Christmas Wishes - Atherton, Australia
Atherton, Australia
Greetings and Best Wishes to All
This year has been quite different for us.
In January Sharon flew up with Fiona to Cairns for Vanessa's 40th birthday - an all girl bash at Port Douglas. Much fun was had.
We took a test run in "Buster" to Canungra with friends to check on things before the next adventure.
February saw us counting down the days and preparing for our "Around Australia" tripin "Buster", our converted Toyota Coaster Motorhome. At the end of the month we met with the rest of the O'Shea clan for the annual family bash held this time at Carina Leagues Club.
Early in March we set off on our tour, Ken, Sharon, Missy and Jimmy all in together. We left Patrick in the care of our house sitters Jessica and Jake. Unfortunately Patrick passed on while we were on our journey.
The first night's stop was at Toogoolawah not too far away but we were away and soon were touring NSW, crisscrossing the state meeting new people and seeing places that we had not visited before. NSW was very dry when we were passing through it at this time. A stop at Chaffey Dam near Nundle saw record low water. A boat ramp that was being constructed at the time stopped 100m short of the water.
Over Easter, we stayed at Murrurundi so that we were off the roads whilst the mad drivers were around. Afterwards we travelled through the historic gold mining towns of Gulgong, Sofia and Hill End.We went on down to Cowra for a few days to meet up with Sharon's cousin Myrna and her husband Colin. Not long after in Yass we had a chance meeting with Nev and Enid Cole friends from scouting days. On then to Young where we booked in to get flu injections at a clinic there. At the end of April we joined thousands of other motorhomers at the 30th Anniversary rally at Bathhurst staying there for over a week.
Just after the rally was over we moved to Oberon in the high country where we just our first taste of cold weather. We even bought new warm wooly jackets there. From Oberon we travelled to Queanbeyan and meet up with Richard and Sue Hawthorne and spent a few days in their company moving on to Goulburn with them. Afterwards we went to the Southern Highlands of NSW meeting with cousin Roy and Seija Vaughan in Mittagong, even staying in their front yard.
We then motored down to the southern coast of NSW staying at Shellharbour and Huskisson enjoying summery weather before going south to the lovely town of Eden, the we left NSW and moved to Victoria and the summery weather disappeared.
The first town in Victoria we stayed at was the town of Mallacouta. We then motored through the Gippsland region for a couple of weeks and then went to Warrugul.
Here we enjoyed the hospitality of Neil and Nina Vaughan at their beautiful home. A family gathering of Vaughan was held so we got to meet just about all of Sharons Victorian cousins.
We even voted in the federal election in Warrugul. Leaving Warrugul we headed to the Great Ocean Road going by way of the ferry across the mouth of Port Phillip Bay. We saw the GOR between showers. Stayed at Lorne and Cape Otway and moved to Warrnambool.
We took Missy to the vet in Warrnambool as she was having seizures more often and she was given some medecines. We left Warrnambool and Portland and went into South Australia to stay at and vist Mt Gambier but although Missy had a couple of good days the seizures came back with a vengeance here and we had no option but to have her put to rest.
We did not stay any longer at Mt Gambier and moved along the coast staying different places. When we reached Victor Harbour it was a beautiful day and we visited Kristy and Andy there. The weather alas turned foul overnight and we were confined to the Caravan Park the next day and escaped north the day after bypassing Adelaide on the way.
The town of Gladstone called to us as we moved so as we once lived in Gladstone Qld we decided to visit. Nice little village.
"Buster" got a thorough service in Port Augusta before we headed north through Woomera and Coober Pedy to the Northern Territory where we went to Uluru then to Alice Springs to have the A/C seen to. The wrong part was sent and our stay there was longer than planned.
Onwards through the Red Centre, Mataranka Bitter Springs, Katherine and its Gorges and to Darwin where we had to stay a bit out of town. After Darwin we went to Kakadu and flew over Litchfield National Park. After passing through the very scenic Victoria River area we at last arrived in Western Australia. Our first nights stop was at the beautiful Lake Argyle Resort. From there we went to Kununurra and headed south travelling long distance before reaching Broome which didn't seem to like travellers of our type so we moved on to Karratha and Point Samson which did. We saw lots of wildflowers here and further on.
We stayed at Exmouth and Coral Bay, stayed a week at Carnarvon and found another place called Gladstone which is only a locality name, then down at Denham to drive to Monkey Mia to see the dolphins being fed there.We called into the Principality of Hutt River and had an audience with Prince Leonard and bought T Shirts from him.
We then went to Geraldton and then to Port Denison to see Karen and David who was MC at Fiona and Ritchies wedding. Some mail was being forwarded to us there but Auspost was late so we did a trip out to Eneabba and back to Port Denison and then to Mullewa to see the Wreath flowers.
We then went on to visit the wheat belt and down to the south west corner up to Wave Rock and across to Perth and Fremantle before heading to Kalgoorlie.
After Kalgoorlie we headed east and crossed the Nullabor Plains and arrived back at Port Augusta via the Eyre Peninsula. We arrived back in Victoria at Casterton after staying at Burra and Keith on the way. We went onto Bendigo to get a tyre replaced and ended up staying a few nights before going onto Echuca on the Murray River. A paddle steamer cruise was the order of the day here and we did one that combined the cruise and lunch.
On our way to Bright the following day we saw a lot of hot rods and similar cars on the road. They were having their annual Hot Rod Run. We couldn't stay there it was packed solid.
After Bright we headed north stopping a various places before going to Port Macquarie to get new pads on the discs at front as they had worn out. We also had to stop at Lismore to get the front suspension and the steering seen to. We were soon back in Qld and headed over to stay at Esk where Ann and Dennis Payne came over for a visit. We enjoyed our lunch down at the pub.
We were now heading to Kingaroy and as we passed through Tooogoolawah we had completed a circuit of Australia. At Kingaroy we met up once again with Richard and Sue and also Bob Gill. Jim and Sandra Lavery and Marg and Rob Williams as did Glen and Kay Lee also made the trip to Kingaroy to see us. Fiona and Ritchie brought out our mail before the left on their overseas White Christmas trip. We had dinner with Pat and Kevin Doncaster the following Monday night. Neil also came as did house sitters Jess and Jake the next weekend.
We then drove to cairns and stayed with Vanessa and Scott and the girls for a week giving Alice her birthday presents early.
We are currently house and pet sitting at Atherton and will be until mid January after which we will return to Cairns and then make a slow journey home. Vanessa, Scott, Alice and Emma will be with us for Christmas.
We wish everyone all the very best for Christmas and the coming year.
Love
Sharon and Ken