Trek to Oz

There are very few things in this world that actually excite and interest me; travel, Land Rovers, Megan (had to put it in), sailing, Sandra Bullock and now TimTams. I bloody love TimTams. For those of you who aren’t clued up on what a TimTam is, it’s like a Penguin biscuit, in fact it’s exactly the same as a Penguin biscuit but for some reason, the same reason that Vegemite tastes better than Marmite it tastes soooo much better. I’m addicted, totally addicted to the little chocolate covered biscuit. Maybe it’s because after nearly ten months on the road and the three and a half tonnes of tuna pasta we have each consumed (and I hate tuna but it’s cheap) my taste buds have dulled, and now only the mighty TimTam can make an impression on them. That’s not to pour criticism or scorn on Megan’s cooking; the things the woman can do with a courgette, yesterday’s road kill and half a pepper are truly amazing, but TimTams and me are a match made in heaven. Megan is even thinking she will have to put in an extra column in the expenses just to cover the inordinate number I am consuming.  The photo below was taken when I was left in charge in the weekly shop. She caught me before I made it to the checkouts but thirty seconds later and I’d have been through, through to a week long TimTam fest. But alas no, and now I’m barred from the supermarket, destined to spend the remaining weekly shops waiting in car parks watching the trolley boys at work (that doesn’t sound quite right…) and ridiculing other shoppers’ parking jobs.

What else…..ummm…well not a lot of exciting stuff has happened. The sun’s been shining, although the nights are still a wee bit nippy but it’s improving. We’ve stopped in quite a few little campsites over the last couple of nights and as it seems to be the low season the average campsite population is made up of us and the grey nomads. (Oh, and the excessive number of flying bugs, flies, moths, bats etc…). These are native Australians (the grey nomads, not the bugs) who have retired, locked up their homes or rented them out and are traveling around this amazing country of theirs for an unspecified time. What a great way to spend a retirement and what a friendly bunch they are! They are always welcoming, and offers of drinks, food and the use of their house if it’s on our way come flooding in. We were glad of this friendliness a couple of nights ago when we got ourselves a live crab but had no idea how to cook it…

Bob, as he became known, was a mud crab and cost us the princely sum of $10, not bad as in the shops they are around $40! I’m not going to go all Jamie Oliver on you here and tell you how to cook a crab, actually, I will as it’s pretty basic: pop it in the pot and boil it for 12 minutes, then man the hell up and rip it apart with your fingers, wash out the icky stuff and serve with buttered white bread. It was awesome, not TimTam awesome, let’s not get carried away, but in that ball park.

Finch Hatton will go down in history as our first free camp. Upon seeing a few camper vans parked just off the road we stopped and set up on what looked suspiciously like a cricket pitch. No one shouted or asked for money so we were quids in. The reason for stopping here was to see the platypus that live in the rivers around this area, and although we have no photographic proof we did see them, scouts honor! The next day we undertook what must be one the best walks of the trip through the rainforest to a massive waterfall. Stunning.

On our way out of Finch Hatton and back to the main north/south road the GPS decided to take us on the off road route and we ended up driving through fields, waving at bemused cows and their farmers. We couldn’t get too upset with her though as the scenery in this area is beautiful; fields of sugar cane, blue skies, mountain backdrops and a scattering of ramshackle buildings, ticked all my boxes.

So we are now at the Whitsundays trying to decide what to do, what tour to go on, or if we should just sit on the beach. Oh yes, it’s shorts weather baby! Well, it is between the hours of 11 to 14:45, but it’s getting there.

I forgot, sorry, the main reason for this blog was to tell you all that  the Spot satellite tracker (http://international.findmespot.com) has broken, I drove over too many times, (I’m not joking, I literally drove over the damn thing three times, on different occasions I hasten to add) so I am just updating Google maps as we go along.  It’s a shame, as it is a great piece of kit- it’s been letting my mother know where we are everyday, so I now have to skype or call to do that… but apparently that’s something I should have been doing all along anyway. I know, right? We’ve only been gone nine and a bit months and she’s already expecting a phone call!?! Unreasonable.