Life is a Journey in many directions and roads travelled

Some say life is like a rollercoaster, which is true, but I like to refer to it as a journey, in different directions, down different roads.

In October 2015, after 16 years at the helm as Manager of the Lakes Entrance Fishermans Co-op, my wife & I decided it was time to explore our dream to work together, and live in Queensland, to run a Resort.

It took some time to complete all the accreditations to become a full Real Estate Agent and in December 2016 we took over the operations of C Bargara Resort & Bargara Holiday Rentals.

Bargara is a stunning beach paradise on the doorstep of the Souther Great Barrier Reef, and just 15 mins away from the large commercial centre of Bundaberg.

With so many amazing attractions, including Lady Musgrave Experience, a lagoon on the reef to swim with turtles, fish & coral. Whale watching in season, Turtle season for nesting & hatching marine turtles and several beaches to enjoy.

Adding to the natural attractions the region is one of Australia's largest Food Bowls, Sugar Cane, Sweet Potato, Avocado, Macadamia Nuts and many more small crops and fruits.

Of course we also had the World Famous Bundaberg Rum in all its extensive flavour list, Bundaberg Brewed Drinks the home of globally exported Ginger Beer and other varieties, Kalki Moon Gin, the Hinkler Hall of aviation and so much more.

In August of 2023 we settled on the sale of the business & residence and started our journey south to be closer to family.

We departed Bargara and went in the opposite direction to where we were eventually going to end up. We headed North West, through Gladstone, Yeppoon/Rockhampton and onto the Coal capital of Queensland being Blackwater in the Central West tablelands. We spent some time here with our youngest daughter & fiancé to celebrate her 25th Birthday.

The time had come to say "See you soon" (no goodbyes), and we left Blackwater with Roma our target destination for the day. We had decided that we didn't need or want to be driving anymore than 4-5 hours per day to make it more comfortable for all three of us (including Hali). 

Day 1 - Blackwater to Roma
Coming directly down from Blackwater cuts some of the time out instead of driving to Emerald and down as the two routes meet again at Rolleston.

It's not the greatest of roads with a fair amount of bumpy up & down sections, or roadside blowout, but I've seen and driven on much worse.
As you come down past the turnoff for the Carnarvon Gorge area the scenery even from the road wants to drag you in. Definitely a place I would love to explore on another trip.

Lunch was noteworthy in the town of "Injune".

The Cafe was very busy and when I tasted the burger it was easy to know why.

For those with any knowledge of the history of Gas exploration will enjoy a visit to the Big Rig attraction in Roma. Awesome lookout via an elevator, and was surprised to hear that the race to find and commercially connect supply of Gas in Australia was on back in the day between Roma & Esso in Bass Strait. Roma won.

We checked out the Bottle Tree in Roma, which was extremely large, but not to be confused with the Boab Tree which is found in WA. 

Day 2 - Roma to Lightning Ridge
Road was much the same, bad - not bad.

Almost without knowing we departed Queensland Maroon Cane toad country and entered NSW Blue Cockroach country.

For us Lightning Ridge is a must do stop over as you can't take in all the character and things to see in an afternoon. There are 4 x "Car door" tours, that and done mainly in the car, with the sights & directions done by following particular numbered doors in the same colour. Red, Blue, Yellow & Green. 

Day 3 - stopover in Lightning Ridge.
A busy day exploring and being in awe of how hard the local miners work and live in the most basic of structures in the pursuit of the Rare and extremely valuable Black Opal.

First thing was to grab a Coffee from the "Opal Street Cafe". Great coffee & food, but also has some of the local artist John Murray on its shopfront.

We also visited his Gallery, normally the last thing I would do is to enter an Art Gallery, but this is amazing.

One of his current main feature prints he has done you could literally stand and look at it all day. The aspect and depth of field just draws you into the scene.

Not too many (including us) would leave this place without a souvenir of his work.

Two more "Car door" tours saving the green for late afternoon, as you have an incredible position at the edge of an elevated outcrop in old mining fields, with a hand made rock labyrinth. The sunset was crazy good and a great way to end the day before heading back to the Cabin to enjoy Steak in the BBQ. 

Day 4 - Lightning Ridge to Dubbo
Not long after getting back onto the highway out of Lightning Ridge you need to pullover and say gday to the last quirky attraction which is a metal Emu named "Stanley" also created by John Murray.

He is a towering creation with a number of old VW Beatles making up a lot of the body parts, originally intended to be erected on the Birdsville Track, but as always bureaucracy had a hand in stopping that so Stanley stayed at home in Lightning Ridge.

The Castlereagh Highway from Lighting Ridge to Gilgandra was like being on a theme park ride, dips and bumps testing the shocks to the max.

Dubbo has the awesome Western Plans Zoo which we had visited some years earlier.

International tourists would initially be excited to see the sign with a bouncing Kangaroo expecting them to be ahead, but I think they would be horrified pretty quickly to find out that not many that you see are still bouncing. We avoided dawn & dusk driving so didn't notice any bouncing either. We did see plenty of Emu's cruising around, sheep and goats.

Hali enjoyed some non car time with ball play. 

Day 5 - Dubbo to Canberra
The inland Roads & Highways are not the best but I think that's the case in most areas with all levels of Government needing to pay more attention to Road infrastructure. In saying that it was a little funny when crossing the border into ACT the roads went dual lane and like new.

The landscape become much greener and lots of Canola changing the colour spectrum.

Off into the distance you will see some wind farms, it's hard to know how these and solar are going to be able to supply enough power for us all when we need it. Many of the turbines turned off being unable to put full production into the grid. 

Day 6 - Canberra to Bairnsdale
Homeward bound, looking forward to putting this last days K's behind us.
Although we woke to sunshine in Canberra, I was surprised to see an icon show on the dash of the car before we left, it was an icicle, as the temp was only 3.

Just when I thought NSW roads were bad, as you cross over out of NSW and into Victoria on the Cann Valley Highway, there is not a lot of road left, shocking surface that the road crews are doing their best to keep patching it.

We arrived into Bairnsdale in the early afternoon to see our eldest daughter, son in law and two grandsons.

Another part of our journey done, time to chill for a bit and switch off before seeing what the next part looks like.