Highlights: Help! Snake at campsite, Paronella Park; a dream

G'day mates!

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!

Next days we tried our luck and found some gold. Danny was a great help, he did all the digging, unfortunately he didn't like it that much (which I can imagine) so after a few hours I was on my own again with my detector, Danny was exploring the bush and Fred was busy with the catering as usual.

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....

From Charters Towers we went towards Townsville and we stopped just out of Townsville at Rollingstone free camp, this was also something what we wanted to show Danny as something like that is out of the question in The Netherlands!

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!

Our neighbours, a couple from France or Spain, can't remember, just had been sitting there having their dinner where it was crawling now. I think of all the excitement I forgot to make a picture. Danny made a movie, it's hilarious a bit shaky, which is not a surprise, but come and have a look, I have to apologise though for the Dutch Language......

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.

After a second night (didn't had the snake as visitor anymore) at the free camp we drove to Wongaling Beach, close to Mission Beach, to the caravan park Bali Hai one of our favourite spots! Previously the caravan park was the host for the Sky Divers, unfortunately that's not the case anymore but the park is still great, very busy in winter with Grey Nomads!

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

Present

G'day Mates,

Just want to let you know I won't have a new story for you this weekend. We are too busy (and a bit too sad) for me to concentrate. The continuing of the Queensland holiday with Danny deserves my full attention so I can bring it over to you properly and you can enjoy it as much as we did.

What is the reason for being so busy, I'll show you just one picture as of course there will be a separate blog of this in the near future;

Its a fact, we are unpacking the caravan, cleaning it, take off the letters of my blog; making it ready for the market..............

Hang on in there people, I'll be back as soon as possible.

Loving Queensland

G'day Mates!

The last spot you saw on my previous story was Torbanlea, now we are heading to Seventeen Seventy (also written as 1770), yes that's really the name of a very small but a gorgeous place, built on the site of the second landing in Australia by James Cook and the crew of HM Bark Endeavour in May 1770 (Cook's first landing in what is now the state of Queensland).

We stayed at the 1770 camping ground which is right on the beach...

At night we had a great bottle of wine with Fish and Chips at the Beachcombers Cafe on the park so we didn't had to drive home.

The beaches are just incredible and next day we did a bit of a walk along the beach....

Lonely.....

Sitting here, looking over the ocean, letting in the beautiful scene, the great weather and thinking about the awesome time we had over the past 10 years accompanied with the gathered memories, I had a tough moment, knowing we are leaving this great country.

Will we ever see all this beauty again?

After my tears had dried, hubby and I went back to the caravan to get some chairs and sit on the beach, Danny did some more walking right to the end to the Seventeen Seventy Lookout!

Thanks to Danny I also have pictures of his walk...

I don't know what it is but it looks funny and very creative....

1770 seen from the air....

He even made a beautiful movie....

Movie time;

In the afternoon we decided we had deserved a nice beer at the pub....

Lets see who is the first to finish....

next day.....😊😊

Hope you still don't have enough of seeing Queensland as we haven't, especially in winter with the great weather it is the place to be; haha! I have a little anecdote about that;

Our next stop was in Yeppoon and the owner of the caravan park said to us; "I don't understand the Victorian number plate".....

Of course we looked with a sheepish expression on our face and then he continued; "Because if Victoria is the place to be, why are ya all here in winter!!"  and then he had to laugh the most of the three of us, his big belly shaking, he was a very nice guy, lovely caravan park as well!

Yeppoon also is very nice and we enjoyed walking through the little town, along the coastline to end at the new swimming pool, just opened the day before....

The swimming pool is right at the beach and so well done, I still can't understand how Australia does that, this is all for free people!! 

Even the electric barbecues!

Unfortunately the next day we had a bit bad luck....

Danny's tent broke down and we had rain all day, it even was wet in the tent!

From Yeppoon we went inland towards Emerald. We had a stop at the Bluff Hotel because that is close to Blackdown Tableland National Park.

We went there for a visit and were stunned by the view...

Of course we did a walk as well....

some wildlife on a branch.....

wildlife on a rock....

At one stage we thought we were at the end and sat down on a bench to rest a bit and talked about that we were a bit disappointed about the walk. Then suddenly a few people came out of a track which we hadn't seen and said we had to go on as a bit further was the highlight and was amazing! 

And Yes, they were right!  

Little bit hard to see how deep and steep it was here, I made a movie as well but still you have to use a bit of your imagination....

Movie time;

Can you guess what we did after the walk??

Of course LUNCH....

First we had to see what Danny was dragging along all the time in his backpack; a real survival kit:

Preparing lunch.....

This needs explanation! What you see here is called a "Dopper". The idea is that you fill it with water in stead of buying water in plastic bottles which is bad for the environment. Sheila gave all three of us a "Dopper" and we used it every day......BUT 

Its NOT only water what you can put in 😂😂

After lunch we drove back to the Bluff Hotel. Of course we didn't stay in the Hotel itself but they have a few spots behind the hotel where you can stay with the caravan, powered and non-powered. They even serve lovely meals which we enjoyed on one of the nights.

That's it again for today Mates!

See ya next time!

Cheers!