22 September 2010 Cairns

This is the valley we are staying in - and yes these are daytime shots

The old tent!!!! and the old vs the new (I love the new one it's waterproof)

A very wet day in Cairns - well at Lake Placid Caravan Park anyway....

The weather reports kept saying that rain was on its way, so decided to get into Cairns to set up so that we didn't have to do it in too much in the rain. Well so much for the best laid plans... Managed to set up the tent only to find that it was no longer waterproof and we were getting more water in the tent than out!! So off to Rays to buy a new tent.

Manged to get the new tent up in a dry spot and went to put in the mattresses and doona from the trailer only to find that the trailer had also leaked (It wasn't closed properly in the last downpour) so the mattresses and doona and extra clothing was soaking!!! Not happy Jan!!!

Sorted that out and had things hanging everywhere decided to go to Yorkeys Yacht Club for dinner - yum - they had a courtesy bus pick us up and drop us off - made it even better!!!. The next day the weather bureau said that we got double the monthly average in rain yesterday - no wonder were like drowned rats. The weather is getting better slightly - the monsoon downpours are not so constant. We will have dinner with Lee and Johnno tomorrow and watch the footy with them on Saturday - hopefully for Mike's sake Collingwood will win (never thought that I would be saying that!!!!)

18 September 2010 Granite Gorge Caravan Park

Herberton on the Atherton Tablelands

Waiting in traffic for the roadworks....


The hot air balloons

Not a bush trkey a real turkey it woke us each morning at 5.30!!

Cardie weather.....

Left Richmond and on to Charters Towers. Found a lovely caravan park Dalrymple Caravan Park - it was good for us as it had a great camp kitchen with a TV which can be a treat. Just stayed the night as we wanted to visit Undarra Lava Tubes, but unfortunatly the Kennedy Development Road was mostly under construction and a 3 hour trip ended up taking over 5 and 1/2 hours. By the time we got to Undarra there wasn't any room for us and it was too late to do a tour. Decided to move on as we can always do this another time especially when we live in Cairns

We went on the Granite Gorge Caravan Park (near Mareeba) again, nice to be somewhere familiar. Got woken up the next morning by a loud dragging noise ha t get up to investigate, it was a hot air ballooon that had just landed in the park near us taking off. See photos!!! We were haing conversations with the passengers!!

We also had a day at Herberton - visited their hitoric village - we will be back as they are still finishing off exhibitions

13 September 2010 Richmond QLD

The lovely lake at Richmond


A rainbow in the distance - taken from Richmond

After drying out from the shower at Camooweal, travelled into Mount Isa. Decided to stay a few days to have a rest. Put up the tent and managed to have a look around. Needed to go through the trailer - we managed to get ants in it so needed to get rid of them.

From Mount Isa went to Richmind. What a beautiful town. Where we stayd was right on a man made lake, which you could swim at, it also was stocked with Barra. We walked around and managed to get some lovely photos, the town itself was lovely too. Has a beer at te Mud Pub - a bit of a dissapointment as it was a bit warm. Oh well we had a couple at the car from our cold fridge!!

9 September 2010 Camooweal

Into Queensland


And the obligitory catle on the roads - the food must have been good at the edge of the road!!!!



The storm on the way....

From Pine Creek (after a slight detour to retrieve Jan's brand new camp chair from the side of the road - Mike forgot to tie it on the roof) we travelled to Daly Waters to visit the old pub and to have a try at their beef or barra dinner - yum, probably one of the best Barra's that we have had tasted!!!. The next night was at Tennant Creek at the Outback Caravan Park - enough didtance from the pubs in town. Then on to Camooweal. We still had relatively good dry season weather, but after we set up in Camooweal we had a doozy of a thunderstorm. It lasted for about an hour, so we sought refuge in their camp kitchen - sort of like a shed with open sides (lots of shelter from the lightning!!!!Not)

6 September 2010 Pine Creek

Our camping spot..


Finally time to sit and have a rest for a couple of very tired people



Dinner - Yum

Finally made it away - left Darwin about 1.00 and kept driving until we got dry weather - lots of rain!!!! Pine Creek was the end result. Was a lovely dry season type day. Stayed at the Lazy Lizard and decided to have dinner at their tavern, highly recommended!!!