Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Todd & Fletchers Travels
Now then lets get you all up to date, and for the record this is the second time i have written this, i spent 3 hours a couple of days ago only to start spell checking and press a wrong key loosing everything so this is going to be a short version...well short for me anyway.
To start of with huge apologies to you Cheyne; i know what its like when people spell my name wrong so rest assured i wont do it again.
OK so next morning arrived at Mackay 2nd september, 5am and we have never been so bright eyed and bushy tailed, we're on the road again. Thinking its best to give Stanley a bit of a test run, not run him ragged or anything we altered our route a little to stay close to the coast line, heading in the direction of Rockhampton. By 8am we'd arrived, seen all we needed (a lot of these places look the same) so decided seen as Stanley has behaved so well we might as well push on. We headed inland over Mount Morgan stopping only once to take in the view for miles, have a generous well needed wee stop and stop the stoke table squeak that was annoying the hell out of Nathan. A little after 2pm we arrived at the small town of Rolleston, the kind of town with a general store, servo and pub, just as we like them and had a bite to eat. You tend to find in these small towns that the main lunch deals are fish and chips or fish and chips, so fish and chips it was and mighty fine they were, of course followed by a couple of schooners helped.
With an hour and half to our final destination we pushed on, and arrived at our final destination, Carnarvan Gorge National Park. The difference from being in towns like mackay to beautiful places like this really hits you hard; nature suffocates you and is an unbelievably nice contrast. As we drove down the unsealed road we passed wallabies happily taking in the last of the days rays, and had our first encounter with rather large emus, heading straight towards the car at full speed. I've never wound the car window up so fast!!! You have two choices of where to stay at Carnarvan Gorge, Takarakka bush resort which is a little pricey or Big Bend-a 10km return trek up the gorge-you now which one we opted for. The camp was average for the price they charged but was made bearable by the wild kangaroos that seemed to wander rather close to the tents at no bother to themselves.
3rd September. We awoke early-as you do when you are camping. I don't think half of you will recognise the new me when we get back-i can get up at 5am and be awake soon after lol. We had to make a decision of whether to spend another few days at carnarvan or push on. Aware of the money we had spend on Stanley we decided t best to get some work asap heading in the direction of Brisbane. So that left us with most of the day to explore the gorge. So; in true Pommie style we set of on our nature trail with no water, no suncream and no hats-please feel free to tut away as we have no defense here. A little over 2 hours later passing over running creeks, seeing cliff overhangs, spotting mini creatures all around we stopped realising that perhaps we should have turned around some time ago. Ooops! Nothing fo it, we might as well continue to see the aboriginal arts in the caves-seeing true drawings is nothing like the stuff you get printed on tee-shirts and it lays on your mind how these people made homes and lives so many years ago. The track in total is 9.7km and i guessed we'd walked over half of it now so never before has a can of Solo lemon fizz been so appealing way back at the start of the track. We really could have spend a few more days here, but the nature of being a traveler called and we really did have to be sensible-bummer we know.
After refreshing ourselves we continued back on the road. I don't think we've passed so many dead kangaroos before; the small of their rotting bodies is too much at times. Sorry we realise you don't want to hear this as you have such a lovely picture of life over here, but really it is such an everyday occurrence, with plenty of kangaroos left roaming. When we first arrived and passed one we'd give the usual 'orrr' followed by a story of 'how sad it is to see' now we barely flicker-unless of course a rather large crow is feeding on one-these are hard to ignore. Anyhow besides this we amused ourselves in the usual ways we do, but also by passing a creek named; 'Ah-See Creek'. Come on that's funny don't you think-i mean who named that?? We passed through Injune, stopping only for a Steak pie at the servo (these are another of the things you get used to; a little like fish n chips is obvious in the smaller pubs, steak pies are all that servos seem to sell-and often they don't taste that good!) Finally we arrived at our place of rest for the night-Roma. Roma has such a friendly atmosphere about the place, i think i could have moved here and slipped straight into the redneck lifestyle of the place, as it happened we drove to the bottle shop and retired for the night talking to a rather strange couple. Michael was on holiday from melbourne traveling around for awhile, he'd Christine a week earlier, she gave up her job and decided she'd move around with him?? Rather unusual but hey ho it passed the night and ended with an offer of free camping in his back garden if we make it Melbourne. This is apparently a normal thing over here and people do it often, im not so convinced we'll take the offer up. Jess is you are reading this-a night in the halls is something different if you can swing this for us lol. By the way-you all need to experience drive through grog shops-what an invention, no messing around, drive up, load your car, and on your way-perfect.
4th september. With only one stop at Dalby for a much better tasting steak pie, we made it to Brisbane mid afternoon. OH MY GOD!!! Ok so there's 4 lanes, there's one way roads, there's people everywhere, there's a bridge there-no signpost on it, its this way i think-nope we're lost, god damn it where are the signs, watch out its on red, s**t put it in that car park there. We've stopped! Seriously what a contrast. So hungry and no where to sleep we do the obvious-we go to look for a job? 20 minutes later (and im not kidding about the time) we are traipsing through Brisbane with a map heading for a hostel that i have an interview for. Interview over; the jobs mine only a 3 month minimum stay? We'll get back to you. Collecting the car we were shocked to be charged $18 for 2 hours- i actually asked if that was right? So finding a caravan park close to the city wasn't so bad, our home for the next few weeks was New Market caravan Park-at a very reasonable price of $22 a night-my only complaint being it doesn't have a pool. Come on its Spring over here, the weathers turning for the better and you need to keep cool.
The aim for 5th september was to get a job,. Mission accomplished. After securing a second interview for a promotions agency to which i was told i possess ambition. a positive attitude and a desire to learn, it seems that Nathan had been busy to and i would have to put these skills to good use at... a car wash. Earlier in the day we'd heard of a job at AVIS Car rentals at brisbane airport but they wanted 3 months minimum again, it was good money, good hours, and if we worked together means we can continue to explore more. Nathan had decided to sweet talk to the receptionist at Tinbilys backpacker hostel/pub where we were having a schooner after a hard days job hunting, who managed to get Morgan at Avis to reduce the time limit to 8 weeks. The 2 day trials begins 8am tomorrow.
AVIS Car Rentals. Job Tile: Vehicle Service Agents. What this means-we wash cars. The Uniform; no Scott it isn't bikinis lol-but rather fetching grey pleated shorts, a red printed polo shirt, hats and rain macs to match-don't we look lovely! JOb Description; drive a car forward into the bay, hoover it, clean the windows, spray lemon airfreshener, drive it through the car wash, park it up in the correct bay, and start again. Occasionally you have to take a clean car, drive it to the booth at the airport and bring a dirty one back. So Nathan passes the trial but can you believe im a concern? Apparently my reversing skills aren't that good lol. Now if they said you had to reverse big expensive cars i probably wouldn't have considered the job, but they didn't so i played innocent, said im sure i can learn quickie (yeah right-I've been trying for 4 years now) and hey presto we have a job. The cars if you are wondering were all top notch, i can only remember saab and astra convertibles and Tarragos (people carriers) but there were a few others that impressed Nathan as he test ran to the booth-you'll have to email him for the names though lol.
9 days later-we quit! Ok so the job was easy and we could have stuck it out, but before we left we made a pact-if we were feeling fed up and down it was time to move on, and that we were. Brisbane, all be it another fab city, it was just that. we'd explored to its fullest all the malls and tourist areas. South bank had a lovely man made beach, the botanic gardens were lush but all in all we felt a little trapped. the hostels were less in the friendly mood as other places we've been, be it that we hit the 3 month blues who knows but it was time to go. The lads that worked at AVIS possessed no other ambitions than to be chief radio tuner and if that isn't enough to put a downer o things, my reversing skills were not getting better. So after thanking Morgan for the job, making sure we got paid the correct hours, and securing our next HelpX job at farm stay in Gatton, we made the most of our few days before this.
Having not seen Koalas in the wild yet we used our VIP cards and visited the Koala Sanctuary. Koala's galore, if not a little boring to watch seen as they move so slow and sleep rather a lot; the noise they make is a big contrast to what you'd expect-rather loud and boisterous you wouldn't forget this sound in a hurry as we discover a little later in our travels. We hand fed kangaroos, viewed rather venomous snakes, and generally cheered ourselves up-ending the day refreshed.
Packed up and feeling revived we headed up the sunshine coast via Nambour. Our first stop for the night was Noosa. A traditional surfers haven with a rather inviting packed beach. venturing up to Noosa spit we saw the day disappear. Camping on Noosa river was great fun-great big Pelicans amused us for a while as they annoyed fishers every time they caught anything. Deciding we were due a well earnt night out we ventured into Noosa Ville. First stop Irish Murphy's. These bars are guaranteed to help you get on your way, and 3 pints and fosters later we were just that. Yes we know Fosters is a weak drink-all we can say is they were in pint glasses so that must have been the falling point? Anyhow feeling brave we ventured into Koala's-this young vibrant bar was packed to th rims with drunken 18 year olds who is they didn't make us feel old enough, getting our beer in a plastic glass certainly did, Still we had a dance showing the young ones how its done and left only to be told by the bouncer when we laughed about feeling our age; 'you've just got to get into the groove'. No way could we go home after that so the Reef bar offered a little better viewing. I think we lasted half an hour before we new it was time to get home while we could make it. Now hear comes the Koala sound that we mentioned earlier. Noosa is a Koala habitat in itself with signs everywhere asking drivers to take care. Upon hearing the sound we ventured into the wooded area. All i will say is that Koala's are well camouflaged and hoping to find them drunk is highly unlikely lol.
Leaving a little later than planned due to an unforeseen hangover (?) we moved on passed Coolum Beach and stopping for the night at Mooloolaba. It seems Mooloolaba is right up there in my top 10 places. This tow offers lush beaches for miles, the town although a tourist place is not overcrowded, it had great shops and restaurants all set on the beach front and the prices were reasonable to follow. We got to go in our first surf club (as in like Home and Away) and really fitted into the calmness of the place. We spent our first day on the beach, sunbathing, playing frisbee....i wont go on as don't want to make you jealous so will move straight to the end of the day. After an hour of jumping through waves we got a bit carried away doing the old couples thing of chasing each other to lob us into the sand. It ended with Nathan lobbing a ball of wet sand, to which i turned at the wrong moment, and have for lets say a week now, a swollen and bruised nose-hmmmmm!! Still seen as nathan was feeling a little guilty it meant we could forget our budget-well to a point, and we enjoyed an early bird special 3 course meal for $18 each-absolutely heaven, and made up for the noodles we've been eating the past few weeks. Who could now the beach can make you so tired,we retired to bed at around 7pm and never woke till the next day and time to head to our next HelpX job.
On our way we passed Beerwah which is famous for Australia Zoo, even more importantly which was set up by the late Steve Irwin. It was hard to pass by as the amount of people flocking to leave tributes and pay respect were phenomenal. We stopped out of courtesy and were overwhelmed by the amount of peoples hearts this man has touched. It seems Steve Irwin was much more than just the 'croc hunter' but an environmentalist with a passion for life that has touched everyone here in Australia. I cant think of one person in the UK with that much passion so it was hard nit to leave without a lump in my throat.
The Fordsdale Farmstay-Gatton-in the countryside. Our Version.
We arrived at the farm house via a rather large hill, that Stanley only just made it up. Sue greeted us, gave us a cup of tea, introduce us to anna (another helpx girl from Norway) and her daughter, Pamela. Cup of tea over-our job wash them up and an pots that are left lying around. A quick intro to the daily chores, feed the animals morning and night (2 calf's, a field of goats, guinea pigs, guardian dog and horses) It takes 10 minutes once you've done it once. Rest of the time just to make sure the house is looking nice and paths swept. Ok so it seems like an alright deal and great for someone looking to get a freebie. But from what we took a helpx job to be meant that we get to learn a little about an Australians way of life, while contributing to their business, and at the same time we expect a little interest in ourselves.After the second day of doing nothing, and being stuck in the middle of nowhere we were becoming increasingly aware of our itchy feet. Sue was rather disorganised in that she'd start one job and then do another....as in she started me and Nathan off fencing, but when it came to needing to use the tractor to move a rock she was too busy so meant we were left to busy ourselves again. Food on the other hand had been good, up until the final night, she had had some Japanese guests so we all ate together rather good home cooked food. But it seems when they left food was of no interest to her. To cut a long story short, as believe me if you really want to hear this in detail me and Nathan can go on for hours about the nature of this woman and her farmstay, the final night. After a day of nothingness, we'd fed the animals at night, sat down for tea (by now 2 German girls have already arrived) we were presented with a piece of quiche. That's ok, im thinking the main meal arrives after....after never arrived. We had to watch another children's DVD as that was all they possessed and then wash up and go to bed. Now here's the thing, we're hungry, and for some strange reason, even though there's a guest house with 4 empty bedrooms, Sue had insisted we slept in a shipping container. In Sue's defense she had mentioned this to me on the phone, but in my defense she said it was 'done out', which i took to mean clean. No siree it wasn't clean and it was sodding cold!!
5am arrives, neither of us has slept, and we were hungry. So when Nathan says; 'Lindsay-wrap the duner we're leaving!' i knew this was a man not to be messed with. For once in my life i did as i was told. So as the sun was just starting to rise we were sneaking down a hill as quiet as possible, looking a lot worse for wear and praying that Sue wouldn't follow us in her tractor and make us do more of nothingness. Do we feel guilty for not saying goodbye? Well maybe a little; but i guess if you get treated like adults we'd behave like them and in our defense we weren't. We did get to do one exciting thing though, Sue needed to round up one of her horses, so we jumped in the 4x4 and got to got right up the edge of a mountain, rather exciting-made even more so by our own commentary seen as Sue didnt say a word!! So be it...
....and it arrived 45 minutes later, just as we are exiting Gatton, can you believe Stanley stalled again. Arghhhhhhhhhh. Not so bad this time, the RACQ was 10 minutes away and a lovely looking butch lady had given Nathan a lift. I'd learnt from the last time and was less standoffish when a bloke tried to fix the car also. It was only the fuel pump-as Nathan had guessed. Unfortunately that's another thing about traveling in the outback. Alot of the old towns dont clean thier pumps so you end up with dirty fuel and i have no doubt that this will be a problem we'll face sometime in the future. A couple of hours later after watching the tribute to Steve Irwin stood in a TV shop front, having a cup of coffee to wake us and refreshing ourselves to look half decent we were on our way. Wahoo. We were busy laughing at the prospect of if we'd broken down actually on Sue's hill to the farm stay or even the school route-how scary would that have been lol. So it was about this point here that we have met Australias mardiest woman ever. Having spent all our spare cash on the coffee earlier how were we to know we'd end up on a toll road. Throwing the last $1 we'd scraped together in the instant drive through section, it appears it didnt accept 5cent peices but somehow ate them and were never to be seen again. The toll woman insisted we pay the 10 cent and after explaining we had no other cash but she could use our cash card if needs be?? she was rather rude in finally leting the barrier up (by now the queue was rather built up) and screaming 'as if you go on holiday with no money' at us. We did think about returning with the 10 cent but didnt want to run the risk of her eating us?!
So here is where this journal entry ends, we are on the Gold Coast, at Surfers Paradise. You have to imagine, high rise New York stylle buildings meets lush beaches for miles with surfer dudes and chicks galore. Its a tourist haven but somehow me and Nathan seem to have fallen for the place. We are staying at a caravan park at Main Beach (a 15-20 minute walk to Surfers, 45 mins if Nathan's drunk) and are really hoping to find some work. At the moment work is in progress for the INDY Lexmark 300 car racing which looks amazing and the whole feel of the place is a mixture and party, adrenaline, and chill. We spent a day in Southport visiting all the agency's and leaving our CV's. Not to mention a rather yummy cooked breakfast seen as our wages from AVIS had been paid in, 9 days work and $813 each-not bad hey. If a job turns up could have jobs working in the INDY over the 3 days/nights. Everyone cross your fingers something comes up. Nathan is having alot of trouble finding scaffolding work as he needs his green card/ a blue card for labouring on sites, getting one isnt a problem but it does cost and you need a new one for every state you are in. We are so close to the NSW border (i can see it on the map page) that we don't want to have to pay out, unless of course he gets offered a job that makes paying out the initial money worthwhile. Whatever happens though we are certain something will come up.
So thats all for now. Thanks for all your messages on the message board they really do help keep us in good spirits. Dave; we are working on getting new photos up but we havent found anywhere cheap enough yet-keep watching. A little complaint though to those of you who are reading this and havent left us any messages yet....come on it takes me ages to type all this up so you can follow us, just a wee message back to say what you are up to, how you are, or even jibes about our stories is OK. Not that im mentioing any names here MR/Mrs you'd better send us a postcard or they'll be trouble (they cost us to send you know and you are on the internet at work all day). And MR/Mrs posh tottie-whats your excuse now you are hooked up online hey?
Bye for now, love to all :-)
- comments