19th September 2012
We drove just out of town to another rainforest walk of about 2kms which we did in the morning before it got too hot as the weather has improved significantly. We are now getting 19°C nights and 30°C days. We took Foxy for a beach walk in the late afternoon when it had started to cool down.
21st September 2012
We finally moved on from Mission Beach to Ingham which was a fairly shot drive and we left earlier than usual to get there for an early lunch. The idea being to arrive, have lunch and head out to Jourama Falls. We noticed on a map that they are fairly close to Ingham when we were checking the whereabouts of Wallaman Falls in relation to Ingham. We drove out and then walked the 1.5km track to the falls lookout along a reasonably easy track with lot of photo opportunities at rock pools. The last 300 metres was hard work we survived to take in the view of the falls across the other side of the creek with no way down to the base, or to the top, but still enjoyable. We then drove on to look at both Big and Little Crystal Creek. Big Crystal Creek had Paradise pool as it attraction whilst Little Crystal Creek had several small pool with rock slides into them. Both of these attractions required a far amount of walking so we rounded the afternoon off with a drove up a narrow winding road to McClelland Lookout, near Paluma Village, which had views to the ocean and had passed over a bridge which had another waterfall by it. On the precarious descent we stopped off by the bridge and walked down to the creek to get some photos of the bridge and the waterfall leading up to it and the smaller one after it. We then headed home feeling rather worn out but satisfied with a good afternoon out. The is a lot to see in the is area and should have come here a week earlier so that we don’t rush it but it’s too late now as we have to get on to Mark and Jeane’s place so we will only spend three days here.
22nd September 2012
This was an easier day with a short drive around town in the morning which included a visit to a remarkable Italian Cemetery where they obviously spend heaps of money on their dead relatives. In the afternoon we drove to several relatively local beaches and finished with a look at TYTO wetlands in the hope of seeing a few birds and came across some Red Browed Finches and some Crimson Finches.
23rd September 2012
We set the alarm to get us up early so that we could be out at Wallaman Falls nice and early to beat the worst of the heat now that the temperatures are hitting the low thirties. We drove the 50 odd kms to the carpark which involves the usual steep twisty road up the required 1200 feet.
We then took the 2km walk back down to the bottom of the falls via a narrow rocky track to the final lookout. There is no further official track but people obviously ignore this and clamber down the last little bit but at our age decided against that. Once the photography bit was done we then had to climb the 1000 odd feet back up, and being in a gorge meant there was virtually no breeze which left it very humid. The waterfall is claimed by the literature to be 305 metres high, and the highest single drop fall in Australia but the sign in the carpark stated 268 metres but we don’t know who is wrong. Either way it is a long haul to get back out and all up took us 2.75 hours to do the return trip. We then used the top viewing platform for some more photos before heading home to get out of the heat.
24th September 2012
We set off southwards to stop overnight at the Home Hill free camp alongside the town and railway where we have stopped twice before.
25th September 2012
Continued our southwards trip through McKay to Sarina where we stopped for one night before moving on to Mark and Jeane’s place.
26th September 2012
We moved up to Mark and Jeane’s place and arrived just as the last of their BBQ guests were leaving. We had a break with them and then set up the van.
27th September 2012
We helped Jeane prepare for another function she was having in the front garden with a shade house and games, and at about 10.00am around 20 plus Red Hat Ladies turned up. The noise level was remarkably high from the chatter and no-one was doing any listening. We kept well out if the way, as did Mark, until he had to do the sausage sizzle for them. At 2.00pm the noise level dropped off to a normal conversation level and we helped pack everything away again.
1st October 2012
We are now well and truly established at Mark and Jeane’s place and fully instructed as to feeding the chickens, operating the ride-on mower and the water tanks pipework, what to do with the lantana bushes and where the new paver path needs to be, etc. We have had two sessions of cutting out lantana bushes and poisoning the remaining stumps to get rid of it. A 5 acre block is capable of producing a lot of unwanted lantana, plus we have to work around a sleeping python. Foxy is in her element here and loving it with the chickens to herd and mice to catch.
1st November 2012
There has ben a blank spot since our last posting and between 1st October and November as the computer died, Fortunarely it had a 3 year extended warranty so it was still covered and now returned and in action again. During the missing month Barry has layed a pver path along two sides of the vegie patch and through two gateways which involved the preparation work and about 800 pavers.
Whilst doing this paving Barry had to attack it in short bursts, partly because the temperature have risen and partly to avoid a conflict with a nesting Yellow-Bellied Sunbird which has its nest hanging in the vegie patch so he did a time share arrangement. The eggs eventually hatched and a lot of feeding activity happening and then nothing. We assume the young became a preditors dinners as they were only four days old so didn't fly away. According to the internet these birds only have a 20% success rate. Meanwhile Merry has been busy chopping out the lantana and neatly stacking the cuttings either for later removal or to rot down, but the area that has been cleared is large and looking good. The chickens are producing three eggs a day so we are now inudated with eggs. On one evening trip to the hen house to tuck them up for the night we had to persuade a python to move out off the doorway to let us in, an on anothe occassion had to chas a bandicoot out. Foxy had an incident with a snake that decided to come out from under the veranda but Barry yelled 'No' to her as she attacked the snake and she turned away as the snake reared up about a metre to turn on her. Foxy was out of strike range so the snake retreated under the veranda with its tail still coming out as the head went back in, making it about 2 metres long and probably a pyython, but it all happened so quickly that Barry didn't get to check out the colour scheme. We haven't seen it since. We have also had keep her away from a largish Lace monitor that has decided the increased temperatures are to his liking.
During this month long period Barry has had blood tests done and the results led to him having a biopsy procedure in Mackay which has cleared him of cancer.
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