BusTed in St George

Hi Again all you lovelies,

Welcome to sunny Queensland. 

Well BusTed was just that....40 km out of St George she decided on a little holiday on the side of the road, we rode our trusty little Virago into town to get phone reception and help. Our useless Ken Tame insurance breakdown co-ordinator left us feeling high and dry in St George and stressed to the max about our beautiful bus left on the side of the road all by herself. We booked into a cabin for the night and had a restless sleep. In the morning luckily for us, the RACQ man Brad, worked his charm and we limped into the township it took us about 4 1/2 hours to do so but we made it.

A couple of nights camped at the mechanics, a rebuilt alternator and new fan belts and we are sorted.

 

 

While we were at the mechanics we took a stroll through the main street. Here we found a little greek man by the name of Steve Margaritus who carved EMU eggs.

He had a little gallery at the back of his shop with all the eggs internally lit and only a $3 entry fee.

He is a character and if you don't like what you see he will give you double your money back.

 

 

We were that impressed we purchased an egg, it had been a test one of his... and immediately set about carving it ourselves. This is the before shot, we will post the final product for you all to look at. Its so nice to work in conjunction with another artist, we often have the same thoughts on the next step.. it is uncanny.

 

Its a slow process, and most enjoyable and its so good to be working on it together.

Oh ,and who looks spunky in glasses !!

After the mechanic had fixed up our lovely bus we took it for a little test drive and noticed all these caravans at the local showground. Upon further investigation we found ourselves in the midst of the Yellowbelly Country festival.
Yeehah !!

 

We decided to stay for the week.

They had two sessions of "walk-ups" a day where anyone can get up on stage and sing or recite bush 

ballads.

 

Ellen and I did both, what a great experience. After the first two songs we were in such demand we headed back to the bus to learn more country songs for the next afternoon.

 

 

We headed off on a twilight river cruise on the Bolonne River. Expectations high, given the previous days magnificent sunsets which didn't quite happen that night, but a great time anyway.

Just turn your head for a look at these two buccaneers, I cant seem to upload it the right way, sorry. 

 

However, what we did get was awesome reflections and some real artistic shots from the both of us.

 

My favourite, Ellens' rope shot. 

 

We pulled back into shore at night and it was a truly lovely evening.

 

 

Seriously, good luck with this Where is BusTed?
There is a very good chance you wont find her.......
I will give you a hint at the end.

 

 

 

Oh, and do you remember us mentioning that Pam Ayres poem "I wish I'd looked after me tits"

well guess who got up and recited it and tried to pass it off as a bush ballad???

 

 

Check out this great photo Ellen took...its just amazing.

 

till next we blog
bye bye
from
Ellen and Michelle

xxxx


PS.  BusTed is just not there......she was parked a little more off to the right, Ellen said I couldn't put it in, but I THOUGHT what a challenge hey??


 

BusTed in Lightning Ridge

 

 

 

Hi Again,

This fellow below is called "Stanley" and he is on the highway about 10kms out of the Lightning Ridge.

An artist by the name of John Murray made him out of old VW Beetles.

Its huge and awesome and I instantly fell in love with it.

 

 

Bloody clever.

 

John Murray is a local artist and has well and truly put his stamp on Lightning Ridge, his work is very humorous and colourful and is scattered throughout the town. His gallery is well worth the look if you ever get here.

 

Below is a little map of our journey since we left Melbourne. We name these places we are and unless I had a map in front of me I wouldn't have a clue where the hell it is, I hope you find this helpful.

 

Now, Lightning Ridge is all about Opal mining, its the only place in the world to have black opals, pretty cool hey. The first place we visited was called the Black Hand ,we had a guided tour of the mine itself, which was very interesting. 

 



 

Then back up a level

 and a couple of miners found the sandstone fun to carve in....and lets just say...they are still going 15yrs later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back up on top of the ground, its time to have a twilight soak in water from 1km under the ground....

These are the Artesian springs and are free and open 24hrs a day....sooooo nice.....soooooo hot.

 

 

Next day a tour of the The Ridge and its really all about what's below ....not what's above.

this is a little church built for a movie and is still standing.

 

 

 

 

Then its on again with the hard hats and back down underground in another mine.

Here is a seam of opal.

 

We are a bloody long way down.....

 



so is this long drop.....

 



 

This guy called Angelo decided to build a castle out here..

when asked why??? he replied "I don't know"

 



Back to the hot springs.

Look at this beauty in the baths.

 



 

This is a cutie, an old miners hut right in the middle of town.

 

Another one of John Murrays creations, he actually used to drive and live in this van.

 

 

Three Classics.

 

 

 

 

 

till next time

 

lots of love to you all

xxxxx

 

Ellen and Michelle

 

BusTed in Collarenabri

 

Hi again....clocking up the miles...there seems to be a lot of flat out here.....guess that's why they call them plains.

 

 

 

A quick overnight stop in "Collie" as the locals call it.

 

 We found a wondrous old treasure in the scrub, which Ellen captured beautifully.

 

We headed into town and had breakfast at a charming little place, it was full of quirky things, interesting nic nacs and bric-a-brac and adorning the walls was an abundance of poems and jokes. One in particular  tickled my fancy and I recommend that given the chance you Google it.

Pam Ayres ....'I wish I'd looked after me Tits' 

After a breakfast of bacon and egg roll, we hit the road again and saw

 kites in abundance obviously drawn by the road kill, on our way to Lightning Ridge.

Woohoo!!

 

 

Catch you next time

from the ridge

Ellen and Michelle

 

xxxx