Coowinda

The Galley

Greg and John busy fishing

No fish but he did catch a crab !

Fixing another sail!

Cooktown !

Back to the coast and what a beautiful town. Not sure if this is as far north as we go will have to wait and see. Found Greg Keegan ( the Captain) and Karen , Lily, Rebecca & Ben just out of town on a great property of 160 acres. Have had prawns and Barra for dinner 2 nights now. We are staying on his boat the Coowinda on the Endeavour river - it is moored on a friends property and has its own marina. Yep, we are watching out very carefully for crocs. What more could you ask for?  Oh I  know - it would be good to actually catch a fish now and again! Visited the Captain Cook Museum in the old convent and had my hair cut at the markets on Sat.and had a tropical fruit frappe.

Little Annan River - Black Mountain

Through Atherton, Mareeba and the Mango Winery with literally thousands of perfectly pruned mango trees. Mt Malloy and another very crowded freebie camp on the side of the highway and full of generators! Little Annan River a day camp but we stayed several nights! Such a great place to climb rocks and swim. Only left cause we ran out of food. Black mountain - volcano-  where all the soil has washed away and left only big black granite rocks.

Herberton - A Big Hole & Dinner Falls

A day trip to Herberton another town famous for its tin mining and pioneering men and women. Such old places to see and explore. A volcano exploded and left this vertical hole in the ground and now beside it are the Dinner falls. Watch out for cassowary's ! We did but didn't find even one !

Irvinebank - Mt Misery - Tin Mining Town

Why go from Mt Garnett to Mt Misery via a very steep, rough, washed-out 4WD only track to Irvinebank? cause its a nice place to camp of course. And so it was, on the side of a creek opposite the only store/pub in town, free camping. hot showers and lots to explore in this history steeped tin mining town.

Checked out the old dam used for the tin smelter, explored the museum of John Moffatt who founded the tin mine and the town, saw the cemetary, had dinner at the pub and got John had a gig there for the following Saturday when all the Willies Jeeps came to town. Climbed into, upto and onto the most dangerous places all frought with danger! But most of had fun and met lots of great people.

Undara Lava Tubes

What an amazing place - check out their website or the u-tube clip about swimming in the caves-"undara underwater"  truly amazing footage. The whole place is so interesting and really beautiful. They have done a great job on the resort and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. They had bush camping sites, lots of great walks, campfire singalongs and astronomy lectures, and of a course a pool to relax in.

Why do want take a photo of me ?The pioneer cottage on the old telegraph line.

We splurged and had dinner in the restaurant - John had roo, emu and croc which looked delicious and of course I had boring ol' chicken but not having to cook was such a treat! The tour was so packed full of info we had our heads spinning and Ross our Savanah tour guide was such a great bloke and so very interesting. Funnily enough one of his tales was about his school days with the Old Souls Catholic school in the bush at the Burdekin.! Too many coincidences sometimes.3 days later and checking out Kalcite Crater a volcano that you can walk around the rim of - again spectacular views and great fun.

Fletcher Creek - Charters Towers

Passed through Home Hill where they have on street parking for campers with a complete  kitchen and showers and then Ayre home of the big python!

Twisted my ankle again at the same time as stubbing my toe on the other foot- no fun here.- Camped at Alligator Creek south of Townsville but very small camp spots and it was raining and I was in pain. not a place I wanted to stay at. After checking out Charters Towers and its history at the lookout we stocked up on supplies and headed off to Fletchers Creek 40kms Nth. I have never seen so many gray nomads, travellers, campervans, caravans in one spot. Free camping will do it though. Our spot was great down the end of the camping area with lots of bushes and shade on either side. Met some lovely people, befriended some dumped roosters, caught very small redclaw and explored the area on our pushies.

 Found Dalrymple NP and an awesome spot on the side of the Burdekin River. Off we go! Got truck bogged in sand trying to get to the water and after  much digging and letting down of tyres on our way again. An amazing river and camping area - so much to see and a lot of history from around this area. Leichardt the explorer had left his L in a tree near there, the old township of Dalrymple and its cemetary. Also they had started a catholic school out in the bush when the Americans came to Charters Towers to help defend Australia in the battle of the Coral Sea and needed the school building.

Funny Dunny - Inkerman ( sth of Bowen)

 Inkerman - Township of Wunjuna-Funny Dunny park -  Refuge Bay

Found another great campsite near Inkerman - the campsite is only on about 1 acre and everyone is crammed into this small space - unbelievable - so... we went up the track a bit and and had our own little piece of paradise. Lots of kids ( school hols) and quads  which was entertaining, but very windy still. Saw heaps of willife including brolgas or very similar. Lost my optus broadband stick couldn't find it anywhere but it never wored anywhere anyway ! Hence our new gmail account.

June at Zamia Ridge

After all the excitement of the last couple of weeks time out at Zamia Ridge - Dad & Caroline's retirement home. Beautiful views from the balcony, plenty of fresh pineapples and enormous avocados from Trevor,  a bit more R & R  to be had. Watched  a great show at Seaforth Bowlo - Johnny Cash Tribute show - heaps of fun and a great act. Various maintenance duties performed around the property, firewood cutting and leaf raking and some maintenance on the Hiluxury. Cleaned out Dad's trailer sailer to see if she is still seaworthy and after a bit of elbow grease she came up pretty good. Going to take her out to the Whitsundays for a couple of weeks but this was delayed due to the bad weather. Will change plans and return when it all settles down again. Visited Kitchener Dam to see if it would be a good spot to camp and test run the boat but decided to take it out to Seaforth Harbour instead. Great day sailing in the harbour and all went well. Time to leave and start our travels again.

Zamia Ridge, Seaforth and the Girls and Gary come to visit.

After much fun on the boats we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of both Melanie & Hayley  to Zamia Ridge.
Gary, my brother arrived on the Tuesday morning by a very late train. It was great to see him again. The girls arrived on the Wednesday and we spent the next couple of days relaxing at Dad's and catching up with them. Dad generously offered to shout us a trip to the Whitsundays with them so off we went again out to the Islands! What a great holiday !

This time on an Ocean Raft and what a change from the leisurely Catamarans, 2 x 250 hp Yamaha motors on the back of a very large Zodiac ex rescue boats. A fun and action filled day with the most amazing weather and an awesome crew. Smorgasbord lunch on the boat at Whitesands after walking up Hill Inlet and admiring the vast view. Best day ever ! Back to Smalley's Beach - (cause its such a great place to camp) with the girls for a couple more days of R & R in the Qld sunshine.

The Boat Trip - at last

Camped at Smalleys Beach at Seaforth and then finally arrived at Dad & Caroliines place Zamia Ridge, Seaforth, Mackay, Qld.

Getting ready to head up to Airlie to begin our week of sailing. So much grog to buy, glad we had the ute empty and ready. Filled it completely with grog and food. Girls shopped for groceries ($1100) and the boys did the boat briefing.aboard Sea Window and Fusion Magic.( More realistically known as seamen on the windows and confusion tragic)   And then we were off with our sailing buddy, Peter. Our first stop was Daydream Island to unload our buddy and then over to Cid Harbour for the night whilst we waited for Sea Window to collect Mooose & Herclouise ( who missed their plane) from Hamilton Island.

Second night spent at Cid harbour- Saw Mill Bay,  but this time we were all together. Party time ! Took a great walk over the hill to dugong beach which was beautiful and scenic with all the hoop pines on the side of the cliff. Next day sailed over to Hook Island but it was very windy and the "bullets" gave us a restless night with all the buffetting.! Nice and sunny next day as we headed over to Blue Pearl Bay on Hayman Island. Great snorkelling with plenty of fish - awesome . A walk to the top of the island and overlooking the deserted Hayman Island Resort . Forgot my shoes, so lovely Deb shared hers with me.  A lot of other boats mooring here but we held our ground (?) and managed to secure a spot for the night. The Solway Lass moored near us (with not a white person onboard- all Jamacan- and no one could speak english) and they were having a ball climbing the rigging and jumping from the top on ropes. Frank and Glen decided to have a go too-talked them into-  it no mean feat in itself -  what a sight, Frank's fluro limbs flying through the air!

Our turn to cook dinner - Atlantic Salmon ( not caught locally, obviously !) and then our washing up party - too much fun!!

Next day we sailed to Butterfly Bay on Hook Island - more snorkelling but not as good. Decided to go back to Stonehaven and lost Brett overboard on the way! Good time to practise our man overboard drill! Got to 9.2 knots sailing speed - pretty good for us amateurs. Back to Cid Harbour via Black Island. This is where Libby, Top Shelf Sondra, Brett and I managed to circumnavigate the whole island. Very good adventure indeed. Next day over to Hamilton Island to drop everyone back at the airport and motor back to Airlie following Sea Window skippered by the Charter Yatchs crew.