2012 Planning another trip.

On the 12th June we take off for Europe again.

First of all we will make a trip into Morocco for a planned two week tour.  I'm looking forward to the camel trek into the Sahara for an overnight stay in the desert.

We have been invited to stay with Andre and Regine in their holiday villa in Spain (near Valencia) for a week after our tour, then we will take a villa ourselves for a week in Barcelona with Steve and Martine, where Clare and Murray will meet up with us as  apart of their four month trip around Scotland, Europe, Egypt and Jordan.

After which we will spend a few days in Theoulle (Steve and Martine's holiday house on the French Rivera near Cann) then hopefully, all going well, we will all make our way to Cinqua Terra, Italy for a week of trekking through these lovely coastal villages.  

Clare and Murray will leave us here and continue on their way around Europe.

A few weeks back in St.George near Lyon for some RnR before we fly home via Belgium to visit my niece Nicky, Philip and little Jack before we make the long trip home. 

Due home 16th August 2012

Only two weeks to go.

Clare and Murray leave at the end of this week.

Nearly home

Getting a move on:
Steve has called to say Philippe has broken his arm in an accident on his new motorbike. Martine has flown in from France.

Deniliquin: A nice spot for overnight before the run home tomorrow.

Calling in to see Lindy & Graham at Rochester along the way.

Should be home Thursday 1st September 2011

More photos

Photos:
1. Euroly Bridge Murrumbidgee River
2. Hay, Brandon Bend, Murrumbidgee River
3. Edward River, Deniliquin

Photos

Photos:
1. The Lachlan River at Gooloogong
2. Artesian spa at Lightning Ridge
3. Balonne River at Surat

Homeward bound

Continuing south, driving each day for 200-300km then spending the afternoons looking around the locality.
Staying overnight at:
Surat: on the Balonne River in the fishing club grounds (fellow campers gave us some fresh capsicums they had purchased locally)
Quarry: went bush for the night
Dirranbandi: still on the Balonne River, a lovely spot, watched herons fighting for the best fishing spots
Lightning Ridge: spent the afternoon at artesian spa, very therapeutic. Learnt a lot about opals.
Dubbo: good spot by the Macquarie River, met some people from Ferntree Gully, the lady introduced herself because she saw me sewing.
Gooloogong: between Forbes and Cowra along the Lachlan Valley, a lovely outback town (they have an old church on an acre of land for sale, just the shell of an old stone building). No mention of Yvonne.
Euroly Bridge: camped in the forest on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River (lots of water running). Took a while to find the spot. We had our own campfire. It was a lovely evening.
Hay: stayed overnight at Brandon Bend on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River.

Clermont Qld

Photos:
1. Turtles on a log
2. Gold hunt at Clermont festival

Gold Rush:
Stopped in this lovely little town by accident, only to discover that they were in the middle of a fossicking frenzie due to the Gold festival in progress. The whole camping ground is involved, even to the extent that they have a fossickers detection equipment shop/club right on site. We needed the rest and this looks like a very interesting hive of activity. Everyone owns a metal detector and a myriad of other equipment right down to special snake protectors. We spent the first day at the Gold festival being held in the town park, starting off with a bush poet’s breakfast followed by lots of country music interspersed with raffles for gold nuggets and shopping vouchers, and stalls with all things gold (jewellery, etc.) The next morning we got up early to attend the annual fossicking competition to be held at a secret location. We spent the morning watching all these people walking around a paddock with their metal detectors looking for marked tokens (not as easy as it looks, using the detectors, I mean). There were lots of very expensive prizes, one being a $5,000 metal detector. It was a fun day in the sun and Ray's now thinking gold sounds like a good investment.

Atherton Tablelands

Photos:

1. Albino catfish

2. Millaa Millaa falls

Tomorrow the Atherton Tablelands:
Drove to Mareeba (overnight at Tolga). Found we had a flat tyre. Ray changed it and decided we would get it fixed in Atherton tomorrow. Couldn’t fix it, so we had to buy a new one.
Next day we did the “waterfalls drive” – an area in the Atherton Tablelands where there are lots of waterfalls and if you take the right roads you can fit a lot of them in on the one day. They are all really beautiful - Malanda falls, Millaa Millaa falls, Zwillie falls Ellinjaa falls and ended up at the wind turbine farm at Ravenshoe. Saw a cute little albino catfish at Milla Millaa falls.

Overnight just past the 40 mile Scrub National Park in the Misty Mountains. Woke up next morning and sure enough – ‘Mist’ – amazing. It turned into a beautiful day.
Continuing south we spent the next night by the Fletcher River just near Charters Towers.Today we have arrived in Claremont near the Blair Athol coal mine and apparently a good gold prospecting area. We have arrived right in the middle of a coal and gold festival