Galvo's Life

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

Madisons and Karens Property And our New Camp 4 Days

Morning Mist

Sunrise Mads House

Mads Clowning Around

The Girls

Emptying The Rubbish Farm Style

Sunset Profile Mads and Lucy

Killarney East Launch

Killarny East Launch

Camp Canungra

Satin Bower Bird

Waterfall

Em Grace Lucy

And Then It Started To Rain- Canungra

Sea World

Polar Bear at Sea World

Big Bird Sea World

Lucy's Reaction to Big Bird

Sea World

Aquarium

4D Movie -You get wet as well and smoke fills the room. This is where debs camera went missing :(

Still Raining Glass House Mts (About 20 Days Straight Now)

Australia Zoo

If Left Alone It Is Possible For A Salt Water Croc to Grow This Big, Scary

How Cool Is This

And This

Terry Irwin Made an Appearance

The Bird Show Was Awsome. We were Graced With Heaps of Birds Flying Around And Joining The Crowd

Bindi And The Crocmen (kids Loved It ,But Way to Naf For Me)

Dingo- The Animals Here Are Treated Like Royalty

Emily Was Terrified

Mary Caincross Rainforest

As Above

Glass House Mountains

Galvo

Well finally I have had a decent Internet connection and time where I can sit down for a day and review our adventures. As this is how long it takes with this Blogger to upload pictures.
We left Bundeena for the Blue mountains and we had a neat little free camp set up in the bush.
The weather was somewhere between raining and really hot.....
We managed some of the shorter walks and I also managed to jump off one of the cliffs for a fly which was awesome even though it was short and not very high the scenery was great.
It was during this time here that we were to learn of the tragedy unfolding in Victoria and our hearts go to those caught up in the bush fires.
From the Blue Mountains we headed for Gosford to get some warranty work done on the trailer, we rented a little (tiny) cabin in a caravan park for 5 days while this was being carried out and the weather was terrible solid rain all week.
As we had an offer to stay in Sydney with the Malouf's who we met in Kangaroo Valley we decided to head down while they finished the work on the trailer and stay in a real house!!!!!
We had an awesome time in Sydney and our hosts were fantastic , we even had choccies on our bed when we arrived:)).
The house overlooks middle harbour and has fantastic views.
They are just great people and we really hope to be able to catch up with them again soon. Thanks George,Suzy,Caitlin and Jonty.
They eventually forced us out kicking and screaming into a mud hole called Myall Lakes :):):) As there had been so much rain in the last 10 days the campsite was mostly under water but we found what we thought was a dry spot until it rained more that night:((.
But that was the last rain and we got to try out the new YAK ,the Blue Beast
I went for a 12.5 km paddle and had blisters on both thumbs to prove it, Debs went on a couple of girlie paddles but loves it.
After we camped at a spot called Tiona just south of Forster in the Booti Booti National Park. It was here that i managed to use the yak for some fishing and got a good haul of Flathead , well actually Em caught 2 I caught 3, Grace the fishing nut didn't do so well but she did try hard.
Debs went on a bigger paddle and the wind was up with some chop about so she raced home as she had a bit of a scare (The Wus).
I had my first surf in 15yrs and it wasn't pretty at an awesome beach called Seal Rocks, Debs went for an ocean paddle and got cocky as she had thought she had got back to the beach safe through the surf, Then got slammed on the beach by a small wave , she had a huge lump on her head and lost her sunnies.......... it was funny though.
I went out to show her how to catch the waves and got slammed myself , This Yak is better for cruising and fishing than the surf:)
We then headed back into Laurieton for some flying and i managed to get some low flights and a OK one off of North Brother but no XC (cross country).
From there it was onto the Gold Coast for a course I am doing on share stuff via the Waterfall Way which ended up being a really long way round caught a heap of trout but all small.
Anyway here we are in Surfers paradise surrounded by high rises.Weather is great, thunderstorm last night perfect today.
Sorry about the wait
Galvo

Blue Mountains Train Ride