Round about

Rockhampton has terrible traffic but beautiful weather. Over the couple of days I was there it was 25 degrees during the day, no humidity and down to low teens over night. And no midges so I was able to sit outside for sundowners enjoying the dog walking parade around the park. Good food van selection…

I arrived into my idea of a perfect caravan park at Airlie beach. I’m in an en-suite site with a cement slab and path to my very flash en-suite. The slab is particularly nice as I hit the rain band heading out of Townsville and the whole area was very soggy for a couple of…

After a Sunday morning breakfast on the Cairns esplanade, MAJ and Nancye, with sad faces, departed for chilly Canberra. On Tuesday I headed back up the road to Port Douglas, and on Wednesday, met up with Belle, Deb and Tony at their very nice beach front apartment. Thursday we spent a quiet day walking on…

Wednesday morning was a ferry trip from Cape York across to Thursday Island. The colonial government established a settlement on TI in the late 1880s in order to deter other European countries getting ideas about settling in northern Australia. It’s been an important defense post ever since. A fort and battery were originally established in…

Monday we headed up to Bamiga, by way of the Fruit bat falls on Elliot Creek. This was the first time we were able to swim in a water hole which was very pleasant on a 30 degree day. On the way into Bamiga, we stopped at the old WW2 airfield. There were piles of…

Friday morning we embarked on a 400km drive to Weipa. Our morning tea stop at Coen provided the first mobile coverage in 3 days so not a lot of conversation happening. A fairly long drive into Weipa, made a bit longer by some stops for more bird watching. Now we’re all best friends, not only…

Wednesday morning we headed inland from Cooktown along the Battle Camp road. This road was only opened up after the wet season last week, with large parts of it freshly graded, so it was in pretty good nick. My turn at the back seat, so I bounced around a bit throughout the day. We stopped…

After leaving our accommodation at Heritage Lodge, we had a quick stop off at Myall Beach this morning for a view up to Cape Tribulation where Cook beached his boat back in 1770. We then headed off on the 2 hour 30 km drive to Bloomfield along the Bloomfield track. The track was constructed in…

A wonderful day. We started with a short drive to the Mosman Gorge where we went on a guided walk with a local indigenous man, followed by hot tea and damper. Our second outing of the day was a cruise on the Daintree. We now understand that we are accompanying a group of octogenarian twitchers…

We’ll we’re off. So far we’re pretty impressed. Especially with the snack baskets they have waiting at the front of the bus every time you board or disembark. Fresh fruit, minties, sherbies and other stuff that I haven’t got around to sampling yet. The challenge will be to walk past without grabbing something. There’s 17…