During 2000 and in between blogs I did not have available to me a lot of time and possibly due to some slackness on my part I did not do a lot of postings. When I retired I decided that I wanted to get the blog as accurate as I could and over time I did take many photos of events that happened during 2000 and some times before.

I have the blog set up as a record of times and dates which I have inserted in various dates and times so that there is some consistency with dates and times in the blog and also I have commented on each date so that when I have finished the blog I can print it off as a story.

NEXT STAGE OF OUR TRAVELS

25th July 2020

A lot of water has run under the bridge since we left South Australia for Darwin.  Due to the worsening of the pandemic in Victoria and NSW we decided to start the trip up to Darwin on the 25th July 2020 for a number of reasons.

The first reason was that we were to meet about 30 people in Darwin for the spreading of the ashes of Maree's brother over Darwin Harbour as that was his last request. More about that later.

On the 25th July 2020 we finished packing the van for the trip after we had it serviced at the local service centre and commenced our trip to NT.

During the time we were in SA we had a diesel heater fitted to our caravan and also we had the Baby Q Weber that we had, fitted to the rear of the van on a slide out tray and also had a gas bayonet fitting fitted to the van so that we could use the BBQ from the gas supply on the van and not a separate bottle.

Once that was done and we left home we needed to stop at Port Wakefield so that we could have fitted a cover over the BBQ which we had previously ordered from the canvas maker. So we stopped off there and had it fitted. The pictures don't show the cover as it has bird droppings on it and I will show it later when it is clean.

This is the BBQ opened with the Pizza stone on it (Pizza last night)

 

This is the BBQ closed and the tray locked in

After we had the canvas fitted to the BBQ we fuelled up and left Port Wakefield to commence our travel North to the NT. The first stop was at Woomera in SA and we needed a couple of things so we drove to the local IGA to purchase before heading into the BIG 4 caravan park at the end of town.

It is a nice caravan park as we had stayed at it on a number of times previously and knew the layout of the park and we jagged a spot near the dunnies which was very convenient. As the NT border had only just been opened there was a lot of travellers on the road and the park was reasonably full.

The weather was warming up slightly and we used the new diesel heater that we had fitted to under the bed and it warmed the place up nicely. That was the last time we used the diesel heater so far on the trip. As you will understand shortly.

Next day we left Woomera and recommenced our journey North and our next stop was at Coober Pedy where we had also stayed previously on a number of occasions. The trip from Woomera was uneventful and the caravan park that we stayed at has its own Italian Pizza restaurant and we like to have a glass of wine and a pizza in the restaurant but to our despondency it had not at this stage opened from the border closures and we had to cook our own dinner in the van. Maybe on the way back.

We headed for the caravan parking spots and set ourselves up for the night and sadly cooking our own meal in the van. That night we slept without a heater and the windows closed as the we were getting a little closer to the tropics and its weather so the need was not there for a heater.

Next morning we headed into town and fuelled up the car and off to our next destination which was across the NT border at Erldunda. 

I mentioned earlier that there was a couple of reasons that we wanted to go to Darwin and the second reason was to meet up with about 30 other friends and Maree's relations so that we could attend a scattering of the ashes of Maree's brother over Darwin harbour which was his last request. I mentioned this in my last post.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - Sort of

G'Day we are on the road again (Sort of):-

Its now nearing the end of May 2020 and although we have been stuck in Queensland now for some time about 7 weeks and the end looks not too far away we are still here. The restrictions are slowly lifting in Queensland and we are allowed to go 50 kms in lieu of 5-10 kms from our base on the Sunshine Coast. 

We took the opportunity to drive to Caboolture on a couple of occasions to buy essentials since they were lifted and we live in hope that they get lifted further

I rang the local Police station to enquire about moving from the Sunshine Coast to the border with NSW so that we could start our trip home. The police advised that we could travel through Queensland as soon as the restrictions for travel are lifted further.

I also contacted the NSW government and enquired about travelling through NSW and they advised that we were free to travel through NSW as long as we were travelling home to SA.  

About a week or so later the restrictions to travel were raised to 250 kms and we then decided that it was time to go home. We left the Sunshine Coast around mid June and headed towards Broken Hill as we would not be allowed to travel through Victoria and Mildura.

So we decided to drive a route that we had not been on before so we headed out to Kilcoy, Moonie where we stayed the night. 

The sign out the front of the road house in Moonie

A sign out the front of the park painted in the form of a truck. At first it was deceiving.

The caravan park was a road house style park and we parked up the van in the area nominated to us and as the weather was reasonably nice we opened to van up and then set up the satellite TV for eception and then just vegetated until the next morning.

The next morning we left Moonie and drove towards St George and closer to the border with NSW which was open and had not been closed during the pandemic. It was very strange as every bordre was closed except NSW.

 

After we drove through St George we then headed South West towards Cobar which was our next stop over point where we stayed the night.

Cobar caravan park

The locals out back are pretty big on painting walls in caravan parks

The trusty old van and car in the park

We left Cobar the next morning commenced our journey West to Wilcannia which is about half way between Cobar and Broken Hill and as it turned out was a reasonable style caravan park.

Parked just outside the amenities block in the park

View of the amenities block

The BBQ in the kitchen area of the park

This park in Wilcannia is where Jim and Linda helped to build some time ago and it really looks very nice. It has a lot of motel style rooms and plenty of caravan spots in it and it is worth stopping at here if ever you are passing.

Next morning further west to Broken Hill which is the last stop at the border with SA. The trip was not a sight seeing trip as we had to get to the SA border in the most direct way so that we could get home. However we decided to stay a couple of days at Broken Hill before we had to isolate for two weeks in SA.  We kept to ourselves and only went into town when we needed to. The park is kms out of town so we decided that it was safe to stay as we had isolated in Qld for about 10 weeks and we did not have nay of the symptoms.

There were very few people in the caravan park which was a very nice park as it turned out and had not stayed here before as it was fairly new. 

The entrance to the caravan park off the main highway

This is the reception/hotel/restaurant building in the park

We were only 1 of three vans in the park at this time

On the 8th  June we left Broken Hill and drove towards the SA border where we were stopped by the Police and our particulars were recorded and then told that we had to travel direct to Ardrossan and to Isolate at home.  

At last we had made it home on the same day 8th June 2020. Our isolation started on 9th June until midnight on the 22nd June 2020. We had been in Queensland for about 10 weeks and although we were lucky enough to stay with a friend in her front yard in our caravan it was still an experience that would have been better as a social event and not a forced isolation away from home.

The two weeks isolation was good as far as we were concerned as it gave us the opportunity to get things done around the place including packing up a lot of our belongings in preparation for the cut back of our onsite van that has been forced on us by the local council. (A totally different story that I will share at a later time). 

The two weeks passed without too much concern or issues and we were lucky enough to have the local Drakes Supermarket deliver our groceries during the isolation period. 

After we concluded our isolation we decided to go down to Stansbury with the caravan and stay at Maree's sisters place as we had some repairs to the caravan to be done and Peter did the honours for us. We also decided that we would have a diesel heater fitted to the van for the colder periods and Peter would do that for us also so we ordered one and had to wait a couple of weeks for it to be delivered. 

We stayed the weekend at Stansbury and then headed back to our home and parked the van up for a couple of weeks. 

Our next project that we had planned involved driving up to Darwin so the Maree could attend her brother's scattering of the ashes into Darwin Harbour and a group of about 30 people were booked to attend and we would have a bang up party to see him off.

The pandemic was worsening in particular down South in Victoria and it appears that a second wave was about to be spread around the country.   

See ya next post