Monday...30 August

I have had the bestest day. I spent the better part of today with my 82 year old half sister. It was so nice to see her and it was also lovely to see her so sprightly and in total control of her marbles!!! Elsie has always had a special place in the hearts of me and my siblings. Today she kept telling everyone I was her baby sister and I thought she meant because I was part of dads second family, but it seems as the youngest girl in my group I am the baby sister. See I'm special...so special......
Elsie had six children. Sadly one of them died not so long ago (Jeff), but Elsie's eldest son Wayne lives with her and helps look after his mum and drives her to the shops etc since she gave up her licence. Her youngest son Neville dropped into his mum's today and stayed for a cuppa with us. I also met Neville's wife and one of his children.
When we leave here we are going to Mackay to visit with a friend of Keiths,  and guess what? Two more of Elsies kids live in Mackay. Dorothy and Coral. More visiting if I am lucky. The sixth one of the kids is son Chris who is in WA working on the mines somewhere up north......lol
Tomorrow we are going to walk along the Strand here in Townsville and possibly do a spot of lunch there too.

Sunday...29 August

Moving day today. Woke up this morning at 4.30am to the sound of rain on the roof. It was still raining as we left Innisfail at 9am  and kept on raining, at times quite heavily, for a large part of the travelling time. We came down through Cardwell and Ingham to Townsville, arriving a little after lunch. It was dry but overcast here on arrival. We checked in and set up our little camp then went for a look at the town. Came home via Bunnings of course. Did the washing but had to put it all through the dryer as by this time the rain had made it to Townsville too!!!!
Tomorrow I am going to visit my half sister Elsie for the afternoon. Bless her, she seemed quite happy to hear from me. Been 18 years since we were in Townsville so she cannot complain that I harrass her can she??? lol

Saturday...28 August

Went out to morning tea with old friends today.  Was lovely to see Stella and Bill again. They are such warm and welcoming people, they instantly make you feel comfortable and at home. We chatted, then chatted some more and suddenly it was lunchtime. We made moves to leave but Bill wanted to take us for a personal drive of discovery around his town which was most informative. On return Stella had lunch ready and we ate and chatted some more. Was not expecting lunch so really enjoyed the company. Big thank you to Stella and Bill for the hospitality.

After all that yummy food we motored off to Paronella Park.
An interesting place, built by Joseph Paronella in the 1930's. He was way ahead of his time with creative ideas. He built two castles on the property and a simple house that he and his wife lived in. The castles were used for balls and weddings and a tea rooms etc and people were encouraged to travel to Paronella Park way back then for picnics, games of tennis or boccie and rowing on the lake full of fish and eels with a backdrop of a natural spring fed waterfall. The water from the waterfall was harnessed to run the first hydroelectric generator in Qld. He planted trees and built a tunnel through the hill on his property to make it easier for his guests to look at  the whole property.
Himself went back for the night tour which he tells me was very good too. I believe they have floodlit the big waterfall etc.

Tomorrow we move on.....in the direction of Townsville but not necessarily to Townsville...but then again...

Friday...27 August

Set the alarm, up early to go down the road to Tully (55kms)  to do the tour of the Tully Sugar Mill. Got there nice and early, took a look around then headed to the mill in plenty of time. Phone rang before we got to the mill to say the morning tour had just been cancelled as they had no cane to crush. Come back at 1.30pm instead....grrrrrrrrr.

We wandered around the town of Tully for a bit of a look and found their "big" thing which was the golden gumboot. Seems a media group used to award the gumboot to one of three towns in the district who claimed to be the wettest town in Australia. Tully was the town to win it the most and have now built a golden gumboot to 7.9metres which is the amount of water in the rain guage in their record year of 1950. Thats 311inches in one year! We believe them as we have yet to see sky other than grey since arriving in the district.  You can go inside the boot and the view from the top is good.

While we waited we took the scenic route to Paronella Park to check out their caravan park with a view to booking in there for a couple of days. They cannot fit us in their park so that answered that question. Lunched in the little coffee shop and then went back to Tully (40kms) for the delayed sugar mill tour.
Very very informative and the ladies doing the tours know their stuff and are full of usefull bits of local colour.

We may complain about the cost of some of lifes staples but it comes into perspective once you know just what it takes to put a bowl of sugar on your table.

Thursday...26 August

Moving day today. We packed the van and moved it to the back area of the Mareeba park and gave it a bit of a wash. Very hot and sweaty so Keith went off to take a shower before we actually hit the road. When he came back he was minus his wedding ring! We looked but no idea if it came off in the shower and went down the plughole or if it came off while he was brooming the caravan with a hose, or maybe even when we were actually packing up our little campsite. We searched all places with no result. We spoke to the owners and left our address on the slim chance it finds its way into their lost property box. On a positive note it means he has lost some weight. Shame it was the ring that fell off, could have been his britches I suppose........lol
Then we somehow took the wrong road when leaving and ended up in Herberton by accident which sort of turned out to be a blessing as the road was less steep than the main road we missed. Eventually made it through to Innisfail, couple of steep mountains but beautiful roads on them with good gradients and very few tight turns and I enjoyed the drive.
We have booked a tour of a sugar mill in Tully tomorrow and will check out Paronella Park on the way back.
Fingers crossed for both events as it is raining right now and seems to have set in for the night.  24 degrees with 73% humidity. Time and weather permitting we plan to visit with the senior Mellors on Saturday prior to departure.

Wednesday...25 August

Visitors came yesterday. First we put them to work....then we all went out to the Mount Uncle Distillery. Bit of a drive, 20kms, and they do a mix of things from liquers to spirits, but turns out their rum is only white rum and the selection of food was limited with fairly steep prices so we took a look around and came back into town via the scenic route and went to lunch at one of the local pubs. Was a great little country pub with damn nice food and the lunch menu outside the door says 10 meals for $10 each. Whats not to like about that?

Today we went back into Kuranda and did the tours through the three main attractions other than shops and skyrail. We started at the Butterfly Sanctuary. Stunning, awesome, amazing! A guide explains the life cycle of several different types of butterfly and they take you into their laboratory to see the eggs being harvested off the leaves and then they have working displays of the entire cycle from start to end. You can sit there and actually watch the butterflys hatch and take their first flight. Then it is back into the massive avairy type area to watch the thousands of butterflies flying around and sometimes landing on the tourists. Better yet they give you a passout stamp on your wrist so that if you want or have time etc you can return as often as you like during the day. The really big attraction is the local butterfly the bright blue Ulysses Swallowtail.

Then we went to the bird park and in here they sell you bags of bird seed to feed the birds. We had barely got in the door when a big blue and gold macaw landed on Keiths shoulder and happily chewed biscuit and nuts from his hand. It also chewed the button thing off the top of his baseball type hat! There were lots of birds of all types in the display and they all land on whoever they fancy at the time. Was amusing to hear the squeals of the younger japanese females. Their husbands of course were brave enough to pose with a bird or two for photos but most were in total awe of our birds. Natives and exotics are housed together and all fly around in a great big open avairy. There is a pond for water birds and at the back is an enclosure with cassawaries. My goodness they are one huge bird. Never seen one before and somehow had the impression they were maybe the size of a bush turkey. Uh uh, they are the size of an emu, maybe not quite so high as their necks are not long like the emu but golly they are huge birds and their feet are prehistoric. The talons on their feet would rip a mere mortal to shreds.

On to attraction number three, the koala park. They have a walk around display beginning with freshwater crocs, we gave up counting at 25. Then onto the lizard enclosure with frilled neck lizards and bobtails and bluetongues etc. Then to the koala area.  For an extra fee one could have a photo taken actually holding a koala, very popular with the asian tourists. I resisted (cute and cuddly but awfully smelly critters!!), but it was nice watching the tourists hold one. Then into the kangaroo enclosure where you are encouraged to feed the various types, including wallabys and bandicoots. Then we moved into the snake enclosure. Plenty of pythons and a red bellied black and then there was the tree hugging one above our heads.....

My bravery should be duly noted by all who know my fear of these creatures.  (double clik this pic and take a good look), it is real and the rest of it is about six foot wound around the branches above my head.

After leaving there we went to one last place and that was called Australias Venom Zoo. There was a lady out on the street in front of this attraction with a black headed python wrapped around her as she touted for business.  After she offered to hide the head of this creature and I could not see its little tongue flicking in and out,  I was convinced to finally touch a snake for the first time in my life. Then we went inside and looked at taipans and a few more pythons and then had a guide show and tell us all about tarantulas, red backs, and scorpions. No pics taken there, sorry. Then we went back into the Butterfly place for one last look before  heading home after a big day out. Tomorrow we move onto Innisfail area for a couple of days as we begin the long long trek south into the cooler regions as winter starts to depart.

Keith holding a big Ulysses

Monday...23 August

Before I forget the name of the beautiful blue butterfly so prevalent up here is the Ulysses Swallowtail.
Went into Cairns today, wandered around for a bit getting the lay of  the place and ended up on the nice new marina development for lunch.  Was lovely sitting on the boardwalk with a gentle breeze blowing watching the roll of the boats at the marina. Followed lunch by going to the main Cairns shopping precinct and celebrated with a hair cut....go me! Not for me the little shops with names like Louis Vitton and Gucci etc.
The trip there and back involved yet more mountains and sharp hair pin bends and kilometre after kilometre of steep windy roads. This time it was only 18kms...lucky me. The entire thing is through rainforest but of course I was too terrified to take my eyes off the road and look and I was not even driving.
We have visitors coming tomorrow (cousin Christine) and plan to finally take the tour of the Mount Uncle Distillery and perhaps do lunch at the same place. Will be lovely to have the company.

Sunday...22 August

So today we went for a bit of a drive (530kms round trip) up the road to Cooktown. A place full of history. Apparently James Cook landed HMB Endeavour here to make some necessary repairs in 1770. Everywhere you look there is a marker, statue, cairn or descriptive placard giving information on Captain Cooks visit. We drove down to the town wharf and walked along the shore where they have tiles inlaid on the footpath depicting aspects of the landing or seasonal activities of the local aboriginies. Then we went to the visitor information centre which is within the Cooktown Botanical Gardens. A bit more signage to locate it would have been helpful. However they were able to tell us how to reach the Cooktown Lighthouse, so off we went up the steep and winding track to fetch a photo and marvel at the views of the Great Barrier Reef from up there.  Then we went to the Cooktown Museum which is housed in a colonial two storey house that was originally a convent and boarding school run by the Sisters of Mercy. They have a very large and interesting collection of memorabillia pertaining to Captain Cook and the growth of the town down through the years. One of the exhibits is the original anchor off the Endeavour. Definately worth the entry fee.
Going into town we saw some black mountains that appear to be nothing but huge rocks and boulders stacked up like a stockpile. On the way out we stopped at a scenic lookout to get a better look at them.  These mountains are formed by piles of granite boulders and a blue green algae causes the black appearance. A most interesting sight.

Did not do a blog yesterday so a belated birthday wish for my sister in law, Happy Birthday Ella.

Thursday...19 August

I got nothing!
Spent the day in camp today adjusting to the aches and pains of yesterdays activity.
Played 'phone a friend' this morning. Rang the favourite family friend in sheer desperation, for a chat about his employeers, and now waiting to hear from their complaints dept!!!
Thanks for listening and following up for us Bob.
Got 15 wallabies outside our van right now. Seems they like our little caravan park after dark. Them and their noisy over sized toad friends are the local welcoming committee, and everyone is invited, as there are lots of both types within feet of our door. Plenty of sugar cane in the area so not surprised to see the toads.
Mareeba is home to hot air ballooning and I was asked today if some of the children were here with us providing the hot air for them........you are very, very, naughty Bob.....ha ha ha!!!

Wednesday...18 August

Very busy day today. First up we booked to stay here another week. Weather is very pleasant and location is handy to everywhere. Then we went and voted at a pre-election voting place. Simple and easy and sure as hell beats standing in the absentee line for hours on Saturday.
After that we drove to Kuranda and wandered around the streets for a couple of hours looking at the various versions of markets from original markets to heritage markets to new age markets. Fascinating shops and stalls with all sorts of stuff from the usual beads and tshirts and opal stalls to a replica full size dinosaur skeleton. We viewed all this in company with our asian cousins...hundreds of them!!! Kuranda is just near Cairns and Cairns is the holiday playground for Japan. The ultimate 'whats wrong with this picture' was a sandwich board advertising the menu for a authentic German Resturant, written in Japanese!! (Yes Stephanie they had all your favourite items on that menu,)
After lunch in a nice little place selling good food and wine, we took the vintage train down the mountain from Kuranda to Cairns, a one and a half hour trip during which time you travel 36kms and go through 15 tunnels and around 96 bends and over 38 bridges over ravines. This was followed by a return trip up the mountain on the famous Skyrail above the rain forest.  Keith really enjoyed the train trip and I of course was terrified both ways.  I have been on Skyrail before and assumed it would be a nice easy trip this time. I did do ok for a while but started getting antsy half way through the 45 mins trip.The scenery was very green and being so high up the mountain you had a really good view of Cairns and the ocean around it.

Now did I tell you they have hot air balloons in Mareeba???.................

Tuesday....17 August

Took a quick trip into Pt Douglas on Sunday for a look see. Trust us to pick Sunday market day. We had hoped to spend some time with young Brendan, who lives there since his mother moved for her work and  maybe do lunch and have him show us the sights of Pt Douglas, but we had no contact numbers and all attempts to get them failed. Am not sure why some people have phones if they do not answer them or return calls. A disappointing day.
Spent today with Christine Kerslake (nee Carroll).  Turns out she is only 45kms up the road from here where they settled when they left Weipa.  Couple of phone calls and we spent most of today visiting with her and her husband at their lovely home in the hills, about half an hour out of Pt Douglas. They have a six acre block, about half of which is still natural rainforest, complete with small creek at the bottom boundary. They have seen platypus in the creek and have small wallabys that occasionally pop in for a snack of bread on the back patio. While we were there we saw curlews, a bush turkey and the most stunningly beautiful bright blue butterflys. She told us stories of the various snakes they have seen around the property including one about watching a python catch then eat a rat! They are going to come into town for lunch one day if we stay in the area long enough. The photo on todays blog was taken in Christines garden.

Saturday...14 August

Well now have I got a story for you! What a day.
Went to the local markets this morning, they have them every Saturday at the Museum, you know the one I got sucked into the other day, thus delaying a planned trip to the coffee plantation. Great markets, heaps of stalls, and even better, I resisted temptation and came away empty handed. They were selling everything from fresh produce to plants, including roses and orchids. They had all sorts of animals, some for sale, some like the horses for buggy rides and some for display as proud owners walked their dogs through the markets. Among the dogs was a cavoodle, the tiniests little puppy, to a Saint Bernard, huge beast, but of course a very placid nature, which was good as half the people at the markets wanted to pat it.
Today was extra special at the markets as it was also the annual Mareeba Gold Panning competition. Great fun watching people of all ages and sizes washing a measured amount of soil and being scored on time and amount of gold found and retained on the panning bowl/basin.
After a quick lunch, during which I loaded up the Sunbeam food dryer with a load of beef jerky, we drove out of town a few kilometres to a WW2 Museum. This particular one is the largest privately owned museum in Qld. Full of very interesting memorabilia. Planes, trucks, jeeps, troop carriers, artillery guns, big display of everyday equipment of the ordinary soldier. Heaps of medals and maps. Himself always knew his father was stationed in this area during part of the war. This is where they taught our troops jungle warfare. Today we found out at this little museum exactly where his fathers group were. No doubt he will make time to go there and it would be rather special to walk in the area his father trained in so long ago, I think.
After that we came home for a cup of tea and then went for a 70km trip to Mt Carbine to see the bull riding and bronco riding competition. A large portion of the program was allocated to the juniors with the youngest competitor being 3. The program started at 5pm and after interval at 8.30pm they finally  had the big boys on the big bulls. Fast and furious with only a couple of serious injuries from stompings or hang ups. The clowns really are very good at what they do and more than once we saw them take a hit or get thrown saving a rider from being tossed by a very angry bull. Apparently the bullriding was followed by a live band until 2am, and most folk camp out for the night and follow it up with a communal breakfast tomorrow morning. We were too tired to party with them so headed for home. The weather was rather chilly but generally a pleasant night out and even the drive home late at night was not too bad as we did not meet any kangaroos or other suicidal animals or wildlife.

Friday....13 August

This means it is not only Friday 13th (why wasn't I told?), but my BB birthday. Happy birthday Ted.
Another nearly perfect day in paradise today. Bit nippy this morning, down to 15 and I heard the ladies at the clothes lines discussing who had to get the spare doonas out of storage last night. However it got up to a pleasant 27 during the day. They are offering the same for tomorrow! It can be tough being a tourist....
Today we set off to visit one of the local coffee farms, so popped into the local tourist information centre first to find out which of the many offered the best value for money tour. Big mistake. The local information centre is also a FREE museum full of interesting bits vaguely remembered from our childhood or at least our growing up years. Old 78's on the HMV record player, cream seperators, wash boards, hand water pumps, ink wells, sixth grade readers, I could go on and on. Departing from there we saw that right next door was the local art and craft shoppe. More time lost!!

By the time we got done there and the museum, it was a bit late to visit the coffee farm before lunch after all, so we headed to the local shopping centre to get fresh supplies. That done we came home for lunch, then set off again to visit the best local coffee farm. This time we had more success and made it in time for one of the tours. We got to see coffee trees, coffee cherries which is what they call the fruit until it is washed and hulled then fermented and eventually hulled again to reveal the actual coffee bean in the middle of the cherry. We drove past the machinery that is used to harvest the trees and then onto the mill that processes the fruit. They did not show us the drying process but when we got back to the centre the entry fee included a cup of your favourite coffee ( latte, cappucinno etc) and free tastings of the coffee liquers they make, very yum. And yes they did make me a cup of tea instead. The farm is totally organic being pesticide and herbicide free etc.
The Nerada tea farm is also in this district so am hoping to do a tour there too eventually.
Tomorrow we plan to go to Uncle someones distillery (hic!) and a peanut farm then in the evening there is a bull riding and bronco riding rodeo type of event up the road at Mt Carbine we may attend, this is after going to the Saturday markets in the morning, back at the blessed Information centre!!
You may find my perils amusing (as did my BB regards yesterdays little trek!) and I am pleased to give you a daily chuckle but in all honesty this is not what I set out to do. I was merely documenting our travels so that we have a diary type record without having to carry yet more paperwork and excess baggage!!!!!
I did a bit of a head count this afternoon and came up with close to 20 folk that I know for sure are reading this blog, this makes me wonder a little as to how many are reading that I do not know about.... work with me people, do not let me wander alone in the wilderness.

Thursday...12 August

We moved camp today. We travelled from Mt Surprise via Atherton to Marreba.
The day started out nicely with surprisingly good road and interesting scenery, but it went downhill rapidly for me, when we started crossing moutains via thin extremely windy roads for kilometre after kilometre with sheer drop often on both sides of the road with oncoming trucks and assorted other things like silly bloody nomads and their caravans. Himself really enjoyed the drive, I swung from terrified to tearfully begging to go back or to slow to a snails pace. And then Qld Main Roads got in on the act and had roadworks happening. They had closed small sections to one lane at a time traffic, so there we are in queue waiting for the man on the stop and go to get done with picking his nose and scratching his bum, all the while sitting on the edge of a bloody oversized hill with a long long way to the bottom! Was apparently a pretty drive full of interesting rain forest and amazingly green farming land......if you had your eyes open at the time. We had been warned not to take a particular road to Cairns as it is too windy and steep..... and we stayed off that road, but by the time we arrived in Atherton I was starting to query if we had taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way and somehow gotten onto the bad road. Not so, we were on the "good" road. Guess we will definately not take that other road to Cairns. My nerves and his patience just will not take another ride like todays.
On arrival in Atherton we toured the Crystal Caves. This is a shop in the main street of Atherton that specializes in crystals and fossils. They have heaps of natural crystals from all over the world with an emphasis on Amethyst, and part of the paid tour in their Crystal Caves is to see the Empress of Uruguay which is a massive piece of amethyst that has to be seen to be believed, Absolutely awesome.

Empress of Uruguay

We have ended up in Marreba which is further along then we planned,  but we could not get a spot at the selected destination. However, we are now closer to Cairns and Karunda and only 33kms from Atherton so could go back for the bits we missed. We think we will base ourselves here and take day trips to selected places and points of interest. There is coffee and tea plantations and WW2 sites and the Skyrail and Hot air ballooning and microlite flights. Heavens my feet may not touch the ground the whole time we are here!!

Tuesday...10 August

Nice lazy day today. Did a bit of washing then scrubbed the van top to bottom, couldn't believe where dust can accumulate in a tiny space like a caravan. Still, did my best to remove most of it and felt better for the exercise.
Then we took a long slow walk around the town (population 60), yes I know I keep mentioning it but I think the last time I was anywhere that small I would have been a child visiting distant relatives.
We crossed the highway to the gem shop and gazed in wonder at the various types of rock and how pretty they can be when polished or faceted into gemstone quality. Every colour under the rainbow, blues, greens, yellows, purple etc.
From there we wandered past the local school, which has 14 kids attending, rather comical considering what happened later in the day. Happy sounds were coming from the school, so am guessing it is a good school, with quality teachers who are well regarded by the students.
One of the places had minature horses and lots of birds in avaries to marvel at. Must say I think the King Parrot is a magnificent bird.
On the way back we wandered into the local pub and had a drink at the main bar. Rather quaint little pub and full of character with its own personality. The entire wall behind the bar is covered with saying signs. One read: If you think our barmaids are sexy, you are pissed, go home!! Made for interesting reading while I drank my lemon lime soda water.
We came home to the park in time for the arrival of a big tour bus which deposited 60 students and assorted staff who are on school camp in our nice quiet middle of nowhere caravan park, for the next three days!! That sure altered the number of children in town. It is a boarding school from Charters Towers and they will no doubt be here to do the tour of the lava tubes we saw yesterday. Great stuff for geography and history type lessons. Lots of noise on arrival but to be fair they had been on a bus for more than five hours, and they did settle eventually and the teachers had them busy for the rest of the day right up to bedtime at 9pm. Cannot complain about that. Tomorrow morning may be fun when the grey nomads have to share three showers in each block with 60 assorted  teenagers!!
The other big news for the day was that it rained. The gospel according to our hosts says that it does not rain here from Easter till October. Fingers crossed it is only a bit of rain and not enough to bog us or flood us in. We do like this place but would want to move on eventually.
And after tea tonight while we were sitting outside in a nice breeze we were joined by the owner's dog, big and black of no particular heritage, her name is Molly and she wandered into our area, sniffed us and promptly curled up at Keiths feet and went to sleep for a couple of hours. Full asleep, snoring and all, then she sat up, licked us and wandered back into the dark, most probably back to the house. Wonder if she will be back tomorrow night.......

King Parrot

While I think of it, we decided against going fossicking so all those who put in orders can stop holding their breathes. Costs a fortune and they say the only thing to find if you find anything at all, is topaz and clear quartz. Will save the engergy until Lightning Ridge.(maybe)

Monday... 9 August

Kalkani Crater

Ok, so today we did the half day tour of the Undara Lava Tubes. First port of call was the Kalkani Carater. We walked up to and then around the rim of this 200,000 - 400,000 year old dormant volcano. This walk is 2.5km and there is a 600m incline to the rim. I made it to the top, but yep I was the straggler everyone had to wait for at each section, and the sad bit, I was not the oldest person in the group! The entire tour was fascinating and the guide was so informative. This bloke seriously knows and loves this area. We then moved on, and into some of the actual lava tubes. There was a rocky path with a rope handrail which got a bit hairy in places for me leading down into the chambers and tubes, but the outcome was well worth the effort. Beautiful large caverns which were formed by lava flow. Some chambers interconnect, others run parallel to each other and most are still inhabited by various forms of wildlife including some species of bats. Wasn't hard to find them, one followed ones nose to the bat poo pile!! The colors in the rock walls were magnificent and the bones of dead animals, (mostly kangaroos but we did see some dried out old cane toad skins too), dotted around some of them just added to the atmosphere. Thank heavens for the torches each person had and the non stop flash of cameras. I think it could become a bit scary down there in the dark without so much added light. On the way there and back in the bus the guide gave us a running commentary on the cattle stations we were passing through and how they are managing their land and stock. Our guide owns the caravan park we are in and is a fully accredited Savannah Guide, but he grew up in the area and worked as a stockman on many of the stations, so knows as much about the land as he does about its fascinating features.  A great day out and thank heavens we only did the half day tour, that took five hours and most of the 17 pax were exhausted by the time we got off the bus.

Tomorrow we will be a bit lazy and take a look around town, probably end up meeting all 60 inhabitants!!! There is a school which has 14 kids attending. Just over the main road from this camp is a gem shop so will see what they have and decide if we want to go and fossick ourselves for the various gems in the area . 40kms north is the O'Briens Creek Gemfields with stones including citrine, quartz, topaz, garnet, aquamarine and sapphires. Slim pickings now but always possible to find them if you pick the right little area to fossick in they say......

Sunday... 8 July

Did nothing Saturday, stayed home and washed. Himself went fishing at the local weir but no luck. At least he finally got a line wet after carrying the three rods all this way all nicely wrapped in their little calico bags I made them to keep them snug and happy in their little pipe home. Perhaps next time he will have more luck. Poor thing had to make do with the other half of  his kilo of prawns for tea!!
Today we left Normanton and headed to Croydon with intentions of stopping a few days but while it is an old gold mining town full of history and such we managed to do most of the touristy things by lunchtime so decided to travel a bit further after all.  The tourist information centre in Croydon has the most amazing sculptures dotted all over their grounds. They were made by a local bloke and appear to have been made with chain and other left over bits of mechanically inclined stuff.

We have ended up in a little place called Mt Surprise, population 60. Near this town is the Undara Lava Tubes and we have booked a tour for tomorrow.

Friday...6 August

Today we took a day trip up the road to the end of the road! Karumba is a pretty little fishing village at the mouth of the Normanton River and the Gulf of Carpentaria. After the lovely clear blue WA oceans the thing that struck me the most was that the Gulf water is green. We drove all around the area looking at points of interest, but the highlight of the day was a tour of the Barramundi Centre the only place to successfully breed these fish in tanks. The fish they breed are then released into the water systems of Qld. Since being started in 1993, this fish breeding place has put more than half a million fingerlings into the lakes and rivers of Qld.
The crafty barramundi all begin life as boys, they mature first at 2-3years as males then change at 5-7 years into females. Females are capable of multiple spawnings and generally produce 3-6 million eggs per season. Barramundi only have two natural predators, humans and crocodiles!! Generally though, they are the top of the fish food chain and can grow to enormous sizes.  One of the breeding females at the fish farm today was over 20kg. She looked extemely autocratic and the staff say she has real attitude some days. After the life cycle and habits chat and following a video, we moved to the breeding tanks and everyone had the opportunity to climb the ladder to the top of the tank and hand feed the big big fish. Was fun watching them, they have no teeth and literally inhale their food (whole fresh sardines). They make a whoosh as they rush up from the bottom of the tank to take fish out of your hand, splashing the feeder in the process.
The lass that did our tour really knew her stuff, and she was good at getting and keeping our attention with plenty of little male and female fish jokes along the way. Turns out she is a commercial fisher and volunteers at the barramundi centre in her off season. Most interesting visit.
At one stage Karumba was a staff changing post for the commercial Empire Flying Boats en route from Sydney to London.
The town boat ramp was originally built by the RAAF during the war to service and load their Catalina flying boats.
As Karumba is a base for a commercial fishing and prawning fleet, we went to the one major fish market outlet and bought a kilo of fresh cooked banana prawns for $15. No prizes for guessing what himself had for tea tonight...

We are thinking this area is a place we may come back to another time in winter as so far the weather has been wonderfully barmy.

Thursday...5 August

Spent this morning wandering on foot around Normanton town looking at seriously old buildings. The town has good signage all around the place pointing out buildings of interest and then giving a bit of information on each as to why it is of interest.  Even the caravan park is of historical interest. Well not the park itself but inside the park is a hot artesian bore that was put down by the govt in 1896. The flow is 140,000gallons a day of hot water that contains natural fluoride. It is used as the hot water supply for the amenities blocks in the park, and you definately need to add cold water for a shower. 
In a local park is a exact replica of the largest crocodile ever shot (recorded by the Guiness Book ppl), and it was a wee slip of a professional girl shooter who got him in 1957 when crocs were allowed to be killed,  this monster was 8.5m with a girth of 4m and weighed 2 tonnes. It is humongous. It looks like one of those oversized "biggest of" things used to highlight some towns. This is no biggest of, this was real. Scary people, real scary.
We came back to camp and then drove down to the local railway station at the other end of town. Once again it was eye popping on the museum side of things. Wandering around the station was a pair of brolgas who come and go but generally call the station their territory.
Beautiful birds, the wife is a bit timid, but of course the male is confident and happy to wander among the tourists and have his pic taken. The local station volunteers sell 'shares' in Mr & Mrs Peck and the money is donated to the local SES. "Shares" are recorded in a ledger and certificates issued!!  A novel way to support the birds and a local group.

Tomorrow we plan to drive the 70kms to Karumba for the day. Karumba is the base for the prawn fleet for the Gulf of Carpentaria and we are told that prawns are a good price. Naturally himself will buy some if they are affordable.

Wednesday...4 August

Ok so we left the Territory via Threeways Roadhouse, windy as all hell and trying to rain. Travelled on to a wayside stop called Avon Downs (windier than threeways), which turned out to be over the road from the last Police station in the Territory. We made camp and spent the rest of the day watching them pull over most of the vehicles passing that way for general vehicle inspections and RBT (it was a public holiday in the Territory). They missed us as we had already parked for the day.

Next day we headed off down the road all the while being bucketed by an incredibly persistant crosswind, crossing  the border into Queensland and onto Camoweal and Mt Isa, which seems bigger than last time we were there. We did not stop as parking for us was near impossible. I would have liked to stop and top up at the local supermarket but signage was minimal thus making it difficult to be in the right lanes at the right time and parking was hopeless. We decided to continue to Cloncurry. Probably Cloncurry is a fine little place but it was ruined for me by the caravan parks attitude. Maybe another day we will look at the sights of Cloncurry, including memorials to the Mary Kathleen mine which was the first uranium mine in Australia (long closed now). I always remembered that mine during history and geograhpy lessons as a kid, given that it contained my name and my sisters middle name. Twice now I  have driven past the gates and wondered if it would be interesting to visit  Maybe one day when it no longer matters if I glow in the dark, I will stop and have a look!!  Cloncurry was the birthplace of the RFDS, and we all know Rev John Flynn had the vision to start it, his pic is on the $20 note. Perhaps it was after that that even he had the good sense to leave Cloncurry as I do know that he went inland and helped to invent and then teach the use of  the pedal radio which was the first version of todays modern two way radio, and such a help to the station people and outback folk of Australia. My luck he did all that first then went to Cloncurry. One day I will google him but for now it suits my purpose to remind you that Flynn of the Inland was an ordained Presbyterian minister who is remembered for his "Mantle of safety over the Outback" (The Pedal Radio and the RFDS). One for my mob!  Cloncurry was full of oversized cattle trucks, three and four trailer roadtrains and we did eventually find a Woollies supermarket and restock the fresh bread and salad vegies.

Today we travelled north from Cloncurry via the Burke and Wills Roadhouse, not surprisingly in the middle of nowhere and full of stuff no one really wants and with nothing of the stuff one really does want!!! (Food for lunch). Maybe this was meant to be, as we then had lunch in our van made with fresh bread and fresh bananas. Healthy and yummy. Much bouncing and breath holding on my part followed, as the road occasionally became one tiny little bit of bitumen to be shared by all, neccessitating the old one wheel on one wheel off when passing oncoming traffic. We arrived in Normanton which is on the Norman River in the Gulf of Carpentaria. Cattle country, big beef cattle all nice and fat ready for market. We are 70kms from Karumba on the coast and will visit it and maybe Burketown further out if we can handle the weather. We think we may have found THE place to sit out winter but the next day or two will decide.......

Tonite we went out to dinner at the famous Purple Pub. I kid you not! It is called "The Purple Pub" and of course it is painted purple purple purple. Meals were reasonable, service was happy, whats not to like? I did not have to cook or wash up so I vote it OK.

John Flynn Memorial near Threeways Roadhouse

Threeways Roadhouse NT

Sunday...1 August

Happy birthday to all the horses. Well we made it to Mataranka but they didnt have any room at their park so travelled an extra forty something kms down the road to a freecamp called Warloch. Was a nice little campsite. The usual mix of assorted people all going somewhere important to them. We had a mini united nations near us last night with a car load of back packers from France, another campervan had a Swedish flag flying proudly, and I have already forgotten where the other two car loads of backpackers came from. I do clearly remember where I wanted one of them to go!!  Hans (grunted gutterually..? German) insisted on making a camp fire and persisted for hours in trying to cut logs into firewood with a tomahawk with a blade of about six inches. AND it was blunt. We were trying to enjoy the serenity of the Australian Bush and there he was bang bang banging away at his lump of wood. I offered to go and put the tomahawk into his forehead!! Someone lent him a hand saw. Too much hard work for Hans, he went back to bang bang banging. By seven oclock he still hasnt got a fire happening to cook his dinner and was still carrying logs and stones to his campsite to make the fire with. Simple maths said he could not burn all the wood he had chopped unless he stayed up all night and maybe the next day. Oh and all this on a day the girls from France said was too hot for a fire. He eventually lit his fire around 8pm. Quite a study in international relations watching him and others around him offering help or advice and his blatant shoulder shrugging and refusal to be told anything. My money was on him speaking perfect English and just ignoring all well meaning help.
Today we came as far as Threeways which is exactly what it says, a roadhouse on an T intersection. From here you go north to Darwin, South to Adelaide or East to Queensland. The wind is blowing a bit and it has tried to rain off and on all day with zero sucess so maybe during the night it will happen. The side of the roadhouse has a NT roadtrain painted along it, all four trailers and then at the front of the truck they have used a real bullbar to finish the picture, most effective.
We have seen several pushbike riders and heaps of motorbikes out on the trek.  There is something so unexpected seeing a motorbike towing a little campertrailer. It is amazing watching them open them out into a tent complete with assorted camping gear.
May or may not move on tomorrow, much will depend on the weather......