Day 78 (April 18) - Buxton to Woodgate

I woke up and went for a run / walk with Matt.

On the advice of one of the fellow campers, we'd bought some Rid insect repellent which apparently worked well. This didn't do anything for us, so we tried some of our 40% DEET Bushman's repellent we had. This was a lot better, but we still got some bites and of course it meant spraying yourself with questionable chemicals and having this slick across all your exposed skin. The alternative, which the host suggested, was to cover up and wear long sleeves and long pants. But of course this defeats the purpose of being in Queensland near some water in lovely warm weather! It really just wasn't working out at all.

So over our morning coffee Mim and I agreed we really needed to move on, even if it meant the reluctant possibility of losing three weeks' camping fees. She'd been bitten during the night by midges that had made it through the fly screen, and Jude had come off fairly badly too.

Victims of midge

Day 77 (April 17) - Buxton

Judah's back after two days of midge! :(

Well we woke to another three very itchy people! 😟 Mim, Bek and Jude had all suffered fairly much from the midges. They are starting to look like they've gotten Chicken Pox!

Full sun on the solar blanket

13.5V x 2.9A =only 39W! :(

Yesterday and today I had the solar blanket out to charge the caravan batteries. One good thing about this location is that we have plenty of sun, which should mean plenty of charge for the batteries. It's a 120W blanket from Adventure Kings, yet despite it being in the full sun at midday, it was only generating about 2.9A of current and 13.5V. This calculates out to about 39W of power, which is a long way south of the maximum rated 120W. I figured if it's only putting out this little amount of power under these conditions, then is it actually working properly at all? I phoned the 4WD Supacentre helpline and they agreed with my assessment that it appeared to be faulty. Unfortunately the closest store is back down near Brisbane, and they don't do exchanges or refunds until they've assessed the unit which takes a couple of weeks at least. So we would probably need to order another one, have it shipped to the post office, then get the other one returned and just hope they agree it's faulty and give us a refund.

Day 76 (April 16) - Buxton

We were woken early by some kookaburras after not such a great night's sleep, as some of the biting midges had made their way into the van and had a bit of a feast.

After breakfast (of Froot Loops which we had reluctantly agreed to buy in Childers!), Judah and I wet for a swim out to one of the sandbars which was getting closer to the surface as the tide went out. On our way we discovered some very interesting wildlife on one of the sandbars, so I went back to get the GoPro and took Bek out with me to show her! I'll let you see for yourselves:

Day 75 (April 15) - Buxton

We had a bit of a sleep in at Buxton, but once we got up the first thing to do was work out where to pitch our van for the next few weeks. There were two other people camped on the same site as us, so one of us gave us some tips as to where to avoid. Apparently there are bad biting midges which are quite painful so he told us spots to avoid.

Our location marked with an X

We picked a spot a little way from the water, but on the flat and with the van shaded. The site looks lovely. It's part of a cattle farm, and this little corner of about 3-4 acres is right on the point of the main river and a tributary. In photos and on the map it looked the perfect location, because it's near the water and there are some islands nearby which the kids should like canoeing around. So most of the morning was relocating the van. Because we intended to be here for three weeks, we went the whole hog and set up all the outdoor tables and dishwashing setup we'd brought with us.

Day 74 (April 14) - Brisbane to Buxton

Well today finished our time in Brisbane. We started the day with a group run which was nice, had breakfast and then started to pack everything up. Having been settled for 18 days it took a bit longer than normal to pack but we got there eventually.

Then came the tricky job of moving the van out of the yard! The gate into the yard was JUST wide enough for us to fit through, but the back yard quickly went into a slope, meaning the van leaned towards one side of the gate so had to be driven on bricks for some time to keep it level. On the other side was the roof of a patio, so it was a lot of gentle negotiation to get through. In these situations Mim drives the car and I talk to her on the phone. So much easier than trying to shout directions back and forth.

Day 57-73 (March 28 - April 13) - Brisbane

Well we had a lovely time in Brisbane!

It was great to all catch up again, and the kids really carried on from where they left off. In the Status Update post I provided some photos so you've probably already seen some of what we got up to, but here are some of the highlights.

Status update - 12 April

Hi all,

Just a quick update as to our plans and a few random photos of our time here along the way!

We have been staying with family since just over two weeks ago now, and about a week ago we agreed we would move to a campsite further up the coast on Friday (two days ago). We had only ever intended to stay here for a week or two. So we had booked a campsite with this in mind, but as the time approached we realised the Friday we had booked our stay to commence was Easter Friday.

Pool Volleyball

This in itself shouldn't be a problem, except that all state authorities have been making a huge fuss about people NOT going away for Easter, and a 4WD with caravan in tow and a canoe on the roof is just the type of rig which would attract exactly the wrong type of attention! Our only saving grace might be the SA plates to prove we weren't locals, but we still wondered how understanding the local constabulary on a day when they would be trying as hard as possible to stop people travelling, and potentially be willing to make an example of those who did.