THE EYRE PENISULA

 Here he is, happy smiling face, Andreas has taken to retirement so well, he is enjoying himself , taking things easy. It has become a very easy way of life, no stress, no big decisions to make, moving when we feel we want to and generally just having a good time.

You meet some good people travelling around, yes its true most are a lot older than us but we have met and made some good new friends,

 The Eyre Penisula is a great place for fishing, and since retirement Andreas has really taken to fishing.

He can go for hours and not catch anything but i must admit we have had so much fish lately, he has had the opportunity to go fish on various boats with different people and he has had such a good time, catching squid, whiting. king george, herring and salmon,

 We have spent the last five weeks on the Eyre but now its time to head towards Melbourne as we are going to Tasmania on the 19th dec, we have got just over three weeks to get there so we will be taking things slowly, We are looking forward to seeing Tasmania its a place we have always wanted to go, and is very popular with the grey nomads.

THE RED CENTRE

 Well look where we have been, it takes many kilometers and effort to get to this spot but it is somethinhg you need to see.  It's a very special place and I am very happy that we decided to head into the centre.

 Its got to be the only place I have been to that when you go to watch the sunset you don't look in the direction of the sun but at the rock to see the effect the falling sun has on the colours. 

The photos don't do it justice !

While we where here the weather was hot so they discourage / close walking on the rock, the third picture shows the way up and as you can see it is not an easy ascent. 

The locals are trying to discourage tourists going onto the rock for cultural reasons.

 Andreas with a few of his brothers, this was a group of locals performing in the local resort for all the tourists encouraging people to get up and dance. 

Andreas went for a picture but didnt dance which as we all know is quite unusual for him but then it was in the afternoon and ( no beers in his tummy )

 These next pictures are from the town of Coober Pedy, which is an opal mining town 80% of the people living here live underground.

 It was a fasinating place to visit, of coarse Andreas is in his favourite place behind the bar.

 Look what we came across , an Emu with eleven chicks. that would take some looking after.

 Also we stopped at a road side stop and came across this birds nest in the corner of a shelter and the final picure is from the camp at Point Lowly which is just outside Whyalla on the Eyre penisula SA.

One of our favorite camps to stay, the picture is the view from our front door and at $5 a night a bargain as well.

HEADING INTO THE CENTRE.

 This is a photo of Julia Creek which is in central nothern queensland 250k east of Mt Isa. Here we spent a couple of weeks helping out working as camp host. Unfortuntely it got very hot here 40 every day on the last week and it became very quiet too because most of the travellers are heading south but it was a good place to hang around while we waited to see what our beloved Dockers were going to do. So we are now not heading to Melbourne but to the red centre spending the weekend in Alice looking at the sights of the macdonald ranges then on to Uluru for a couple of days.

 Our resident Emu's who visit the camp every couple of days, lots of budgies as well in the morning and at dusk but they are very difficult to get a photograph of because they fly so fast and change direction all the time.

 Came across this nice photo of a waterfall, which as you can imagine isn't from this area. The two following pictures are from travelling through the outback, it is so dry, nothing living out here, very sad to see it so dry. Most of these areas haven't had any rain for 4 yrs .

 These last three pictures where taken yesterday in the east macDonald ranges, Glad we have come this way to tick it off the list but don't think we would be rushing back in this direction. There is a lot of nothing inbetween each place with lots of kilometeres to travel.

HEADING SOUTH.

 We have been heading south from Port Douglas along the coast for the last month or so, but the weather hasnt been very kind to us , we have had a lot of rain but things have now started to improve. We travelled with a group of Victorians for three weeks and had some good fun. We were all tavelling in the same direction so we decided to travel togther, the group finally split directions but we are all going to keep in touch.

 We have spent a couple of weeks just north of Townsville, nice camps on the side of the ocean. Its lovely listening to the sea when you are lying in your bed. The only downside to this area is the sand flies and the mozzies, they have bitten me to pieces but they dont find Andreas very tasty(must be all the alcohol in his blood)

 We went on a tour in Tully around a sugar mill , it was very interesting. When you see all the sugar cane up here its good to know what happens to it. You see fields of sugar cane, bananas and some pineapples. Up in the tablelands you see coffee and tea so much so that i now drink Nerada tea which is from the tablelands up here in Queensland.

 Here is the croc that andreas caught in his crabpot, it was a huge surprise and was a point of excitement in the camp. Unfortuntely it drowned but we didnt know this when we dragged it in, if it was dead or alive. Very scary, it turned out to be a very healthy 5yr old male (thats what the fisheries guy told us when he came to collect him), so no shoes for me or belt for Andreas. So I now have my very own Greek Dundee.

 Below are a couple of pictures from a place called Paranella Park, it is a very interesting place to visit.
All built by a Spanish migrant, with its own Hydro electricity plant. The present owners are slowly resorting it back to its glory. Most of it was constructed by this one man, he was very ahead of the times

• We are still having a great time, not sure which direction we are going to take now just waiting to see wether we are going to be driving very quickly down to melbourne for the last weekend in September
•  GO DOCKERS