Cairns

On Saturday we departed a hot and humid Port Douglas for the short drive to Cairns, around 60klms. It was beautiful scenery as we travelled down the Captain Cook Hwy as it winds alongside the coast and through the tropical landscape.

With the temperature around 27 degrees, we arrived at Crystal Cascades only ten minutes before Les & Pauline, and were pleasantly surprised to find we were on adjoining sites. Rex and Carlene had arrived two days previously and were only a short distance away, and have since moved and are on the other side of Les & Pauline. This makes Happy Hour a lot more convenient.

Yesterday Pauline took Carlene and I into Rusty’s Market to get a supply of fresh fruit and vegetables, on the return trip stopped at a Bowls Club to check out when they have their social bowls. It looks like we will be going on Tuesday night, as it will be more enjoyable to play when it is cooler.

Today we went for a leisurely ride along the river there is a great walking/cycle path that follows the river and it was lovely and cool in the shade of the trees. Then it was a trip into the City with a walk along the Esplanade and Bazza was a little disappointed when he was unable to see any topless ladies among the many sun seekers lazing around the foreshore Lagoon area. We enjoyed a nice lunch at a Turkish Restaurant that was opposite the Lagoon, a good place to people watch.

This fruit is from a Cassowary plum tree – the fruit needs to pass through a Cassowary to germinate, Bilby has decided it is too large to use as a Easter Egg.

Port Douglas

Thursday morning we left Cooktown, had hoped to get away around the 8am mark, but by the time everyone has a chat while you are hooking up it was a little after 9am before we left. Travelling back we stopped at the Black Mountain Lookout, this imposing mountain range is massive granite boulders and also marks the end of northern end of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area. Further along the road we had another stop to take some pictures of the ranges in the distance and it was the last of the steep descents until Mt Molloy.

Stopping at Mt Molloy pub for lunch, then it was time to descend the steep twisty mountain that required using 2nd and 3rd gear and boosting up the caravan brakes then it's out onto the Captain Cook Hwy and onto the Glengarry Big 4 Caravan Park which is about 8klm from Port Douglas, we are staying here until Saturday. This morning we went into Port Douglas and had a walk up the main shopping drag, Bazza then set his sights on a Coffee and of course a slice of cheesecake.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we are off down to Cairns and will be staying there for a 2 week rest, and will also catch up with Pauline, Les, Carlene and Rex.

Cooktown

Hot and Humid !

Tonight is our last night here in Cooktown, we have really enjoyed our stay in this lovely town, we had originally booked into the Caravan Park for 3 nights but ended up extending it to 6. The only problem we have had is the midge bites, must have got them the first night here and we have been scratching and itching for days ! Have now been given a recipe for a potion to keep them away, it is equal parts of Detol, Baby Oil and Citronella Oil not the best smelling but it must work as we don't think we have any new bites. We were at the supermarket buying all sorts of sprays and lotions and someone said to us "you must be from down south, the midge's love southerner's !"

Our first day here we ventured up Grassy Hill to where the Lighthouse is located and the lookout gives you a panoramic view of Cooktown, the Endeavour River and Coral Sea. James Cook climbed the hill on several occasions to view the surrounding reefs enabling him to navigate a safe passage out after repairing his ship. The lighthouse was built in England and was shipped to Cooktown in 1885.

Cooktown has lovely Heritage buildings dating back to the 1800's many others have been destroyed either by a fire that went through the town or the cyclone in 1949. It is hard to imagine the town when it had 50 pubs, it now has only 3 remaining. The Captain Cook Museum is housed in what was a Convent School that was left empty at the start of WW11, when the nuns were advised to move to the Tablelands where they would be safer, the building then housed communications during the war.

Yesterday we went to the Botanical Gardens to have a look around, only lasted there about 20 minutes before Bazza thought it would be better going for a Coffee and Cheesecake at Jackey Jackey's Cafe.

Today we went along to the Bowls Club and had a game of social bowls, it was very hot and they did not have any shades. As soon as we arrived back at the Caravan Park I was off to the pool to bring down that core temperature as I was getting a little grumpy ! Temperature here today was 27 degrees with a humidity of 80%.

Since being here we have also run into some friends that used to live in Lauderdale, David and Lenice, I was in the pool and saw this couple checking out the camp kitchen and pool area and I thought I recognised them, they were thinking the same thing. It has been great catching up with them and hearing about their travels and plans for the future.

Cook Museum (Old Catholic Convent)

Helenvale - Lions Den Hotel

Thursday we were on the road heading toward Cooktown, passing through Mareeba and Mt Molloy,   Bazza needed a comfort stop so pulled off the road at a rest area at Mt Molloy, only to have this 4WD pull up along side and abuse him for not indicating and then taking off skidding his wheels hoping I   am sure, to shower us with a spray of gravel. Bazza had indicated, so upon checking the trailer plug found it was not connected properly, we had gone over a rather nasty rut in the road previously so must have dislodged it. So he may have had a excuse for the road rage, but could have tamed it down a bit.

                                                                                                                                                      

The inland road to Cooktown must be one of the best in Australia no patching or pot holes a very smooth drive. We travelled as far as Helenvale which is 27kl short of Cooktown as we had heard about the Lions Den Hotel which has a good campground so had planned to stop there for the night before continuing onto Cooktown.

The historic Lions Den Hotel was built in 1875 and is situated at the beginning of the Bloomfield Track and has a lovely campground, and there is safe swimming in the little Annan River. We enjoyed a lovely meal of Barramundi and checked out the memorabilia around the walls. There were quiet a few campers there that had just completed the Bloomfield 4WD Track, and it was interesting listening to some their tales. A tow truck was seen earlier in the evening with a camper trailer on it's tray that had rolled that day along the track.                              

Theresa Creek Dam-Charters Towers-Undara

Thought it's about time to sit down again and write a few words about where we have been over the last week. We spent 3 nights out at Theresa Creek dam which is 40 klm west of Clermont, a lovely peaceful spot which seems to have grown in  popularity since we were there 2yrs ago. On a rough count there would have been around 60 caravans, motor homes and camper trailers camped around the dam. Travelling from Emerald to Clermont the Gregory Hwy was continual road works, there was at least 10 stages controlled by lights that we had to negotiate.

After refuelling at Clermont we headed north on the Gregory Developmental Rd, which ended up being one of the best roads we have been on so far. We saw lots of road kill along the way and lots of Emu's Kangaroos and wild pigs. We topped up with fuel at Belyando Crossing, good thing we had only done 167 klms as fuel was 39 cents a litre more expensive than we had paid at Clermont. We just wanted to make sure we had enough diesel to make it to Charters Towers. We arrived at Charters Towers around 3pm and headed straight to a car wash to give the caravan a good clean, when we arrived at the caravan park people thought we had a brand new van. We spent two nights there as we needed to give the car a clean also and we had washing to do as well as spruce up inside the van and restock our food supply.

Monday we left Charters Towers and continued up the Gregory Development Rd, this section was surprisingly an excellent road for most of the way, after 100klms it reduced down to single lane sections. Just had to keep an eye out for on coming traffic especially Road Trains, and move off until they passed. We were not sure if we would make the Undara Volcanic National Park as it was 420klms from Charters Towers, but after sharing the driving "NO POWER NAP" this time we pulled in around 2pm. We had a lovely bush campsite in at Undara Resort which is in the National Park. You are only able to go into the Larva Tubes on a guided tour, so we booked in for Tuesday morning. It was amazing going down into these Lava Tubes like entering a very large cave but it has this unique tunnel formation. After the tour we had a quick lunch and hit the road again only travelling for a couple of hours before pulling into a free camp spot at Archer Creek, this morning we woke to find the car and van covered in frost it was rather chilly but the day has been lovely around 24 degrees. We are now on the Atherton Table Land stopping off at Milla Milla to see the waterfall, we were just heading back up the stairway to our car when we ran into an old friend of Bazza's whom he went to school with, Kevin was also a member of the MG Car Club. We have stopped  for the night at a Memorial Camp Ground between Atherton and Mareeba and will head further north tomorrow to Cook Town.

Emerald

Back on the road again this morning to a beautiful blue sky and warm weather we actually got hot today for the first time since leaving home.  Travelling towards Rolleston we passed some spectacular wilderness areas & towering sandstone cliffs that lead off to the Carnarvon Gorge.  I am sure it must be pretty impressive in the National Park, but we have been told that all the walks to the Gorge would be too difficult for me to do with the dicky ankle. After stopping for lunch at Rolleston we headed onto Springsure which has stunning rock formations that look out over the town. Leaving Springsure we arrived in Emerald for an overnight stop before we go off to Theresa Creek Dam for a couple of nights, while we are there we will not have access to mobile phones or the internet, oh no not even TV !

Meandarra-Injune

Yesterday we left Nindigully Pub rather weary after last call for drinks was at 1.40am and music being turned off at 2a.m., not that we were partying but trying to get some sleep. We set off in fine sunny weather but this changed as we traveled towards St George with the occasional light shower of rain and of course cold temperatures. We only refueled at St George as we were there last year and continued on to Meandarra, arriving about 2 o'clock at a free camp and were promptly greeted by Tom who gave us a low down on the camp and then asked us what type of music we like and offered us a CD with 339 mp3 filed on it of easy listening songs. After a late lunch we unloaded the bikes and had a ride around town and along a walking track beside the river and  back to the van for a quick sit down in the sun. Today before  leaving we enjoyed a visit to the Anzac Military Museum. It has a fantastic display for a small town and we were very impressed, it even has a Canberra Bomber supported in the middle of the building along with a Grant Tank weighting 23 tons, It has a lot more memorabilia and they have plans to add more as they are receiving more donations.

We back tracked to Surat and head North to Roma where we stopped for lunch and fuel and then to Injune for tonight's stop over. Along the roadside you often come across self seeded cotton bushes. We also saw two wild pigs with about ten little piglets racing off into the bush as we approached.

(P.S.) 'Him' asked 'Err' if she would like to drive today and 'Err' promptly climbed into the drivers seat and took off driving quiet well until 'Err' decided to take a power nap at 100klm hour towing a 2ton van! 'Him' realising that the car was going straight ahead instead of going around a bend shouted out 'what are you DOING?',  or words to that effect,  'Err' snapped into action and resumed steering. Needless to say that 'Him' is now doing the driving.