Wow! What a crazy, crazy couple of weeks we have had recently! Caravan Park fiascos, wild dogs and dingoes, vomiting and the Taj Mahal of Caravans eclipsing our view... not to mention the great stuff like the wonderful weather, Phil's seasonal work effort, Axel's Distance Ed progress and the general exploring and enjoying of this trip!

Let me start with where we are. Finch Hatton. A really, really tiny town about 60kms west of Mackay and 20kms from Eungella. Finch Hatton is famous for it's gorge, which unfortunately at the time of blogging, we are yet to see! We have driven up to the top of the walkways, but due to bad timing and icky weather, as well as two "are we there yet" voices ringing in our ears, we decided the gorge would be better attempted early in the morning on a bright clear day with plenty of snacks! Watch this space!

Why are we here you ask? Well, we were fortunate enough to find work here for a few weeks before moving on. This allowed us some stop and breathe time, which we dearly needed, particularly with needing to catch up on Axel's school work, myself some time to nut out an assignment (due Friday!!! Arrrrgh!!!), as well as now with both kids coming down with illness... but more on that later.

Phil scored work with a local cane cutter, who was more than happy to utilize Phil's experience with trucks and heavy machinery! The hours are long (5.30am-6.30pm most days, six on, two off) and the season usually runs from late May til early December. The pay is great, and the local Showgrounds at Finch Hatton allow seasonal workers to stay here for $130 a week! Bargain! The downside? The closest supermarket is in Walkerston, a good hours drive away. There's only one pub in town, where the drinks are cheap, but the food is pricey. This saves us a fair bit of money though, as it's a full day trip into town to do any type of shopping!

The downside to where we are staying is a particular person making life hell in the showgrounds. We've nicknamed him Muppet. Muppet was actually working with Phil's employer, Darren, starting the day before we arrived. At first, Muppet was your typical knock-about, down on his luck, having experienced car breakdowns and the like. Long story short, what started as friendly banter and conversations with Muppet soon became frustrating as he began to stalk everyone in the showgrounds. Moving his van around so he could keep tabs on everyone, waiting until the women were alone and harrassing them, complaining to anyone who would listen about his life woes. Eventually we all put up annexes and shadecloth to try and deter him. which was a shame, because it's such a nice place to not need annexes up. But our privacy was at stake and we hoped it would help keep the pest out. No such luck.

Realising it was either him or us, we began to discuss going elsewhere for work, planning to cut short our stay in Mackay. Luckily though, the holiday Gods have shone upon us and he was evicted by the local police officer last night! He is packing as I write!

Not to be outdone, we already have notification of another pest near the showgrounds. A cross feral dog/dingo or two roaming around. Some of our gypsy neighbours informed us of the one they saw approx 2pm near Cattle Creek, backing the Showgrounds. Later that night, cleaning up from dinner, two rather large dogs went past the amenities block... Me being the girly girl I am, bolted into the van and shut the door behind me! I then snuck peeks out of the window, while Phil jumped in the Duke and took chase! He lost them at the fence of a local cattle farm, which is unfortunate. Locals aren't entirely sure if they are feral dogs we saw, local strays or just a lazy owner's dog. It was too dark at night to distiguish them... and kinda hard to make out through the curtain parting!

The kids are thriving beatufully out here. Bike riding, quadbiking, fishing, hiking, generally runng around - although today, it has been Pixar-Disney heaven in the van while I hide outside in the sun... Axel's cough and cold has now affected Jovi with vomiting... yuck. Can I tell you, there is nothing nastier than the smell of vomit. And considering we are all in the one box, guess what we all smell like? Mmmmmm. Delish.

Jovi is slowly keeping fluids down, which is a great sign - after ringing 13HEALTH to encourage my parenting, I've been gently administering ORS, water & juice... with some success! Axel is on the mend, having been out on the bike - although he pointed out that we needn't do school work because of it being holidays and his being sick! We are a set behind, so I need to get him doing some next week - I suppose a week off won't hurt! His school report from North East Distance Ed was wonderful! All A's and High achievement, which is great. He's started grade 3 maths, which considering he's still in grade 2, is wonderful, and just what he needed for his talents in Mathematics!

So finally, I am going to have my one gripe - Phil and I have a particular style of Baby Boomer caravanner we can't stand... the Fifth Wheelers. Have you seen these things?? Seriously?! 30 foot long and three lanes wide, with upstairs bedrooms, seperate theatrerooms (I kid you NOT) with reclining armchairs and 60inch flatscreen TVs. American built of course, and not big enough at all, because they have sides that pop out to give even MORE living space! Well, one of these pulled up beside our van yesterday, dwarfing us. It has eclipsed the sun, and blocked our TV arial! Poor Phil, we only bought the TV three days ago, so he was a bit cheesed off when he got home last night only to need me standing on one foot with a finger in my ear and the arial balanced on my pinky finger out the window to see the news! Not happy Jan!!!

It just suprises us when we see these monstrosities getting by (they're so big, they need to be towed by a light truck minimum!) that there are usually only two people in them! They never step outside, unless you call the enclosed, floored annex "outside" ... and yet the simplicity of doing my cooking and generally hanging out in the fresh air, seeing the stars every night... are what are making this trip even more worthwhile.

Kind of sad to think they may be going everywhere around the country - but are they truly seeing it or doing anything? Her Majesty may be small by comparison, old and rickety, but damn it, so far, she's teaching me to be a bit less reliant on mod cons... to the point, I'm starting to wonder what I really do need out of life... I have it all here, covered in vomit from top to bottom!