26/1/18 River revelation

 Yes back again , been a little preoccupied lately , transferring photo's to a hard drive - hard to believe that 465gb of 500gb of storage in my laptop has been occupied by photo's - who'd have thought !!
 Back to touring , we headed out on a loop from Grafton following the Mann & Clarence Rivers . Following the Gwydir Hwy toward Glen Innes , we arrived at Jackadgery - just a locality , but has a spectacular view over the Mann River - the bridge is nearly 350m long and is well above the river - views are spectacular .

 The road follows the river for about 10klms before leaving to climb upwards toward Glen Innes , we left it at the turn off to Calgai - a cattle station/locality .
  As it was Australia Day weekend , we expected it to be a bit busy , but were blown away by all the people camping by the river at Calgai Bridge - I managed to get some photo's with minimal people . It's also part of the Mann River , and there's plenty of water flowing down .

 The countryside is really lush and green at the moment - something that is surprising given the time of year and all the heat ! The road wound around the hills beside the river - a very pleasant drive !!

  Further down we came to Broadwater Bridge reserve - another free camp filled with more people & vans & camper trailers . It's a very pretty stretch of river .

  It was about 11am and 30 degrees , there were groups of people just sitting in the river just chilling out .

  The road left the river for a while , winding it's way through the rolling foothills - beautiful !!

  Further down the road we crossed the Clarence River , but weren't impressed with it there - very rocky & weedy and also a bit dirty . We continued on to Newbolds Lookout for lunch - it's perched up above the river and gave great views between the trees .

 Taking the turn to Lilydale , we found the crossing over the Clarence and also another free camp with another dozen vans etc .
  There was a road going to Clarence Gorge , now we'd heard / read about the gorge years ago and it was on our to do list , but it was getting later in the day , but we headed off anyway . Here's another view of the river .



 We stopped to give way to a man on a horse near a bridge and ended up chatting to the 74 year old property owner for about 10 mins before continuing on .
A dusty gravelly road greeted us and the last 15 klms took us 40 mins . When we got to the gate , we could see caravans , camper trailers & tents all along the river bank as far as we could see , it reminded me of Wombeyan Caves Rd down to Wollondilly River , but not quite as winding , just rough .
  Arriving at the entrance we found a sign - call the owner on Ch1 UHF before proceeding , which we did - he said to see them at the homestead , so we continued on . Around every corner the bends in the river revealed more capers & tents till we got to the homestead and introduced ourselves . They let us go down to the river for a swim , we tossed up about putting the kayak in , but time was against us , so a swim would suffice today . The gorge section isn't far up the river from here , so that will be another day , the weather was starting to look stormy , so after the swim we headed off again . This was our swimming spot , freshwater turtles were swimming around and poking their noses out of the water 3m from us !! There were lots of tiny fish as well - you can fish here , but it is catch and release only !!

 Many people had kayaks, canoes & tinnies , I'm not sure how many people have wrecked their vans going here or back home from here , but I'm thinking there's a few !!!
  We got back to Grafton just as the storm was about to hit , we managed to get a swim in as well . All in all , it was a great day !!
That's it for today , here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1O7da0OWRlKVgd9v5s4ORkX1A9GrDbuAp&usp=sharing

24/1/18 Green & Blue

 We've made our way out of Queensland taking the Mt Lindsay Hwy , up & around Mt Lindsay .

  A spectacular drive up through the rainforest and over the range to get back into NSW and down to Kyogle .
 We stayed for a few days at the showground , found a lookout over town and went for a drive out along the Richmond River .

 The countryside is lush and green , totally unexpected for this time of year when it's normally burnt off & brown .

  Another spot we hadn't been to up here is Toonumbar Dam , time to remedy that one . It's about 40klms out of town in amongst rolling hills , state forests & national park , not a large dam in the scheme of things , being narrower than most and not as long . We drove out to Bells Bay Camp Ground , which is looked after by the fishing club , they've also put in a boat ramp making it easy for us to get onto the water .

 Like normal , we should have been out earlier , the temperature was getting up , but it was nice on the water .

 We didn't have it all to ourselves , there was another canoe out and a couple of tinnies with fishermen  trying their luck .

 A couple of the biggest Sea Eagles we've seen , flew in and perched on a dead tree , so we floated over quietly to see how close we could get - about 30m before they flew over to another tree .

 A bit further down was an Azure Kingfisher , beautiful !!

 Here's a few more shots , no shortage of water lillies and beautiful tall straight gum trees .

  Heading back to the boat ramp for a well earned swim in water that was much warmer than expected , it was still cooling us down though .  After cleaning everything we went up to the campground for some lunch before driving another road back to Kyogle .
  This is from the dam wall .

 Leaving Kyogle , we went to Alstonville Showgrounds for 3 nights , then back to Lismore Showgrounds for another 3 nights , then 4 down on Garry's block . Whilst in Alstonville we caught up with Garry & Gail Burley who lived in Moss Vale till about 27 years ago !! They did get quite a surprise !!
 Here's sunset at Alstonville .

     Some small jobs taken care of on the van while we were at Lismore , and an enjoyable afternoon at Garry & Kelly's place . The drone got another fly , this is the view toward Lismore from Goonellabah .

  A night in Casino to recharge things before heading south to an old school friend's place near Grafton for a few days .  Another surprising evening , watching flying foxes stream out to their evening feeding grounds , there were thousands of them - see for yourself .

The next 2 days were filled with chatter , some driving around the coast and more chatter , some swimming & snorkelling , and just sitting around in rock pools keeping cool , and enjoying their company .
 This is at Brooms Head .

 We clambered over these rocks and found a nice pool to relax in and snorkel around .

 Looking back south toward the village of Brooms Head .

 This is South of Brooms Head village .

 Next day we headed off early , packed lunch and headed toward Iluka . First stop was at Woody Head , north of Iluka . The strong seas recently certainly eroded the beach and surrounding dunes , unfortunately there were a lot of trees washed into the ocean and left to bleach in the sun , but that's what mother nature does for you .

 Further around this bay was another beautiful beach and a great rocky point for us to swim and snorkel in . There were many fish - whiting , bream and many others , yellow & black striped , neon blue & green . There was a school of hundreds of small fish that would swim in front and around me and had me mesmerised - I swam through them and followed them around for several minutes .
 There's plenty of well weathered rocks around the point , here's some of them .

 After cooling down it was time for lunch , then a drive into Iluka for a milkshake , tea & coffee . Then we had a look around Iluka & Goodwood Island . The Clarence River flows out to see here between Yamba & Iluka and has been earmarked for a shipping port to be developed . The works on the Pacific Highway keep rolling along with many new sections getting opened up since we were here last .
       Back home we went , after a quick shower I did some aerial shots with the drone for Deb & Jeff , then some dinner and a photo show for Deb & Jeff to see some of WA .
 They even had another visitor , a leaf tailed gecko - it's about 150mm long - apologies for the photo , it was dark and I only had the phone to take it with .

   That's it , up to date , here's a map link :-https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WuFUvuzyK3jOAvf9Px1qtwNq2LWS5o9O&usp=sharing

2018 here we come

 Over Christmas we had Emma & Mike come for a visit , of course Pepper came as well , there were several trips up to Brisbane airport & back - for the week ( which we thought was going to be reasonably quiet ) we travelled over 900 klms !! There were the visits to Dave & Deb's ( Mike's parents ) , Deb's birthday party and the odd sight seeing trips .
  One of those was to Mt Tambourine in the Gold Coast hinterland , first stop was Cedar Creek Falls - a very popular swimming spot - shame we didn't know that before hand - here's a couple of photo's .

 As we had Pepper with us we couldn't take her for walks with us in the National Park , so Lyn dog sat while we were gone .
 Next was up to the top of the mountain and Curtis Falls - and another walk through some rainforest down to the falls .

  After checking a few properties down nearer the coast , it was back to Canungra for a swim for Pepper , then off to Dave & Deb's for a Bbq - a surprise for Deb as she wasn't expecting her kids to arrive for Christmas .
 Christmas day arrived and we headed to Mike's sister's for the day , fortunately for us all they had a swimming pool !! After a full day we headed home to Beaudesert and arrived just before a storm hit - one of quite a few in the coming days . We survived the onslaught of wind & rain with only some wet sheets on the bed in the tent - the windows were down on the tent .
  Next day was spent drying things out and catching up on what's been happening in the west .
Back to Dave & Deb's for the birthday party , & here we are .

 Next day it was back to Brisbane airport so Mike could fly back home for work , we expected lot's of traffic , but got nearly none , making it to the airport & back in 2 hours !!

  We've had a selection of sunsets , some memorable and others quite the opposite , here's some of them .

  Unsettled weather seemed to be on the cards for us with storms rushing through several afternoons . Where we are in the show ground there's a small water course that filled up a few times , the next 2 photos were taken on separate days .





 The water flows down through here , then through the golf course , doing quite some damage to the paths & tracks , and closing the tenth hole for several days afterwards . Fortunately the golf club has a practice fairway that they can use to replace it . I have been playing most Saturdays with some success , 2 games I've had 38 points , not so lucky on the monthly medal stroke round however .
  The weather has been fairly hot , with most days over 30 . We managed to find a creek to cool off in most days -
 In Coomera River near Canungra

 Running Creek is another spot we drove to , it's south of Beaudesert and near the Lions Road , which take you to Kyogle in NSW . Pepper got in on the action as well .

 There's a camp ground here as well , it slopes quite a bit so it could be hard to level up most vans , and only has a small toilet block .
  The weather came in over the ridge so we headed for home before it started to rain .

 Here's the creek at the bottom of the hill .

 Did I say rain , it was torrential and a lot of wind as well as lightning & thunder - we were going 40 klms/hr , windscreen wipers going flat out , water running over the Mt Lindsay Hwy , in some spots it was nearly 300mm deep , cars were pulled over everywhere but we kept going because you can become a target parked on the side of the road !!

  We drove back to Brisbane the next day to get Emma & Pepper back on the plane to Perth , it certainly was good to see her again . She gave us a cheese board for christmas that she burnt in the map of Australia and - Where To Next - quite applicable to us !!! 

 We will bid farewell to Queensland for a while tomorrow , slowly making our way south again catching up with family & friends , and with some touring mixed in as well . 

 Cheers & thanks to everyone that made 2017 the year it was , hopefully you've enjoyed reading about it as much as we enjoyed doing it !!