Biloela

Diary entry
30/3/07
Travelled to Biloela (pronounced bill oh wheel uh) to stay with my Uni friend, Robyn.

She has 4 children Chelsea 9,Comack 7, Callum 4 and Caitlin 2.

Had lunch at Rolleston on the way.


I love this diary entry of Evan's (remember Evan is only 9):

At Biloela we stayed at Robbin's place. I know this sounds weird but she's a girl.

On the first day I played with the swords, knives, guns and daggers.

Then the next morning Ashley, Robbin's husband took us motorbike riding.  They were small because they're PeeWee 50's. And when we got back we watched some of cars. (the movie)

On the third day I played sword fights with Callum.

On the last day just before we left I played blocks with Caitlyn.

I enjoyed it.

I wrote: "I'm glad that you enjoyed visiting my friend and her family :)"

Over the next two days I added these entries to my diary:
Went motor bike riding. The 7 kids are all getting along great.
Decided to stay an extra night as everyone is getting on so well.

Went to the Silo - Biloela's Tourist Attraction.

Was Great to catch up with Robyn - we seem to have more in common now than we did at Uni.

Carnarvon Gorge

Wards Canyon

On the 26th of March we packed up camp from the Bunya Mountains and travelled on to Carnarvon Gorge where we spent four days.  Besides lists of what I was getting the children to do for their school work, I actually wrote up a diary entry of our walk up the Canyon.  here it is:

28/3/07
Walked up Carnarvon Gorge with Fred the Aboriginal ranger. He entertained Harry all the way and got him to walk 5.3km to the art Gallery. The art gallery consisted of a whole lot of Aboriginal etchings, stick paintings and blow paintings on the rocks.

On the way back we revisited Wards Canyon which housed giant ferns; and the Moss Gardens - rocks all covered in mosses. Both Canyons were a nice cool respite from the heat of the gorge.

Evan's Diary entry is as follows:

The walk we went on had only ten crossings you could cross.

On day seven  we went on the main walk and we saw the beautiful art gallery.

I went ahead of everyone else and met some ex-teachers at the moss gardens and ward's canyon.

It was a long walk but was worth it.

But my legs were aching.

I wrote in response: Yes, it was a long way. I agree, it was worth it.



Bunya Mountains

Yesterday, I started to blog about our 2007 trip around Australia. Since then Sarah has reclaimed her travel diary, declaring that she will be the one to publish her writing.  That leaves me with just my own diary entries, my memories and Evan's diary.  At this point he shows little inclination to start blogging himself even though he is a fabulous writer.
After spending a full day in the Border Ranges we packed up camp and travelled to the Bunya Mountains via Toowoomba.  South East Queensland was in the grip of a severe drought and this fact was evident as we travelled through the countryside to Toowoomba.  Toowoomba was dangerously close to running out of water and were investigating the possibly of reclaiming sewage as a source of water.  Ironically, a few years into the future in 2011 this arid valley was to be the scene of devastating floods that would roar down towards Brisbane and inundate huge areas of that city.

See to the right how dry the valley is

As we approached the NSW/Queensland border we travelled up Lions Road and saw the spiral loop railway. It is an amazing construction that enables the rail line to spiral up a steep slope that would normally be too much of a gradient for a train to mount.

We loved the Bunya Mountains and, in particular, the Bunya nuts.  They were huge and delicious, like great big pine nuts.  We tried them prepared in a couple of ways, boiled like potatoes and roasted with melted butter, yum.

The trees themselves are magnificent, as are the hoop pines. The forests are tall, dark and peaceful, and lend themselves to exploration and long walks.

 We did a few walks while we were there as well as visiting the main tourist area where we fed the King Parrots.

Evan wrote in his diary about the Bunya Mountains:

25.3.07
On Sunday we went to Paradise Parking.  We went on some walks like the Paradise Falls walk.

On one of the walks we got to walk under a big fig.
On the big falls lookout walk we saw a green snake that wouldn't move so we decided to go to Dandabar for lunch. I had calamari and chips and lift for a drink.

Then we had to take the long walk back.

Read some of Sarah's account here.
I am slowly adding our Australia trip to you tube.  Here is the one for our Bunya Mountains stint.

2007 Travel diary: Day 1

 Pre-trip

I have found some of our diary entries from our 2007 Australian trip.  I have already posted two letters here and here that I wrote from Darwin which give a snap shot from the middle of the trip.  I home schooled the kids while we were travelling and a part of our lessons was to encourage them to write about their experiences.  I remember that at times it felt like trying to get blood out of a stone.  Steve wrote extensively, going through a couple of books.  I believe he intends to write his notes up onto his blog at some stage.  I was a slow starter, probably because I was riding the kids trying to get them to write.  About the time that I picked up writing, they seemed to ease off.  I thought that I'd share some of our (Evan, Sarah and my) writings here.

Okay firstly my entry for 21/3/07...boring!!!lol.
pack clothes
medical supplies
kitchen goods - curry pwd, mixed herbs, salt, pepper, vegemite, peanut butter, tea, coffee. Whisk, metal bowl, silicon bowl.
Leave for trip
Harry - Preschool/ homework
Sarah - maths book pages
Evan - maths book pages
Lunch @ KFC $36.00
Casino - shopping -woollies, petrol
Set up camp Border Ranges.

Thrilling, huh?

Evan hasn't got an entry for this day, but Sarah wrote quite a bit:

Day 1 Wednesday 21st March 21/3/07

Dear Diary

Day 1 and we're off. FINALLY. It took us ages and ages to pack and get everything ready. Mum had to vacuum all the rooms then mop the hard floors as well.  It was 1:15 by the time we were on the road and then we went and got lunch at KFC. It was well into the afternoon before we got to Casino.

I finished 2 pages in my maths book on the way here and I watched most of EMMA on our portable DVD player.

I helped to put up the tent and set up camp.

Next to us is a couple from Texas. You can tell they are from America because of their accents. They are very nice and talk to us. They said goodbye when they left this morning.

Last night I had a good sleep except that I didn't get to read so it was hard to get to sleep. I had to get up a few times and go to the dark stinky pit toilet.

We had bacon and eggs for breakfast, but I didn't eat much because I don't eat much at breakfast.

I hope this will be fun

The Borders N.P. NSW

The trip begins. New hairdos

Caption on the back of the photo reads: 1st Official Campsite Border Ranges NP

Here is our first video for the trip.