Tramping tales for May 2013

All back in order (or so we thought) as we pulled out of Alice Springs with Skiv and Getaway looking their best after a good soapy wash down ridding them of  red dust ingrained in every crevice. Out on the Stuart Highway heading north with eyes out and looking for any changes since we last came this way. Travellers complain bitterly about the cost of fuel for the privilege of many miles of ‘nothingness’. This raises a quiet smile as ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’! We find much to fill our thoughts along the way...whether it’s the unsightly glass and plastic bottles strewn along the way. Never see a wretched culprit) It’s just there, widespread on the spacious road verges.  Birds feeding on road-kill add another interest as we trundle along especially the number of wedge tailed eagles we see. Promptly reminding us of two incidents we enjoyed but forgot to mention when we joined the Stuart Highway at the Lasseter junction a few days back.  On the first occasion, the dark shadows filling the road space ahead gave a good indication of a number of wedge tailed eagles. We slowed, as these mighty birds of prey with huge wing span are slow to take off. All but one of nine took to the air. The lone Wedgie was determined to keep prime position on top of the carcass forcing us to make a detour. We don’t mind as it gives us close up enjoyment. The second roo corpse was fortunately well off the road surrounded by with 8 wedge tailed eagles, a good dozen crows and a large ginger cat with fur bristling and tail erect resolutely keen to gain a share of the spoil despite the feathered numbers and harassment from some  crows.. After crossing the middle of Australia with little sign or death – the Stuart Highway provided plenty especially a dead cow and a dog in close proximity to each other on the roadside which spun our thought processes into overdrive.  We continued to see wedge tails  cleaning up along the Stuart Highway with crows in close attendance through to Barrow Creek when thoughts turned to UK backpacker, Joanna Lees, who hid out in this scrubland while her boyfriend, Falconio’s body never to be found. Ten! Twelve years having passed with Brad Murdoch, jailed for the murder, now making trailer in prison. Life can be stranger than fiction.

Approaching Devils Marbles, we couldn’t resist turning in to stretch our legs and enjoy an area reminiscent of Epworth Mission or the Balancing Rocks of Zimbabwe.

Bush flies awaited us ...George was quick to unwrap and don a head net as soon as he stepped out of SKV.

Forty kms we drew up in Taylor Creek, obviously a popular rest area as there were already five caravans at rest there enjoying ‘happy hour’ and before the sun had gone down there were nine vans and a backpacker vehicle. It was here we discovered the fridge was no longer working and the light circuit in the caravan was out again. George had a ‘fiddle’ but no joy. Next morning we pushed on north before taking the Barkly Highway eastwards.  

We could see from one side of the world to the other... in fact Len Beadell would have said ‘you could see a bull ant unless it was lying down’!

A smashed up caravan and 4x4 provided a sobering thought as we plodded on towards Barkley Homestead Roadhouse, the only decent place of relaxation along this stretch of road. This is still a good oasis and we found ourselves recalling minor events when we last stopped here during the November heat of 2006. Although not nearly as hot, the fridge was fast losing its chill and we transferred what we could into the new Waeco freezer in SKV and put everything else in the freebie Waeco cold bag with its ability to connect to 240v or 12v power. This saved the day and got us through the next ten days.

Next day, about 140 kms from the Queensland border, we entered the Lake Eyre basin and Diamantina catchment. Having been to Lake Eyre since the last trek across here, brought home the very flat yet vast extent of the Eyre basin. No wonder the water takes so long to reach its destination! Tom Maxwell’s songs, introduced to us by Di and Peter Ryan played us all the way across the plains and over the border into Camooweal where we were to make an early stop for the day in order to visit The Drovers’ Camp. Our site, in the caravan park overlooked the limitless plains we’d just travelled. An enormous parking lot for truckies was immediately adjacent.. The comings and goings of road trains kept us well entertained, so much so that when George enquired at the office as to the whereabouts of the Drovers Camp Museum. It was enough for him to decide we’d visit next day, on departure.    

 

 A row of monster trucks reeking of the cattle whose rattling hooves and mournful eyes peering through the railings of their tight confines had us feeling very sorry for their plight.

The big mining town of Mount Isa was a good place to have the fridge and electrics seen to and as George was keen to get there in good time we pulled out of our camp site at 8.30 with plenty of time to take in Drovers Camp.  So much for that! Not only did it open at 10 o’clock each day, it had been a short walk from our caravan park.  We could easily have strolled along the previous day at any time up to 9 p.m. which made it all the more frustrating. Onwards we went, for close on 200km with the Waggaboonyah Range rising out of the horizon slowly bringing a change to the flatlands, the closer we came to Mount Isa, a typical mining town with high chimney stacks forming distinctive landmarks. We found a refrigeration company and hung around a good couple of hours – partly due to the lunch hour coming up, before a friendly young lad was put onto our job. The compressor had gone and it would take five working days at least, to bring in a new one. Good place! They didn’t charge us for the time spent finding the problem and they pinpointed a place in Cairns to help us plus gave us directions for a local auto electrician. Everyone was busy. Everyone was preparing to go off to the Gregory River for the annual canoe race over Labour Day weekend. Yet another auto electrician gave us the same story - circuit breaks were time consuming and expensive to find. The decision was made to stay with our problems and keep going at an even pace. We drew into a caravan park that evening for powers sake only to find they were so full we could only have an unpowered site. At this late hour we had to make do with a tight squeeze into a site with a big smelly skip close by. Our immediate neighbour was setting up his generator for a quick boost to his power supply and we copied. Unusual for a caravan park to allow that! Parking at the Mount Isa Visitors Centre in the CBD, next morning, we walked to the hospital. We had last been in Mount Isa during peak summer when the tourist season was over and everything closed. Result, we missed out on the Underground hospital, but not this time.

After the Japanese bombed Darwin in February 1942, Mount Isa feared they would be the next target. The Mine Management and volunteer miners with their tunnelling experience rallied to support the Hospital Superintendent by digging into the hill beside the existing hospital. An underground hospital to care for patients and handle emergencies in the event of an attack was created.  It was never required! During the war years it proved a cool and quiet place for night shift staff to sleep before it fell into disuse. During the early 1950s kids discovered the air shafts and began exploring down below. Once this became common knowledge it was considered safer to cover the entrances with soil.  In 1977, while checking for reasons of subsidence in the area, workers rediscovered this bit of history and the Underground Hospital was resurrected as a tourist attraction. We arrived well before opening time. Fortunately, an early bird guide allowed us in (concession cost of $13 each) and we spent time in the Beth Anderson Museum housing antique medical equipment, rare historical items and a video providing colourful stories about Mount Isa until opening time. Once, other tourists gathered we were taken to the underground hospital.  

Mount Isa’s Underground Hospital- just as well it was never required as those earth floors and cuttings into the hillside did not give rise to the most hygienic conditions!

We had forgotten just how broken and rugged the surrounding countryside to Mount Isa was as we continued on our way to Cloncurry. Having travelled westwards last time perhaps the striking features we were seeing now had not been as obvious. Amidst the rocky outcrops and scarps splattered with green growth we came across another caravan lying in smithereens. We also spied three dead dingoes or dogs lying in a row within a truck stop; a thick brown snake lying in a road cutting; Black and Whistling kites were now being seen circling the skies and between 25 and 30 kites rose up from  road kill near the Burke and Wills Memorial. Twenty kilometres outside Cloncurry we were delighted to see a drover or cowgirl mustering cattle. Our more than tepid water was not quenching our thirst and we decided an ice cold coke would go down well in Cloncurry before heading up into the Gulf – Savannah region. On the wide street of Cloncurry George’s heart skipped a beat when he unexpectedly saw water running from below our caravan. Lying underneath he ascertained the leak seemed to come from behind the plate protecting a water tank from stone damage. Concern deepened as a stream of water spread along the gutter. We decided that if we lost one tank of water we could still manage with our second tank. With icy cokes in hand we pushed out north on the road less travelled towards the Burke and Wills Roadhouse.

The roadhouse looked so dry and uninviting that the thought of paying for that pleasure put us off. George rechecked the state of the water tank – no sign of drips so we continued on to Bang Bang Rest Area another 90kms on. This was a perfect place, out in the grassy savannah land with a bush -toilet block in excellent condition and a large flock of apostle birds settling noisily for the night, nearby. Lea was glad to stop as the strip roads were freaking her out with their uneven edges dropping away, especially when an oncoming vehicle rapidly appeared.

A most peaceful night passed and no watermarks were evident under the caravan that George decided the angle of the road in Cloncurry had allowed over full tanks to overflow. We continued on our way towards Normanton.

Could we be forgiven for thinking we had arrived in a dead centre with headstones everywhere? We were back in termite territory!

Aside from flocks of Brolga across beautiful looking savannah lands we spotted a pair of Australian Bustard and even more unexpected a water buffalo on the side of the road. We stopped to take a photo but this buff wasn’t having that! A black juvenile pig lay dead further along the road, covered in feeding kites, until we disturbed the mob.

Time warp – Queensland’s nasty strip roads

Road Upgrades are carried out in a decidedly odd way in our minds. Instead of beginning at one end and continuing through – stretches seem to be spasmodically chosen! On reaching the junction to the Savannah Way we recalled with relief, the macadamised roads we’d travelled July 2010 compared to the horrors of strip roads and road trains churning up dust back in October 2006. We thought we were back in a more modern century.  It wasn’t to be - we had to endure intermittent stretches of tar and then strip for the next couple of days. Thankfully at the hours we travelled, road trains were not out in force nor did we happen to strike one on ancient looking strip! Such is our focus on these horrid bits of road we stopped early, exhausted!  We were glad we had decided to overnight in Croydon rather than Normanton. Judging by the number of males in speeding utes towing tinnies or other upgraded fishing vessels headed for Normanton or Karumba these were certainly going to be busy places over the weekend. Croydon looked as if it had had a facelift since we last stayed. Thick, green and cared for lawns, a new ablution block with free washing machine and a swimming pool. We loitered in the pool for a good part of the afternoon to keep cool.

En route to Georgetown we enjoyed a leg stretch at the Cumberland Chimney with a beautiful looking billabong just beyond, covered in large stretches of white blossomed water lilies, plenty of bird life and cattle feeding on the green surrounds. This was a very rural and pretty scene with remnants of an old stockade dating back a good hundred years. George also inspected the body of a large goanna floating alongside the water’s edge.  

The Cumberland Chimney is all that remains of a crushing plant used to crush gold bearing ore

We find the landscape very hard to equate with the Graziers Crisis Meeting about to take place in Richmond, covering the Etheridge Shire which includes Croydon and Georgetown, in regard to drought conditions and the plight of the cattle industry. This is the best we have ever seen this countryside looking albeit the tail-end of the wet season. Strip road – tar, strip road – tar, it was far from pleasant that Lea just wanted it over which kept us moving as far as Mount Surprise.

CAMPS 6 - Planet Earth Adventures, opposite the train station in Mount Surprise appealed to Lea while the name was most off putting to George! Exactly opposite the station we found Mount Surprise Caravan Park – name change???? We booked in and as the Receptionist owner opened the gate – we saw why it was kept closed...

Emu led us into our site at Mount Surprise

Having arrived at lunch time we found we were the only people in the Park with a lovely choice of sites winding between archways of tall trees. In the field alongside were five ‘Thumbelina’ ponies and a Brolga Crane.

George befriended the Brolga and Lea saw courtship dances between the two, taking place on many occasions.

In the cool of evening we strolled through the historic railway station, part of the unique Savannahlander train trip before exploring the rest of Mount Surprise, where we  immediately spotted Planet Earth Adventures. This cheap and open campground was obviously popular. Who would have expected Mount Surprise to have three parks in close proximity?  Probably due to the popularity of Undara Volcanic National Park a little further east. We decided we were glad to be where we were with Emu, Brolga and the ponies amongst beautiful trees. We were not too long on the road next day, passing through Forty Mile Scrub National Park and Mount Garnet, before stopping at Innot Hot Springs to check out the scene. We decided to stay and ‘take the waters’. We took a site overlooking Nettle Creek and observed many folk stopping on the roadside to check out the shallow waters of the creek. As soon as we were settled, we popped down and found our feet sinking into thick, grainy sand to feel ever changing temperatures from coolness to downright scalding water, with each step or jump! Also inspected the Caravan Park’s 6 outside and inside pools! They were more to our comfort and enjoyment and we returned for a good many dips. Reminding us a little of South Africa’s Tshipise Hot Springs near the border to Zimbabwe, which had always proved a very popular stopover for us as a family.  

                                                                                                           

Outside our caravan door an array of kookaburras, young magpies, blue cheeked honeyeaters, young butcher birds and mynah congregated and were rewarded with our seedy rusk and crunchie crumbs. Another repercussion following the Great Central road vibrations!

In a container, Lea expected to find her meringues. There was nothing but a talc-like substance lying in the base with a few chips of walnut. In the brown sugar, George wondered why he could see good sized stones inside. Our supply of rusks and crunchies had also taken a hammering – many reduced to crumbs while others appeared to have taken a ‘tumbling’ much like gem stones to round off angles and polish! Amazing what constant vibration can do!  Although we’d liked to have lingered longer Thursday was approaching. This was the first available date we’d been given to fit a new compressor.

Early morning sun backlit the steam rising from Nettle Creek, as we went to take a last dip in the mineral pools before hitting the road.

Much as we’d like to have spent a night in the Archer Creek Rest Area in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range – which we fondly remembered from 2006, SKV dragged us up the mountain to Ravenshoe while we kept an eye out for the Millaa Millaa turnoff. Oops! The first was not suitable for caravans and Lea’s anxiety levels rose.  She does not enjoy the creeping and crawling required climbing up and down the Great Dividing Range with our rig. After journeying through the arid countryside from Perth it came as quite  a jolt to the system to arrive in lush dairy farming conditions as we climbed onto the Southern Tablelands and then took the Palmerston Highway to wind our way down. Millaa Milla is renowned as the ‘village in the mist’ but this day we didn’t have to contend with foggy conditions although clouds were circulating and we were well aware of cloud harvesting that occurs in the Wet Tropics wilderness.

 

Fauna overpasses on the Palmerston Highway as we entered Wooroonooran National Park

Panoramic views stretching to the coast – we had almost accomplished a west to east central crossing to Australia.

Such slow moving down the mountain we needed a break at the viewpoint overlooking the South Johnstone River. George walked the steep path down to further views, in very slippery and muddy conditions. Lea was content to stay and read, especially as it started to rain, no sooner had George gone. Tourists stopping to take a quick look in the wet before continuing on their way became a bit of a distraction. Approaching Innisfail, we entered the start of the cane fields. We had intended to stop the night in the Babinda Rest Area just east of the town only we somehow missed the turnoff over the railway line and Lea did not want to turn back on the busy Bruce Highway in such wet conditions. We kept going as far as Fisheries Falls and spotted a caravan park conveniently on our left.  A very pleasant place and we were happy to take refuge from the weather, in Getaway. The rain kept coming in irregular form whether it was drizzle, gentle soaking rain or noisier downfalls, all night. Zane was circulating up in the far north despite the cyclone season having ended and though its threats didn’t materialize we were to experience an abnormally heavy rainfall for May records over the next nights and days. The following morning took us through the wet, to a caravan park in Cairns where we again hunkered down and suffered ‘water torture’ especially at night, thanks to the big tree we were parked under. Instead of sheltering us it amplified raindrops and even startled us with pods falling with a resounding thump on the roof.

Despite the frustration of wrong addresses and a GPS confusing us during early morning rush hour and rain we eventually dropped Getaway at the right place and more importantly in the right hands. Portable Fridge Solutions sorted out the problems and with a new compressor, new fan, new control unit and the door hinge fixed – our battered fridge had a new lease on life. A day later another good man solved the electric circuit after located the short caused by gas stove movement interfering with the electric wire on the ignition switch, which George had long suspected but no one had given him any notice up until then. We found a very busy 4X4 workshop to check out the oil seepage George had noticed way back at the Tjukayiria Roadhouse. It was diagnosed quickly as an oil seal leaking behind the transfer case. It needed to be seen to as soon as possible and as they were unable to attend to it recommended another company.  He could only respond on the 14 May so we moved further out of Cairns CBD to the suburb of Redlynch and the very pretty Crystal Cascades valley and Freshwater Creek and booked into Crystal Cascade Caravan Park for the next five nights. A little further up the valley lived Muriel Tait nee Lappin and she arrived late afternoon to collect us and show us around the valley and her home before giving us dinner. Muriel was in Lea’s Kindy Class of 1967. Her mother, Doris, was the Admin. Officer’s assistant at Lake Kariba Fisheries Research with George. Thus, Doris was the first to start matchmaking the young limnologist to her daughter’s teacher!  Lea last caught up with Muriel in Darwin 2006.

Over the weekend we enjoyed walking through the rainforest beside the creek to stop from going stir crazy during short breaks from the rain. Warm drizzle in this humidity hardly bothered really. With camera in hand George was intent on photographing a Ulysses butterfly. We found many of these gorgeous electric blues – they just were not too obliging for more than a nanosecond. Nevertheless, George was in his element recalling his boyhood passion of butterfly collecting and enjoying a variety of species. On Mother’s Day the sun broke out for short spaces of time and enabling us to wash our damp towels tainted with the mineral spring waters, which was a relief. Towards mid-day we walked the creek path again through to Muriel’s housing estate to meet up with her and then return to our site for lunch and the afternoon together followed by supper. To give her a break from her job as a child-carer. She’d had a family of 3 for the weekend.

Lea and Muriel

Ulysses, Thick knees and Cannon balls!

Three Bush Thick-Knees or Stone Curlews frequent this caravan park, quietly resting up in the boundary hedge or shade of a lone caravan. More often heard than seen, these shy watchful birds with a strange slow gait on their long pins thickened at the knees are active at night issuing a far carrying and very eerie whistling sound ending in a high pitched sort of yelp which easily scares the life out tourists who have no idea what and where this mournful wailing comes from. Especially as it precipitates others in reply! While having our supper with Muriel, one of the Thick-knees appeared out of the dark and stood a metre from our table almost begging for scraps and when we were not forthcoming, we were most amazed by its odd breathy or hissy sound on a good few occasions. What a pleasure this was.   

Another point of interest close to this caravan park was the Cannonball tree. There are only two trees planted in Australia and this one was supposedly planted by the Chinese community during the gold rush days in or around 1870.  Muriel stopped alongside it when she brought us home that first night. A couple of days later we took the five minute walk to the main road to photograph it and discovered three up there; the old original one with two young trees in a row along the verge.  Indigenous to tropical regions of Asia we first came across a Cannonball tree in the Botanical Gardens of Singapore.  It is characterised by a tangle of woody stalks (known as a cauliflory) emerging from the lower trunk region bearing pretty pink flowers and spherical fruits resembling cannonballs. This makes it more accessible to pollination by insects and bats instead of competing up in the dense canopy of the rainforest. It’s debatable whether the flowers have an exquisite perfume or a pong. Lea detected a pong holding the heavy cannon sized ball for George to photograph.

By Monday the weather had improved considerably enabling us to wash bed-linen and begin preparing for our next big adventure to Cape York, leaving at the end of the month. George took SKV in for the oil repair next day. In spite of travelling a good couple of thousand kilometres since the oil leak was detected, it was a relief to find we had lost surprisingly little oil. The seal was replaced and SKV is hopefully ready to take on the ruggedness of Cape York Peninsula in June.  That last afternoon, we drove up to the higher reaches of Freshwater Creek to enjoy a walk through the rainforest and see Crystal Cascades Waterfall. A tarred path, a kilometre in length, led up the mountain side, alongside the cascading creek with popular water holes amidst rocky enclaves suitable for swimming. On the mountainside of the path we’d heard rushing water being transferred from one level of pipe to another. This was Cairns water supply being carried from Copperlode Dam / Lake Morris on the mountain, just above us.

Despite the distracting views within these beautiful rainforests we remained alert to the immediate proximity of any plants, thanks to scary signs warning of potentially nasty flora! 

A month since leaving Perth and here we were, travelling the eastern coast of Australia north of Cairns, forcing our eyes to stay on the narrow confines of the Captain Cook Highway as it curled around the mountainside giving superb views across the Great Barrier Reef Coast Marine Park. It is a road that rivals the State of Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. Heading south there are places to stop and admire views. Not going north though, as mountain and sea are barely separated by the narrow highway. We spent the night in Glengarry Caravan Park just short of Port Douglas (a park very similar in setting to Crystal Cascade and certainly no better, to warrant such a high site price). We soon heard folk were beginning to descend upon Port Douglas and surrounds in readiness for a big festival starting at the weekend with 10,000 people expected. That was enough to make us laugh off Mossman and head inland, back over the “big bump’ (Great Dividing Range). George remembered noting Rifle Creek Rest Area outside of Mount Molloy, as a good bush-camp with toilet and cold shower when last we passed that way. We arrived just as the previous nights occupants were packing up and departing. We stayed the 48 hour limit to a constant background chorus of twittering and chirruping lorikeets interspersed at times with laughing or bubbling from kookaburras or pheasant coucal in the tall riverine forests surrounds.

Our next destination was Mount Carbine – gateway to Cape York (although many places further on, may claim that). In our case, it will be our exit gate! We planned to leave ‘Getaway’ safely in free storage there and were keen to check it out. We were also well ahead of schedule and Mt. Carbine seemed a good place to lie low after all our recent expenses. The thought of sitting still and writing up ongoing family histories sounded good too. Mt Carbine Caravan Park was perfect at twenty dollars a night. Stay a week and get two nights free was even better. Folk en route to Cape York take a week here. Spend 2-3 days preparing for the trip ahead and storing their ‘van and on their return, complete their week’s stay.  How fair and generous is that.  We paid for two weeks. The owner, Robert Waterhouse, full of interesting stories about the area, gave us mud-maps to local places of interest.  Many nights we had the tourist sites to ourselves – ‘permanents’ live further down the hill. Most of these are miners reworking the Mt Carbine Tungsten Mine dumps with new technology. We find it interesting to watch travellers coming in and guess whether they were heading up or down. A deeply tanned cyclist came in for a night and Lea couldn’t resist asking if he’d been to “The Tip”.  No! This Californian had made the long bike ride from Melbourne all the way to Cooktown and was now returning to Cairns for a flight to Sydney and then home to San Francisco. Another couple spent days cleaning up everything inside their vehicle, after their return from Cape York. Lea told them they were making her decidedly nervous with all the cleaning! In turn, she learnt they had driven there and back expecting to spend 3 weeks or more away. Hated the heat, flies and red talc dust, they were back after a week and despite all the washing and scrubbing – ‘red’ was ingrained! Although discouraging we at least gleaned new snippets of information on what to take. General consensus – There are shops there so don’t cart your entire foodstuff up as most is thrown away damaged. That saves us going through to Cairns early to preload our fresh and frozen food. We need to explain we’ll be boarding MV Trinity, a working cargo boat that operates a weekly service between Cairns and the ports of Cape York Peninsula and the islands of the Torres Strait departing every Friday and returning on a Wednesday. We depart for the top of Cape York on Friday 31 May.

Mounts Malloy and Carbine, fall within the Mareeba region, acknowledged as the richest for birdlife in Australia. Almost half of Australia’s 750 bird species can be found here and Twitchers have recorded 300 species within a 15 km radius of Mt Malloy. The dry hinterland lying immediately adjacent to the tropical wet forests on the Great Dividing Range creates an ecotonal transition that accounts for this. Apostlebird, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Pied Butcherbird and magpies regularly call by for a crumb each day. Great Bowerbird, Sulphur crested Cockatoo are commonly seen around but it’s the nocturnal birds we particularly enjoy.  When we have the site to ourselves we wander quietly around the floodlight close to the ablution block. This attracts insects, which in turn draws in two Tawny Frogmouths and a Southern Boobook who perch in the surrounding trees. Frogmouths keep their attention on the illuminated lawn below and swoop to the ground to grab moths and beetles – just wonderful. The Boobook owl waits for micro bats. We steal up close trying for photos. Four cane toads wait at the base of the lamp-post for their feed and well up above, micro bats feed on the wing.       

Giving us 4WD practice, we took a trip up Mount Spurgeon, across the ridge and down into the McLeod River valley. Fortunately a bulldozer had recently graded this road in Lewis National Park, never-the-less it was full of numerous and steep jump-ups and gullies. It took us 45mins to do ten kilometres - a roller coaster ride in very slow motion!    Once we’d crossed the river to turn around and park- a Kookaburra shrieked a warning of interlopers. A couple of others responded with a laugh and we thought that was lovely.

More overwhelming though was entering the dense riverine forest of McLeod River with its cathedral-like atmosphere, to hear the combined chorale societies of kookaburra, reverently fill nature’s space with sound. This was magnificent!    

While walking we came across a large boulder, that has withstood all floods and upon which, were three plaques to the memory of family members. Within its surrounds, their ashes had been placed and marked out with corrugated iron edging and flowers. Obviously this is a much loved beauty spot for the rest of family and they return often to tend the patches, so easily dislodged by rising waters.

 The downside to life in Mt Carbine is COMMUNICATIONS.  We hadn’t expected to drop out of signal quite so soon after climbing over the ‘Big Bump’ or as quickly. We were advised best signal was found at the reservoirs – we’d noticed vehicles stopping there for a bit and thought it was the view! Lea sat there on two occasions patiently trying to send and resend messages as the weak signal came and went. No messages left the i-Pod or computer. George connected up twice to the Office internet. Mail came in slowly but nothing left the outbox. The top of Mt Spurgeon was suggested and we returned to many high points up there, failing to get signal from our modem. We have decided to drive back to Mareeba early in the last week of May to ensure we can post up our May Blog before we leave technology behind for June. 

Mt. Carbine held its Biggest Morning Tea on the 25^th.  Cancer Council Australia is behind this charity event, celebrating their 20th year for this popular fundraiser. We popped along to the Mt Carbine Rodeo grounds to support it. Temperatures had dropped during the night and a chill wind blew which didn’t make sitting on the verandah too pleasant. On arrival, we found folk hovering around side tables with raffles but the long table that intrigued us most had people slowly walking around placing bits of paper into slotted ice-cream containers. We’d not heard or seen of this before - A Cent Auction. Beside each numbered container a packaged item carried the same number. We were directed to buy a dollar ticket number with an estimated 10 or 12 perforated slips attached. Walking around the table you placed however many ‘chances’ you wished in the tub beside an item you fancied.  We deposited our lucky number where ever we saw foodstuffs or plastic ware.  Tea followed, with tables set out and topped with a cleverly crocheted cup, saucer and daffodil in Cancer Council colours, filled with chocolates as the centrepiece.  In contrast to the last BMT we’d attended in Maroochydore where a biscuit was served with a cuppa – here, was an incredible spread. During the long wait for speeches and raffles to take place George was appalled to observe a table of ladies return five times to overfill their plates and devour their food. For most, this was a social occasion while gathered for a good cause. For strangers like us, it was a long drawn out affair. We enjoyed Bush Poet Ron’s rendition of ‘The Will’ but sitting through the prize giving despite a small element of anticipation, was trying. Numbers were long and multi coloured complicating proceedings as in turn prizes for lucky door tickets, Cancer quiz results, lucky seats (Lea had one and received a bottle of red!), main raffle with many parts too and in particular – The Cent Auction, with at least 20 containers; ALL had to be slowly and steadily worked through. When we came to slip away, we heard the convenor advising how much food was left over and up for sale at $5.00 a plate.

Robert’s wife, Jennifer alerted George to a Tawny Frogmouth asleep on a pole under a corrugated iron caravan shelter to escape harassment from hawks and noisy Apostlebirds. Didn’t much appreciate nosey people either!

We attended Robert’s afternoon talk (joining 4 new arrivals setting off together for the Cape Peninsula, next morning) and learnt much on the geological characteristics of this region from his box of samples and his varied and keen interest in all things. We borrowed his book “Toots” Woman in a Man’s World and once back in the caravan, Lea became glued to the amazing story of one of Australia’s pioneering woman, ‘Toots’ (born 1934) and a mother of 8, not including the 2 babies who died. She drove heavy duty trucks loaded with freight back and forth along the hazardous bush tracks of the York Peninsula from the 1960’s to 1990’s.  Her remarkable story revolves around an area we are to explore.  Next month’s travels likely to be peppered with memories of tales read on reaching notorious landmarks steeped in history.

No wonder as 4WD’s pull out of Mt. Carbine of a morning, we look on with a sense of envy as they get there, before us.  Thankfully we are all the closer in our count down.