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.

TOLGA

After saying good-byes and topping our water tanks we left Davies Park at Mareeba and stopping
in town to do some shopping we headed south to a nice camp-ground 6kms north of Tolga called
Rocky Creek War Memorial, which was an army hospital and base during the second world war and
is now kept maintained as a memorial. As we had intended to attend the "John Moffat Festival" at Irvinebank on the weekend we decided to stay at this camp-ground until Thursday morning as it was quiet and the weather was ideal for reading in the sun.