Kings day celebration, on our way to Cairns, some great overnight stops!

G'day Mates!

So, now you all know that we are going back to The Netherlands I can continue with our adventures here. As I said Danny was here on holidays for 5 weeks, he came end of April and left beginning of June.

We had a marvellous time, started at my Aunts place in the hinterlands of the Gold Coast. After a first good night sleep he was relaxed and started to prepare himself for the coming trip to the far North.

Having had a long flight from Europe a jet lag is inevitable so we planned some hard labour for Danny to keep him awake.

Not only Danny had to work.....

We also had a celebration day on the 27 th of April as that is the Kings (of the Netherlands) birthday,

 Totally dressed in orange we went to the Gold Coast to spent some time there. We had some nice comments about our outfit haha, there were more Dutchies there!

The tradition on that particular day is to drink "Oranje Bitter", in the Netherlands you can buy a bottle in the liquor shop but not here of course so Danny tried to make it himself. It wasn't quite the same taste, actually it was much nicer but also much stronger in alcohol.

 It was so nice that we drank it not only that day but also the next days as long as we were at my Aunts.
Of course we didn't only drink, we also had to cook.....

A huge hamburger.....

And of course we did the same trip with him as we did with Sheila, except for Springbrook as we had done that with him already, I think about 5 or 6 years ago. So it was only Natural Bridge...

Looks like a trumpet....

Having lunch somewhere is standard, unfortunately it was a bit cool and it rained.....

Leaving Auntie behind we started the long trip north and our first stop was at Yandina, a very nice spot with amazing plants and wildlife.

First time putting up the tent again....

 Look at these leafs, never seen them so big!

Very nice spot; its called Hidden Valley from you camp!

 From Yandina we did a day trip to Coolum, there we had a nice walk along the beach ...

and after Coolum we went to the ginger factory in Yandina. I love ginger and it is very healthy as well!

Our next stop was in Torbanlea, on the Racecourse; also a good overnight camp spot....

And with the sun about to set I leave you to it.....

That's it for now folks! Till next time.

Cheers!

ANNOUNCEMENT; Destiny is Known!

G'day Mates,

We are on a caravan " park" , well it's more an area in the Bush and having, as usual, the time of our life. Hubby cooked a great steak, I did the salad and the potatoes, our ritual for many years! Cooking half inside, half outside then having our meal with nice music , candle light and a good conversation.

Few days later, we have a stop at a roadhouse, Aussies know what I mean: a motel, service station, restaurant/pub, caravan park, all in one in the middle of nowhere! We decide to have a meal in the restaurant/pub and when we entered we already felt at home. A nice fire burning, as it was bloody cold outside, Slim Whitman through the speakers; real Aussie music and just a great atmosphere! On top of that, we had the most lovely meal for ages, together with a nice bottle of wine.

So again we are having the time of our life and suddenly I realise this is one of the last weeks we are having this great life.......

Do you realise what I'm saying?

Finally our destiny is known...

We are getting a new challenge, a new house in the Netherlands, we are going back!

Giving up this life will be a big struggle, selling our little house on wheels will be the hardest thing we ever did. My God, tears are running down my cheeks but ..... we made a decision and that's the way it has to go!


Don't ask why, its hard enough, just know it took 9 years to sell our house and a lot has changed since. This decision is made with our head,  not our hart! We had 10 awsome travelling years and they won't take that away from us!

But; we now face a new episode, new life, new challenges, new adventures which is great! We believe being positive is essential to life!

It's not time YET! I will continue with our stories here and by the time we are ready to go, which will take some time still, you will notice.

Cheers!

Next: our trip with Danny towards Cairns!

On our way to the Gold Coast

G'day mates,

Are you recovered from our screaming?? Well we are and it's time to move on,  we are heading to the Gold Coast where an Auntie of mine lives and what will be our end station with Sheila.

Although  we are travelling for years now it's a long time that we have been this way so at this point I asked a group on Facebook for some must does on the way and one of them was the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie! So that's were we went and it was really worth it!

I'm sooooo tired.....

High and dry.....

If you ever get the opportunity, please go and make a donation! On a certain hour, I think it was 3 o'clock, they have a free tour you can join and they tell about the conditions of the fluffy patients and the same time they feed them as well. These people do an amazing job!

The Koala Hospital consists of a treatment room, 8 Intensive Care Units, 6 outdoor intensive care units and 33 rehabilitation yards, many of which have trees for koalas to learn to climb as part of the rehabilitation process.

Our next stop was Nambucca Heads, we booked a night on a lovely caravan park which was right at the beach and there is a special seawall between the park and the Pacific Ocean on which people over the years had written personal, funny, emotional and more phrases on the big stones ....

It was a great day to stroll over that seawall, chatting along and being thankful to have such a nice time together....

After the walk on the beach in the sand, we have to wipe the sand off our feet and go back to the caravan park because........

It's booze time.....

Our last stop before we get to my aunt Mary, is Yamba. We've been there a few times now and love it. Also here is a Great Wall on which you can walk and enjoy the view of the ocean. Surfing people and we even saw a shark, a small one but still...... I wouldn't want to be one of the surfers!

In Sydney, as you have read, hubby had become 75 and so this was a lucky spot where Fred could pose for us to make a nice picture, and we were secretly waiting for the big wave to come......

Yeeeeehhhh, a laughter moment.....

At Mary's, she lives approx 20 k's of The Gold Coast in the Hinterland, we had a good time as well.
We stayed about 2 weeks as we had to wait for Danny to come, but Sheila had to go back after a few days. In the mean time we did some swimming and of course also some sight seeing!

First meet my Aunt, Mary;

Then the pool had to be cleaned before we could go for it.....

I've been swimming a few times in the time we were there but I must admit; it was freezing...

Springbrook National Park, in the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, has four sections: Springbrook, Natural Bridge, Mount Cougal and Numinbah, we only went to Springbrook;

.....and The Natural Bridge area;

Scary hey, looks like grabbing hands....

I love these ferns in the trees....

Of course it's very moisture there, it is a rainforest after all....

The Natural Bridge....

Leaving all this great nature behind, we ended the day with a picnic....

You cannot come back in The Netherlands and say you haven't been to Surfers Paradise when you are on the Gold Coast. So we went to the beach one day and despite it wasn't very warm and a bit windy, we had a great day;

Everything comes to an end and after we brought Sheila to the airport in Brisbane, we had some relaxing days with Mary and just waited for Danny to come......


Before I go further with our adventures with Danny, we are going to Cairns with him as I already told you before, I also told you I have an ANNOUNCEMENT  to make and that will be in my next story!

Curious?? I will tell you; keep looking!

Till next time!