We did meet up with Jo, Phil and the girls as mentioned in my last entry. They came and found us at Winton, much to the surprise of Livi and Ruby as they didn't know we would be there.

The weather is still very hot with temperatures of 41 & 42 degrees so we were still looking for power for the aircon.

While in Winton we visited The Matilda Centre which has been completely rebuilt after a fire a few years ago. Just a few months after we visited last time actually. Although still good, it was much better before the fire where so much history and memorabilia was lost forever.

One day, while in Winton, the Joneses headed out to the Australian Age of Dinosaurs which they all enjoyed. We had been there before and in the high temperatures, we didn't feel the need to go there again. Instead we went for a ride out to the Bladensburg National Park where we visited the old homestead and wandered the buildings, reading of life back then.

After leaving Winton, we all headed towards Longreach with the girls travelling in our car with us. We played our usual games of looking for a number of a nominated colour such as blue or red, we did spellings and also what state certain places were in. We did all this before the girls were allowed on their iPads which they thought was way more fun! We enjoyed the company of the many brolgas that wandered around the park and the family of emus in town. Many of the touristy things were closed for the season so not possible for the Joneses to visit. We of course had visited them years ago so not as disappointed as they were. During our time in Winton and Longreach we all made good use of the pools and of course Grandad had again been relegated to sleeping on the lounge while the girls stayed in our van.

After Longreach we headed to Rubyvale known for its sapphires and with our very own Ruby, this visit was a must. We stayed at the small Caravan park with friendly locals and bought the girls a bag of dirt (for $30!) They were able to take it to the cleaning station where they were shown how to clean, shake and look for sapphires in the fine mesh trays. The girls had fun and found a few gems of their own.

Next stop was Rockhampton and our last day together. We enjoyed ourselves at the park, using the pool and waterpark, then it was happy hour with card games and a fish and chip dinner from the takeaway over the road.

The next day we said our goodbyes and we look forward to seeing this little family back at Banora Point in the middle of December.

We have been so fortunate to have caught up with these guys for as many weeks as we have in their year of travels. We had thought that if we got a week together somewhere we couldn't expect much more but in total we've probably spent, all up, nearly eight weeks together. I hope Jo, Phil, Livi and Ruby have enjoyed these times as much as we have.

Leaving Rockhampton, we head to Gin Gin where we stayed for two nights, walking around the town and checking out the Op Shop before going back to the van and aircon. Then we drove to Noosa and brother Simon and Kerry's house. We worked out it's been two years since we saw them last.
We celebrated Simon's 60th birthday while there, enjoying a great evening with family and friends.
Monday morning we said our goodbyes, leaving early to get a job done on the van at Clontarf, half way between Noosaville and Tweed Heads. We'll be seeing these guys again soon as we are all going to Bali for two weeks, along with my other brother, John and his wife Vicki. Also, the best part is that Emma, Graham, Josh and Ellie are coming out for our second week. It's been a long time since we've seen these guys as well!
In the meantime, here we are now at Boyd's Bay Caravan Park listening to the rain on the van roof that hasn't stopped all night. That's a sound we haven't heard much of for a very long time!
It feels strange being back here after so long and especially when we visited our 97 year old friend Dorothy, who now lives in Raffles Aged Care where my mum used to live. I didn't think I would be going back there again! Dorothy has settled in so well, joining in with all the activities and already calls the place home.
We have been busy since we got here with many visits to family and friends and appointments. We even managed to help our friend Jan unpack and make up the beds with her move to her new place.
Not sure if I'll make another entry before Christmas with our Bali holiday coming up so a "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" to everyone reading this. Keep safe and well and enjoy life. 💕