This Adventurous Age

July 22, 2022
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2013 Travels August 6

TUESDAY AUGUST 6 FORREST BEACH

Today reached about 27 degrees. Very pleasant.

We drove into Ingham, mostly for fresh food supplies, but also for other things. John needed to replenish his supply of socks and jocks at Target. I bought a couple of cheap navy blue T shirts that were ideal for wearing around camp. I favoured dark colours that didn’t readily show the dirt!

Renewed some scripts at the chemist. Autobarn supplied car polish, a lockable hitch pin for Bus, and a couple of plastic boxes that would fit John’s clothes shelf in the bedside cupboard and save him having to get down on all fours and scrabble around to get things from the back. Got food at Woolworths and scallops from the fish supplier – John’s choice. Had to refuel Terios. In other words, all the minutiae of normal living that must happen, regardless of location.

**Lots of activity at the Victoria Mill as we passed it**

Back at camp, the last of the circus was gone – except for some heaps of goat poo, of great interest to dog.

I booked us in here for another week, and also in for tea at the hotel, tonight.

I took Couey for a long walk on the beach, about 4kms. Managed to stub a second littlest toe on a rock buried in the coarse sand at the water’s edge. It hurt, big time, and then ached all night.

While I was gone, John rigged up a shade at one end of the awning, from shadecloth he’d packed “in case”. Decided we must buy a proper end shade attachment.

The campground was definitely back to what passed for normal, here.

We got “dressed up” to go to tea – meaning clean polo shirts and denims. And lashings of Rid, since we would be eating on the outdoor terrace area.

**Outdoor dining terrace at Forrest Beach Hotel. Motel units at left.**

This was an experiment at leaving dog. We told her to stay in the Bus. She did her usual “You are leaving me and I’m not happy” little snap at my hand as I patted her goodbye. We’d figured that – if she decided to bark and be a pest at this first time of being left alone in Bus – we would be close enough to hear and take some action before she became a nuisance. But there wasn’t a sound.

Tuesday nights were 2-for-1 meal deal nights at the hotel, and they were doing a roaring trade. The hotel menu was surprisingly comprehensive – good bistro style. John chose mackerel in beer batter and I had the best salt and pepper squid I’d ever eaten. They both came with some excellent chips and a very nice salad. The serves were generous. Meal cost $20 for us both. We had a beer each before dinner, and bought a bottle of Brown Brother crouchen reisling – even that was fairly priced at $22, we thought. John had an extra, larger beer, too. Decided we’d definitely return next Tuesday. As John was of the “your cooking is cheaper and nicer” persuasion, we didn’t often “eat out” when travelling – or at home for that matter, but this was too good to miss out on.

Coeuy was clearly resigned to being alone and was soundly asleep on my seat when we returned to Bus. It was all “Ho-hum….you back already?”

July 20, 2022
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2013 Travels August 5

MONDAY AUGUST 5 FORREST BEACH

Today was pleasant – right degree of warmth. I’d begun to notice heavy dews in the early mornings, now.

A few of the people who were obviously regulars here in winter, had light covers for their vehicles to protect against the combination of dew moisture and dust kicked up by traffic on the dirt roads of the park, as well as from the salt air. If we came back here again, for any length of time, thought I’d want one for Terios, too.

A lot of people had left the park over the past couple of mornings, but the spaces – as in proper sites – were filled by newcomers. Seemed to me that the word was getting out, about this place.

Couey was fine today. I took her for a beach walk. Only about half the usual distance, just to make sure she didn’t overdo it.

Some men came and took away most of the remaining circus stuff, except for the truck and the monkey trailer.

I made chilli con carne for dinner. Overdid the chilli, though.

July 18, 2022
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2013 Travels August 4

SUNDAY AUGUST 4 FORREST BEACH

Today was less humid.

I definitely did not like the park this crowded. Apart from the circus lot down the dip from us, that area had also filled up with rigs that did not need power and, closer to us, several who had hooked up long leads into anywhere they could find a vacant power outlet up the hill or, in some instances, apply double adapters!

We had the usual sort of day. I read, sewed. John spent some time at the computer. Because so many of the campers were away at the Festival, I was able to unexpectedly get an empty washing machine, when I checked, on the off chance. So did the washing.

We walked along the beach, as far as the last house at Cassady’s. Because John was along, Couey did quite a lot of water play and chasing at his instigation.

The circus put on a couple of afternoon matinees. It all looked rather tawdry in the bright light of day; probably had a greater mystique at night. They then very efficiently packed it all up – which made interesting watching for us, sitting outside our van. Then, they all left, leaving behind gear, the boss and the animals. Apparently he had some vehicle problems.

Quite a few people left the park in the afternoon. I was just hoping it would soon return to rather sleepy normality.

M phoned to say she was able to get four tickets for the Cohen concert – the maximum allowed in one purchase. She went back online a few minutes later to get the fifth she wanted, for her friend C, but the pre-sales had sold out. Wow! That was fast. I was very pleased we acted quickly on those. We discussed accommodation options for that Saturday night, having already decided we would not be driving back to the eastern suburbs after the concert. We had memories of the Hanging Rock one, when it took a couple of hours to clear the parking paddock after the show was over. Settled on a two bedroom apartment type unit, that I’d found on the Wotif site. She would book it.

I hadn’t heard back from T, so he’d missed out as far as I was concerned.

Tea was fried rice, using leftover roast chicken, and a few prawns from the freezer.

About 9pm, Couey very neatly vomited her tea onto the Bus floor, right by John’s feet! Too much salt water – again. Now that John was forced to confront the unpleasant results of his sea frolics with dog – and clean up same – I reckoned he’d be less encouraging of same when we walked on the beach in the future!

July 16, 2022
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2013 Travels August 3

SATURDAY 3 AUGUST FORREST BEACH

It rained really heavily through last night. Those clouds yesterday were really serious. As a result, this morning was really humid and not pleasant. I drove to the shop for the papers, rather than walking.

John went off to bowls at Macknade.

I did some housework – so much easier without anyone else in Bus! Defrosted the fridge, which led to having to wash the floor.

Couey and I went for a long walk along the beach at low tide, going almost to the mouth of the southern creek. The beach by the park was more populated than usual, but once we’d walked about five hundred metres, had it to ourselves.

John was right! Two circus trucks and two animal trailers arrived to join the strange trailer. A few people proceeded to set up a marquee – about thirty metres from us. Unbelievable! It seemed to be a small affair, maybe a family group? They tethered a llama, alpaca, and a couple of goats about the place. Couey was not impressed by the smells of these strange critters, wafting up, and looked distinctly puzzled. Their terrier dog roamed loose about the place, which meant that I was not impressed, either.

One of the other campers, who I’d spoken with a few times, summed it up when he commented in passing: “This place gets weirder by the minute!”

John came home from bowls with winnings of three bottles of beer. He was amused by the circus – literal and figurative.

We ate our roast chicken dinner to the background noise of the circus “music” and a very noisy group of revellers at the hotel.

The circus put on an evening performance, which was very noisy, but mercifully over by 9.30pm. They did not seem to have many people attending. There were competing events on at the Festival in Ingham.

In the early evening, the Ladies was jam packed with females getting ready for a night out – and with circus people getting made up for the performance. Bedlam.

We heard, later, that the terrier dog was supposed to be an important part of the performance, however it had absconded in favour of visiting other dogs around the park! It definitely seemed to be rather an amateur operation.

I’d done some computer research and found that the Cohen concert in Geelong was being put on through the Day on the Green organization. So I’d joined that, in order to access pre-sales tickets through them. Phoned friend M about doing this. She was already a member and, as pre-sales closed at 4pm tomorrow, said she would get the tickets. Some friends of hers might be interested too.

July 14, 2022
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2013 Travels August 2

FRIDAY AUGUST 2 FORREST BEACH

I woke about 7am. Walked Couey along the foreshore path. Again, she rebelled part way along. Damn smart dog had realised that breakfast came at the end of her morning walk, and food was much more important than exercise.

After human breakfasts, we drove into Ingham to do a food shop.

**Victoria Mill**, **on the way into Ingham**

It was a hotter day, with cloud building up through the day.

This weekend was the annual Italian Festival in Ingham, celebrating the heritage of so many of its residents. Sugar growing commenced in the area in the 1870’s. Initially, as in other parts of north Qld., Pacific Islanders (kanakas) were brought in to work in the cane fields: under deceptive promises or plain just kidnapped. By the 1890’s this practice was declared illegal. A trickle of immigrants from Italy began to fill the labour void, and in the early 20th century many came from Italy and Spain and settled in the region. Ingham came to be known as “little Italy”. (So too, did an area near Coraki, in northern NSW, also a sugar cane region, where a friend’s family hails from).

I’d looked at the Festival program earlier in the week, but did not see much that was of great interest to us – particularly since dog limited what we could do.

Whilst we did the shopping, she stayed in the car, with windows part-down. She seemed to be ok with that, and we made sure not to be away long. Had a quick look in shops for a polar fleece throw. The one I had on the bed was just not quite enough in the chilliest part of the early morning. Couldn’t find such an item, so texted daughter to buy me one and mail it up.

**Cane train loaded with cut sugar cane, waiting at the Mill**

When we got back to the park, there was a strange trailer type of thing parked across the grass area, down in front of Bus. I thought it might be something associated with the Festival, but John said it looked like it belonged to a circus. Neither of us really thought it could be, though.

**Grassed hollow in front of our site, used for unpowered camping… amongst other things…**

After lunch, walked Couey on the beach, as far as the Cassady Beach houses.

The park became really, really full. Through the day, campers and caravans had multiplied on the grass area below us, even though there was no power down there. A slabbed site further along from us that had not been used to date because there was no power, was occupied, and the park manager came and changed the power leads from some rigs, around to other poles, doubling up, to remedy the situation. Probably wouldn’t have passed any regulatory inspections, but hey, this is north Qld!

Just after dark, a couple with young children set up a camper trailer across the access road from us. It must have been the last empty “proper” site, as opposed to setting up in an ad hoc way on the central grass.

I wondered how many people the park was actually permitted to have – if they even worry about such things up here? There must have been in at least two hundred bodies in residence. There were only five toilets and four showers in the Ladies’; going to be queues in there for sure.

I cooked threadfin salmon in tempura batter for tea, while John went off to buy chips and potato cakes. We didn’t factor in the new crowds, he was gone a long time, and the fish was over-cooked as a result. We found – again – that the shop food was too greasy. From now on, I would be cooking our own fries while here.

A TV advert came up for Leonard Cohen concerts in North Qld, in November. Obviously, that meant the great man was doing another concert series in Australia. I immediately texted daughter to check if there were any scheduled for Victoria, remembering the great time we’d had at his brilliant Hanging Rock concert in 2010. She found out there would be one held at a Geelong winery, in December, but she was not interested in one that far away from her home. I texted friend M about it – she was definitely interested. Emailed former work friend T to see if he would like to attend, too. That was really something to start looking forward to; my mind was already mulling over the logistics. John was not enthusiastic. He didn’t come to the Hanging Rock concert back then. Doesn’t know what he’s missing!

July 12, 2022
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2013 Travels August 1

THURSDAY AUGUST 1 FORREST BEACH

I woke at 7.15. Couey and I walked along the foreshore path until 8am. She didn’t want to walk as far as we went yesterday; makes it very clear when she wants to turn around, by simply stopping and waiting until I get the message. Overall, she seemed just about back to normal today.

Had the usual sort of morning, pottering about camp.

John went off to bowls about midday. Thursday bowls at Macknade was already his set routine, here. He had an enjoyable game and won a small chook. A substantial afternoon tea is served to the bowlers, so our Thursday night dinners would need to be light ones.

While John was gone, I washed Bus floor and generally tidied the place up.

Couey and I went for a good long walk on the beach. She did not take in as much salt water when John was not along, because I walk further away from the water line, and do not encourage her into the deeper water pools.

Chicken sausages and potato for tea.

July 10, 2022
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2013 Travels July 31

WEDNESDAY 31 JULY FORREST BEACH

Couey woke me before 7am, by whining and nudging at me. This was unusual behaviour, so I got up and took her out. She had certainly needed to be out of Bus – upset stomach, big time! I presumed she took on too much sea water on yesterday’s walk. Either that, or the tick collar had affected her.

Because it was so early, we went for a long walk along the foreshore paths and through the park areas – about 3kms. There would be no beach walk for her today.

Again, it was a superb day, about 26 degrees, blue sky, no wind, gentle sea. This was what we’d ordered!

After his breakfast, John decided to check the pressures in the vehicle tyres. Actually, he wanted to do the Terios, but decided to do Bus too, since he had the gear out. Terios tyres, at 31, were higher than the recommended 26, but he wanted to leave them at that. He discovered that he didn’t have the right gear for checking the inside rear bus tyres – would have to rectify that at some stage. We really didn’t know what pressures the Bus tyres should be running at anyway. Just had to hope the Toyota service centre at home had them right. Still on a learning curve with this Bus thing, us.

Later, we all walked up to the shops, to buy some vegies for tea and to post mail. There was a post office agency at the newsagent. Or was the Post Office also a newsagent? Either way, the postal location is Allingham, not Forrest Beach, just to confuse everyone. We both had cards and letters to post.

John had ordered, online, a dashboard camera, that he had delivered to M, for forwarding. That parcel was now there for him.

Back at Bus, he fiddled about with the dashcam for a while, then went for a drive in Terios to get it going.

I read, knitted, wrote up the diary, spent some time on the laptop.

We had steak for tea, with sides of broccoli and mushrooms. I used a packet of green peppercorn sauce with the steak – not the sort of thing I usually bought, at home. John loved it and wants it again, next time we have steaks.

July 8, 2022
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2013 Travels July 30

TUESDAY 30 JULY FORREST BEACH

It was a lovely sunny day, with no wind at all.

Usual morning activities, then walked Couey on the beach, right on low tide. So there was a wide expanse of firm sand, with occasional small sea channels and pools of water. For me, this is just the best sort of beach walking there is.

Dog was very bold with the water. She seemed to have realized that sploshing around in the water was great fun.

Now that dog was venturing into water, we had to take off her tick collar before going to the beach, then replace it when she was dry.

We walked to beyond the south houses. My ankle was much happier with the flatter, firmer going, but John’s legs were sore and he said he wouldn’t walk tomorrow.

Had my hair cut by neighbour A. She took a lot of care with it and only charged me $15. I was very pleased with the outcome. Wished she lived near me at home.

I drove up to the local SPAR supermarket, leaving John and dog napping. The supermarket wasn’t great, and was not going to be a substitute for regular trips to Ingham, unfortunately. I was able to get the milk and jar of apple sauce I wanted, but couldn’t get any decent fruit.

Had soaked Couey’s bedding, which was starting to smell distinctly doggy, in a bucket, this morning. After lunch, went along to the laundry and washed it out in one of the troughs. Hung out on a nearby clothesline, it didn’t take long to dry.

I read for a while, then finished a letter to M, begun back in Charleville. Wrote some postcards. Started the next lot of knitting – another dog coat.

There were lovely blue winged kookburras about. We’d heard them making their raucous calling, periodically, resembling a chainsaw more than laughter! That sound still amused me, even after years of encountering these birds in many places across northern Australia. One perched for a while on a nearby flag pole, so I tried to photograph it, not very successfully. Should have used John’s camera with its big zoom lens.

There were also some thick knees calling at nights, making their scary screaming noise. I sometimes saw one, when taking Couey out at night. She acted like she’d like to chase them, but that was definitely on our forbidden list of dog activities.

Since the wind stopped, there were now some mozzies about, at dusk. Only to be expected with the swampy areas on the inland side of the park.

When I unwrapped the pork steaks destined for tea – use by date 31st – I didn’t like their smell. John said he would eat the meat, regardless, so he had pork, but I threw out my serve and just had the accompanying vegetables. John survived the night, so the meat must have been alright, after all. Sometimes vaccuum packed meat does have a distinct smell when opened: maybe Queensland pork smells different to the Victorian product?

July 6, 2022
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2013 Travels July 29

MONDAY 29 JULY FORREST BEACH

Mornings had begun to settle into a routine. I would get up by 8am, take dog off for a walk and her morning toileting, give her breakfast, get my breakfast and sit outside with it. Then I would read and maybe give dog some ball chasing down on the grassy hollow, until John eventually got up.

Today was pleasant weather. Very good for sitting outside and not too hot for walking.

We managed to almost crack low tide for today’s beach walk, meaning the sand was firm to walk on, and there was a fair expanse of it between the water and the start of the soft sand beach.

**The palm Islands Group in the distance**

Couey was getting bolder. The waves, without the wind blowing, were fairly low. She started running into the water and trying to chase the waves. Seemed like she had stopped being a wimpy dog and learned to love the beach.

**Keeping away from those unpredictable waves!**

I kept a pretty careful eye out, as we walked along the beach. We had been told there was a fairly large croc that sometimes cruised along between the creeks to our north and south, a distance of several kms. It had taken several crab pots recently. Crocs love to eat dogs and I didn’t want ours to become a meal for one.

We walked as far as the houses to the south. We didn’t speed walk, so took about two hours, out and back. My problem ankle was sore from the previous soft sand walks.

Back at Bus, after lunch, I knitted and finished a dog coat that would be put aside to go to the animal refuge back at home. I’d finished all the e-books borrowed from my local library; John didn’t want me to download any more until the end of our data month. He was not sure how much of our allowance we were using, yet. God forbid that he should run out of data capacity for accessing WOW! So I decided to try to finish the biography of John Howard that I’d begun over a year ago, and brought along in case I needed hard copy books. Even though my days of teaching Political Studies were well past, I retained an interest in that subject.

Late in the day, we gained a new neighbouring rig, the previous one having departed this morning, presumably to chase the next community markets. The new ones put out a sign saying haircuts were available. Now, that I could relate to. I went next door and booked to have mine done, tomorrow.

Used a bottled sauce on fettucine, for tea – pretty ordinary.

July 4, 2022
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2013 Travels July 28

SUNDAY 28 JULY FORREST BEACH

The sky was still cloudy in the morning, so again there was that moody light on the sea.

It was not as windy today – a hopeful sign – so we were comfortable sitting outside for some of the time.

After breakfast, we took the walking path that goes from near the hotel, along behind the foreshore, to the lawned area near the surf lifesaving club, where the monthly markets were set up. Wandered around the rather small number of stalls. Bought a pineapple and some bananas. The neighbour from the rig that came in yesterday was selling massages at the market.

Took our purchases back to Bus, then walked Couey on the beach. We got as far as the southernmost group of houses – Cassady Beach. The water was high, the sand soft, and the walking hard work. The sea was still a bit rough. Couey began to play with the waves – following them out then dancing back away as they came in. She was a bit of a hazard to us as she bounded back away from them.

Back at Bus, I looked up the tide times, finally, and found we were definitely trying to walk at about high tide times. So, hopefully, the walking will get better, with time.

Below our site level is a large grassy hollow, behind the sandy low hills at the back of the beach. At one end of that was a set up of some large tents, and a couple of boats. We were amused to see, our first night here, that these tents were draped with coloured flashing lights. They had obviously been here for some time. Clearly, the minds of some people work differently to mine – it would never even enter my head to carry strings of flashing lights to decorate our camp. Guess that makes me pedestrian and unimaginative.

**Unpowered camp area below the row of vans. Bus just visible, dwarfed by large neighbour**

I packed John’s doona away under the bed too.

Read for a while, then got out my hardanger embroidery and tried to work out what I had intended to do, when I started it, nearly a year ago. Finally decided to make up a new pattern as I went. Thought I’d intended for it to be a place mat? Anyway, that was what it would eventually become.

For tea, made up a chicken stir fry, with Singapore noodles.

Since I’d put up the solar screens, the dog didn’t seem to want to sleep in my front seat at night, but stayed sleeping on a mat by the door. Wonder why?