Well folks, we are now seasoned house-sitters, or at least have shed our 'L' plates. With Howard and Morayfield home sits now a thing of the past, we have moved back into a caravan park.
As planned, yesterday we dropped anchor at the Vietnam Veterans' park, Standown, a normally a green and grassy haven about halfway between Gympie and Tin Can Bay. I say 'normally' because this year the vast expanses of lawns are, like much of the rest of the country, dry, brown and decidedly crunchy. The park owners have done all they can to keep the garden plants and trees alive (with great success), but the lawns have had to struggle along unaided.
Mind you, the entire area of the Sunshine Coast, including this part of the world, was recently officially drought declared, so none of what we found here came as any surprise to us when we pulled in. In fact we have been amazed to find the extensive plantings here looking remarkably good.
But this is all about to change. For the past week or so we have been anticipating spending Xmas Day in mid 30 degree heat.....no longer. The current forecast could not be more different. As of this evening we are being told to expect significant storms and some serious rainfall. Over the next 48 hours falls of up to 80 mils are supposedly coming our way.
We are now anticipating spending Xmas Day sloshing around in water up to our ankles, but that will be a small price to pay for what is so desperately needed. With a bit of luck we may soon be again able to sit outside without being inundated by smoke....these falls should finally extinguish the Fraser Island fires and another burning some 20 kms from our camp. The sun set yesterday afternoon as a blood orange ball.
So, to our new plans, as far as they have been finalised.
After our outback adventures (so delightfully represented here courtesy of 'cjlevins')
and our several sojourns by the seaside,
I can confirm that we shall be Adelaide bound come the New Year. We have made no concrete plans yet as to our route south. Our preference would be to toddle down the east coast, but this will be entirely dependant on the fire situation. We rather suspect that we may well be making decisions on a day by day basis. Isn't it odd to think that three years ago we were doing the same thing, but on that occasion we were dodging floods. Only in Australia!
So January and February remain in the 'see what comes' category, although we are now expecting to be looking after a friend's property on Yorke Peninsula in late February.
But I can be much more definite as of March 2020. We are booked into Port Hughes for the first week after which we shall be returning to Adelaide and taking up residence in our old stamping grounds at Windsor Gardens for a fortnight.
We are planning to stay with country friends for a few days after our departure from the 'big smoke' before heading across to Eyre Peninsula where we shall be spending most of April. We have confirmed bookings at Cowell (29 March - 11 April), Tumby Bay (12 - 18 April) and Port Lincoln (19 - 28 April).
From there (hopefully with our freezer bulging with King George whiting fillets!) it will be up and away, up 'The Track' that is, and away through the red centre once again to WA for the remainder of 2020 and the early part of 2021.
To all who follow the adventures of the Mobile Marshies (very lagged...I hope to put a real dent in the arrears over then next 12 days), Festive Season's greetings to you all from us both.
Well, that's it for now. I must scoot.....the surf's up! Time to catch a wave or two before we return to central Queensland.
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