Tramping tales for February 2009

All the fine-positioning of Getaway for our two week stay back at Samford show-grounds was in vain. We were told we had to move away from Golden Pond as the power lines overhead were now deemed a health and safety risk and work was beginning on the 9th to place them underground.

We moved Getaway out into the field before catching a train into Brisbane for the day!

The count down to our “grandchildren round” has started. We thought we had made a good job of spring cleaning “Getaway” in the search for the elusive “dead smell”! All that was undone by ANTS! The rain and damp ground around us has had these pesky creatures on a route march for dry refuges. Our caravan and Skiv fitted the bill. It has been an ongoing war with them, day after day. Fridge seal, window blinds, awning poles, even the outside shower recess which in turn gave access into the cupboard that backed on to it. There, all the carefully stacked plastic containers emptied in readiness for the coming year gave a perfect, undisturbed nesting place. Our friend Paula drove up from the Gold Coast to spend four days exploring the D’Aguilar Range with us and she too, became embroiled in the anti-ant campaign. Each day we’d set off on different scenic drives that would allow us to enjoy walking circuits laid on by National Parks and Forestry. At Jolly’s lookout on top of Mount Nebo we came across some excited tourists with a Ranger placing a torpid carpet python in a sack. This two metre snake was in a serious way after swallowing a cane toad. From both Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious we were able appreciate the long and spectacular views across the Samford valley and pick up our camping ground. Just too hazy for Moreton Bay! We tend to think flame lilies are synonymous with Africa. January was always their best blooming time - Justine and Daniel’s wedding was festooned with them and Lea’s friend Ruth in Durban, always marked her birthday with a bunch. Imagine our startled pleasure to come across a patch in the eucalypt forest entwined with flame lilies.

FLAME LILY! We literally had to pause a minute and wonder just where we were?

With sun drying out the coastal plains, days were particularly humid and we were relieved to be up high in cooler conditions thanks to shady rain forests. While enjoying the walking trail of Mount Mee, wildlife was out in force as we encountered a number of snakes, goannas and a large skink – affectionately known as land mullet according to Paula. Lea’s battered toes still cringe at putting on walking shoes since the marathon walk in Carnavon Gorge that she risked wearing her sandals. After walking through a muddy picabeen palm grove she happened to unconsciously scratch at her Achilles heel and dislodge something slimy. We decided it had been a leech although the black thread couldn’t be seen amongst the gravel, as her heel bled for a good while. Later as we packed away our picnic basket she noticed a big fat stripy slug wedged between her big toe and the next… Horrors! IT turned out to be a leech and that too bled profusely and two days later drove her crazy with itch.

George’s new glasses have given bother! First, they went missing and gave us twenty four hours of anxiety as we fine-combed the caravan and surrounding field. They turned up in the laundry basket – heaven knows how they fell in there… Up on the mountain consternation arose when a lens fell out having lost its screw.

With nothing to secure his glasses “MacGyver” relied on his bush skills and Paula’s aid to lash the frame together using a fine strip of bark.

Saturday- Paula’s last day with us and we decided time-out beside Lake Wivenhoe would be the better bet for a hot day. A 3.5km trail around Cormarant Bay provided us with exercise and bird life to observe but the steamy conditions and pockets of hot air didn’t make it overly pleasant that we were glad to arrive back at the picnic ground in time for lunch and find a spot that caught any lake breeze.

Caring friends have sent text messages concerned for the Rubber Tramps whereabouts as Australia – a land of climatic contrasts that readily brings devastation and anguish hits the world’s headlines. To the north of us floods and king tides have all but inundated Northern Queensland as monsoon troughs moved back and forth leaving homes under water and cut off for weeks, the worst flooding in eighteen years. A crocodile was on the news for unexpectedly creating a speed hump on a city street. Later, Queenslanders were warned to be wary of crocs swimming the streets! Walls of water take their toll on livestock and human life sweeping them all away and leaving destruction in its wake. To the south of us, horrendous bushfires! The historical Black Friday 1939 and Ash Wednesday 1983 were catastrophically surpassed by events beginning weekend 7th February. Almost from the onset these bushfires loomed as Australian’s greatest ever National tragedy as high temperatures combined with severe winds of up to 120km swept menacing fires through Victorian heartland taking the biggest number of lives ever and wiping out complete towns and hamlets - the sheer sight, sound and speed of these fire balls described by survivors, quite beyond comprehension. It’s a catastrophic terror made all the worse by the strong possibility of arsonists with many of these towns in their annihilation, declared crime scenes. How can this be? What kind of psyche wreaks such havoc on their neighbours and subjects so many to unbelievable ordeals. There is so much pain in Australia. Towns we visited last autumn leap to mind and we think of our friend Roger, a volunteer Firie with CFA out fighting the fires.

We spent the Sunday with Donald, Gail and family feeling aghast at the breaking news of whole families consumed by fire as they sought to escape in their cars- even then we had little idea of the growing magnitude of these fires in the worst conditions ever recorded. Gail had been a Brownie in Lea’s Kariba Pack back in 1967 and her parents were very special folk, living opposite the school gate readily providing Lea and Hilary, the two young teachers with moral support and above all a great friendship throughout all the years. Les died five years ago and Lottie, nine months ago. Although we missed their presence their grand-daughter Shannon who stole our hearts as a tiny kid while visiting our home in Perth with them in 1999 made up for their absence with her animation, twirls and arabesques that are part of her natural movement. A very talented ballerina!

We delivered our luggage, packed for our round world trip to see the grandchildren, into the care of our friend Liz just before we moved from Samford back to the shade and cooler climes of Kenilworth Recreational grounds for a couple of days. This region around the northern parts of Brisbane has more than caught our fancy. We could happily live here! Steep mountain backdrops to the hills and dales around here provide lovely vistas. It is often not possible to pull to a stop and listen to the tinkling of Bell birds in concealed gullies alongside the winding roads – their sound almost deafening as we pass by. So too, we’ll come to miss the feathered Indonesian holiday makers that have kept us company over these months in Queensland – Koels with their distinctive calls rising to a demented wirra, wirra, wirra and the Channel Billed cuckoo, sounding much like the African Francolin.

The ‘Queenslander’ home so characteristic of this State makes a tempting subject for Dr Picasso, as dubbed by his sisters in law!

Woombye, last stop for our mobile home for a year or more! We saw to a final laundry and made sure Getaway and Skiv were in ship-shape condition before being put on blocks and carefully covered.

Wrapping up Getaway

With that strange mixture of relief and anxiety at hopefully doing everything right as far as possible for their safekeeping over a long period of time and many backward glances at our mummified home on wheels, the Rubber Tramps made their way to the Woombye Gardens Caravan Park office as the manager had kindly offered to take us to the station for our train journey back to North Brisbane and Liz.
Before we knew we were filled with that heightened happiness at the prospect of joyous long months ahead in the company of our children and grandchildren as our flight rose out of Brisbane, bound for Perth.

With Paul away on business in Chile, we were able to keep Saxon and Talia company adding another dimension to their long days without a husband and dad. NO sitting back with these two – we were immediately put to work on Saxon’s job list that was as long as her arm. While Talia gleefully kept us on the hop, becoming quite indignant should we take a seat!

The construction of a miniature garden gate especially for Talia passed muster.

While Saxon drove George around town collecting the materials required for the many tasks, Lea and Talia were inadvertently locked out of the house in the small back yard on a particularly hot day. Keeping her grand-daughter unaware of their predicament took some doing over all those hours… A week later, we caught up with Des and Liz before they flew off to Europe leaving us to house-sit their home, dog Baffin and cat Rimsky for a month. Thus February flew by…