1st Novenber to 22nd November 2012

1^st November 2012

A long spell between postings due to the computer giving up on us.  Meanwhile Barry has layed the paver path at the side and bottom of the vegie patch and Merry has cleared heaps of lantana.  Barry removed the caravan external quartz halogen light as the globe had blown and replaced it with a LED version and added a second one in conjunction with it.  The lighting in the annex is not just twice as effective but about 6 times as effect and is white light not yellowy, and we will not need to plug the 240 light in anymore.  He has also replaced the plastic guide rail that the shower door slides on as the old one had several splits in it which was reluctant to allow the door to slide.  Unfortunately the only ones available in Mackay are white were the original was grey like the rest of the shower recess, but it works.

Barry has had a prostate biopsy and been cleared of cancer. However, he is not out of the woods yet as he still has a severe liquid retention problem, a bit like his memory as it allows plenty in but won’t let it out again.  As a result of that he has elected to bite the bullet and have a T.U.R.P operation (rebore, like an old engine) in a week’s time.  This will require a couple of days in hospital and then a long spell of nothing too strenuous for quite a few weeks   As a result he has done some mowing, etc in readiness for the return of Mark and Jeane a few days after he comes out of hospital.

7^th November 2012

Barry has had his operation. and although still in hospital is doing alright with no problems but hopes he never has to have the spinal block anaesthetic again,  Even with having been pre-warned, the total lack of feeling and inability to move the legs or toes, or feel them being touched, is a horrible experience.  It only lasts a few hours but is enough to get an idea of how some accident victims feel whilst they pray it not going to be permanent.  It has increased my admiration for people like our friend Stu who have the mental strength to live through it on a daily basis without complaint.

11^th November 2012

Barry is now out of hospital and Mark and Jeane are also home from their holiday, which relieves us of the property and chicken minding responsibilities.  Barry is taking it easy but has admitted that the operation, whilst not exactly a stroll in the park, was not as bad as it sounds, but fails to understand why at least five doctors in Karratha didn’t make an issue of the need for this operation about seven years ago despite having pocession of ultrasound pictures highlighting the potential problem.

12^th November 2012

Merry and Barry didn’t see Jeane or Mark in the late afternoon yesterday as they both retreated to watch the test match on TV whilst Jeane and Mark said their farewells to the other couples they had round for a lunchtime BBQ.  We found out today that Jeane had chosen to walk down their 100 metre long driveway and at some point had wandered off the drive and down the slope to check on some trees she planted a while ago.  In the process her thongs had a tangle with something and dumped her damaging her right foot, and consequently spent today resting it in bed.

12^th November 2012

Jeane’s foot has improved but still restricting her mobility which is really bad news for her as she is a very active person, however, she managed to have her usual Wednesday Mah-jong session with her girlfriends.

17^th November 2012

Both Jeane and Barry have overcome their problems although Barry still has to avoid lifting and anything strenuous for a few more weeks.  We had a trip into Mackay to collect our outside TV from the warranty repair agent.  It only took him five weeks to achieve a result with it and even then it is a very crude warranty repair.  He eventually hard wired the 12 volt cable directly to the power board to eliminate the dubious plug and socket on the back of the unit which Barry suggested when we first took it to him.  He chose to order a new power board from overseas that didn’t cure the problem and then tried to talk the manufacturers into replacing the whole unit, which obviously failed.    Fortunately this crude repair has given Barry the opportunity to cut the 12volt cable and fit a socket to it and fitted a plug to both the 240/12 volt adaptor cable and the 12 volt cable that plugs into the side of the caravan, so we can run it off the 240v mains, or directly from the caravan battery.  Meanwhile our inside TV has developed a continuous snowing and flickering problem and will go back to the shop for repair on Tuesday.  The outside TV is being used inside.    The power board in the Vast satellite decoder also died and had to be replaced which cost $120 as it was about a month out of warranty.  Barry would have preferred to have replaced the board himself if he could have acquired it as it.  He had a look in there before we took it for repair and the power board only has about $10 worth of components on it and is a plug in board eliminating the need for any sort of expert if you only had acess to the new component.

20^th November 2012

Barry revisited the specialist for a check up and all seems well at this stage but is required to have another check and tests done in 4 weeks time.  If that works out okay we should be on the move again towards Canberra in readiness to meet up with Richard and his kids, Jack and Rory, again for another short holiday with them.  Meanwhile Barry still has to take it easy and is becoming very with not being active, other than drinking water by the litre.  He has drunk more water in the last 2 weeks than he has drunk in the previous 2 years.   Many days of sitting around has allowed Barry take numerous photos of at least 20 species of birds in this area.

22^nd November 2012

Some relief from the boredom is now available with the start of the second test match.

19th September to !st November

19th September 2012

We drove just out of town to another rainforest walk of about 2kms which we did in the morning before it got too hot as the weather has improved significantly. We are now getting 19°C nights and 30°C days. We took Foxy for a beach walk in the late afternoon when it had started to cool down.

21st September 2012

We finally moved on from Mission Beach to Ingham which was a fairly shot drive and we left earlier than usual to get there for an early lunch. The idea being to arrive, have lunch and head out to Jourama Falls. We noticed on a map that they are fairly close to Ingham when we were checking the whereabouts of Wallaman Falls in relation to Ingham. We drove out and then walked the 1.5km track to the falls lookout along a reasonably easy track with lot of photo opportunities at rock pools. The last 300 metres was hard work we survived to take in the view of the falls across the other side of the creek with no way down to the base, or to the top, but still enjoyable. We then drove on to look at both Big and Little Crystal Creek. Big Crystal Creek had Paradise pool as it attraction whilst Little Crystal Creek had several small pool with rock slides into them. Both of these attractions required a far amount of walking so we rounded the afternoon off with a drove up a narrow winding road to McClelland Lookout, near Paluma Village, which had views to the ocean and had passed over a bridge which had another waterfall by it. On the precarious descent we stopped off by the bridge and walked down to the creek to get some photos of the bridge and the waterfall leading up to it and the smaller one after it. We then headed home feeling rather worn out but satisfied with a good afternoon out. The is a lot to see in the is area and should have come here a week earlier so that we don’t rush it but it’s too late now as we have to get on to Mark and Jeane’s place so we will only spend three days here.

22nd September 2012

This was an easier day with a short drive around town in the morning which included a visit to a remarkable Italian Cemetery where they obviously spend heaps of money on their dead relatives. In the afternoon we drove to several relatively local beaches and finished with a look at TYTO wetlands in the hope of seeing a few birds and came across some Red Browed Finches and some Crimson Finches.

23rd September 2012

We set the alarm to get us up early so that we could be out at Wallaman Falls nice and early to beat the worst of the heat now that the temperatures are hitting the low thirties. We drove the 50 odd kms to the carpark which involves the usual steep twisty road up the required 1200 feet.

We then took the 2km walk back down to the bottom of the falls via a narrow rocky track to the final lookout. There is no further official track but people obviously ignore this and clamber down the last little bit but at our age decided against that. Once the photography bit was done we then had to climb the 1000 odd feet back up, and being in a gorge meant there was virtually no breeze which left it very humid. The waterfall is claimed by the literature to be 305 metres high, and the highest single drop fall in Australia but the sign in the carpark stated 268 metres but we don’t know who is wrong. Either way it is a long haul to get back out and all up took us 2.75 hours to do the return trip. We then used the top viewing platform for some more photos before heading home to get out of the heat.

24th September 2012

We set off southwards to stop overnight at the Home Hill free camp alongside the town and railway where we have stopped twice before.

25th September 2012

Continued our southwards trip through McKay to Sarina where we stopped for one night before moving on to Mark and Jeane’s place.

26th September 2012

We moved up to Mark and Jeane’s place and arrived just as the last of their BBQ guests were leaving. We had a break with them and then set up the van.

27th September 2012

We helped Jeane prepare for another function she was having in the front garden with a shade house and games, and at about 10.00am around 20 plus Red Hat Ladies turned up. The noise level was remarkably high from the chatter and no-one was doing any listening. We kept well out if the way, as did Mark, until he had to do the sausage sizzle for them. At 2.00pm the noise level dropped off to a normal conversation level and we helped pack everything away again.

1st October 2012

We are now well and truly established at Mark and Jeane’s place and fully instructed as to feeding the chickens, operating the ride-on mower and the water tanks pipework, what to do with the lantana bushes and where the new paver path needs to be, etc. We have had two sessions of cutting out lantana bushes and poisoning the remaining stumps to get rid of it. A 5 acre block is capable of producing a lot of unwanted lantana, plus we have to work around a sleeping python. Foxy is in her element here and loving it with the chickens to herd and mice to catch.

1st November 2012

There has ben a blank spot since our last posting and between 1st October and November as the computer died,  Fortunarely it had a 3 year extended warranty so it was still covered and now returned and in action again. During the missing month Barry has layed a pver path along two sides of the vegie patch and through two gateways which involved the preparation work and about 800 pavers. 

Whilst doing this paving Barry had to attack it in short bursts, partly because the temperature have risen and partly to avoid a conflict with a nesting Yellow-Bellied Sunbird which has its nest hanging in the vegie patch so he did a time share arrangement.  The eggs eventually hatched and a lot of feeding activity happening and then nothing.  We assume the young became a preditors dinners as they were only four days old so didn't fly away.  According to the internet these birds only have a 20% success rate.  Meanwhile Merry has been busy chopping out the lantana and neatly stacking the cuttings either for later removal or to rot down, but the area that has been cleared is large and looking good.  The chickens are producing three eggs a day so we are now inudated with eggs.  On one evening trip to the hen house to tuck them up for the night we had to persuade a python to move out off the doorway to let us in, an on anothe occassion had to chas a bandicoot out.  Foxy had an incident with a snake that decided to come out from under the veranda but Barry yelled 'No' to her as she attacked the snake and she turned away as the snake reared up about a metre to turn on her.  Foxy was out of strike range so the snake retreated under the veranda with its tail still coming out as the head went back in, making it about 2 metres long and probably a pyython, but it all happened so quickly that Barry didn't get to check out the colour scheme.  We haven't seen it since.  We have also had keep her away from a largish Lace monitor that has decided the increased temperatures are to his liking.

During this month long period Barry has had blood tests done and the results led to him having a biopsy procedure in Mackay which has cleared him of cancer.