Movin' Right Along

We're still heading north into Queensland (heading to my Aunty Barbara's in Brisbane), and had an overnight freecamp at a rest stop just outside of the town of Texas! My mum and dad like "freecamping" not only because it's free (of course) but it's NOT a van park and therefore less civilised and therefore less rules. Lots of people pull into these rest spots for a night or two. We stayed two nights because it was so beautiful by the Dumaresq River. Our van is in the background, second from left.





Nobody believed there's a place called TEXAS in Australia...but here's the proof. We stopped here because my mum's grandmother was born here and we thought it would be a nice memory of her. There were a lot of Chinese people who lived and worked in this area in the late 1890's-early 1900's, but we couldn't find any historical data on Nanny.






Here's my dad doing the hard yards. Our camp site was about 2 kms from the town so "we" did a lot of pushbike riding. Note the typical Australian bush dirt track that runs between the farm properties. Look into the distance and I think it's possible to see the caravans parked.

Here's another beautiful freecamp site - now just an hour out of Brisbane city. This is our third night "freecamping". That's our van behind us. It's interesting that three other vans came into the area after we parked. I guess they feel there's safety in numbers - lucky I'm not "Colin the Chain Saw Murderer" (but they don't know that, do they?)

And I can run fast back to my dad because he was getting the van ready to move out. I was also excited because we were going to visit with my Aunty Barbara and her son, Langdon, and his wife, Annie.

Can you see why I was so excited to be going to visit...Lang and Annie LUV me (like everyone does, of course)...and I was s-o-o tired after all the excitement of the trip into Brisbane.

We took a day trip to Queensland's Gold Coast, an hour or so south of Brisbane. We called in to check on our unit at Burleigh Heads (my dad says we might live there after we finish caravanning, but my mum says the Blue Mountains are home and better to just spend winters in Burleigh Heads...who cares...I'm good with wherever they decide to go). Our apartment is top floor on the right of the photo. We didn't bother the tenants though...my mum said they would love me but it wasn't polite to just walk in on them.

We took a walk to the beach (only a block away) and this photo shows the Surfers Paradise skyline in the background, looking north from Burleigh Heads.

Some crazy dudes were swimming - but it's winter and quite cold.

That's about it for now...more to come when I get the photos downloaded. We're on the move again so time to blog is limited, but I'll keep trying to keep updated.

Until next time - love from Colin Harries xx