Rapidly descending...farewell the Whitsundays!

Go the All Whites! Out, but not down...nice effort! Luckily Aussies out too so all in the same boat there.
The weather is uncooperative at the moment so we are spending time travelling south in the hope that we will have a few nice days at a surfing beach before meeting other Caddie family members at the Gold Coast next weekend.
We stayed a night in Ayr and then back to a familiar spot at Airlie Beach last night. We had a lovely time yesterday at a waterfall near here. Dry, and not running, but inhabited by turtles, which we fed.
Off inland (north of McKay) to meet some platypus we hope...

Mission Beach

We spent the weekend in Chillagoe (cue western guitar twang and rolling tumbleweeds) and we only know it isn't a one horse town because we counted three in the paddock next to our campsite at the 'eco-lodge' which we figured stands for eco-nomy, not eco-logical. It had an observatory so we spent Saturday night star gazing, a first for us all.Awesome! Saturday was the hottest winters day of my life - over 30 we are sure...almost too hot to move, but we mosied down some red dirt roads to a swimming hole, and despite the trepidation re crocs we all had a splashingly good time!
Sunday we headed back to Cairns for two nights.Our stint on Daydream Is had whetted, not satisfied our longing for the reef and so yesterday we hopped on a boat (we had to choose from about 800 companies first)and headed to check out the GBR. Fantastic day overall, but as my internet time is almost gone, I will just say that the winds were 30 knots, and leave you to guess at what sort of boat ride we experienced....!
Tonight we are in Mission Beach - our first cabin night in a while...the sea is rough and rain threatens! xxxx

Port Douglas

Yes, Port Douglas is verrrry nice. 25 degrees - in the water! We spent a lovely day at the beach yesterday and an interesting, amusing and dubiously pc time at the cane toad races last night! Rosa was even a jockey for one race...oh dear me.
Cane toads were well cared for and not mishandled and as Gordy said would be dead otherwise (cos everybody hates them, they are an introduced species that have no natural predators here, and they cause lots of trouble) but once was definitely enough! We had dinner out last night - what a treat! I even had a pudding all to myself - which I believe, although you might not, was the first of the trip!
Yes, Port Douglas is very very very nice, but alas...we leave. We're heading into the tablelands..off we go!

The Tip of the Journey

We have spent the last two days at beautiful Cape Tribulation, where the Daintree Rainforest meets the beach. This is the most northern point of our Australian adventure. We enjoyed getting up close and personal with a bat (!) and hung out of a boat spotting crocs. Now we are back in Port Douglas and I guess this marks the beginning of our descent. We will spend the next 2 1/2 weeks leapfrogging our way back to the Gold Coast, filling in the gaps of places we missed on the way up, but would still like to see.

Tomorrow Caddies, Carrells, Cramptons and friends will gather in Fairlie to farewell Gordy's Uncle Graham, who was an uncle to us all. He welcomed all arrivals into his family with quiet pleasure and enjoyed nothing better than family gatherings. We are sad not to be there with everybody, but will fill our cups with lemonade and make a toast. And if we are sad, it will be for the things that will never happen again, but not for Uncle Graham who we know had an enviable certainty that he would be with his Mum and Dad now. We are sharing our memories and are grateful for the care Uncle Graham showed us, and for all those who cared for him throughout his life...'Cheers'

Friday night in Cairns

Have found it is very easy to rotate the photos on the camera before trying to post on here...by the time I have learned all the tricks of the trade it will be home time! Don't forget to look at the other new photos hidden in 'May'. xxxx

An original composition...

The lyrics are inspired, the harmonies are divine, but the performance takes the cake...I'm so proud.

There is a new post...scroll down

I have updated our pictures, but the post has hidden itself in May when I first started writing it - scroll down a bit!

What a week! A 'brilliant' time in the gemfields and Slumming it in the Whitsundays.

The last week has seen us spend time in two completely different settings - both a huge amount of fun for us all.
When Gordy said we were off to the gem fields I pictured two possible scenarios: something akin to the goldpanning experience at Shantytown or me sitting on a rock in the blistering sun watching him do something like dig for spuds with a pick-axe.
Although the former is probably closer to the actual experience it was so much more real than I imagined. For a start, the gem fields around Rubyvale where we stayed are rolling, green, hilly places at this time of year, not the red dusty plains of my mind. There are 'claims' aplenty - many for sale if you are interested, but most travellers fossick from a bucket of dirt. We went twice to the same establishment - 'Miners Cottage' - where we were showed how to clean our dirt and all the other tricks of our trade. We all voted this activity 'best value experience' so far this trip. One bucket of dirt (= almost 3 hours fossicking per bucket!), hot drinks and devonshire scones for us all, loads of help and encouragement, a packet of sapphires as a result of our hard work (the best one being a 2.5 carat green/brown sapphire), an expert look at the gems for us, AND a jolly little fridge magnet ALL FOR $10!!! We also toured a mine and went to the markets (at Sapphire - where else?) while staying in Rubyvale...priceless!
I must mention the cold in Rubyvale - the days were lovely - the nights almost gave us hypothermia...brrrrr. We met a lovely family from Tasmania in Rubyvale too, the kids loved having some mates, even if it was just for a few hours, and Gordy and I enjoyed the company very much too...cheers to the Parson family!
We headed coastward through Mackay for a night and out to Airlie Beach. We had been looking for a good deal on a family day trip to the GBR (generally about $450) when a couple of weeks ago Gordy spied an amazing offer for two nights, 3 days on Daydream Island for less than that for all of us. So that is where we went on Wednesday. We have already been very spoilt on this trip, but after 5 weeks of living in a car we were very excited and happy with the Daydream experience. There was hardly anyone there (apparently about 8% occupancy at the moment) and we just lapped up the fun - snorkelling and scuba diving lessons, outdoor movies, open air reef tours, sports, sun loungers aplenty...ooh wee. Google it for a pic (and relevant info) and you'll see what I mean!
So we are back to car camping now at Airlie Beach which is a very pleasant spot indeed. (Another)Big drive tomorrow to Townsville and then we will feel like the top is in sight!
Sadly and scarily one of our favourite spots visited so far suffered from a hurricane last week. Lennox Head in NSW was torn up - houses wrecked, caravans flipped etc - noone killed thankfully, but it has given us a little shake to think how we would have fared at there at 7.30 in the morning...
We are all well and happy - it has just reached that time in the trip where we all needed to refresh - haircuts, eyebrows plucked and new toothbrushes were required - and we are good to go!
Much love to all xxxx