Whiptail

Left our housesit at Cawongla and stopped in Kyogle for an early coffee before travelling through Woodenbong, Rathdowny to Beaudesert, then onto Kooralbyn where we set up at Whiptail.

Mt Lindsay, in Mt Barney National Park on the Qld/NSW border

With weather still very humid we headed for the pool after setting up to cool down.  Drove into Beaudesert for a pub meal before returning for another swim and Happy Hour.

Arrived at Whiptail

Set up and ready for a quick dip

During our stay we celebrated Sandy's surprise 60th birthday, experienced a good thunderstorm and rain which was much needed and celebrated Australia Day.  Also watched quite a few exciting matches in the Australian Open and always enjoyed the Happy Hours with other guests.

Australia Day celebrations

Taking in the view of Mt Barney National Park

Heading off again, until next time.

Cawongla

We packed up at Murwillumbah Show grounds but before leaving we walked into town for a coffee.  After coffee we set off to our house sit at Cawongla which is near the top of the range.  Travelled on the Kyogle Rd which follows the Tweed River. We had arranged to arrive mid afternoon so this gave us an opportunity to stop at Uki and have a walk though town and have lunch at the Mount Warning Hotel.

Lunch in Uki at the Mt Warning Pub

Uki, an interesting shop!!

From Uki we continued on Kyogle Road which was quite steep and winding road venturing up to the ridge.We arrived mid afternoon to the housesit at Cawongla and met Bella, a Kelpie cross who we where looking after for the next 10 days.  John and Julie welcomed us into their home and explained our responsibility for the house sit. We had dinner that evening with John and Julie before they headed off the next morning for their holiday. Bella was easy to look after as long as we kept throwing a rubber toy ring like a donut which she would fetch. The weather was generally wet, one day we had arranged to go to Tumbulgum for Tennelle's birthday lunch but due to the rain and possible flooding some of the roads where closed so didn't venture out. The rain was quite heavy and the dam started to fill and the plants were receiving well wanted water!  Weather became very humid however storms at night relieved the temperature for a while.We took a drive into Kyogle only 14km to do some shopping one day and found a great coffee shop, The Sugarbowl Cafe Bar.
Otherwise we just enjoyed the view and watched the weather come and go, I enjoyed the sunrise and would sit outside the caravan in the mornings throwing the donut toy to Bella before breakfast. I also made the most of the sunsets when they looked promising.

We had a good spot to park the caravan by the house.

Just magical views

The ranges we could see from the balcony.

Sunrise around 5.30

Reflections at sunset

From the top of the drive sunset over Kyogle.

A misty evening when we walked up to the road with Bella.

We had made arrangements for our next house sit to be at Nashua, not far from Bangalow.  This was about an hour and half drive from Kyogle via Lismore.  As we didn't know if we could get the caravan into the driveway we went for a drive to meet the owner and confirm if we could get the caravan in.  Unfortunately we didn't think it would fit so will have to make arrangements to store the caravan during the next house sit.
On the way back we took an alternative route along the Nimbim Rd stopping for lunch at Nimbin.  Nimbin didn't disappoint! We walked the main street which we thought hadn't changed from the last time we visited, although we couldn't agree on when that was, it was certainly many years ago. We finished up having lunch at the bakery and just enjoyed people watching. There was a great mixture of people from locals going about the day to day shopping to tourists varying from grey nomads, like us, to alternative back packers.

Nimbin

Nimbin has it all.

After the 10 days we welcomed John and Julie home, packed up and was ready to move on the next morning to Kooralbyn, back in Queensland. The weather was very humid however the grass had loved the rain and everything was lush and green after experiencing months of no rain.

Caught up with the family

We spent a few days at Tugun staying with Todd and Tenelle and as we have not seen them or Briony since Christmas 2018, we had a lot of celebrations to catch up on.   The first was to have our Christmas 2019 get together, it was a hot day so Todd took us to Cudgen Creek where we finally found a park and a spot to set up the gazebo only a short distance from the water so we could have a refreshing dip.  Had a lovely lunch and must have looked strange as we had our Christmas T shirts on designed and supplied by Briony.

Catching up at Todd & Tenelle's home

Late afternoon after a big Christmas lunch

The 2019 Christmas T shirts

After a couple of days parked out the front of Todds we moved out to Murwillumbah Showgrounds for a week, travelling back to Tugun to celebrate my birthday.  Visited Briony at her new home at Banora Point then went to Currumbin RSL for drinks on the deck then dinner inside. Great meals however very busy and noisy.

Murwillumbah Show grounds camping area

While staying at Murwillumbah we drove around the area, one day Crystal Creek, Chillingham, Tyalgumthen then another day to the beach at Tyagarah National Park via Burringbar.  I had a couple of swims however very windy and quite humid.

Burnett Heads and New Years

From Yeppoon we travelled south heading to Susan River for New Years, on our way we planned to visit Ray and Carol who had just moved into their new home at Burnett Heads.

Burnett Heads marina at sunset.

We travelled down the Bruce Hwy until Miriam Vale where we turned towards the coast and Bundaberg.  This took us through the Baffle Creek area which had been burnt only a few weeks earlier and you could see the devastation the fires had done.  Also noted a number of signs hung on farm gates with messages of thanks to the wonderful fire fighters who fought the horrendous fires. At this time a huge number of fires were burning in Qld, NSW and Vic with fire fighters risking their lives in catastrophic conditions.

Stopped at Rosedale for a wee break and saw the Barber shop

We booked into Burnett Heads Lighthouse caravan park near the head waters for a couple of nights.  This gave us time to have a look around Burnett Heads in the morning before we had lunch with Ray and Carol. They have a lovely new home and Ray has already been very busy getting the shed organised and the garden and pool area established. It was great to catch up on all the adventures they have had since we saw them over 12 months ago.

We left the next morning to make our way to Susan River for New Years, we drove along the coast to Bargara Beach first for a coffee and to check out the area. Bargara seemed much more of a tourist area with several cafes overlooking the beach.

On our way out stopped at Bargara beach

From Bargara it was only another hour or so before we arrived at our friends property where we met the others and would spend New Years eve.

We set up next to one of the mango trees laden with mangoes which were so tasty!

With a couple of days to New Years Eve we had the opportunity to go into Hervey Bay, I needed to make a visit to RTM and get a part for the caravan water pipe as the temperature control mixers were leaking.  We also had a couple of golf games on the property before New Years Eve.

For New Years Eve it was decided we would have dinner at our own van then get together with the other guests to see in the New Year. Bob was providing the music while Rhonda assisted and Mike was MC who gave a little spill for the night. Rhonda had arranged to play celebrate heads which was OK but no one would have volunteered so your admission ticket number was used and drawn from a hat.  The first number out was 58 and Helen and I had 58 and 59 so we debated whose ticket it was, and being the good gentleman that I am, I went and played celebrate heads, and by the way I won a bottle of Champers. Rhonda started to pick the next numbers for the "volunteers" and you wouldn't believe it but number 59 was drawn, so no getting out of it this time and Helen had to play celebrate heads much to everyone's amusement as she had vigorously avoided the first game. Next we had the secret Santa presents which took a while to get through as you were allowed to steel other presents if you felt that would be a better choice. Bob then cranked the music up and before we knew it midnight was upon us and with good cheer we wished everyone a happy new year. After a few more songs we slowly made our way back to the van, a great night had by all.

We didn't leave on New Years day as to avoid what may have been a busy day on the road.  Instead we headed off on the 2nd and got a relatively good run all the way to Tugun.