Maroochydore

The weather in Northern New South Wales eased down on Sunday, and on Monday morning the highway to the North was open for all traffic again. We decided to leave as we originally planned, and headed towards Brisbane. We arrived there early afternoon and stayed overnight in a caravanpark near Eagle Farm. Tuesday morning we had an appointment with AussieTraveller to have the annexe (dutch: voortent) fitted. In the late afternoon we were able to get through the heavy traffic on the "Gateway Bridge" and reached Maroochydore around dark. This is how the caravan looks now with the annexe set up. Nice and spacious and an extra dry area.
Saturday we will celebrate the 85th birthday of Pam's mum.

Ballina (3)

There are a few million square kilometers in Australia to choose from to set up your camp. Yesterday there were a few hundred of them you better stay away. Guess where we are ? Yes, right in the middle of it.
We thought that if the wind is going to blow this caravan away (wind gusts over 120 km/hr), we better not be in it. So we locked the caravan, secured all windows and hatches, and went to the RSL club. We had a nice meal, watched the electric power to fail a few times, had a few drinks and returned to the caravanpark around 10:30. This was the worse wind I have ever seen. But the caravan was OK, so we hoped we would be alright. Half an hour later the power in the caravanpark went down too. Another half an hour later it was as if somebody turned the weather-switch: the wind and rain stopped, just like that. We went to bed and woke this morning: the sun is shining !!

Ballina (2)

Knock, knock at the caravan door, yesterday late afternoon. It was the park manager making a visit to everybody and distributing an official yellow warning pamflet about the weather to be expected. This is the main issue (Australian Bureau of Meteorology; http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/nsw/):
"Heavy rain and damaging winds are expected to develop over the Northern Rivers and northern parts of the Northern Tablelands during today, and will continue through until the end of week. Flash flooding associated with this rain and wind gusts in excess of 90 km/hr are likely. Mean wind speeds are expected to be in excess of 65 km/h at times. "
Because our "nice spot" in the park, we were expected to get the full blow. He advised to lock all hatches and windows and to roll in the awning.
It was a rocky night, but the worst is to be expected today and tomorrow. So this morning we moved to another spot in the park, a bit sheltered behind a large permanent caravan.
We will be OK here. I keep you informed!

Ballina

We left Bonny Hills last Sunday, and after a two-night stay in Woolgoolga we travelled this morning a bit further North to Ballina.
The weather is going to change, heavy rain and quite some wind expected for the next few days, so we wanted to be here before it might be too difficult to travel. We camp in the caravanpark at the river, just outside town. Nice spot with a good view over the river headlands. We propably stay here three or four days and move then to Brisbane where we want to be on Monday ( because our annexe (dutch: voortent) is fitted on Tuesday.) After that we will move to the Sunshinecoast, some 100 km north.

Tacking Point Lighthouse

Tacking Point Lighthouse is between Port Macquarie en Bonny Hills. A nice drive around the area this morning along a very beautiful coastline. And yes: plenty of dolphins in the water.

Wildlife in the National Park

The Kookaburra and the Possum. Cute and curious. The possum just came to the door of the caravan (the green mat is our doorstep-shoebox) and took of with half a mandarine.
The kookaburra is a different story. They are around here quite abundant, filling the park with their loud rolling-laugh.
Although you are supposed not to feed the wildlife here, I wanted to see how much they like some meat. So when I saw a pair of them in the tree just across our caravan, I got some ham and put it outside on the dry rack. Within a few seconds one of the birds grabbed it away in a quick sweep. Next step in my experiment: Hold some ham between your fingers in the air and hope for the best. Swoooffffffffff....very gently but quick, the ham was gone. Grabbed in full flight with his powerfull beak, without even touching me.
OK, next step: Get the videocam on a tripod (dutch:statief), aimed at the two birds acros the path, and switch it on. My goal was filming the bird flying towards the ham that I was going to hold up in front of the cam.
So I got some new ham, and watching the two birds I slowly walked towards the camera. Even before I could raise my hand.........BANG.........a bleeding finger, the hame gone, and a THIRD kookaburra that came from behind had a nice feed.
The only thing my camera has recorded is my own voice: F.CK !!!

KKB-Jan : 3-1