Hi Hi to my trusty Blog Followers

Soooooooooooooo sorry for the long break but by the time I do my diary entry I'm usually too tired to post it to the Blog or the Internet is not working......so this will be a long post.........

I last left you on Wednesday 29th August

This is what has been happening.......

Ron took Indie to get the awning (we broke at Ravensbourne) fixed. $247.50 thanks very much!

Later we advertised Ben’s bar for sale on Gumtree.

Thursday30th August

It turned out to be a busy day.

In the morning, we all went out with Ben to fly his remote control plane. We parked at the field - right near a plover’s nest which understandably upset the parent who tried looking mean to frighten us away!!!!

 

Undeterred, Ben happily flew his plane. He did several take offs, landings and some pretty impressive manoeuvrers.

Then he got a bit cocky, tried something a bit too fancy and came back down to earth with a thud…..literally!!!!!

Later we went for a walk along The Strand.

 

That evening, Ben and Anita told us that they are having a baby boy around the end of December beginning of January!!!!!! They also rang Paul and told him.                               

Friday 31^st August

Paul sent flowers, the loveliest message and a bottle of bubbly which they immediately squirrelled away.

That night we all went to the Casino for Seafood Buffet…Yummo….fresh prawns and a mountain of smoked salmon, oysters and assorted other goodies and a big belly ache for being a piggy wig (but it was worth it!!!)

We then drove up Castle Hill for the mandatory view of the lights of Townsville.

Saturday 1^st September

We spent most of the day at home.

Ben sold his Bar (got to love Gumtree!!!!)

Ben, Anita and I went shopping for Ron’s Father’s Day Present. When we got back, Ron was looking quite forlorn – the awning has come away from the side of Indie - looks like we will have to replace the whole cloth.

Sunday 2^nd September

Ron had a nice Father’s Day and he and Ben did some more little jobs like fixing gates and putting up barricades so Dollar can’t tunnel out. Latter Ron and I took Dollar for a walk to the shops.

Monday 3^rd September

I rang the insurance company about our awning and they said because it sounded like just wear and tear it would not be covered.

We went and got a quote ($1250.00 – thanks for coming) and it has to be ordered in so it won’t be there till next Tuesday or Wednesday.

After that cheery news, Ron and I have decided to go up north and come back when it is ready to be fixed.

Cruisin’ Along to Cooktown

Tuesday 4^th September

We have decided to drive inland straight to Cooktown and then take our time coming back via the coast.

We drove up the coast to Cardwell and stopped for lunch at a park with fabulous views across to Hinchinbrook Island.

We turned inland at Silkwood to Paronella Park.

We stayed at the Caravan Park ($70.00) which gave us a powered site and day and night tours of the park.  Jose Paronella built the park in 1930 with a castle, picnic area, tennis courts, bridges, a tunnel and he installed a turbine to generate hydroelectricity. It is set on 5 hectares and has around 7,500 tropical plants and trees. It was opened to the public in 1935. Sadly, he chose the wrong building materials and the buildings have developed concrete cancer and have been ravaged by several cyclones and natural disasters over the years but it is still pretty spectacular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Give him a torch and he just can’t help himself!!!!!

Wednesday 5^th September

We drove through more spectacular landscapes to Millaa Millaa Falls and Malanda Falls.

Afterwards we saw the Curtain Fig Tree and went on to Yungaburra where we had lunch. We looked for the platypus at the creek but didn’t see any.

 

 

  We drove through Atherton and Mareeba and on to (211) Mt Molloy.

We met Rod, an artist from Byron Bay and shared Sun Downers.

 

Later on, during the night I could hear many scratching noises and met a bandicoot!!!!!!

Thursday 6^th September

  We continued inland to Cooktown stopping at Black Mountain on the way.  Cooktown was a bit ordinary but it was as far as we could go on bitumen in North Queensland so we had to do it!!!

 

 

 

Cooktown to Port Douglas

Thursday 6^th September

 We left Cooktown mid-afternoon and drove to (3)Lion’s Den Campground and Pub at Helenvale so we have done Helensvale to Helenvale!!!!

 

 

We met Steph and Danny and spent the night chatting.

Friday 7^th September

We backtracked to Mt Molloy and headed north towards the coast road.

We called in at Mossman Gorge. Ab Fab! There is a huge information centre, art gallery, café and of course the mandatory gift shop. They run little shuttle buses every 15 minutes to the gorge and there are great walkways and a swimming hole (too cold for me yet though). We spent a couple of hours there before continuing on.

 

 

 

 

Later we travelled on with the intention of going to Cape Tribulation, but the Ferry Fares across the Daintree River were too expensive to warrant a day trip just to say we had been, so we stayed the night at (6) Daintree River View Caravan Park ($20 unpowered).

Saturday 8^th September

The coastline heading south is fantastic. We called in at Wonga Beach first.

 

 

We encountered some interesting wild life there too.

 

 

After we left Wonga Beach we headed back through Mossman and they had markets. We bought some food, passionfruit and home-made Cassava Cakes – Yummo!!! I bought a new frock and of course, this being the Tropics where bright colours are all the rage, my dress is brown – yes- brown. (It does have a few other colours but it’s mainly brown!!!!)

Continuing on, we came to Port Douglas. It left me a bit cold to be honest……

so commercial….heaps of resorts and no easy access to the beach.