Glass House Mountains Road Trip: Day 1 – 11 August 2013

Due to what was seemingly constant illness since November, I cancelled my planned trip to Uluru (Northern Territory, Australia) and brought forward my holidays in order to spend time getting well. From the moment I cancelled the trip I was healthy, until the very last day of work when I again fell ill and had to stay at home for the first week recovering. I then decided I should at least go on a road trip for a few days during the second week and do something useful with my annual leave.

So a very hastily planned road trip to the Glass House Mountains and Australia Zoo (Queensland) was thrown together in a matter of hours and when I couldn’t sleep I decided I might as well be up and off on it – that happened at 3am on the Sunday morning and I was away by 4am. At the end of the first day I was completely exhausted – however I had arrived in Beerburrum, with both Australia Zoo and the Glasshouse Mountains just down the road, which allowed a sleep in the next day with plenty of time for exploring as well.

Without getting too far ahead of myself though, I should cover the first day of the road trip, which did involve a lot of driving – which I think is an essential ingredient of any journey termed a ‘road trip.’ My road trip took me up the Pacific Highway, with a number of quick stops along the way (including Coffs Harbour, Macksville, Maclean, etc). The featured photo is of an old sugar cane barge in the Ferry Park, at Maclean in New South Wales. I took that shot while taking a pit stop at the Visitor Centre located in the Ferry Park. The journey north also included a drive through Surfers Paradise and the Gold Coast, as well as Queensland’s capital – Brisbane.

Advertisement

Annual Leave Break – 2 Weeks Off

Let me just take this opportunity to thank all of the visitors to my Blog(s) – except the spammers of course. Thankfully the majority of spam is removed without having to check it over. I would love for the real comments to be posted without having to check them first, however there is still a lot of spam that makes it through and that needs to be separated from the good stuff.

It is time for me to take a break from Blogging and I have chosen to take my break while on annual leave from work, which will allow me to do a number of things – get healthier, get some rest, hopefully travel a little at some point, read some books, etc. It will also give my regular visitors a chance to have a break from my ramblings and carry on. There is plenty of content to look at in the archives though, so feel free to browse those while I take my 2 week hiatus.

So thanks again and feel free to leave some thoughts and comments along the way. Have a great couple of weeks 🙂

Hunter Region Botanic Gardens

Kevin's Daily Photo, Video, Quote or Link

 

ABOVE: The Southern Wetlands Boardwalk – Hunter Region Botanic Gardens

Late last week I decided I should do something with the final day of my annual leave that I had taken this time round, so I thought I’d pop into the Hunter Region Botanic Gardens near Raymond Terrace in New South Wales, Australia. I had been here before, but that was a long time ago. I wasn’t impressed on that first visit, so after more then a decade had it improved? Well that was the question I was keen to answer.

ABOVE: The Rotunda  BELOW: Succulents Section

There was a $4.00 ‘escape’ fee, which would allow a token to be purchased and then the boom gate would rise once it was placed into the proper slot at the exit. So no entrance fee, just an exit fee. I was willing to pay this for a quick look and…

View original post 235 more words

Myall Lakes National Park

Kevin's Daily Photo, Video, Quote or Link

It was my first official day of annual leave from work today and of course it had to start with a good sleep-in, which I might add I’m going to try and avoid doing for the entire period of my annual leave – just the first couple of days. I have been extremely tired, so a few sleep-ins will be helpful – for my health and well being you know. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about and agree with me entirely. I take your silence as tacit agreement. Thank you for that.

Once I was up I thought I should do something – so the day wouldn’t be viewed as an entire waste. So a drive to Bulahdelah was on the cards via the Myall Lakes National Park and the Bombah Point Ferry. So that’s what I decided to do, after I thought through a few more possible options for…

View original post 313 more words

Holiday Planning

It is time to start planning my next holiday. First step in the process was to settle on a date for it – this has been done and I have booked in two weeks annual leave for it.

The second stage is now to establish a location for the holiday. I’m toying with a couple of ideas at the moment. The first is to travel to Cathedral Rocks National Park and do some walks in that area. The second idea is to do some overnight walks through the Myall Lakes National Park through to the Gloucester area. I ruled out the possibility of travelling to the red centre due to rental car restrictions, so it is down to these two possibilities at this stage. I am leaning towards the latter at this stage however.