We have been unable to add another post until today as we could not get any telephone coverage at Batchelor. We left Darwin on Sunday after loading our trailer with luggage and all finding seats on the bus. It took about an hour and a half to reach the town of Batchelor via the Stuart Highway. It was a comfortable drive although I found that the bus tends to under-steer a little so we have to take corners a ...

Today we join a group of 23 people from our church at St Stephen's in Greythorn who will be enjoying each other's company on a trip to the 'Top End'. Most of us have now arrived in Darwin; either flying directly from Melbourne or adding time onto the front of our trip with additional holiday time. We have been planning this trip for months and have had an enormous level of assistance from the people at S ...

Yesterday was a free day at our reunion and Jill and I rented a car and drove up to the little towns of Melany and Montville inland from the Sunshine Coast. We left Brisbane by 8.30 and were in Melany for a late breakfast at 10.00. It is a quaint little town with a distinct village atmosphere and it is very 'green'. Some time ago Woolworths built a supermarket in the town in some contentious circumstances. ...

We started our reunion last night with a 'Meet and Greet' function at the Rydges Hotel at Brisbane's Southbank. We had about 190 people attending and they represented all the years of the unit's service in Vietram between 1967 and 1972. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the unit being formed. Today we left Brisbane early to visit Canungra and unveil a plaque at the Land Warfare Training Centre from ou ...

Tuesday saw us taking some more activities to local sights. The south easterly wind has dropped and the weather is more settled and sunny. There are fewer clouds on the mountains. In the morning we went on a 4WD trip to Kerry's Lookout. This gave us views across the Kerry valley with views to Beaudesert and Mt Tambourine. We boiled the billy again for a cuppa and enjoyed some more damper for morning tea. Th ...

This morning (Monday), we had the privilege of doing a nature walk with Michael O'Reilly, one of the older members of the famous O'Reilly family. He kept us captivated for over 3 hours as he described many of the plants, insects and bird life. He also had an amazing ability to learn the names of everyone in our little group within a few minutes During our nature walk we found the bower of the satin bower bi ...

We thought that the meals were one of the challenges of being here at O'Reilly's, but today we found that it was coping with Chocolate Easter Eggs. Almost every time tbhat we turned around, we were presented with another Easter Egg. Seriously, we are learning that the staff here do an excellent job of looking after their guests. Their levels of service and involvement with the people who are staying here is ...

We are enjoying our time at O'Reilly's, however with an abundance of food, it is very easy to put on a lot of weight. Thankfully, there are enough activities throughout the day to be able to work off some calories. Yesterday (Easter Saturday) I did a 23km walk through the Lamington National Park. We started with a bus ride to Binna Burra Guest House on the other side of the park and then walked around the B ...