GIN GIN

Well what a terrible christmas and new year we have had! Lesley has become very depressed
and homesick every day now and wants to return to South Australia immediately.
I will not leave this property that we are looking after until the owners return,
as we comitted to do so.
So once they have returned here to Gin Gin I will take her back to South Australia,
as it is too far for her to drive back from here by herself.
Weather here has been wonderful most days with tempratures under 30 deg.
with the odd day of rain, which brings out all the frogs at night.

GIN GIN

Well we have had some thunderstorms  and rain lately, with falls ranging from 40 to 80mm, which
turns everthing into a lake, but the next day it can be 30 degrees and humid as well. Yesterday
afternoon we had a big electrical thunderstorm with lightning bolt spearing directly to the ground
around us! Daisy was beside herself, especially when this very loud clap of thunder happened
right above the motor-home, and it made both of us jump with fright as well! Consequence of
all this water is frogs - they are everwhere even spawning in the pit beneath cattle grids. The
chorus at night is so wonderful though as they all are croaking. We now have a resident green
tree frog under the motor-home somewhere as we hear it croaking most nights now. Some of
the green tree frogs reside inside the water down-pipes and it is funny to hear their amplyified
croaking at night too.

GIN GIN

Well finally we had 30mm rain yesterday which was very welcome as we have missed out
on any forecast rain in the area for awhile now. It rained steadily non stop for 24 hours
and already the lawn has started to turn green again.
Even had 3 kangaroos feeding on the lawn right behind the motor-home yesterday afternoon
in the rain. The mangos are starting to develop now (photo), so hope the birds and fruit bats
don't beat us when it is ripe. We have some bird nets here so they come in handy too.
They also turned off the analogue TV signal here in regional Queensland today and as we
have very poor digital TV signal here we maybe very limited in TV programs available now.

GIN GIN

Hot and Humid here at the moment as rain is forecast in the next two
days and it has been around 30 degrees here for a few weeks now so it will
be welcome, alot of the green lawns here have really browned off too.
We ventured down to Bundaberg a couple of times and out to
take a look at the Mon Repo beach (photo) where the turtles come in to lay their
eggs at night and also out to Burnett Heads, which is the mouth of the Burnett River.
Most Saturdays we travel into Gin Gin to the local markets for our fruit & vegetables etc.

Also found an wireless internet signal about 5kms away on top of a hill on the Bruce Highway, so

now we have to travel there in order to gain internet access.

GIN GIN

Today is supposed to be the start of the wet season up here. The grass underneath the motorhome has got really quite long, so we decided to move Lucky Pigs to another spot so we could cut the lawn and give the lawn a chance to recover. Unfortunately the move has meant no Vodafone wireless internet signal, the signal was very poor before, so I will need to find signal in the next couple of days with the laptop. Found some great looking orchids in the garden here today too (photo)

GIN GIN

We have been passing the time here so far by reading, knitting, washing, doing crossword puzzles, cutting the large lawn area, watering the garden plants and palms, and watching DVD movies. There have been a few thunderstorms lately and last night we had a great lightning show to the south and we also had a visitor - a large green frog who decided to hang out under our awning (photo).

GIN GIN

Today was Peter's birthday, but we had to venture into Gin Gin last wednesday to do some shopping so we decided to have meal at the Gin Gin Hotel that night, and it was such a great meal.
Still have a very poor internet signal!

GIN GIN

As well as plenty of cane toads there are several types of small frogs around the property here at Gin Gin. That's the sad thing - that all these other frogs are threatened by the presence of cane toads. However we did manage to spot a 500mm long water goanna sunbasking on a log in the creek that runs through the property the other day.
We have been having internet connection problems via Vodafone wireless internet due to a very very poor signal here lately so will upload pictures when possible

GIN GIN

With all the rain lately not only has the vegetation really started to grow, but also the cane toads are all on the march. We got 14 of the buggers today! "Detol" in a spray bottle does the trick in no time - just a couple of squirts on their back and within 10 -15 min their dead!

GIN GIN

It is starting to become the thunderstorm season up here and last saturday we had a huge thunderstorm with very strong winds. The rain gauge showed that we had 95mm in just one shower and the lightning was striking the ground all around, so we lowered the TV antenna and turned the TV off and went to bed to watch the lightshow. Daisy was really petrified of the thunder. All the rain made all the frogs come out and everything is really growing, so we had to cut the lawn around the house again yesterday and today Peter cut all the fire breaks around the property using the tractor and slasher.

GIN GIN

As today was Lesley's birthday we decided to venture into Gin Gin to have lunch at the Highway Hotel, which was quite a good meal indeed. After lunch we took a drive around the back streets of the town itself and had a look about. Thunderstorms are forecast for later tonight and tomorrow and it has been a little humid this afternoon. After a thunderstorm the other day we found two frogs in the rain gauge which is up on a fence.

GIN GIN

Well we got our thunderstorm last Saturday about 40mm rain and some high winds as well all in an hour too! We have been keeping ourselves occupied by walking, reading, knitting, watering the garden here and playing board games. Other than Saturday afternoon it has been great sunny weather here. Every night just on dusk lots of Flying Foxes (Fruit Bats) fly over towards Gin Gin, so there must be a colony of them down by the Burnett River south-east of here. I am going to try and get photo of one flying overhead at dusk somehow. Graham & Sue have a nice garden here with many different flowers in bloom (photo)

GIN GIN

Today we cut the lawns here and Lesley even had a turn on the mower(photo). This afternoon and into the night some neighbouring properties burnt their cane crops which was quite spectacular. Tomorrow rain and thunderstorms are forecast so we maybe in for a few wet days ahead.

GIN GIN

We have had a couple of windy days here lately and the sky has been filled with smoke from bush-fires to the north and south of here which has given us some nice sunsets as the sun appears to be a red colour as it sets with the smoke haze around (photo). Last Thursday afternoon Ron & Sue, whom we met at Irvinebank and also did some voluntary work at Tully Blazeaid, called in to see us as Ron is starting a bus driving job on Monday in Bundaberg and they are staying at Bargara on the coast.

GIN GIN

The property here is 27 acres and alot of it is grassed areas which we need to cut using ride-on and normal mowers, but there is also a large area of bushland surrounding the property as well which has firebreaks and will need to be kept slashed using the tractor as well. Graham and Sue have a nice tropical garden and several fruit trees. Amongst the fruit trees is one which produces an unusual fruit called "Chocolate Pudding Fruit"(photo) and it tastes similar to chocolate mousse dessert. The birds love it and are constantly eating the fruit as soon as it is ripe. Yesterday we watered the garden plants and some young palm trees that have just been planted and need to be watered regularly, later in the afternoon, we took a trip into Gin Gin in the Suzuki to visit the post office. Whilst Lesley did some laundry this morning, Peter went for a walk to a nearby town called Wallaville, which is several kms away on the Burnett River. The area here is famous for vegetable and citrus irrigated crops and there are several in the local area here as well.

GIN GIN

Well we managed to find the property that we will be looking after until mid-January yesterday without any problem and met the owners Graham & Sue, who are very nice people indeed. They are helping with the wheat harvest in S.A. and they departed around lunch time today after explaining everything that we needed to know about. Graham & Sue are also members of the Motorhome club and have a 5th wheeler and a brand new Iveco truck to tow it. The rest of the day was spent setting up "Lucky Pigs" on the grass in the backyard for our stay here. Digital TV and Vodafone Mobile\Internet coverage here is good, but Telstra mobile is poor.

GIN GIN

Today we took a trip into Gin Gin today to check if our mail has arrived and do some shopping. After a walk around we headed back to our camp site just north of Gin Gin. The layout of Gin Gin is very different from other small country towns in that it is along the Bruce Highway and not laid out in a square fashion as normal but length-wise along the highway with a new walkway\park\infomation bay in the centre of the highway itself. Tomorrow we are heading to our stop for the next four months at a property south of the town itself.

GIN GIN

Leaving our camp this morning we travelled into Monto and the country is now mainly dairy cattle and crops etc. now. We needed to head east after Monto for 120kms, 30kms of which was dirt road through a small town called Mt.Perry and finally back to the Bruce Highway just north of Gin Gin. As we are not due at the property we are looking after until Saturday and is south of here, we needed to find a place to camp until then. Just opposite the junction of the Mt.Perry road and the Bruce Highway is a stop and only 2kms north of Gin Gin so we found a camp for tonight easily. Digital TV, Vodafone and Telstra coverage is all poor here though.

MONTO

After leaving our camp site at Dawson River we travelled through Moura to a town called "Banana" - but no bananas here at all! It was named after a steer many years ago that used to round up wild bush cattle and bring them back into the yards all by itself. After Banana where we refuelled (Diesel $1.469) we headed to Biloela where we had a conversation with a chap who works at the local coal mine and is thinking about travelling as we are doing. Leaving Biloela we headed south to a stop called Coominglah Range, which is on top of a mountain top 20kms north of Monto. Here we had the place to ourselves with great views over the valley below. We did however meet a chap from the south coast of NSW who was travelling up towards Mission Beach to do some building work there and a semi-trailer driver from Atherton who was taking some huge blocks of marble, which were cut from the ground at Chilligoe,  down to Brisbane. Vodafone Mobile & Internet had no coverage here at all, but Telstra coverage was poor. Some Digital TV was available too.

MOURA

Departing our camp at the "Virgin Rock" we travelled east through Springsure, Rolleston and Bauhinia via the Dawson Highway for 210kms today. This country is beef cattle country with several big coal mines throughout the area and the mining sector here looks huge indeed with mine vehicles on the road all the time along with large road trains as well travelling east towards Gladstone. We found a nice camp 7km before Moura called "Dawson River". Digital TV and Telstra Mobile had coverage, but not Vodafone at all

SPRINGSURE

Today after refueling in Emerald (Diesel $1.489)we only travelled 65kms south to a natural feature called "Virgin Rock" which is 2km north of Springsure. In a cliff face here is an eroded section which resembles the Virgin Mary holding a baby and they light it up at night, but we think it looks better during the day than at night. Digital TV and Vodafone coverage was non existant here and Telstra mobile was very poor.

EMERALD

A big day today as we travelled 510kms from 20kms outside Charters Towers to our stop here at Emerald Botanical Gardens - right between the railway line and the highway to Rockhampton(photo) arriving at 6pm! We still have 600kms to go in order to reach Gin Gin by the 24th, so we decided to put in a big day kilometre wise today. After refuelling at Charters Towers (Diesel $1.519)  we travelled southwards through Belyando Crossing, Clermont and Capella. The country was quite dry and the drive was very monotonous as far as the scenery went. We saw another large snake crossing the road in front of us between Clermont and Capella. Also saw a huge coal mine at Clermont. Digital TV and all mobile coverage her is very good as we are basically camped right next to the Emerald city centre.

CHARTERS TOWERS

Only travelled 50kms today from our camp at Reid River to Macrossan, which is about 20kms east of Charters Towers. We decided to stop here at a Macrossan Park which is right on the banks of the Burdekin River and there are several other motor-homes camped here. It has been windy all day, but it was quite refreshing otherwise it would've been hot here as there is not much shade around unless you can camp right on the river itself. Beautiful sunsets out here and plenty of 3 & 4 trailer road trains, as this is the main road between Mt.Isa & Townsville, but sanity prevails as most of them travel late afternoon or at night. No Digital TV only analogue, Very poor Vodafone mobile\internet, Telstra mobile coverage is poor but working here.

REID RIVER

Leaving our camp at Rollingstone around 9.30am we travelled the 50 odd kms into Townsville in order to refuel (Diesel $1.439) and do some shopping. A lot of bushfires are burning around the area and even near our stop for tonight at Reid River, which is between Townsville and Charters Towers. With all the smoke about the sunset was pretty good too. Digital TV, Telstra and Vodafone Mobile\Internet coverage is good here.

ROLLINGSTONE

After saying our goodbyes to our friends at BlazeAid we left Tully around 10.30am and travelled south towards Cardwell where we intended to stop off to visit Bill & Lyn whose property we looked after back in July, but they had gone to Townsville for the day. Just before the small town of Kennedy a long snake was crossing the road in front of us and it was nearly the whole width of the bitumen so it must have been around 15 feet long and it turned and took a strike at "Lucky Pigs" as we past close to it's tail. Taipans are very aggressive snakes up here, so I think it may have been one. We carried on south to Ingham, after waiting for 20 minutes for some roadworks on the way, where we stopped for lunch and finally arrived at our camp for the night at Rollingstone, which is north of Townsville around 1.30pm. We spotted some very rare Black Cockatoos feeding on the lawn here upon our arrival(photo).

TULLY

Today was our last day in Tully with BlazeAid and Lesley had the day off whilst Peter, Lea, Deanne and Grant went a few kms. south of Tully to a property owned by Leanne. Deanne and Grant are local people from Tully Heads who are also volunteering with BlazeAid. Leanne had hired an excavator which made moving huge fallen trees easier. Tomorrow we will head south towards Gin Gin and the trip will take us about 9-10 days as we need to be there by 24th September. We intend to travel to Townsville and then take a different route inland rather than just going back down the Bruce Highway. Our intention is to travel via Charters Towers, Clermont, Emerald, Springsure, Biloela and Monto.

TULLY

Last working day today for Lesley here at BlazeAid in Tully as we are off further south on Thursday to Gin Gin as we have a property to look after near there until mid January. Lea, a girl here from France joined us today to help on a property north of here near El Arish owned by Wayne. He had a great design for his house based on three separate buildings connected by under cover walkways as seen in Bali etc... Wayne works on the cane trains as the offsider. Wayne also had a nice tropical garden, which although having cyclone damage is still very nice. Photo is of a Bottle-Brush Orchid taken at Elaine's place last Sunday.

TULLY

Off again to another property today owned by Marie to help remove irrigation pipes, poles and wires used for passionfruit crops that were destroyed and covered with debris from the cyclone. With us today were Glenis from Forest Beach near Ingham and Chris from Brisbane. Lesley & Glenis worked very hard pulling out the "poly pipes" used for irrigation that were completely grown over with creepers and other tropical undergrowth. We also had the rescue helicopter buzzing around Tully last night as six bush-walkers got stranded on Mt. Tyson after dark and had to be air-lifted down from the mountain.

TULLY

This Sunday Lesley had the day off to wash the car, whilst Peter took a crew out to Elaine's property at Tully Heads to clean up some more debris. She has a wonderful tropical garden with lots of flowers  including many varieties of orchids: Bottle Brush Orchids, Ground Orchids, Pencil Orchids(photo) and others. Very pretty indeed - especially now as most of the debris is gone too.
To view the amazing detail of these Pencil Orchids - just click on the photo to view it full screen - wonderful.

ELLY BEACH

As we had today off we decided to do a bit more sight seeing around the Innisfail area to the north of Tully, so after Lesley did some washing we headed off. Cowley Beach was our first stop, followed by Mourilyn Harbour where there is a deep water sugar loading facility. Etty Beach was the next place, followed by a trip into Innisfail for lunch at "McDonalds", then out to Flying Fish Point, which is where the South Johnston River flows into the Coral Sea and then on to Elly Beach(photo), which has been purchased by developers and steel gates placed across the access road into the area - HOW RUDE, as if anybody thinks they can own the beach - only in North Queensland!

TULLY

Today we helped on a property at Murray Upper, which is about 30kms south of Tully. On Noel's cattle property with us today were Dave & Ron and there was a large collection of old vehicles just laying around the property in various forms of decay, but this Landcruiser(photo) used to mix the cattle feed was unique indeed! They also had three two week old "blue heeler" pups which Lesley was very fond of indeed.

TULLY

We still doing voluntary work and today along with Kat & Jenna again we went out to a "Golden Cane Palm" nursery which was devastated during the cyclone. The owners, Peter & Jenny are trying to get things back into shape so as they can try to make an income, as they grow these palms for the markets further south, even as far as Melbourne. The other day we took a photo of a huge "Stick Insect" at Elaine's property down at Tully Heads as it rested under her porch roof!

TULLY

Well the rain finally stopped overnight, but more is forecast for tomorrow though! Today we worked on a 25 acre property just out of Tully at Jarra Creek owned by Bob, who is an ex- Vietnam veteran and he had trees down across his fences and access track which we cut with our chainsaw and removed them from the fence, putting them into the rain forest where they will decay very quickly due to all the fungus etc. that occurs in the forests up here. Our team today included the two girls from the UK(photo), Kat and Jenna...Kat is the one with the towel on her head - ha ha!

TULLY

Rain, Rain, Rain - non stop since about 4pm Saturday and the camp ground here is getting really flooded! Friday we ventured down to a property just north of Kennedy to help clear up more cyclone debris with Kat and Jenna who are both here from the UK. So at the moment we are "marooned" in the motor-home until the rain stops, which doesn't look like happening any time soon. We had planned to do a bit of shopping and visiting but too wet today!

TULLY

Peter came across a huge green tree frog in the shower\toilet block last night(photo). Today we travelled back out to Anna's property at Bingil Bay with Kat, a young girl who is visiting Australia from UK with her girlfriend. We had a great day as the weather was a lot cooler and was even raining this morning and at several times during the day. It is very rewarding doing volunteer work for Anna as she definitely needs the help.

TULLY

Monday & Tuesday we helped at a property at Tully Heads, owned by Elaine which had a great waterway and tropical forest out the back of her property into which trees and debris had fallen into as a result of Cyclone Yasi, so we cut and dragged out most of it and burnt it at the same time. Peter managed to fall head first into the water, which made everyone laugh! Today was our day off.

TULLY

This weekend a camp draught is being run here at the Tully showgrounds, which has been quite entertaining for us, with music and various acts at nightly. This morning we paid a visit to the "Monster Market" at Mission Beach, where Lesley found some wool for her knitting. This afternoon we are going out to see Cathy (we worked on her property back in June when first arriving in Tully), as her son has driven her 4WD completely into a river whilst learning to drive and Peter is going to see if he can get it going for her.

TULLY

We worked at various properties around the Tully area this week clearing up and today we ventured out to Bingil Bay, which is just north of Mission Beach, to a motel/holiday apartment property situated on the cliff top overlooking the coral sea. Anna, the property owner, has been devastated by the damage caused by Cyclone Yasi last February. Along with another couple, Dickson & Joan from Victoria we cleaned up around her property, but she is unable to operate the business until the buildings have been repaired, so she is in a very difficult position indeed.

TULLY

We both had the weekend off and after catching up with washing etc., today we ventured down to Mission Beach for the Beach Market which is held there. After having a wander around the market stalls we headed to the beach for a walk then back to Tully as we had to do our tax returns and lodge them on the internet before we forget!

TULLY

For the last two days we have been doing some more volunteer work for BlazeAid down on a property near Wongaling Beach, which is just south of Mission Beach. Today we were working with Bruce & Di from Pt. Macquarie NSW. On this property, Eric has all sorts of tropical fruit trees growing and there are so many weird and wonderful fruits that most people would have never heard of at all. It is becoming fairly hot up here now so the work is becoming harder if out in the sun working with chainsaws etc.

TULLY

After taking long walks on Kurrimine Beach (poor Daisy!) and viewing King Reef at low tide(photo) over the past 4 days we departed this morning and headed back down to the BlazeAid depot at the Tully Showgrounds. Upon arriving back there we met Annabel just as she was leaving for Cairns. We had worked with her at BlazeAid at Bridgewater in Victoria earlier this year. We also met up again with "Long Bob" whom we also knew from our time at Bridgewater. Also arriving later in the afternoon here were Ron & Susan, whom we had met at the Irvinebank festival. They are going to also do some volunteer work here at BlazeAid after having their small dogs flown up from Brisbane to Cairns.

KURRIMINE BEACH

Unfortunately we were unable to stay at the campsite at Japoonvale as we had planned as it was closed due to the toilet block being out of order, which would not have worried us as we are self contained, but I suppose some caravans are not and they do spoil it for others. So we kept going and found a wonderful council camp-ground on the foreshore at Kurrimine Beach for $14.00/night, which is north of Mission Beach. We initially planned to stay for only two nights, but it was so nice there that we decided to stay another two nights and return to BlazeAid at Tully on Wednesday morning.

INNISFAIL

After leaving Ravenshoe this morning we travelled east down off of the Atherton Plateau, which was very steep decent in places through tropical rainforest and tea, banana and cane plantations to a nice grassed roadside stop just 4kms north of Innisfail which is at the junction of the Palmerson and Bruce highways. At this spot there are some kind of tropical tree with these large red flowers(photo), and they look great when in flowering. We intend to spend the next couple nights at a camp-site near Japoonvale which we stayed at on the way north from Tully last month and liked very much. Monday we intend to return to Tully to do some more voluntary work for BlazeAid. 

RAVENSHOE

As the weather wasl great we decided to stay another two days here at Ravenshoe and wash the Suzuki a bit as it got covered in  dust when we left Irvinebank. So after posting our census form, doing some shopping, washing the car we did some reading in the sun again over the next two days! Photo is of Millstream Falls, which we visited the other day and is just out of Ravenshoe and they are the widest waterfalls in Australia.

MILLA MILLA

Today we un-hooked the Suzuki and took off to visit some of the waterfalls around the area. First stop
was the "Little Millsteam Falls", then on to "Tully Falls", which would be very spectacular as it is
nearly 300ft drop, but in the 1950's they built a dam and hydro-electric power station, so now it only
flows during the wet season. Heading back towards Ravenshoe we visted "Millstream Falls". Heading east
to the town Milla Milla, passing a huge wind farm we later stopped at a lookout with a wonderful view
over the area. After having lunch in the park in Milla Milla, we headed off on the waterfall circuit,
which included Milla Milla Falls(photo), Zillie Falls, Ellinjaa Falls, Souita Falls, and Pepina Falls.
Each of these waterfalls required walking down and back up many steps again so we are so glad we are
doing this now as it would be very difficult to do this type of sight seeing later in life!
Late in the afternoon we were paid a visit by a census lady, who gave us the form to fill out and
post back later, which was good as we were starting to wonder what to do about it as we have no Vodafone
Internet or mobile coverage here at all. Digital TV and Telstra mobile coverage is good here. Optus
also have coverage here.

RAVENSHOE

We left Irvinebank around 11.30am and travelled back to Herberton the water tanks were topped up and a 
visit made to the local "op-shop" then heading off south again through Tumoulin to Ravenshoe, which is
the highest town in Queensland and our destination for today. We were able to camp at the Steam Train
Museum which is right in the centre of town, so after setting up we went for a walk up the main street.

IRVINEBANK

The second day of the festival started with a "recovery breakfast" at the tavern and more music including
a "jam session", a cane toad race and joy rides in the mini fire-engine. We met a couple from Brisbane,
Ron & Susan, who are doing pretty much the same thing we are - as they are travelling about in their 5th wheeler caravan after having sold their house too.

IRVINEBANK

The "John Moffat Festival" started today with many events occuring in the main street in front of
the Irvinebank Tavern throughout the day: The "Hillybilly Goats" played music, snake exhibition,
sheepdog show and bush poetry recitals. At night a dinner dance was held in the town hall with the
"Hillbilly Goats" providing the music.

IRVINEBANK

Today was spent looking around Irvinebank, which is an old historic tin mining town, which was
founded by a Scotsman called John Moffat, and the local progress association restore and maintain 
the old buildings of the period as museums etc.

IRVINEBANK

Leaving our camp site at Rocky River we headed south again through Tolga to Atherton where we
did some food shopping and filled up a gas bottle at the local camping shop using a discount
voucher we had received at the Mareeba CMCA event. Still heading south over the mountains to 
Herberton we then headed east for 26kms to Irvinebank, the last 14kms was a dirt road so we 
took it slow as it had started to drizzle. We managed to find a great spot to camp right in
the centre of Irvinebank by a little stream which flowed into a lake on the other side of town.