The caravan is clean and for sale, no responses yet! Finely I found some time again to work on the next story, put already approx 8 hours into the last story and then something happened during my writing and everything was gone. My God I had to start all over again! My idea was to finish the trip with Danny to Cairns in one last big story but now with all my work gone I will make two stories, OK lets go....
We left Bluff towards Emerald were we stayed one night at the Showgrounds and I must say, that was fantastic! Better even then some caravan parks, new amenities, water, power everything you need!
Danny wasn't happy with the $ 5.00 chair we had bought for them at Bunnings (Sheila wasn't that fussy 😂😂), so he bought himself another comfortable chair in Emerald, we also did some shopping as we are going to Clermont which is very small and we thought it might not have a decent super market.
I hear you thinking, where the hell is Clermont and what's there to do? GOLD people, there is Gold and of course I wanted to show Danny how it works and what we have been doing all the time in the West. The caravan park (there is just one) was very nice and we had a three night stay there, the name of our "street" seems appropriate...
Now it's time to try out the chair.
Chair is approved!
It maybe would have been nicer for him if he could have a go with the detector but that isn't allowed, the license is only for me, even Hubby isn't allowed to walk around with my detector.
Then we had two nights in Charters Towers, again a great Caravan Park; Dalrymple Tourist Van Park. There I had a nasty experience with Facebook, well not Facebook itself but with a group I join. Let me explain;
You know the area at Charters Towers is pretty dry and the caravan park had a sentence on their invoice which says; "After 5 years of drought we are doing it tough. Can you please NOT wash cars/caravans, there is a car wash in Gill st." .
Then I see someone washing his car AND caravan at his site and I'm getting furious! Nowadays it's dangerous to personally try to say something about it so I wrote my frustration on Facebook in the group Caravan Camping Australia" . Crikey, the shit I got over me, don't get me wrong, a lot of people agreed with me but there were also people saying to mind my own business. Was I that wrong to mention it? We all know how tough the people do in the drought areas, not only the farmers. Anyhow, they took my post off the site, pfff!
Danny was preparing himself for the next route....
Well, it was a great experience for both Danny and us! Not because of the free camp, which we are used to of course but we had company sneaking past us at dusk, very close to the caravan. A snake!
Movie time:
By the way, besides the snake, that free camp is great and there were enough people so we dared to leave the caravan and go for a day tour to Paluma Range National Park, were we, of course did some walks at little Crystal Creek and on top of a mountain there is a little village named Paluma, from there were some nice walks as well......
a gathering site...
Wildlife sneaking up on me....
A nice little bridge....
It's beautiful out there!
Of course at the end of all these sight-seeings and walks we had a picnic at Big Crystal Creek, no pics of us eating again this time.
We didn't had too good weather but that didn't withhold Danny to walk over the beach to Mission Beach, very brave actually because here is an outlet of a river of which they say can live crocodiles....
With bad weather its good to have a camp kitchen....
In the distance our site!
I like this visitor more....
Then, I had booked something of which I really didn't had a clue what it would be and what we could expect: Paronella Park! Heard so much about it so I thought, lets check that out! There are caravan sites, powered and unpowered and it's worth going!
A little history, got from the Park's site:
Everyone has a dream but not everyone’s dreams are fulfilled. José Paronella’s dream was to build a castle. He chose a special part of Australia and created Paronella Park. On 5 Hectares beside Mena Creek Falls he built his castle, picnic area by the falls, tennis courts, bridges, a tunnel, and wrapped it up in an amazing range of 7,500 tropical plants and trees (now a lush rainforest!). It opened to the public in 1935.
Unfortunately due to storms, cyclone's, flooding and even a fire, the castle and park were destroyed several times and every time Jose managed to build it up again, till 1948 when he died of cancer.
With the admission of the park you get tours, done by guides, during the day but also at night when all the lights are on. They tell you the whole history and it really is very interesting!
After our guided tour in the afternoon we did some exploring ourselves....
Enjoy the pictures.
Bamboo bush
little paths leading you to all parts of the park...
A thick, fat Eel!
Mysterious.....
Teresa Falls, named after his daughter....
Kauris Lining Kauri Avenue...
there are ruins all over the place....
The big stairs, 47 steps....
Paronella at night...
The Mena Creek Falls.....
The was a beautiful light show with music at night at the castle....
Paronella Park; A Must Go!
The current owners, Mark and Judy Evans, bought Paronella Park in 1993. They are not building t back up again but try to keep the ruins as good as possible so we all can enjoy it as long as possible.
They also own the sister attraction of Paronella Park;
The Mamu Tropical Skyway, which is situated on the Palmerston Hwy towards The Atherton Tablelands, not too far from Paronella Park, but that's next folks!
See ya soon.
Cheers
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