Day 213 / 2016 - Last Days on the Tablelands

This was to be a last roundup of our stay on the tablelands, about heading off and our plans for the next 18 months but as it is with living on the road plans can and usually do change.

We have had a great time here in Walkamin just sitting back and enjoying the lifestyle. We had a last dinner at Malanda hotel and Sunday brunch with Frank and Alice to say goodbye until October. After returning from two weeks in Perth we loosely mapped out the next 18 months of where we will be and approximately when we will return home to Bunbury (just before 10/11/2017). Greg and Margaret have returned from london and we have packed up the car and van ready to head off on our next part of the adventure west towards Normanton and Karumba then south. Malcolm and Margaret are heading back up this way so we organised to meet and travel together to Karumba and possibly beyond.

Friends of Greg and Margaret's (Brian, Val, Bary and Liz) had stayed the past few days in their caravan's so the backyard is looking more like a tourist park. We had a fun few days while they were there it was good to meet new people again. Brian is also a musician (plays the Mandolin) and we had a impromptue jam session lasting a few hours. They left for Cooktown to enjoy the Black mountain music festival

As said we had planned to head off for the long slow journey south. While we were still all here Greg received a phone call from the Parks and Wildlife Management Department in Western Australia asking if would like to spend six months at Cape Le Grand near Esperance as a Ranger which he accepted. They then kindly offered their house up again to us for the 6 months they are away if we are interested. So our plans have now changed we are still heading to Karumba with Malcolm and Margaret then down to Cloncurry and Hughenden but instead of heading south to Winton we will instead circle around through Charters Towers or Townsville returning back to the tablelands and Walkamin.

We had originally planned to store our van in Clifton near Toowomba and then the car at a long term carpark near the airport but instead we can store the caravan and car at Walkamin and fly out from Cairns to Brisbane for our up and coming New Zealand trip. Once we get back from New Zealand we can think about when we would like to head South. We still want to be in Parkes for the Elvis festival and Tamworth Music festival in January before heading into South Australia.

I like it here in Northern Queensland the weather suits me but we do have a timetable of when we willl be back home and there is still plenty of this great country to see nd time is running out.