2024 in Review

A few major things happened this year. Firstly, I finally retired! In early April I pulled the plug, something which I found very difficult to do, but have had no regrets since.

In March we went to some National Parks in South-East Queensland that we had always wanted to visit, but missed out on a couple as the weather deteriorated. We really enjoyed Spicer's Gap, Main Range National Park, Glastonbury Creek Campground, D'Aguilar National Park Amamoor State Forest, Brooyar State Forest, Ravensbourne NP, Mapleton Falls, & Paradise Dam.  In June we went with friends to Monal Goldfield and the Boyne Valley, staying at Ubobo.

At the end of June we headed to Canada. The first month there delightfully spent with the family at a Chalet between 2 lakes at Montcalm. Everyone enjoyed being able to swim, fish and paddle, and the place abounded with wildlife. Marc came over for the first 10 days as well, which was fabulous. A couple of side trips to Mont Tremblant National Park were very enjoyable. We went camping for a few days, to check out the camping gear, at Domaine de Cedres.

The family headed back to Montreal for a few days, and we went to Ottawa, before meeting up again for a road trip to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where we camped in National Parks. 

We re-joined the Off-Road Club and went on a couple of trips to the Boyne Valley. 

Full write-ups of all these trips will come later, (Darryl says don't hold your breath, but I'm getting there!).

The year is being topped off beautifully by a visit from our Canadian family, who arrive in Rockhampton on the last day of the year.

Below is a couple of activities undertaken during the year, iNaturalist and Kiva, (micro-lending to disadvantaged people).

https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/2024/ozikris

Chris' iNaturalist

https://www.kiva.org/team/genealogists

Blogiversary! 20 Years!

 

It's 20 years today since I made my first blog post on this blog. It was for the CQ 4x4 Christmas Party Chris & Darryl's Trips: 4X4 Club Xmas Party in 2004.

Up until this post there have been 600, and we have enjoyed some amazing events, parties, and travels. 

We have travelled to overseas to New Zealand (North and South Islands 3 trips), Canada (3 trips including the Rocky Mountains, the Badlands, Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver, as well as Montreal, Quebec City & Toronto, USA Seattle, Hawaii, Los Angeles, and a cruise to Alaska, China and Japan, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Greece & Spain, Singapore & Thailand. We have also cruised from Tokyo to Sydney with stops at Vietnam, Bali, Hobart, and places mentioned previously.

In Queensland we have travelled all over South-east Queensland, North Queensland (several trips), Channel Country, Western Queensland & Central Queensland, including: Brisbane, Townsville, Cairns, Innisfail, Toowoomba, Winton, Cania Gorge, Isla Gorge,  Byfield, Charters Towers, Mt Bartle Frere (highest mountain in Queensland), Walsh's Pyramid, Atherton Tablelands, Normanton, Bourketown, Ingham, Paluma, Eurimbla, Blackdown (at least twice Darryl at least 6 times), Goodedulla, Lawn Hill, Riversleigh, Pocupine Gorge,  Lamington and D'Aguilar, National Parks, Keppel Island, Boyne Valley several times to Bulburin, Dawes, and Kroombit National Parks, Glassford, Mount Jacob mine, Mt Morgan, Benaraby, Mt Etna, Bunya Mountains, Girraween, Elliott Heads, Gin Gin, Mount Perry, Hervey Bay, Innott Hot Springs, the Sunshine Coast, & up to the tip of Cape York

New South Wales to Sydney, National Parks including the Blue Mountains, Waterfall Way, the Warrumbungles, Orange, Adelong, Carcoar, Cootamundra, Hill End, and Mt Kosciusko.

Victoria to Melbourne, the Gold-mining areas in Victoria of Beechworth, Bendigo and Ballarat, the Great Ocean Road, Mt Macdeon, the Grampians, Walhalla and drove from Dargo to the Alpine National Park.

The Northern Territory (2 trips) to Darwin, Alice Springs, Ayres Rock, Kings Canyon, Katherine & Kakadu, Nitmiluk and Litchfield National Parks, Gosses Bluff Impact Crater, Wolf Creek Crater, Mataranka.

Northern Western Australia with Kununurra, the Kimberley, Derby, Bungle Bungles, and most of the Gibb River Road.

Tasmania including Hobart, Bruny Island, Salamanca Markets, Sydney to Hobart Yacht race finish, Cradle Mountain, Walls of Jerusalem National Park, Port Arthur, Mole Creek, most of the large dams, the west coast, and drove up Jacob's ladder.

This map shows just a little of where we've been in Australia & New Zealand.

I have documented family & friends' events with births, deaths & birthdays, concerts (Status Quo & Deep Purple), engagements, reunions, work and Christmas Parties, social events, bushwalks, floods (Rockhampton 2008) and cyclones (Marcia which hit Rockhampton in 2015).

I have about 40 draft post that I'm working on, and there's plenty more travels coming. I'm also working on fixing up the photos in some posts that have disappeared. So, there's more to come. 

The 20 graphic was created by AI - Microsoft Co-pilot, the map is from my Google timeline.

South Australia 23 May 2023

Ok it is cold! -1.4C with ice on the table and car. It had 'warmed up' to 0C by the time I took the photo of the thermometer.

Luckily it warmed up pretty quickly. We were enchanted to see beautiful green parrots eating the Ruby Saltbush berries growing close to our campsite. I think the parrots might be Mallee Ringnecks.

Ruby (Barrier) Saltbush Enchylaena tomentosa

And then the emus came in to feast on the Ruby Saltbush too.

After morning tea we tidied up of our camp before Darryl went for a walk. In the afternoon we walked up Yuluna Creek. 

Solanum petrophilum - Rock Nightshade

This gorge through the ABC Range has quartzite visible in the rock walls. Sandy sediments forming the quartzite were deposited in shallow seas between 620-610 million years ago. Some boulders display beach-like ripple marks.

The ANC Range displayed amazing quartzite. We say plenty of  ripple rock (which was once under shallow water and the Brachina formation. 

This rock was once under the ocean

Grass tree flower

Native hops - Dodonea spp

Casuarina spp

A couple from Adelaide came in with a caravan. Dinner consisted of leftovers and damper. I made sure I put on my woollen thermals before retiring for the night.

South Australia 22 May 2023

I guess as we were beside the ocean the temperature wasn't too bad at 12.7C. We went over to the house where Doug was feeding the Western Grey Kangaroos.

Condensation on the Sheoaks

A huge windfarm on the way

Spencer Gulf at Port Augusta

It wasn't long before we were at the start of the Flinders Ranges.

Our first stop was at Death Rock and Kanyaka historical site homestead.

Death Rock

Death rock with crested pigeons.

Culvert used by the former Ghan railway line.

Kanyaka Homestead

Kanyaka Homestead

We stopped at Hawker for lunch. The mountains of the Flinders Ranges were amazing.

We were not sure where we were going to camp and drove into Wilpeba Pound to visit the National park office and pay camping fees. After studying their map of the Flinders Ranges, we chose Koolamon campsite 7 (for two nights) which was close to a gorge.

Koolaman campsite 7

We were completely alone, apart from wallabies. There are two camping areas at Koolaman. Ours was by 4WD access (slightly more expensive) and the other, further upstream of Aroona Creek, was suitable for caravans and tour busses.