What’s happened since we left Busselton??

Bali - CLUB MED

Hello everyone!

Again apologies for my slackness in writing the blog.

Thought it might be a good idea to give you all an update just before Xmas.

We sold our Landrover and Caravan – Di was not that keen and we had such a long housesit in Busselton – so now we both have cars and believe it or not we are STILL doing housesitting. We Moved up to Perth in August and did a house sit in Hamersley – during that time I been trying to get back into corporate life but will little success. So at the beginning of September I started work with Drummond Golf in an area called Cannington. Thought that I should follow my passion instead of hitting my head against a wall trying to get back into the banking field.

So full on but enjoying it – learning a lot about the golf industry and working long hours but it is good. For the first time in history I will be working on Boxing day!

We looked after the house in Hammersley until end October – then moved to a house sit in Morley for 2 weeks then on the Fremantle where we looked after a house owned by two vets. Lovely animals (two dogs) – We had a great time in Freo and went to the Fremantle festival. Went to a lovely old brewery and had Paela in the sun while washing down with a cold chardy.

We were approached by some people who lived in Kalamunda (Perth Hills) to look after their house long term until May 2012. We had already committed to a house sit in Duncraig (north Perth) over the Xmas period. We agreed to look after the house for a week after our Bali trip and then move to Duncraig before going back in late January to continue the house sit in the hills. I know confusing but we are enjoying it.

The Haddow family in Bali

We took the entire Haddow family over to Bali for a week – what a fantastic week we went to CLUB MED in Nusa Dua – It was one of our best holidays ever and it was so nice to spend time with the whole family together in one place. The CLUB MED formula is so good – everything is included drinks/food/coctails and child minding the list goes on – if you want a stress free holiday in paradise then this is the place to go.

So here we are in Duncraig which is only 5 minutes from Boyd and Lauren and the two grandchildren so Di is happy again.

If you are interested in viewing a slide show of our Bali Holiday then please click on the link below

http://www.kizoa.com/slideshow/d2115110kP35427145o2/bali-2011

 

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE XMAS WITH YOUR FAMILIES – BEST WISHES CLIVE AND DIANE!!!

Still in Busselton and loving it!

Apologies to all who read our blog – I have been really slack over the last couple of months. We have been in Busselton Western Australia now for 4 months. It really is a nice place to live. We have a leisure centre only about 300 metres down the road with in door and out door pools, Gyms, spa and sauna. We have been using it just about everyday. Cycling here in Busso is amazing, all flat and we cycle about 15-20 km everyday. The cycle paths are great and are right on the beach.

I have joined the golf club and really enjoying playing – have also met a number of nice blokes. We also now play tennis twice a week – I think Di and I are about as fit as we can get.

Expert grape picker!

I also have been grape picking at various well known wineyards. Hard work but a lot of fun.

Morning tea – what a spread of food!!

We are supplied with morning tea and what a great spread of food it is.!!

 

Anyway sorry that this is such a short and poor post but will get myself organised and pick my game up over the next couple of week.

CLIVE

Busselton – Great Place!!!

“Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting ‘Holy s— what a ride!’” ~ Hunter S. Thompson 

Doug and Maxine - leaving on their 8 month trip

Well we have now been in Busselton for just a week. The weather has been amazing – we cycle and swim every morning and then go down to the beach for sundowners at about 5pm and have another swim ! In the short time we have been in Busselton we have joined the fitness centre which is only about a 3 minute bike ride from our house, joined the Golf Club which is only about 2km away, installed Foxtell and attended a number of events which is part of the Busselton Festival. We are really enjoying Busselton, the weather has been great and we have been cycling and swimming everyday.Doug and Maxine(our homeowners) left on the 8th Jan – spoke to them yesterday and they were in Port Augusta about to head up the middle of Australia to Alice. The house is very comfortable and close to everything.

Di and I have certainly been active since we arrived – we cycle about 15km everyday – Busselton has some great cycle paths along the beach front.

Doug and Maxine certainly are organised for their trip!!!

We have resolved that we will visit every single winery in the Margaret river. Busselton is only about 30km away from the town of Margaret river. There are 54 wineries of which around 20 have restaurants. So we decided that it seemed like a meaningful goal to visit each one and do  a post on “The wineries of Margaret River” – watch out for a new page on the blog and we will systematically post information/links/commentary and photos. Let us know if you want any info on any particular winery and we will be happy to go and test drive and report back.

Sorry it has taken so long to get a post on but I am sure you were all busy over the festive period.

We had a lovely xmas with the Howe’s and Boyd/Lauren/Summer and Annabelle.  The weather in Albany was very ordinary – as an aside…….we were in the main street of Albany on New Years eve and we had had a power failure at about 10pm – Strange feeling being in a place with no power, no lights – the power came on again at about 11.30pm so manage to see the New Year in with Power!

I have included a slide show below of our xmas time hope you enjoy

MERRY XMAS AND THE VERY BEST FOR 2011

MERRY XMAS AND HAPPY NEW FROM ALL OF US!

Wow the year has flown!!! We have now been on the road for a year. Can’t believe it. We will be spending Xmas and New year here in Albany with Boyd,Lauren,Summer and Annabelle – We will really miss not being with Andrew/Don/Kristy/Logan and little Taylor who are on the Gold Coast. The weather here has been ordinary but obviously not as bad as the weather in the Eastern States. We might just be in the right place just for once!

Hope you all have a great Xmas and very memorable 2011. Look forward to supplying good Blog material for you in the new year.

Here is a Xmas card for all of you…….

Merry Xmas from the Haddow’s

See you all in the new year

CLIVE & DI

Albany

Our homeowners Sandra and Greg with Jamie and Mitchell

Well we have now taken up our house sit assignment here in Albany.

The people (Sandra Greg Mitchell and Jamie) – are a lovely young family. Mitchell is the comedian of the family and at 9 years old he really cracks us up! Jamie is very sport orientated and love nothing better than kicking a ball around. The family have gone to NZ for a holiday.

We had a great time at the Middleton Beach caravan park as we were right on the beach with nice facilities including movie theater, Solar heated pool and Hydro spa.

Di spent nearly two hours every day in the spa. We have still not had a swim in the sea – the water is too Bl……dy cold. The weather in Albany has been very ordinary. We have managed to explore quite a large area on our bikes. We drove up to Busselton a couple of days ago to meet our homeowners there. We will be doing an 8 month house sit there next year which will be nice to be in one place for a while.

Middleton beach Albany

 The drive was 4.5 hours there and 4.5 hours back to Albany!!!! Sure was a tiring day but worth it to meet and see our new homeowners for next year’s house sit.

"Dog Rock" Albany

 

There is a story behind the “Dog Rock” which is an old aborignal story. Albany is also known for its big Wind Farm. Click on the following site to get any information.

http://www.albanytourist.com.au/pages/about-amazing-albany/\

We have settled into the house here and now start the whole Xmas thing.!!!!

This is just a rehash of a video of the Nullabor crossing – just worked out how to embed into the post so that I dont have to use utube and others

NALLABOR

►

Catch up later

CLIVE

THE MIGHTY NULLABOR

Mother of all road trains!!

The pier in Ceduna

Our departure point was Ceduna where we spent two days. The campsite was promoted as an “oasis” and their beaches we were told were “pristine”. Neither were true! But there certainly were a fair amount of drunk ”indiginous” folk about. Not a pretty sight! We were going to play “The Longest Golf Course in the World” – but really it is just a joke. Could not be bothered. The flies were so bad in Ceduna that Di and I purchased a head net so that we did not swollow any flies. Cycled around pretty much the entire town – very indiginous. 

Our first stop over was Madura.  They didn’t even have designated camp sites. There was also no water to connect up to either! Di was given one shower token and that was her ration! The next day we drove all the way through to Esperance. So we had two really BIG days. But all we wanted to do was get to civilization!

Nothing!

So our crossing was a very rushed one – I can tell you. We were extremely fortunate with the weather - as it was not hot – which I can well believe could be quite a problem. However, it is miles and miles and MILES of nothing!! BORING!!! As a result we tried to make it through in record time! Leaving at 7.30am and only stopping at 5.00pm. Clive is feeling pretty tired now – which is quite understandable. All the supposed Tourist Stops were a total waste of time. 

Head of the Bight

Our first stop being the Head of the Bight. Well we were charged $5.00 each – in other words $10.00 to see it. We rushed to the edge of the cliff to look at the sea. We were there for about 10 minutes. When we got back into the car – Clive said to me “Well that was a quick $10.00′s spent!” The story is supposed to be you look at the Whales – but if there ARE no Whales you spend $10.00 to look at the Sea!!  Gee, how totally fascinating!!! 

From there on we were wiser and didn’t fall for any of that nonsense and made the fastest crossing we could possibly manage! If you are interested in looking at lots of trees and sand and bushes – then I guess you would find it absolutely FASCINATING!!!! 

I thought we had left all that behind us when we arrived in Esperance. We tried to find the quickest easiest Campsite available. Again it was described as the ”Campsite that was closest to town and within easy walking distance of shops, cafes, bars etc.

 

What they failed to mention was that it is right next to (and I mean about 20 metres!) from a train line. It is Harvesting season. All the trains are loaded up with grain etc. There are also Road Trains leaving from the Harbour. There are ALSO ships loaded up and leaving from the Harbour (about 100 metres away) All this activity goes on Day AND Night. The added bonus is that there is a Railway crossing (also about 50 metres away) The Train, Road Trains and Boats all feel the need to blow their horns as they are leaving. The horns go off at 12.00am, 1.00am, 2.00am, 3.00am…you get the picture!!  So after our long drive across the Nullarbor we had a VERY peaceful night NOT!!!!! Bloody hell!!! 

Esperance - beautiful beaches

And then just to add to our enjoyment of Esperance we have had gale force winds since we got here! Just wonderful!!

 

We are now in Albany and have checked into a really nice campsite right on the beach. They have wonderful facilities here – heated swimming pool, Hydro Spa….etc – just wonderful!!

We met our new homeowner last night and she seems really nice. So we are looking forward to spending Christmas & New Year here.

 

Anyway that’s our news for now – hope you are all having a bloody good laugh!!

 

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO SEE A SLIDESHOW OF OUR TRAVELS FROM CEDUNA THROUGH THE NALLABOR(sound on) 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1XMPu6_92s

Till later

CLIVE

  

 

 

M00NTA PART 2

OUR LAST FIVE ZIES

Gee time does go quickly – our time in MOONTA has been great and certainly an experience. We where fortunate enough to make a number of new friends and share some experiences. The golf club was very nice, even presenting me with a departing gift. I was just starting to come good on those “Black greens” – I shot 43 stableford points on my last round which was pretty decent, only to lose to a 46! My first nine was 17 points but my second nine was 26 points (2 under par) something that does not happen very day.

SCARLETT AND DI ON THE BEACH

 Our homeowners phoned us and asked whether they could come home earlier – they phoned in the morning at around 7.30am and wanted to be back at 5pm so both Di and I worked solidly to get the house clean before they arrived. We did manage it but only by the skin of our teeth. We where so exhausted that when we left at around 6pm we decided to just go to the caravan park down the road and have an early night before departing on our big journey across the NALLABOR.

Di's painting of Scarlett

Di did her painting of SCARLETT which was well received.

Scarlett's "signature"

I HAVE INCLUDED A SLIDE SHOW OF SOME IMAGES OF OUR TIME IN MOONTA(sound on) – click link below

http://www.kizoa.com/slideshow/d1282512k2639069o1/moonta-2

OUR NEXT POST WILL BE ABOUT OUR CROSSING OF THE NALLABOR!!! (THAT IS IF WE MAKE IT!!!!)

CLIVE

MOONTA – THE COPPER COAST – THE CORNWALL OF AUSTRALIA

We arrived in Moonta on the 27th October- actually we stayed at a caravan park right on the beach at a place called Wallaroo. We met up with our new homeowners here in Moonta on the 28th October – They had invited a number of friends around to something they call Fivezzies(5zzz’s) We had a lovely time and it was a nice way to have our introductions. Since moving in we have socialised a number of times with neighbours which has been really nice.

I joined Wallaroo Golf Course(10 km from Moonta) - what a shock for me sand greens that they call Blacks.

Standing on one of the "BLACKS"

Our homeowners Karen and Mark

For those of you who have never played golf on “blacks” it is pretty interesting – you need to scrap the green to have a putt. Anyway nice bunch of people and I have had about 6 games so far and really enjoying it – do not know what I am going to do when I get back to real greens.!

Moonta main street - our coffee shop left on the corner

We have now been in Moonta for nearly 3 weeks and have enjoyed it very much. We have been swimming pretty much every day the temps are around 28-30 Degrees C. Moonta is an amazing place as they used to mine for Copper here in the 1800′s and the original settlements where mainly Cornish people from the UK. The houses are very Cornish – I have included a slide show of the “houses of Moonta” Please click the link below to watch(sound on)

 http://www.kizoa.com/slideshow/d1232205k4394954o1/the-houses-of-moonta

Our Pub at Port Hughes

We have discovered the pub at Port Hughes which is only about a 5 minute drive or 10-15 minute cycle. They serve $10 lunches which include a salad bar – fantastic you could not do it at home for that price. As I said all Karen and Mark’s friends have been so kind – we went to a BBQ last sunday with Mandy and Brooksy(he knows how to cook a BBQ!) Di and I have also been doing a lot of cycling as the town is only about a 10 minute cycle with nice coffee shops etc. Another curious thing about

Moonta - Sheds and Aerials

Moonta is that is called “The Sheds and Aerials” place. TV reception here is non-existent so everyone has to erect these huge aerials. When you look across the town it looks like a forest of steel. They look like mini Eiffel Towers and everyone has one. The Sheds are enormous and used for storage. Most people have boats here as the fishing is excellent. They store their boats cars etc in their sheds. There is a severe shortage of water here. So gardens look very stark – most people lay pebbles down instead of lawn. Adds to that dry desert feel of the place. They have even closed the local golf course because they dont have the water to keep it going. As a result everyone has their own water tanks.

Coffee at George's

Di and I went to play “night owls” bowls the other night with a number of neighbours – well I played and Di proceeded to enjoy a couple of bottles of champagne with our next door neighbour Denise(lovely lady – great sense of humour) Interesting bunch of people playing bowls from 2o year olds to 8o year olds. Some getting more pissed than others. Mark has said we are welcome to eat as much fish as we want. He catches plenty and the freezer is full – “King George Whitting” fantastic. It is very dry here in Moonta and reminds us a little of the areas just outside Las Vegas. I will include a full slideshow of our stay in Moonta in our next post. We leave here on 25th November and head across the Nallabor on our way to Albany. By the way we have secured a long term house sit in Busselton (6 months from 5th February 2011.) should be nice.

Lots more to write about Moonta plus plenty of photos that I will put on a slideshow.

Keep Blogging

On the Pier at Port Hughes

CLIVE

Adelaide and West Beach

Sunset over the sea at West Beach

Adelaide

Our campsite in Adelaide was West Beach which is only about 3km north of Glenelg Beach. Lovely campsite (Big4)We had our first swim of the summer in the sea it was wonderful. We had a view of the sea from our site which was great. We scheduled 3 days for our stay – First day we decided to cycle into Adelaide and then back on the river. About a 20km round trip. Great

Our campsite in West Beach

Markets in Adelaide and just behind the markets is a road with a whole lot of eateries. We just had fish and chips at one of the pubs which was good wholesome food.Went with Keith and Gwynne to tour the Mc laren vale valley the next day (see previous post). I played golf the next day at the West beach club. Very nice course in very good condition – Played with a Dickhead and a very nice chap. The dickhead was so upset  with his golf that he decided to just up and go home after 9 holes – what an a……..hole. Anyway this other chap and I completed the course and I shot 9 over par which considering the Dickhead and the wind was not bad.

Please click the following link to see slideshow of our time from Woodend through to Moonta.

 

http://www.kizoa.com/slideshow/d1232183k3499455o1/post-woodend

 

UNTIL NEXT TIME WHEN WE WILL POST OUR ARRIVAL AND VISIT HERE IN MOONTA – HERE UNTIL END NOVEMBER 2010!!!

CLIVE

Adventures after Woodend

Russell Sue and Family

Well we left Woodend on Sunday 17th October 2010.

We stayed overnight with Russell and Sue in Woodend after picking them up from the airport in Melbourne. We arrived home after 10pm, so Di and I slept in the Caravan which was parked in the driveway ready to go. Russell and Sue insisted on us staying for breakfast and then we took off towards Adelaide.

Swan hill banks of the Murray River

Our first stop was SWAN HILL which was about 3 hours north of Woodend. We camped right on the banks of the mighty MURRAY RIVER. We initially were going to stay 2 nights but by the time we had driven around looking at the place and then went out to dinner we figured that we had seen all Swan Hill had to offer. So we left the next day to travel up to MILDURA, for those of you who are not aware Mildura is pretty much the “food bowl” of Australia.

We were warned that the locusts were about to hatch, so I hurriedly constructed a screen to fix to the front of the car, as the locusts can make a huge mess of your radiator and could cause your car to overheat.

BBQ Mildura

We decided to spend two nights in MILDURA. We did a long cycle the first day and pretty much saw most of Mildura. A very poorly thought out town as they really did not make the most use of the Murray River frontage. In fact there was not a single Restaurant/Cafe or Bar that had a view of the river. A real shame.

Di and I cruising the Murray River

We decided that as we were on the Murray river,  we should at least do a cruise.  So the next day we booked ourselves onto a cruise which went up the river to a place called “Gol Gol“. We stopped for lunch and then cruised back. Not a fantastic cruise, but we did meet some lovely people. Gwynne and Keith who live at a place called HALLETT COVE which is South of Adelaide. By coincidence it was  only 20 minutes drive from the caravan park(West Beach) we had booked into.

Keith and Gywnne

They were great company and we agreed to meet up again when we where in RENMARK which was our next stop. They had booked to stay on a houseboat there for a couple of days. He had worked for Qantas for over 30 years. Gwynne, believe it or not, was Canadian and had worked for NASA. Apparently she was involved in the design of the heat shield for the space shuttle! Amazing the people you meet!

Anyway we had pre dinner drinks with them on their houseboat. Then off to dinner at the Renmark Club. Then back to their houseboat again for a night cap. By which time we had consumed 8 bottles of wine plus. Di and I had cycled from the caravan park, so the cycle back at about midnight in the pitch dark was very interesting to say the least!

House boat on the Murray River

The caravan park in Renmark was again right on the banks of the murray river and very nice.  We caught up with Gwynne and Keith a few days later in Adelaide. They were kind enough to take us for a wine tasting tour in Mc Laren Vale.

Wirra Wirra Winery

We visited the Woodstock winery as well as Wirra Wirra.

The Wirra Wirra "fence"

After which we went to a lovely little bistro for lunch. We then drove back to their home and had a few more wines, and met some of their neighbours. 

Wine tasting

We resolved to try and meet up with them again during our stay in Moonta.

More on Adelaide/West Beach and Moonta  to follow.

CLIVE