Sunday 8 September 2013 – Travel day, a new Government  and 44 years today since we moved into our house.

This morning we woke at about a quarter to seven, and because we had plenty of time, and didn’t have a long drive today (205km), or so we planned, we didn’t rush, and managed to leave the caravan park at 20 to 10!  Just while we were packing up the van a fellow (new arrival yesterday) started talking to Grant and they eventually established that they knew one another through work, and then he said to me – you must be Dawn.  He knew me through genealogy, and also knew lots of people that we also know.   His name is Rod Catchpole.  We say it again – it’s a small world.

Trusting Zola, who has somehow regained her ability to nut out which way we need to go, we made our way back through Maryborough, then entered new territory as we followed her instructions and got to Gympie, then drove southward towards the Sunshine Coast.  Gympie is an old gold mining town and has some historical reminders of that, including a re-established pioneer village.  A bit south of Gympie we found ourselves on the motorway, and for quite some time there were no exits off the road.  And as the only map I had was not at all detailed and maybe not even to scale, I got a bit sus that we might finish up in Brisbane and totally miss Cotton Tree!

So it was here that I made a rather unwise decision – the decision to over-ride Zola and go with my gut.  Not a good move.  There came an exit off the motorway – signposted as the Old Bruce Highway Tourist Route and it was pointing in the direction of the coast, so I told Grant to take that turn off – which he did!  Thereafter followed about twenty minutes to half an hour of a fairly tense and testy atmosphere.  I’m not sure how, but we were in the hills, on a narrow strip of bitumen in rough condition, winding what seemed to be back towards Gympie.  We passed several farm houses, the road became rougher, Zola, constantly ‘recalculating’ directed us up a gravel road which led to who-knows-where, so again she was ignored.  Though we realised that we were at the very least going in the wrong direction, but even more likely totally lost, we couldn’t find anywhere to turn.  The road was narrow and by now had run out of bitumen and was gravel.

We eventually found a farmhouse that had a wide mown patch of grass where a nature strip would normally be, though it had quite a steep upwards incline – but here was Grant’s chance.  I got out to direct, and he was going okay (steering wheel pulled really hard in the direction it needed to be as the road section was only a car wide), when something fell off the van towbar – a big metal piece that holds the level riders in place.  And as a result the level rider rod was scraping on the gravel.  So after I yelled, he stopped, cursed a bit and reattached it, completed the turn and we began to retrace our last few kilometres.  We were only a couple of hundred metres from where we turned when the long arm mirror for caravan-pulling on my side of the car flew off and landed in the gravel.  Again Grant pulled over, I went back to pick it up, fully expecting it to be smashed, but fortunately it was fine!!  Phew!!!  So mirror re attached, we continued.  By this time Zola had recalculated sufficiently to know where we were, so she told us to travel for 900 mtrs then veer into such-and-such a road.  Well in 900 metres we came to cross roads with no signposts, so the human navigator (guess who?) decided we would go left.  Oops!  Another few kilometres along we finally found a roadsign that told us that Brisbane – in the direction we would like to have been heading, was actually the opposite way to which we were going – we were returning to Gympie.

So another u-turn, Zola piped up again, and within a few minutes we were back on the motorway where we should have originally stayed.

From there it was smooth driving, we got to the caravan park here at Cotton Tree after only missing three more turn offs and having to do reversing or more u-turning, by about 1.30pm.  We were given a choice of about five spots to put our van, so we have chosen one quite close to the beach, though not beach front.  It’s been very warm, so by the time we had set up the sweat was flowing pretty freely, but after eventual cuppas, a relax in the sun, we are now installed for the next three nights. 

I spoke to Lyn (Gorman) later in the arvo as Neville is playing in the National Over 60’s Cricket Championships here this week, so we’ll catch up with them in the next day or so, and I’m also hoping to meet up with an as yet unmet Jessup connection who lives about 8kms from here at Buderim.  So we’ll see what the next few days bring.

A bit too stressful to take any photos today!