Funny place

Before we left Berwick, Fred had given the car a little service and also new plugs. Because we have gas the plugs need to be adjusted a bit, the gap has to be a bit smaller then with fuel. He had done that but most probably not enough (we thought) so we had a few backfires, that means that you get an explosion of unburned gas in the exhaust pipe. Suddenly something under the car made a strange noise and we figured out it must be the muffler.

So when Danny had left, we let it fixed.

Afterwards we found out that it weren’t the plugs which caused the backfires but bad gas we had tanked.

Sunday 2^nd of June;

We are leaving Cairns and the new muffler smells terrible. I first thought it was the engine because we are heading towards the Tablelands and have to go the way to Kuranda, pfff the road is so steep and windy again, frightening!! Danny knows, we have driven it before but without caravan.

We are making a strange move now as we are going back a bit. I told you that we might go back to Townsville and maybe we will but that’s not the reason. Family (who look after our post) from Victoria are travelling as far as Townsville with a camper van and because we also wanted to go to Charters Towers, we will meet there!!

On our way over the Tablelands through Mareeba and Atherton, we passed this windmill field, always fascinating to look at;

After seeing the windmills we go on our way again..... 

Our first stop was in Ravenshoe, what a funny place was that! It was actually, of course one out of my bible, a free camp spot but when we got there we also could get a site with power and because the Tablelands are high (we were at 950 mtr above see level) we thought we might need our heater (and we did), just $ 12,-/night we had to pay! Great.

It’s a camping spot on a railway precinct and on this Sunday, heaps of volunteers were working on the railway. It looks like they were trying to restore the whole lot. Later one of the volunteers told us that they had to replace 17.000 sleepers, Crikey, that’s a lot!!

a little jail!

it really felt we were camping in a museum....

Just a few shots of the town....

We stayed 3 nights and had a relaxing time, catching up with e-mails, phone calls and Skype to family. The strange thing was that we had better reception that in Cairns.

Ravenshoe, the highest town in Queensland....

5^th of June.

Between Ravenshoe and Charters Towers is not much. The Kennedy highway is very nice and I had a strange experience. I thought I saw Elephant bums but then realised there are no Elephants in Australia. These bums are ant castles. Thousands of them and each castle houses thousands maybe even millions ants. So you hardly can imagine how much ants there must be.

The castles have different colours too, grey, yellow and red, depends on the type of soil.

We didn’t see a car for nearly half an hour.

The road became very narrow at some stages, even the Garmin lady was confused and lost track. 

 

We stopped in Greenvale, a nice big caravan park in a trivial small village. She, it was a lady owner, was actually too expensive so the park was nearly empty. I can’t understand such thinking, when I said something about the price she said; because it’s high season, bugger that; hundreds of k’s before and after that caravan park is nothing, heaps of grey nomads pass and her park is empty. If she would have place a sign on the road with “ powered site $ 22,-“  she would have had a full park, I’ll bet ya!

We will continue our way soon, see you then!

 

Something else

G'day mates!

Here I am again, have been somewhere with no reception a few days but now, at this very moment, we are back in Mission Beach. I will try to catch up a bit so lets get started.

I want to show you what the Australian Government and of course councils all do for their residents.

For this we stay in Cairns for the moment and I have made some pictures from a lot leisure facilities for the people. Everything you see is free but of course it has to be paid from something so people pay rates and once a year a certain amount is added to their water (or gas, I don’t know anymore) bill for park maintenance at least that was when we lived in Berwick, I don’t know if this counts for every State.

Come and have a look;

Skateboarding.......

Kids playgrounds.......

Walking and cycling paths.......

Information boards......

Exercise/Fitness stations.....

It's much better here then in a smelly, expensive Gym......

Beach Volley......

and after all these activities you need some water don't you??

I'm still not finished yet;

Electric barbecues with picnic tables.....

Music..........

Again some more exercise in which you can participate.... 

just some lovely spots to sit and relax....

minding your own business and taking in the view....

Information boards about fish and their habitat......

Stands for fishing rods and a table with water to clean your catch.....

Ok, ok, this has nothing to do with the facilities, but a nice view is important too!!

And then, I nearly forgot the public toilets which are everywhere, clean, always toilet paper and water to wash you hands.

I maybe complained a few times that Australia is getting so expensive but this is the other side of the medal, if you see these free leisure facilities, that's great isn't it, and mind you; it's not only in Cairns, it's all over Australia!

See you soon, it won't be too long!

Cheers!

Cairns, our last days together

G'day Mates!

We left Port Douglas behind us and go that beautiful road back to Cairns. Now we are on the good side of the road to stop at a lookout;

Someone was due to go hang gliding but they were waiting for, we assume, right wind.

We waited for about 20 minutes and then we moved further so we didn't see the action. 

Because it were our last days together we didn’t do so much. One day we went to Kuranda and actually Danny wanted to go up there with the Sky Rail and back by train but when we got there, the Sky Rail wasn’t working due to maintenance, that was a big disappointment. So we drove together by car and found out that the train was only once going to Cairns at half past 3 so we had a lot of time to spend.

On the other side of the train station we saw a boat trip which surprisingly wasn’t too expensive so we went on that tour over the Barron River;

We had a few extra passengers who actually lived on the boat, they make nests in Spring and raise their baby’s there, so they were flying up and down and around us.

We saw turtles, big fish, different birds and……..

Surprise!!

Although it was a freshwater croc (they are not that big as saltwater crocs), it still looks scary to me!

After the boat trip, which was very worth while, we hang around a bit in the little centre of Kuranda with nice shops, had a real German Lunch; a roll with Sausages and Sauerkraut and drank a beer at the pub. Then we brought Danny to the station and we went home by car.

2 hours later he came past the caravan park with the train and we waved to him, I did made a picture but it was going too fast so you couldn’t see him so I deleted it again.

The last day we chose for a relaxed stay and swim in the lagoon....

The last night we had a nice dinner on the terrace of the Irish Pub.....

and yeh, a few blogs before you have seen this picture to, on the sad last day...

We brought him to the airport and waved goodbye.

Dear fans, I hope you have enjoyed these stories with the three of us.

We have had Danny a few times on skype already so we can inform you; he came home save!

Now it's up to just Fred and I and I can already tell you; You won't want to miss any of next adventures!

See you soon.