Start our travels again 15 Nov 2013

Hi All

We have picked up our new Van and are doing a shake down around Victoria for about a month, so we can work out how use some of the new gear and pick any faults that it may have.

So we headed off to Bendigo, towing the van was a breeze did not know it was there even when road trains passed the new ESC system seem to work OK because we did not feel the van being sucked into the road trains as it normally does.

Bendigo has a lot of history and some great old building, some of the highlights are the cathedral which took 80 year to complete due to lack of funds some of the other items that are a must to see are Alexander Fountain cicra July 5 1881, Hotel Shamrock formerly the Exchange Hotel which was renamed in 1855 and the Golden Dragon Museum which houses Loong and Sun Loong the oldest and longest Chinese Imperial Dragons in the World, it also now is home of a very large Jade chariot (see picture attached)

We had to move to another caravan park Marong 20km from Bendigo because of the large Caravan Show that was being held at Bendigo for 3 days and we wanted to go to the caravan and camping show so it was not far to travel back to Bendigo.

We are having a good look around the Bendigo, Heathcote and Lodden Valley Regions which also has a lot of history through these areas of Victoria.

Today we had a look at a free camp that I found and it looks a great place to spend a few days so tomorrow we are moving to the free camp and we can test the other good stuff in the caravan and I can do some fossicking with my metal detector and we can do some fishing because the free camp in right on the Lodden river.

That's all for now keep in touch and be safe Lee and Jim  

The Sacred Heart Cathedral

The Alexandra Fountain

 The Samrock Hotel

 Information Center

Bendigo Talking Tram

  The Court House

 The Jade Chariot

 One of the Dargons

Long trip Toowoomba Qld to Lake Entrance Vic

Hi

It us again, we have been moving a lot and looking at lots of nice places, see map below as to were we have been and the places we have seen.

As we have been moving south the weather is getting colder we are now in Cooma and the people in the next caravan drove up to Perisher, where there was a light Snow Fall, which was enough to make snowballs.

We are going for a days drive today up to the Adaminaby and Lake Eucumbene where the Snowy Mountain Dam and Hydro system is located, we will also look at some of the Snow fields and see if there is any snow. there wasn't any snow, what a shame.

We have taken some great pictures of the Mountains there are a lot of dead snow gum trees on the mountains someone told us it was from the big fire that hit Canberra years ago.

We head for Eden for 6 nights to rest do some fishing and may be a game of golf, and check out some places we did not see the first time thought this area.

After the week in Eden, resting and fishing (did not catch anything we could eat) only bait but still it was good to do.

We are now back in Lakes Entrance Victoria, we stopped here on the way up to Queensland 1 year ago and still had 5 nights we had paid for to use up. so that why we are stopping here to have another look  around and see if we can catch some fish here on our way to Melbourne to fly to Perth for 2 weeks

I hope to catch up with some of you in Perth while we are there.

Sorry I could not work out how to place map from Toowoomba Qld to Lakes Entrance Vic 

 Lee with statue of Gunsynd

 What a big one

 They new how to build a Post Office in the old days and it still a Post Office

 Chinese Garden

 Lee on a look out overtoowoomba

 Toowoomba Sign

 Strange Mountain in Coonabarabran

 Close of of the fallen mountain above strange fro

 Guess where

 Another tip

 Lovely flower

Lee again in flower garden Bathhurst

Maroochydore and Montville Qld

Hi All

Since the last blog we have had a good look round Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, Mooloolaba and Caloundra

Has some bad weather over hear and the well-known beach have had a battering most being blown away and the sand has washed out to sea, but other than that also still going well with us.

We head to Montville Qld to look after another small property for two weeks that has 2 horse's and a cattle dog, Montville is like a small English village and has lots of day time tourist's walking around.

The owner Ron and Pat are going bush in their camper trailer and they take their bike but unlike us they do a lot of bike riding around 50 to 100km a day,

Their dogs name is Billy and I take him to the bakery to pick old bread from the day before for the 2 horse's which I have to feed Am and Pm, they are getting used to me or I am getting better at handling them (I bought some carrots to get them on side).

Me and Billy has a 2 to 3 km walk twice a day some time into Montville and the locals all know billy and give him a pat or two some time we have taken him in the car for a day out for walks, one day we took him out to Maroochydore were we had lunch and then took him for a walk along the beach front we tried to on the beach but he did not like the water or the sand, but he is very well behave and is a lovely dog.

Lee feeds the 6 guinea fowl and me twice a day and they just roam around the area and are not caged, unlike me whom can't roam around and I am caged.

We had a good time relaxing and doing small day visits to the other small villages around the area while doing this house sit, We have know moved down to Toowoomba which is large City of about 200,000 people, will add this to are next Blog

We wish you all a happy Easter and be safe.

Regards Jim and Lee

 Lee with one of here Bingo friends

 Maroochydore

 Surfers Code

 Lee at the Medieval Castle in Bil Bil

The Ettamogah Pud

 Billy

Lee and Billy, he does not like the water

 One of the horse's he the nice one

 Us in the Fig Tree

 Lee feeding the good horse

 A poor old cow on a roof in Kitcoy, notice the two false legs

Noosa and Eumundi

Hi All

Hope this blog find you all well

I have had some problems with my blog, I think it's now fixed so I am adding two post to this one so I hope this one works OK.

3/2/2013

We have been looking around Tewantin, Noosa, Gympie, Tin Can Bay and Sunshine Coast which are all very nice and lots to see and do, We went and had a good walk up and down Hastings St lots on money around this area of Noosa,

Went on a Noosa Sunset Cruise with two couples from our caravan park it was a great way to look at Noosa from the river and have a drink or two

8/3/2013

We have now just finished doing a house sit in Eumundi for 3 weeks looking after a nice property and 3 dogs, Max, Jess and Sissy two poodles and a terrier, we walked them twice a day morning and late afternoon which was very good for us too.

Only had 3 days without rain (I think the rain gods are after us) but did manage to mow the large lawn and still walk dogs with umbrella up most of the time.

We managed to still see lot of the Hinterlands which is a beautiful place and has lots of small lovely towns.

The owner of the property were over the moon with what we had managed to do around their property with all the rain that Eumundi had.

We are currently in Maroochydore will post again when we leave here

All still going great but still miss all of you, stay in touch 

Jim and Lee

Nice little place on one canal in Noosa

 Hasting st Noosa

 Views of Noosa

 Views of Noosa

 Raining in Eumundi

 Flooding in  Eumundi

 Max, I not that dirty

 Jess and one of his toys

 Max and Missy

 Birds in the Rain

 The Pub

 Rain going in the tank

 Birds feeding in the dry

 Need your gum boots on this walkway