As things are evolving in our life, our travel schedule is also changing.  Following our trip to Tasmania in early 2024, we have done a number of short trips over the balance of the year and had our first full winter in Sydney for many years.  This blog post covers our time and travels from April to December 2024. Incidentally I started writing this post in May 2025 as we have been consumed with campaigning for an Independent candidate in the federal election from November 2024 to May 2025.

One thing about not travelling so much is that we have enjoyed more of the treats that Sydney has to offer.  In April we saw West Side Story performed on a stage on Sydney Harbour, with our friends Anne and David from Port Macquarie.

Then we had a family trip away to celebrate my birthday in April.

Just so happened that Amy and Neil were playing a frisbee tournament nearby.

Vivid is a highlight if you’re ever in Sydney in May. Vivid is an annual festival of light, music and ideas.  Our favorite part is the outdoor immersive light installations and projections that adorn Sydney’s famous buildings and landmarks.

We enjoyed a NSW Explorer Motorhome Rally in the Hunter Valley in June, and then we finished off the trip with a visit to our friends Kevin and Jenny who live in that general area.

In August we embarked on a trip to Queensland, to celebrate Pamela’s birthday, visit friends and attend a music festival.  First stop was Port Macquarie where we caught up with Anne and David. We arrived there late at 7pm and vowed not to drive in the dark again!

After a lunch the next day with Sue and Grae in Macksville and a tour of their ‘almost finished’ new house (we’ve seen the build progress from empty lot stage, so its exciting to see what a great place they have created), we stopped at a park just south of Ballina.  We’ve done that trip to Queensland so many times, and we vary from staying at familiar spots to trying new places.

Again this trip we enjoyed a great visit with our friends Steve and Denise; dinner, ice cream and a nice walk in the morning. Then we stayed with Allan in Mooloolaba and also caught up with Barbara.

The original impetus for our trip was to join in the 80th birthday celebration for Pamela Petty.

After the lunch we headed for the Gympie Music Muster, which is billed as an iconic festival bringing together the best of Aussie country, blues and rock music in a family friendly atmosphere.  It is all that and more when you have 55,000 people camping together in a forest and listening to music all day and well into the night for at least four days.

Again we arrived just before dark and were so lucky that our friends, Phil and Sherrol, had saved us a spot. That was not easy to do when 55,000 people were looking for a place to camp.

In addition to watching lots of acts, we like to attend the daily uke workshops. The guy running these sessions was great and an excellant teacher.

If anyone is in to country music, you would appreciate that all the big names in country music were there.  Over the four days we saw James Blundell, Felicity Urquhart, Beccy Cole, Tex Perkins, Lyn Bowtell, Lee Kernaghan; and Anne and David Kirkpatrick, the daughter and son of Slim Dusty and Joy MacLean, in a tribute session to Slim and Joy; plus lots more acts including our old favorites The Pigs and The Hillbilly Goats.

Unbeknowst to us (or we thought he was joking), our uke session leader had us performing on the big stage on the last day of the festival.  So our four days of uke sessions were getting us ready for a performance.  It was exciting and scary and certainly added a new dimension to our uke playing and our festival experience.  We were treated like real artists, got free artist bottles of water and were taken backstage to the ‘Artists Entrance’.

Attending the Gympie Music Muster was a unique experience and unlike any other festival we have been to. Glad we were there with Phil and Sherrol as at times it felt like we had been transported to a different world, one that was very country and western, and full of tradition as many families had been attending it for years.

Getting 55,000 people out of that camping area in a forest was going to be slow going so we gave ourselves a sleep in and left camp at 1:45pm. After a short drive to Moloolaba, we happily settled in for five night’s at Allan’s place.  This gave us a good rest, a chance to get things done with Belle and time to explore places in the area, as well as check out new restaurants and dress shops.   We also had a nice catchup lunch with Gordon and Joanne, and another birthday lunch with Pamela. We joined in with Allan and Barbara’s Friday night outing with Gerda. So all in all we had a relaxing and social time in Moloolaba.

Next stop was Teewah Beach, one of Dick’s favorite beach camping spots. Aside from a 3 k walk along the beach amd playing our ukes, we didn’t do much for two days.

Then we headed to Rainbow Beach, where we had internet and could catch up on mail and news, plus a bit of shopping.  Camped on Inskip Point at Sarawak Camp, had a nice walk on the beach and met people to chat with.  Before leaving that area we did an interesting walk on the Carlo Sand Blow.

 

Next stop was a return visit to Hervey Bay as we like the area and there are good places to stay close to the beach.  We spent a couple of days there so had time to catchup with a few things, as well as do some whale watching.

It was mother and baby time for the whales and we learned that the babies suckle for one year and may be around for 2 years unless the mother has a new calf, and then they are gone. We did see the mum’s teaching the month old babies how to head lunge and tail flap.  Humpback whales have had the greatest comeback of all species.  At the end of whaling there were about 200 left and now there are more than 45,000 and humpbacks are off the endangered species list.

Leaving Harvey Bay we drove back to Mooloolaba, had a good walk with Barbara, and then dinner out with Barbara and Allan.

The next day we returned to Scarborough, parked at our friends, Steve and Denise’s place (even though they were away). We were up before 6am so we could get to the Explorer factory by 7:23am for our service on Belle. Left there at 3pm and got a good start on the trip home.  The next day we managed to drive to our friends’ place in Anna Bay.

Had a good night at Anna Bay with our friends, Kevin and Jenny, and enjoyed a lovely end of day beach walk.

It was a good way to end our Queensland trip – 29 days away and about 3000 kms driven. And then we managed to get home in time for Zoe’s birthday on15 September.

In mid-October we visited our fourth Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival.  Its a great little festival, close to home, with lots of our favorite performers and always some interesting new ones like Gladys, A Musical Affair.

Since we don’t need much of an excuse to have a party, and we do like to dress up; to celebrate my 50 Years in Aus we had a party with the theme of Australiana / Green and Gold, and we asked people to dress for the occasion.

Pamela came down from Queensland for the party, as did Steve and Denise who also went with us to another Explorer Rally, this time in Gunning, NSW.  It was a good chance hang out with Steve and Denise and other Explorer friends.

Thus ended an overly long blog that covered from April-December 2024.  In spite of not doing much travelling, I struggled to find time to do the blog. Started working on this in May 2025 and finished in August 2025.  Will try to do better…………….