Mount Perry

A drive through the countryside yesterday. Fresh and windy, but very clear views. Down in the valley you see the town of Mount Perry and in the background you see....yes, Mount Perry.
Life here is very simple and relaxed. Plenty of time to do the things you want to do : I made some decent storage shelves in the back of our car, to make packing and unpacking a little easier; covered with some carpet. Also plenty of time to pospone the things you do not want to do.
I am looking forward to travel back to Europe in two weeks. Catching up with the kids and grandkids, family and friends.
I will land in Amsterdam on the 4th of August.

Jan the whipmaker

Last Saturday Eric and his wife pulled up into Mount Perry's caravan park. Eric is a whip maker (dutch: whip=zweep). Beautiful, totally handmade, leather, stock-whips. used by the stockmen to control the cattle. So here is Jan, curious as he is, in a chair next to Eric watching, and listening to his explanations.
Eric asked me if I was a handy man, and on my yes, he told me that he could teach me to make my own whip. You do not get that chance often (or you pay a lot of money for a course), so i quickly replied yes please.
To make a long story short: I am the proud owner of a SELF made stockwhip. Sour fingertips, blisters, and cramps in my entire hands, but I managed.
A cane handle, plaited with 4 strand kangaroo leather, the end finished with a turks head (the knob); on the other end the keeper, connecting the handle to the "thong", the long redhide leather plaited part. To the end of the thong, I connected the "fall" and at the end of that is the "cracker". This is the part that actually makes the cracking sound by crossing the sound barrier.
I had a lot of fun, and I did it all myself.
And yes, the pictures above show MY whip.

SHIP...in capital

Terry and Ann have a beautiful ship. Wow......... (Ann is Pam's cousin). An 84 ft Monte Fino, called Elusive.
First time in my life that I have been on board of a boat like this. IMPRESSIVE !!!
Still in Maroochydore; all well !

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.