Next morning I headed to the bathroom. Cathie saw me coming back to the caravan sweating and faint. Dr Cath explained that not only I had gastro (which I knew) but also dehydration - caused by the gastro and the average 40 degree temperatures.
The water to the campground was cut off for six hours in the middle of the day for some reason. But it's not good 40 degrees, gastro and no running water.
I stayed in the campervan for most of the day except for trips to the loo. I read an excellent biography by DA Carson of his father Tom - an ordinary pastor in the french section of Canada in the middle fifty years of last century. I was in tears at several points.
We had one short 30km round trip to the rock. We took photographs including the one above. And then I sat in the airconditioned gift shop cafeteria while they looked around.
For as long as I can remember I have looked forward to one day visiting Ayres Rock. I think I had always imagined that I would do it once in my life. And this week that time came.
Strange then that after such a build up I shall always associated Ayres Rock with gastro, pain and disappointment.
It wasn't the rock's fault. It was magnificent. All it is made to be in the postcards and much more.
We set out from Alice Springs on Monday morning. It was a Monday September 1 that we left Sydney. Monday September 7 we were on the gold coast. Monday September 14 on the Sunshine Coast. Monday September 21 in Mount Isa. Monday September 28 arriving at Yulara a few km from Ayres Rock.
I felt dreadful. As we checked in I had to ask to be shown the staff toilets. And it didn't ever really get much better the whole time we were there.
Yulara is a community created for the tourism the rock generates. And amazingly - despite the fact that I was thinking it was isolated awful and nothing - I have since learned that it is the third biggest community in the Northern Territory.
We checked into the caravan park. Which I must say is a disappointing caravan park for such an impressive place. They have clearly put their resources and energies into the five star resort that they also own and operate and not the caravan park.
It was so hot the kids went to the pool and Cathie and I stayed in the air conditioned campervan.
The campground here at Uluru is the biggest one we have stayed in so far (although the Alice Springs one was also huge).
I am embarassed to say that after stumbling out to the toilet at 3am - in the massive campground and my dazed state - for what seemed like ages I couldn't find our campervan.
We have a little orange light outside our van door and after about 10 mins of walking up every lane in the campground -I saw the light and made my way home.
This afternoon we spent a very hot three and a half hours at Alice Springs Desert Park. There are lots of water bubblers spread throughout the park and I stopped at every one. I think the headache I had this morning was partly from being dehydrated.
The Desert Park walks one through three habitats: desert rivers, sand country and woodland. It's great for seeing and understanding the Northern Territory's plants and animal life.
We had a really good time. I would recommend going on a slightly cooler day. But I remain unconvinced that there are any days like that in the Northern Territory.
Hannah (cut off), Rohan and Alex Barwick, Alexi, Solomon, Cathie, Bethany and Sam Swadling
After church I was standing around and a guy came up to talk to me. Rowan Barwick had spotted me. I hadn't seen him since a meeting in the coffee shop at the ABC in Ultimo when he was working for Virginia Trioli.
Rowan and his wife Alex headed around Australia in a combi van and after 18 months drove into Alice Springs. A three week stop has been 18 months now. And they now both have permanent jobs at the ABC here in Alice and are loving it.
They invited us out to coffee where we also met Alexi and were joined by Sam Swadling and Bethan and had a lovely time. Sam seems a really nice guy, he was just back from a Bible intensive in Brisbane, and Rohan says he's a great Bible teacher.
I was surprised at first that they suggested coffee at a local nursery.
But when we were queuing to get our coffee on the counter was the best barrister in the NT award. (That's why the locals chose to have coffee at the nursery!)
Note to self. As a newcomer to church for someone else to invite one out to a coffee shop afterwards is very nice.
This morning we visited Alice Springs Baptist Church.
We visited this church because they have been using Introducing God and I thought it would be good to express Christian fellowship with them.
In the four Sundays we have been away we have been to a Presbyterian, Church of Christ, AOG and now Baptist church.
First thing we noticed before we got there was looking at their website was that they were looking for a new senior pastor. Second thing we noticed was that they have just got a new building. I was reminded what a good thing again it is to be taking leave at this point. And so not to be getting burnt out through this process but rather to be getting rejuvinated through this long service leave.
There were about 200 adults in church and about 100 kids. It is school holidays so the kids stayed in church. Being from Sydney's inner west it was the whitest church meeting I have been to in ages. There was no one Asian and only about 15 aboriginal faces (apparently there are significantly more aboriginies part of Alice Springs Lutheran).
The facilities are marvelous. And I couldn't help wondering if we should get something for adult baptisms as part of our new church complex. Perhaps a spa in the backyard? Might have to wait till phase two?
In the meeting this morning the church: said goodbye to a long standing family with eight children who are going off to start a house church, baptised an adult, sang, prayed, welcomed us well and a guest preacher from Tear South Australia gave the sermon.
It was good to take the kids to a baptist church and good for them to see an adult baptism in a baptist church. We are only halfway through talking through those issues with them.
The speaker was engaging, At the start of his talk he set up Habakkuk well and I was really looking forward to a treat (I wrote some Bible Studies on Habakkuk in 1998 but haven't really studied it since).
Habakkuk's has two questions that he puts to God? What about the injustice and poverty in the world? And then what do you mean God by sending the Babylonians as the solution?
The speaker drew a comparison with the Sudan and challenged us to be involved in solving the problem.
After the talk new senior pastor Sam Swadling pointed clearly to Jesus in explaining the baptism, and then Phil (they guy being baptised) spoke clearly of the impact of Christ in his life.
We need to get the gas cooker fixed as one of the two burners has gas coming out the wrong place. And two of the supports holding the sink in place have broken.
Sitting in the kiddy pool in Alice Springs, Abraham was very keen to play with a pretty impressive water pistol currently being used by a boy a few years younger than him.
I watched him try every possible means to persuade this boy to give him a go but to no avail. However about ten minutes later the boy was distracted by something else and put the water pistol down. Abraham immediately seized it.
He had filled it up when some older boys ran across (about 11 years old). They had been terrorising some 14 year old girls in the swimming area with splashing.
Abraham followed the example of the five year old earlier and refused to hand over the water pistol and instead joined the terrorist campaign.
I watched him as he ran through the enemy (14 year old girl) camp firing machine gun like water all over the enemy.
One 14 year old girl seized him with both hands. Picked him up whole. Ran him to the large pool and threw him in.
I waited to see if he would come to me in tears, as he doesn't like his head going below water.
We had a good time discussing sin as we started to listen to a Bible talk on Grace after dinner tonight. We discussed that the Bible's categories of wise and fool are more moral categories than intelectual. We'll start tomorrow's discusion on the verse from James 2:19 'even the demons believe and shudder.'
At the waterhole, I used Peter's pen knife to cut up tomato for the sandwiches for lunch. It was really nice but the water was too cold for me.
Solomon and Hannah competed for who is toughest by each swimming the length of the water hole and then jumping in. Abraham takes after me.
The kids listened to the AFL grand final on the car radio on the way back to the caravan park.
I also spent a bit of time listening to a talk by John Piper on distortions to the gospel from the Resurgence conference and am two chapters into Keller's book "Reason for God.'
On the way - free from the campervan on the back - we tried taking the 4WD off road. We only did this for a few hundred meters as it seemed a little pointless as there was a perfectly good road right next to us that could be driven on. But we did it.
Today we gave Cathie a day on her own. This meant that in the morning first thing I headed out to the wreckers to get a second campervan stabiliser leg repaired. It had been ruined by coming loose and then dragging along the highway at high speed.
Then Cathie took the car out shopping for an hour and a half.
Then we left her at home in the caravan while we headed out to a waterhole for a swim.
... we would be joining in the celebrations at the wedding of Nicolette Powell and Jonothan Marshall.
I remember bouncing Nicolette in her bassinette at her parents home after lunch - the first day I attended St Matthias Church in 1985.
She was flowergirl at our wedding in 1993.
We are sad to be missing their important day but will look forward to seeing photos and hearing reports when we catch up with her sister Celeste in Darwin in a fortnight.
Cathie and I stopped and prayed for them and their marriage together.
Mark Dixon, Aboriginal, 26 yo and considering becoming a pastor
Solomon and I were walking through the Wycliff Well petrol station forecourt and there were a group of Aborigines sitting on the step. I smiled, said 'G'day' to one of them, who's name turned out to be Mark.
Mark said Hi and then straight out asked 'Are you a Christian?'
I said yes and sat down for a conversation. One of the frustrations so far in the center of Australia is that I haven't really understood what the state of gospel ministry is so I was keen to listen to him.
He told me that he had come to Christ though the ministry of some Lutheran missionaries, his parents and experience that convinced him of the reality of God - when he saw the stars at night form a cross in the sky.
I asked him about the death of Christ and he had a clear understanding. He told me that he understood that Jesus had died for his sins and was now his risen Lord. He told me about the struggle for him and the other Christians in his community to avoid sin and temptation: Grog, Drugs, Sex.
I told him that they were the same temptations that people in the city faced.
He spoke of wanting to become a pastor.
We ended up swapping addresses and phone numbers.
Please pray for him and the Christian ministry on the settlement he lives in - 30 kilometers south of Wycliff Well. 300 kilometers north of Alice Springs.
I never knew the origins of my friend Bay Egerton Warburton's second name.
But I got a clue this afternoon when we stopped by the highway just north of Alice Springs....and saw this tribute to Peter Egerton Warburton.
He died in 1889. Tribute erected in 1989.
Flash back to our visit to the Stockman's Hall of Fame (September 19th) and I've added into the video of that visit a little reference to Peter Edgerton Warburton trip as well.
We paused for a moment at Barrow Creek on the journey south. They have a telegraph station identical to Tennant Creek, but having expored that one so well we don't feel the need to stop.
Also at the rest spot talking to our 72 year old friend was Kristian. A German 23 year old salesman. He was cycling from Melbourne to Russia through Australia and then Asia.
He had no support crew and was carrying a fortnight's food on his bike - because the food in the NT was so expensive.
We had some iceblocks in the freezer on the back of the jeep. So we gave them each an iceblock and got back in the airconditioned car and continued our exhausting journey to Alice Springs.
At the next rest spot we stopped and met two cyclists. One a 72 year old man, Douglas, from Carnarvon who was cycling to the master's games in Alice Springs (a national sporting competition for the retired). He explained that the people at the masters games were basically a pack of wimps who thought that a game of lawn bowls was exhausting.
After the master's he is planning to cycle around Australia.
He's 72. Come on dad. Your only 70. What are you going? (Now that should spark a comment)
On the highway south to Alice Springs we saw a couple riding south on push bikes. Our friend Paul Waterhouse cycled from Sydney to Perth a few years ago but this was the first time we had encountered cyclists in the outback.
We drove ahead. Pulled up. Stopped. And cheered as they came past.
Along the highways of the Northern Territories there are lots of places -- at 200km intervals -- that are basically petrol stations, meal places and caravan parks. Wycliff Well is one of these places.
Each of these stations seems to try to find a distinguishing feature to separate them in the traveler's mind from the next station. To give one a reason to stop there. The people at Wycliff Well have done better than anyone else we have seen at turning nothing into something through their UFO grand narrative.
They have set up an auditorium, 300 seat dining area, little mini train and amazingly - a lake.
We went for a short walk to see the lake. It was started in 1992. And on a good day now can hold 60 million liters. We were not their on a good day and it looked about 20 percent full.
But you have to hand it to them for entrepreneurialism!
Now that we are into the Northern Territory we want to slow down and introduce a new pattern of life. A new sleeping spot every day and a short trip in between (with the obvious exceptions of Alice Springs, Uluru and Darwin). So we set ourselves a goal of 130 kilometers to Wycliff Well (a roadhouse/caravan not on many of the maps or the NAVMAN).
On the left hand side about 90kms south of Tennant Creek on the side of the road we saw enormous boulders of granite. Many of them spheres. The white explorers who installed the telegraph line that opened up this section of Australia dubbed these rocks 'the devils marbles.' Big Marble shaped rocks in a devilishly hot place. We stopped and all climbed to the top of one out crop and the boys ran up to the top of another.
There was a school bus of year 10 kids from Melbourne who exploded out of a bus just as we arrived - played AFL at the foot of the devil's marbles and then just as quickly vanished.
Then we settled in our caravan and watched the first half of Breaker Morant which I had somehow missed out on seeing when younger. (I think on reflection it is a brilliant but potentially unsuitable movie for kids).
Abraham wasn't paying any attention. He was at the other end of the caravan reading comics. But Hannah, Solomon, Cathie and I watched the first half of the movie in the air conditioned camper van - as the temperature sored outside.
(Did I mention there is nothing much else to Wycliff Well other than a petrol station and alien themed campground).
My view about watching movies with your kids is that it's good introduce them to the challenges that they will face later in the context of conversation with me.
So I thought I would try out Breaker Morant with them. Then we could learn a little bit of Australian war history together. And talk about whatever was offending.
Anyway we are enjoying it. Have stopped several times to explain things. And so far we haven't got up to anything too horrific.
I confess not having watched the movie before I didn't realise that it ended (as Cathie has now told me) with the firing squad execution of the heros (that's a little bit of Australian history that I needed to learn as well). So later in the evening after the kids had gone to bed I watched the rest of the movie. I will now need to decide whether to show them the rest. I suspect we will watch it. And maybe stop it just before the end or talk it trough in detail.
It was only another 40 kilometers to Wycliff Well. We had a talk in the car on the way about UFO's and Aliens.
Personally I am skeptical but agnostic about intelligent life on other planets. But if there does turn out to be intelligent life then that will open up another huge mission feel of opportunity to tell other sentinal beings how their sins were forgiven by the actions of the creator of the universe coming as human flesh to redeem the creation 2000 years ago.
Anyway the caravan park owner at Wycliff Wells is clearly a signficant entrepreneur. He has a place at the end of the earth that he has created a grand narrative for. The narrative is. Australia's top place for UFO sightings and the Northern Territory's top place for exhotic beer. Even the tourist brochures suggeset that the two things are linked. People come here. By beers they have never tasted before and when drunk see amazing things.
All the walls of the caravan park have been painted with alien life forms and images form other planets. The toilets are dubbed 'Femaliens', 'Maliens' and bizzarely 'Unisex.'
While checking in the lady told us to come to the back entrance of the office/shopping/resteraunt area at night to buy a meal because the would be serving locals out the front and that way they could serve us priority. (I didn't realise at the time that what she meant was there would be a group of aboriginies hanging around the front later at night potentially/probably drunk and buying beer and it would be better to be round the back).
It was quite strange for us to be arriving so early in the day but we all felt tired so had a swim - in a freezing pool. The pool was under a cover and icy. (I don't really get this why when the climate is so hot the water is so cold, but it's been a repeated pattern at a number of caravan parks).
We stopped the movie because two bus loads of year eleven kids from Melbourne pulled up in our caravan park to camp for the night. They are on an eleven day excursion from Darwin to Alice Springs.
Solomon and Abraham immediately made friends with some of the year eleven girls - carrying their bags for them and helping them pitch their tents.
They then showed them the various aliens that they had found earlier. Abraham reckons he managed to get in every single one of their photos.
With the prospect of having fun (perhaps even playing AFL) with older kids the movie was forgotten.
Now this was an adventure. We slept in this morning and then went to check in at the caravan park. The woman behind the desk was from Melbourne and had been here for three months. We talked to her about what to do in Tennant Creek: * Walk down the main street and have a look. * Go the pub for the cultural experience * Visit the aboriginal cultural center and art gallery * Visit the old telegraph station * Check out an old mine. * Go to Jimmy Hooker's Bush Tucker man show in the caravan park at 7:30pm.
Heading down the main street we were struck by the number of aborigines hanging around with nothing much to do (more on this in a subsequent post). There are two churches in town - the Uniting Church and the Aboriginal Indigenous Mission. From the signs outside the Aboriginal Indigenous Mission looks like a much more active Christian community.
The caravan park lady had issued us with a key to the old telegraph station in exchange for a deposit. Attached to a key was a couple of laminated sheets of paper with the history of the telegraph station.
What we discovered. And it was more fund discovering it ourselves with the key than if their had been a tour guide was that:
In 1894 with the laying of a cable under the Indian Ocean telegraph wires had made it all the way from London to Darwin. If a telegraph could be strung from Darwin down to Adelaide then contact would be able to be made from London to the southern cities of Australia.
What needed to happen was a overland wire needed to be constructed from Adelaide to Darwin and repeater stations set up along the way to strengthen the signal. The repeater stations initially needed to be manned so that the morse code signals could be received and then manually repeated. When this process was automated the lines along the track still needed to be serviced.
Tennant Creek was set up as a Telegraph Station. THey had batteries to maintain, each supplying 1v of electricity. With 120v required to operate the station it was a constant job maintaining, replacing and recharging the batteries (I still haven't worked out how this recharging happened).
The Stuart Highway was established as a track to service the telegraph lines. The highway runs right beside the telegraph line.
Supplies were delivered to the Telegraph office every six months. In the meantime they kept a garden and some cattle to provide some necessities. Over time some aboriginies came to assist the white settlers in exchange for food and medicines. A culture of dependance grew.
Inside the Telegraph Station there was a marvelous photo album of large black and white prints of the stations history. (It looked like the master copy). There was also a photocopy of a book released in 1980 of the history of telegraph station and the inital forays of the white settlers into central Australia.
I think there's clearly a project for someone to catalogue this slice of Australian history so that it's record is more permanent. It looks like it's only the honesty of tourists that is preserving it at the moment. And pessimistically I believe in the doctrine of sin.
After Jimmy's show we stood around with him and asked questions about the town and aboriginal issues.
He has straddled the two cultures well. For eight years he has been doing a show seven nights a week in the caravan park for seven months of the year, charging $3 per person to come along. (He doesn't do his show during the wet season because no one visits). In the mornings he does four hours work cleaning the caravan parks toilets and doing other general maintenance.
In the afternoons? Well that afternoon he had been out collecting the various foods that he uses in his evening shows.
What is Tennant Creek's industry? The bottom line is that it doesn't have one at the moment. The gold mines have all closed. And while there's talk of another one opening up it isn't immanent. When I asked what drives the town he said that there was pension day, when those unemployed received their benefits, and also the ongoing funding provided as compensation for mining rights and for the compensation paid over by the government for the train line being put through.
The other industry is tourism.
This means that there are some in town who have lots of money and lots of time. And there are others in town who have not much money and lots of time. And this plus alcohol leads to fights.
So what about the people (and especially men) who are just hanging around the main street all day? The population of Tennant Creek is about 3,500. But Jimmy said the first impression is wrong. They are the same faces every day and they are only a smallish percentage of the town population.
Heading down the main street. You can't help feeling that they are staring at you as you are looking at them. Do they resent me touring here? Do they resent me as a white person? How can I not make the situation worse? Is there anything I can do to make it better?
What future? Jimmy said things are changing. He told of a 14 year old girl from town he knew who knows nothing about his practice of bush tucker. She justified this to him by saying she was a 'city girl.' What city he asked, expecting the answer 'Sydney' or 'Melbourne.' He was shocked when she said Tennant Creek. He does see things gradually improving as more young people get educated at university and work to improve things.
It's clearly an issue that is going to confront us in a bigger way as this trip continues. More thoughts later.
I have just had my first mouthful of witchety grubs.
The reason we chose the Outback Caravan Park over the others in Tennant Creek was that it advertised Jimmy the bush tucker man's show every night in the caravan park.
Jimmy does a different show each night. One night the focus is damper. Next night it's kangaroo. We struck out and came on the witchety grub night.
$3 per person was the charge. There were about 30 of us gathered around the campfire. For our city kids it was I think virtually their first open campfire experience.
Jimmy is 61. Lived initially in Mount Isa. Moved to Tennant Creek decades ago. He said he lived under gumtree 69. This is an aboriginal joke that as they assimilated into white society they had to give their address on forms. But this was difficult when they are living a nomadic life. This was hard for the white administration to understand. So it became standard practice to write one's address as Gumtree 69. It's where everyone lived.
It can't be too bad at Gumtree 69 though because it has Ausstar Pay TV.
He told the story of the ABC's Australian Story coming out to do a story about Gumtree 69. Jimmy was the first person they met, and said that he lived under Gumtree 69 and the story ended up being about him.
He gave us three poems. The first was a tribute to a cafe at the top end of town. It was advertorial at it's best. He got free breakfast and coffee in exchange for plugging the cafe at each of his shows.
Next poem was about his parrot weetbix and his dog. He said he had been thrown out of more places than anyone in the NT. Not because of drunkenness but because his parrot kept attacking people.
Third poem was about the building of the railway line from Adelaide to Perth.
Then it was witchety grub eating. He had three witchety grubs. He said that although he was called the bush tucker man it was hard finding witchety grubs these days so he would pay a couple of more outback guys a beer for each witchety grub they found for him.
You throw the witchety grubs in the ashes of a hot fire and leave them for five/ten minutes. Then scrape off the ash. To me they smelt like egg in chinese food.
Then he cut up a piece of witchety grub for each of us. Hannah was very keen to eat it - so that she could freak out her friends at school. The boys also had some and Cathie. Then their was peer group pressure from the other members of my family.
I had a piece of the smallest one and it still had a fair bit of ash. It didn't taste that good. But I have now done it.
The Northern Territory, 650kms without a turn and 'Northern Territory prices'
Tuesday morning after ringing my dad to mark his 70th birthday - it was off to the shopping center. We had to go to the Commonwealth, the supermarket and the petrol station.
To the Commonwealth because we had a problem with our credit card. There was a transaction that we and the bank had thought was suspicious meaning they put a stop on our card. This has been tricky driving around the country for almost a month without a credit card. But they arranged for a new card for us to be available to be picked up in Mount Isa.
Then we headed down the supermarket. Everyone says the prices go up dramatically as we head into the Northern Territory because of the high cost of freight. So we stocked up on as much as we can store. We particularly bought lots of meat. This is cattle country and meat is really cheap. And the cuts taste really nice.
The kids were very patient waiting in the car while Cathie and I shopped together.
A final stop off at the petrol to check the petrol, air and water and we were off. We had to cut the air pressure in the tyres because of the hot country we are driving in.
Driving out of town we typed the address of the outback caravan park at Tennant Creek into the NAVMAN. It gave us the message 650 kilometers till the left turn onto the Stuart Highway. We turned the sound down so we wouldn't have to be reminded every ten kilometers of the distance to the turn.
It also simplified the issue in the car of what we would plug into the cigarette lighter/power supply. A bonus with the jeep that Peter and Vini have lent us is that it has two supplies. We've been juggling the portable fridge that we are using as a freezer in one, the NAVMAN in the other and what is called an inverter (something that turns 12v DC into 240v AC). We are using the inverter so that the laptop can be plugged in the back seat and the kids can watch movies/write their blogs etc.
We started the drive listening to the range of John Williamson songs that related to Queensland for the last time. By now the kids have started to sing along to 'Cape York Peninsular,' 'Charters Towers,' and 'Crocodile Roll.' So that was fun.
Then the kids in the back seat watched and we in the front seat listened to another Bible talk - and then we discussed - Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17. Abraham fell asleep but we had good discussion with the others. For Cathie most challenging is the view that God is her father who has an intimate relationship with her. Cathie's dad died when she was eight and she said she could not remember sitting down for a regular family meal with him. They had a kids meal with her mum earlier and then her parents ate together when dad got home. Cathie and I have really enjoyed discussing deeper Bible concepts with our kids this trip.
There wasn't much to Camooweal. I can't remember anything else except the petrol station in fact. The price of petrol was a $1.80 per litre. But the thing that hit me was that someone just before me had paid $200+ for fuel. I've never seen this amount on a bowser before.
We had lunch while we drove and the kids watched Superman Returns in the back seat. (It was only later I realised it was rated M. Oh well!).
Next stop was the Barley Homestead. Again it wasn't much more than a petrol station. We had to stop and refill because there wasn't another one until we got to Tennant Creek. They are open six till midnight. If you come out of hours there's $20 opening charge (we were there at about 5pm). Fuel cost $2.09 per litre. We filled up.
I was struck by the toilet signs and so took photos of Solomon and Hannah outside their respective doors.
The journey to the Three Rivers Roadhouse - the junction between the Stuart Highway heading north to Darwin and south to the Alice and the road we were on from the west was pretty uneventful. There were no where near as many kangaroos or cattle on the side of the road.
We had rung ahead to book in at the Tennant Creek caravan park. They told us just find a spot and we would sort out the money in the morning.
Well we are 24 hours out of Mount Isa now and what do I think. In summary I think it's a little bit like Broken Hill but without the cultural touch or feminine touch.
Like Broken Hill the town is dominated by the mines. Although I had the sense in Broken Hill that the mines were gradually winding down (I could have this wrong). But there is no sense of winding down at Mount Isa.
The company totally dominates the town (population I think just over 20 thousand). And it's a town ruled by engineers not architects.
Cathie and I went for a lovely five kilometer walk through the town early in the morning and we noticed that there were lots and lots of fairly run down houses (Gee she's a nice girl:) ).
We saw lots of houses that looked like people slept there rather than lived there. Not many houses that looked like the garden was well kept. And not that many houses that looked like much money had been spent on them at all. There were however quite a lot of nice cars.
There were lots of houses with fences to keep their dogs in. And lots of dogs. The gender balance is heavily male and so maybe a lot of guys have dogs.
There's a massive transient population - brought in by the mine but not planning to stay that long (perhaps a few months) but then still there 10 years later. But not particularly out of love for the place but because nothing better came along.
There were hardly any brick houses. But then there didn't really need to be because it didn't rain. I told one guy I spoke to about a summer in Sydney a decade ago when we had 13 wet weekends over summer. And he said it hadn't rained in the Isa for 13 months.
Summary: I am glad we visited but it would be a terrible place to live.
After a quite afternoon yesterday with lots of play at the Caravan Park pool after the kids were in bed Cathie and I snuck out to McDonalds. But get this Mount Isa Maccas is closed on Sunday nights - now that's not as good as Stanmore Maccas:)
So instead we headed up to the lookout.
Mount Isa at night is spectacular. But there is nothing to do.
Here's the distance map at the top of the lookout.
First thing this morning we headed back up to the lookout with the kids to show them what it is like.
Then I took the car to be serviced. We've been a little suspicious that it isn't cooling as it should. And we don't want to find out that we are right somewhere between Mount Isa and Alice Springs. So we are playing 'better to be safe than sorry.' I met a really nice German guy called Bert who has run the car yard for 40 years. One of his offsiders had a look at the car and is going to do something. Bert dropped me back in town and we walked from the shopping center to the Outback Hospital.
While I was at the car place Cathie bought Hannah the third book in the a series about a guy called Eragon. After Harry Potter I think this is her current favourite series. After three hours Hannah is up to about page 180.
In WW2 Darwin Hospital was bombed and their was concern that the Japanese might go for Mount Isa next (as much of Australia's lead (ie bullet) production was done here. They decided to build a backup underground hospital. It was built with volunteer labor from the mines over 12 weeks. As the Japanese never bombed Mount Isa the underground hospital was never used - except as a night sleeping area for the nurses. But Cathie likes visiting medical things so we checked it out - Australia's only citizen built underground hospital.
We were totally hot by the time we walked back to 'Outback at Isa' and didn't feel like another Australiana Museam. So we didn't pay to go in to that. We're now back at the Caravan Park, Cathie is having a sleep. The kids are in the pool and I am writing this update.
In terms of budgeting. We had set a nightly max of $50 for the caravan park. Petrol is pricey out here. Entry for a family to a museam/exhibit seems to cost $40-50.
We wanted to go to church this morning, so we drove the extra kilometers from Cloncurry to Mount Isa.
It's not that we have to. We aren't under any legalism at all on this point and it's not that we feel that we need a top up of Bible and Prayer. As a family we are reading the Bible and Praying more on this trip together than we get to in normal life.
But it's an unreal life - this tourist life. A life with no responsibilities. No work. Just fun and seeing the world. So we have decided to make it a priority to go to church each week.
At each of the three churches we have been to on this trip it has been good to meet with Christian people who are living out their normal lives, doing normal things, not doing the exotic unreal things that we are carrying on with.
We have been fairly eclectic in our church choices. First the Gold Coast Presbyterian Church. Then the Sunshine Coast Lakeshores Church of Christ. Today we went we went to the AOG church in Mount Isa. We made this choice not out of any conviction but because they were the only church in Mount Isa that was on the web.
There were about 100 seats. About half full. They were down on numbers because school holidays start today. Kids program wasn't operating because it was school holidays.
There were four songs to start. I only knew 'Blessed be thy name.' There was keyboard, drummer, base and trumpet and four singers. The drums were miked. Church family news was done with a very well produced video with a competent voice over. The music and video were excellent. I was impressed.
The sermon went for an hour and was fairly unstructured. It was week two of a series 'What is a real Christian.' The first point was a repeat of last week's talk: A real Christian is someone who loves God above all else.
We were warmly welcomed over morning tea.
Then we came home to the Caravan Park. I had lunch with the boys while Cathie and Hannah went to lunch at the shops. Now we have just had a swim and I am sitting at my laptop writing this while the kids play in the pool
Cathie and I had a talk yesterday about what our goals were as a family and as parents for this trip.
I said that I think my top three are:
1. That we grow together as a family to love and trust God together more. 2. That Cathie and I become more one together through this concentrated time away from distractions. 3. That we grow together as a family and our family identity grows.
I am also hoping for 4. A major childhood memory for the kids (much like for me the trip to Australia and our family trip to Perth and back) were major childhood memories and 5. That our kids might learn something. 6. I have realised that deep down I really would like to go all the way around the country - just because it's there.
It's because of the fourth and fifth goals that I have asked the kids to record their experiences and I have worked to video the experience. I appreciate so much my father using a super eight movie camera to film our childhood. And virtually the only bits that I remember are the bits that he videoed and that we watched over and over on family evenings.
And I guess I am wanting to do the something similar for our kids (Which is why I have wanted to record the experience and have them record it as well).
We decided to drive all the way to Mount Isa because we wanted to go to church this morning and we didn't think Cloncurry had a church. So here we are at 'The Isa.' The photo above is of the park we stayed in last night. We have since switched to the Big 4 park down the road.
Airconditioner
When we bought the campervan the thing that decided Cathie on the getabout was that it had the option of an airconditioner. And she worked extra days at work to pay for the airconditioner. And she really deserves to be praised for this. Last night we left the airconditioner on all night. Luxury.
Caravan Parks
We are starting to have views on which sort of caravan parks are most suited. I like caravan parks. I like staying in them at Christmas TIme because it brings me into contact with a subculture of Australian society that is such a long way from Annandale and the media.
The caravan parks permanent residents are often from the lower end of the socio-economic specturm. Although in Mount Isa that's not necessarily the case. Here the mines bring people in for short term contracts from everywhere all the time and there isn't enough accomodation in the Isa and so lots of people stay in Caravan Parks.
We are now in the Big 4 one in Mount Isa (there are associations of carvan parks - Top Tourist is the top one, Big 4 the next level down and there's another one family something).
We ended up in fairly low star accomodation in two of our longer term parks so far (the Gold Coast and Brisbane) and because I thought we might stay in the Isa a couple of days we changed parks this morning from the one we went to late last night to the Big Four one.
The deciding factor - Big Four have a working internet connection. A bonus they turned out to be two dollars cheaper $39 not $41.
Cathie put some photos into be developed meaning we couldn't leave Longreach till ten am when the were due to be picked up. But we managed to leave even later because the jeep keys were all packed away in my bag inside the sealed campervan. We wound up the campervan and headed off.
We weren't sure when we were going to stop. Our original plan was Mount Isa but the late leaving had disrupted this.
Exhaustion
We finished our listening to a talk from Philippians 3 on exhaustion. This has been a really good discussion/study and we have thought through about pressing on towards heaven well as a family.
Winton
We arrived at Winton at 1pm. We went to the Waltzing Matilda museum at Winton and had a coffee at the Coolabar Cafe but didn't go in because we didn't feel like a third Australiana museam in two days.
We would have liked to visit the dinosaur exhibit but were a little late (blame the photos and the keys) it closed at 1pm. So we tortured the kids: sitting in the park in Winton in 38 degree heat looking at the local kids frolic in the pool.
Hannah's friend Joanna gave her a chinese bracelet and her friend Eva gave her a necklace. As we left Winton there was panic because neither could be found. We drove back and found the chinese bracelet on the road and the necklace in the car.
Leaving Winton there was a petrol station on the right with a very powerful advertising line: 'Last petrol for 180kms.'
On the drive to Kynuna the kids watched Joseph and the Technicoloured Dreamcoat.
Kynuna
At Kynuna there's really only a pub - the Blue Heeler hotel. It's distinguishing feature was that every single square centimeter of the pubs internal walls is covered with graffiti.
But before we got to the pub - guess what we saw - brolgas. You know the 'out on the plain the brolgas are dancing.' There was a flock/herd of them. What do you call a group of brolgas? Cathie was so excited!
We pulled up at the petrol station. They said 'Don't use that pump mate. You won't be able to use that one for about another four hours - until it cools down.' I didn't know what would have happened if I had used the pump - but I certainly wasn't going to try it.
Yesterday at the pool at Longreach Caravan Park we met a retired couple who played with us a game of piggy in the middle. They sat outside the pool and threw the ball to me in the pool - with the kids attempting to intercept.
In the Blue Heeler hotel - there they were again. They are traveling Australia slowly. They originally were ten pound poms then had to go back to the UK in 1969 because of sick relatives. Now they are back exploring the country that they had originally intended to spend their adult lives. They are doing the journey much more slowly than us and have their next appointment in February 2009 in Tasmania. They stayed the night at the Blue Heeler while we kept driving.
The only serious sign we saw at the Blue Heeler was the sign warning of killer mosquitos. Cathie has now explained the technical terms but if they bite you they can give you arthritis for nine months or brain damage for ever.
At the Blue Heeler we were told that we had missed the turn off to Banjo Patterson's billabong - the one he was visiting when he had the idea for and wrote Waltzing Matilda. It was a 16 km back trip to the turn off then 8km down the road to the Billabong. Did I want to backtrack 44 kms to see a waterhole that they told me was virtually dry? But it was such a key thing in Australia's psychi. And I don't think I will be back this way ahead of retirement.
As we were driving away I was reflecting on the fact that every time I sing Waltzing Matilda in the future I guess I will regret not doing that 44 kilometer backtrack. But it was 39 degrees.
Aboriginies at Walkabout Creek
Next stop was Walkabout Creek Hotel. We didn't buy a drink at the Blue Heeler. But we did stop for a diet coke each at the Walkabout Creek. It's the pub at the center of the movie Crocodile Dundee.
Our kids haven't seen this movie but we will get it for them now since here we are in Crocodile Dundee territory.
A group of aboriginies walked into the bar while were were there. They are a singing group from near Blackwater heading up to near Cairns to perform. I took their photo. One of them introduced himself as Cathie Freeman's cousin and I was able to extend condolences to him over the death of her brother Norman last week.
Cloncurry
As we headed to Cloncurry we listened again to the Willamson songs about Longreach, Charters Towers, Mount Isa and Alice Springs. As we drove along the road we saw thousands of what he called 'Cathedrals built by ants.'
Cloncurry's claim to fame is that it is the site of Australia's hottest recordest temperature - 53.1 degrees. (I thought this was Whitecliffs NSW but I certainly wasn't going to be the one to break the bad news to the girl behind the counter at the Caltex). It was 31 degrees at 8pm. And she said it's nothing like the temperature it gets.
We would have liked to have stopped at Cloncurry but had decided we wanted to go to church tomorrow and it didn't look like there were any churches in Cloncurry.
We had a hamburger each in the cool of the roadhouse and kept driving.
To Mount Isa
Hannah tried to sleep. Abraham, Solomon, Cathie and I kept a sharp eye open for Kangaroos and Cattle. We saw lots of cattle right by the road, but none actually on the road.
We had to stop once when there was an enormous clanking from the campervan. What had gone wrong? Flat tyre? Something worse? It turned out that one of the campervan's corner stabliser legs had wriggled loose and unwound, hit the tarmac at 90km/hour and twisted round.
Oh well I'll have to go and meet another welder and ask him to fix this one as well.
Mount Isa
We pulled in about ten pm. Set up quickly and went to bed.
It makes a stunning impression. As you drive into Longreach, parked right by the highway is a Qantas 747.
To mark the 82 Birthday of the airline Qantas gave a 747 (apparently they are worth $250million dollars) to Longreach. But the airport is half the length of the landing strip required to land a 747. So they emptied the plane and flew in with minimum crew on board and no back up fuel and landed on this tiny strip in the middle of outback Queensland.
Qantas We did a bit of Family Bible time in the morning and then headed out to the Qantas museam at the airport. I really hadn't spent any time learning about the history of Qantas before but it is facinating - and it was great to stand inside the hanger where the airline was born.
Two guys who flew together in WW1 came back to Australia and were given the job of maping out some airstrips in central Queensland. They got the idea of starting an airline to serve the bush areas of Queensland and the Northern Territory.
In the background the orginal hanger/office where Qantas began.
I saw their initial pricing schedule. It was based on charter flights with one passenger per flight. And an early ex war pilot was fired after he waited till his two passengers fell asleep then did a loop the loop (like they did in the war).
When you stop and read the history and appreciate those people who bled for the founding of the airline it's kind of sad to see the mess that Qantas is in at the moment with it likely to be taken over or merged with a larger airline.
Stockman's Hall of Fame When I worked at 2UE (1985-1989) for around 12 months of that time I was the network's rural editor. This meant that I edited and presented three news bulletins each weekday to a national audience on around 50 country radio stations.
During that time I learned everything there was to know about agricultural politics and it was a fascinating time of my life, heading up the country news right at the high point of rural crisis.
In our news reports I covered the whole process of the building of the Stockman's Hall of Fame. Although I had stopped working in rural in 1988 when the Queen came to open it I was very interested in the whole building of the complex - a tribute to the Australian stockman and our outback heritage.
And I resolved that one day I would like to go and see it.
So when we were planning this trip the one place that I was interested in going to see in Queensland was the Stockman's Hall of Fame.
There were five levels to the complex looking at different aspects of the history of bush life in Australia. But the only difference that I could work out when one compared this exhibit to a number of other country heritage museums was that this one had lots of individual profile pieces of various Australian bush characters.
All in all although it was a pleasant and interesting afternoon it didn't measure up to 20 years of eager anticipation.
Back at the caravan park Hot and dusty and the kids and I had a great time playing piggy in the middle in the pool. Cathie went to the shops to get film developed.
After dinner when the kids were asleep in the camper Cathie and I went into town for a drink at the pub. We were the only customers on a quite Friday night. Although we have spent almost all our time together for the last three weeks - we hadn't really had a deep (just us) conversation for 48 hours - we had been at Qantas museam in AM then Stockman's museam in PM and kids the rest of the time - and just needed to talk.
T-shirt But I did buy a T-shirt in Longreach:
New York London Parish Longreach
All in all it's a dusty town a long way from nowhere. A lady told Cathie that it's a good place for little kids and old people because the pace of life is slower.
Moving from Great Keppel Bay to inland to Longreach means that the caravan parks have got cheaper and the petrol has got more expensive. Today was probably our longest day of driving so far. We probably should have stopped at Emerald but decided to do 700+ kilometers all the way to Longreach. We drew up a rough timetable for our trip before we left Sydney and we planned to be exiting Queensland on Monday. We were held up a little on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane and this means we are running a little behind time so we did the long drive. I think it is the first time I have spent more than $200 on petrol in day.
Great Keppel Bay When we bought the camper trailer it came with a bonus portable fridge that we have been using as a freezer. The only downside of this fridge/freezer is that it takes up a lot of space in the camper trailer. So on a few nights we have left it in the car, plugged in by the 240v. Ambitiously I decided to see how it would go on the car battery last night. And it did fine. The freezer was minus 17 degrees when I checked it at 8am and the jeep started perfectly. But by the time we were ready to set out at 9:15 the battery was flat and we had to ask a fellow camper to help jump start us. (I think he rightly thought I was a bit silly!)
John Williamson and the Apostle Paul I did a bit of work cataloging some of the John Williamson songs over breakfast. As we headed out of Rockhampton we listened to 'Longreach is praying for rain' and another one about Mount Isa. I have decided to try and listen to his songs that relate to the place we are visiting that day.
Then we started to listen to a talk on Philippians 3:12-4:12 where Paul spoke about his struggle for godliness and that he hadn't attained this and held himself us an example of someone who was working in the power of God's spirit to be more godly but didn't expect this work to be completed until he got to heaven.
Blackwater We kept stopping the mp3 to count coal cars on the trains. At one point we saw guys working on the train track. There were six coal trains held up by the track work. Each train had an average of 100 coal wagons on. Easily the longest trains I have seen.
The hamlet of Blackwater seemed to be the place where the coal was being loaded. And we presumed that was why it was called Blackwater - because the coal made the water black. But really we had no idea.
Emerald We stopped at Emerald where the biggest Van Gough painting in the world is. The tourist information lady was amoung the most helpful we have met so far. Emerald also had a mosaic history of civilisation in Emerald starting with Genesis 1:1, moving to the Aboriginal dream time, then white settlement.
But probably most memorable for our kids was that there was a very large lizard in the women's toilets.
Superman movie We set up the laptop for the kids to watch Superman in the backseat. This movie seemed to go forever.
Jericho on the Jordon Creek We stopped at Jericho. The sign in the center of the little town said that there was a lake called Gallilee nearby, and a creek called Jordon Creek, so it only seemed fitting to name the little town Jericho. The main park had a public exhibit telling the story of the Biblical Jericho.
Barcaldine We would have liked to have stopped here. Barcaldine was the birthplace of the Australian Labor Party. Workers united into a union during the initial flurry of coal mining in the area. There looked like some very interesting museams on the history of the Labor movement in Australia. But given that it was 5:30pm when we drove through, they had closed everything and we just kept on driving.
Capricorn Highway The highway from Rockhampton to Longreach is called the Capricorn Highway. It's named Capricorn because it runs due west on the tropic of Capricorn. (Points for anyone in the comments field who can tell me why the tropic of Capricorn is called tropic of Capricorn?) The plain is extremely flat. And driving due west looking directly into the sunset for 90 minutes was very difficult.
We were thirty kilometers from Longreach and pulled into Ilfracone for a toilet stop (and because at last we had mobile reception we could ring ahead and book the caravan park. I was sitting in neutral outside the toilets when the car overheated. In it's defence we had driven for seven hours at high speed with a trailer and then put the car in to neutral without turning off the air conditioner (Sorry Peter!). We waited for 15 minutes to cool down before heading to Longreach.
Longreach As we drove into town we saw the signs for the Qantas history museam and the Stockman's Hall of fame, so it should be an interesting day tomorrow.
We arrived just after dark and as I sit on the bench in the park jotting down these notes I am struck by how different the park is to the coastal parks - biggest difference - no grass - all dusk. John Williamson was right. Longreach is praying for rain. But there is one similarity with the majority of the coastal parks. You don't park the campervan on the concrete! :)
We have now been to two islands this week - Fraser Island on Monday and Great Keppell Island today. Although Cathie was only with us for the second one.
How do they compare?
Well the big difference is that Fraser Island is open and Great Keppel Island is essentially closed.
Technically the only thing closed are the two big resorts. But without the resorts all the subsiduary businesses have had to wind down dramatically. There were lots of beachfront houses that people could rent - that were sitting their empty.
I think Great Keppel is technically nicer but at Fraser the whole resort thing was in full swing, whereas at Great Keppel the only things open were the pizza shop, the gift shop and our pre booked coral cruise.
Having praised the fauna tour on Fraser Island earlier in the week, I must say that I enjoyed the Coral Tour more on Great Keppel today. But I think that's because I know less and care more about coral than fauna.
ps Paul, Carrie I think there is a really good opportunity for stories for you guys on what's happening with Great Keppel Island and what is being done to reopen it? The locals up here are very suspicious of the motives of the big resort owners who have from a long way off trashed their livelihoods.
Cathie right from the start of planning this trip has wanted to give the kids an experience of the Great Barrier Reef. In fact the three things we wrote down to do in Queensland were the Gold Coast fun parks (kids request), The Stockman's Hall of Fame at Longreach (Dominic's request) and Great Barrier Reef (Cathie's request).
She really is a tropical island kind of girl. A significant period of her life was as a med student spending a term in Western Samoa. I missed the cues when we were engaged and failed to take her on a honeymoon to a tropical island, making up for it on a tenth wedding anniversary trip to Daydream Island. So today was her third tropical island experience and she loved it.
We bought a day coral trip family ticket and headed down this morning to the jetty in time for a 9:15 departure. We had to race back to the caravan park at 8:50am because I had left my wallet in the caravan.
We sat on the top deck in the captain's cabin and Abraham got to play driver. When we arrived at Great Keppel we had an hour to explore the island before our scheduled coral cruise.
The cruise was headed up by a guy called Adrian, nicknamed 'Trout' because he used to be a trout fisherman. He was good fun, pretended he was new to a job, explained that he had been left a trail of breadcrumbs on the ocean to find his way back on his previous training trip. He said if we saw him jump overboard we should too, but not via the back as we would get caught in the propeller.
However his novice status was a sham. He had been around Great Kepell Island for ten years at least and new exactly what he was talking about. Working previously as head of outdoor entertainment for the now defunct Great Kepell Island resort.
He took us over the coral - the weather was brilliant - and we could see the bottom very clearly - it was I think he said the best weather for coral viewing that he had seen in six years. Certainly it was much better viewing than our 10th wedding anniversary trip to Daydream Island.
(I have given the kids an assignment of writing an educational report on the content of Adrian's presentation so we shall see how they go on their blogs - perhaps you could comment on this. I have realised I need to up the expectations of their reporting content).
On the way back Adrian told us the story of the collapse of the Island economy during 2008. This was an astonishing soap opera as we heard about Tower shutting down the Day Dream Island resort earlier this year. The publicity about the shutting down of the resort meant that many people thought the whole island had shut.
And effectively it has in that the number of tourists has plummeted from 2000 to 40. The general tourist store ('The Rainbow Shop') was still operating, the pizza shop but that was about it.
All the small businesses that supported the Island's tour operators are still running but on a much reduced scale. Adrian for example had switched from being head of outdoor entertainment for the resort with lots of people under him to doing tours on the glass bottomed boat.
We had lunch sitting on the walkway from the main resort heading down to the beach (a place we could certainly not have sat in a previous era). Then we walked through the water to the rocks at the end.
Cathie encouraged each of us to go goggling - that's not searching the web - but searching the rocks with goggles on looking for fish darting amoungst the rocks. I am always the hardest to persuade to enter cold water but ended up having a terrific time.
Then we walked all the way around the north end of the island past the other resort that also closed down at the start of the year and waited on the beach for the ferry to collect us.
On the way back the ferry staff in a game tied Abraham up in a life jacket as if it was a straight jacket. And we told Adrien the kids blog address so that he can mark their report on the coral exploration.
All in all a very good day!
Now to BBQ some sausages and then Bible time and bed.
A big day of driving today from Hervey Bay to Rockhampton. It is probably the kind of big driving day that we are going to get familiar with over the next couple of weeks.
On the way along today we listened to a Bible talk on Philippians and had pressed pause lots to discuss it. Then we stopped that after about 45 mins and the kids watched The Ant Bully on my laptop in the back seat with the sound plugged into the car audio system.
We stopped for lunch at a 'Stop Revive Survive' place and then listened to a John Williamson album. I'll say more about John Williamson as we go on. But I think he is the best song writer I have heard who captures snapshots of Australian and especially bush and outback life in verse. I've bought a few albums by him along and we spent a bit of time singing along with and explaining the lyrics to the kids from the album We love this Country. I had a bit of search on the web to see if I could find a catalogue of Williamson songs cross referenced to location so that
Then Cathie and I listened to and discussed the first half of Mark Driscoll's presentation to Sydney ministers from St Andrew's Cathedral a couple of weeks ago. (If I wasn't on holidays I would tell you what I thought :) ).
We arrived at the tourist place at Yeppoon just before five in time to book a day trip to Great Keppell Island tomorrow.
The mossies are much more active here. I tried using a mossie coil in the caravan but it ended up smoking the place out. I think I'll try it again tonight but leaving the plastic windows unzipped to keep air flowing through.
What a great day. I am feeling very relaxed as I write this on my iPhone on the ferry back from Fraser Island.
The day started at the jeep second hand place where we got a new back up fan -meaning air conditioning can now be used again in the car.
Then I went and bought a new fuse for the extension cord we have to attach the portable in car fridge we have in the boot to the cigarette lighter power supply.
We had decided to have a day in Hervey Bay and not move ok to Rockhanpton until tomorrow.
I took the kids down to the tourist info place and we discovered that a ferry was leaving for Fraser Island in 40 minutes. So we raced back to the caravan and found swimmers and headed down to the ferry terminal.
There was a resteraunt lunch, a Ranger's tour of the island plants, see saw a dingo on the beach then we swam and went in the spa in the tropical resort pool.
It was very pleasant!
One of our criticisms of the yobbo who lead the tour at the Big Pinapple yesterday was that he new little about his subject (pinapples and maccadamia nuts) and he didn't care about his subject.
Today's tour was a stunning contrast - the Ranger new lots about the subject and was very personally interested and committed to the welfare of Fraser Island (although she did admit at the end she was more into wombats than plants) but had grown to love plants in her current job.
Cathie decided to have a quiet day on her own back in Hervey Bay so we shall see what she has been up to soon. It has been pretty intense for us all being in each other's company 24/7 but as Solomon observed the time that we have been spending in the Bible has helped lots.
We have been looking through Philippians both reading it as a Bible Study and listening or watching talks on video and pressing pause and discussing.
Thanks to those who have prayed for I'd that we would do family Bible each day - I think we have except for the two Sundays - but we were at church those two days.
Tomorrow it's Rockhampton/Yeppoon and the Great Barrier Reef then we go Emerald, Longreach and Mount Isa before we head to the Northern Territory next Monday.
Sunday morning and we packed the caravan as quickly as possible and headed off to Lakeshore Church of Christ, pastored by L-T Hopper who used to work at Christ Church, Gladesville.
Church was full and exciting. They have a great set up - they own pre- school and use the pre-school class rooms for Sunday kids ministry and they share a car park with the pre-school and the local shopping center. But the thing that stuck me most was the men. There were men in their fourties who were exercising leadership at every point. It was very encouraging.
They had a great boooksales system - one of the guys orders books in from christianbooks.com - they work out to be miles cheaper than through the shops - he subsidised the freight costs and lots of people buy good Christian books. I bought books by DA Carson on his father's life and work, Mark Dever on church and Tim Keller on the reason for God.
L-T's wife Belinda invited us back for BBQ chicken lunch at their house and it was good to catch up with them. They were delighted and shocked to hear about Cath and Otto getting married as they were on the same year at Bible College at Otto.
Belinda is a communications graduate and just starting to think about how to start using her media gifts as well after taking a break for baby making (three lovely daughters).
We headed off to the Big Pinapple - which quite frankly was a massive disappointment.
Cathie remembered it from her childhood - and the disappointment was that of was exactly the same as it was thirty years ago when she was there last - except the guide was not as competent.
It was so clearly past it's glory and such. Stunning contrast to Australia Zoo, which we saw on Saturday.
The tour guide - who took us on the nutmobile through the maccadamia nut plantation had not been there long, didn't really know his stuff and wasn't that interested in his subject matter.
We had the same tour guide for the plantation express train through the pineapples and the story was much the same.
After the Big Pineapple we headed off to Hervey Bay. We ended up getting their after dark. I have now made a commitment to Cath that we will arrive at our overnight location before dark - as that will significantly reduce her stress.
te The Irwins and the Steeles - they didn't talk much :)
I went to Australia Zoo not really looking forward to it - but feeling like it was something that I ought to do once in my life - and feeling a little cynical about all the hype over Steve Irwin.
But in the end I was very impressed.
The negatives first There is too much haigiography of Irwin. He is everywhere. From the huge jump in the toyota add at the entrance to the name of the shuttle train 'Steve's Safari.' The half hour performance we watched in the Crocoseam was billed as a tribute to him and the things he stood for. It doesn't make sense to call the place 'The home of the Crocodile hunter' with a photo of him - when he clearly isn't there.
Now the positives - and there are many
Something led by one person will be stamped for good or ill with that person's personality and vision whereas the organisation led by a committee or board by nature is one of compromise.
Australia Zoo has vision and character in a way i have not seen in any other zoo.
It was by far the best zoo I have been to and we had a wonderful time - seeing lots of animals up close. Many of the exhibits actually had keepers in the cages sitting with the animals to answer questions.
Cathie has been a little frustrated the last few days that so far the balance of our holiday has been higher on fun that learning. Well Australia Zoo was fun but it was a day filled with conversation and learning. I was very impressed.
Sideline: A delightful moment for us was when Hannah discovered that Australia Zoo was not in Sydney as she had assumed.
ps We didn't see Bindi!
Car When we picked up the Jeep on Friday it still didn't have a backup fan. The replacement fan from jeep was quoted at $1300, and the repair guys had not been able to get one second hand that day. They gave us the name of a jeep place at Maroochydore which specialises in second hand parts - so we will go there.
But it means two days of driving with no back up fan - and hence no air conditioner.
This was fine as we drove with the windows open. More stressful was keeping a close eye on the temperature. We sat at 95 which was the middle of the dial the whole trip. 120 was the red area. I am not sure quite what this means but I am keeping a close eye on it.
Feeling It now feels like we are starting to get more off the beaten track. All though we are only at the Sunshine Coast. It is starting to feel like the outback is approaching. This is exciting.
We are also starting to get into the rythum of things. We arrived at the Big 4 Forest Glen Caravan Park at about 4pm, the kids went for a play in the pool while Cathie had a sleep and I edited up a video. At six pm we looked at the Bible. Abraham actually fell asleep towards the end of this time - he was so tired after the big day at Australia Zoo.
Then dinner and then we actually got the kids to bed by 9pm and us by 10pm. I woke at 5:30am.
It's seven now, we will breakfast, pack up the caravan and head to church.
We just heard this banging around outside the caravan - it was a brush turkey trying to break into our rubbish. Abraham was out of bed in a second and headed out to scare it away.
Sad but happy news that I have now only just heard from Annandale about the death of Tom Lee. Sad news because we and others will miss him.
Tom is one of Annandale's characters. He spent years living on the streets but for the last few years has been living in a Housing Commission home.
Several years ago members of our church met up with him and he has been a regular member now since around 2003.
His particular service of Christ over the last few years has been reaching out to other homeless people with the care and compassion of the gospel of Jesus.
I have valued his advice on quite a few occasions, particularly he has been wise when I have wanted to know how we as a church community should better care for those who are struggling.
Happy news because Tom is in a better place: Heaven.
Life had not been easy for Tom. And since putting his personal trust in Christ and starting a relationship with God through Jesus Tom is assured of going to heaven. In fact that is now where he is. No more electricity bills to worry about. Just good relationship with his Lord and Saviour in Heaven.
Friday: We started Friday carless again and began to formulate a plan A and plan B.
Plan A was that we would have a quiet day at the caravan park (we need this and then get the car back tonight and head to the Sunshine Coast and the Big Pineapple and Australia Zoo over the weekend (we need to find out where the church on the Sunshine Coast is that LT Hopper is pastoring in time for Sunday morning).
Plan B was that we would have a quiet day at the caravan park (we need this and then hire a car for a trip to the Sunshine Coast and the Big Pineapple and Australia Zoo over the weekend ahead of getting the jeep back on Monday.
Either way a quiet day at the Caravan Park while we waited for a 4pm phone call. The senior manager of the caravan park is a lovely lady in her fourties who has been a source of information and encouragement - very different to the junior duty manager we encountered on the first day.
Today started with a really good time of family Bible discussion focused on the back half of Philippians 2 then Cathie and I shopped together at lunchtime.
Cathie thought I was crazy for taking a photo of her in the supermarket!
Backyard cricket in the caravan park this afternoon, then just after five Solomon and I caught the bus to to the Hagins Performance Motors.
Good news from the car people. The jeep's oil problem wasn't as bad as we had feared. The oil pressure switch has been replaced but there has been no damage to the engine. The backup fan which will still need to be replaced is actually only required when one is running with the air conditioner - and we will be able to get one of these from a jeep place halfway to Rockhampton early next week.
The car difficulty has only set us back one day on our schedule and I think it was probably really good for us to have this break.
Tonight Abraham and Cathie are going to watch their National Geographic video, Solomon is going to listen to the Swans game. Everyone's going to get ready to go early in the morning. And we plan to head off tomorrow to drive to the Sunshine Coast and to say hi to Bindi at Australia Zoo.
Abraham and I went with the tow truck driver and the jeep to Ashgrove Car Care. I bought a coffee for me and an icecream for Abraham on the walk back to the caravan park.
After lunch the kids and I headed into Brisbane on the bus. Cathie gave us a short list of things she wanted us to buy. We stopped at the chemist and bought the things Cathie wanted before getting on the bus. I sent solomon to run them back to the caravan.
When he hadn't come back I rang Cathie ok the mobile and together we prayed and started to search. Hannah was posted to wait outside the chemist, Cathie waited outside the caravan park and I waked up and down the highway looking for Solomon.
I felt impotent with no friends in a foriegn city and no car.
I never know in these situations when I should escalate the alarm. Cathie is more willing to give the kids freedom than me and slower to press the panic button.
When I couldn't stand it any longer I called the police. They very reasonably asked me where I was. As I was trying to work out the address: 'Corner Ashgrove road and.... Enoggara road'. Solomon appeared in the distance in tears.
He had headed down the wrong street at top speed and after running a long way couldn't find the caravan park,got distressed and headed back.
There was an emotional reunion and Cathie then walked us up to the bus stop where we headed into town.
First thing we saw when we got off the bus was JB hifi. Some friends gave us some gift vouchers for DVDs to watch on the trip both at night and for the kids on the long driving.
Our first purchase was: The game plan (Hannah) National Geographic x 3 (Cathie) Valient, Home Alone (Solomon) King Kong, ET, Spiderman 2 (Dominic)
Walking around Brisbane we were am amazed by the quality and and quantity of street architecture.
After ice cream treat the kids were ready to come home to the caravan park and my idea of walking the Story Bridge was vetoed.
We spent a bit over an hour reading Philippians 2:1-11 and listening to a talk on that passage - stopping it every few minutes for a discussion.
After dinner by democratic process we chose to watch 'The game plan,'
A nice tow truck driver and trouble with the caravan park
I met a really nice guy called Shane this morning. He works as a tow truck operator. I know what you are thinking - 'Oh dear Dominic's smashed Peter and Vini's jeep.'
But no. It wasn't that.
We arrived last night after closing time at the Caravan Park in Ashgrove, Brisbane. We are parked at site six. I disconnected the campervan and then turned the jeep around to give us headlights to set up the campervan. When I went to pull the jeep in beside the campervan the jeep had no grunt, couldn't get up the minor slope. A light was on on the indicator panel saying 'Check gauges.' A check revealed no oil pressure. I rang the NRMA/RACQ. The bloke came out - a nice guy who explained that the oil was not getting to the engine.
If I had been driving on the freeway at 100km/h with no oil then the engines bearings would have been torn out. Fortunately the oil pressure had only just died - what are the chances of that! Miraculous I think!
Anyway the RACQ guy advised going to a garage, getting an oil pressure check. And not driving to the garage but getting towed.
This morning I booked us in to Ashgrove Car Care, called the RACQ again for a two. The reciprocal arrangement with the NRMA means all this attention is free.
We were able to drive the 4WD onto the back of a big tow truck driven by a nice guy called Shane. He had just finished a week and a half of two truck driving training. And we were his first job on his own.
He drove Abraham and me up to the Car Care place where we checked in.
As we were working out how to get back to the caravan park - a service guy approached us - he was just checking under the bonnet and the back up fan had snapped off the engine (He had never seen this before). It apparently had only just happened as well - but what a relief to discover this just before we drove around the desert.
Why could I drive onto the back of the truck when there was a problem with the oil pressure? It is intermittent problem that needs to be fixed before it reoccurs and would be a big problem even if it happend in the few km's drive to the garage - but it was safe to drive onto the back of the tow truck.
And just so you don't think it's all roses. When Abraham and I got back to the campervan Cathie was in tears. She had just been involved with two unpleasant altercations with the mid twenties caravan park manager. I was the culprit. My sins were:
1. I should have checked with the office before allowing the tow truck into the caravan park.
2. I had inadvertently parked the campervan on the grass instead of on the concrete.
Poor Cathie had to bear the young manager's displeasure on both counts as I was dealing with the tow truck when my offences were uncovered.
Brisbane Caravan Park.
The manager told Cath that 'Anyone with any common sense would know that you park on the concrete and live on the grass.'
My defence? 'Well yes. Except that is not the way it was at any of the parks we have been so far. And in fact we are now experts on parking campervans in all sorts of different caravan parks. In most of the other ones we have been to the campsite is either all grass (and it's park anywhere on the grass) or a mixture of cement and grass (and you put the caravan on the grass and put the annex (which we don't have) on the cement. And this is the first caravan park we have been to where you park on the cement and have grass beside you.' (But it is Queensland!)
Gold Coast Caravan Park
The caravan park manager wanted Cathie to move our campervan. Cathie stalled him till I came back. As it turned out the campervan's wheel lock was on and the now famous stabliser legs were downand the stabliser winder is in the jeep (which is at the repairers) - so he wouldn't have been able to do it. I've been in to the office and apologised and told them that 'I am happy to move the caravan if they drive me down to the repair shop to pick up the stabiliser winder.' So that should slow them down a bit :)
For the first time since we left Sydney we had a firm deadline to meet. We had decided to go to church at Christ Church Gold Coast - a church planted by our friends Alan and Nicky Radloff.
Nicky was a med student that Cathie knew when she was working on the Ministry Training Strategy in the early 1990's - now the mother of six children and living up hear on the gold coast with her church planting husband Alan.
Their church meets at Currumbin Primary School. Alan gave a great address on Fatherhood and how we earthly father's can model our fatherhood on the Father in heaven.
We were immediately jealous of the space. Even when our church building is finished it will be a smaller auditorium than the space that they have to meet in - but that is the nature of property in inner Sydney.
After church they invited us to come around and have pizza with them that evening.
Just before 12 we headed off from church to Wet and Wild. This was the second of our our 'world' visits. We bought a three-world pass which gave us entry to Movieworld, Seaworld and Wet and Wild. (On Tuesday we will visit Seaworld).
Wet and Wild was a great time of family play (check the video). Then it was back to the Radloff's for pizza. I wished I had taken a dry pair of clothes as my shorts were a bit damp during the evening. Then home to the caravan park at Miami. It was straight to bed for the kids and while Cathie slept I watched the 1949 Acadamy Award winner 'The King and I' on DVD.
Having just said I wasn't much into it... Solomon and I have just spent a very exciting hour listening to the ABC radio broadcast (one earphone in each of our ears) of the Swans beating North Melbourne to keep their grand final hopes alive. With Solomon SMS'ing my mum at the ground to encourage each other!
Today was the most relaxed day of our holiday so far. We didn't leave the Gold Coast Caravan Park - and recovered from the frantic activity of the past week.
In the morning we blogged, edited up our little videos and sorted out the caravan. After five days on the move and rain as well, there was dampness, washing to be done, a sink to unblock.
It's suprising how we have had to queue up for the computer to diarise. I have been very keen that we have a memory of this trip to consult in the years to come. And I also thought that I would prefer to record and edit as we went rather than do it all in a big job at the end.
Abraham particularly is a slow typer and so takes a lot of time over his posts.
We had a lovely BBQ lunch in the caravan park by the pool, Cathie did the washing while I read Bryce Courtney's 'Brother Fish,' and the kids splashed around.
Before dinner we watched a Bible talk on video on Matthew 6 and had a good time stopping the video to discuss things along the way as a family. Hannah prayed that we would see God as father, Cathie that his name might be Holy, I that his kingdom would come, Solomon that God's will might be done and Abraham that God might provide us with our daily bread. We will watch the second half of that video probably tomorrow night.
Tomorrow we will visit Christ Church, Currumbin and then after that we are planning to go to Seaworld.
Well we have finished the first big theme park on the Gold Coast. We woke up unsure what the weather was going to be like - and resolved that if it was lousy we would go and check out Brisbane. It wasn't spectacular but wasn't bad - which meant that we had a very pleasant day at Movie world, not crowded, not hot, not cold - and just a little wet.
Over breakfast we discussed John 3 and then in the car on the way to Movie world we listened to a little more of last Friday's Engage conference talk. This prompted a good discussion in the car about the difference between religious people and regenerate people.
We arrived as Batman street theatre was just getting underway in the main street, then we headed into our first ride 'The Scooby Doo Spooky Ride.' I think our expectations here were low but it was a really good ride. The roller coaster in the dark was much more dramatic than we had expected - and I think all the kids thought it was the scariest ride of the day.
We then headed off to the wild west section and Hannah, Solomon and I went on the river ride there. This was Cathie's first time videoing. And she now knows that you shouldn't spin a video camera 90 degrees like you spin a hand still camera :)
There was a wild west show finishing with a duel and then we headed to the Loony Tunes kids section - especially for Abraham. He had a really good time there (a few of the other rides were too old for him). Sometimes he's such a big boy and sometimes he is just so gorgeously seven.
Solomon wanted to go on every scary ride there was. Cathie and I were both starting to feel a little old for roller coasters. I was thinking of my parents who I now can't imagine on a roller coaster - and was thinking I was starting to relate to them.
But, I thought that if Solomon wanted to go then I should as well. So he and I went on 'Lethal Weapon,' a ride where you are strapped into seats attached to a rail overhead and then you loop the loop at very high speeds.
He wanted to go on the Batwing - where they send you high in the air - perhaps eight stories - and then you crash down six stories. So I went on that as well, with Hannah this time.
Cathie was prepared to go with him on the Superman Escape ride. But strangely enough having had a few thrills with Solomon I was feeling more childish - and was now quite keen to go - but instead stayed with Abraham and Hannah while Cathie and Hannah went. Church on Fire On the way back to the caravan we saw an enormous amount of fire coming from Nerang. We followed the smoke and saw on fire. We don't know anything about them but prayed for the fellowship that meets there. It made us reflect on the whole St Barnies fire again as well.
Exhausted Back at the caravan it was a slow dinner, kids did their blogs. Cathie and I headed to bed at 10pm and watched 'Thankyou for smoking.'
It's fined up on the Gold Coast and today we are going to check out Movie World. We are enjoying reading Bill Bryson's Down Under. We checked out and were given lots of books about Australia before we set off but all of them tried not to offend anyone and thus made boring towns sound like the center of fun (ie lied). Bryson's book so far has not been like that. I read the bit on North Queensland to them last night because I couldn't find the Gold Coast bit. But now we will go back to the start and work through it more systematically.
I have also now attached the fourth stabiliser leg to the back corner of the campervan.
There are small leaks in four corners of the campervan - but we have had an almighty downpour so we will forgive that.
Yesterday in the rain we all watched 'The King and I.' The last time I watched this I hadn't read the book 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' by Harriet Beecher Stowe and I enjoyed it even more having read that book (thanks Johnno!).
When we first started to talk to the kids about a year ago about the possibility of a trip around Australia - they were totally negative - about missing friends from school etc. The only positive thing that they could think of at all was that they might get to go to: Wet and Wild, Movie World - the Gold Coast fun parks.
Friends told us that we should plan to go - one day at a park, one rest day, one day at a park, one rest day.
Today would have been our first park day. But it has been bucketing down on the Gold Coast all day.
So instead we have had a very quiet day. We went to the shops. I upgraded my phone to an iphone. We read John 3 as a family (cross referenced to 1 John 2:20-23). We bought an inverter (which turns a cigarette lighter into 240V) which will allow kids to watch a DVD on my laptop on the back seat of the car when we are going through boring bits.
And Cathie bid for a new saxophone for Solomon on ebay. She turned out to be the winning bidder. And in the kindness of God the seller - the parents of a 16 year old boy who is going to the Queensland Conservatorium (so has upgraded his sax) live here on the Gold Coast. So we were able to pick that up.
Oh and we also picked up the repaired caravan stabiliser leg. It was $35 to repair. Way down on the $200 I was quoted in Sydney.
There wasn't much to video today. We did take a little footage of the good surf in miserable weather for Peter and Vini.
ps We're excited to hear from Sophie that the fencing is going up on the corner of Johnston and Booth Streets.
Usually when we go on holidays it's a mad rush, travel to destination, then I spend the first few days exhausted. I suspect this holiday will be similar and so I am starting to feel tired.
We will be going generally much slower from now on. Our plan was to get to Queensland as fast as possible and then slow down.
Yesterday we had a much shorter drive - just one hour from Ballina to a beach area on the Gold Coast called Miami (what a tragic name for an Australian beach).
We started the day with swimming in the caravan park's pool (Yes it is warmer up here). I played the monster and Hannah (Princess Leah) and Solomon (Luke Skywalker) had to protect Abraham. The winner was the one who could best master the force (tickling).
Then it was putt putt golf for Cathie and the kids. They introduced a rule that if you hit the ball off the course you scored a 10. But overall scoring had been abandonded as it was too emotion charged.
We had a late check out at midday and we were late for that leaving at 1pm.
On the way to our destination (a cheaper nastier caravan park) we stopped at Gold Coast towbars. They are going to repair the leg to the campervan.
Several weeks ago coming around the corner at the bottom of our lane, I caught the stabiliser leg on the gutter. Twisting it. We could have taken it back to the place we bought it from at Penrith or just got it welded. I rang someone in Sydney last weekend but it would have cost minimum $200 so we have come away with only three stabiliser legs (and have forbidden jumping at the kids end of the caravan). This leg should be returned tomorrow repaired - for hopefully less than the $200 I was quoted in Sydney.
In the setting up of the campervan each of the kids has specific roles. Abraham is in charge of stabiliser legs. Solomon explains the issues in this video:
John 1 We read John 1 today in the car and had a good discussion about the link to Genesis 1. Abraham and Hannah were particularly active in the discussion as they had Bibles. Solomon suffers from significant car sickness issues and can't read while we are driving. So he mostly listened to the discussion. After we had talked for 30 mins we listened to the first 20 minutes of a Bible talk on the chapter.
Petrol Petrol seemed ten cents cheaper in Queensland today. But them maybe because Queensland is slower they have cheap Wednesday not cheap Tuesday.
One of the things I was anxious about in coming on this trip was the difficulty of driving with an extra ton of campervan on the back.
I found that driving our Camry with the campervan on the back in our trial holiday in July (1000km around NSW) was quite stressful (a 350km drive from Coonabaran to Newcastle completely wiped me out).
I was concerned that if we could only do drives in small bite sized chunks - we wouldn't be able to get all the way around the country. And driving the jeep to Narrabeen last weekend with the campervan on the back still left me feeling stressed.
However, now that I have got the jeeps and the campervan's brakes properly co-ordinated it actually feels very good and we were able to go 700kmsish today. I managed to overtake a few semi trailers today. And the only time that I actually felt stressed was when we had six semis in a row coming the other way at night and there were lots of extra wind currents floating around.
We did a very long drive today, starting at Cessnock and stopping just short of the Queensland border at Ballina. Tomorrow we will (a) go to the RTA to sort out the rego sticker debacle (I left Peter and Vini's rego sticker in Sydney (b) buy a new attachment for the hose that puts water into the camper trailer (c) go to a welder to fix the campervan leg (d) cross the border into Queensland ready to go to one of the Movie, Dream world type parks the following day.
Today we listened in the car to Mark Driscoll's presentation at Moore College last Wednesday. Abraham was asleep but Hannah and Solomon asked lots of good questions. I also got halfway through John Woodhouse's opening address on 1 Samuel from last January's CMS summer school. And the music pick of the day was the song 'Dance band on the Titanic.'
It was wake up early and get up early feeling excited - very unusual for a Monday morning when I am usually flat after a big Sunday.
Pack up After my radical (for me) hair cut we worked as a family solidly for eight hours to sort the house, pack the trailer and get going. We worked remarkably well together given the size of the task - and the possibility of parents getting annoyed when children got distracted.
The cleaners came at 3pm to clean the house ahead of Mat and Ros' arrival on Tuesday (they are living in our house while we are away).
We installed the Navman (that Cathie was given as a farewell present by her work) into the jeep that Peter and Vini have lent us. I also attached some extension mirrors to the jeep's mirrors so that I can see around the side of the wider campervan behind me.
Voting We headed off at four to Marrickville where we voted in the local council elections. Having given six speeches at Leichhardt Council in the last two years I have for the first time had to take an interest in local politics and a much clearer idea of the issues at stake.
Driving Then we headed north over the harbour bridge, stopped at my parents to drop off some washing, bought Dominos pizza from Mount Cola.
Driving got easier as we went along. We had more stuff in the campervan than on either of our previous trips and so are carrying a lot of weight. But by the time we had been on the freeway for a while I was comfortable driving at 100km/h
Tim Keller We listened to a talk in the car by Tim Keller, a pastor from New York, one of a series responding to reasons that New Yorker's reject Christianity. The specific issue he was dealing with was the suggestion that Christianity has oppressed and disempowered the poor. Keller, speaking from James 2, noted that God particularly values the poor, and noted that it is in the poorer nations of Africa, South America and sections of south east Asia that God is working particularly powerfully at the moment. He then drew attention to Martin Luther KIng who in his campaign for civil rights for blacks (who were by definition poor) didn't call on people to reject Christ - but saw that what he was doing was rather an authentic expression of his Christian faith.
overnight at Cessnock Cathie rang ahead to a caravan park we had selected at Cessnock and we arrived here about 9pm. In bed by ten.
