Hello,

We continued our way to Cooktown, but stopping at many of the bays along the way.

This bay was blowing a gale, but the views where wonderful.Looking back we could see the fires burning on the hillside. They Do a lot of control burning up north.

What do you think of this beautiful tree art, we found at one of the campsites. Someone must have had a great imagination.

We also called into Keatings Lagoon and found these lovely magpie geese, hundreds of them, and had a great walk around the park.

A lorikeet having a feed in the botanical gardens.

And found this wooden snake at the botanical gardens in Cooktown

We stayed in this cabin at the caravan park. And have you ever stayed in the same room with 2 grown who snore all night. Not the best thing to do. But we loved cooktown with its old buildings, and small

township. Unfortuately we only stayed for the one night before moving on, heading back to Wonga Beach but taking the main road back.

This boat just interested us as some one lives on the house boat.

T

 The benches up the top where amazing as it told the story of the town and Captain Cooks arrival. The tiles all were done by children, and very interesting reading. The boat above was also interesting as it play music when you hit the different pipes. The bay of Cooktown. Before we left we heard that the best fish & chips were sold here so we had some for lunch before we left. On the way home saw a dingo kangaroos. We really enjoyed our trip and there was certainly a lot to see. So worth taking the time to go.

 Bye for now.

 

The Bloomfield Track, a rough dirt road, going through the Daintree National Park heading towards CookTown. People told us that it was boring nothing to see just dirt and a bouncy ride. Well I'm glad we didn't listen, and we always go when people tell us that, because most of the time we have a great time and see so many different thing, just as this was the case. A good friend also came along in his car in case we had a breakdown or got stuck. Yes the road was

dusty and bouncy that was part of the adventure. We had a few rivers to cross and the boys had a swim at one of them where the small fish exfoliated their feet.

as you can see the trees and shrubs were covered in dust.

Here we are

stopping for a bite to eat  and a cup  of tea. Along the way. Our first night we stayed at a place called the lions den. We slept in these donger,  we were told to try their pizzas out will we ordered one and that fed the three of us it had everything on it, it was yummy and tasty.

The Den had many memorabilia around the wall so we spent some time having a good look around.

Now look at these unusual flowers, the top one was the cannonball flower and the blue one was the jade flower, I thought they were lovely.

And the sign at the bottom certainly put the message across.

Will continue along our way to Cooktown next time. Bye for now.

Hello to All,

Townsville our next stop, we stayed at the show grounds just out of town. Spent some time looking around Townsville, it is Australia's largest tropical city and has been recognized as a centre for marine research. With the Great Barrier Reef at its door step. It caters for the tourism with a lot of Café and restaurants along the foreshore. And its a great spot for water sports with jet skiing, water skiing, white water rafting many other water adventures.. We attend the night market on the foreshore it was a great night. good weather and a lot of happy people. Townsville is also the place that Bob fulled the car with petrol instead of diesel, we had it drained out the next day with no damaged except for the pocket with a huge fuel bill.
We travelled up the coast calling into many of the beautiful beaches, walking the gorges and seeing many waterfalls. In Cairns we took the Kuranda Scenic train up to Kuranda and spent a day wandering around looking at he craft & art shop. We came back on the sky rail. A bit scary as it was raining and we couldn't even see the cable so it was like we were hanging in limbo.
Port Douglas we had breakfast with the birds at Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary this was really good but certainly don't leave your food unattended or it would be gone.
Wonga Beach a campsite right on the beach we intended staying for 4 days but eight weeks later we headed off. We really had a great time here and were able to attend the markets in Mossman under the rain trees. Wonga was also a spot where we could travel out to see different places, like the Daintree Nation Park

 We several days traveling to the daintree as there was a lot to see and plenty of walks. This huge bird is the cassowary, and we saw lots of these as we moved north of Queensland.  Even the beaches where good but I wouldn't swim at them.

At Wonga beach a lot of the visitors would go out fishing and any left over we would have a fish and chip night. We would take our plate, knife & fork and have a great social evening. Some one would site poetry, sing tell jokes, but we all enjoyed it. In  Mossman we went to the Mossman gorge which was a good walk in to see a beautiful waterfall and even better when it had been raining. The Bloomfield track was a trip we did and took 4 days to do. So will write about that next time. Bye for now.

Hi Everyone,

We arrived in Maryborough, but unfortunately I have lost all my photos for the our time going up the Queensland Coast. So will mention some of the towns we passed through.
Maryborough an attractive city on the banks of the Mary River. In the mid 1800's over 22.000 immigrants arrived from Europe. It is now a popular spot for fishing and boating. We took the time to walk around the town looking at all the heritage buildings. We attended the markets to sell our candles where a town crier came walking through the street giving out the local news.
Bundaberg, The southern most access point to the Great Barrier Reef. Has many parks and gardens. And its world famous for its amber spirit. Bundaberg Rum, and the surrounding fields of sugarcane.
In the harvest season the cane fires give the area a smokey haze. The aviator Bert Hinkler was the first to fly  from England to Australia in1928 it took him over 15 days.
We visited the Bundaberg rum distillery but only bought some gingerbeer. But interesting to see how it was made. We spent some time at Elliot Heads on the coast, with new friends we had met at Childers.
Gladstone we stayed here with family for about 2 weeks and had a great time, they showed us around the local areas. Gladstone has the largest power station in Australia, the worlds largest Aluminium refinery and is largest multi cargo port in Australia, so a very industrial town not a place I would live at.
Rockhampton. Australia's beef cattle capital, over 2 million cattle graze in the Fitzroy river valley and the surrounding countryside. We visited the caves here just outside of Rockhampton.
Mckay. Sugar was first grown here in 1865. So is known and the Sugar City. It produces a 1/3 of Australia sugar. And out towards the coast is the Great Barrier Reef, so tourism play a very special part in small city. We spent time and went to Eungella National Park, seeing the otters frolicking in the streams, and doing some of the bush walks. One I remember is Finch Hutton Gorge. we met a lady running up the gorge and she mention she does this every day for exercise, it made me feel really unfit. But she invited us around to her place for a meal, it was lovely and we have met many people along our travels just this way. When we finished the walk we stopped on a bench to have rest, a couple next to us had just started their lunch, the man had his sandwich in his hand and next minute it was gone. Kookaburras had swoom down and grab it. It was nice for him but it was quite funny.
Next stop was Home Bush. Where we stayed with friends on their sugarcane property. So Bob was able to ride in the big harvesters and we watch as they set fire to all the sugarcane. Amazing seeing all the snakes, frog and animal come out of the cane as  it burnt. Very smokey for days after, which just went through our van and the house. A great experience though.
So next time Townsville awaits us. bye for now.

Hi Everyone,

Sorry there's been no blog but have had visitors for the last three weeks, but back on track now.

We are now into 2010 after leaving Brisbane and family we headed north.
Called into Noosa to visit Bobs niece and her family. We spent a great day with them travelling along the beach to rainbow beach.
It was a beautiful sunny day and we took a picnic lunch. It was 80ks along the beach. A few sticky bits with rocks and the little creeks coming out to the sea.

We had to leave early because of the tide being out so it gave us enough time to get home before the next tide

On the way we came across Red  Canyon a
short walk up the sand dunes to see this beautiful coloured dunes.

Rainbow beach looking out to sea from the rocks. The family went swimming and the boys went surfing, me I went exploring and took some photos. But it was a good day.

The boys having a day out fishing. Just some of the sights we saw along the way.

This what we found when Bob and I went for a bush walk a couple of English boys just adding a bit of joy to everyones day just had to take a photo of them.

Inskip Point.

This is the ferry which took you over to Fraser Island. We didn't do the trip this time, but one day we will call back and do the trip.

Bob and I having our lunch at Tin Can Bay. Tin Can bay and rainbow beach is a well known spot for fishing and prawning region just north of Gympie. Our stop was Maryborough where we booked into the caravan park for a week

 

 

jubobsadventures

Hi Everyone,

Well going to skip a couple of years for now and show you some photos of our trip to the Bungle Bungles in West Australia. Or the Aboriginal name is Purnululu. It was declared a world heritage area in 2003. It has a remarkable landscape of tiger striped, beehive shaped rock domes.

Bob took the Friday off work and we drove down to the Bungle Bungles and camped for 2 nights. Our friend and neighbor came with us as well. There were was plenty of walks and challenges, but we had a great time.
 Just even to have a few days away from the caravan, and forget about that horrible four letter word. WORK.

This where we walked up the river bed to Piccaninny creek for a great lookout. Most of the walks into see these beautiful place was along a pebble river bed so not so easy to walk on.

They where formed by uplift and erosion over the last 20 million years. The domes are made from limestone and are so fine that they can crumble when touched. Thin layers of black lichens and orange silica cover and protect the limestone. This is what give it colourful effects. There are two parts to the park on one end there are the beautiful domes and the other end there are the gorges.  All lovely and all special .

The colours in these gorge where amazing and even without the sun on there they still put on a good show. As you can see certain areas were a tight fit, but that just made it more exciting, further on this walk we even had steep ladders to climb up. At the end we came across a huge water hole, so time to sit and just listen to the silence, until we heard the kids come running into the area. Then it was time to move on.

The Bungle Bungles are a seasonal area and you can only visit between May and October, in the dry season. In the wet there are many creeks to cross and it would be a big mud track so it is closed during November and May each year. From the main road it is about 55 ks into the camp sites. We enjoyed our few days away and sleeping under the stars, we all came back refreshed, but we are all looking forward to getting back on the road again.

I will continue with our trip around Aussie next time but just had to tell of our great weekend away. take care. Judith