Fraser Island - 26th July

 

See photo - On the ferry from Riverheads to
Fraser Island - Wanggoolba.

As we headed for Hervy bay we decided ( as we passed the local  BCF ) to go to Fraser Island and camp a couple of days, now this may have been attributed to the taste testing after the tour!, anyhow we bought a tent ($59) some blow up mattresses and we were off!

When we arrived that evening in Hervey Bay we found that the site which we reserved was.....lets say "not quite big enough, and had a power pole in the middle!"..... so we managed to find a temporary site for one night near the bins! (we were off to the island early the next morning ) .So at the crack of dawn (after packing 'till midnight ) we were off down the local IGA for some food then to the River Heads lined up to get on the Ferry, we were the second ones there and as it happened we all had to reverse onto the Ferry which meant we were the last off. This was a bonus as we then didn't have everyone up our arse while trying to navigate our way around the island for the first time!

See photo - Riley and Aiden next to the Maheno Wreck.

See photo - Fishing on 75 mile beach.
 

So what did we do while on Frazer Island..........

• Travelled 240kms over sandy beaches and tracks across the island.
• Visited the Pinnacles.
• Fished on 75 mile beach and, caught nothing!
• Looked down at Champagne pools (past Indian Head) it was too boggy to round the head along the original track.
• Tried to spy some whales from the Indian Head lookout, but had no luck, but the view was amazing.
• Enjoyed the luxury of camping only 500 metre from Maheno Shipwreck on our first night.
• Explored other Lakes and tracks including a trip to Kingfisher Bay which was the hardest track of all.
• Swam in Lake McKenzie (all except for Bell, it was freezing).
• Camped at Central Station and hang out with a wonderful family.
• The kids played hide and seek in the dark with torches until 8pm with a wonderful family we met from Canberra and just loved it......... and both came back!
• Marvelled at the Tree Canopy in Central Station, preventing any dew on our site the next morning.
• Walking down Eli Creek and watching the fresh water Perch swimming nearby.
• Collecting huge Pipis on the beach.
• Exploring the forest with the boys (day n night) looking for different plants and animals.
• Following the Dingo tracks around our tent in the morning! 

See photo - Aiden with a Pipis.

See photo - Riley and Aiden chasing the waves
pass the Maheno Wreck.

Stopping for a break along a straight forest track on the way to Central Station from Lake Birrabeen.

We loved the Forrest Canopy

Stay tuned and checkout our latest "Fraser Island"  youtube videos!

Blacks Beach, Rockhampton & Bundy - 22nd July

Well, we're finally back online again after a fair bit of distraction ( sometimes called holidays! ) and have fallen behind with our Blogs, so without further ado here's our latest update.

Now, how can we forget the crazy caravaners we have seen along the way, one that really sticks in our mind was a couple of grey nomads trying to reverse there caravan into a driveway along the Bruce Hwy, on a blind corner with a speed limit was 100kmh, during their attempt they managed to cross both lanes, miss half the driveway and drop into the culvert on the side of the road..... can you imagine the chaos !

See photo - Our first Injury for 'RETRO'.

As we left Airlie Beach heading south for Mackay, we noticed a change in the landscape from tropical forest to open plains as the Bruce Hwy took us thru Townsville, inland and back to the coast to arrive at Blacks Beach a northern suburb on the coast. We booked into our caravan park and then headed for the supermarket for supplies ( hunting n gathering ), we got all we needed and when pulling out of the car park we noticed another car reversing, we stopped and before we could stand on the horn the old bloke reversed out of his bay behind us and....... well, welcome to Mackay! there was only a little bit of damage and the poor old bloke couldn't apologise enough, so we got his details, patted him on the back and told him not to worry....... it was only a bumper.

 

See photo - Riley, Chris, Bell, Aiden,
 Baby Aksel, Helle, Craig, Nathaniel.

 Next morning we caught up with Craig Smith "Smithy" whom we had known in Saudi and his little boy Nathaniel, we decided to meet for lunch at the Eimeo Pacific Hotel. On the way we headed to one of the local beaches for a look around and for the boys to get a "Playground Fix", here we found an entire army of little blue soldier crabs, all of whom split in different directions once you got near, the boys had a blast collecting these little guys and watching them bury themselves in the sand at any opportunity. On the way back up the beach Riley went to pick up a "pretty rock" only to find out it was a crab! so after some more photos it was off to lunch. We arrived at the Eimeo Hotel and what a view looking across the bay, here we met Helle and their newest arrival Aksel, we had a few drinks some lunch and headed back to the Smith residence which Craig had built himself over the course of 6 months....... it was amazing, looking across a natural reserve and out over the bay, nice job Team Smith!

See photo - The boys favourite question!

So the next morning we decided that if we were to make the wedding and Fraser Island it was time to pull the finger out and hit the frog n toad!, off to Rockhampton we headed.  With more road kill and lots of sugar cane our road to Rockhampton was a bumpy ride (well that's being polite, it was crap). We later saw on the news the federal government is trying to increase funding as the roads are in poor condition and in some areas considered dangerous. We kept amused with the endless array of road side signs, our favourite being 'Are we there yet?' After passing several road works, we finally arrived in Rockhampton, where we visited the free Botanical gardens and Zoo which unfortunately were a bit of a disappointment. The gardens where lovely, but most of the animal enclosures where closed, the only amazing site was the huge chimp sitting in the corner of his enclosure.

See photo - Criterion Hotel located along the river

Most of the caravan parks in Rocky where either near a main road or train line. We thought staying on the edge of town would be a better option, but we were wrong. Staying at the Southside holiday village we found ourselves between a train line hauling coal, and the Bruce Hwy. The only consolation was a heated pool, trains for the boys to view and ducks that just loved to hang around and be fed by hand. We took a drive through Rockhampton to the historical area along the river and it was so sad to see they have not made much of an attempt to embrace these beautiful buildings. The .walk along the river was lovely, but the street was dead having no cafes and just one lonely pub. Next to some of the beautiful buildings we found a crappy looking square red stationary shop it was sad indeed.

To continue our dash to Ipswich we moved on after just one very long night, another extremely rough drive, we felt like we were in a popcorn machine! We passed through Miram Vale and Gin Gin where we stopped to picked up some cheap pineapples ( when in Rome! ), saw a very aggressive snake (if you know what it is let us know) then made our way to Bundaberg, ready for the Bundi Rum Tour........... which was brilliant!!!

See photo - Our Bundy Rum Photo
(we couldn't take any on the tour).

Here are some statistics you may not have known:
1) 96% of Bundy Rum is consumed in OZ, 3% in NZ bro, and 1% International export!
2) At any one point in time there is $900,000,000 worth of Bundy rum maturing at the distillery!
3) Following the introduction of the latest Bond Store, this will increase to $1.2 Billion!

After our tour and tasting session ..................... we grabbed a couple souvenirs we headed for Hervey Bay!

So here is our latest youtube video!

Airlie Beach and Daydream Island - 15th July

See photo - Riley at Island Gateway caravan
park bird feeding.

Here we are in Airlie Beach, it is a tropical 21 degrees, overcast and scattered showers so the kids hit the caravan play park and we hung around for the 4pm bird feeding. We weren't disappointed by the birds, soon enough we were covered in Rosella's, at one point Bell had 5 on her arm and I had 4 with one screeching in my ear!, The boys had a blast, later that night we finally decided to book our trip (as we with most of our plans, last minute) to the Daydream Island Resort for 5 nights, even though we weren't sure about the weather!

See photo - Aiden with a 'live coconut'.

Saturday morning we awoke to showers and squally winds, so the only thing to do was to head out fishing, we managed to find a pretty good fishing and diving store where we got a tide chart and bought a crab pot..........hey it's Queensland, everyone's got a crab pot!. The bloke in the shop gave us directions to a bush track near the inlet of a creek across the other side of town and we were off ....... we managed to find the track and some mangroves where we baited up the trap and threw it into the mangrove ( tide wasn't full so it was a training mission ) and then we both threw in a line while the boys tried to cover every part of there anatomy in black mangrove dirt.......... which they almost succeeded. ( i cant wait until there old enough to clean the car!! ) We decided to leave the pot in for a while and went for a walk towards the coast to checkout the boats, we found a wrecked boat (Cyclone Yasi ) and a beached catamaran. it was here we also found our first coconut (full that is) cause all the time we found them they had huge holes bored in "em by the rats the moment they fall off the trees. We collected 4 and headed back to our fishing spot. We cracked the first one open and it was a beaut, nice and fresh, Aiden then managed to roll the second one down the bank and into the water (good one). We pulled the pot.......... nothing (better to wait for a high tide and leave them in for the evening) and the lines and headed for the caravan. We dropped off the coconuts outside the van and Bell went shopping for food while i cleared up the van as we will be storing it while we are away at Daydream Island, we then went into town to explore the Esplanade and then home to wash the car and pack for our trip. When we returned we found around 12 Sulphur crested cockatoos around our caravan, they had found our coconuts and were having a ball, they managed to chew there way into them and were wrestling over who was going to get a drink of coconut milk! Bell got one coconut and held it up while a couple of cockatoo's took turns drinking as she poured the milk onto their beaks. By 7 we had the van done and ready for our 5 days away, and the boys were in bed....yay!.



See photo - Coral beach - near Fish Bowl.

See photo - Riley with Dad, wanted to go
out every day on the catamarans.

We got up early emptied the fridge and hooked up the van and moved it down to the storage site ($10 a night) , we grabbed a taxi and headed for the ABLE PORT and marina, where we boarded the ferry and managed to get a seat upstairs ( something to do with the rain and wind ) the trip was only a short 25 minute cruise across to the island. We arrived and had to wait until 2pm to check in, so it was off around the island for some sightseeing, we found the Kids playground ( instinctive for the short ones ) all the pools the restaurants and then the rainforest's track which traverses the island form end to end via a dirt track. Some of the views were fantastic even though it was at time to time overcast. We found ourselves back at Lovers Cove on the back of the island which is a beach entirely covered in coral washed up from the reef, there is no sand! We then made our way back to the reception and checked into our room, the boys got changed and we headed for the pools where we found the HEATED SPA! Little did we know it was to be our home for the next 5 days! Later that evening the wind died and we had dinner in the restaurant overlooking the bay and a spectacular sunset!

See photo - Aiden - realises he can breath
through a snorkle for the 1st time.

Monday morning we awoke ( we all are sleeping in one room with the boys sharing a sofa bed) to clear skies and no wind!, we headed for brekkie and then it was down to the pool like a German Tourist to stake our claim on the sun lounges! Smack bang in front of the heated spa, and a place we would be very familiar with by the end of our trip! We spent the day checking out the activities on the beach for us and the boys, and spent most of it relaxing around the pool until dinner time.

The following 4 days we managed to cover almost all of the activities which were on offer, these included Boot Camp, Surf cats, Ocean Kayak, Fish feeding, Kite flying, Coconut Bowls (don't ask! ), Play park, Kangaroo Feeding ...... the list goes on! But like all good holidays part of our day had to revolve around the pool and heated spa!

See photo - Start of our Living Reef fish feeding tour.

See photo - Doug - Shovel nosed ray.

See photo - We all had a hold of this little guy, he
can survive up to 1 hour out of water.

On the Thursday we went on a guided fish feeding with the Marine Biologist, Ollie ( Daydream Island has the largest open air aquarium in the southern hemisphere ) during the tour we got to hold a baby shark in the Shark Nursery, touch and feed Pancake & Pikelet the huge infamous Stingrays along with Doug the Shovel nosed ray. This was one of the highlights of our stay due to the great presentation from Ollie the local marine biologist along with his enthusiasm and patience with the young ones this tour is a must if you ever visit! This also marked our 3 month point in our trip around Australia, can you believe we are half way? ...... we can't!

See photo - View from Mermaids restaurant on Daydream Island.

We managed to score the best weather while we were on the island, it was mid / high  20's and light breezes the entire time, there wasn't a single cloud for the duration of our stay. On the Friday we awoke to blustery winds and cloudy skies......... but we were leaving at 0930am so for us.... all was good! We also met two beautiful families that we hope to meet up with again as we continue our trip south to Victoria.

We arrived back at Airlie Beach by 11am and headed south for the Sunshine coast and Brisbane!

............here is our latest video..........

Cairns, the gateway to North Queensland - 10th July

See photo - Cairns Lagoon.

We arrived in Cairns after our morning cane steam train ride at around 2pm, it wasn't a long drive from Port Douglas and the traffic was OK even for a Sunday. We booked in and got setup at the Cairns Holiday Park which is located close to the Esplanade and is the closest Caravan Park to the Cairns CBD (not on the Bruce Hwy! ) It was easy to swing into the Cairns rhythm as we got our gear and headed for the Lagoon located on the 'Esplanade' in the centre of town. With no sandpit toys Aiden  took a bit of settling but soon enough he was in to it with his 'jet ski hand' playing in the Lagoon pool. This is a great setup, which is much needed for the area as you are unable to swim in the water due to all the "deadly critters "and the mud flats.

We decided to head home for an early dinner and give the boys a ride on their bikes, it was a good thing we booked ahead for the site as by the time we returned from the Lagoon the holiday park was fully booked with not even a tent site available, that night the noise level was good .. or it's just us getting use to it.... thank goodness the boys are good sleepers now and accustomed to the noises of the van and all our friendly neighbours. 

Green ants and the Bush Stone-Curlew .... have we told you about our two favourite wild pets.... eerr pests? They are lovely except when the green ants invade your space, BBQ, clothes line etc,  and the Curlew's scream all night! We first found out about these creatures in Darwin, the green ants are a great help to the fruit trees and are very aggressive, they attack anything that comes near their territory, as for the Curlew's we look forward to a nights sleep without thinking someone is screaming in the camp site!!............ of which this campsite has both!

Monday morning it was an early start with a walk up to the Crystal Cascade Water Falls, in fact a series of water falls, as we were the first visitors there for the day we coaxed the boys into being quiet  (as quite as a 4 and 5 year old can be ), we were rewarded as we managed to see a wild pig, a bush turkey, a sleeping owl, 4 turtles and some fish......... not a bad score!
We then made our way to Barron Falls National Park and the Hydro project, they had a visitors centre with a 1/12th scale cut away model of the hydro turbine and generator assembly, they also had some footage of the latest floods and what the Barron Falls are subjected to, there used to be a tour, but due to OH&S legislation they no longer conduct them ( like the sugar cane industry ) unfortunately.
We then headed for the Esplanade to give the boys a "Playground" fix, in one of the most incredible setups we have seen to date, we had a BBQ lunch and let the boys " go for it ". We then got some coffees and settled back on the grass in the sun for some R&R ......... from our hectic schedule.........


See photo - Over Barron Falls on Kuranda train.

Next morning it was another early start as we were booked for the Kuranda Railway trip up the mountain to.... err...Kuranda, some lunch, sightseeing and then the Skyrail back down to Cairns. We were not disappointed, the railway was fantastic, it was pulled by two 1000hp locomotives and consisted of 8 carriages handmade from Silky Oak !, the railway was constructed between 1882 and 1891.....9 years, and all by hand!!!, it was considered one of the worlds greatest engineering marvels of the era, and even today is considered an engineering feat of tremendous magnitude. Hundreds of men were employed to build the 15 hand-made tunnels ( some 2km long ) and 37 bridges that stand as a monument to the pioneers of tropical North Queensland who lost their lives while working on the railway. Rising from sea level to 328m, the journey to Kuranda passes through World Heritage protected tropical rain forest, past spectacular waterfalls and into the awesome Barron Gorge.

See photo - Skyrail - magical view after magical view

We arrived in Kuranda and as we made our way into town we were met by a man standing on the corner of the Kuranda Pub cracking a stock whip enticing the crowd in for a meal and a beer.......... who were we to argue! We finished our sightseeing and headed for the pub before making our way down to the Skyrail and our return trip down the mountain. The Skyrail was incredible, it has been voted Australia's premiere attraction and we can now see why, the .7.5km gondola cable car consists of 25 towers averaging 39 meters rising out from the rain forest. We managed to get back to the caravan park, do a quick pack and off to Outback Jacks for dinner with the boys for a treat, the next morning we would be setting off for Airlie Beach camping along the way!

See photo - Bramston Beach.

Wednesday saw us up and out of the caravan park by 9am, Bell took the boys to the shops for some supplies and we were on the road to Bramston Beach. Now, if anyone reading is looking for a place to retire to, we have found it!. Bramston Beach is 17km off the Bruce highway 80km south of Cairns just outside of Innisvale, you can currently buy a furnished 4 x 2 on the beach for under $400K, compared with Perth prices this is incredible, if you cant afford to buy here do yourself a favour and plan to visit and camp on the beach if you ever come to this part of the world, you wont regret it! We setup camp and headed for the beach for the afternoon.

We got up early the next morning to see the sunrise and then packed up and headed for Balgal Beach just outside of Townsville, we detoured thru Mission Beach and Tully to view the destruction from cyclone Yasi, and they are still clearing up this area, unfortunately it does not seem they have had any support from the Queensland government to rebuild in time for the tourist season....... but then again there only the government..........

See photo - Balgal Beach.

When we arrived at Balgal Beach it was full !, where to stay?, then one of the locals came over and told us the ranger had been in the morning and would not be returning for 3 days so just park over there and we'd be OK..... you beauty! This place had the biggest tide we have seen to date the beach receded over 700 meters and dropped nearly 4 meters, once the boys were asleep we went for a look and the tide was high up the beach!

We left early the next morning covering 350km thru Townsville, Ayre and Bowen, the pick was Ayre a beautiful little town surrounded by cane fields, we arrived in Airlie Beach and booked into the Island Gateway Holiday Park, great spot within walking distance of the centre of town and the Esplanade. We got setup and headed for the nearest Tourist centre to line up a holiday at one of the islands.................. stay tuned for the next Blog and our trip to the famous Whitsunday Islands!!!

Our next clip ...

Wonga ... The Daintree and CapeTribulation - 5th July

For those of you following our blog, we told you all via e-mail that we would have to slow down our online up dates as we want to surprise Chris' sister for her wedding. Well change of plans .. long story short it was getting to hard to keep covered up, so we told Toni today. She is so excited and so are we, so the count down is now officially on for the 5th August.

Now to our update .... I guess you are wondering why the kids are in so many photos... well it's not just Mum encouraging them, the boys are always asking ..."mum take a photo of .." they love it, especially when they get to see themselves as stars in the slides show at all the things they're doing from day to day.

See photo - Introduction to sugar cane.

From Palm Beach we headed to Wonga Beach...... funny name!, we stopped on the way for some supplies for our next camp, and headed thru the cane fields along the coastline towards Port Douglas then on to Wonga just outside Daintree Village. The coastline in this region is considered to be equal to the Great Ocean Road and we were not disappointed, we managed to accumulate quite a lot of traffic as we took in the sights (shame that the speed limit is 80km along this incredible stretch of coastline) bumbling along at 60kph.....you get that! Did we mention the boys love trains? Well they saw all the sugarcane transport trains and followed the rail line along the way until we arrived at the Pinnacle Caravan park. We were impressed with the view, located right on the beach, and to our surprise only 1/2 full!. We unpacked and setup for our 5 day stay then headed for the pool (which had a slide that Riley was keen to test).

Settling into a famous plastic Ozzie outdoor chair in the sun with an icy cold beer reminded us of a poem we recently heard and it goes something like this.............. 'Entrapment'



See photo - Creb track start point.

Next morning (Tuesday) we decided to head for the Daintree Village which is located on the south side of the Daintree River, this area is located just a couple of K's from our camp and we spent a few hours looking around followed by a BBQ lunch in the park, we then headed for the CREB TRACK one of the most challenging tracks in Australia, we got to the beginning of the track and it was closed to the dismay of 2 groups of 4x4's parked up at the gate. We heard a day later that a vehicle had gone thru the CLOSED gate ( bad move ) and headed up the track, apparently they were involved in an incident and the vehicle was damaged, 48hrs later they were found and finally rescued via Helicopter.....(bet they got the bill for that!).

See photo - Our Daintree, Cape Trib, Bloomfield
track trip (red= track).

Wednesday we headed across the Daintree River around 8am (before the rush) and made our way up the coast towards Cape Tribulation and the Bloomfield Track which makes its way up to Cooktown and the Peninsula. The Bloomfield track is 30+ km long and includes 8 water crossings and 2 major hill climbs( 1in5 and 1in3 inclines ) where it finally finishes at the Wajul Wajul Falls in Bloomfield, the boys managed to also see a 3mtr salt water crocodile sunning itself on a rock in the river! The track took us around 1 1/2 hrs each way to complete and we managed to keep it on the track and not break anything, there were quite a few vehicles on the track especially on the return leg which meant we needed to be careful on many of the climbs as some vehicles don't hang around!



See photo - Bloomfield Falls - family photo.

Once we got back to Cape Tribulation we stopped along the way to take in some walks thru the national park and then on to Thornton Beach, (3rd highest mountain at 1300m) with a view of Struck Island, for a Beer and an Ice cream on the beach, We headed for the Ferry Crossing........ along with everyone else where we waited for around 45 minutes to cross the river.

Thursday we decided to have a "quite day" and Bell did some extra schoolwork with the boys - not in the mood (we now know why some animals eat their young! ) I decided finally to give the Prado a wash (first proper one since Broome! ) and after lunch we let the boys go for a ride around the park, several minutes later a man returned with Aiden........ he'd had a huge stack and took bark off his elbow (Riley did the same the day before going to fast over a speed hump on a bike he had swapped with a friend ), shin and a huge chunk out of his knee! the man said it was a pretty good one and Aiden for a minute didn't know who he was or where he lived!. We patched him up gave him an icy pole and then headed for the Beach where the boys played for a couple of hours and then we went to the pool for a swim........day done!



See photo - Port Douglas old sugar cane
steam train 'Bundy'.

Our last day in the tropical paradise of Wonga saw us up at the crack of dawn to enjoy the sunrise, we then headed down to Port Douglas for a day on the beach, we sent the boys off into the water, ordered a couple of coffees and enjoyed the sun for a couple of hours. We managed to get up to the lookout for some photos and then back to the Historic Court House Pub for lunch and a few beers. We grabbed the scooters out of the car and then headed for the Mirage marina for a look around, here we found a trawler selling Tiger prawns so we grabbed a kilo, got some shopping then headed back to Wonga for a swim, dinner and bed.

Sunday we packed up after a broken nights sleep (our lovely neighbours from Townsville had a rough night with their one year old daughter), oh boy did that bring back memories) and headed for Cairns via Port Douglas, here we had arranged for a ride on a historic railway, it is one of the only existing Cane Steam Trains still running on the lines in north Queensland. We all love it, there is just nothing like the sound of a steam train whistle and the 'chug chug' as you go along the line. The boys got a full tour and met the driver, with so many questions they are keen to go on another ride......... will just have to wait and see.

Here is our next clip.

The Red Centre and up the Peninsula- 27th June

Back in the van and on the road (small difference from a 2 room suite in Bali ! ) and were off across the red centre then up to the 'Top End' and Cairns. Bell started off this trip at the helm (as Chris was having to make full use of the caravan bathroom facilities from time to time to time to time..... you get the picture!!! ) and enjoying the 400km straight run leaving Darwin, thru Katherine for some fresh rolls and some grease (for the Towball ! ) arriving in Mataranka Springs around 3pm. Chris still was not feeling 100% after Bali, so he enjoyed the sights and tried to relax in the passengers seat for this part of the trip.

 

See photo - Bitter Springs .. but fun & warm.

Monday: Darwin to Mataranka - 423 km We set up (all of 10min - with the car still hooked up ) and walked the 500m to the Bitter Springs, beautiful warm water with a nice steady current. The boys were like fish as usual and we joined the many other visitors to soak away for a good 1/2 hr!  We learnt that Mataranka is famous for the movie 'We of the Never Never', which I feel we will now need to watch.


 

See photo - Riley, Aiden & Alexanda.

Tuesday: Mataranka to Three Ways - 542 km and stayed in the Caravan Park out the back of the roadhouse where met a lovely family from South Africa, enjoyed a family game of soccer with the kids, in the morning the guy next door managed to rip half the caravan park apart with a jack leg he left down.....so much for a stealth exit at 5am hahahah !!!!

 Wednesday: Three Ways to Mt Isa - 646 km our longest run yet, we crossed the border (total 3970 kms travelled in the NT) Unfortunately the underground mine tour was for 12 years and up but again the boys met a new friend and had a blast on their bikes ( Riley didn't stack it today YAY! )



See photo - Krys eating Riley & Aiden.

Thursday: Mt Isa to Normanton - 495 km as luck would have it we met another great family on holidays from Queensland with all their oldies from a bike club, we took photos by the Barramundie fish and a replica of the largest croc 'Krys' ever caught in the world 28ft YIKES! , check this video out. We got some tips from the locals and Riley had another crash on his bike..........!

Friday: Normanton to Mt Surprise - 395 km. We awoke in the morning to find a 5 inch crack in our windscreen, however that was not the last of it, with many single lane sections and hopping off and back on road one caravan didn't slow down and added another star to the windscreen, it was a challenging run which we both shared the driving, Chris doing much better than Bell! That aside the boys have just been brilliant this week with no TV and lots of chatting, some fun worksheets..... and of course FOOD!........we could not be more proud of the boys. It is true what they say about the simple life..... especially with Bell!  

See photo - Undara - Lava Tube.

5 days.... 2501 km......32 toilet stops! certainly not as hard as we thought it would be.

The boys were keen to see a volcano in Bali but we just felt the trip was too far, so better still we headed out on the Undara Lava Tube Tour just outside of Mt Surprise formed by some of the 100 + volcano's in the region. The Kalkani Crater which is 900 meters above sea level had one of the world's largest lava flows from a single vented volcano (190 000 years ago), in modern geological times. We climbed around the rim then headed back to the bus for morning tea and a short drive to the 'Wind Tunnel' Complex, where sections of the tunnels or volcano tubes have collapsed, entry could be gained to the 'Arch Complex' and 'Barkers tube'. Here we were totally reliant on torches for 400 metres, the boys loved having their own torch and wanted to go back exploring. They also wanted to take a rock home, but as it was a National Park we took a photo instead! The boys just loved Rob our tour guide and became his best friend, they even helped him set up for morning tea (carrying the biscuits!). It truly was amazing to experience what the force of nature can sometimes leave in its wake.

See photo - Windy Hill - appropriate location
for these flatulent boys!

From here our drive has changed to a more lush green jungle that we knew QLD was renowned for. It started with rain for one day and a cool 14 degrees where we stopped at Windy Hill Wind Farm a wind power station near Ravenshoe on the Atherton Tablelands.  Windy Hill has 20 wind turbines with a generating capacity of 12MW. The wind was almost as cold as being on a ski field ... thankfully this weather was not a sign of things to come, and we continued on stopping at Herbeton to visit the old tin mine and enjoyed our best fish and chips to date at the Jacaranda Coffee Lounge........ we then set off for Mareeba and a free overnight camp.  We met a great couple that have 5 children (all grown up now), who were also taking 6 months to travel around Australia, they live in Innaloo (5 min from us) and left just 1 week after us..... and we hope to catch them again. However our biggest milestone for the boys here was Aiden deciding he wanted to trade in the trainer wheels (one blew out), so what better time to give it a go on a large grass paddock, once he started there was no stopping him.

See photo - The girls with the boys!!

On the way to Palm Cove we stopped in Mareeba and enjoyed the history  in the museum and the boys were fascinated by the gramophone and old equipment (and the giant Brahman bull then taking a stop at Kuranda for lunch and a 1 hour forest walk (look forward to our visit again when we take the train from Cairns) the view was just magic. Once again great neighbours at Palm Cove (we have been so lucky as we have heard some horror stories), boys enjoyed a swim, went for lots of walks and soaked up the magical view with the locals on the jetty. While we were on the jetty one walk, a group of young Japanese girls wanted to have a photo with us, they were so excited, they were just like little school girls.

Just thought we would wrap up with some statistics to date:

Total Accommodation Cost: $1,645
Total Fuel Cost: $3,174
Total Fuel Consumed: 1,971 L of diesel
Total Distance Travelled: 11,194 km
Sicknesses: 1 cold for Aiden and Bali belly for Chris
Fish: 0
Injuries: to many to count!

Our next adventure takes us into the heart of the Daintree area, on that note here is our next clip.