The Difference a Week Can Make

Oh, the difference a week can make!!

I am writing this blog post from the comfort of Woody's house in Brisbane. We originally weren't supposed to be back in Brisbane until the middle of December, but plans can change, and in our case, they did so very fast!

Last Sunday we got word that the owners of the caravan park were letting us go early because of a drop in tourists at the caravan park. What we didn't realize at the time was how quickly they were getting rid of us - we were on the bus out of Quilpie by Wednesday afternoon!

Luckily for us, we were able to squeeze in a few more things we wanted to do around the area before being shipped back to Brisbane. Katrina and Jeff were nice eno


ugh to take us on another drive to a nearby town called Adavale. It is a tiny town about an hour north of Quilpie. Like Birdsville, there wasn't much there! There is the Adavale Pub, which we had a drink and snack at, and the cemetery, which had people in it from as far back as 1883, and that's about it! I guess the town used to be a bit bigger, but it's right in a flood zone and it has experienced a few bad floods recently so many of the local residents have packed up and moved away.

Rob, the current manager of the caravan park, also does a mail run for the people living on stations and homesteads outside of Quilpie twice a week. Their mail is delivered to the town of Quilpie and he goes and sorts it and drives it out to them on Mondays and Thursdays. During the peak of tourist season they bring visitors along for the ride so they can see how people live on these big cattle stations. The tour is currently done for the season, but Rob was kind enough to bring us with him when he dropped off the mail on Monday. We had a great day checking out a bit more of the outback, the locals and all the wild animals. We saw hundreds of roos, cows and emus, some sheep, llamas and even a wedge tail eagle (lucky for us no snakes or spiders!). We also got to meet a few people who live on these stations and see their houses. One of the best parts of the day was getting to see what people use as mailboxes out there. Some of them use old oil drums that they've rigged up, while some of them use old appliances like fridges and freezers. Pretty hilarious to see an old freezer sitting by the side of the road with nothing else around for miles and miles! Daves favourite part of the day was a Vietnam Veterans Retreat called Alaric Homestead. There is just one gentleman living there right now, but he upkeeps the place really well. He has a veggie garden and a bunch of fruit trees, as well as a ton of free range chickens around. It was a nice, tranquil place right by a river about 1.5 hours from Quilpie.

 

We also had the opportunity to play one last night of bowls and one last game of touch footy. Brendo was kind enough to let Dave and I both bowl for his team - which probably wasn't a very good idea, because we lost! Lawn bowling is much harder then it looks, but also really fun! And our last touch footy game was pretty eventful also - I scored a try!!! Wahoo! It was the very end of the game and I caught a pass from Dave right at the end zone and was able to ground it before being touched. Needless to say, I left Quilpie on a high!

Instead of going right back to Brisbane on Wednesday, we took the bus back to Charleville and spent 2 nights there and took the train from Charleville to Brisbane on Friday night. Charleville doesn't have a ton to offer, but we wanted to stay because they have The Cosmos Centre, which is an observatory that runs star gazing shows at night and some daytime interactive displays. Unfortunately, both nights we were in Charleville were cloudy and rainy so we didn't get to do the star show with the telescope, but we did do the day displays. It was a good thing we had the opportunity to do the star show in Birdsville because from what we heard from the locals, they show you a lot of the same stuff. But off we went on the train on Friday night for our 17 hour train ride back to Brisbane. We weren't really excited about the experience again, especially after our first time on the train with "the screamer" so we asked the conductor how much it was to upgrade to a sleeping compartment. We decided it was too expensive for our tastes and settled into our seats with the rest of the rif-raf. When the conductor was coming around to check our tickets he stopped and wrote on the top of ours "Sleeper cabin 16, 17, 18" and then said to wait 5 mins then go find the cabin. He upgraded us to a private sleeper for free. It was the best news we had gotten in days!!! We had this cabin all to ourselves - it was quiet and comfortable and had more then enough room for us. It was a much better night on the train!!!

Since we were coming back to Brisbane early, we decided to look into things happening in the next few weeks to fill our time. We were in luck - The Ashes was just about to start in Brisbane the weekend we were getting back. The Ashes is a cricket tournament played every year between Australia and England. There is quite a bit of history about this match and between these two teams so we immediately looked to see if there were tickets available - and we got 3 tickets for Sundays match!!! It was pretty neat to go to our first international cricket match. And the icing on the cake was we were there to watch Australia kill England. They beat them by 381 runs!!  The day was long, but really fun! There were 2 rain delays, one of which had some hail also. We got to watch the Barmy Army (the England cheering section) go to town with all their chanting and cheering and we got to see the Aussies win! All in all a great day!

 

We have also decided to take a little trip with our new freedom. We have booked ourselves on a flight next Wednesday to head down to Tasmania for 2 weeks before the holidays start. We are really looking forward to spending some time down there. It sounds like such a beautiful place and we can't wait to explore it. Not sure yet what we'll be doing, but I think there are a few good hikes and some good wineries around also. If anyone has ever been and has some suggestions please feel free to contact us!

That's it for now!

I hope everyone in Canada is staying warm these days...I know we sure are!!

xoxox

In and Around Quilpie

So, we have been in Quilpie for just over 2 weeks and we have managed to keep ourselves pretty busy! There really is a lot more to do here than in Birdsville!!

Every Friday night we head up to the Lawn Bowling club for 'bowls'. Pretty much the whole quilpie community comes out for it, so it's a great place for us to meet new people here. This past Friday Dave even had the opportunity to bowl with Brendo's team. Brendo is a boilermaker in town and he was kind enough to save a spot on his team this week for Dave. Boy, was it ever an crazy night for bowls. The night started great, then came the weather. Dave bowled in a wind storm, dust storm and rain storm, all in a matter of a game. It was insane how quickly the weather changed! They ended up calling the game a little early because of weather, which is too bad because I know Dave was having a great time And next Friday Brendo said I would get to play...fingers crossed I don't make a totally fool of myself. Lawn bowling is actually pretty hard because the bowls (you can't call them balls or else you get in trouble here!) are weighted and they curve different ways depending on how you throw them, so this should be interesting!

 

Last Tuesday was also Melbourne Cup in Australia. Melbourne Cup is the biggest horse race in Australia and known all over the world. The country pretty much shuts down for it (depending on what state you live in). Quilpie had a public holiday to celebrate - it is the only holiday I know of where people get time off work to gamble and drink! But it was pretty exciting. Everyone dresses up with their fascinators/hats and gorgeous dresses to watch a 3 minute horse race. And the gambling...insane! Most people in Quilpie went to the Bowls Club for the afternoon for a luncheon and to watch the race. We had to work so we didn't get there until after the race was done, but we did get to watch the race on TV. Neither of the horses Dave and I picked to win did though :( But once the races were over the club put on some races of its own for more gambling! There were Chook (Chicken) races and a race of Jack Russel's, which was my favourite part of the day. For the dog races, they dress them up with little saddles on their backs with tiny fake jockeys while they run...it's so cute! The Chook races weren't very entertaining because not many of the chickens ran. People had to go up behind them and scare them just to get them to move! That night we went over to the pub for a post-Melbourne Cup celebration with some people...I am sure that some of those people did not have a fun day at work the next day if you know what I'm saying! It sure was a party!

We have also kept ourselves busy on Tuesday nights with touch footy (rugby). It was cancelled last week because everyone was too drunk after Melbourne Cup to play, but it'll be back on tonight and I plan on trying it for the first time this week. It looks easy, but this whole not being able to throw backwards thing may prove a little harder for me. Dave played a few weeks ago and really liked it, so I"ll give it a try this week and see how it goes.


Our neighbours at the caravan park, Katrina and Jeff, have also been kind enough to take us on a few outings around Quilpie to see some of the sights. Two weekends ago they took us to Lake Houdraman (or Lake Boogeyman, as Katrina likes to call it), which I wouldn't really classify as a lake, but they sure do. They even take their jet ski's out on it and water ski. The water level is apparently pretty low right now because Quilpie is in a drought, so not many people use it much anymore except the wildlife. We got to see a bunch of emu, cows, herrings and other birdlife there. From the lake we went to Baldy Top and Table Top, which are two hills nearby. The best part of the trip is we got to see some wild kangaroos pretty close to the car and I even got a few good pics of one. This past weekend they took us to another town nearby called Adavale. It's smaller than Birdsville if you can believe it. Apparently it used to be a bigger town but it is right in a flood plane, so every few years it gets really flooded and most people have just decided to move away. The population now is only 25 people. But don't you worry, there is a pub there! Outback towns have to have a pub in them! There is even this place nearby that is a pub without a town called Toompike. We haven't had a chance to go yet, but hopefully we will because it's apparently pretty neat. Lots of animals around, but all there is, is a pub!

 

This past weekend we also got to see our first live cricket game - Quilpie vs Charleville. Unfortunately Quilpie lost, but it was still fun to go watch the game. Although, it isn't the most exciting game to watch and it was hot as hell outside, we still had a good Saturday afternoon!

Other then that we've just been working and hanging around. The managers of the caravan park have gone away on vacation for a month so Dave and I pretty much run the show here right now. There is someone filling in for them while they\re away, but we feel in charge most the time! I have also had the chance to ride my first ride-on lawnmower. That was exciting. And we spend a lot of time sitting outside with Katrina, Jeff and Hank just chatting. For those of you gymnastics enthusiasts out there, I have finally figured out who Hank reminds me of...Bela Karolyi!! He looks exactly like him and has an accent as well, so I crack up everytime I see him! Laura and David, all I can think about when he talks is an announcer saying "what a birthday gift for coach Bela Karolyi" ...remember that! hahahah

Anyways, I digress...

I hope you are all doing well. Thanks for reading!

xoxo