Cathy in Esperance

I left Maryborough, on the morning of the 18th of April while Eric was painting “Erica” and when I got to Hervey Bay Airport it was pouring with rain. The wet season in QLD had certainly been that. In 16 weeks he had had rain at some stage of the day for 14 of the 16 wks.
I had a few hours to fill in before my flight to Sydney, then there was a delay due to bad weather. I spent a couple of hours in Sydney before boarding the plane to Perth arriving at 2355hrs to the smiling faces of Kellie, Rohan and Bruce. Rather than stay at the hotel my agency had booked me into, I stayed at Bruce’s lovely apartment with this view over the river to the city.
My flight to Esperance was delayed by 4 hrs so we enjoyed a nice breakfast cooked by the girls, then a stroll and sightsee in the neighbourhoodThe 720kms to Esperance was mostly above the clouds until we dropped under them to land. The landscape was pretty dry and barren. The farmers were waiting for rain to start seeding wheat, corn and sorghum

The temperature on landing at 1330hrs was 12C. A bit different to the upper 20s in Queensland. I was met by Mathew, who is a patient care assistant at the hospital and taken for a quick tour, basics stocked up from the hospital kitchen and taken to my accommodation

The units are set beside a plantation of trees and in the morning I was woken to bird song. My neighbour and colleague Ann invited me to walk the Esplanade with her where we enjoyed coffee as the sun came up. This trailer “Coffee Cats” is here everday and does a very good trade. The chairs look out to the bay of islands and the jetty wharf. There is a resident seal called Sammy who loves to perform for the tourists.

My first week on the ward involved 2 orientation days with 3 other nurses which was very pleasant then 3 days buddied with a colleague. I am working predominantly as a midwife but if its quiet I work as a nurse. The staff are very welcoming and very happy to have their staffing quota full

After work each day I walked the 5mins to the beach and town to explore. Here are some photos of the immediate area.

There are lots of parks and BBQ areas along the foreshore

Trip to Narrabri

This trip was at the end of January and happened to be my birthday. A student R/N, Sumaya, asked me to go with her to Narrabri, some 380kms west as she wanted to sit her drivers license in a small town, rather than in Sydney where she comes from. This was the closest place with an appointment to suit her days off. It was a good driving experience for her as she hadn't been on the open road or overtaken another vehicle or driven in heavy rain! ....I was on the edge of my seat on a few occassions, but she did very well.

Narrabri is known for its cotton industry

On the way back, we had time to stop and take photos of the countryside. .

There were sunflowers growing on the roadside like weeds and plantations of sorghum, which is grown for cattle feed. It was the wrong time of the year to see cotton. It had just been planted

This sorghum plantation stretched as far as one could see
Sumaya was very exited when we came across these cows cooling off in an irrigation ditch. Being a city girl she hadn't seen cows on a farm

We stopped in Weewaa, the capital of Australia's cotton industry, for refreshments and took a fancy to this old hotel. I bet it could tell some stories.
These grain silos towered above us on the roadside
and the road stretched on into the distance. The same scenery km after km.

Then we had a torrential downpour with fork lightening striking ahead in the distance, to drown the monotony. It was a full day leaving just on daybreak and getting home on dark.

Trip to Narran Lake

A work colleague, Kay and her friend Ollie took me to see Narran Lake last sunday. The road had been graded so a 4 wheel drive wasn't needed, but we had to circumnavigate some deep tracks from time to time

We were told it was 40km, but it ended up being 83kms. When we got to the entrance the gate was locked and we didn't have a key, so we decided to walk in. We had no idea how far it was so we put a time limit on it of 30 mins

There was plenty to see and hear along the way. We saw the tracks of a wild pig and could hear its grunts nearby so we had stratergies of what to do if it charged us. I didn't really like the idea of climbing up an ant infested tree!
There were lots of cacti growing and they were in fruit. Kay reassured Ollie and I that they were edible so we partook in feasting on them, only to have my tongue and roof of mouth covered in tiny prickles! They tasted like a sour tamarillo. I'm here to tell the tale so she was right.

When we got to the lake, some 30mins later we were dissappointed at the lack of water. But there were lots of kangaroos grazing in the distance, and the water as cool and nice for wading. But look at the colour! There were emu footprints in the sand. What a wonderful place it would be to take a swag and camp under the stars and watch the wildlife come down for water at night.

Kay had to work an afternoon shift so it was a quick trip back to Bre. The landscape changed quite dramatically on the way back. We drove another way to get on the bitumen earlier, which took us past cattle stations and wheat belts. Unfortunately for this tourist there was no time to stop for photos, so the memories will have to remain in my head...Somewhere!

Trip to Mt Oxley

These are photos of a trip we took to Mt Oxley. Our manager encourages us to use the hospital cars in the weekends, which is very nice.

My yachtie friend, Chrissie and I with Mt Oxley in the background

We were given one key so we hoped it was the right one.

The information centre in Bourke told us the road was closed due to a slide of rubble on the ascent up the mountain, but our manager had her own key and encouraged us to go regardless.

Once we'd circumnavigated the gate the road was clear ahead apart from the emus which ran across the road. Chrissie got out her emu caller she'd purchased and they came back towards the vehicle, but soon realised she wasn't a feathered bird and ran off. I have a movie to prove it.


We drove over some pretty rough bits of fallen rock and the fall off to the side was close, but the 4 wheel drive handled it well. Once past the worst we stopped to take in the rugged scenery

At the top there was a sheltered BBQ area set out with tables and chairs, for private functions and tele communication towers. We saw kangaroos and goats grazing

The views were long reaching and spectacular

We would have liked to have stayed to watch the sunset but needed to get back before dark.

Eric In Maryborough 2008

Our blog site is all about what I'm doing in the outback so thought I better post some photos from Maryborough. Eric has had a terrible time with wet and humid conditions, and has just managed to get a finish coat on the cabin tops.He hopes to get a break and get the side decks finished before our trip back to NZ


He has access to a loft and has started building a replacement dinghy to the inflatable that burnt, and is kept busy also with the Louisiade project.



It will be great to get aboard again, and set off.

Trip to Lightening Ridge

Last month a collegue and I drove to Lightening Ridge, 200km NE, one of the few places in the world that mines black opals. The recent rains have caused very lush growth on the sides of the road and we saw emus and kangaroos grazing beside the road

I collected a yachtie friend, Chrissie off the bus from the Gold Coast and Kay caught a bus North the next day Eric and I met Chrissie and her husband Jim in 2006 when clearing customs and cruised Tonga and Fiji with them, going our separate ways in NewCaledonia. They are now in Australia doing a refit. Chrissie spent 2 weeks here with me in Brewarrina.

The next day we explored the town, visiting the art gallery, opal stores and had a tour of the Black hand mine.

One particular art gallery was memorable and if we had room aboard 'Erica' I would have liked a painting

John Murray is a famous outback painter and his paintings are humorous and unique.

We drooled over the opals and jewellery in the shops, then succumbed during a tour of a mine and bought some

This is the black hand mine. We went 60m below ground and had a 3hr tour for $20. It was off peak and Chrissie and I had the tour guide and sculptor/ artist to ourselves
The 2 miners have opened the mine up to tourists. One of them has painted and sculptured the walls and chambers. It is superb.
"David "was one of the hundreds of paintings

After our opal purchases here we took a tour of the countryside following coloured car doors as sign posts. The red door tour took us to castles that had been built some years ago

It was a great couple of days seeing the sights.