Week 433 - Townsville, Queensland

Burdekin Creek Farm Stay proved to be a great venue for catching up with friends and fellow travellers and on our last night, the farmer put on a camp oven meal for 40 people. The quality of the meat and vegetables were first class, restaurant style.

Happy Hour - Happy Hour is just that, fun and 
games and lots of laughter interspersed 
with champagne, wine and beer.

Reluctantly we drifted out of the camp on Wednesday morning heading to the metropolis of Townsville and the Dam Fine Rally. I willingly put my hand up to park almost 300 vehicles and it is alarming to see how some of them cannot reverse, drive forward and park. It is a good job I had my yellow vest on.

It's a dog's life - Many people travel with their dogs. 
They are loyal and great companions but 
unfortunately there are a few dog haters around, 
but we just turn our nose up at them. 

Highway Wanderers having fun - 
This collage taken by Peter Gallagher shows
 the many good times we have had with the 
Highway Wanderers. 

The Dam Fine Rally is a great catch up with the Tropical Coast Wanderers and we have about 40 Highway Wanderer vehicles in tow. So the fun at the DFR is only just beginning.

Dam Fine Rally 

Jo has been knitting away making dresses and wallets for the market stall on Saturday. She makes the dresses for fun and there is very little profit, if any, in the garments. She has also been doing some alterations/mending but I have managed to keep myself busy cleaning and polishing the motorhome and doing little jobs that are necessary around the bus.

Rock Wallaby - This is a lovely Rock Wallaby,
which flavour I don't know 

So to finish this week's blog, the weather is slightly overcast and many people are having problems with their solar and batteries. But I seem to have the balance right in our bus and all the monitors are feeding good numbers.

Swimmer Crab - This large swimmer crab was
spotted early one morning in the dam. 

Sometimes we have to kick ourselves as we travel around this magnificent country and meet like minded people and this week will certainly be a people week.

Week 431 - 432 - Burdekin Cane Farm Stay, Brandon

Our adventure before dementia continues, with less brain cells than I started with. We camped at Delicious's place at Mackaysurbia. We just managed to get onto the conservation strip and within minutes we were sculling our first beer. Wanger and Delicious reminisced about all the old hashers from way back in Mount Isa and the east coast over a couple of bottles of NZ Sav. The big event was the Mackay hash run on the Monday. A fine bunch of athletes, very friendly and the circle kept rolling on with jokes and stories. A great fun night of hashing.

Pretty Thistle - We are in thistle, prickle 
and stinger nettle country - ask Rusti! 

The next day we beat the rush hour traffic out of Mackay and headed for the Burdekin Cane Farm Stay just north west of Ayr. We were greeted in true country style. We were given a night tour of cane burning and the next day witnessed the magnificent harvesters at work. Our tour of the farm continued on the third day and we were treated by the farmer and his wife to a personalised morning tea and cake.

Mad Max Machine - Sugar Cane 
Harvester in full steam

All work and no play - The combined harvester 
chops the sugar cane into bite size pieces and deposits
 into the railway wagon onboard the truck. 

We are camped next to a stream, on grass and a camp fire. The night sky is magnificent. The company infectious. Our village of Highway Wanderers is growing and the camaraderie of our fellow travellers is a joy to behold.

Off to market - Each wagon weighs 5 tonne 

This place is such an oasis, we have decided to stay here until it is time to enter the Dam Fine Rally.

Fire - The edge of the cane fields are set ablaze. 

Fire Under Control - It is amazing how 
controlled these fires are. They can
light them, steer them and put them 
out at a drop of a hat. 

Flying the Flag - As you all know, 
the Highway Wanderers are a great 
bunch of people. 

I will pass the blog over to Jo to tell a few stories. In Monto, Derek had had a skinful and went to bed at 10.30, just after midnight he got up for a leak, saw his mates at the fire and continued boozing. I got up to check he was alright, he seemed happy enough at the fire. Next thing, he has fallen into it - third degree burns on his stomach and arm. Fortunately we had a couple of nurses present and they were able to dress the burns before they became infected.

Fast forward two weeks - a boisterous dinner with our new friends, Maxine and Rob, also hashers from Perth. Horror goes out to take the dog for a walk. At midnight I could hear - Wang, Wang, Wang. I went outside to see what the problem was, the dog had gone and Horror had fallen over and was partially unconscious due to eight stubbies, two bottles of wine and a bottle of port...... He is now on notice, I am thinking of reporting him to alcohol anonymous.

Week 430 - Mackay, Queensland

Week 430 and a new era in our weekly blog. As you can see we have taken this Getjealous platform and hopefully it will serve us as well as Travelpod did.

Our blog is a means of letting our family and friends know what we are doing and can save a lot of time on the telephone.

We have finally become free travellers once again. We have done and experienced our house sits and the preparation and execution of Highway Wanderers 23rd birthday celebration is now over and we believe it was very successful.

From Vicki's at Mt Morgan we traversed the Mt Morgan range via the Razorback over to the flood city of Rockhampton. The damage of the floods was not immediately evident but closer to the river, the landscape has been slightly adjusted awaiting the next flood.

We stayed at Uncle Brian's who had recently been burgled and was in the process of building a fortress to stop the critters climbing through the windows. He has been visibly shaken by the intrusion and with him living on his own, welcomed our company for a couple of days.

Next stop, a deserted St Lawrence. The Isaac Council has slapped a $10 a night fee on this vacant lot and scared all the travellers away. Instead of a 100 vehicles, on our first night we were accompanied by 10. The Sportman's Arms Hotel is suffering from a lack of patronage and the township is basically dead. However, the council chambers looked magnificent an ironic statement I know.

Tranquil St Lawrence - the peace and tranquility 
of St Lawrence is disturbed once you get 
to the breeding grounds of the Canadian Geese.

Canadian Geese - the noise and the pollution 
of the geese is overshadowed by the beauty of 
the geese and the surroundings.

We are now in Mackay for some hashing and staying on the footpath at Delicious's place. A true hash girl if I have ever seen one, drinks, swears, farts and burps. Mention tits and they are out sort of girl......

Suburbia, Mackay Style - we stayed at Delicious's 
place for four days, trying to dry out, 
but it was impossible.

We have a hash session today at the Mt Pleasant Tavern and the hash run on Monday.

The weather is beautiful, the days are magnificent and the nights cool and we wake up to a very heavy dew.

Rusti, 10 weeks - just recently we took Rusti 
to see her parents but they did not recognise each 
other, licked each other's bums and continued 
on their merry way.

Rusti - one year old - boisterous, beautiful and bold.

Rusti was one year old yesterday. She is a wonderful little dog and has the character of a pit bull terrier and docile as a pussy cat. She is also an extension of Horror and looked after by Wang, i.e. feeding, cleaning and pampering.