test wonderful title — Massey East, Auckland, Ne...
Posted by Laura Gardner in Travel Blogs on October 31, 2009 | No Comments
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Massey East, Auckland, New Zealand
Testing. This is my blog.
Test.
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Massey East, Auckland, New Zealand
Testing. This is my blog.
Test.
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Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang, China
The flight from Hanoi basically just jumps over the border and plops you down in China, southernmost China. Once there, the airport is pretty basic. Everybody pretty much seems to be piling into a van, so I follow them. After a cruise through the countryside, the van finally makes its way into the center of town. From this point I’m on my own, a fact soon painfully driven home to me, for not only is there nothing- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING- in English, but there’s nothing even in Pinyin, the Chinese system of Romanised transliteration developed during Mao’s era. Except for street signs, it’s Chinese characters only, and more than a few of those. Fortunately I brought a borrowed Lonely Planet guidebook with me, so that mitigated some of the effects of ‘instant illiteracy.’ Even the hotel reception spoke absolutely no English. Instead they had a cheat sheet with the standard questions written in both Chinese and English so you could just point-and-click, clever. Obviously, there are no tourists here, or such would not be the case. Welcome to ‘the real China.’ Fortunately the people in this part of China, related to Thais in fact, Zhuangs to be exact, are nice, so that helps. A smile can go a long way in making a guy feel welcome. Still this doesn’t hold a lot of attraction for me as a tourist destination, so I buy a ticket the next day for the train to Guilin.
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Hong Kong, China
Woke up after a noisy night’s sleep (thanks to our neighbour’s blaring TV) to the smell of our toilet which had gotten worse overnight. We went down and had breakfast at the hotel then went to reception to inform them of the problem. They told us someone would investigate and if the toilet can’t be fixed we would be moved to another room.
We went back to our room and grabbed our day packs then caught the MTR from Jordan across to Admiralty and then bought our Ocean Park tickets before catching the bus from a stop nearby to Ocean Park.
Arrived at Ocean Park and after some language difficulties we worked out that the cable car between the two sections of the park was not running due to high winds and that a shuttle bus was being used instead.
We wandered around past the Flamingo Pond and through the Aviary before taking the escalators up to the Mine Train Rollercoaster. Waited in line for about half an hour as the park was full of kids due to school holidays. Rollercoaster ride was fun and S’s first ride on a rollercoaster but as the line was so long we decided not to ride it again and go check out other parts of the park.
Had lunch at Pacific Pier after seeing the seals lounging about in the sun before going to the top of the Ocean Park Tower which was a revolving observation deck the went up to the top of the tower and back very slowly. Great views over the park, Aberdeen and the islands to the south.
Next we went to Atoll Reef with underwater viewing areas for a tank full of fish including sharks as well as stingrays and turtles which was quite interesting. There were three levels, one at the surface, one just below the surface and another at the bottom of the tank.
We decided to look for lunch but the queues for anything appetising were so long we would have missed out on the dolphin show at the Ocean Theatre. Managed to get a seat in the theatre and watched the dolphin and seals perform. Show was a bit kid-orientated but the tricks and the show itself was quite good.
After the show we got a snack to tide us over and then heard the cable car was not running again. Took the cable car across to the other part of the park. It was still quite windy and the cable car was a long way off the ground so had some nice views.
At the other part of the park we wandered around for a while before visiting the Giant Panda Habitat. There were a number of pandas in enclosures munching on bamboo or lounging around. We then decided to go back to the other part of the park and lined up for the cable car to take us back. After about 10 minutes of waiting some of the park staff yelled something out in Chinese and people started walking off. We eventually were told that the cable car was again closed due to high winds and that we had to take the shuttle bus back.
We took the shuttle bus back and decided to just catch the bus back to Admiralty. After arriving back we caught the MTR back to Jordan and returned to the hotel. We got back to our room and the toilet still reeked and raw sewage was still coming up into the toilet whenever you flushed it.
Went back down to reception to ask what was happening and we were asked if the problem was fixed. It appears no one had actually investigated and they hoped it would just fix itself as there was no evidence that anyone had looked into the problem. We said it was still broken and we were moved to another room where the toilet worked properly. The room change, we hoped, would also move us away from the nocturnal TV watcher neighbour.
Instead that night we has Disco Stew as a neighbour who had his iPod plugged into the clock radio (the clock radio in the room had an iPod port so you could play your music through its speakers) playing his techno favourites until after midnight. The walls of the room were solid concrete with a recess for the TV which backed onto the neighbouring room’s TV meaning the noise from the room passed straight through what appeared to be a thin metal plate behind the TV.
After numerous calls to reception which initially received the “if we ignore it it will fix itself” treatment that we found was the standard modus operandi for the hotel we finally got off to sleep.
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Hanoi, Vietnam
I’ve been in Hanoi many times by now, so there isn’t much left to see or do that I haven’t done before. I DO need a Chinese visa, though, so that’ll take a few days. Other than that, I’ll just concentrate on trying to expand my Vietnamese instrument business, which is starting to take off pretty good, especially the RRRibit™ frogs. The strategy of this trip is to go overland point to point through SE Asia without going back-and-forth to Thailand all the time like I already did earlier in the year. Since it’s almost impossible going clock-wise, I try again counter-clockwise. Then I find out that there’s a short hop of a flight across the border into Nanning for only $60, so I decide to do that. China’s still virgin territory for travel, so that little jaunt may ease an otherwise bumpy ride on an old Vietnamese bus, that and some creepy desolate border post. I go for it.
Having been to Vietnam at least several times by now, I resolve to start acting more like a local, just as I did many years before all over Latin America and am in the process of doing in Thailand. This is an important step in acculturation and an absolute necessity for long-term residence. This means eating the local food in local markets, living in places where locals live, and living your life here, rather than just passing through and taking snapshots. That’s 101. More advanced phases involve the local cultural life, to whatever extent it exists, and, hardest of all, making local friends, not just hangers-on to the hand out, but real friends, people you’d trust your life with. Despite its generally benign and even welcoming attitude toward foreigners, Asia is the most racist of all places, and that says a lot. Fortunately it also says that racism isn’t about hate first and foremost. It’s about stupidity… and fear.
So I go to the local market, out on the outskirts of town close to the river. It’s hardly a cheery place by Latin American standards, or even Thai or Indonesian, but some of the grimier inner-city Thai places have accustomed me little by little to that somewhat squalid ambiance. So I dive in and order up, ‘pho’ (that’s an ‘o’ with a little truncated Asian erection attached to it and a pubic hair hanging over it, falling tone, pronounced ‘phuh’), the national dish of Vietnam, though spring rolls run a close second. So much for Viet cuisine… though the mound of greens that accompany the rolls are quite nice and must be seen to be believed. If that ‘pho’ pronunciation seems bizarre, realize that you’re also shopping in a ‘cho,’ same seri-erect ‘o’, so prounounced ‘uh’, low tone if I remember correctly.
Later, I hook up with some locals smoking out of a bamboo ‘bong’ on the street, tobacco that is, a peculiarly Vietnamese tradition that may very well have propelled the instrument to its subsequent fame in America. It’s passed and shared, the whole male bonding schmear, loading up plugs of stringy tobacco one after the other. There is always one available on any city block, and entire booths are devoted to it in rural markets. Of course to do this you must squat on your haunches like the rail-thin protein-starved Viets, your butt hovering about two inches off the pavement and your knees suffering damage from which they will never recuperate. We try to communicate using my basic tieng Viet and their pidgin English, the ‘pidgin’ reference most useful as a link to the fact that they, and now me, look like nothing so much as a flock of buzzards cleaning a bone. The women with their conical hats look more like fresh mushrooms springing out of fresh cow shit after a morning rain. It rains a lot in Hanoi. The roses are beautiful. The people are edgy, even in the countryside, like wired on caffeine or Communism or MSG, not to be confused with SMS. Then we start trading shots of something out of a plain glass bottle. Never known for being an alcohol heavyweight, I quickly start acquiring a buzz to call my own. I better take it home, while I can still remember where my hotel is.
I get a place in the Old Quarter that’s not much more than a house converted into a ‘mini-hotel’. The Old Quarter is pretty crowded and intense, and my second-floor room hangs out over the street so far that I think if I reached out I could hold hands with someone in the room across the street. Buildings go straight up in Vietnam, even in the countryside, as far as they can go without reinforcing steel, at least four or five storeys. Whether this saves rent or taxes or space as of prime importance I don’t know, but in the cities it produces noise and crowding, in the villages extra room for farming, not a bad idea for a small nation of eighty million people… and counting. The noise echoes up to my room and just stays there like a standing wave pattern, amplified by reverb. I lie down to go to sleep…
…but it ain’t happening. I don’t feel so good. I think I’m getting sick. There are bugs crawling around inside me. What exactly did I have to eat and drink? Oh my God, that’s a horrible thought. Then I realize that the bugs are actually crawling ON me, not IN me. Is that good or bad? And then I realize that I don’t know what’s happening to me, but happen it will. Somehow my entire life, all forty-four years, has somehow led up to this point, and I don’t know how the story ends. I toss, and then turn, but nothing changes. Then I try to get up but can’t even move. I’m becoming paralyzed. I’m dying. Something I ate or drank is slowly but inexorably killing me, and there’s not a thing I can do about it. I can’t even call for help. I see light coming in beneath the door, and tell myself to go over there and crawl down the stairs. My self isn’t responding. I pray, whatever I can remember of the prayers I learned as a kid fresh out of the womb, which is not much. It’ll take more than that to save me, so I create a new God, just so that I can pray to him/her/it, so that they’ll save me and I can serve them with all my soul for the rest of my life, which hopefully has just been renewed with a new lease. Right about now I should be dropping off to sleep. Just give me a sign, God, God the Creator and God the Creation, just give me a sign that I’m not alone… that you really exist…
Nothing happens, neither bad nor good, backward or forward, so I lie rolled up in a little ball all night, witing for the inevitable… which never comes. Finally sunlight re-enters the window and I realize slowly that I’ve survived… whatever it was. I move my fingers. They work. I move my arms and legs. Everything works. Right now I know only one thing- I’ve got to get out of here. With that single goal I jump out of bed and gather my things. This is no time for half-way measures. The activity and motion make me feel better, as if I’m re-gaining some control over my situation. I get outta’ there lickety-split. The family’s kid is sorry to see me go, since we’d hit it off pretty good. I don’t think they get too many foreigners here. So now what do I now?
Of course one of the most important things about ‘settling in’ is having a decent place to stay, a quality hard to define. I usually only know when it’s all wrong. So I look… and look… and look. These sandwiched-in little mini-skyscrapers may save physical space, but don’t do much for my psychological space. Finally I find an older-style hotel in a quieter neighborhood bounded on one side by Hoan Kiem Lake. They show me the room that occupies most of the top floor, open with widows on three sides, breeze blowing through, less than twenty bucks. This’ll do. I pull my things out of my pack and make myself at home, tentatively at first. I turn on the television. Hanoi TV is nothing great, a combination of news, Communist propaganda, educational programming, and whatever they can get for free. Strangely enough there is a program of music videos playing. The very next song is one by Patti Smith, ‘Summer Cannibals,’ intoning ‘eat eat,’ the pictures themselves all smeary and dis-jointed and exsistential, like some shamanic ritual. I can’t believe it. You don’t see videos by Patti Smith on MTV. When the final credits come on, it reads, ‘directed by Robert Frank.’ Thank you, God, for hearing my call.
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Orlando, Florida, United States
Hello, everyone. Today was a pretty laid back day that began with a load of laundry and a swim in the pool. Then after lunch we spent the afternoon at Disneyquest, which is a five-story arcade. One entry fee and everything except the food was paid for. We could play as many of the games as many times as we wanted to. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if it was something I ate or just the humidity level in the place, but I got pretty nauseated near the end of the afternoon and felt pretty miserable for about 45 minutes. As with any arcade, it was really noisy in there, but we managed to find a couple of favourite games. For Jess it was the human pinball game. For me it was Champion Bass Fishing, of all games. For Jarod and Dan it was a speed boat racing game.
At about 5:30 we left to meet Mom and Andy at the hotel. They arrived without any problems and, although tired from the long day of travelling, were in good spirits. We got them checked in to their room and took them for supper at the Boatright Dining Hall. As usual, excellent food and service. Pretty tired now and gotta still finish packing as much as we can tonight before we take off for the cruise ship tomorrow.
G’night, all!
Juice’s Corner
HELLO peoples! Well today I got to SLEEP IN! I was happy, but the housekeeping kinda got frustrated with me caus she couldn’t clean the room while I was in it. ANYWAY, today when I finally got up, we went to the pool by the laundry place and did the laundry and Dad and Jarod went in the pool.I was too tired… still only got like 10 hours of sleep… (ONLY ha). Well later we went to Disneyquest (an arcade) VERY loud. But was still fun… Not nearly ACed enough… nearly had a heat stroke in my goofy costume… By the way… WE FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? So after the 6 hours of sweating in a turtleneck, we went back to the hotel to wait for Grandma Clair and Andy. Did not take very long… yet we didn’t get to supper until 8. But Grandma Clair bought me a Goofy plushy! And now I am writing the blog… Well iz getting a little late… ha me saying its getting late.. IT’S HALLOWEEN! AND IT’S ONLY 9 IN YELLOWKNIFE! Geez… Anyway… going on the cruise tomorrow… 
O and I got a little tigger pen for sonia.. caus well her gifts aren’t very destuingishable as Disney or Universal… I think I have everybodies gift now… And if you don’t get a gift… I’m sorry, but I’m not made of Money… or time… So I’M SORRY! DON’T GET MAD AT ME! Anyway. Seeya soon… Loggin off of Juice’s Corner Now
Juiceness/Jessica
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Salta, Northern Argentina, Argentina
Hola from Argentina, the first stop in our travels. We arrived in Salta all well and good and met our tour group – a lot of Australians, a few Canadians and a couple of Brits, everyone is very friendly and most of them have been traveling with the tour for the last couple of weeks so we are two of the three newbies.
Salta is a lovely town, with a great central square and lots of traditional buildings and a pretty cathedral. Daytime has been very very hot but things come to life in the evening much like a Spanish town to us. ¨The locals expect Sam to be Spanish speaking so his favourite phrase is “No Hablo Espaniol” after his customary pause designed to confuse people!! (he calls it being polite!!)
Not a lot to report so far but we have been in the cable car to the hill above the town and enjoyed the view of the town which is at the foot of the Andes, the stray dogs are the best looking stray´s i´ve seen, some would look good in Paris Hilton´s handbag. Argentinians have been really nice and helpful, not seeming to mind the phrase book spanish (at least we are trying). Sam had a theory that in the 15 hour flight he would master conversational spanish but its a bit hard to do that while sleeping and watching movies.
We had a bit of a jumpy start when we arrived with Sam getting ill – makes a change from it being me (but before you go further he is now fine and singing in the shower and eating steak). He had a fever and was a bit dehydrated so insisted on going with me to the chemist for antibiotics – that was maybe a blessing because as i was talking to the one English speaking pharmacist i turned round to see him lying flat out on the floor, pale and very ill looking, i did hesitate while i tried to work out “is he being a bit dramatic or is really ill?” in the meantime a nice man grabbed his legs in the air, a pharmacist produced a rehydration drink and another called a medic, then a lady thrust sweets in his face (they must be used to tourists). All these actions helped him recover quickly but the second day he was still a bit unwell so we had the doctor to the hotel. Maybe another blessing for Sam, as she was young and very pretty although he was a little disappointed when the male medic gave him the shot in his bottom!! He has antibiotics and seems to have made a very quick recovery.
Tomorrow we set off for Bolivia for a one night stop in Tupiza, we have been warned this will be a very rough ride on unmade roads and dust is going to get eveywhere including into the bags in the luggage compartment , lets hope Bolivian laundreys are good.
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Placencia Belize, Stann Creek, Belize
Sad day. Had to say goodbye to the beautiful ocean and the cool Caribbean breeze. Got the ferry back to Belize City. Belize City, round 2, when we haven´t been on a 6 hour bus. It was dirty, smelly, and boasted an abundance of creepers. Suffice it to say I´m not packing up and my bags and moving there anytime soon. Glad we walked to the bus station, though, it gave us a look at the city. Yuck. After some guy was cat calling us and we ignored him, he told us that he hoped we get robbed. Um, no thanks. After arriving at the bus station, we ate these delicious conch fritters. They´re kind of like deep fried crabcakes, and they were one of the best new foods we´ve tried while here. Then we were guided onto a hot school bus for our ride to Placencia. As we drove away, I noticed a tile store prominently featuring a sign that said ¨No smoking, No obscenities, No alcohol.¨ I don´t think I ever want to return to a city that needs a sign like that in a furniture store. Also noticed that the air freshener on our bus still had most of the wrapper on it. I´ve seen people do that in their cars to ¨preserve¨ the freshness (in my opinion, they´re wackos, too), but really? You can´t spare a whole air freshener for a giant school bus that drives everyday through the sweltering Caribbean heat carting around hundreds of profusely sweating people? In spite of this severe lapse in judgment, the bus wasn´t too bad, and we got to Placencia after about 4 hours, where we hopped a 20 minute ferry from Independence to Placencia.
Placencia makes Caye Caulker look like a booming metropolis. It has one road and one sidewalk. Like, the sidewalk is a prominent geographical feature and is listed on maps and in addresses. We went to the cheapest hotel in the book, the Traveler´s Inn. Maybe the muttering LEGLESS proprietress, the scary barking dog, or just the creep factor in general should´ve made us reconsider. But we were hungry and the room didn´t look too awful, so we dropped our bags and went to go get food. We had our third fish burrito in as many meals, and it was even better than the last.
We then saw Darren and Nicola, a couple that we have been running into since San Pedro. We have literally seen them everywhere we go (San Pedro, Tikal, Caye Caulker), and here they were in this random restaurant in Placencia. Crazy. They had just finished what sounded like an incredible 3-day sailing trip from Caye Caulker, but which was way out of our budget. Oh well, next time. A couple other people from their sailing trip came to lunch, including a guy who lived in Breck the past few winters. I think I freaked him out by how excited I was, but you have to give me a break – the whole county has 3,000 people! The others were talking about hotels and somebody mentioned the Traveler´s Inn and another person was like, ¨Who would stay there? That place was creepy!¨ Eventually, they asked where we were staying and we had to admit it. Pretty much mumbled it, but they still got it. Cue shameful head hanging now. Should´ve taken the fact that we didn´t want to admit where we were staying as our second hint, I guess.
After our late lunch-early dinner, we sat and philosophized on the dock for a few hours, and then were hungry, again. Surprise, we got fish burritos. In our defense, we thought it might be our last chance. The Yankees game was on and I made the fatal mistake of pointing it out so we could watch it while eating. Bec I´m nice and knew Ted would want to, even though he´s blind and wouldn´t´ve noticed it if I hadn´t mentioned it. Unfortch, that meant that we were going to watch it for two hours after eating as well.. on MUTE. I made some futile attempts to tell Teddy that this would be akin to me making him watch Twilight in Chinese. Already awful, but pretty much unbearable when you can´t even figure out what´s going on. No luck.
After the interminable game was over, we went back to our shady hotel.. and saw FIVE cockroaches. Well, by we, I mean Ted. We saw one, I screamed (really) and ran outside, and then he proceeded to see an entire family. I had also noticed a few hairs on my sheet earlier. And few things send me into a downward spiral quicker than big bugs and little hairs. Needless to say, we immediately left. We tried to get a refund, but our lovely hostess was sleeping, so we decided to leave the key and come back tomorrow, risking not getting our money back. There was no way we´d be able to get a decent night´s sleep in there. Not with the Roachie Family´s Weekly Game Night taking place underneath us. We went to a nice hotel that the other gringos were staying at (smart) and managed to get a roach-free room for not much more than we´d been paying. Peace at last.
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Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and Canary Islands
The next stop is Parc Guell, pronounced “Park Way.” The bus continues over rocky terrain and Ines tells the driver to stop to let a woman step out and throw up. It was supposed to be a development with many houses but only three were built – Guell’s house, Gaudi’s house and a doctor’s house. Ines explains that Guell was Gaudi’s patron who financed this park – which makes me seethe with envy. If I only found a wealthy person to launch my career I wouldn’t be here with my parents looking at another famous architect’s work. Life is so unfair.
We step out of the bus to look at the cave-like structure with angled columns. Then Ines brings us to the foot of the steps where two twisted structures are built. They look like ice cream cones with a lot of sprinkles, but I know they’re among Gaudi’s famous works because they are on the cover of a book I own about Gaudi. The blue lizard fountain halfway up the staircase is supposed to be a dog symbolizing loyalty, and everybody wants to get a photo of themselves next to it.
At the top of the steps, there is a space that was originally designed to be a marketplace but was never used as such – though there are a few vendors selling cheap jewelry. Margareth walks over to take a look and Mom follows. Ines explains that the coffered ceilings in the structure are designed with leftover ceramics tile companies gave to Gaudi and he made mosaics out of them. She points out the broken plates and wine bottles embedded into the decorative lighting embellishments.
Above the market there’s an undulating mosaic seating area surrounding a dirt plaza, and beyond there are brown columns with shapes that mimic the palm trees planted between them. Ines says Gaudi’s design isn’t unique but is based on organic structure. But I don’t buy it. Gaudi’s design is fluid and dreamlike and the haunting skeletal structures are unlike any other architecture I’ve ever seen.
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Bangkok, Thailand
I came down on the bus so go back on the train. That way it almost doesn’t seem like back-tracking. First thing a guy in uniform and bull-horn sings us a song something like a combination stewardess greeting/national anthem/advertisement, all to general applause. Everyday in Thailand dreams of the big time.
There’s only one problem with trains. They’re slow. Upon waking up from a long night’s ride, I realize we’re way behind. Once they get behind schedule, they just keep getting farther behind, it seems. Me, I plan things pretty precise, but I always allow plenty of connection time. Still that doesn’t help with a slow-ass train, and I’ve not only got to catch a flight, but I’ve got to pick up my passport first! With a shudder I realize that the consulate will close at noon, and it’s already eleven! We’re on the outskirts of Bangkok, but that doesn’t help much. Those last few miles are always the slowest. I’m going to have to take a cab anyway, and I don’t even know where the train station for southern trains is located. So what the Hell, I jump off at the next stop and grab a cab.
“Thanon Wittayu.”
“U.S. Embassy?”
“Vietnam.”
As fate would have it, the US and Vietnamese embassies are almost right next door to each other in Bangkok, a great boon for the surveillance industry (even though they’re “best buddies” now). So we race through the streets, which little by little start looking more familiar, so that I can get to the consulate before noon. I make it, get the visa and head straight for the airport, just like clockwork. Checking in for a Vietnam Air flight from BKK, in those days at least, was like hanging around a loading dock, similar to Filipinos flying out of LAX, people with refrigerators, air conditioners, microwaves, you name it and they’re stocking up on all the things they can’t yet find in beautiful downtown Hanoi, whether for lack of imagination or distribution channels. I suspect flights like that now arrive from China.
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Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 28
Kingaroy,
Kingaroy Showgrounds Caravan Park $17pn.
Known as the Peanut Capitol of Australia, Kingaroy is a town of 9000 people and the famous home of a past Queensland Premier Bjjkle Petersen ; you can, if you feel inclined, stay in a cottage at Bethany his property or have pumpkin scones made from his wife Flo’s recipe. We did neither, preferring to park the van at The Show grounds with other travellers and have a snack elsewhere.
After visiting the modern and impressive information centre, we walked around the town for 6 hours. The town centre is dominated by the tall peanut silos with the smell of roasting peanuts wafting through the air. As usual, we checked out the second hand shops for more reading material; these shops have been a good source of books as we travel, and at 50 cents that’s cheap reading.
The old Butter Factory (now called Proteco) had a delicious selection of soft cheeses under the Kingaroy label and a range of cold pressed oils from different Australian seeds and fruit. They also sold local wine but as we are not fans of QLD wines we let this go; after 2 attempts, we did get a reasonable cup of coffee there.
Let’s have a whinge about getting a good cup of coffee as you travel about in Oz; well it is near to impossible! So we have reverted to the habit we formed when travelling in the USA: “double espresso with a small jug of hot milk on the side” and if the coffee beans are good this results in an ok cup of coffee. We have the percolator with us which we use on the camp fire or gas stove when camping and this is great.
Of course we bought a bag of local roasted peanuts in their shells from the Peanut Van, and devoured them with a cold beer pre-dinner back at the van.
The following morning we drove to the Endeavour Biscuit Factory, which is staffed by mentally disabled people and where you can, and we did buy yummy biscuits, fruit cake and relishes etc. A drive to Mt Wooroolin presented a birds eye view of the town and surroundings, and a trip to the Crane winery took us to a pretty hilly area called Booie where the proprietor told us how the drought was affecting the grape production.
OCTOBER 29 2009
Kilcoy council overnight camp site: free
We drove through the interesting towns Nanango, Yarraman and Blackbutt on the D’aguilar Hwy, stopping for a quick walk about in each. The “rail trail” is a great idea in progress- the Brisbane Valley railway line is being recycled into a 148km track for walkers, cyclists and horse riders. We checked out the starting point at Blackbutt and it will eventually reach Ipswich. Now that would be a great bike trip.
We are heading back to Brisbane for the next dental appointment and to do a few other things on our list so, we over-nighted at the Kilcoy council camp site that we noticed on our way to Bunya Mountains. It was not actually free but the forms you were supposed to fill in were not in place and we felt disinclined to throw money in the box without the paperwork so it was free for us.
We found a walking track installed by the council to encourage local fitness to complete our daily power walk next morning, ate breakfast and headed back to Brisbane