{"id":1509,"date":"2015-06-27T12:57:15","date_gmt":"2015-06-27T11:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/?p=1509"},"modified":"2015-06-27T15:15:58","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T14:15:58","slug":"goodbye-gold-coast-hello-outback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/?p=1509","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye Gold Coast Hello Outback!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The sunsets here are incredible and the colours even more vibrant!<\/p><\/div>\n

We are back in warmer climes after our trip to the colder southern states, although it is cooler than when we left (more UK summer temps now!) Being back at Mum & Dad\u2019s has been nice and relaxing and we needed this time to get ready for the next part of our journey around Australia. It also gave the boys time to spend some quality time with grandparents and their cousins before we leave. A trip to Max Brenner\u2019s chocolate restaurant for a chocolate pizza with Nan & Pop was a highlight for the boys. The arrival of my Auntie and Uncle from the UK, in time for a fantastic family celebration and party for my Dad\u2019s 80th<\/sup> birthday, completed the family connection and ensured us all a memorable night and a big family send off.<\/p>\n

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Of course every part of this trip has meant a new experience and this time we\u2019ve decided to do CAMPING!! Yes, we are towing a camper trailer and spending the next 9 weeks camping in the Outback. This all happened after Ben spent hours on Gumtree again \u2013 something I get very worried about now \u2013 and decided we needed a camper trailer. But after getting it set up and kitted out with everything we need for the next couple of months (much pilfered from my Mum\u2019s pantry and my brothers garage \u2013 have you noticed your hot water heater missing yet Andrew?) we are all pretty excited about it- even if it means no en-suite facilities for all this time too! For those in the know it\u2019s a Trackabout Safari off road camper trailer with built in kitchen \u2013 very cool.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

We have been lucky to spend our last couple of weeks here staying near Surfers Paradise<\/em> on the Gold Coast in a lovely two bedroom holiday rental called Sandcastles on the Broadwater, with stunning sea views and great long walks along the front.<\/p>\n

\"DSC01193\"\"IMG_3398\"<\/a> It also has a fantastic heated pool that nobody else is using (as it is \u2018winter\u2019 here) and of course the obligatory boat ramp to get in some last fishing trips before we store the boat away. Ben and my Uncle Ian have been desperately trying to catch a big one before we go but they remain as elusive as ever. \u00a0Ben did spot some interesting ‘birdlife’ though on one boat trip around the expensive canal houses. \u00a0 Fishing is not all hard work it seems!<\/p>\n

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Fishing? No.. don’t think so!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Earning our keep with a little tiling with my brother. I made the coffee.<\/p><\/div>\n

The last few days we are at my brothers house on the Gold Coast- sending this using his wifi – thank you Andrew & Jen – and generally packing and re-packing our now substantial amount of gear! \u00a0And now we\u00a0head off up the coast of Northern Queensland to Rockhampton, across the Capricorn Highway, to Darwin and finally down to Perth – over 8,000 km (5,000 miles for my cousin Stephen’s benefit!) in total.<\/p>\n

Any suggestions of things to see en-route is most welcome! \u00a0So please send comments below.<\/p>\n

If you are interested here is a link to our OZ route map.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/goo.gl\/maps\/vMaAX<\/a><\/p>\n

Finally, here is a our favourite road sign so far….<\/p>\n

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We are back in warmer climes after our trip to the colder southern states, although it is cooler than when we left (more UK summer temps now!) Being back at Mum & Dad\u2019s has been nice and relaxing and we … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[17,18],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4BBYQ-ol","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1509"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1540,"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1509\/revisions\/1540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.walkerfamilytravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}