Day 3 Near Moree to Broken Hill

It was really good to be back on the road we spent the night at a rest stop outside Moree, we pulled in to Maccas at 5.30am for coffee and pancakes, our aim today was to reach Broken Hill. 

Here’s home for the next 18 days it might not look much but it’s really comfortable and warm too.  Hardly have the heater on as it heats up too much,  Has two bunk beds and a double, kitchen with fridge, microwave and oven, plenty of cupboard space and most importantly shower and toilet.  In the back is the racecar and again plenty of “workshop” space.

 

About 30 kms outside Broken Hill we called it a night and pulled up at another rest stop.   The fridge has a small freezer compartment  (think bar fridge) so I was able to premake meals and freeze them so we have been eating really well as long as I can freeze things as flat as I can we have fit heaps in.  I even froze several bags of chicken soup, spag bol, rissoles and various cuts of meat to make satay chicken etc.  I did a menu plan up for the time we left until we got to Alice Springs, then a rough one up for the rest of the time away.

IT’S ALL PART OF THE ADVENTURE

That became our mantra on our trip to Alice Springs in 2007 when we drove and did the touristy thing with a group of friends.  Well we are just into twelve hours of our big adventure and we are stuck.  Stuck at the bottom of the Toowoomba Range and as I have been telling Lucy it’s all part of the adventure. With so much to do yesterday we didn't end up leaving until 9.30pm.  All was well we made it through Brisbane and had a stop at Gatton to grab coffee, Tony was feeling a  bit tired then plan was to make it to the other side of Toowoomba where we were going to stop for the night.

Just as we were approaching Toowoomba range the truck started to make a funny noise, that’s alright we knew what that was a hose fell off the turbo, Tony  pulled over and fixed it, unfortunately what he didn't know was that a small piece of something hose or clamp fell off into turbo which got into the engine, we weren't going anywhere .  Lucky Tony has his brother Michael who came to the rescue as he always does (lucky it was a public holiday Maleny show day) he assures me we will be gone by 3.  Gary, Tony’s navigator who lives in Brisbane grabbed the parts that we needed so I'm confident we will be gone sometime this afternoon.  With trips like this it pays to be flexible so I'm going to have to do some rearranging again the reason we are going this way through Broken Hill, Flinders ranges, Cobber Pedy is we didn't get to spend much time  there last time.  I had even booked a flight for us over Wilpenia pound for Monday.  Despite having to rearrange our aim is to reach Goondiwindi tonight.  Our original goal was to be in Broken Hill sometime this evening :)  I've actually had a good day despite being a bit bored but I had a really good read of my camera’s instruction manual  shame we didn't break down somewhere with more interesting things to take photo’s of.  Lucy has slept all day, if Tony did decided to drive through the night which he wont be because he hasn't slept since Wednesday night at least Lucy could have stayed up with him and kept him awake.  Lucy and I got to bed at about 3am I had no idea how many semi’s drove past but they were so noisy.

 

 

 

A Day At the Zoo

 

Australia Zoo that is,  I haven't been there for years and it’s still very impressive.   What I love about it is it’s so clean and the animals are so well looked after, the Sunshine Coast is so lucky to have this wonderful attraction. I remember first going there back in 1996 it was so small compared to what it is today.

When I used to work the early shift at the bakery the old men would gather outside in the car park and stand there and talk for 30-60minutes nearly every day, these guys on the rock just reminded me of that.

Love the otters, I could just stand and watch them for hours they are so entertaining.

The girls were waiting in line for their turn when Tess saw the Koala poo on the girl that was nursing him so when it came to their turn she promptly made Lucy hold the koala, not that Lucy minded at all.

The Irwins.

The croc in the throes of a death roll.

I would be running too.

That feels soooooo good.

This little one had an itch that just wouldn't quit .

A little Tasmanian Devil.

A gorgeous dingo, just love them.

The tigers were hard to photograph as they were behind glass or thick perspex. As you can imagine I took hundreds of photos, haven't even touched on the birds    It was pretty yucky weather but we had a great day.

Fashionista? I don't think so.

We were very grateful for these raincoats.

That’s it for now

Bye

Your Invited to Lunch- Don't look if you are squeamish

I was on the computer listening to the birds outside when I heard something fall out of the tree and hitting the ground.  Thinking it was a branch, ignored it,  Milly was out side pacing back and forth and making a funny noise.  Time to go out and investigate and this is what I found.

You can see the snake’s mouth, this was not a small possum.  I will just add the possum was dead when they hit the ground. My neighbours and I stood and watched for almost an hour it was fascinating.

Look how wide that mouth has become. (below)

I took about 200 photo’s but this one below is my favourite all done but for the tail.

All gone, then the snake stayed in the one spot for about 30mins then very slowly went on his way.  I was able to get about a metre away as this snake was so full it wasn't going anywhere for a while.

Something nicer to finish this post off with

I'm Back

 

I cant believe I haven't posted since the end of February , I do have a reason not a very good one but one anyway.  I really haven't done anything worth blogging about, same old same old but the reason for feeling like this I'm convinced its the Champix tablets that I have been taking to give up smoking.  I'm still not smoking it’s been 13 long long weeks. I wouldn't call myself a non smoker, far from that, I'm a smoker who is dying to have a cigarette but wont.  I find I walk slowly through the plumes of smoke where the smokers gather outside shopping centres etc. and I take in the deepest breaths I can.  I had a friend come over yesterday and she kept moving away from me, please stay nearby I was thinking.  How long is this going to go on for?  Anyway I would never have stopped smoking without the tablets but they really did my head in.  I've had no motivation what so ever to do anything so as a result I'm behind with everything . It was like having “baby brain” as I wrote in an earlier post at first they made me fall asleep  while I was driving, then after a while I wasn't sleeping at all.    One weekend I was paying a rather large bill and put the money into an account that didn't exist and then found that the bank staff didn't work on Saturdays (which was advertised that they did) I think it was a long weekend.  So I had an anxious wait until I could contact the bank and let them know what happened.  Oh it should be back into your account in a couple of days but if not phone us on Thursday or Friday, lucky for me it appeared three days later.  The most stupid thing I did was stop taking the tablets three weeks ago.  I didn't even give it a thought that I would be giving up the tablets cold turkey, dumb dumb dumb, told you my mind wasn't in a good place. I had a good week last week so I might be getting back to normal I am craving a bit more than I was but I will get over it.  The good thing is my mind is much more with it.

The other exciting thing is my girl turned 18, I'm seriously too young to have an 18 year old.  So we had breakfast with her and some of her friends, then sent them on their way to the Gold Coast for the weekend.  The funny thing is that Tess wanted Tony and I to go with her but we thought the kids would cramp our style and to be honest my clubbing days are well and truly over.

They stayed at the The Towers of Chevron Renaissance     which was a really good price $350 for a two bedroom apartment for two nights, Tess said it was lovely it was right in town close to the shops and nightclubs.  Then on the Saturday night we had booked them with a limo tour, well it was actually a stretched hummer.   I was really happy with this, they were taken to various nightclubs around the coast, when they arrived they were escorted into VIP areas and had security with them all night.  Tess only took three of her friends but she said the group below were a lot of fun, they were all in the hummer together.  The cost of this was $120 per person

 

She had such a good time, she doesn't look 18 does she :)

Went Shopping

We don't have many vintage or “French” style shops or none that I have found on the Sunshine Coast I'm guessing there are probably some in Noosa but I rarely go there. So Bed Bath & Table is becoming a firm favourite.  Scored these last Thursday night.  I've been after a clock for the lounge room I know what I want but cant find it.  So I got this for the time being.

 

Love this it’s so cute

Have no idea what I'm going to do with this but it was $50 reduced to 19.95

Hope everyone had a great weekend

Jackie