2025 - QLD Trip

Sat 31 May 25 - Yeppoon Weather: 16 to 21 Deg and cloudy, clearing in the late afternoon Noel tempted fate last night and tried fish and chips for dinner, thinking (hoping) that she was never allergic to fish. She had started eating Thai dishes again which include fish sauce without any side affects so she was feeling quietly confident she could enjoy a piece of fish. She also figured that if she is going to get sick eating fish, she'll do it eating her favourite Sweetlip. Well, all I can say is that fixing the leaking toilet cassette yesterday was very timely, because it was tested to it's limits last night. This morning we were both very relieved to find the cassette had also worked as it should, unfortunately, despite previous allergy tests indicating no Fish allergy, Noel will never eat fish again.  After an eventful night, it was a fairly quiet day. After getting some morning chores out of the way, we walked down to The Alley for a nice breakfast, then we visited mum's...

Fri 30 May 25 - Yeppoon  Weather:  13 Deg at 06:00am with 22mm of rain over night, rain continuing on and off all day, reaching a max of 16 Deg.  With rain falling steadily this morning, there was no rush to get out of bed. Eventually the rain eased enough to walk along the beach to the lagoon then back to the Alley for coffee. Arriving back at the van I was not pleased to receive a quote for $1,800 to replace the toilet (can purchase online for less than $600), so I set about testing my luck at dismantling it to see what I could find wrong, and hopefully fix it myself (again). As it happens, I did find a few hidden loose screws under the base of the unit which I had to replace with larger ones, then reassembled it. A few tests have been positive so far with very minimal leakage, but I'm not getting too excited yet. We'll continue to test overnight and see how it is in the morning 🤞.  Thankfully we didn't get the amount of rain that was forecast today. In the aftern...

Thu 29 May 25 - Gladstone To Yeppoon (152km) Weather: 18 Deg and light drizzle in Gladstone at 07:00am to a very modest 20 Deg and rain in Yeppoon.  We finally departed Gladstone after a morning cuppa with mum, destination the Capricorn Caravan Centre (3C's) in Rockhampton to see what can be done about our faulty Dometic Toilet. We were booked in for 2:00pm, so after arrival at midday, we parked the car and van at the 3C's, hoping they might look at it earlier, then we walked across the old Fitzroy Bridge into the CBD for some lunch. It was nice sitting inside a cafe looking out at wonderful old buildings, and lunch was OK too. There are beautiful art deco buildings and some colourful street art to be seen in Rockhampton, but we'll come back in for a day trip from Yeppoon another day, when hopefully the weather is nicer. After lunch we walked back to 3C's just in time to explain the problems we are having with our toilet. Short story is it appears our brand of toilet (D...

Wed 28 May 25 - Gladstone Weather: 18 to 27 Deg, partly cloudy with a light breeze Nothing exciting to report today. The whole day was a day of family time before Noel and I leave Gladstone tomorrow. At 3:00pm I went back to the van to start packing, then returned to Mum's for dinner. I had not taken one photo at 5:00pm, so Mum's very pretty Poincettia becomes the day's feature photo. After dinner, we returned to the van for my quickest blog ever, then sat back to watch the State of Origin.  A beautiful Maroon Poincettia …and a pretty miniature Maroon Chrysanthemum  Go the Maroons!

Tue 27 May 25 - Gladstone Weather: 21 to 29 Deg, partly cloudy with light winds and 96% humidity - my kind of winter weather. Ridiculous how hot it is for this time of year though. It was a nice day with Noel, Mum and my brothers just spending time together. Catching up with two of my brothers Peter and Jason for a few beers at Ward's Brewery late in the afternoon was very enjoyable. Ward’s Brewery is a 100-year-old cordial factory which I remember as a kid growing up in Gladstone. It was transformed into a boutique brewery about 3 years ago, and Ward's is getting a growing reputation winning 3 medals at the recent Australian International Beers Awards in Melbourne. The Pineapple American Wheat Beer was different but very tasty and refreshing, however my favourite remains the l ight, and also refreshing Session Ale . While I was out supporting a local business, Noel was at home cooking Lasagne which we enjoyed with salad for dinner with Mum. A  very relaxing day. Ward's Bre...

Mon 26 May 25 - Gladstone Weather: 19 to 27 Deg, cloudy with a light breeze and 99% humidity - definitely not the winter weather that we are use to at home. My usual morning routine of making Noeleene a cup of coffee in bed while I went for a 5km walk over the Radar Hill trails, then back to Mum's to arrange some medical appointments and sort out telephone issues. Noel and I then drove about 30km out of town to the Calliope River Historical Village, a wonderful collection of buildings and displays from around the district. After strolling around for about 90 minutes, we checked out the nearby Calliope River Free Camps located on both sides of the river. We are leaving Gladstone on Thursday to stay in Yeppoon for a couple of weeks, and thinking about a stopover here for a couple of nights on our way back south. There weren't a lot of vans here today, but I expect it can get very busy. We returned to Gladstone via woolies to grab a few groceries, then stopped by at Mum's for ...