June 1, 2016

Our lives have taken a bit of a swerve, with both of us now retired – well, I am working freelance which means maybe a month full-on, then nothing for two or three months. Al has been doing some casual security work, just to give a structure to his week and give us a bit of pocket money. The other huge change is that Piccolo is no longer with us, which hit us again like a ton of bricks when we set off on our current trip. Not that she was coming with us this time, it was a dog-free trip to allow us to camp in National Parks, but so many of the places that we are going to bring back memories of a visit with her. I keep wanting to turn around to check on her in the back seat.

We are travelling this time with Miranda and Dave, also dog-free, to visit many places they have not seen, and others that we haven’t been to either. They are too young to be retired and need to be home for work by early July, so we will be parting ways with them as we return down the Queensland coast.

Our rough agenda is : Alyson and Bram’s pub in Gayndah for State of Origin tonight, then Springsure, Charter Towers, Hughenden, Julia Creek then up to the Gregory (where I broke my wrist – oops!) for a week and on to Adel’s Grove for another week. Then across to Karumba and Normanton, Georgetown and Cobold Gorge, back to the coast somewhere and meander down to home by mid-July(ish).

And in other news, we are booked to go to Samoa in August/September on a Police Cultural Tour, which will be totally different! Then in November we will go to Europe for a month in Malta (after I run a half-marathon in Sicily), and on to a week in Copenhagen and a cruise along the coast of Norway for Christmas.