Greetings from Adels Grove again

Greetings from Adels Grove

2 April

Well, finally we have got around to re-starting our blog to give everyone an update on our travels since we left home at Bribie on Wed 2^nd April at about 2.00pm.

We just wanted to get out on the road and decided to head up the Bruce Highway, rather than doing the inland route, seeing we were at Bribie anyway.

We headed to Tiaro, south of Maryborough for our first night stop. The reserve area is behind the pub in town, (don’t blink you’ll miss Tiaro, even at 50 k’s/h).

3 April

Had a quiet night there, left the next morning at about 8.00. Had a rather painful trip up the highway because of continual roadwork’s, and that means when you go through 60k/h section with a stop/go included, get into 100k/h section for a couple of k’s and back to 60 again yeeeh!

Fuel costs were very good up as far as Childers, as little as 151.9 for dieso. It just crept up from there on, till 187.9 at the Burke and Wills Roadhouse and 2.05 at Adels Grove.

Continuing on we headed north and decided we would call into Les’ brother Paul and partner Michelle, even though Michelle was at work. They are in Gladstone area, so stopped in for a cuppa with Paul and my Aunt Wil.

As we departed Susan noticed a rather large crack in the windscreen which we must have picked up on the highway somewhere.

We continued north to Rocky and then headed west towards Emerald and on. We got as far as a small town along the coal line called Duaringa.

The overnight stop in the reserve area at the entrance to town was great spot with toilets, hot showers etc.

Not long after we pulled up and found what we thought was a nice spot for the night, a traveller from one of the other half dozen vans there, came over and suggested we move as the local Council were in the process of trying to move a colony of flying foxes each morning at around 4.00am. The flying foxes appeared to have found a new home at night in the small oasis set in the middle of the park.

So we decided we had better move a bit further away as they tended to fly over where we were parked.

We were happily watching TV and lights on, running off our van battery, when after about 2 hours, the whole lot died. It appeared the battery hadn’t kept up with the power usage and may have been faulty, (seeing it’s new like the van, we weren’t too happy). At this point we emailed the van sales place to ask if they had any suggestions regarding the battery.

The next morning, well before sunrise, we were woken by a smell of gas/fog which was the council workers using fogging machines to start to move the flying foxes on. They then started with horns, loud canon type guns, flashing lights and large roadworks type lighting to move the flying foxes on. We managed to dose off again once they had left the area.

4 April

We then headed off further west towards Emerald and decided we had better phone the van sales place on the GC and try and find out what the deal was and whether they had any suggestions, as we thought the battery may be faulty as the solar panel showed it was charging over the last couple of days.

We spoke to them as we were about to leave Emerald as we were going through Longreach and thought we may be able to have it looked at there. As it turned out, there wasn’t going to be anyone open on Sat morning, so figured we better try and find someone in Emerald to check the battery. We eventually found a 4wd place who tested the battery under load and discovered the battery was faulty.

We then had to look at a new battery, which ended up being $475, thank you very much!

So we had that sorted and back on the road toward Longreach and beyond. Stopped in Longreach for some supplies. Only IGA in town, no woolies or coles, was surprised.

We continued on to Barcaldine van park and plugged in to top up new battery. They had there first night of take away chinese meals from the van park shop, very nice.

Also checked the famous tree of knowledge, which is credited with being the birth place of the Australian Labor Party.

We didn’t do a lot of touristy stuff on the way as they were keen to get us here for work. We will be taking our time when we head off later in the year, once finished here.

5 April

Left Barcaldine, towards our next o/night stop at rest area north of Mckinlay. Passed through Kynuna, (Blue Heeler Hotel) and Mckinlay,          ( Walkabout Creek Hotel – from Croc Dundee fame). Battery behaving itself and running everything.

6 April

Left rest area and continued to Burke and Wills Roadhouse, where we decided to stay the night plugged in to power. The temps have been 37+ since Longreach, so decided we would stop there and get a good sleep with air con running before heading into Adels Grove.

PS has anyone seen my Burke and Wills cap we bought after our last trip through there in 2012?? Been MIA for some time.

7 April

Headed off to Adels Grove and arrived around lunch time to get ourselves set up. We have a nice little spot on a little hill. Still been mid 30’s here since then though.

We both started work 9 April. We have one rdo a week and it is going to be very busy here during easter already.

15 April

Our RDO has come already,  we are sitting at our favourite little creek setting bout 5 k's from Adels Grove on Lawn Hill Ck. Very quiet and private here, we bring our brekkie and cook up here, and of course we get reception here which makes thing easy, hence the blog update finally.

Have had a very busy week already, easter looking like going to be full here.

We didn't bring our camera with photos of trip and Adels, so will include them next time round.

We have had further issues with our van, the washing machine leaks when draining and the cd/dvd unit not working. 

bit of a pain when we don't have tv reception, so can't even have movies to watch. They are posting us a new unit so hopefully that will fix it.

cheers for now, love to all.

Les and Susan