Seasons Greetings after the Outback, dirt, dust and the real Australia

            

 

It's been a busy and eventful few months since time our last update.  The outback communications were poor with very limited internet and cellphone reception hence the delay in updates!  After leaving Karumba we headed south, reaching Burke & Wills roadhouse. 

We then headed for Cloncurry another historic and current mining town .  Not a blade of green grass in site still and having a small issue with the car we had to stay longer than expected here until a part was delivered. Lots to see and do so we spent some time at the local museums, swimming pools and local attractions.  We also drove up Mt Isa (pleased to visit but pleased to leave - it is certainly a mine in a town).  On the way we visited the Lady Kathleen Uranium disused mine and town between Cloncurry & Mt Iza - an interesting place. (photo's below).

Our Aussie/Kiwi friends who we met in Karumba originally from Helensville joined us again here and we spent the next few weeks travelling around the outback with them. 

From Winton and the Waltzing Maltida centre, musical fence, dinosaurs, camel races (missed out this time),chinese gardens and much more to Blackall - an overnight stop - mineral pools, hard core locals and cold cold beer.  Then onto Longreach somewhere I never thought we would get to - a great town, with hardy Australian's managing the drought, some great tourist attractions and a must stop town.  Then onto Morven - where we stayed at the towns sports oval/show grounds free camp, that we had all to ourselves.

From here onto Roma - where we enjoyed a little grass, Art galleries, and sunshine and then it was on route to our farmsit at yet another inland mining town Wandoan. We had a great 3 weeks here and enjoyed being back on the land and having something to do.  We looked after 400 acres of very dry farmland, with sheep, dogs, cattle, pigs and chooks and it finally rained while we were there.  The locals looked after us well and from here we went to Chinchilla Wier to a fantastic free (donations only camp)not far from the little town. 

Then onto our first big town for what seems like a life time - Toowoomba - green green grass, wonderful gardens, and a bit of shopping.  From here to Mooloolaba where we spent a week with Helen, Justin and our God children Ebony and Bianca.  Then onto Brisbane to spend a week with Steve and Maurs Hollie.

We are still in Brisbane and our latest news is that Dave has landed himself a permanent job working as a Building Facilities Manager in the CBD and starts 6th January.  As there are no caravan parks that have long term stays in Brisbane we have rented an apartment at Kangaroo Point, overlooking the Brisbane River and the Story Bridge.  So the caravan is now in storage and we will be based here for the next year or so.  It's great to being doing something different again and city life, art galleries, museums, river walks, ferry rides and a bit a shopping. 

We will be home for a brief visit in January so perhaps a catch up with you then.  In the meantime, we hope you had a wonderful Christmas and wish you a fun filled, safe and healthy 2014. 

Celia, Dave and Larry

 

Outback - it just goes on and on!

 

 

Burke & Wills Roadhouse (in the middle of the outback flys, flys, flys)

 

 

Another stunning sunset.

Disused Kathleen mine

The old town with roads that lead to no where now

 

 

Our Kiwi/Aussie friends Doug & Linda

 

 

Oh what fun this was (even though it was very windy) - the musical fence at Winton.  They have music festivals here using #8 fence wire, and old tins and drums.  To hear Dave's musical drums go to the end of the blog and listen to the video.

 

 

 

Arno's Wall in Winton, includes almost every type of household junk we collect and Arno's way of displaying it! (recycled from the local dump).

 

The Emu have come to town in Longreach - as the drought continues and it is so dry they are coming into the town to seek food. 

 

 

 

A great visit to the school seeing the teachers working with the remote children on air.

 

Morven Showgrounds Free Camp with the local wildlife.

 

The Leichardt garden club garden visit and lunch.  This was a treat to see so much green after nothing for weeks.  One of the local farmers took me when we farm sat at Wandoan.

Dave on his new toy at the farm.

 The beautiful bull (who was so gentle you could pat him everyday)

Some of the girls - the brahman are beautiful cattle.

The two Kareema sheep dogs who live with the sheep to keep watch for the dingo's.

Chinchilla Weir - Free camp and stunning sunsets

 

Toowoomba - Japanese Gardens, stunning after the dry outback.

 

 

Toowoomba - a park after my family! 

 

 

Travel and Newsagent

Wildlife

   

Outback flowers!

 Outback travel

   Bridge  

 Story Bridge
 

 

Kai tricked Dave with hollow eggs for breakfast

 

 

Kai and Tane (Maurs & Steve's grandchildren)

 

   Ebony & Bianca

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Here is a clip of Dave playing the drum kit at the musical fence - it was so funny!

 

It's warming up and all about nature, rain forrest and the outback!

So it's been an eventful month since our last update. 

After leaving beautiful Rollingstone beach we headed to our first National Park – Paluma Range and stayed at Jourama Falls.  Was stunning, a great campsite, quiet location, great walks and water holes for swimming and the birds and insects were very noisy (the gecko’s at night sounded like a hammer on the caravan – all night long)!

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there we headed further North to Mission Beach where we enjoyed the beautiful Cassowary Coastline.  We visited  Etty Bay, Kurramine Beach, Bramston beach and Cowley Beach all beautiful spots.  We were lucky enough to see a male Cassowary and its chick (he takes sole responsibility of the chick until he is about a year old).    We explored the Tully Falls hidden in the Tully National Park, Mena Creek (lunched at the pub) and hidden in the middle of this country is (Paronella Park Castle), and Tully itself.  Heaps of banana’s grown around this area along with other tropical fruits Yum !!!.

  

We then headed to Innisfail and explored Josephine Falls, Ella Bay National Park and Flying Fish Point; these areas are full of lush rain forests, waterfalls, dams, and wonderful swimming holes

 

 

 

Pushing further North to Cairns we spent  5 days exploring.  Had a great day on the scenic train up to Kuranda and meandered around the town (very touristy and expensive) and then took the Sky Rail back down to Cairns , a great trip well worth doing if you ever visit Cairns.  Explored the city and beaches, visited more dams and creeks. 

 

From there we went further north to Newell Beach (just north of Pt Douglas).  From here we explored Pt Douglas and the stunning Daintree.  We crossed the Daintree River and took the 4wd Bloomfield track up to Cooktown – great fun and the road was in really good condition – in a few months time it will be impassable with the wet season.  In Cooktown we watched the unloading of live Coral trout bound for the Asian markets (best eating fish in Aussie) but with the amount they unloaded we can see why they are getting harder to catch.

 

  

 

Then onto Tinaroo Lake & Dam. The lake is just in from Atherton which is in the tablelands of Northern Qld – a very busy little town brimming with Queensland’s table of fresh vegetables and fruit. Tried my hand at catching a Barra at this lake but again no luck, also tried for Red Claw but with the school holidays heaps of people with boats the red claw had gone deep into the lake.

 
Now it’s onto the Savannah Way Highway – and now in Outback Australia.  It’s dry, hot and dusty and a one lane road!  We spend our first night in Georgetown – it was 41 deg when we arrived so it was inside into the air-conditioning for a while to cool off.  We then headed onto Normanton where 85% of the population is indigenous and a town that is in drought.  A friendly little camp but very dry and hot (lost power in the afternoon and it was another 38deg day phew!!!  Hot without the aircon.   We put the herb pot under the dripping tap to water it and in the night the wallabies ate the herbs and lettuce little buggers! From here we headed an hour up the road to Karumba which sits in the heart of the Gulf of Carpentaria, a mecca for fisherman.   

Pulled off the road and waited for the trucks to pass - the road trains are HUGE!

Well after a drought of fishing on the East coast my only option was to take a charter, I booked a half day trip and we headed off at 7.00am, fished in various spots but only caught bloody Cat fish, I’m sure the gulf is the cat fish heaven of Aussie as we caught heaps of them.  Finally the skipper put us onto a spot where we managed to catch some Salmon (Threadfin or Blue) people call them. We call Threadfin and I hooked 2 of these and also managed to land a Silver Jew Fish which we ate that night.   Today Monday I’ll try off the beach as there’s a few Bream around which are also good eating.

We pull out of here tomorrow and are now heading south and inland to Burke & Wills Road house we’ll stay here one night then onto Cloncurry, Winton and Longreach.   From here we are not yet sure of our route but we have to keep heading south as we have picked up a farm sit job and will be looking after a small 350 acre farm at Wandoan, they run mainly cattle  so have 2 1/2 weeks to get there (located on the Western Downs 350km inland from Brisbane).  More on that when we get there.

So it’s goodbye from us for a while and we’ll report in while we are farm sitting.

Cheers for now

Dave,  Celia & Larry

 

Photo's of our adventures since our last update.

 Some of the wildlife.

 

 

Paronella Park

 



 

 

Beautiful rare Cassawary

 

 

 

 

  

Josephine Falls - Wooroonooran National Park (not far from Innisfail) 

 

 

Kuranda Rail - Cairns

  

 

 Rainforest on the Sky Rail



 

 

 



Sky Rail - Cairns

 

 

 

Some of the Birdlife in Cairns

 

 

 

  

Copperehead Dam & Lake - Cairns

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Some of the natives! 

 

 

  

 

4WD only track - Daintree to Cooktown 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Black Rock Mountain Cooktown 

 



 

 

James Cook - Cooktown

  

 

 The Chinese settlers Cooktown

 

 

  

 

 Outback

 

 

Outback campsite and some of our favourite animals at Normanton & Karumba. 

 

 

 

Normanton Museum

 

  

 

  Ore tug - Karumba                 

   

 Sunset Karumba