2 more sleeps...

We had our last sleep in Lulu last night. It was a little sad knowing the trip is almost at an end. We've been on the Gold Coast now for over a week splitting our time between Min's place and "The Well". Lulu is looking very bare now. We've been stripping all the goodies out of her which have now been deposited at a removalists in Brisvegas where they'll be sent back to Tas. Today we pulled the bed out of Lulu and promptly used the bed slats to whip up a cage for Min's guinea pig, Rupert. Tomorrow Lulu will be handed over to her new owner. Billy, a mate of a mate is going to use her for his mechanical business. Will be a bit sad handing over the keys but hopefully she'll be looked after. We're spending our last couple of nights with Min and Ben. On Friday we'll jump on a train to Bris and fly back to Tas. Where it's cold. Very cold. We're feeling the cold up here so who knows how we'll cope with the less than tropical temperatures of home. Not much else to report but we'll post a full wrap-up of our travels once we're back on Tasmanian soil. We've thrown in a pic of us bunking down in Lulu for the final night. We're going to miss our little house on wheels.

Love from us.

Brrrrr...

Greetings from Frigging Freezing Hervey Bay! Yep, it's cold. We're rugged up and sitting in a caravan park in Hervey bay having driven here today from Eurimbula N.P. When last we blogged, we were at Carmila where we seemed to have encountered a rodent problem. It wasn't apparent to us until we arrived at our next stop. After a night at a rest stop at Calliope, we woke to find the cork butts of our $700 fly rods had be nibbled on. This rat has expensive tastes! We hoped he had cleared off during the night but on arrival at our next stop at Eurimbula N.P we decided to take everything out of Lulu just to make sure. No rodent could be found. Acting upon an instinct, Bronson dropped the spare tyre from under Lulu and there perched upon the jumper cables with a nest of leaves was our little stowaway! The little bugger had been with us for several hundred kms over rough roads and through creek crossings and all. He wasn't at all threatened by a tyre iron waving Bronson. Instead he just ambled along the drive shaft and disappeared into the engine bay. As opposed to scampering off into the scrub from whence he came which was what I was hoping would happen. So another plan was then hatched. We whipped up a nice little cardboard box complete with his nesting material and a bit of muesli for bait, placed it in the spare tyre and waited. After a couple of nights we dropped the tyre back down and retrieved the box to find our little friend happily residing inside. We then relocated the box into the scrub and we haven't seen the little fella since! Eurimbula turned out to be one of our favourite camp sites. We spent 4 nights here and caught 30+ fish including flathead, bream, longtom, flounder, dart and what we thought were tailor but aren't. Here's a shot of our previous camp up at Smalley's Beach (Ruth was busy tying up some new flies for me to lose!):

And here is a pic of one of the sunsets that we've had to put up with at Eurimbula:

Yeah, life's pretty tough! Next up a pic of the 4WD only sign that we ignored to get there!

And finally, here is the little bugger that had a chomp on our fly rods amongst other things.

He was too cute to dispose of using brute force. Seeing as he is a native species we were happy to relocate him.

The weather has been pretty spectacular until today. It's currently about 12 degrees. God knows how we're going to cope when we come back to Tas in a few weeks. I'd love to write a bit more but my fingers are freezing so I'll leave you with the news that we're fit and well and Lulu is running along nicely. It's going to be a little sad stripping her down when we get back to the Gold Coast. Anyways peoples, be good and we'll be seeing some of you soon. Love from us. X

On the home straight!

After leaving Rene we headed south to Alva Beach, not far from Ayr. Here we stayed a night and tried our luck fishing. Brons picked up a whiting and a few herring and Ruth a small flathead. Then on to Conway where we stayed the night on top of the hill overlooking the bay. A great place to have our morning coffee. We fished the flats in the morning and Brons managed to hook up on a tailor but that was all. We bypassed Airlie Beach a nd headed for Smalleys Beach for three nights. We stayed there on our way up the coast and caught some nice flathead but this time things were a bit quieter. We only caught some small Queenfish, a bream and another tailor. Nothing much more to report except for passing the giant abbo on the way out near Mackay. We are now camped on the beach just south of Mackay at Carmilla. We fished today but only turned up another small tailor. Not a bad spot to camp, it's right on the beach and it's free but there are grey nomads everywhere! They must all be having a post school holiday and pre winter spin in their vans! It's quite amazing this place is chockers and there is only one tent amongst all the campers. Everyone is sporting new vans and a contented grin of having just spending their children's inheritances! Heading towards Anges Waters tomorrow but will break the drive with a stop for the night at Calliope. Not far to go now Lulu! Love to you all.