During this stay, we went walking in the Lake MacDonald Botanical Gardens. It is spring and many of the trees. shrubs, and plants are in flower. The recent rain has freshened everything up wonderfully after a long drought. This place is a little gem and very well hidden. I find it hard to believe that the local council ever decided to establish such a thing. It must have cost an arm and a leg to establish and it must be pretty costly to maintain. I understand that there is a group of volunteers who do some of the maintenance work and there are tributes to sponsors spread around but, even so, it had to have happened in a time when social capital was much higher on the agenda than it is now.
I took some pictures which are in this gallery. They don't really do the place justice but they may give your some idea of how beautiful this place is
We took some time to break camp and didn't get away until after 11 o'clock. We stopped for a long morning tea at Palmview and reached Cooroy in time for a late lunch.
The next door neighbours were having their garden cleared of trees and there was a very noisy mulcher disposing of the trees so we had to close the windows and turn on the airconditioner to keep the noise out.
We happy houred with the Procters and retired early for a much needed rest as it had been very hot and humid.
I discovered that I had left the black water hose behind when we had left Wyllie Park. I assumed that no-one would have nicked it so I got out early and drove back to Brisbane to recover it. The journey was pretty east except for some very heavy rain on the way back and I was home in time for morning tea.
I spent the morning working with Philip and Helene providing some more info about sites I had visited before I had done the serious survey work.
We were entertained to dinner of roast lamb and a very nice cabernet merlot.
We went into town to do a bit of shopping and a cup of coffee. I was surprised to find that I could buy some pretty specialised bits of hardware from the local hardware store. I guess there is an element of farming around here which ensures that the stock is more varied than it is in the city.
Philip had tried to stop the noise from a noisy fan in his PC and the machine spat the dummy reporting "No signal"! I tried all the wiggling and connector re-seating I could find but to no avail. He took it to his repairer who said that a video connector had been unseated. He did say that he would replace the fan.
We had a very tasty fish and chip dinner and retired early to the Motley.
The weather continued variable wet and dry so jobs had to be restricted to indoors. I went to town to buy a part for one of my projects and found myself without money so I had to hot-foot it back to Tibuchina and then back to town again.
A storm blew in late in the afternoon and we remained snug in the Motley while the lightning played all around and the thunder shook the windows.
I went to town to do the laundry but all the machines were in use so I had to go back later. It was all done by lunchtime.
We had a pleasant happy hour with Helene, Philip and Chris, drinking, chatting and eating fresh prawns which Chris had brought.
I had to do some running repairs on the fan in the bathroom. It was running slowly and erratically so I stripped it out cleaned it, inspected the brushes to ensure that they weren't past it, and lubricated the bearings. All went well until I tried to re-instal the fly screen. One of the mounting lugs had collapsed so I had to devise a new means of screwing it in place.
In the afternoon, I did some proof reading for Philip. I checked the 185 sites in Tasmanian sites and found a couple of errors and several style problems despite the fact that Helene and Philip had worked hard to rid the file of any errors. This only illustrates that achieving perfection is virtually impossible.
We needed to visit Twin Creeks to see if the rain had done any damage or filled the dam. Neither thing had happened. There was clear evidence of the rain but the dam level hadn't change much. I paced out the dam. It measures 30 m by 13 m which gives an area of 400 square metres which corresponds to 400 kilolitres for each metre of depth. It s probably is about 0.2 m deep on average or 80,000 litres. I spoke to our neighbour, Eric, who told us that the dam leaks which would explain why the level hadn't increased despite the 100mm of rain.
We went to the Council in Tiaro to enquire why we have to pay garbage rates even though we generate no garbage. We were advised that the rates clerk could answer the question but she wasn't in the office so a letter would be appropriate. We also visited the Engineers Dept to ask if they could look at the run off drain in Sykes Road which encroaches on the property. I left my card and the receptionist said that she would have someone ring us.
We also did some site surveys for Philip and Helene, checking Petrie Park on the banks of the Mary River just north of Tiaro, Gunalda Rest Area, and sites at Widgee and Glastonbury Creek west of Gympie. It had been a hard day so we had to leave a couple of sites south of Gympie for another day.
The "gardeners" with their great big noisy machines turned up at seven so we had to close the windows and put on the airconditioner to keep reasonably sane.
I spent most of the day reviewing more of Philip's database.
Helene had seen a couple of Eastern Brown snakes outside the garage and wanted them killed. I argued that they had probably been disturbed by the gardening next door and would settle down somewhere away from the house. We observed one them from a safe distance until it moved off into the garden bed.
In the evening we all went to Noosa for dinner to celebrate the anniversary of our meeting. It was a pretty hot night and the restaurant was alfresco but the food, the wine, and the conversation were all good so we enjoyed the evening. Helene was impressed that Jean had told her friends when she got home that night fifty years ago, that she thought she had met the man she was going to marry. Interestingly, Philip revealed that he had the same thought the night he met Helene, that he had just met the lady he was going to marry.
Another day spent poring over camp sites. I went through all the WA sites with Philip before dinner.
In the afternoon, we had to go on a snake hunt because Helene had seen one of the snakes again and was in mortal fear of it because it was hiding inside the garage. It was pretty stirred up by all our efforts to flush it out so we didn't want to get near it. Philip decided that he would kill it would using his shotgun. Of course we had to find it in the open but it kept on escaping so we will have to try another day.
Helene had cooked some delicious corned beef with all the trimmings and we had some excellent Merlot to wash it down.
I saw the snake this morning but a search revealed that it had gone into hiding. I put together a snake catching kit so that I could get it well out of Helene's way without killing it. Perhaps I'll get a chance to deal with it before we have to go back to Brisbane.
More proof reading work was the order of the day.
We took of again in the little Motley to check out some more local sites. We did Cedar Grove, Amamoor Creek, Borumba Dam, Charlie Moreland, Booloumba Creek, Gheerulla Pioneer Park, Gheerulla State Forest, and Belli Creek Park.
After a very long and tiring day, I bought fish'n'chips so that I wouldn't have to cook.
I was late to bed as I had to prepare the data and photos collected during the day.
I did some work on a survey form to use when on the road and did more review work. I managed to get the SA sites finished.
I went out early to do the laundry and the shopping.
I continued the review work. Having done Tasmania, NT, WA and SA, I started work on Victorian sites but didn't get far before I had to take a rest. I was so tired that I was in bed by 9 o'clock.
I worked on the proof reading sporadically, taking breaks to do other chores and still have a way to go.
The snake hasn't been seen since Monday so I think it has found somewhere else to hang out.
In the evening, we had dinner with Philip and Helene who also needed a break from their work.
They have all but finished the preparation of the database incorporating all the latest information they have collected and all they have received from other travellers. There is still a mountain of work to do to prepare the 3rd edition of "The Book" for publication and deadlines are starting to loom.
We had decided to stay on for a few more days to try and complete the review work so I had to take the Motley to Gympie to dump the black water.
I put everything away, stowed the awning and so forth and prepared to leave but the Motley refused to start. I checked the battery but all seemed OK. I sought advice from Philip who suggested that I call RACQ so I did. The guy turned up a few minutes later, asked what was wrong, put his meter to work, and found that the starter solenoid wasn't being energised. Seeing a flashing red light on the dashboard, he asked me if there was an immobiliser. I said "No, the light was a dummy". He asked what the buttons on the key fob were for and I said "To lock and unlock the doors". He asked me to demonstrate which I did. He then started the engine. Apparently there is an immobiliser which I didn't know about.
Afterwards, I realised that I had unlocked the doors manually and there has been an intermittent fault in the sensing switch on the door lock so the immobiliser hadn't been disarmed even though the doors were unlocked. In the seven years I have been driving the Motley, the immobiliser has always been disarmed by the door locks so I was never made aware that one existed. Of course the documentation from Winnebago didn't include anything about the alarm system which controls the central locking and, it appears, the immobiliser. It was an interesting episode. If you keep your wits about you, you can learn something new every day from all sorts of people.
In the evening, we went to dinner with Philip and Helene at the Thai restaurant in Cooroy to celebrate Jean' birthday and the completion on the first phase of the work on Camps Australia Wide 3. The food was pretty good and we supped some nice champagne and chardonnay. As always, the company was excellent.
Jean and I celebrate Jean's birthday with an indulgence breakfast of bacon and eggs.
I spent most of the day doing more proof reading.
In the evening, Helene prepared a gourmet picnic and we went to Lake MacDonald to enjoy the end of the day.
More proof reading.
Helene and Jean spent the day at Maroochydore doing Xmas shopping. Philip and I spent the day working on "The Book".
I had planned to buy fish and chips for dinner but Helene got in ahead of me and cooked fish and chips for us all.
I went to Noosaville to do some shopping because the IGA at Cooroy didn't stock some of the things I needed.
I finished the proof reading of New South Wales sites which leaves only Queensland to do.
In the afternoon I cooked roast pork on the Cob cooker and we all ate and drank well to celebrate our last night here for a little while.