Galvo's Life: April 2009

Hello to all my followers (All 3) :)

Well it has been a long time once again but due to pressure I have to rise from my beach towel and put finger to key.

Well I think I left you hanging while we were in the Goldcoast, from there we headed south again to a friends house, Madison and Karens property just inland from Byron Bay.
At this stage the weather was still not so good but not to wet. Everyone had a great time and Madison was great with the kids, they got to have rides on a big quad bike, play with the chooks and cows, I got a surf at Byron, Debs got some shopping done and everyone got on really well.

We got some amazing pics there as they were high on the hill and the valley filled with cloud but clear above and there were some awesome sunrises.

I got an invite to Killarney from Mad's as there was a group going and the weather looked good so off we went for a week flying with other pilots, it was a great experience and launch was stunning. The town was small and not a lot there and our caravan park was very noisy (roosters,crows,trucks and loud bangs from the fields to keep the birds away) but the flying was great and the local farmers very friendly and helpful.

From there we moved onto Canungra where we had a great camp along side a creek with platypus in it which we saw most days and could get fairly close in the Kayak.

I had some great flights here as well and the kids loved liloing down the creek, heaps of canetoads here and alongside Heinze Dam there were literally hundreds of thousands of toadlets.

I managed a personal best here flying 26km from Beachmont to Beaudesert (Pauline Hanson Country), I should've gone further but made a wrong decision which put me on the ground.

While we were here we drove into Sea World and spent the day there, it was a rip off but the kids had a great time and the shark pool was awesome. It was here that some low life stole Debs camera...

By now the rain had started to fall a bit more regularly and we spent our last night anxiously watching the creek rise after the caretaker mentioned that a caravan had been washed away where we were camped a couple of years ago, needless to say no sleep for me that night but we were prepared with a fast pack up as we had put everything away already. the creek only rose about 1.5m and still had a couple to go before it affected us.

After Canungra we went and stayed with some friends from Broome, Belinda, Mark, Zacharia, Samuel and Bridie, the rain didn't let up and the mould moved into the tent with a vengeance so out with the bleach and a resealer, took a full day and we were lucky that it didn't rain most of the day and there was a breeze blowing so it could dry out, but then it poured for another week and we had to hit some trouble spots again but now all good. In the end I think it was 22 days straight of light and torrential rain, not good when in a camper trailer. :-(

We were glad to get out of the mud and move onto the Glass House Mtns where Chris and Bill met up with us we only had a couple of days rain then the weather improved and has been great ever since :-)

The Glass House Mtn's were pretty awesome , amazing structures and make for some interesting scenery.

We were just a short drive from Australia Zoo so we were off to check that out as the kids have wanted to go since the start, I was very impressed with it, in fact the animal enclosures are the best I have ever seen and have way more space than any place I have ever been, they had a wide range of food selections (even healthy stuff unlike most zoos) and was at a reasonable price in fact normal price. We were also lucky to have Bindi there and Terry and Bob made an appearance as well. The bird show in the Crocautorium was fantastic as they released a whole heap of native Australian birds to fly around the audience and land at various places, it was funny seeing black cockies and rainbow lorikeets dive bombing the audience and just flying around close to everyone then the trainers would give a hand signal and they would land on there arm and they were gone. They included a fair bit of humour in the show as well. It was a great day.

So Chris and Bill left and we headed for Rainbow Beach where we are camped now. Just me and the kids as Debs is in the PNG highlands with the headhunters,we don't have any contact so hope is all going well and I am sure it is.

So it's me and the kids I would love to say it is all going smoothly but Lucy is missing mum and is playing up a fair bit but Em and Grace have been behaving themselves, I think I will just have to wear them out more.

We are camped at Inskip point about 40m to the beach and the weather is great and the water is starting to clear up, I had a small flight the day before Debs left and the coastal scenery is awesome as it gets it's name from the different coloured sands along the cliffs.
Well Debs is back in just under 2 weeks but I'm not counting and we are off on a boat to Tin Can Bay tomorrow morning to feed the dolphins so hopefully should be a good day. We have been fishing heaps but absolutely nothing :(

See ya later and will right again soon promis (yeah right)

Gold Coast Camp