Why, hello there!!
It has been some time since I last posted. Oops, sorry, we just kind of got into the swing of life in Toowoomba and I didn't think we had anything interesting to write about so I didn't. Then when we did have something interesting we had no phone or internet service so I couldn't. I am going to endeavour now to catch everyone up on the last month and a bit. You may need to go make a cuppa, get a snack, take the phone off the hook, and settle in to a comfy chair as we have been having some fantastic adventures and I have lots to tell you.........
Alrighty then, since we had not been able to secure a "long term" site in Toowoomba we were needing to park hop around the place a bit and our next place to try was a little further afield, about half an hours drive from Toowoomba, and down the range to boot. We booked in for a week at Murphy's Creek Escape. A lovely little bush camp on a private property. It was awesome. We had a site right on the creek front, one of only 20 powered sites in the park. The creek itself is mostly shallow and the kids had an absolute ball playing in the water for most of the week as fortunately for us the weather was on our side and it was t-shirt and shorts all the way!! A short walk down a path led to the "beach", a sandy area fronting onto a much deeper waterhole suitable for swimming. Needless to say E dived straight in.
As usual E made friends with the owners daughter, Holly, within minutes and off they went on their bikes around the property. At 4.00 each afternoon it was bird feeding time. The kids, and some big kids, gathered around with seed in hand and waited for the Rainbow Lorikeets to come on down from the trees for dinner. It was usual for about 50 of them to be feeding. The groundskeeper informed us that it took about 6 months to get the birds to come and feed in the area and another 6 months to get them eating from the hand. Thanks to his patience the kids had a great time.
As has become the norm for us in most of our camps, E likes to find herself a "pet". This time however, Mum wasn't quite as pleased as the pet of choice turned out to be a cane toad. It was amusingly given the name Bum-bum because E discovered that if she poked Bum-bum up the bum he would hop over the stick she held in front of him like a hurdle!! She had quite an obstacle course set up for Bum-bum!! We also spent the better part of a morning in the creek searching for more frogs as T and C decided that they also needed to have a pet. T then spent the afternoon creating a Lego world playground for his frog.
Another animal first for us was seeing a goanna. The kids decided that the goanna would also need a name and thus was titled "Joanna". Joanna lived right on the edge of the creek, very near our camp, and the kids delighted in announcing her presence every time they saw her sunning on the rocks. While we were initially impressed with the size of Joanna, it wasn't long before E and I were having a bit of a walk in the park and saw another goanna a whole lot bigger than Joanna climbing a tree. We were pretty stoked with our find.
Murphy's Creek is also home to a pretty fun 4wd area. We were given directions to an area behind the township where anyone can go to test their skills. We were informed by some local people that if you are able to drive on it, you are allowed to drive on it! Unfortunately we didn't get too much time to play as R had to get back for work. Keeping that area in the memory banks for another time.
The kids and I had a bit of a fright one evening when at about 8.00pm a giant big Blackhawk helicopter came zooming up the creek gorge at very low altitude and with spotlight on. Of course it led to all sorts of assumptions as to what they were doing out in the bush where we were. All was revealed in the morning when the owner came around to say hi. Peter was ex-army and the base at Toowoomba often now used his property as a target in training practices. Phew, there were no mad axe-murderers on the loose!!
Due to Peters army background he also ran several adventure activities on the property. We enjoyed watching some kids on the "ropes course". I know E would have loved to have a go but unfortunately she was just a bit too short to participate. T and E did however get to participate in one of the sessions on the giant flying fox. The flying fox is 235 meters long and can get up to speeds of 60kmh!! The kids had to attend an info session and get fitted up with the appropriate harnesses, and helmets etc before trekking off to the top of the flying fox. That was no mean feat in itself. There was a hike of about a km, then a scramble over the rocks, climb a ladder, cross a beam, shimmy around a tree trunk and only then were they on the platform!! The kids both had two rides down the flying fox and loved every second of it. T even did one of his rides strung upside down!!
After 9 nights our time at Murphy's Creek Escape came to an end and we made our way back to Toowoomba, albeit only just as it was a pretty huge effort for Trevor to pull Cara back up the range!! I'm sure the traffic stuck behind us crawling along in first gear and at about 20kph were less than kind in their mumbled mutterings about caravanners!!!
Back in Toowoomba for a few weeks saw life return pretty much to normal. R working in the afternoons, kids swimming, mum cooking and cleaning....... You know how it goes.......
And then, R finished working a week earlier than expected and so we moved our next adventure forward by a week...........
