Sunday 25 April 2021

Heading to the tropics: Days 2-6








 It’s almost a week since we left home and at the end of today we will have travelled 1300 kms.

On Day 2 we left Iluka and crossed the border into Queensland. I was born in the sunshine state and even though I have lived in NSW for most of my life it  still feels like home.

The traffic through the Gold Coast and Brisbane was heavy as usual and after a long hot trip, we were pleased to arrive at Maroochydore for a 4 night stay on the river at Cotton Tree.


We were nicely positioned three sites from the river and spent our first three days chilling by the water, reading and walking. An unexpected bonus was the National Surf Life saving titles being held a few hundred metres from us. We walked around each day and watched some events.




Friday was spent at Mooloolaba Surf Club for dinner catching up with longtime friend, Sharyn. Beautiful sunset views over the sea and a bonus was the Beach Flag race finals on the sand beneath the restaurant.

Wherever we go we are sure to find an author friend, and I caught up with historical author, Suzi Love for a quick coffee.The ninth book in my Pentecost Island series was released on Saturday and I spent much of the day watching the charts. A celebratory wine was had that night when TESS reached #1 in an Amazon category and hit the top 20 charts on Apple Australia.


Catching up with Suzi.

Saturday was spent with Sharyn  and her two sweet granddaughters, and another friend, Di. A fish and chip picnic on the sand at Cotton Tree and then a magnificent sunset completed a relaxing four days.


Despite the socialising and relaxation and reading. I did manage to write 4000 words of my Christmas novella during our stay on the Sunshine Coast.
Ian is reading Breaker Morant and I’ve.been
reading Kristin Hannah’s Four Winds. A fabulous read and highly recommended.
We were up with the bush turkeys before sunrise on Anzac Day and on the road to Tannum Sands by 6.30 am.






 A pleasant six hour drive to this small seaside town enabled us to arrive in time for a long walk along the beautiful foreshore (6 kilometres) after sitting in the car all day.






It’s a long slow trip today to Cape Palmerston (long weekend and road works)



Until next post ....

Annie and Ian

Tuesday 20 April 2021

On the road! Day 1




 Our departure day dawned clear and still, one of those gorgeous autumn days at home, making us appreciate the temperate climate of the mid north coast. The sky put on a fabulous sunset the night before, for our last night at home until spring.


Mike and Lesley, our housesitters, and who we are sure will become firm friends when they move into their new house out of town, arrived for the handover,  and final instructions for the care of Barney and Toby were shared. As soon as the caravan is parked out the front, Toby’s tail wag slows as he knows we are leaving him for a while. But they are in excellent hands! Barney opened one eye and promptly shut it again as he snoozed on his chair in my office.



We left early afternoon and headed for Iluka, to the Anchorage Caravan Park, on the Clarence River, one of our favourite parks. We settled in quickly for a short overnighter. The Venetian red Isuzu with my decals on the side is distinctive and I received a message from my friend. Susan Dube when they passed us on the Harwood Island bridge. 

A quick set up and Ian settled in for a Pa nap and I took my laptop to the outside table overlooking the river and worked on Her Christmas Star, the novella to be be published in a joint boxed set this year. As well as researching my Cooktown book I have four books to write while we are away, so a little bit every day makes a difference





I caught up on my email and was excited to receive the blurb for Osprey Reef and advice that the cover proposal should arrive soon. This book is a suspense mystery set on the Great Barrier Reef and will hit stores in November. 

So the sun lowered in the cloudless sky, the midges arrived and I scurried inside for the Bushmans and my camera. Once again the Clarence River put on a show.

We headed out to the local  bowling club for a fabulous dinner, partaking of the yummy and huge local prawns (Garlic Prawns and Prawn Carbonara) We supported the local club raffle and were delighted to hear our number called  out as we toasted the first day of our trip with an excellent Sauvignon Blanc



Prawns for dinner tomorrow night! Off to the Sunshine Coast tomorrow to catch up with friends and rellies over the next 4 days before we head further north. We were very comfy in our home on wheels by the Clarence River.



Signing off on day  one of our adventure!

Friday 16 April 2021

Three days to go. Thank goodness my edits are up to date. Packing is scattered throughout the house

 So the packing has begun in earnest. How many clothes does one need when going to the warm tropics, the winter outback (for more astrophotography), a tropical wedding and a writer's festival in June?

I am going to have to be ruthless, methinks!



I'm looking forward to the clear skies of the outback to practice my astrophotogaphy.


However before we get there, back to the packing problem. The boy raised his eyebrows at the boxes of books but when there is advertising on the  back of the caravan spare tyre, and the side of the ute, it's like travelling with a mobile book store!

So clothes or books? A problem to solve. Stay posted!

For those of you who have followed our travels over the past eight years of research and writing, you've seen us in a few different mobile homes.

One:  the trusty (basic and sort of functional) camper trailer, that took us to Kakadu, Daintree, the Kimberleys and Undara for researching four books


Two: The first caravan fell to bits around us and we didn't even take it off road! Traded in very quickly!



Three: we upgraded to our first FABULOUS Titanium caravan and this van took us did take us off the road and off the grid east of Alice Springs (for my 2022 book research) She passed with flying colours but we decided for future trips, we would go semi-off road so ... see number 4 below




Four: Our home for the next four months... a comfortable home away from home. Who knows where we'll end up!





Stay posted as the next three days fly past, the excitement builds and we leave on our adventure north.



Sunday 11 April 2021

 Nine more sleeps, friends and we are off!

Cooktown here we come.. for book research!


In the meantime... you can see the books from our earlier trips here:

https://www.annieseaton.net/


Stay posted... the journey is about to begin!


Anne and Ian