The continuing Thelma and Louise story....Susan and I arrived back in Cairns and I parked the van at the Pandanus caravan park in Port Douglas.

Susan moved into a hotel close by as it was a little tight in the caravan with the two of us. She was keen to chill out doing the regular holiday stuff and the hotel environment had a little more to offer than my caravan... For those that don’t know my van, it's a small van and two people can be pretty cramped if you’re not a couple or not used to caravan life. The "Thelma and Louise" road trip was over and the next six days was about relaxing in the lovely warm FNQ winter weather!! (Hope I'm not making you Southerners too jealous🏝☀️) Swimming, walking, sailing, massages, lunches, dinners, cocktails etc... sounds good to me!!

I got my bike out and rode everywhere as there were lots of flat easy bike riding tracks. Susan had some massages and did lots of walking, sometimes we walked and rode together. We visited the weekly “Made by Me” market at the marina and saw some very innovative and beautiful products and stalls. We lunched at the Sailing Club, Tin Can RSL club, did a pub crawl and checked out some local music acts...all the fun holiday recreational stuff!!

Had a great coffee at Coo Choos ☕️

Marina wharf "Made By Me" market

On one of my rides I rode to the base of Flagstaff Hill, locked my bike to a fence and walked to the top and back. OMG...there's an awful lot of steps and steep streets, but the reward is the great view over 4 mile beach...By the time I got back to the caravan, I certainly felt I'd done my exercise for the day 😅😎

Flagstaff Hill viewpoint overlooking Four Mile Beach, Port Douglas

Is this a Juxtaposition ??? 🙄🐊🏄🏽‍♀️

On 27th June, it was reported in a Cairns paper that a crocodile was seen swimming along the Four Mile beach coastline about 20 metres from shore. While we were staying in Port Douglas there were people in swimming and even classes of kids doing "little nipper" training. GO FIGURE!

We got to go sailing...Every Wednesday the Skippers at the Port Douglas sailing club have a visitors sailing session. Anyone interested needs to be there by 4 pm and apply for a place. You sit around hoping to be chosen by a Skipper. We arrived at lunch time to enquire and expressed our interest and then turned up at 4pm to put our names on the list. We talked to a few staff about how we were really keen and hoped they would convey that to a Skipper or two. Well, as luck would have it, they did and we got offered a sail

😀😀 woohoo!!

As it turned out around 70 people applied to sail that night and only 5 boats went out so we were very fortunate. It’s become really popular and a lot of backpackers and grey nomads all turn up. There is no cost to sail, but it’s expected that you stay on for dinner when you return and buy the Skipper a drink. The weather was perfect, we got around 2 hours on the water and had a magical sail on a small boat with our Skipper Rob, deck hand Bev and two other visitors James & Laurie. Susan was in her element, being a member of Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne and sailing regularly , she got right into it helping set the sail and spinnaker.

James, Laurie, Skipper Rob, Susan & me. 

He!! He!! He!! I just chilled out and enjoyed the ride!!!  That's Rob's regular crew member, Bev telling me to chill out...

BUT...The real story goes something like this... I had a very important role to play...whenever we had to gybe, I had to lay down to get out of the way for the sail to pass over my head. I would then sit up, spin around to the other side, and provide body weight to balance the boat...YEP!...body weight, I had no trouble with that!! although I was enjoying the rest.

Heading back at dusk was gorgeous.

We've just come through Dickson Inlet and just about to pull up at the marina and yacht club.

We all stayed on for dinner afterwards including James and Laurie’s wives who joined us. By the time dinner was over I'd even been offered a place to park my van when I get to Port Campbell and Port Fairy on my way home early 2020...it's in my diary James so watch out I'll probably see you February 2020...

I'm not sure how I'm going to keep track of all the wonderful new friends I’m making along the way!!

I could only get three days at Pandanus in Port Douglas so I packed up the van and moved about 40 kms south and parked the van at the NRMA Palm Cove Holiday Park and Susan moved to the hotel close by. The CP was across the road from the beach, but there was no pool. If you were staying at the CP you were able to use the hotel pool, where Susan was, which was a 5 minute walk along a boardwalk away.

Sara, John and the girls had arrived in Cairns by this stage and were staying at a park near Smithfield at the base of the Barron Gorge/Skyrail. We hadn't caught up for around 6 weeks so I was hanging out to see them all and hear how their trip was going. (Check out the FB page "Five Take A Drive" if you're interested to see what they've been up to). Susan and I went over for dinner with them and they came to us at Palm Cove the following day for a look around. We even gatecrashed Susans hotel swimming pool😱The kids had a great time on the 🐊slide. We had a great time sipping cocktails... as you do!!!

Kate about to jump out of the Crocodiles mouth

On the walk to the pool near the hotel we came across this amazing looking grass. It was like walking on a sponge . If anyone knows what it is, I'd love to know???

I have a friend (Doris who was at art school with me in Albury) now living up here and we arranged to meet for lunch at her favourite restaurant “Vivo” at Palm Cove. Had a fabulous long lunch and unexpectedly and most generously, Doris covered the bill. 🙏 Doris😍
I’ve caught up twice since then as we are arranging to drive out to Cobbold Gorge for a couple of days together and do some painting!! Looking forward to that as I've not taken any opportunity to do any painting yet...too busy sight seeing and socialising😎

You can't go on holidays without some retail therapy, especially when it's a shop called "Annie's at the beach"... I had to buy something!! And yes I've worn it already - see the above photo👗

Here's a few evening sunset photos.

This is the Palm Cove Pier and I loved the light glow hitting "Double Island"

This is looking South and is the reflection of the sunset below (5.58pm)

Back at the van 5 minutes later and looking to the west I could understand why there was so much reflected pinks in the east and southern sky

I have to say I loved the Palm Cove region. It’s not so commercialised as Port Douglas. It's downfall though was it didn’t have the nightlife or pubs so there wasn’t as much to do, but we still had a great time.

On Monday 15th July Susan was leaving to return to ice cold Vic ❄️☃️(Sounds like a beer) I packed up the van, picked her up from the hotel and drove to Lake Placid Caravan Park to park my van to spend a couple of nights with Sara and John before they take off for the Cape trip. I set up the van and then Susan & I took off into Cairns to do some last minute retail therapy before dropping her off at the airport. A huge 🙏 Susan (or should I say Louise) for coming up and doing a road trip with me before settling into your Port Douglas yearly holiday. So many memories ☀️😎🌴🎒🚶‍♀️🐊🦑🍷🍸⛱⛵️

The following day I took my three young grandaughters out for the day, which gave Sara and John a chance to pack their car with all the camping equipment and get last minute supplies they would need to do the Cape York trip.

We went into Cairns and walked the boardwalk, played in Muddy's playground, had lunch at a Dumpling restaurant, had an ice cream stopover to renew our energy before taking a swim at the Cairns lagoon pool.

Walking the Cairns boardwalk

Muddy's Water Park

The girls had cocktails (Apple Juice & Lemon and lime) while I had Jasmine tea. They were pretty chuffed

Yum...yum...yum...Salted caramel, white chocolate, peppermint, cookies and cream and more

Miss cheeky Kate

We called into the Aquarium, but the cost was prohibitive and would have required a lot more time to get the value out of the tickets, so it will have to be another day...you can't do it all. A swim in the lagoon was waiting for us.....

Nellie

Kate

Leah

Cairns Lagoon Pool

Having a rest along the boardwalk on our way back to the car

I said goodbye to the Hayward/Seddon family the next morning and felt very sad😔 Susan had gone home, the family had left and I was all on my own once again....on my own, but not alone. The park is delightful where I'm staying, my parking spot feels very roomy and secure and there are always people to chat with!!

I stayed on a couple of extra days as I was really enjoying my time at the park. I arranged to meet up with Doris and Helen again for dinner to finalise our sojourn to Cobbold Gorge coming up. I'd also arranged a lunch date through Ron and Jill from El Arish with a mate of theirs. (They are the couple who put me up in their back yard a month or so ago). Ron had rung his mate Phil, who works at Yorkey's Knob, and told him he was to buy me lunch. I'm always up for a lunch so it was arranged and it turned out to be a most delightful afternoon with Phil sitting on the deck at Yorkey's Knob Boat Club enjoying the ambience , food, wine and good company. (Thanks 🙏 Phil, if you are reading this)

Everyone kept telling me I had to visit the Cairns Botanical Gardens so I took myself off to have a look. I can certainly see why...They are stunning. I spent over three hours wandering throughout the different sections. The gardens were first started in 1888 as a nursery and in 1958 a Botanical Garden was developed. The main section is the Flecker Garden, which is a large array of native botanical plants set amongst pathways and lawns. The Conservatorium has an orchid garden, butterfly enclosure and delicate ferns. The Aboriginal Plant use garden and the Gondwanan Evolution Garden are both fascinating with lots of informative storyboards. There was a Rainforest walk, which was disappointing especially after walking in the Mamu skywalk rainforest near Paronella Park and doing the Skyrail trip in Cairns and a Giant Bamboo Collection garden. I was also disappointed the Tanks Art Gallery was closed for an exhibition changeover ...just my luck

Again I took heaps of photos but heres just a few.

One of the bamboo avenues

Tropical Pitcher Plant...I'm guessing there might be a few comments regarding this photo 🤪 unless I'm the only one with a warped mind

This plants leaf was quite large...at least 40cm . It's shape and texture was gorgeous

Was this plastic? Some plants didn't look real...

This is not a Ulysses Butterfly, but has beautifully patterned wings with a similar blue as the Ulysses. I saw a Ulysses flying over the rocks when I was at Tully Gorge. We were quite a distance away, but it was so bright it was unmistakable.

This one landed on a young child's head a moment after taking this photo 

This is a photo of a real butterfly sitting on the information board. You can see the reflection of it, but at first glance it looked like it was part of the information board.

Some people look after their homes so neatly 🕸

Others couldn't care less 🕷

Crystal Cascades and Barron Power Station were very close to the caravan Park so I took a drive and a walk exploring the area.

A great wide fenced pathway meandering up the gorge

Although there are signs that swimming is not permitted at this particular water hole (I think it is mainly because access is difficult as it's near the top end of the gorge and not because of croc's this time) there is always someone willing to take the risk!! This time it was a family with quite young children!!

Not many funny stories to relay this time, just a "shock..ing" one..literally.

It's probably just as well I stayed on at Lake Placid CP a couple of extra days. I wanted to test my extra water tank and pump to make sure it worked as I'd had a problem with a leaking pipe in the van when I was at Townsville because the water pressure was too much for the system. To fix that it I bought a water filter, which regulates the flow AND...bonus... gives me lovely clean water . That's working well when using a direct water flow into the van, but when I filled my spare tank and turned the pump on it was much stronger and the connector fitting burst again. It didn't happen immediately so I only found out when I returned home from an outing to my bathroom flooded (thank goodness I had some towels and dirty washing on the floor, which soaked up quite a lot of the 40+ litres that emptied from the tank)...PANIC😱

I immediately turned all pumps and taps off and rang Dave, who installed it, and a warranty service centre in Melbourne to get instructions. I then drove into Cairns and bought some new connectors. I replaced the broken connector and put the shower wall back together feeling very proud of my accomplishment. I thought I could all myself a plumber now...All worked well until the following morning the bathroom was full of water again.. .Doh! A second connector had burst. That's when I discovered the van was live with an electric current running through it 😳 I'd gone to open my tool box at the front of the van to get a spare connector and got enough of a shock to scare me 😱 No joke...lucky it turned out to be a 12V problem not 240V.

(I'm not the plumber I thought I was! 🤪 and I'm certainly not an electrician!!!)

I had two electricians come. One to check the caravan park meter box who discovered the safety switch wasn't even working. He replaced it then tried the power to the van again. It didn't trip the switch so he thought it could be a 12V problem. He tested the van and sure enough it was still live with current running through the chassis. We turned off the power again. He couldn't stay to check it out so another electrician came about an hour later and when we turned the power on the current was no longer causing a problem. Nevertheless he tested every 240 appliance and wiring and concluded it was almost definitely a 12V problem caused by the water that had sprayed everywhere where it was not meant to go in the shower wall cavity, but that it had dried up by the time he got there.

The only solution was not to turn any power or water on until the water connectors were repaired. I arranged to drop in at a caravan repair service centre the following morning on my way to the next destination. In the meantime I did take a run into Bunnings and picked up an AC Voltage tester and upon arrival at Yungaburra, I plugged in the power and did a test on the van before entering it. All appears good...Phew!!

I had to drive through the pass from Smithfield to Kuranda pulling the van and I was quite nervous setting off after all the electrical nervous energy I'd experienced in the last 24-48 hours 🤕

I have to say it was a great experience. Twelve kilometres of quite steep and windy road but the car and van were a breeze to drive and I really enjoyed the trip. Coming out of the rainforest and the Kuranda Pass the scenery changed quite dramatically. I started to pass through coffee plantations, back into some sugar cane plantations, lots of market gardening farms, tea farms, grazing land, cropping and open paddocks with large hay bales...rich soil farming land.

It's now 24th July and I've parked my van at Lakeside Motor Inn and Caravan Park for the next three nights beside the beautiful Tinaroo Lake. After setting up the van, I made lunch and sat outside and had visitors immediately

Cheeky little critters stealing my tucker...

I had a few things I wanted to see in the Atherton region and one was the Herberton Historic Village. What a nostalgic experience that was. It reminded me of my days working at Swan Hill Pioneer settlement back in the 70's!! And of living on the farm in the 50's and 60's at Talgarno.

The village is privately owned and was started in 1973 by Harry Skennar and the Kimberly family (“Just Jeans” dynasty). The business employs all staff apart from a few volunteers, like the printmaker who only comes in once or twice a week to do demonstrations. It would have to be one of the most well stocked and looked after historic villages I’ve seen. So many memories of the past came back - old radios, coolgardies, toys, singer sewing machines, books, machinery, cars, and much much much more.

Damper for morning tea, Stew and damper for lunch, a train ride into the Herberton historic railway station and museum...

and to top off the day, I was given a small gift from the printmaker...a small letterpress block

I took many many photos of the village and rather than show too much here, I've made a short video and will post it on FB separately...here's just a few.  I spent about 4 hours, but you could easily spend a couple of days and still not see it all.

Being interested in printmaking I got talking to the printmaker at the print shop. I mentioned how, when I was bike riding in Germany, I had come across the original Gutenberg home now a winery near Mainz and had visited the Gutenberg Museum during my trip there in 2012. We had a lovely chat about his role as a volunteer printer at Herberton, Gutenberg’s role in developing the printing press in the mid 1400’s and how and why Herberton Historic Village evolved. As I was leaving he opened one of the many small drawers holding all the small metal letterpress blocks and handed me one to keep. His comment was “I don’t give many of these away, because most people I talk to have no idea about printing and it’s lovely to talk to somebody who knows and is interested”. I was overwhelmed!!

On my way back to the caravan park I drove past Gallo dairy cheese and chocolate factory. Divine cheeses... and chocolates! 🤩Susan and I tasted Gallo cheese in Cooktown and Susan was very keen to know if there was a distributor in Melbourne. No there's not, they only distribute as far south as Mackay😫, but after making inquiries I sorted out how to get them down south!!! Go Susan!!

I drink "Nerada" tea and the farm where a lot of the tea is grown is in this region so I dropped in for a look and watched tea being produced from a viewing platform in the factory.

I also called in to see the “curtain fig tree” at Yungaburra, which is a small quaint little eclectic town. Situated in a small band of rainforest, this tree is humongous!!! That's the only way to describe it. It's known as one of Australia’s most visited "tree" tourist attractions. The story is... As land was being cleared by the settlers for farming, they couldn't find a way to cut it down this very large fig tree so a of rainforest remained hence the reason the rainforest still exists here.

Curtain Fig Tree...They grow 'em big in QLD!!!

I had tea and scones at the Lake Barrine Tea House

Then walked into the rainforest along the boardwalk to see the giant "bull Kauris".

More BIG trees!! These Kauris are the largest of the Australian conifers and giant they sure are...these ones being over 45metres tall and over 6 metres in girth.

On my final night at Lake Tinaroo I took a drive out to the dam and as I was driving home I took this photo of this gorgeous sunset

July 27th and it's now been 4.5 months since I've been on the move.

I'm on my way to a couple of farm stays over the next few days. I packed up the van once more and started heading west along the Kennedy Highway (also known as The Savannah Way) towards Karumba. Firstly I passed through Ravenshoe, which is known for being the highest town in QLD... over 900 metres above sea level. I'm leaving the rainforest region and I'll be travelling on more country roads and drier country from here on.

Beautiful open farmland...could be North East Victoria, but it's Ravenshoe, Atherton Tablelands

This was the first farm stay...I parked my van by the river at Woodleigh Station just east of Innot Hot Springs about 3 to 4 kms off the main road. Absolutely beautiful quiet spot by the river all by myself. Another family group were about 300 metres away so I felt quite safe as it was private property, but it was $30 and you had to be totally self sufficient...I thought it was a bit of a rip off...but the ambience was stunning.

my late afternoon view...I think there's a painting waiting to be done!!!

At 7am I woke up to this gorgeous foggy morning...it felt quite magical

As much as I'd have liked to stay I moved on to the next farm stay and parked my van at "Pinnarendi Station Stay and Cafe", which was fabulous. This time I paid $27 for a huge site, which included power, water and a new amenities block. A delightful young couple were hosts and ran a cafe on the property providing three meals a day if you wanted, for a cost of course.

I took a 4km walk around the farm to build up an appetite for the roast dinner that was on offer at the wood fired camp kitchen

I thought I'd come across Snoopy dog...alas it was another ant mound. I'm putting together a short video of ant mounds which I'll post on FB soon. There are some very funny ones!!!

Then it was time for roast beef and yorkshire pudding 👍😀 beats cooking and washing up!!

I decided to stay 2 nights as the following morning I took a tour through the Undara Lava Tubes, which were not far from the farm.

As you can see, I could fit 4 vans and 4 cars at least on my site here.  

The car is starting to look OCHRE/RED...the roads to the farm stays and now Undara Lava Caves are all gravel/dirt roads so lots of dust getting into everything!!!

The Lava caves were fascinating. The tour took us inside some of the larger caves and we walked through some of the tubes that were formed when the volcano erupted something like 190,000 years ago. The top layer of lava cooled quicker than the centre, which kept draining and that created a tube. Undara Lava tubes are recognised as one of the longest lava tubes on the planet!!

I then drove out to the Kalkani Crater (about 10km along a very corregated road) and walked to the top and around half the rim. It was hot 😅by the time I reached the top...In this photo you can pick out the location of some of the underground lava tubes. Look for the line of different vegetation about 1/2 way down the left side you'll see a lighter coloured and slightly thicker vegetation line. I'd understand if you didn't pick it as it was much easier to see in reality.

It's now 30th July and I'm off to Cobbold Gorge today. I'm meeting friends on the way and we are travelling in tandem. I'll fill you in on that and more in the next post

Total  Distance travelled to date 11,207 kms

March...764km

April .....1225km

May......3435km

June....2800km

July.....2606km