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

Homeward bound

Well the time has come, we are leaving Adels Grove this Sunday 30th Sept.

 

By the time we get home we will have been on the road for nearly 11 months.

 

We should be home by Sun 7 Oct just in time for Bathurst, of course!!

 

 

We have been very busy here and the time has flown over the last five weeks.

 

we will be catching up with everyone as soon as we can, plan to be around home for a couple of months or so.

 

leave you with an early morning shot the  dining and bar deck at Adels Grove

 

see you all soon

 



hi again everyone

Quick post with cupl of photos

still plenty of work susan still busy at reception having school groups coming through next week and again during the holidays.

We will be heading back home from here at the end of Sept for a little while.

This was Les's office for the last three days

Les was in charge of hiring out canoes on the lawn hill creek at the gorge, not bad.

View of the gorge from the canoe ramp

Lawn Hill Gorge from the canoe

We will update again soon



Hi again everyone,

Wow, been very busy here with a variety of groups coming through, from the usual bus tour groups to RFDS air race, which had 20 light aircraft on our airstrip to the Variety Bash on Wed night, bar didn’t close till 12.30am.

 

Les has been running tours on his own now for the last two days. He is taking tours to the Riversleigh Fossil fields which incorporate one of the first fossil dig sites at Riversleigh in 1976. The fossilised bones of animals here dated back from today to 25 million years ago, quite fascinating. Also doing short afternoon tours up a local hill for sunset viewing with wine and nibblies and a chat about Lawn Hill Station and the Century zinc mine which is only 7 k’s from here.

 

Susan is very busy each day at reception, dealing with the tours groups, local aborigines who come in for fuel, groceries etc and learning the RMS booking system.

 

We are both involved in helping with dishes etc of an evening and Les is also running the bar on various days.

 

We are feeling quite comfortable here, and have been made very welcome. One of the guys is already stirring Susan about her seeping the leaves around the van, they reckon they are going to put a board up and mark it each time someone sees her sweeping, good bunch of people.

 

We had also mad some friends from Bedrock and the Italian chef and her partner may be visiting us at home around Christmas time, so that would be great.

 

This one short and sweet but only have limited access to the net of course, but will update again as soon as we can. Be home again in a few weeks.

 

 

Still in the land of the living!!

No, we haven’t fallen off the end of the earth, even though we feel like we are somewhere near the edge, now being at Adels Grove, Lawn Hill on the outskirts of Lawn Hill National Park.

But we don’t have easily accessible internet or phone access at the Grove.

So, we will now attempt to update our last few weeks of activity since our last post.

 Update, 30August, sending this from Lawn Hill National Park, only place to get decent reception

Susan’s shoulder has healed quite well after we had been to the physio in Atherton for two sessions two days running.

Once we returned from Atherton, things quitened down considerably at Bedrock so we were advised the work would be slowing and we decided to leave and chase some other work.

At this time, we decided to contact Adels Grove as there was another couple working there who we had become friends with from Emerald as we were working together there.

Subsequently, Adels Grove had people leaving in the last week of August, one tour guide and his partner who  was doing reception etc. We contacted the owners and discussed what options there may be available for us. She advised us we could have between two and six weeks work, with Les being able to continue some tour guiding and Susan reception. We will also be doing a variety of other work, including some cleaning, kitchen bar work etc. We decided to give it a go and said we would have to wait for bub to be born, head home and then back and finish packing.

 

So, on Wednesday 15 Aug Tanya and Luke’s bub was born, early hours after a quite long labour. His name is Jaxtin William, 8.4lbs. he is beautiful of course and they all doing well. In the mean time we had already booked flights for the Wed night as we decided to head down anyway.

 

We spent a week down home and caught up with most of the family. Had a nice week especially seeing Jaxtin the next day at the hospital and surprising most of them as Jodie picked us up from the airport late wed night.

 

Once we returned to Mt Surprise we spent the first night back over at the pub and most of the staff joined us for drinks. We then finished packing Thursday and headed off Friday morning. We spent one night at a free camp half way between Normanton and Burke and Wills Roadhouse, then continued on to Adels Grove on the Saturday via Gregory Downs. The road from Gregory Downs to Adels Grove is 80 klms of dirt road and heaps of dust. We survived that okay, little dust in the van but plenty outside. Last 15 klms was quite rough as the first section is maintained by the Century zinc mine and was reasonable, even though you have to deal with triple road trains on the dirt.

 

 

So we went from this:

 

To this:

 

 

It is literally an oasis in the middle of nowhere, quite an amazing place.

 

  

We thought Mt Surprise was small and basic, well it’s nothing compared to here, we are it, mail and food deliveries once a week from Mt Isa. Working 6 days a week at the moment and maybe five when a bit quieter late Sept, but then school holidays end of Sept and early Oct will pick up again. Michelle, the owner sat with us on Sunday arvo to discuss things and already asked if we were interested in coming back next year. Looks like we will be here till end of first week of Oct, then make our way home for a little while. See how it all goes from there.

Then we are heading to the Gold Coast V8's for a week can't wait.

 

Well, till we get reception again bye for now.

 

Susan and Les

 

hi again everyone.

we are currently in Townsville for five days and heading

back to Mt Surprise on Tuesday.

Further to Susan's shoulder injury from the bike accident,

she managed to see the flying doctor after having been

for xrays and ultrasounds whilst on our last trip

to Cairns. Not good news about the shoulder, the doctor

said she would have to see a specialist as it appears there

was torn ligaments/tendons, basically what

they refer to as a rotated cuff injury.

So susan had the doctor complete a workcover form and

referral to a specialist. Susan tried the specialist in

Cairns, but could not get in till end of Sept.

We then decided to try a couple of others in Townsville also and

were lucky enough to get an appointment for Thurs

19th at 3.30pm. Our scheduled break was to start on the Friday

so we advised the boss we would have to leave early

and not sure when we would be back.

we managed to get to the specialist after the five and half hour drive to Townsville. He was very abrupt and totally lacking

in bedside manners, however we needed to get things looked at. he advised from the xray there would be a need for

an operation, but still wnated an MRI.

to cut a long story short we managed to convince the xray

people we had to have it done quickly. Managed to have it

done Friday morning, buit the surgeon was in surgery both Friday and Monday and they advised we would have to

see him personally, rather than do it by phone.

So we have to see him Tues morning early then head back to mt surprise again. what a pain.

looking like surgery is going to be the go, will find out when once we visit him again.

other than that it is a nice break in townsville,
some forced relaxation.
We wil email info about Susan once we know.

Wedgetailed Eagle on the highway, was about to become
the next road kill by a semi

Bedrock owner's son, Toby

had been out chasing pigs with his dogs.

Susan asked where he got them and he

said straight away, "behind your van!"

Susan wasn't impressed, Toby has a very quick wit.

Very heavy fog/cloud at the Ravenshoe wind farm

Signing off for now talk soon

QUEENSLANDER

Yes finally an update!!

hi everyone, we have been flat out for 11 days till last

Wednesday including anothe state of origin party here.

Les has been doing tours every day and Susan

been flat out at reception, just crazy.

GO QUEENSLANDER!!! YEEHAAA

Well, most recently, headed to Cairns for our four day break from Thurs to Sunday.

We left Bedrock on Thurs morning and arrived Cairns

lunch time, had a very restful afternoon.

Friday morning Les went out to get breakfast.

Les had been gone for nearly an hour and Susan rang

to find out where he was. Because he had not come back

in a reasonable time, Susan thought

Les had been in accident as she does.

Susan rang to find out where he was and Les tod her

Maccas was ver busy due to school holidays and

would be back soon.

Les arrived back at the unit, and after he got inside

there was a knock on the door. Les told Susan to

get the door, so Susan went to the door.

When she opened the door, there was Emmerson standing at the door and Erin and Jodie then showed their faces.

Well, Susan broke into tears of course.

Susan is a hard one to surprise at the best of times,

so some white lies were told, even the boss at

Bedrock was in the know to make sure it was all sorted.

So we had a good couple of days together,

went to Kuranda on the train, checked out the markets

etc, then returned on the Skyrail cable car back down.

Pic of the girls together

Together at Barron Falls on the scenic railway

Emmerson having fun at the honey house in Kuranda

That's all for now update again soon, cheers