I just got out of intensive care today from Townsville hospital after trying to make tea in a Billy Can for the first time this morning. I was trying hard to get it right in an attempt to appease Claire’s requirement of tea once every 15 minutes of the day. Sadly the Billy tipped to far in my direction and the boiling water frayed my wool. Lucky there were some burn experts that have enabled me to be back at camp to cook dinner for Claire and the gang. I am starting to think that Auntie Jane would appreciate my culinary skills more…

hi Georgina, Hannah, Hannah, nana, grandad, dad, jacque, gran, grandad, maisie, henry, belle, kay and paul, and any else who has sent any messages.

i am missing you all very much but i am having a great time here.one of the nights we stayed right on the beach and we made a fire and it was fun.

we also last night we stayed in a really weird campsite, it was good but it had a really big spider yuck!it had a really cute dog and pet birds.

we havent always got internet so we cant write every day but we can today. on thursday we stayed on a beach with no one else there is have  a great view and it was one of my favourate camp spots so far and I would like to go there again. on friday we went up this small mountain and stayed up there for a night it was realy cold and i didnt realy like it we played games all night to pass the time. on saturday we and stayed in a nice site were we saw platypus and turtle in the river but the only bad thing was in the morning in was crazy rain and everything got wet and muddy but it was still really good. sunday we have mainly been travelling but now we are in a caravan park and sunny so far.by the way people a swag is just a small tent and im in one in the picture.missing you all,see you soon…………jack

Just arrived here in a campsite with hot showers and a pool. We haven’t visited the area yet but I’m documenting it anyway so I don’t forget what I’ve been doing when I get home. Apologies for lots of this blog being boring but I don’t want to forget anything. Thanks to everyone for your messages. It’s good to know people are reading it. We don’t often have time to reply personally as we have to pay for internet access and by the time we’ve completed the blog and answered work emails, we run out of time!

This part of Queensland is sugar cane country. Over the past couple of days we have travelled through several hundred kilometres of sugar cane fields. Little train tracks run around all the plantations and the cane gets shredded and transported in hundreds of metal cages. After a nice lunch in a seaside town called Mackay we travelled into Eungella National Park. We arrived after dark and set up in a bush site. It was bloody freezing as the park is part of the great dividing range (A huge mountain range that runs from North of Australia to the South.) and therefore very high up. We were all dressed in pretty much everything we had, and slept in it too! In the morning we went for a rainforest walk along ‘Broken River’ We were extremely lucky to see a baby platypus playing in the river. It was so cute. Platypus are very shy creatures and are normally only spotted in early morning or at dusk. I think this one was out without it’s mum knowing! Unfortunately we couldn’t get a photo of it but did catch this turtle swimming at the same time.

I may have mentioned earlier that Aussie Auntie Jan lent me a toilet seat on legs. It came in handy in Cape Palmeston National Park where we had a fantasic night on a secluded beach. It was us and a couple of kilometres of sandy beach. See attached pictures. Robbie and Jack made a great fire using Jack’s techniques learnt at scouts. In the morning we shampooed up and had a lovely bath in the ocean.

It goes back to as far as I can remember when the family would hit the road for the camping trip to the coast or some lovely national park there would enevitably be the welcomed fuel stop where us complaining children (all 5 of us) stopped asking “how far is it?” and the ongoing inter-child battles ceased temporarily. This was due to the important Australian ceremony of eating a hot Chiko Roll from the church called the Service Station. Now it was hard not to build up this momentous occasion when talking to Claire, Jack and Bronte about what they were about to experience. So I only told them just 5 minutes before we stopped at some unknown town in the middle of nowhere with little more than a house or two and a big service station in the middle. I later found out that 5 minutes is far too long and under the heavy questioning by the family I had built up the reputation far too much. All I can say is that they loved it immensely.

We are in heaven, a night in a normal campsite with toilets, showers and a pool. I never thought I’d enjoy one of those sites where you are squeezed into your alloted space with your neighbours about a metre from you. It’s bliss though, we have our own tap and an electric hook up. We’ve boiled water in a kettle instead of a billy can and there are no scrub turkeys stealing your food at any opportunity. Scrub turkeys are funny, they are everywhere, look similar to our turkeys, get into everything, eat anything and make these huge nests by scuffing up debris with their feet. Another common scavinger is the Ibis. In fact they are walking around as I write. Cousin Henry would love the birds here. They are so colourful and pretty. If you read this Henry, look up the birds I’ve mentioned along with Rosellas and Kookaburras. We see lots of those. We also saw a wedge-tailed eagle. Rockhampton is a pretty town situated on a large river. It is surrounded by mountains. We arrived just before 5pm. The sunset was lovely. Today we are following the Bruce Highway up North. Who knows where we’ll stop next!

We started our road trip on Monday. We travelled for about 8 hours on the first day. It rained pretty much non stop. It was cold and wet and we had to pitch up in the dark at our beach campsite in a place called Seventeen Seventy. Tempers were frayed at this point! In the morning it was still raining but the kids went down to the lovely beach and swam in the sea. Supposedly it was pretty warm but I wasn’t willing to risk it! Later on in the day we made a decision to move to another campsite in Deepwater National Park. It was our first off road experience and we all thought it was pretty cool. Bronte thought it was like something out of jurassic park. The landscape was beautiful and like nothing I have ever seen. We camped in a small bush site in the forest. It was very basic. One compost toilet and a bore hole tap. We managed to cook a pretty good meal. After dinner we walked down to the beach where the kids went swimming again despite it being freezing. The beach was beautiful and we were the only people on it. We managed to catch the most awesome sunset. I thought that you couldn’t top the sunsets in HillHead but this was something else. It felt like the sky, the sand and the sea were melting into each other. It was a surreal experience. The attached pictures show the moment but the pictures just don’t do it justice as I didn’t have a proper camera with me. In the morning we were woken up by the scrub turkeys pecking at our saucepans. Hurrah, the sun is shining. We walk down to the beach again for another swim. The waves are huge. Again we are the only people on the beach. See the attached pictures of the camping area and beach.

Bush camping ain’t no walk in the park. Firstly you are normally miles from civilisation. No electricity, no drinking water, no proper toilets, no showers, no shops and worse still, no internet connection! If you arrive late (after 5pm) you have to set up in the dark which is tricky when you need to check the area for spiders and snakes.

Talking of spiders, we saw our first big one on the wall of a toilet in Agnes Rock. It was huge and hairy, possibly a huntsman. Unfortunately I had my trollies down my ankles at the time. You can picture the scene! That said, other than big garden spiders, we haven’t seen any others. For those of you out there with a spider phobia like me, don’t let it put you off visiting this country. The gossip about them is worse than the reality, well in winter anyway!

The advantages are huge however. You are generally camped in the most beautiful spots, away from the tourists and bogans (look that one up). The landscapes are amazing and the sky at night is amazing…pitch black with a billion stars. There is also a sense of achievement at the end when you’ve survived a few days without changing your knickers or washing your hair!