Dolphin Heads Resort Mackay

... Missed Josh by a day, but he did really well in the compeition I'm told. A very big thank you to all of the SKI instructors who were kind enough to let us participate.

TSKFA - Bundaberg

Sensei Alex was away in Cairns but we were taken by Sensei


TSFKA - Childers

A big OSS to Sensei John Russo for his hospitality and for the great training. No photo unfortunately

ASKA ...

... is sited outside the cultural centre for the indiginous tribes of the local area, for full story read photo of the plaque! The snake also marks the burial grounds and has a few small plaques that indicate where tribal bodies have been found around the area and relocated to this place. Personally, I can never think of carpet snakes without remembering the story of Sharpur the Carpet Snake in the Ginn 360 reading scheme that was so ubiquitous in primary schools (he was exonerated).

... stay at the free rest area in Mackay, but it no longer exists. We tried for the next one up the highway, but never found that or the one after it. Thanks for the loan of the old book on camping and rest stops Rosie, but I think it’s too out of date to be useful now! We found a Caravan Park in Calen and decided to stop for the night! We were low on petrol and the light was going. It was time to call it a night! (But still no internet access!)

... hotel/motel in Townsville Jill had a look through some tourist rags we had grabbed and made a call..... Sounded nive and right beside the beach...









We had our first sightings of Sugar Cane fields and the small trains that lug the cut cane to the processing factories....We stopped ...

... spill (caused by the aforementioned cyclone) that has closed a number of beaches near where we are headed. Stay tuned to see if our luck with respect to avoiding Australian disasters continues. We are tempted to switch on the TV for some news, but the last time we did that we were confronted with a Michael Jackson press conference about concerts in London. In our current dim-witted state, we might actually be tempted to buy some tickets...now that would be really dumb!!!

... I'm going to Scotland this year!" "Ah, that'll be nice, it's beautiful up there." "Yeah. It makes me hate my own country." Irony "mumblemumblemumble" *polite and encouraging smile* "mumblemumblemumble" *smile begins to become frozen* "mumblemumblemumble" *eyes slowly slide sideways to surreptitiously measure the distance between the table and the door, and just how far away the barman and the two burly but helpful looking men playing pool ...

... show that happens in the cave every day in December. Unfortunately, we were too late it happens at about 10.30 in the morning. We decided to go in for a look anyway. It was a pretty basic cave, with the exception of the last room we were brought to. It was a chapel where they have weddings. It was really cool, there is an outcrop of rock for a choir and all. At one stage the guide turned off all the lights in here, it was very eerie. There is no trace of natural light ...

Alex - We set off from Hervey Bay really early and made it to Rockhampton by lunch time. This is the beef capital of Oz, with lots of ranches dotted around. It was really hot and with no air-con in the car Samantha was not feeling great. However I told her to man up and we drove on for another 3 and a bit hours! We got to ...

... And then came the floods. And the monsoons. And the cyclones. It has down nothing but rain since we've been here, declaring it a national disaster zone. We were getting over 4 inches/hour at sometimes. The town has been shut down, the water on the sidewalks was past our knees, and there were crocs spotted cruising the streets in town. And so we sit inside, in our 10x10 room, with no tv, no books, nothing to do but stare at the ...

... that there are so many lovely places like the ones we are finding. We much prefer this to a caravan park where you are lined up next to each other with no space around you. We choose a spot overlooking the water with a great view from our van and set up camp while the boys went played in the playground sliding their hotwheels cars up and down the slide. This morning I phoned the TJM's in Mackay this ...