Touring With Frank

Well folks I'm on the move again,this weekend I'm visiting Warren in Brisbane and on Monday I'm heading south... through NSW to Victoria where I will visit with lots of friends and family, this is an annual (at least) catch up and always enjoyable.

After a couple of weeks of this I will Head for SA to visit with Favourite Daughter and FOSSIL, they are VERY busy with their best harvest for many years so I'm keeping out of the way for a while until they get most of it done.

The plan was that then Warren and I would go across to WA but as he is still a part of the work force committed to paying our tax bill he was unable to get holidays at the right time so we have put that trip on hold until next year.

Will keep in touch when the opportunity arises, have fun... I intend to!!!

The journey continues.

Much of our time since arriving in Victoria has been spent close to the Murray River, which forms the boundary between Vic. and NSW.

Please click on photos to enbiggen.

This is the Paddle Wheel Steamer the "Melbourne" that we did the river cruise on from Mildura.

One of the river features that we saw from the Melbourne was the weir and lock system used to maintain river levels, here we are approaching the lock which will lower us about 16 feet to the level below the weir

Upriver from Mildura is the town of Swan Hill where the old paddle wheeler "Gem" has floated in a small pond for many years serving a variety of purposes ranging from an art gallery to a resturant, she is currently under going a restoration for her next venture... whatever it may be.

Our next stop was at Echuca which boasts one of the busiest ports on the river, the Canberra is one of the many paddle wheelers that ply the river catering for the popular tourist trade.

It's spring time and the roses are in full bloom every where you look along the riverland, this beautiful display was in a roadside garden bed at the old wharf area at Echuca and contained dozens of these beautiful two toned yellow roses.

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After 2 long days behind the wheel of the i30 (900 Kms on day 1 & 800 Kms on doy 2, (that’s a bit over 1000 Miles BTW) we arrived at Mildura, our first planned destination.
This is the Victorian border town where Julie has been living for the last 14 year’s, it is located on the Murray River near the junction of the Darling River and has a strong connection with the early riverboat days when the paddle wheelers provided the main means of transport of our young nation.
In keeping with this theme Warren and I went on a 2 hour trip on a renovated paddle wheeler named the Melbourne which was built in 1920 as a work boat, the Melbourne still uses the original steam boiler that she was fitted with in 1920. The trip took us through a “lock” and up to inspect the weir that was one of many built on the Murray to ensure year round traffic up & down the river. (This is an interesting story about which I will post later).
We had a couple of very pleasant meals with Julie and now are about to head for Shepparton in central Vic to spend a few days with my sister Merle, as I have no internet connection until then I’ll leave this post to finish later.
Well we are now comfortably installed at Merle’s home in Shepparton where we are being spoiled by her attention; I find that we people that live alone are so pleased to have company that we tend to make good hosts.
The last few days of relaxation have got us back to “normal” (stop laughing!! those of you who know us) so we are set for some more action, if anything exciting happens I’ll blog about it later.

On the last leg.

Update: The early counting seems to confirm that the
roadside monstrosity took out the UGLY award, in answer
to some queries as to what it was... I have no idea!!!!
There was a sign, just visible in the first photo, but the
object made such a negative impression that I have no
recollection of what it said.... Sorry.


With a lst fond look at Marilyn I'm here to tell you that the final photos of our
recent trip to Sydney are on display at Peters Pictures, I hope you have
enjoyed seeing them and will vote for 1, 2, 0r 3 as requested.

Homeward Bound.

There are some more holiday photos on display at

............Peters Pictures..............


Hurry on over and have a look, we are heading home now.

More photos

More photos on Peters Pictures for any
one who isn't fed up with Sydney yet.

Another plug for Peters Pictures.

Update; More Holiday Photos at Peters Pictures!!!!



BTW the environment conference that Severn Suzuki spoke at was held at
Rio De Janerio in 1992,

I wonder how Severn views the world as a 28 year old?

Here is a link that will answer some questions about this amazing girl.

Have we made any changes? Is it to late to start now?

LET'S ALL GIVE IT A GO!!!!!!!

Holiday Photos.

Holiday Photos.

As I told you there are lots of photos of the trip to Sydney that Wazza and I
made recently, I am going to post some of them over at Peter's Pictures over
the next week or so please follow the link and have a look at them all will be
revealed.

Some random thoughts from the holiday;

I’ll never forget Warren’s story on the second morning about waking during the wee small hours of the morning and needing to go visit the loo, this was the only occasion that we didn’t have an en-suite van/cabin, when he tried to unlock the sliding door the lever wouldn’t engage to allow unlocking…. after a few minutes he gave up and went back to bed!!!! Next morning with the situation now urgent he simply slid the door open… it had not been locked all night!!

I had slept blissfully unaware of all this until he told me next morning, but I got a real good laugh then.

I am posting a picture of some fresh road kill that could have given us some good meals late in the trip when the cash was running short, its surprising what one can do when the need is urgent, but fortunately we were not forced into this situation on this trip.

This is not a paid political announcement or a personally held view it is simply an observation of an existing situation that we found impossible not to notice while we were in Sydney for a week.

We (Australia) had a policy during the 1940s and 1950s known as the “White Australia Policy” it was a scaremonger campaign to keep the “yellow hordes” at bay and stop them from taking over our nation…. Not very P/C, or even popular line of logic now-a-days.

HOWEVER we were simply amazed to see the number of Asian people all over Sydney, it seems that while we fought a war to keep Australia “white” they have simply come in since and bought the farm while we were sleeping.

I try very hard not to be racist in my thinking and I bear no malice to any people but I have one small problem with the “Asian” situation and that is that there appears to be NO assimilation into the general community, the Asians only mix with other Asians and speak among themselves in their own dialects wherever they gather, our population is drawn from practically every country on earth, and while there are pockets of other nationalities who choose to segregate themselves, nowhere is there such iron clad boundaries as where the Asian communities are.

I hope that there will be a softening of the borders which will allow some intermingling, as in the main they appear to be a hard working people and will be a valuable asset for Australia in time to come.

Sydney has a population of over 4 million, I think it is a terrific place to spend a week or so on holiday but with the level of smog, the traffic chaos that seems to exist at all times, the constant jostling on crowded streets, the very expensive cost of living…. I can’t help but wonder why they all choose to live there.

Sure it’s a very attractive city set on one of the worlds best harbour’s, there is an incredible array of shops and services available, an excellent public transport system to move them all about but I wouldn’t choose to live there for anything.

On a lighter, even though a potentially more dangerous note:

We spent a fair bit of time searching for the dreaded Drop Bears that we had tangled with in WA in 2002, while we didn’t actually sight any Drop Bears we found several sites where there was clear evidence of them, some of the photographic proof of their existence is posted here as a worlds first, we were able to ascertain that a Drop Bears diet and… errr-ummm toilet habits, were far more varied than had been previously suspected.

We found no evidence of Hoop Snakes on this trip and can only assume that their chosen terrain is the much drier and warmer North and north west of the country.

Close inspection of this photo will reveal the accumulated “Drop Bear Droppings” at the base of the tree, we (very carefully) inspected the tree to see if there was a Drop Bear in residence, fortunately there was no drop bear there.

In this photo some unwary sheep are venturing into the danger zone, as defined by the accumulated Drop Bear Droppings at the base of what is obviously home to a large Drop Bear, or even a colony??

The Drop Bears that live in this grove of trees are obviously very large (based on the size of the droppings) and also very tidy by nature (this time based on the neat rows of droppings)


Mae of the Dae.

It's hard to be funny when you have to be clean.
Mae West

Day’s 13 & 14;

Two day's of travel through the lovely New England Ranges, again the countryside was nice and green, there are some very pretty towns in this area, (Tamworth, Armidale, Tenterfield, Glen Innes to name a few) with lots of very attractive buildings, both old and new.

The awards for every category of country music each January at Tamworth is a golden guitar award, these are much treasured by the artists as they are voted on by their peers.

One of my hero’s, the late Slim Dusty is remembered here in Tamworth as the king of country music for six decades and 106 albums.

The new Tamworth Regional Entertainment Centre, at last a venue able to cater for a decent crowd.

Stonehenge down under, there is a strong Celtic influence in the Glen Innes area, this park with its standing stones could easily conjure up visions of sacrificial rites on a dark stormy night.

However on a bright sunny morning such as shown here the outlook is quite cheery.

The Catholic Church has a penchant for clusters of very solid buildings often built with granite and usually on the highest ground available (the next flood???) here is an example in Glen Innes.

There is sometimes a light snow fall in this area, so while the winters are pretty cold, down to minus 3 or 4 degrees Celsius over night they enjoy a fairly mild summer which is something not much of Australia can say.

We discussed today the fact that we have not cooked a single meal on this trip, we have made sandwiches a few times and opened a few cans of fruit (and the odd stubbie or three) but when it comes to cooking we have done.... none!!!!

Wazza is due back at work on Monday so to give him a chance to get ready for this we will head for Brisbane today (Saturday) and I’ll head for Gympie on Sunday, so these will be the two days of the most distance driven…. its been a walk in the park compared to my usual trips to SA and/orWA.

Once more thanks to all who took the time to travel with us, there are LOTS of photos still unseen so I will make the holiday last for a while yet and one day real soon I hope to be visiting your blogs to say G’day.

A really nice Honda Goldwing outfit that was the pride of its owners life ”Pearl Magenta” was his comment when he overheard me tell Wazza to look at the Purple Motor Bike, we chatted with him and a friend for half an hour, both were retired Railway workers and very interesting.

One of the many distractions we use to keep ourselves amused is to see who can spot the “Britz” hire vehicles first and shout “BRITZ” the loudest, this is something that Wazza and I started on the trip to WA in 2002, I have since introduced it to my family with outstanding success… so much so that favourite daughter Vicki had me racing up and down the stairs at their Adelaide unit to answer the phone only to hear her yelling “BRITZ” at me as they passed one.

You are all probably getting sick of me raving about the beauty of this country, it is just so great to see such a large slice of it looking at its very best after the drab look of extended drought for the last ten years.


Mae of the Dae.

I've been things and seen places.
Mae West

Bloggers on Day 12

Today was a day for meeting bloggers, I had made contact with “Willow Tree” the author of “A Dingo’s Got My Barbie" who lives in the Upper Hunter Valley and arranged to call in for a visit, he suggested that we call in to meet “Caroline” the author of “Beezlebublog” as we would be passing by her Café at Wingen on the New England Highway about 30 minutes away from his place, we duly missed this spot and had to return about 10 kms to complete this meeting… it was a well worthwhile trip though to meet the charming Caroline and I would recommend anyone passing through Wingen (a tiny hamlet, so she is easy to find at the Plough Inn Café) call in and enjoy a coffee and chat.

This is the Plough Inn Café where Caroline is your hostess, she was not keen to have her photo taken so you will have to take my word for it that she is an attractive and personable lady.
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On then to Peter’s (yep, another Peter!!) who chooses to live alone at Willow Tree… well when I say alone…. he has the company of his three dogs, Bentley, Buddy, and Belle and four cats, two of whom live in and two who live the solitary life of hunters.

Caroline had mentioned that Peter had made muffins when she visited, we wondered whether this courtesy would be extended to two strange male visitors?? As we arrived Peter was just removing a lovely tea cake from the oven, this was a real treat, but when we went to look at some photos Belle, who is a young Beagle/Border Collie cross decided to scoff the remaining half of the cake.

As I have found in the past, meeting someone who’s blog you are familiar with is almost like meeting an old friend, there is some common ground already there to build on, so meeting Peter and his four legged friends was a pleasant experience.

We are over nighting at a small town, just north of Willow Tree, we will spend another night on the road at Glen Innis before heading into Brisbane on Saturday as Wazza has to return to work on Monday.

We have had a most enjoyable two weeks and have been fairly typical tourists for most of the time, there are many photos to share which I will post in the very near future.

This is Peter aka Willow Tree with Bentley and Belle paying close attention.

Buddy and Bentley keeping a close eye on proceedings.

The remains of the Tea Cake when we left the room for a while.

Peter remonstrating with Belle about the missing cake, the eyes were not really protruding just caught by the flash.

Mae of the Dae.

I never loved another person the way I loved myself.
Mae West

Day’s 10 & 11;

We got a fairly early start this morning and got into Dubbo in plenty of time to spend 4 hours at the Western Plains Zoo, I don’t want to sound too critical…. But…. Australia Zoo is much better, perhaps its just the “Steve” factor??

They are quite different from one another, with Western Plains having a larger range of animals, (including my favourites, Giraffes) but for presentation Australia Zoo is a hands down winner in my book.

When we booked into the Park we were given discount vouchers for a meal at the Railway Bowls Club which has a very good buffet meal, we went there last night and SERIOUSLY over ate, everything was just so good, at least that made todays meals simple as we still were not hungry.

There are quite a few white Rhino’s.

The ever sleepy Koala doing his favourite thing.

The Emu is the lesser known of the two animals on our coat of arms, the worlds second largest (flightless) bird.

An American Bison (Buffalo)

A very sleepy Tiger, it was a pretty warm day at 30 degrees Celsius, so a lot of the animals were taking it easy in the shade.

The majestic stance of this Giraffe does much to reinforce the view that the same committee that designed the Australian Platypus may have been involved with the Giraffe.
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Again an early start and a morning at the historic old Dubbo Gaol before moving on to Denman, once again traveling through some beautiful country, there have been good rains in this part of NSW but they are wanting some more very soon to finish crops and give the summer pastures a good start.

Another slant on “The Long Drop” please go here for the other http://holtieshouse.blogspot.com/2007/04/toilet-humor.html

At the front gate for a brief visit to the old gaol.

Wazza looking very much at home looking through the grille in the door.

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Tomorrow we have a treat, two bloggers to meet, this is something I always look forward to.

Mae of the Dae.

If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning.
Mae West

Days 8 & 9 Sydney Holiday.

The Botanical Gardens at Orange NSW.

There is an extensive “Australian Flora” section as well as many exotic trees, shrubs, and flowers.

One of the many Acacia (wattle) varieties on display, there are very few better sights than a large clump of wattles in bloom.

This bust of Banjo is located at the site of his birth in 1864

This memorial to “Banjo” stands proudly outside the Tourist Information Centre at Orange, it features a likeness of “Banjo” exerts from two of his poems and plaques naming the annual “Banjo Paterson” poet of the year for the last 10 years (there is space for the next 15 years also.)

Closer and against a lighter background you can see how the detail is achieved by slots cut from the steel outline.

The same treatment given to his famous “Man from Snowy River”

Near Orange; Some lush pasture, again in an ideal setting.

Here is an ideally located little Farm House in the foot hills just outside of Orange (where they grow apples, cherries, peaches, but not oranges!!).

A fairly hazy shot of the “Three Sisters” at Echo Point Katoomba.

Even more haze here as we look across the valley.

It was also very windy, if you look at the tops of the trees you can see they are blowing quite strongly from right to left.

Last but by no means least; this is Jane the receptionist at the Orange Council run “Colour City Caravan Park” where we are staying, we have voted Jane as the most obliging and pleasant person we have dealt with on the trip so far.

Day’s 8 & 9.

The AFL Grand Final was a football lesson by Geelong Cats to Port Adelaide; with a scoreline of 163 to 44 the 119 point drubbing set a new AFL record for a grand final.

After waiting 44 years since their last premiership the celebrations in Geelong (Victoria’s second largest city) will continue for weeks, many of my family and friends are Geelong supporters so the win has been very well received by them.

Day 8 of the holiday saw us up early and out of Sydney, we called into the “Blue Mountains” west of the city on a very windy and hazy day the photos are not any where near as sensational as the scenery but we couldn’t do anything about it so what you see is what you get.

We then traveled on to the rural city of Orange (population 38,000) where we will spend a couple of days, the countryside we traveled through today is really beautiful, with rolling hills, plenty of trees and all nice and green with the clear blue sky that Australia is renowned for, I have no idea why it was so hazy in the Blue Mountains as it was great elsewhere.

The disaster with photos from Bondi Beach last night came about by; having downloaded them from the camera to the computer I proceeded to erase them from the camera….. only to find that I had somehow deleted the photos from the computer without saving them….. some terse words followed!!

Day 9 was almost an R & R day, all we did was go for a drive to see a couple of memorial sites honouring my favourite poet A B (Banjo) Paterson who was born here in Orange in 1864, and then a pleasant hour or two at the magnificent Orange Botanical Gardens.

Mae of the Dae.

I wrote the story myself. It's about a girl who lost her reputation and never missed it.
Mae West