It's difficult to post by mobile.

Finding it difficult to write on my mobile; the words come much more difficultly. I'll write a summary when we get home.

Here we go again.

So I begin what is effectively Melinda's and my second serious trip with the kids, this time to Tasmania. Melinda, the lucky thing, gets to fly with our two little darling, i'll meet up with them in  Launceston. Boarding flight, I'll post more later.

View Toowoomba Test in a larger map

Victoria Mini Trip, 2011

It's been some time since my last post here, the addition of a little man to our travels has meant much more home time and a lot of local day-tripping, rather than 'holidays'. None the less, Alex was old enough for us to try a trip interstate, and we gave Victoria a go during Easter.

A word first of all about travelling with a young toddler. Alex was, on the whole, excellent on the trip, BUT, there were times when we were tearing our hair out from the frustrations this little man caused in some of the places we visited. For example, Melinda and I walked into a dumplings restaurant in Melbourne's China Town, a very popular and busy place. The noise made by patrons was enough to mask some of Alex's wailing, but it got to a point where I had to take him outside, he was a right royal pain in the bum. I forgive him, he is only little, there will be more times like this ahead. Perhaps it was a little bit early to try this trip, and I think if we have done it later, like the holidays coming up in July, he would have been much better to travel with.

Secondly, I'll make a quick note that lugging prams and luggage up and down motel rooms over and over again (since we were staying in a new place almost daily early in the trip), I would have much preferred a campervan. All of our stuff would have been set up on the first day and I wouldn't have had to break my back over and over again, making what felt like hundreds of trips to the car.

We had a busy but great time. The Great Ocean Road was excellent even though the weather was overcast. Ballarat was perhaps my favourite part of the trip, loved Sovereign Hill and the town that's dotted with thousands of deciduous trees. Melbourne was fun and Brighton Beach Beach Huts, brilliant.

TYTO Wetlands, Ingham

I wasn't expecting much from TYTO, a hidden wetland area near Ingham. The council has spent a lot of money on the fancy information center and a new mini boutique shopping precinct is coming too, yet my expectations were not high for the wetlands. Of course, the locals have been talking about it and it was time for a visit.

To be honest, I quite enjoyed the place. Taking the 750m walk from the carpark, I suddenly realised that this place exists so close to Ingham, yet it very quickly becomes very green and bushy, an entrance to the natural tropical north, a place of peace and quiet. Yes, of course you could hear the trucks on the Bruce Highway, but there were moments of quiet and tranquility. If you play World of Warcraft, you'll know what I mean. That 750m walk is just like those parts of the game where you have to run between the towns and cities. It transforms very quickly into a different world.

The wetlands themselves, as you can see, is visually superb, especially late afternoon when we were there. Wildlife everywhere watching us watching them, and the clouds reflecting off the water was beautiful.

The wetlands is a one minute detour of the Bruce Highway on the way to Cairns at Ingham, next time you're up, have a quick squiz, you may enjoy it...

Cairns and the Daintree = Green

Two weeks of school holidays afforded my wife and I a little trip up as far as bitumen goes into North Queensland and we ended up on a little trip to the Daintree area north of Cairns. It was lovely three days, we did a few little touristy things and had a good time. Picnic on the beach, paying $33 just to see "rainforest" in the Discovery Centre was a bit silly, exploring new places and having Italian take away was all part of the relaxing time. The beds in our Cairns Hotel/Resort were very stiff and I was very glad to get back to the regular "just right" bed that is my pillow top ensemble.

Charters Towers and Hugenden, June, 2009

Well, we had a few days to kill, so we packed the BA and off we went on a little trip to northern outback Queensland driving from Ingham through to Hughenden and back over a few days. Driving through the familiar Townsville route, soon enough that dry expansive outback showed itself once more and I was reminded of the times we used to drive from Miles back to Toowoomba, a 2.5 hour drive mind you, just to get into civilization (and do a bit of shopping).

Charters Towers was great. Beautiful old heritage buildings, hilly terrain and the welcoming "quiet" feel was brilliant. The town was very quiet on the Queen's Birthday long weekend, I suppose as a result of the drinking that would have occured at the car show the previous night. I would have liked to attend, but a big day was calling and hence opted for sleep instead.

Hughenden, on the contrary, was a dump. I had high hopes, having been looking at the town since 2004, hoping that indeed it was just a little bit run down and deserving of my property investing dollars, but what greeted us was absolutely tragic. There was literally, two places that showed life in the whole town, and I have to say, for a place that, as far as I can see, relies quite heavily on grey nomad tourism, Hughenden does itself no favours. A huge rustic/heritage-like pub stands in the middle of the town, empty, boarded up and left to rot, while the modern pub around the corner was shut. The dinosaur stuff littered throughout the town was great, really gave the place a special touristy feel, but seriously, NOTHING was open. In the hour and a half we were there, we must have seen at least 50 caravans drive in, do a lap of the neat but deserted main street and then drive off towards Mt Isa, what a disappointment it must have been. An interesting looking FJ Holden Cafe was advertised on FM88.0 and I was looking forward to a feed in the 60's style establishment, but no, it was....shut.

The two places open were the dinosaur museum, which was OK, and a servo/truckie stop a few k's out of town (Lights on the Hill I think it was called). The houses in the town were on the whole, run down pieces of trash (worse than I imagined), roads were sealed, but no kerbing to speak of and as mentioned before, shops shut. I would like to visit on a "normal" business day, just to give me some hope that this town will survive and possibly thrive in the future.