New Castle (November 2015)

There is one last Ochre Health Practice we'd like to visit, and that is in Tea Gardens. The practice manager is again very willing to show is around.  It is a bit smaller than Grafton, much bigger than Hervey Bay, but again no on-call or hospital work. By now unfortunately the weather is getting more cloudy with more rain. Good for the land, but less inviting to explore beaches. The Club in Tea Gardens allows their members to park and stay overnight in their car park, which is a good option for us.

The owners of our bus prior to the previous ones live in New Castle and have invited us to stay in front of their home. It has been nine years since they travelled around and they would like to have a look and show their children, see if they remember. So that is what we do, down south on the M1 to New Castle to rock up to Tim and Cath's home. Furthermore they have friends who are planning a similar adventure to ours and they would like to see what Tim has been so excited about. So here we are in rainy New Castle with people we have never met, but who feel like our friends because we are all united by this massive bus, once interstate passenger coach turned motorhome.

Tim has a printed list of things to do, but we find the rain too much of a deal breaker, so we go shopping instead.

Jaap’s Birthday (31 October 2015)

For Jaap’s birthday we leave Grafton and pull up at Nymboida, along the Armidale Road. Jaap has requested a canoe excursion. First we pay a visit to my former WAMS colleague Vivian who lives a few kilometers outside Grafton in a newly build house on a forest block. It's nice to catch up.

Jaap's birthday is the type of day we all needed. Great surroundings, lovely campsite with fire places and a creek, lovely presents, a cake and a Halloween themed scavenger hunt. 

The canoe trip is also delightful. We are being dropped of at the river with crystal clear water and a few tiny rapids. Laura and Jaap both get in a single kayak. Jolmer takes Hugo, Tim and the GoPro, and I have Peter in my crew. The configuration changes a few times, we get stuck in the shallow rapids twice and Peter tips his kayak twice. We also paddle past the end point so that we have to make our way back up stream, but that is part of the fun and certainly a very good exercise.

Specially for Jaap’s birthday we light a fire. It is so lovely that Jaap, Laura and Peter request to sleep in front of the fire. We grant them this wish, but put them in their own bed when they're sound asleep. And now Jaap is ten, such a big boy.

Grafton (October 2015)

From here we head further south to Grafton. Another Ochre Health clinic awaits us.  We have been keen to see this super-clinic for years and we're not disappointed. Again the practice manager is so kind to lead us through the newly build surgery. It does look good.  It makes so much sense to have a pharmacist, pathology and other professionals like nutritionists, podiatrists, physiotherapist, speech pathologists and so on, all under one roof. Really great set up.

We have set up camp at the Grafton Grey Hound racecourse. Grafton is covered in wonderfully bright almost fluorescent lilac, from all the flowering Jacaranda trees.

Apart from visiting the clinic, we also have one very important job to do. Jaap's birthday is coming up, so it is his turn to shop for presents. From memory we know where to find Spotlight and Lincraft. This is important because slowly we are getting ready for our New Years trip to the Netherlands, and we need to knit. It will be cold there and scarves and beanies are a bare minimum. Before we know it one big knitting frenzy is gripping us in a strong hold. Peter, Laura, Jolmer and myself are getting a number of projects on our needles. It is a lot of fun.
The knitting madness sees us returning to both stores about four times in just as many days.

Byron Bay (October 2015)

From Brisbane we direct our focus onto Byron Bay. The children have not surfed since Exmouth and they are keen. Since we'll get there on a Sunday, we best make sure we arrive early and park along the boulevard/beach road. When we get there the road is a lot shorter than I thought judging on the map and we need to turn around to get to the desired parking spot. I tell Jolmer he can get onto the parking lot and drive a circle and get back on the road. Firstly the entry to the car park is a lot narrower than we would have liked and secondly after some initial careful navigation we run into a completely innocent parked car with the right side of the bus. It is an awful feeling knowing someone will return from a nice Sunday-morning walk on the beach, or a little surf perhaps, to find his car stuck between the curb and our trailer. Poor person. Lots of people also stop and take photos: another uncomfortable feeling, who knows how many facebook pages we'll end up on by the end of the day? When the gentleman returns it is time to take our own pictures and exchange contact details.

We contact our insurance company, they are priceless, and even the police show up. The officer tells us this is such a 'minor' incident that they no longer come out normally for these things. He says every road trip needs at least one story like this, and seems genuinely un-faced. The car owner, although visibly annoyed, keeps his grievance to himself, a very impressive feat.

We finally get off the parking area without further problems and park somewhere else in town. The beach road is full by now. We take some time to re-group and only get to the beach much later in the afternoon. The wind and the waves turn this otherwise really good beginners spot into a much trickier surf. There is a fair current too.

It should have been a great return to surfing, but it isn't. That is OK. We decide to come back the next day. To make sure we are all Sunsmart we don the sting suits  we bought for the Whitsunday Islands which never have been worn.

The surf is still tricky but at least the older kids get to stand up a few times and enjoy the thrill of surfing once more.

Ikea Brisbane (October 2015)

We carry on towards Brisbane. I don't know who thought of it, but the idea is brought forward to pay a visit to Ikea. It might have been myself, because we need a new set of cutlery in the bus.

Driving into the car park is harder than we think, in fact it is an undercover car park and we don't fit. We are being directed to the back of the shop where the delivery trucks go. No worries. Ikea for some reason this time is perfect, we eat there -not that the food is nice, at all, but because of the convenience- get stuff that we need, and stuff that we don't need and we lose ourselves in the Christmas decorations department. When we were in Sweden in 2012 we already decided we liked the Swedish Christmas style a lot. We had some paper-star decorations with a light bulb in our house all year round. Now all those things have come to Australia through Ikea and we are delighted. Even though the bus is not the most ideal spot for a lot of decorations, we will somehow work our way around it.

North of Brisbane (October 2015)

Next stop is the Australia Zoo, made famous by Steve Irwin, now carried on by Terry and her children, of whom Bindi is all grown up and stealing the hearts of the Americans in Dancing with the Stars USA. We're not allowed to stay overnight at the car park of the zoo, so we search for yet again another oval. Beerwah Sportground will do us us just fine. They have nibbles every Thursday night. How cute.

Next morning we get to the Zoo early to avoid the rush, but it turns out there is no real rush. It is a nice day at the zoo.  We enjoy the crocodile demonstration at the crocoseum, including a wonderful bird show. Photogenic other animals include the lemurs and the cassowaries.

Furthermore we're in the middle of the Glasshouse Mountains and I feel we should climb one, but preferably nothing to strenuous. I realise this is funny, to try climb a mountain in a non-strenuous way. After some research we chose to explore Wild Horse Mountain.  It has a Department of Primary Industries lookout station at the top. The weather is cloudy again and it looks like it might rain. Our preparations pay off because the climb is not very hard at all and the view over the other Glass House Mountains is magnificent. We look up the aboriginal story about the mountains, and discuss the morals of the story.

For anyone interested, from the web:

The Aboriginal Legend fo Glass House Mountains

It is said that Tibrogargan, the father, and Beerwah, the mother, had many children. Coonowrin the eldest, Beerburrum, the Tunbubudla twins, the Coochin twins, Ngungun, Tibberoowuccum, Miketebumulgrai, and Saddleback. There was Round who was fat and small and Wildhorse who was always paddling in the sea. One day, Tibrogargan was gazing out to sea and noticed a great rising of the waters. Hurrying off to gather his younger children, in order to flee to the safety of the mountains in the west, he called out to Coonowrin to help his mother Beerwah, who was again with child. Looking back to see how Coonowrin was assisting Beerwah, Tibrogargan was greatly angered to see him running off alone. He pursued Coonowrin and, raising his club, struck the latter such a mighty blow that it dislodged Coonowrin’s neck, and he has never been able to straighten it since. When the floods had subsided and the family returned to the plains, the other children teased Coonowrin about his crooked neck. Feeling ashamed, Coonowrin went over to Tibrogargan and asked for his forgiveness, but filled with shame at his son’s cowardice, Tibrogargan could do nothing but weep copious tears, which, trickling along the ground, formed a stream that flowed into the sea. Then Coonowrin went to his brothers and sisters, but they also wept at the shame of their brother’s cowardice. The lamentations of Coonowrin’s parents and of his brothers and sisters at his disgrace explain the presence of the numerous small streams of the area. Tibrogargan then called to Coonowrin, asking him why he had deserted his mother. Coonowrin replied that as Beerwah was the biggest of them all she should be able to take care of herself. He did not know that she was again pregnant, which was the reason for her great size. Then Tibrogargan turned his back on his son and vowed that he would never look at him again. Even today Tibrogargan gazes far out to sea and never looks around at Coonowrin, who hangs his head and cries, his tears running off to the sea. His mother Beerwah is still heavy with child, as it takes a long, long time to give birth to a mountain.

There is a lot of fruit growing happening this side of Brisbane and we can not pass up the opportunity to buy strawberries for jam again.

Heading South, first stop Hervey Bay (October 2015)

We spend a few days at Sea breeze in Airlie Beach to give Hugo a chance to take it easy. He sleeps in the afternoon, big sleeps. Our next agenda item is not for a few weeks. We are lined up to do some work in Collarenebri, where our Australian Medical Career first started. But that is not scheduled until the 10th of November, so plenty of time.

Ochre Health, the company we work for, has invited us to visit their newly acquired surgery in Hervey Bay, it might be a place we would like to work and live. So that is where we'll go. Hervey Bay is well known for its ferry to Fraser Island, and the extensive whale watching if the season is right. It doesn't really have an old city center but there is a somewhat underdeveloped promenade. We park the bus near the splash zone, appropriately called a water education park, and have a splash first. 

There are hundreds of water-facts signposted on the fence-poles, and there is a beautiful whale sculpture in the middle of the play area.

The surgery itself has a lot of promise. We get a very nice reception from the practice manager and the doctor there. To get an even better understanding about the area we have also booked an appointment at a local school. The children love it.

The view over Fraser Island and the lovely temperature have a lot of appeal. The pier is a great excuse for a photo shoot.

We have a simple meal in the harbour and finish our stay the next day with another splash in the water education park.