Having left Eromanga and prior to reaching Birdsville we had been strongly advised to make a short diversion – a pit stop at the Betoota Hotel. Every Aussie has heard of Slim Dusty’s famous “Pub With No Beer” – Betoota is, in effect, a pub with no town. Betoota is the Betoota Hotel. Our host at the FoxTrap Hotel back in Cooladdi had insisted we stop in and see “Robbo”, the owner of the Betoota Hotel; “He’s a great character, offers free camping, $5 cold beers and can fix anything that breaks down”, we were assured. Hoping not to test his skills in the latter category we decided that his pub’s interesting history and affordable charms still made for a worthwhile stopover. His WikiCamps reviews were sensational and having now spent a night there we can absolutely see why – a great host, hilarious storyteller, and knowledgable on all things “outback”. Our advice ( if you’re coming to these parts ) ? A stopover at the Betoota Hotel is not to be missed !
Recent travels.Lowering tire pressures for the gravel road to Betoota.Betoota Hotel.Lois at the bar of the Betoota Hotel with the proprietor, “Robbo”.Mid way between Windorah and Birdsville lies Betoota. A classic old Holden car on the right and a ( mock ) emergency services rescue boat on the left ( almost never any water nearby ! ).
According to some, “You haven’t done the outback until you’ve been to Birdsville”. Or perhaps that was just a line created by the owners of the town’s eponymously named hotel – it being probably THE most recognized pub in the country, and, quite honestly, a major outback attraction in its own right. However desperate ( or not ) your desire to reach Birdsville, it draws travellers from far and wide, and, for a variety of reasons, is just one of those places most Australians ( and some international visitors ) have on their bucket list – it certainly was on ours.
A big welcome sign on arrival in Birdsville says “You’ve Made It !” ( almost suggests that many don’t ! ).Birdsville is normally a sleepy place but the population explodes during the Birdsville horse races and the Big Red Bash.Parked up, Birdsville Hotel, Birdsville.Sunset, camping at Birdsville.
Not an easy place to get to and far from everything, if you are not flying in ( and most don’t ), you’re coming up the Birdsville Track from the south, down the Eyre Development Road from the north, or – as we were – on the Birdsville Development Road from the east. From Betoota it was an easy two hour drive into Birdsville leaving us most of the day to explore the town – a town of 80 people ( which swells to 7,000 during the races ) does not take long to explore so we tacked on a trip out to Big Red ( the massive sand dune on the edge of the Simpson Desert and venue of Birdsville’s famous Big Red Bash). No, we did NOT take a run at Big Red in the Sprinter ( we know its limitations ), a walk to the top being more than enough and itself a struggle in 38 degree heat.
View from the top of Big Red sand dune, Birdsville.
Central to the Birdsville experience is a pint or two at the pub – not difficult when it’s air conditioned inside and 38 degrees outside ! There is a ton of history there, usually a caste of interesting locals and at all times a throng of curious travellers passing though like us. Not all make the long drive, we discovered – parked just across the street from the pub’s front door was a small airplane that had just dropped off a dozen or so revellers; they were on some type of outback plane-based pub crawl it seemed. A couple of quick pints, a slew of selfies and they were off to another outback locale. No breathalyzer to worry about at least !
Came a long way for this drink !!!!!!Plane at Birdsville airport taking off with a group that were doing an outback pub tour.Did I say hot ? I meant, HOT !!! While it “only” touched the high 30’s outside in late September, inside the van was a blistering 45 degrees having been left in the sun while we went for a drink.
It being almost the end of season there were not as many visitors in town as we’d expected – it was, in fact, rather quiet. We’d find things much the same in other communities as we meandered north ( notable was the fact that what traffic we did see was all coming south with the imminent arrival of the wet season further north ). Leaving Birdsville we continued north, ultimately to Cloncurry over the next few days, and the scenery was little changed – flat, dry, often stoney desert for as far as the eye could see. And hot – always hot. It could have been worse – a month or two from now and the occasionally “uncomfortable” heat would become constantly “unbearable” heat – and stifling humidity. Still, we enjoyed some excellent remote camp spots and surprising attractions in the area’s smaller communities – a great thermal pool in Bedourie and some wonderful repartee with locals and a couple of South American bar tenders in Bedourie’s famed Royal Hotel. Lest you be thinking our travels have morphed into one big pub crawl, they haven’t ( though there are more pubs ahead ) – you simply don’t pass through these parts without experiencing their pubs, quite often camping at them, and always an integral part of the outback’s charm !
Someone started a “shoe tree” in the middle of the desert. It’s grown !Seat and table, sitting in the middle of the desert, north of Birdsville. Some wag placed these here as a joke many years ago. It’s just an odd sight in the middle of nowhere ! Stopped for a cup of tea there.Carcory ruins, north of Birdsville. All that survives of an original old homestead..The artesian spa in Bedourie was scalding hot .Lois was a bit smarter and stayed cool in the regular pool !Approaching Boulia one crosses the Tropic of Capricorn. Sadly we did not get to see the famous Min Min lights during our stay.
Just as we’d found in South Australia, and Western Australia, the whole outback pub/hospitality industry in Queensland heavily depends on young foreign workers, locally (and colloquially) referred to as “backpackers”. These days they come from every corner of the globe and all seem to revel in the experience. It certainly adds an interesting international element to the outback experience.
Lois in the Royal Hotel, Bedourie. Valerie, from Peru and Michelle, from Ecuador behind the bar adding a little international touch to this outback pub.
While Winton was our next major port of call, tiny McKinlay definitely warranted a stopover first for it was here that the mythical “Walkabout Creek Pub” ( of “Crocodile Dundee” fame ) is located. It’s a huge draw with lots of movie paraphernalia still visible, most notable Wally’s hunting truck which, incredibly, still runs ! We shared a few drinks with the owner and other customers and “got the skinny” on different aspects of the movie. Hard to believe it has been almost 40 years since that classic movie first hit the cinemas.
“The Walkabout Creek Hotel”.The bar – Walkabout Creek Hotel. Mick Dundee eternally holding up one end of the bar, crocodile in one arm and a cold one in the other !Remember this one ? Wally’s original truck from “Crocodile Dundee”.
Will leave readers this week with a profound thought on pubs from the bar at the Walkabout Creek:
There are times on any journey when things don’t go quite as planned right from the get-go. Sadly, such occasions often portend further complications as the trip unfolds – our return to Brisbane was just such an experience. Or is it the “rule of three’s” – the old adage that misfortune usually comes in threes ? We’d recently had Covid, we had then been forced out of our home by fires – was there one more to come ( hopefully not as dramatic at least )? It seemed there was just a bit more drama in store before we could drive out of Brisbane in our van, picking up where we left off 7 weeks ago, heading to historic Birdsville.
After a minor mishap in Brisbane we were soon back on the road and heading for the “Outback”. Destination Birdsville.
Our plane was late out of Kelowna, which led to a very tight ( potential ) connection out of Vancouver. In fact the flight out of Vancouver was itself 40 mins late. No chance to pick up that time en route to Sydney since the flight was turbulent and the captain changed the route putting us even further behind. Need not have worried as it turned out – the onward flight to Brisbane was canceled anyway and the best alternate flight to our scheduled 10.00 am departure was one at 4pm. Yikes! Exhausted already after 18 hours travel and now another 6 hours sitting around at the airport ? Alas, if only a delayed flight was to be the extent of our struggles.
Appeared to be just one Virgin flight cancelled that day……..OURS !!
The Brisbane flight at least took off close to the scheduled time and we Uber’d from Brisbane airport to our van which was in storage nearby. Dark already as we pulled in, our general excitement soon gave way to despair – the van could not be opened. It appeared that, after almost 7 weeks in storage the battery was so flat it could not even generate enough power to open the electric door locks on the van. We used a manual workaround to actually open the doors so at least we could get in, and, if needed, lay down and get some much needed sleep. First thought was to call the RACQ ( the Queensland equivalent of our CAA ) who ( supposedly ) offered a reciprocal jump start service. Not so fast – according the RACQ, such service is only afforded to Australian registered vehicles. Ours is from Canada – no dice, she claimed. We opted to sleep in the van overnight and try for a jump in the am, being simply too exhausted to further argue the point.
At first sight everything appeared OK with the van. Then we tried to open the doors……Unable to open the doors with the electronic fob, I happened to recall that there was a way to separate the actual “key” from the fob and do it manually. That at least got us inside and a bed for the night.Key – old style !
Fortunately, first thing in the am we could avail ourselves of the services of nearby auto-electrician, Carl Mackey. Carl’s shop was right across the street and he quickly identified a totally fried battery which was able to be replaced so we were soon on our way. Seems, rather miraculously ( so far anyway ) that anytime we’ve had major auto drama there’s been a guardian angel hovering nearby ( may it be forever thus !! ).
Prior to calling the auto electrician, our nephew in law, Luke ( who arrived with coffee ! ) gave it a good college try with jump starting.Fortunately an experienced auto electrician was ( literally ) across the street.
Van now operational, an overnight visit with our niece, Shannon and her family in Wynnum (Brisbane) gave us time to get the rig road-ready and for us to load up on supplies for the long journey west that lay ahead. Not, however, before a short detour north to the Sunshine Coast Camping and RV expo where we both explored the exhibits and made the personal acquaintance of veteran Aussie Overlander, Kym Bolton. Kym owns Australian Expedition Vehicles ( aav4x4.com.au ) and has overlanded much of the globe, most recently returning from 4 months in Japan with his 4×4 Fuso. He was a fount of information on matters relating to upcoming overland trips we hope to complete after Australia – his company makes an awfully impressive overland rig, too !
Iconic Wynnum Pier.Doing a little unwinding by the beach in Wynnum. ( Brisbane ).Lois, chatting with Kim Bolton of Australian Adventure Vehicles.
Beyond our chat with Kym it was interesting to contrast what’s popular in the RV/camping/4×4 space in Australia vs what one sees in the US/Canada where we have attended many such overland-style shows. One striking observation is that the traditional caravan ( “trailer” to North Americans ) still reigns supreme here, albeit very heavily beefed up for SERIOUS outback travel. We continue to be just blown away by how many we see. Vans, built or customized for off-road travel ( such as ours ), seem far less common although they are growing in popularity. Fifth Wheels are all but non- existent here whereas they are a dime a dozen in the US/Canada. A change we have noticed in the last 10 years in Oz is the re-emergence of traditional full-sized US trucks here ( RAMS are everywhere, Silverado’s quite common and Ford F150’s starting to appear). No threat yet, though, to a market still absolutely dominated by Toyota Hilux’s, Landcruisers and Ford Rangers !
Everything recreational was on display – boats, campers, trailers, vans, and accessories.
Now it was time to turn directly west, with about 1600kms between us and historic Birdsville, our next major destination. Over the next week the route took us from the Sunshine Coast ( Moolooloobah ) out through the Glass House Mountains and over the Great Dividing Range through the Darling Downs, Western Downs and then into what officially becomes the Queensland “Outback”. It was a wonderful drive through typical Queensland towns like Kilcoy, Blackbutt ( both of which have legendary bakeries ), Dalby ( hometown of Margot Robbie – yes, THE Margot Robbie, she of “Barbie” fame ), Roma and Charleville. Many of these places offered scenic diversions and/or historical points of interest, along with excellent municipal “bush” camping options; we must say that Queensland really does this exceptionally well – our personal camping experiences here vindicating everything we’d heard about in advance.
Kilcoy had a very popular little bakery – one of the pure delights or travelling rural Australia is finding these little local treasures.A long line up outside the Blackbutt Bakery, drawing crowds for over 110 years. The sausage rolls were the best we’d ever tasted. Ever !!!!!Australia’s iconic Kookaburra.The town of Chinchilla – famous for, among other things, the “Big Melon”. Well, a slice of melon at least !Approaching Roma. Long straight roads and massive coal trains.Roma has an interesting collection of eclectic outdoor metal art.Roma and nearby towns are famous for their “bottle” trees.And the “outback” begins !The camping in Charleville was indeed dusty – but hey, it was level and there was lots of room !Some local Charleville humor !Charleville’s most historic landmark, the Hotel Corones.Charleville was the location for a major US Air Force base during WW2. An excellent local museum recounts exactly what life was life here at that time.In case you wondered “Why Charleville ?”
From Charleville ( practically speaking the last town of any size heading west ), the road, while still sealed, narrows considerably, at times being just one lane wide necessitating half the van off the bitumen when passing any oncoming vehicle. There was now a substantial reduction in road traffic and the towns ( settlements ) grew correspondingly smaller. Cooladdi, and Eromanga made for some interesting visits with overnight stops, the Natural History Museum in Eromanga being especially noteworthy. Who’d have known that giant dinosaurs once roamed these parts ?
We’d been driving for days but Birdsville was still a long way away.Cooladdi, considered Australia’s smallest town ( population 3 ). Like so many places an old rail siding is all that remains of what was once a thriving town. View from Baldy Top Lookout near Quilpie. The surroundings ( apart from this hill ) are as flat as the eye can see.Eromanga has an amazing Natural History Museum showcasing the extraordinary collection of dinosaur fossils that have been recovered in the area. Millions of years ago this part of Australia was a gigantic inland sea.
Next week we continue our journey- destination, Birdsville !
Seems like yesterday that we touched down here in Kelowna, and yet, here we are already preparing to blast off back to Australia. In reality we’ve been back almost 7 weeks – longer than we had anticipated but there were a few, er, shall we say, unexpected “curve balls” put in our path. Expecting simply to come back and have a relaxing month with our children, friends, and of course our adorable new granddaughter, things didn’t go quite exactly as planned.
Grandma and Hadley. Seemed this was her favourite resting place !Grandpa and baby.Mum and baby.
Two days after arriving I came down with Covid ( a mild dose ) and two days after that Lois got it from me ( she unfortunately being sicker, for longer ). Needless to say that eliminated any further immediate one on one time with our new baby – with isolation, followed by masking (after the RAT tests showed negative ) we lost about 2 weeks all told. Fine, we thought – having successfully dodged it for 3 years while half the world had gotten it we knew it would come our way sooner or later and at least we had it in the comfort of our own home. Well, almost all of it while at home. Lois was still in the final days of testing negative when another calamity struck – we were caught up in the Kelowna fires and evacuated from our house for a week ! Did someone break a mirror ? Fortunately our home ( and most others in Kelowna ) survived the fire scare but it was a frightening disruption we certainly did not need. Our thoughts were very much with those that lost homes and of course, our eternal thanks to our amazing firefighters ! A special shoutout to the friends and family that took us in for the evacuation days ( Sue, Mark, and Jackie – thank you ! ) – thankfully we emerged unscathed. Nothing like an evacuation order at 10.30 pm to throw your erstwhile tranquil life into complete chaos !
The dreaded RAT test. No one wants to see two lines !Between the houses in the foreground and the mountains in the background is Okanagan Lake, probably 2kms wide at that point. The fires, which started in West Kelowna ( across the lake ) were so strong that burning embers crossed the lake and started multiple fires on the Kelowna side ( near us ). Here, our neighbours observing the fire – a few hours later we would all be evacuated.National newspaper headline showing the Kelowna fires. They came frighteningly close to our own home.
With our precious baby time cut short we made the obvious decision to extend our stay and have enjoyed every minute. Freed of the shackles of Covid infections, not only could we enjoy every minute of grandparent time but we were also free to join family and old friends/colleagues and enjoy our Okanagan summer – even if it was rather smokey from the residual effects of the fires. We’ll miss our little Hadley greatly but have sworn that future trips home will be more frequent, even if a bit shorter in duration.
Managed to get out on the lake with my old boss, Mike. A little smoke still evident in the background.While doing some shopping in Kelowna we noticed this very impressive German overland rig, making us a little homesick for ours. It’s just an accepted fact among overlanders that the Germans almost always have the coolest rigs !
There’s been no travel here in Canada to speak of but we are truly excited to be getting back in our rig and to exploring the remaining parts of Australia which we expect will take us well into 2024. Western Queensland, the NSW coast, some detours into western NSW and on to the many parts of Victoria we’ve not yet seen, before travelling to Tasmania in the New Year should fill out our itinerary nicely.
It was with very mixed emotions that we got ready to board the flight to Vancouver and then on to Brisbane. Leaving had never been this hard before. It would, ultimately, be a very long flight to Brisbane.Could not swing a direct flight back to Brisbane, but instead had to go the long way around via Sydney.
Farewelling my brother in Dicky Beach it was an easy 1 hour drive to Brisbane. It’s a place we have always enjoyed visiting and we had ample tasks to occupy our time while we waited a week for our flight back to Canada to spend a month with our kids and friends there. There would be a few sights in Brisbane, a bit of vehicle maintenance, the need to seek a vehicle storage solution while we were away and, finally, a wonderful opportunity to catch up with nieces, nephews, a cousin and one of my oldest childhood friends.
We bid farewell to Tim and Maree and left for Brisbane. Wonderful stay, guys, thank you !Brisbane – our first big city in quite a while.
Vehicle first. Our regular readers may remember the big jolt when we hit a thick tree root on the very last few kilometres of the Cape York track. It was enough to shake our camera and we really felt it in the van.
The Cape York “bump” that damaged our right front tie rod. It needed to be replaced.
No obvious damage at the time but, later, in Rockhampton during a routine tire rotation, the technician noticed the front wheel which took the impact had a little bit of “play” in it. Very driveable, he assured us, but, based on his further inspection, said it was likely a fractured nylon piece in the tie-rod and the tie rod would need to be replaced. The Mercedes dealer in Rockhampton had the part and, while he confirmed it was almost certainly the cause of the issue, lamented that they could not do the job for two weeks ( not our first such service challenge on this trip ). We would have to do it when we got to Brisbane and had more time.
Slight “play” in the front wheel as a result of the Cape York knock.
A good thing as it turned out. A local European parts specialist here in Brisbane supplied the exact same ( German-made ) part, directed us to a specialist suspension shop for the install and finally over to Bob Jane Tires for the wheel alignment. All wrapped up in the course of a half day’s running around, with great service from all involved and at a fraction of the cost ( and delay ) we would have experienced at Mercedes Benz in Rockhampton. Nice to have it all sorted out.
The new tie rod.Installed quickly and reasonably by the good folks at Pedders.
Now on to family. My niece, Shannon ( and her family ) and nephew, Caleb ( and his ) both live in Brisbane – both have moved since we last saw them and both have had beautiful additions to their young families. On the few occasions we do pass through Brisbane we usually have little time for any meaningful visits so it was wonderful to spend a couple of relaxing days with both, to get to know their newest young ones and catch up on the goings-on in their worlds. Likewise with my long-time friend, Tim ( and his wife Ros ). For once we had time to do more then just catch up for a quick coffee or beer as we blew through town. Great to reminisce and also do a little exploring together around some of the parts of Brisbane we’d not seen before.
Lois with some of the kids – intrigued by our “house” !Lois, going over the merits of the Sprinter with Shannon’s neighbours. One already owned a Ford Transit van and the other was about to buy a new van and do a self build. Lots of questions…!My nephew Caleb, wife Jess and their delightful family. We needed practice with babies so the visit with them was helpful in more ways than one !Parked up at my friend, Tim’s. Our first visit to their beautiful home in Brisbane.My cousin Carol, whose husband Lee has done a three volume history on the “Gunn” genealogy. Seems our roots are inextricably linked to Norse Vikings ( centuries prior to out more recent Scottish heritage ). She kindly supplied me a set – thanks Carol !Makes for fascinating reading ( well, at least if you are a Gunn ) !
One last task while in town was to find secure storage for the vehicle while we would be away. After some crazy quotes from a few places we managed to find a good option in a gated commercial facility not too far from Brisbane airport. Pleased with that and now able to travel with some additional peace of mind ( a condition of our Carnet – the vehicle temporary import permit – was that the vehicle be secured, not on a public street, and not be driven by anyone else while we were out of the country ). Check, check and check !
View of Brisbane from Mt Coot Tha. We travelled there with Tim.
With our daughter’s delivery date known ( she was going to be induced ) we could now schedule our planned departure so as to ( hopefully ) coincide as closely as possible with the expected delivery. Vehicle dropped at the storage centre and bags packed we Uber’d to Brisbane airport for the 13 hour flight to Vancouver and then on to Kelowna.
AC36 was our flight home. Enjoyed 5 movies ( since I didn’t sleep a wink ) for the 13 hour trip…!We were on standby for this particular Air Canada flight………..and we were very grateful to Angela at check-in for making it happen. A 100% full flight and she got us the last two seats. We were seated miles apart on the plane but “beggars can’t be choosers” ( as they say ) and we were just ecstatic to make it. Got home to see our daughter both before and after the delivery. Who could ask for more ?The world seems so small when you see it on the seat display.Timing is everything and the gods really smiled on us. We arrived home in Kelowna at 10.00 am August 5th and saw our daughter, Jackie, in the hospital as soon as we got off the plane. She delivered beautiful, healthy, baby Hadley just before 5pm the same day.Our beautiful bundle of joy, just a few hours old……And, dressed up to leave hospital, Hadley Charlotte Van Vliet, ready to be doted on !!!
So with all that excitement and lots of eagerly anticipated baby-time coming up in the next few weeks, we’ll take a summer “pause” on the OneEndlessRoad blog and get back at it just before returning to Brisbane in September.
To all our regular readers, thanks for tagging along with us, and to all our local friends and family, we look forward to catching up while we are back !
Popular Hervey Bay is literally just a hop, skip and jump from Woodgate – it’s always been a popular draw, especially for sun-seeking retirees, and remains as busy as ever. This time, for us anyway, it represented the perfect jumping off point for a whale-watching trip to magnificent Fraser Island that Lois had planned for my birthday ( thanks Lo ! ).
Enjoying coffee and a shake at Enzo’s, on the beachfront,Hervey Bay.Downtown Hervey Bay.
The world’s largest pure sand island, Fraser ( or K’gari as it’s now called ) is accessible only to high clearance, high/low range 4×4’s and while our rig technically met all those requirements, we were strongly advised that it was too long and possibly too heavy to properly navigate the soft sand and very narrow, rutted, tracks that cross the island. We’d been extremely lucky on the Gibb and Cape York tracks so decided that an ounce of “prevention” might best thousands of dollars of possible “cure” in the event an on-island extraction ( as they are known ! ) was needed should we get stuck.
Map of the area around Hervey Bay.
Turns out that was probably one of our smartest decisions – the next day we took a full day “Whale watching/Remote Fraser Island” tour that gave us not just a great taste of the island ( and a more remote, less-travelled section of it, no less ) but an absolutely fantastic whale watching experience. Having done them before and only ever seen dorsal fins at a distance and tell-tale “blows” from afar, our expectations were, shall we say, “managed”. Fraser Island was the draw, the whale watching would just be a bonus we thought. The island was certainly impressive in its own right ( we can see why people love going ) but the whale watching just blew our expectations away. Best birthday gift ever ! I’ll let the following pictures/videos tell the story. As people who normally avoid tours like the plague we are pretty discerning when we do them, yet we both felt this experience was absolutely 5 star ( +++ !). Thrilled we did it and, (having seen the sand tracks), were happy to have left our rig behind for the day !
West coast of Fraser Island from the sea.View of Fraser Island from atop the sand dunes.The tour gave us plenty of time to climb the dunes, and…………paddle in the creeks along the coast.Happened to just be a perfect day weather- wise.The view inland to Fraser Island.A couple of 4×4’s using the few hours available ( between tides ) to drives along the thin strip of beach.. mess up the times and you ( quite literally ) run out of road ( beach ) to drive on.Humpback whale surfacing just metres from our boat !The whales up close.Whale, frolicking near the boat.And more…..And more. We have never been so close!We had a brief opportunity to see them from in the water.
Hard to top that we thought, and even if we don’t ( and probably won’t ! ) it was a great interactive experience and something we welcomed after what had (more or less) been a bit of an extended sightseeing-only couple of weeks beforehand. But, that’s travel, the exciting parts usually get mixed in with the more mundane, and it’s the more mundane parts that help make the more exciting parts, well…….exciting !!
Leaving Hervey Bay after a few days, historic nearby Maryborough was a nice change of pace; this famous river port was at one time a major point of entry for immigrants to Australia and much remains ( often beautifully restored ) of its storied past. A great walking route shows off its touristic charms – the most stunningly ornate toilet you’ll ever see, an abundance of cool murals, and the home where P.L. Travers ( author of “Mary Poppins” ) was born, among them. Who’d have known ?
Bumped into Chris and Jo, owners of this massive Isuzu 4×4 ( GVM 9 tonnes ) as we were leaving Hervey Bay. Truly a heavy duty “go anywhere” rig !Uniquely, the vehicle ( an older diesel ) will also run on used vegetable oil. They collect it from restaurants, filter it through their on-board centrifuge and store it in a separate 200 litre “fuel” tank. At almost 30 litres per 100 km you would want to be picking up the odd free tank !!!!City Hall, Maryborough – the style reminded us of so many city halls in the US Deep South.Maryborough is a very pretty town and has a lot of well restored traditional old “Queenslander” homes.The first room you see in Maryborough’s “Cistern Chapel” ( a parody of Rome’s Sistine Chapel )…….……then you see this one ! Surely Maryborough is one of few cities in the world where people come to see a toilet !Maryborough has an excellent military museum and there are many impressive monuments to our fallen soldiers dotted throughout the city’s beautiful parks.In Maryborough much is made of the fact that P.L. Travers ( author of ‘Mary Poppins’ ) originally hails from Maryborough.More Mary Poppins……..……and yet more Mary Poppins !
After a stop in trendy Noosa Heads, we wrapped up the week arriving at another of our favourite stops during any trip to Australia – the home of my brother, Tim ( and his wife, Maree ) in Dicky Beach. Years back they made the wise decision to relocate to this delightful corner of the Sunshine Coast, just a block from the surf ( and surf club ) – the usual warm welcome mat was rolled out and it was great catching up and simply relaxing with them over the next few days.
Busy downtown Noosa, trendiest spot on the Sunshine Coast !Parked up at my brother’s place in Dicky Beach.On Sunday morning walks around Dicky Beach you sometimes see the most beautiful breeds of dog – here a massive Neapolitan Mastiff. He was adorable and got lots of attention.Lois and Maree enjoying a morning walk on the seaside pathway between Dicky Beach and Currimundi Lake.
Speaking of family, we’ll soon be getting back to the excitement of reconnecting with our own children in Canada and pretty soon a much-anticipated new “family” member as well ! Brisbane is just an hour away now ( with a direct flight to Vancouver ) so we are pretty much on standby at this stage, just waiting for “the call” !
We are Lois and Jeff, of Kelowna, BC, Canada. Recently retired with a serious overlanding travel bug, we hit the road in our truck camper in May 2019, initially tackling the Pan American highway. The PanAm completed in April 2022, and truck camper sold, we plan to continue exploring again later in 2022 in our Sprinter 4×4!
