Caitlin. I forgot to mention that on the way to Weengallon we passed the biggest snake that I have ever seen across the road, I would say five feet long and as thick as my arm- it certainly scared me and I was much more tentative when I wandered across to the toilet after that.



permalink written by  michelle62 on May 17, 2007 from Goondiwindi, Australia
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Ingle

Inglewood, Australia

We are now surfing the net at the Inglewood Library, they have proved a great resource and while I type away Glenn reads to Caitlin, Caitlin reads to Glenn and Riley nags me for the internet so that he can use up some of my time at my expense. We have recovered from Goodiwindi by travelling a short distance and concentrating on school work. Caitlin has finished her course work for the week but Riley has a bit more to do as his work load is greater than Caitlins . He had a French lesson over the phone yesterday from a Public Phone Box with Road Trains constantly driving past - enough to say that he was saying Pardonne (spelling??) alot. We wont be going far from Inglewood today as we are going to take a leisurely pace to get to the Gold Coast. We will attempt the theme parks on Monday

Enough for now

Michelle

permalink written by  michelle62 on May 17, 2007 from Inglewood, Australia
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In the library

Saint George, Australia

We left Lightning Ridge and have now made away over the Queensland border heading for Goondawindi. This will be a long hot drive today approximately 5 hours and Glenn has to really concentrate with the driving as there is no fencing on the farms. The stock wander to the roads as do the emus and also huge Wedge Tail eagles swoop down to road kill carcasses. It makes for a interesting drive but I think Glenn more than any of us is really enjoying moving into new territory and covering areas where we have not been before. Tonight we will stay at Goondawindi and prepare ourselves for the big day.

permalink written by  michelle62 on May 16, 2007 from Saint George, Australia
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Lightning Ridge

Lightning Ridge, Australia

We arrived at Lightning Ridge yesterday and have stayed here for two nights. The home of the black opal which we have not actually found apart from the ones under the counters at all the galleries and shops. I thought we may have struck it rich but unfortunately not. There is a pool here and we have been doing lots of swimming. The pool guy was quite surprised we were swimming and he had to remove the creepy crawly but when we explained that we were from Ballarat and in fact this 'warm' weather as he described it was hot in comparison to what we were used to he understood. We just found another DVD which I didnt realise that we had that has Gayle (Caitlin's Distance Ed. teacher) reading books and showing the pictures. Caitlin has not stopped watching this and I am not sure how many times Glenn can cope with 'Green Eggs and Ham' - we shall see. She loves it and keeps telling me how beautiful her rings are as apart from the book the only other thing we can see are her fingers. Riley has been practicing his snorkeling in the pool for when we face the serious water and fish life up North. We seem to be getting into a nomadic routine - I could get used to this - but ask me in three months my enthusiasm may be waning.

permalink written by  michelle62 on May 14, 2007 from Lightning Ridge, Australia
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Outback

Pilliga, Australia

I didn’t quite finish at Coonabarabran as the Librarian was giving me the wind up. After a lovely break in the State Forest of 2 nights we headed to Coonabarabran. On the way we stopped at Siding Creek Observatory which was the home of the AAT (Anglo Australian Telescope) This is run by ANU and provides an insight into the Southern Sky for Astronomers who come from around the world. We were able to go up to the telescope and there are also a number of other telescopes there also. This was a good aside as Riley is studying Astronomy as part of his distance education.

We left Coonabarabran after updating the website, doing a load of washing and doing a big shop. We travelled from there to Pilliga which was about 60 km off on dirt, sandy, corrugated roads, a real challenge for the vehicle but it proved its worth. It took us a long time and many bumps to get there but once we were there we went straight to the Pub. Actually there wasn’t much else around and the Pub always has cool drinks and more importantly Toilets. We had a drink and asked some of the locals where the best place would be to camp for the night. They advised us that there was a hot bore Spring just back down the road with Toilets and it was possible to camp. It was a lovely spot and we set up camp there. It was crowded at the Spring, Saturday night it was obviously the place to be, and people had their tents, swags etc. and were cooking up dinner around the bath. We thought it was prudent not to impose ourselves at this stage but it did not stop some Road Train fellows who parked their trains near our vehicle and went in for a bath before hitting the hot dusty road again. I would imagine that this is a pleasant stop for them every trip.


permalink written by  michelle62 on May 13, 2007 from Pilliga, Australia
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Walgett

Walgett, Australia

When everyone left in the morning the family was able to have a hot bath on their own before breakfast it was really refreshing and most pleasant. And then it was off for more dirt driving to Walgett for Mothers Day. We arrived at Walgett for Mothers day lunch yesterday where we had a lovely lunch buffet with sweets and coffee. The sporting club put on a special lunch with with pink serviettes, pink balloons etc. I enjoyed it especially the free glass of champagne. I was totally pampered and we stayed in Walgett over night at the Roadside 'Rotary' Park - Rotary has certainly looked after his trip with lots of road side parks with toilets and cooking facilities. Only three more sleeps to Caitlins birthday and it cant come soon enough. She is counting the days and begging us for a Riley 'Early present opening' but we will not cave. Her choice of a dinner venue for her birthday is McDonalds which Glenn is really excited about as you can well imagine. Tonight we are off to Lightning Ridge where we hope to strike it rich and retire on the proceeds. Alas I think this is unlikely and we will just be eating cheese and tomato sandwiches for the rest of the six months.

Must go. I have added some photos for your benefit of the various places we have been.

Michelle

permalink written by  michelle62 on May 13, 2007 from Walgett, Australia
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On the Way

Coonabarabran, Australia

We have spent the last two nights out of Mobile telephone access in the Warrenbungle State Forest. It was beautiful, very similar to the Grampians as it is a Volcanic rock towering out of very flat land. The camping area had showers and toilets - really great and we went on bush walks and enjoyed the peaceful surrounds. The kangaroos were so brave they came up to us while were eating and made you feel really guilty. Obviously we can not feed them but their gorgeous eyes were pleading so someone must have been feeding them at some stage. One was so bold as to sit right in front of me and stare at my plate of food and then to put both his paws on my knees quietly begging me for food. We had a great time and Caitlin made a new friend Peta from Orange who just had a new baby sister.

Must away as the librarian is keen to close the library

Will update soon. - I need to go to the Laundramat - a housewifes work is never done!!!!


permalink written by  michelle62 on May 11, 2007 from Coonabarabran, Australia
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Western Plains

Dubbo, Australia

We arrived in Dubbo about 2.30pm yesterday after travelling from West Wyalong. We found a caravan park close to the city which allowed us to shower and refresh. I found the library late last night but ran out of time to update the blog. We had a nice evening in Dubbo and enjoyed vegetable soup for dinner. After a good nights sleep we packed up and headed for the Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo. We took our bikes but Glenn still doesnt have one so he hired a fairly daggy bike and we rode around the zoo twice. We managed to see the Hippotomus being fed and the frozen icypoles (combination of blood and milk) being given to the Lions. The monkeys kept us entertained for hours with their antics and it was difficult to see the difference between Caitlin and the monkey. We are off to Gilgandra tonight. We have been staying at caravan parks every three days so we can have a shower and charge up our computers, etc. The other nights we generally stay at road side sidings or truck passes. They prove very comfortable and generally have toilet facilities and are clean.

permalink written by  michelle62 on May 8, 2007 from Dubbo, Australia
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On the way

West Wyalong, Australia

We have just arrived in West Wyalong where we will camp for the night. We have travelled to Jerrilderie where there is a very strong prescence of Ned Kelly. We walked the streets of Jerilderie and admired the history notes at each point where Ned had been. This included the famous 'Jerilderie Letter' which he wrote and wanted to be published to let the people of the district know his cause but instead it was not published until 50 years after his demise. From Jerilderie we went to Naranderra where we had Sunday lunch in a local Aussie Pub which served Chinese food only. It was very nice and they provided for Vegetarians so were 'sweet' as Riley would say. Caitlin cons us into stopping at every playground so she is in heaven. We did our laundry at the Laundromat in Naranderra and met some seasoned 'grey nomads' (14 months on the road and at least another 12 months until they settled) who provided us with substantial tips regarding our journey. We camped over at a road stop with a very flash Winebago but I didnt think our vehicle faired too badly. On waking and having breakfast we started on our trip to West Wyalong but were way laid when Caitlin had an urgent toilet need. We pulled of the highway and entered a small town where she promptly didnt need to go anymore - I am not sure if this was before or after she saw the playground -hmm. I went to the toilet as I always do and when I got back in the Truck I heard the tyre hissing. I alerted Glenn and it turned out that one of the trusty rivets which had fixed much of our truck had in fact pierced the tube. Fortunately we were able to get this repaired and then another matter which had been concerning Glenn regarding Linkages??? (too mechanical for me) was sorted at the same time. So the 'phantom toilet need' had proved useful. We are getting into the home schooling - Caitlin wants to do it all the time but Riley takes a little bit more encouragement. I must away Regards to all MJ

permalink written by  michelle62 on May 6, 2007 from West Wyalong, Australia
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