Run to Paradise

You know the old saying, “It’s no the destination, it’s the journey”, but as you know, this adventurer is very big on destinations. As promised, my next big destinations are the North Queensland Coast and the gulf country. My jumping off point will be The Scenic Rim, just north of the NSW border, then a farm sit on a property outside of Eidsvold in Central Queensland for three weeks, before heading north-west to the gulf country. However, just for a change, I’m taking you on a whirlwind magical mystery tour, eight weeks compressed into a single post. So strap yourselves in and let’s go!!

As usual, a week spent in Melbourne on some minor car and van maintenance and securing a job with the AEC on polling day at a little village called Marysville, about an hour north east. A mate Shane, who by happy coincidence works for Parks Victoria, steered me to a tiny little nook called Keppel Creek Campground, about 5 minutes out of town. Now, when I say tiny, 2 vans max and the rest for tents only, and on the first weekend, I was literally surrounded by happy campers. The downside was that the solar panels were getting two hours a day tops and in less than 10 days, my second ever emergency run into town with the slide-out hanging out like the bridge on an aircraft carrier.

Once a year, on the Buxton-Marysville Road, a promenade of poplar trees perform their annual autumn ritual, transforming about a kilometre into a golden arch. As luck would have it, in those two weeks I was there. Now I know it’s famous because of the number of Japanese and Indian tourists taking more pics and selfies than at a wedding. Got to admit, I loitered there more than once, risking a last career move as roadkill.

Polling day done, a few days later, I was leaving Victoria for possibly the last time (don’t ask) and heading for a lakeside camp just past Bowna Waters Reserve, about 15klm north of Albury. I stayed there overnight last year and this time, for a few days, to soak up the tranquillity and burn some wood. Lake Hume had receded alarmingly since my last visit, but still enough for the bird life and the odd fisherman to try their luck. I pulled a few rocks together for a fireplace. I fired up late the next afternoon, putting on some chillaxin’ music, and, like an ice pack on a bruise, the serenity lifted my mood.

The vestiges of the Indian Summer made for sun filled skies and sunsets that my camera found irresistible. I had the opportunity to re-set and think more about the coming adventures and less about ruminating on what should have been. A line in a song I wrote a couple of years back –love will come and go until it’s done with you…..anyway, that’s all I’ll be saying about that.

Time to hit the road. Next stop, Jugiong, another ‘stocking-filler’ on the run north. After 10 weeks of (almost) non-stop action, I was enjoying the down time, meeting new people (Hi Steve and Cathy) and working on my ‘social’, something I was not ever that good at.

Jugiong, a mere village, has a sprawling free camp within walking distance of two of RV essentials – a cafe and a pub. Both very well presented, clearly doing well on the ‘passing trade’.

Squadrons of white cockatoos would skim the river and their cries were, well, loud and often. No wake-up alarm need here of a morning, but thankfully, they disappeared around sundown.

On the last but one day of my stay here, I took a run along Bundarbo Road, a loop of sorts between Jugiong and Colac. If you’re looking for a snap shot of rural Australia, take half an hour out of your day to do this side trip. The Murrumbidgee, the river gums and homesteads old and new, capped off with a stunning view of the valley along the way.

The next few weeks were spent catching up with a raft of family and fiends (IS that a typo?), in a mostly straight line up the NSW coast. Special mention to the dusting of snow one morning at my daughters place in the Blue Mountains- a nice surprise. Queensland never looked so good than on that freezing morning.

And that, dear readers brings us to the official start of our sojourn in Queensland. We start next week at the Scenic Rim, before something completely different.