Heading to Sydney

We reluctantly left the beautiful Murray region after a detour to Wentworth to see the confluence of the Murray and Darling rivers. It was really wonderful to see the brown of the Darling meeting the blue green waters of the Murray. And such a healthy flow after all the rainfalls in northern NSW and Queensland. We drove from Mildura to Forbes ( with a night in Hay on the way). We enjoyed Gary and Judy's hospitality once again and Ray cooked us all a delicious curry dinner as our final meal together of the trip. As Forbes was rapidly becoming isolated by floodwaters, we left early the next morning and headed to Cootamundra, instead of the the blue mountains as planned, as the road to Orange was closed. This enabled us to visit Meg and Mick overnight, which was a pleasant diversion. Our final night before reaching Sydney was in Morton National Park at Bundanoon in the southern highlands - beautiful. We are currently camped in Lane Cove National Park while we wait for our apartment to become available, mid January. Its good to be home for Christmas.

The Murray River

The Murray River looks great at the moment as it is pretty full of water due to rain in the catchment areas, and it is flowing freely. The weirs are full and water is being released into the river from them, which is also increasing its flow. We camped on the banks at Renmark in South Australia and Buronga in NSW. Buronga is on the north bank from Mildura, Victoria. They are both very pleasant places and we enjoyed walking along the river banks and watching the river traffic. We did the Art Deco walk in Mildura and admired their splendid buildings. We also got caught in the most ferocious storm that Alan and I have encountered in the camper trailer ever! The wind blew us about and we had to secure the annex with two and sometimes three ropes on each pole! Then it started raining - over 70 mls overnight. We stayed dry inside though we had a river flowing under the wheels.

Eyre Peninsula South Australia

What a wonderful place this Eyre Peninsula is! The water is so clean and clear and the seafood is delicious. For the last week we have been enjoying fresh oysters, prawns, scallops and fish. We spent two nights at Streaky Bay on the West Coast, two nights at Coffin Bay on the South west coast and one night at Port Lincoln on the south east coast. The weather hasn't been brilliant but we got two really nice days in and were swimming and exploring the pristine coast. This picture is of me in Coffin Bay National Park on one of the good days. Its been very very windy and quite unpleasant and has rained practically all day today. Sadly, we are on the final week of our trip and will be in Sydney next Sunday 12th December. But it will be wonderful to see our family again.

Nullabor Links

We have played 18 holes of golf across the Nullabor. Its a fantastic idea. The golf course starts in Kalgoolie at the new Graham Marsh designed course there and ends 1365 kms away in Ceduna! ( You can play it the other way too). Some of the holes are very challenging and I am not going to tell you the scores we had! Its been quite a successful concept and when we collected our certificate today the lady told us that since its been operating, accidents on the Nullabor have decreased significantly as people are not driving as far each day. We actually spent 4 nights between Kalgoolie and Ceduna, which I am sure we would not have done otherwise. We had so much fun playing the holes and just getting out of the car and walking around. One of the par 5 holes took the 4 of us more than an hour to play. We only had one set of clubs and we had to really search for the balls.

The weather has been disappointingly cold and very windy. We are in Streaky Bay at the moment and it is definitely not swimming weather.

The W A Southern Coast

Its been a week since we left the house at Eagle Bay, and we have been driving along the South West coast of WA and through the giant karri, marri and tingle trees. The first stop was Quinninup, then through to Walpole on the South coast, across to Albany and now in Esperance via the Fitzgerald River National Park. The weather has been alternating cold and windy. We had a swim here today, but have been out of the water since we swam in Green's Pool - the prettiest beach in Western Australia, according to the guidebook. Its near Denmark. These photos are of the Valley of the Giants and Point Anne in Fitzgerald River NP. Fitzgerald River is a 'biosphere' which means it has an incredible diversity of plants and animals. The wildflowers were absolutely magnificent and we did a lovely bush walk where we saw the names of a great number of them.

Eagle Bay

Since last Monday, Alan and I have been staying in a house at Eagle Bay on the Southern coast of WA between Cape Naturaliste and Dunsborough. This is a home exchange agreement which Ray and Trish had organised, and they are here with us now. The owners are staying in Ray and Trish's place from next week.

Eagle Bay is just the most beautiful place and we have been walking along the coastline everyday. We are actually quite close to Cape Naturaliste and have walked around the lighthouse on the myriad of trails in the National Park. There are lots of whales to be seen from the shore - some quite close in.

The wild flowers are just magnificent. The photos are of Bunker Bay, the next beach around from Eagle Bay, and Trish in the wild flowers at Yallingup.

Joe and Sara in Perth

This photo is of Joe and Sara in King's Park in Perth today

Perth

We arrived in Perth on Sunday night and are staying with Rick and Anne in their new house in Melville. Ray and Trish arrived on Monday night and we went to Bec and Dan's for dinner - they live in an amazing apartment on the Swan River in the city.

We have been having a lovely time in Perth, although the weather has been a bit cool, and we had some rain on Wednesday night. Joe and Sara came today for the weekend. Its good to see them again.

Lancelin and the Pinnacles

We met up with Rick and Anne at their caravan at Lancelin last Friday night and on Saturday, we drove up the new coast road from Lancelin to Cervantes, stopping at The Pinnacles. This photo shows us there, with Mark Holman. Its a very interesting place and had been fairly hard to get to, before the new road. The colours are so different to those in the Pilbara and the Kimberley. The wildflowers are still pretty good. Alan and I visited a bio-diversity hot-spot at Leseuer National Park and were amazed at the number of flowers still blooming as late as it is.

Western adventures

For the last few days we have been in the Shark Bay region of Western Australia and I have to say it is absolutely beautiful. It really has pristine beaches and clear, clear water. Initially we went to Steep Point, which is the western most part of the Australian mainland. Alan recalled seeing the Leyland Brothers visit there in 'Wheels across the Wilderness', all those years ago. It was a long, sandy drive in, but the camping there was just marvellous and we felt we were truly the only ones there at the edge of the world. After two nights there, we moved around to Denham, on Shark Bay. Today we saw the dolphins at Monkey Mia and then drove to Cape Peron, where from the lookout at the top of Skipjack Point, we watched as sharks, manta rays and turtles swam amongst schools of fish. It was like watching one of those wildlife documentaries as we saw a dolphin swim around the school of fish, separate one out, chase it and catch it! Absolute magic!

Ningaloo Reef

Everything you have heard about Ningaloo Reef is true! It is a beautiful place. You can just snorkel from the beach over coral reefs. The sea is really that amazing colour and there are lots of pretty tropical fish. Its the wrong season for the whale sharks though, sadly, and the turtles are just starting to come to breed - next month they start coming ashore to lay their eggs. We did see whales though. We camped for two nights right by the beach in Cape Range National Park and we did just walk in from the beach and snorkel over a coral reef. It was just lovely. Tonight we are at Carnarvon.

I have put two photos on this blog, even though they sometimes post in funny places ( ie not where I put them on the draft) One is of Alan looking like Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom, when he is actually near the Woodside Plant near Dampier looking at the Aboriginal rock carvings. The other is of the Mildura wreck at Ningaloo. The ocean is such a pretty colour, and a nice temperature too.

Karratha

We did end up staying overnight at Tom Price, but we caught up on the news, watched a bit of the Commonwealth Games at the pub and did some washing, so it wasn't all bad. We also drove up the top of Mount Nameless, which is of the highest mountains in WA. As you would expect, the view was amazing. We could see the mine. Not an enormous pit like Newman, but it looked like the whole side of a mountain range was being removed. We drove along the Rio Tinto private railway service road to Millstream National Park and as this photo shows, the road was very close to the train line! And there were plenty of trains, so Alan was enthralled.

Millstream Chichester National Park was also a very pretty place, but the campground was very crowded, so we only stayed one night. We've been in Karratha two nights now and have explored Port Sampson, Cossack, Roebourne and the Dampier peninsula and today saw the Aboriginal petraglyths (stone carvings) and swam in the beautiful warm waters of Hearson's Cove.

waiting, waiting. . ..

We are currently sitting under a tree at Tom Price, waiting for the diesel truck to arrive. Its quite pleasant, but my patience is getting thinner as the computer battery slowly dies. We have been camping at Karajini National Park in the Hammersley Range in WA. What a lovely place, and you know I had hardly heard of it before we started planning this trip. Then, everyone said 'you must go to Karajini' and now I know why. The campground is very basic - no water, no rubbish bins, little shade, rocks and dirt, but its semi-desert and it soon grows on you. The gorges cut deep below and you have to climb way down to them, but there is permanent water and waterfalls down there. It looks like its all iron ore, like the rest of the Pilbara with red and blue rocks, crushed down by the ages. This photo is of Rock Arch Pool in Kalamini Gorge. We went there yesterday and Alan had a swim, but the water was a bit scummy for me, although it looks pretty inviting in the photo. When the diesel truck arrives, we will go to Millstream Chichester National Park, if we can get there before dark.

Cape Leveque

I just had to put this photo of Cape Leveque in

Broome and beyond

We couldn't have a photo of Broome that did not involve camels or sunsets, could we? We resisted going for a ride ourselves. I really loved Broome - not just because we stayed in a fancy resort, but because it had a lovely relaxed feel about it. We were lucky to have been there for the Staircase to the Moon phenomena -it was sensational - just like the photos that you thought had been touched up - they weren't!

Alan and I left Broome on Sunday and went north initially - to Cape Leveque - a lovely spot, but a dreadful road. We stayed at Middle Lagoon - very pretty, run by a local Aboriginal Community. It had the edge of no-where sort of feeling about it. We went back through Broome and stayed another night, this time in a very crowded caravan park at Cable Beach. We are now heading south down the coast - its so lovely.

The end of the Gibb River Road

This photo shows the cost of fuel on the Gibb River Road. There are only two places along its 680kms to buy fuel. The other place charged $2.05 a litre! You have no choice. Anne paid $4.80 for a can of baked beans! I was able to buy post cards, but there was nowhere to post them. I had to bring them to Derby at the end of the road. It is located on the coast by King George Sound and is known for its huge tides. They can be up to 11 metres, so there are a lot of mangroves and mudflats and with that comes sandflies! The old jetty is still used to load live cattle for Australian and Asian markets. We got there to see the sun go down, but didn't linger too long.

We are now back in 'civilisation' in Broome.

El Questro and Manning Gorge

El Questro is a privately owned working cattle station and Wilderness Park. It has some of Australia's most expensive accommodation, but also a camp ground, for travellers like us. As its towards the end of the dry season, the waterholes and gorges are a bit low, but the swimming hole at El Questro Gorge, where Alan and Rick are swimming on the left, was small, but crystal clear. It was a 2 km walk up to this spot, and the adventurous could clamber over that big rock behind them, and go further up to bigger pools, but we were happy to stop at this one. There was a family of reasonably sized fish who would liked to hand around you in the water, which I found a bit disconcerting. We all agreed that this place was the nicest swimming hole, with Buley's waterhole at Litchfield a close second. There were lots of places to walk or drive to at El Questro. We stayed there for three very hot nights - one morning we hired a tinny and cruised up Chamberlain Gorge - the largest at El Questro. Anne caught a reasonable sized catfish, which we threw back.

The photo on the right is our car and camper trailer at the Manning Gorge campground. You can see we are camped under a very large Boab tree. There was a large sandy pool nearby which was good for swimming, although there were freshwater crocodiles there. We thought this was the nicest place we camped on the whole of the Gibb River Road.

The Gibb River Road

The Gibb River Road is an unsealed road that runs nearly 680kms from near Kununurra to Derby in Western Australia. It is only open from May to October in the dry season, and many of the river crossings have no bridges; you just drive straight through!

The photo on the left is taken from the Victoria River crossing. We camped on the banks of the river here and it was a very pretty sandstone escarpment. There was water in the river, but also crocodiles, so we did not swim!

The next crossing was the Pentacost River near El Questro. This was a wide shallow crossing in three sections, with the Pentacost Range as a backdrop. Everyone who travels the Gibb River Road takes a photo here! That's Rick and Anne's hire vehicle crossing. The sky is so blue and cloudless.

Photos of places we've been since Darwin

Of course you will recognise the two photos as being the Bungle Bungle formations in Purnululu National Park. This really is a fantastic place and the photos do not show just how beautiful it is. No swimming there, unfortunately. The water holes there are all but dried up. We had to make do with cold showers!

This photo on the right shows Alan swimming in Buley Waterhole at Litchfield National Park. This was a beautiful spot and one of the nicest plces we have swum in the North. Actually Litchfield was full of beautiful swimming places and there was heaps of water flowing everywhere there. It was also very hot and steamy, so the opportunity to swim was very welcome.

The Kimberlies

Its hard to describe the last two weeks in the Kimberlies in just a few words. Its so isolated out here - its hard for us city-slickers to live with no telephones, no internet, no newspapers and even no ABC radio! I could buy postcards, but not post them.

We started from Kununurra and drove to Purnululu National Park - or the Bungle Bungles - what an amazing place! All I can say is you have to see it for yourself! All the photographs and TV documentaries pale to insignificance when you are there, surrounded by the beautiful formations.

We went to El Questro, Ellenbrae, Manning Gorge, Bell Gorge, Mount Hart and Windjana gorge along the Gibb River Road. The weather was unrelentingly hot, but after Ellenbrae, it did cool down at night.

we are currently in Derby and will move to Broome tomorrow, where I may be able to upload some photos.

Western Australia

I guess we will be in Western Australia for a while, but its still a novelty at the moment. Firstly we had to put our clocks back one and a half hours making sunrise about 5.30AM. When its 40 degrees by 9.00 as it was today, that's not kind! By 8.00pm you are ready for bed!

We are staying in Kununurra and today we did a day trip to Wyndham, on the coast 100kms north west. We went the scenic way along a 4 WD road and came back along the bitumen. It is very pretty country; lots of boab trees and dramatic escarpments and flowing rivers. At Wyndham, 5 rivers flow into the ocean, and there is a convenient hill called the Bastion, which makes a wonderful loookout. From the top, over about 180 degrees, you can clearly see the mouths of all 5 rivers. It is a very unusual place. We were told to go to the Wyndham Town Hotel for a barra burger for lunch. It was the type of place I never would have gone into if it hadn't been recommended, as it was very run down and seedy looking, but the owner was a delightful lady who made us most welcome. Alan had the barra burger and raved about it so much that the lady ( Sue) offered to sell him a fillet so he could make himself another one! He took it, and had barramundi for dinner too!

More photos of Kakadu

Alan gave me a scenic flight above Kakadu as a birthday present. It was absolutely amazing and this photo shows where the wetlands mee the 'outliers' in the escarpment. You can see the South Alligator River which looks a lovely blue colour. When you are actually standing beside it, it is a muddy brown with these crocodile shapes cruising by! The wetlands are incredibly green, even from the ground. The second photo is the wetlands at Yellow Water, where we did the sunset cruise. As well as lots of very large crocodiles, we saw lots of birds, wild horses and fish.

some photos from the Top End

We are in Darwin and I am at Global Gossip with all the other (younger) travellers. This first photo is of the pool at Gunlom Falls in Kakadu National Park. I think if you look really carefully you can see Alan over by the falls. We camped here for two very hot days, so it was lovely to have the swimming hole to cool off in.

The next photo is of Jim Jim Falls Canyon. The dark spot on the rock is where the falls would be in the wet. We swam in that pool too.

Jim Jim Falls

We are still in Kakadu and today we went to Jim Jim Falls. They are not flowing as it is the dry season, but when they are flowing - the wet season - you can't go there as the road is closed! They are the symbol of Kakadu, if you don't count the magnificent Aboriginal art, which many seem to overlook.

We decided to go despite the dire warnings about the state of the road. Its 55 kms of corrugated dirt, with the last 10 being serious 4 WD with deep sand, high conservation mounds and creek crossings. That was fine but it was the last 1 km walk, or rather boulder hopping that undid me. I find it so hard to jump from rock to rock, having to calculate every step, now that I am approaching 60! Just when I was all jumped out, we arrived at a magnificent canyon where the falls would have been if they had been - falling, that is. There was a little beach area, in full sun, and further upstream, a deep swimming hole, in the shade. It was absolutely beautiful.

We leave Kakadu reluctantly tomorrow and should be in Darwin on wednesday with full internet I hope so I can upload some photos.

Amazing Kakadu

Since Borroloola, we have camped at Daly Waters (behind the famous pub), Katherine, where we visitied Nitmiluk National Park. That's what Katherine Gorge is known as these days. We did the three gorge cruise there which we reallyenjoyed. Then we moved up to the northern section of the park at Edith Falls. This was a really beautiful spot and a lovely swimming hole, which was very welcome as it has been very hot here. We moved north from Edith Falls into Kakadu. We had two nights bush camping at Gunlom Falls and we have had two nights here at Cooinda on Yellow Waters. We did the sunset Cruise and then were able to but a second cruise for an extra $10 each, so we chose the sunrise cruise. They were both wonderful experiences, but the sunset was prettier as it waas actually raining here this morning. It has been so very hot and does not cool down much at night. Last night there was a bit of cloud around and I had a big huntsman spider crawl on me - no, not pleasant. I said to Alan - if we were in Tasmania I would say that seeing a huntsman is a sign that it is going to rain, butI don't think that would apply up here as it doesn't rain here until October.

It waas so hot when we went to bed but about 1.30 tis morning it started to rain and it was still raining off and on this morning. This did cool things down temporarily and we did the Nourlangie Rock art walk in relative coolness. Tomorrow we move onto Jabaru and Darwin next week when I hope to upload more pictures and respond to those of you who have been making comments. Ithink you need a Google account(free) to be able to comment.

We are in the Northern Territory

After 9 weeks in Queensland, Alan and I have crossed the border today and are tonight camped in Booraloola in NT. since I last blogged though we have been to some wonderful places. We started our Stage 3 with a night in Normanton, then two in Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria. Here the sun sets over the Gulf in a spectacular manner and we have the photos to prove it. We did a cruise on the Norman River and saw some rare birds as well as visiting a barramundi hatchery where they breed the fish to restock all the rivers.

Leaving Karumba we started 5 nights of bush camping - at Lawn Hill and Riversleigh National Parks and then at a beautiful camp on the Nicholson River. We tested the solar panel well and truely and we came trough OK. We have been very isolated though and I feel starved for news. I have not read a newspaper for weeks. I was amazed at Normanton that there were no news papers and we have not been near a shop since then, except fuel stops; only a few days to the election and we have no idea how the campaign is going. We were able to vote at Normanton though.

This first photo is of Riversleigh where the fossil fields are. The top of this hill is apparently the bed of an ancient lake - the rest has eroded away. What's a holiday without a sunset photo! This is from the sunset bar at Karumba.

we have started phase 3

Well, Chris and Glenys departed for home today and Alan and I headed West on the start of Phase 3 of the trip -- from Georgetown to Darwin via the Savannah Highway and into Katherine and Kakadu.

It was a sad parting with the Torreys this morning and we spent last night discussing the higlights and 'bests' of the last 4 weeks.

Since I last blogged we have been to Undara Lava tubes and Cobbold Gorge. This photo was taken yesterday at the Gorge. We are standing in front of a pool with some small freshwater crocodiles in it. Tonight, Alan and I are at Normanton and we will vote here tomorrow before going up to the Gulf of Carpentaria tomorrow. We hope to catch some fish.

more photos

This photo was taken in Lakeland National Park and shows the magnetic termite mounds and some grassy plains country. The next one is of Alan and Chris swimming at fruit Bat Falls. It was such a lovely spot, we stopped there on the way back too. I'm trying a third one on here - its Alan and I crossing a creek on the Old Telegraph Track.

At the Tip

After the Tip, where we are in this photo, we drove straight down the newer Peninsula Development Road, stopping at Fruit Bat Falls for a swim, and camping at Bramwell Station and Palmer River and Hann River Roadhouses. We had hoped tp go to Lockhart River, but the road was closed. We are now in Chillago which is a nice little mining town. Chris wrote his thesis on a hill here called Red Dome. which has since been mined into a big hole in the ground. We did a tour of the mine this morning, which was very interesting but hot. The other photo is some Quinkin Aboriginal rock at near Laura.

next installment

This is Chris fishing in the Delhunty River. It was a lovely spot, but no fish wanted to sacrifice themselves. In fact we have not caught anything since Alan's momentous Fraser Island effort. . . but not for want of trying.

I forgot to mention we went to Weipa before we went to the Jardine River. We needed some running repairs on the electric system of our car and we stocked up on groceries. We did the mine tour of the Bauxite mine which is really the only thing in Weipa!

We continued north from Jardine River and had 5 nights at the top. It is such an unusual place. The geography and vegetation are constantly changing - its not all tropical rainforest as I had expected. There are heathlands, plains, the rainforest and eucalyptus forests it quite surprising. There's Aboriginal History as well as WW II history and pioneer settlement stuff as well. We went to Thursday Island which was really different culturally to the Mainland. Chris and Glenys also went to Horn island which was a great WWII history but I was scared of the boat ride, so we didn't go. The other photo is a crashed Beaufort Bomber near Bamaga Airport. These planes were built in NSW railway workshops during the war years.

I have discovered that I can only upload two photos successfully per blog so I will post this and start another one with the Cape York photos.

at last . . . a real internet connection!

This is the first 'real' connection since Port Douglas, so I can relax and tell you what has been happening and upload some photos.

I told you about Port Douglas and Cooktown. Here are some photos. This is the beach at Port Douglas. Alan took it and I am one of those miniature people in the distance. The photo on the right is Cooktown - the view from Grassy Hill, where Captain Cook used to go everyday while the Endeavour was being repaired to work out how to get through the reef. He must have been fit as it was a steep climb in the heat!

After Cooktown we drove up through Lakefield National Park. The road was rough but passable and we acclimatised ourselves to the conditions. We camped one night at Kalpower Crossing and the second at Top Whip-handle Waterhole, which was nicer really as we were almost the only ones there.

Lakefield was also very pretty and we saw some beautiful waterholes with waterlillies.

Next we went over to the Old Telegraph Track (OTT), which was the original road up the Cape and the real 4 wheel drive stuff. We chickened out at the first creek crossing, and took the bi-pass road, getting back onto the OTT at a safer place! We camped for two nights at Bertie Creek, which involved a scary enough crossing for me!

The we camped at the north side of the crocodile infested Jardine River ( the high side). There were lots of people camped on the south side (low side) and they splashed, swam ( albeit briefly) and stood in the water to fish, but no crocodiles to be seen. Fortunate really, although Alan speculated on how much he could get for video footage of a camper being taken by a croc!

we are leaving the tip today

Just another quick post. We are heading south today and will probably try to get back to the East Coast near Lockhart River, but we have heard that the road may be closed. It rains a couple of times each day, which is manageable. Its very hot and its hard to sleep at night if it is raining hard as we have to close the back window. Its lovely though and we are really enjoying ourselves. Sorry no photos as we cannot upload anything.
We are pleased to be missing all the electioneering and only get sporadic news as there are only local papers.

so much has happened . . .

Its hard to know where to start to tell you all that has happened since the last posting . . . and I only have 4 minutes and 57 seconds left!
We met Chris and Glenys as planned in Wonga Beach near the daintree River. It was soooo windy there but we were camped right on the beach. We 'did' the Bloomfield track from Cape Tribulation up to Cooktown, and spent two lovely days there. It is a very pretty place. Then we started on the real off road stuff up Cape York. There are a lot of people up here, but you can still find places to go where you fell you are the only ones around. Although we have camped on rivers that are supposed to be 'infested' with crocodiles, the one near Port Douglas is the only one we have seen to date.
Today we stood 'on the tip'. Fantastic! We were the only ones there, but when we got back to the car park there were 20 cars! Have to go. Will try to post some photos later.

first crocodile sighting!

Thankfully, we were standing on a bridge above the Mowbray River near Port Douglas when we saw our first 'wild' crocodile. Justin and Carrie-Anne, who we stayed with in Cairns for three very pleasant nights, had told us that at low tide, you can always see a croc from this bridge. It is also a good place to fish, we were told. There were lots of people fishing there, but no one was catching everything and by the time we had finished oggling at the crocodile, they had all gone. Finding ourselves there alone, we decided that we too would scaddaddle, just in case!

We are having a final few days of luxury before we hit the real dirt, by staying at Ridges Sabaya Resort in Port Douglas. We meet with Glenys and Chris in Wonga Beach, north of Mossman on Friday and then we will be out of contact probably until we reach Punsand Bay near the tip on 28 July. We may be able to access the internet from Weipa, but I am not counting on it.

I'll try my luck with another photo

Since I last posted we have camped at the beautiful Paluma Range National Park at Jourama Falls, which had some of the prettiest rainforest I have ever seen.

We also camped at Cardwell, Tully Gorge and Etty Bay, where we saw the cassowaries. We had a beautiful camp, right on the beach and from our annex, you couldn't see any sign of civilisation - just the beach and rainforest covered headland. We had been told that our best bet for a cassowary sighting was Etty Bay, after we'd been to two other places where they were supposed to hang out.

Having set up the camper, we were sitting under the annex having a beer when Alan said " The only thing that could make this better, would be for a cassowary to walk past". I said no, because we would have to get up and get the camera out of the car and that would be too much effort. Not more than two minutes later, a cassowary walked right past our camp! And yes, we did have to jump up to get the camera! The photo is of the campsite in Etty Bay, taken from the beach.

Shopping in Cairns

Well, I think the Cavenaghs have spent more than their share of tourist dollars per head in Cairns - in fact we have probably increased the average spend for those other poor tourists!

Firstly we had the bushes replaced in the shocks on the trailer. Tim alerted us to the fact they needed changing before we left Sydney and according to the man at ARB, he was right. While waiting at ARB, I started to browse the 4WD magazines and that lead to a rash (rush?) of other purchases!

We had been discussing replacing the esky in the back of the car with a fridge anyway and the 4WD mag had a product comparision, so we decided pretty easily what to buy. We have also had the shaft of the jockey wheel replaced and I want to buy some summer PJs, now that it is heating up. I've also had a haircut and we have bought enough groceries to last until Darwin, I think.

I'm on a dodgy free wifi spot in a shopping centre, but I will try to upload a photo anyway. Its a cassowary we saw in Etty Bay.

Yes, Ray and Trish, I can read your comments now - thanks.

photos are uploading again!

I have put a photo on the Whitsunday post and one on the Armstrong beach post. As you know, I have been having trouble uploading lately but it is working tonight. I'll include one of Alan's wonderful bird shots - these are bush thick-knees or curlews. We saw them at the Whitsundays.

Alan is becoming really accomplished with his new camera and has taken lots of photos of birds and flowers. We have seen a lot of different birds, but only have two new sightings to add to our list at this stage.

Alan has been pretty good with his sore hip. He has been religiously doing his pilates exercises morning and night and its paying off as he was able to complete a 4 km walk at Blackdown Tablelands NP which included 240 steps. That is 240 down and then 240 up again - so that is 480 steps really, isn't it?