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!

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.

 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

Cold weather... warm welcome

Day five of the trek to the centre

Today was our third day in lovely Echuca with our travel buddies, John and Julie. The caravan park here is really good (the Discovery on the river at Echuca) A fabulous camp kitchen... last night Chef Ian cooked fish, and we shared the table with 8 travellers from the Central Coast and Dubbo, who are also heading our way.

Ian and Anne

 

Julie and Anne

Today we went on the only authentic paddle steamer, the Alexander Arbuthnot at Echuca for a VERY chilly ride downstream. Alexander Arbuthnot (or “AA” as she is affectionately known) is special because she is the last paddle steamer to be built as a working boat on the Murray River during the riverboat trade era.
We had a smile as the engineer heated up his chunky soup on the edge of fire box.

Lunch for the engineer

Beechworth Bakery... great vegie pasties

When we disembarked we headed straight to the Beechworth  Bakery for the second day in a row. Yesterday we met up there with friends Alan and Cathy (from Tamworth) who have come to town especially for my library talk! Today the pies and pasties and huge coffees warmed us up before we headed to the collectable shop in the old part of town. An Old Timer knife that Ian collects (at a bargain price)  and two original edition Enid Blyton books added to the goods to take home.

The car was lighter however after a fabulous afternoon at the library where I sold some books and enjoyed the interaction with a wonderful audience.
 https://www.facebook.com/CampaspeLibrary Regional Library Service made me very welcome.

Home to the caravan park and Chef Ian cooked a hot chicken and potato curry to warm us up. Barman John was in charge of the flagon of port that somehow made its way into the shopping today.
Another great day in pretty and welcoming, albeit cold, Echuca!
Tomorrow we make our way west.

Sunset from the camp kitchen

How to cope with the cold

So we're from the coast and we aren't used to the cold. AT ALL!
Did we cope? We did!

Today:
 I found an awesome second bookshop that had TWO Annie Seaton books... Whitsunday Dawn and Daintree and some fabulous 1930s historical books on Alice Springs  that now belong to me (research gold!)

Today:
 we learned:

• a fan heater in the caravan works wonders for keeping warm
• as does a singlet, many jumpers, a coat and a beanie
• a tasting of liqueur muscat before lunch was VERY warming, as was a purchase of a pretty bottle of said muscat
• the crazy three on our trip went for a SWIM while the one sensible person (me!) observed.
• We visited the Port of Echuca, called into the library to prepare for tomorrow's talk.
• Found a warm camp kitchen to cook dinner, drink wine and rum, and meet fellow travellers.. one of the best parts of touring

Tomorrow... the library talk at Echuca

Today in pictures:

Mad travellers in 12 degree temperatures!

Tomorrow!

The mighty Murray

St Anne's Muscat

The highlight of my day!

Heading west and south

On a brilliant sunny (but chilly) morning on the last day of May, we set off from our beachside home, heading off on our latest adventure.

Our two goals:

1.  Have a fabulous seven weeks exploring parts of our wonderful country that we haven't seen before
2. Gather research material for my 2021 contracted novel East of Alice.

At Wellington Caves Day 2

Snow clouds?

We headed south for three hours before turning west to the Golden Highway. Conscious of the long distance we had to travel on our first day (680 kilometres) we warmed up with a quick coffee as we refuelled at Raymond Terrace and then a couple of hours later, had a banana each for lunch as we travelled west.

SES muster!

Our first stop was the Wellington Caves Caravan Park for a quick overnight stop. Ah, a very nice park, but we weren't expecting to see the 1000 State Emergency Personnel to be camped around the park (in flimsy tents on a freezing night.) I suppose if we'd got locked  in the van or the amenities block, there were plenty of rescuers on hand! They were there for three days of simulated cave rescues. We were tired and it was too cold to cook outside, so creamed corn on toast and a very early night completed our first day on the road.

The Learys and the Careys

The following day we turned south and travelled through previously unvisited locales: Parkes, Forbes and West Wyalong heading for our destination of Coolamon, where we caught up with friends I had met n a Trafalgar tour of Europe three years ago! A great afternoon was spent and the Aussie Rules local derby and then a night at the local pub. My dinner of merlot infused beef ragu with gnocchi and parmesan was the best meal out ever!

The Murray River at Tocumwal

Keeping warm with Julie

Up the next morning and through previously unexplored territory, excited to meet up with our travelling buddies, John and Julie, in Echuca.  A pretty drive on a sunny day to the Victorian border where we had our first sighting of the might Murray river at Tocumwal. We set up camp and then headed into explore Echuca. Another lovely meal in front of the fire at the Shamrock hotel topped off a great day.  We met two fun locals who were full of interesting stories:  a nuclear physicist and an accountant who have promised to drum up business for my library talk on Tuesday! 

Day 3: We have woken up to steady rain but that will not deter us from exploring Echuca! 

Stay posted.

Beautiful Rollingstone Beach Resort

You may have wondered why we have been so quiet this week. 

The picture above says it all... that is where we camped for the last five days. We left Airlie Beach and headed north to Rollingstone Beach, 60 kilometres north of Townsville.  A camping spot that we will be sure to return to. Our van backed onto the beach and we listened to the sounds of the waves lapping the sand as we drifted off to sleep each night. We met up with our longtime friends, Christine and Peter Toth, and had a very relaxing time. Walking, reading, eating, drinking and laughing for five days.

Our campsite on the edge of the beach

The beach there was beautiful and Ian and Peter spent a lot of time fishing and putting out crab traps. A few small fish were caught, but alas no crabs.

The highlight of the week was barracking for the maroons (me) in the outdoor bar as we watched the second state of origin on the big screen.

Fun with the Tothies!

Fishing, fishing, fishing

Great scenery

Relaxation plus

Are there crocodiles?

Great walks every day

One of the best things...and you know I love them...were the sunrises, sunsets and a spectacular moon rise!

The colours of the beach were amazing as the tide went out (A LONG way) and the sunset lit up the rocks.

The setting sun also made us look red! But that could have been the time we spent in the sun.

Watching the boys fish!

Watch out for crocodiles!

A very enjoyable few days... the pictures tell it all.  We've now packed up and moved back to Airlie Beach... stay posted for the fishing charter reports and photos!