Gunnedah rally
 

25 September. Slept in front of the house and were on the road at 7.30 in the morning. First stop our favourite place. Horseshoe Bay in Bowen. A perfect day. After 1.5 hours on the way to Mackay. Visited Ian and Lesley first and arrived at Luke and Nikaela's place 5PM.
Jed is talking all the time and after a while you sort of understand what he is saying. Two nights in Mackay and next stop Rockhampton. It is 400 Km every time which we normally don't do but this is a short trip a long distance away. A quick visit to Peter and Judy (Nickaela's parents)  and spend the night in a freecamp in Rockhampton. From here we travel inland, Banana, Theodore where we spend the night. The roads look good from a distance but they are so bad that the bus is rocking and jumping all the time. No good for someone who get's car sick.  Miles next another two nights beside a river. Had a chance to tryout my new chainsaw and we sat beside the fire with a Dutch couple talking Dutch all night. On to Goondiwindi and Moree. Fantastic big campsite. Another two nights and another campfire.

 

 

 
                            Happy Jed                                                                           Beside the river on Moree (NSW)
 
29 November, arrived in Gunnedah. Spend the first night in an field with other motorhomes waiting to be allowed in to the rally sight. The weather is perfect and early next morning parked with all the other bus drivers. My volunteer work is to drive people around the rally site. There are a lot of elderly people who are not that mobile. The first couple of days not much to do. Made a couple of trips to Tamworth to pick up cars. The showgrounds are very close to town and we walked to it a few times. 4 October we don't have to walk anymore because the busses have started. Also the weather has changed drastically. The forecasted rain has arrived.
My volunteer driving had a slow start because the bus broke down one day before the rally. So the first four days nothing to do. Susan had a similar problem. She has to sell the club merchandise but it had not arrived yet. The days are going fast, entertainment every night and poets breakfast in the morning. 
 
 

We are right at the back
 

 
 
                                                     The ball                                                   Waterfall at the waterfall way
 
 
12 October. The rally nearly over. Tonight the ball and Saturday open day. All the entertainment is in the big tent. Most volunteers had to stay another day to pack up and time to head north. Via Tamworth, the country music capitol of Australia. Armidale the waterfall way, so named because there are a lot of waterfalls along the way. Last time when we passed here not much water in them and despite the recent draught there was a fair bit of water in them. Grafton to Tweed Heads. Here we visited Victor and Rosanne. Victor used to live in Townsville. It happened to be dinner night in the lifestyle village and we were invited to join them. They live near the Gold Coast and we had a quick look at the beach. Next morning north via Ipswich. The shortest way is through Brisbane but I am not too fond on freeways with cars passing left and right. Spend one night in Kilcoy. It happened to be Friday and the pub had stake night dinner for $10. We could not let this pass.
 
 

Surfers with the Gold Coast in the background
 
More inland roads. Some are very hilly and narrow. In Gympie we are back on the main highway north.