Sept. 17th to 27th Ravenshoe to Charters Towers

        Monday 21st
     Shift camp today - in to town to the Rail Co. Travellers Rest @$15.00 per night, until maybe the end of the week. Just taking it easy while Jim attends to dental appointments in Atherton. He had the mudguard on the trailer welded while here as well.

         Friday 25th

Ravenshoe Steam Train

     All going well.
   The local Train enthusiasts have been working for some time to get the steam engine up and running again, it has been out of action for a few months but this morning saw them  fire up in preparation for restarting the tourist attraction train rides each weekend.
Took this picture of the warm up of the engine.
    

Innot Hot Springs motel

      Jim's dental work is done and we left Ravenshoe this morning after loading the Jimny and fuelling Dilligaf we made our way to Greenvale along the Gregory Development road  after careening past the Innot Hot Springs, I only managed to get a quick Pic. of the motel as we passed.

Termite nests

     Driving down the Gregory Development road there are with some single lane bitumen stretches, other wise good travelling. The land is so very dry though, much worse than I have seen previously.  The termite nests are plenty, some huge ones amongst the brown grass and the trees that don't look too healthy.
     Arrived in Greenvale about 3.30. All is quiet here.  We parked outside the Three Rivers Hotel (of Slim Dusty fame) for the night. Much to our surprise there is a coach load of happy tourists here for the night, they are an entertaining lot with country music singers among them. A very enjoyable evening of song and laughter.

Rainbow at Greenvale

    
     A couple of showers late afternoon and evening made a very nice rainbow as the sun set, not enough to make any difference to the drought though.
                      Saturday 26th

Dry country on Gregory Dev.

Rd

    
     After letting half the coach load of oldies have a visit with Yip this morning, much to their enjoyment, Yip did a wonderful job entertaining a few of them, we drove by more dry country-side on our way to Charters Towers.  

Part of dis-used railway

    
     There is dis-used railway alongside the road with culverts under it that look fairly well made, (maybe hand made from long ago), the rock wall around them is tidy.

Fletcher Creek (very dry)

     Stopping for lunch at Fletcher Creek. 
     We had a few days here last year, the creek was half full of water back then and enjoyed swimming in it, no such luck today, DRY AS A BONE.
     Arriving in Charters Towers about lunch time we made our way to one of our favourite rest area's at the Puma Roadhouse (used to be the Gold City Roadhouse) We will be here until Monday 28th when are going to stock up all provisions to last a month or so. We are heading about 80km south to a station to help out where we can in any way, to give the owners a break where possible. Should be good, we are looking forward to the challenge.
No mobile or Internet coverage that I know of, so will be off the air until further notice.
     Catch up with us then, Chow for now.
    

10th to 16th September Return to Ravenshoe

     Thursday 10th
      Spent some ofour hard earned cash in Atherton today, I had a shopping spree, nothing special, just catch-up on some home wares.
     Today and next couple just taking it easy.

      Saturday 12th
     We find ourselves back at the Tall Timbers Van park in Ravenshoe this morning. Will be here a week or so 'til Jim's new teeth are ready.
      A few showers over the next couple of days, but not so wet as to make things miserable, very changeable, cool-warm-damp-dry-sunny, anything you want as long you don't want the same weather all day.

     Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th
     This afternoon a family travelling their way around the country, stopped here for a couple days. Their youngest daughter, (Lily) who is 11 years old is in an electric wheel chair, a lovely young woman with a seemingly permanent smile on her face. She took some time out to spend with us, joining us for takeaways for dinner Monday night. Her Mum (Melisa) and Dad (Greg) and elder sister (Ella) didn't dine with us.
     I enjoyed her company and the pups loved her to bits, especially Dot. Yip was a surprise to me, she accepted Lily like she was one of the family.

Dot and Lily at Ravenshoe

Yip+Lily at Ravenshoe

     On Tuesday Lily came into our bus and up on the bed with Dot and Yip, playing with them, having a ball I think, said she wants a pup too. I took these two photos of her and Yip interacting with each other and Dot being spoilt rotten by Lily.

      Wednesday 16th
     Weather is nice this morning. Lily and her family departed to continue their journey, we will keep in touch.

4th to 9th September - South to Atherton tablelands

          Friday 4th

View down hill on Bobs Lookout hill

Mt Carbine Hotel

     Leaving Lakeland behind us we climbed the Byerstown range passing the James Earl lookout and the Palmer river, (which has a good run of water) downhill by Bobs Lookout, taking a photo through the windscreen of the view toward Mt Carbine and beyond.
     One of the only other water ways which actually had water was the McLeod river, a bit short of Mt Carbine, all the others we drove over were as dry as!! (until we got to Mt Molloy.)

over night in Mt Molloy

  
  

     We stopped at Mt Carbine hotel for spell thinking we may spend the night but continued to Mt Molloy in the end, reaching a park on a side road by the pub mid afternoon.
   

Mt Molloy old  bakery building(now a shop)

     Taking a walk with the pups while Jim visited the bar, I found an old building which had been the local bakery in it's time but is used as an antique shop. A quaint old building.

     Pioneer Memorial Park, just down the hill was very nice, a series of small lakes which were full a floating weed that made it look like they were solid ground, almost took a walk on one, lucky, I discovered what it was or would have got a bit wet.  Lots of shady trees and Rifle creek on the boundary of the park made good swimming for the dogs.
     Takeaway dinner from the hotel and the day was done.

                                             Saturday 5th

Copper smelter ruins in Mt Molloy

   

     The local markets on today in Mt Molloy, fair size for a small town, I purchased some goodies.
      This photo is of the ruins of a copper smelter, must have been a big industry back then.
    

Free camp rest area north of Atherton

      Time to go, we left mid morning and stopped for the day at Rocky Creek memorial,  not far short of Atherton where we will go to tomorrow, have a rest until then.

                       Sunday 6th
     Drove into Atherton this morning, it's Sunday but Harvey Norman is open today and we need to exchange the Navman gps  thingo, the one we have, had a hemorrhage the other day,(no good for nothing at present) we only had it for a few months, its still under warranty so will get a new one this morning.
     Once that was done we booked into the Tolga Van park for the week at $25.00 per night but pay for 6 and stay 7, so $150.00 for the week - not too bad. Jim has an appointment tomorrow to get some new teeth which we expect will take a week or two.

                           Monday 7th
     Walking the pups this morning, I am intrigued with the colour of the soil around here, typically Atherton red soil, great potato growing area, amongst other crops. This picture is looking over to Atherton in the distance.

Atherton red soil, crop country

                          Wednesday 9th
   

Tolga Hotel

   
      Only about 500 meters from the van park is the Tolga Hotel.  Another beautiful building with outback hospitality in a great homely pub.
     Tolga is a happy little town, has all you need to get by on and only 3-4km from Atheron but with a friendly country atmosphere.
     Drove out to Lake Tinaroo today with Dot and Yip to give them a swim in the lake, time for bath anyway.

Dot and Yip at Lake Tinaroo

Dam wall at Lake Tinaroo

The Dam at Lake Tinaroo

     The lake is very pretty, the water not so cold for a swim and not too crowded. a delightful way to spend a couple of hours.
     Back to Tolga and a relaxing afternoon.

1st to 4th September Cooktown and fishing

     28th August we were at James Earl lookout but left late afternoon to drive about 20 minutes to arrive at Lakeland where we parked outside the hotel so Jim could catch up with the latest footy on Sky T.V. in the bar.

Great fishing on the Annon river

          Saturday 29th August

Prawn trawler at Cooktown wharf

     On to Cooktown today, remembering all the sights we saw over 2 years ago. Stopped at one of our favourites, the Annon River.
    The fishing was pretty good back then, we will spend a day or two here.

     Parked at the Cooktown wharf first up to buy lunch at the  Gill'd & Gutt'd takeaway. A nice feed of fish and chips for starters. Watched heaps of fish being caught from  the wharf then grabbed a kilo of prawns fresh from the prawn trawler. Spent the night at the free camp in Adelaide street.

          Sunday 30th August
     Back along the highway a few kilometres to the Annon River bridge for a few days. Went to take the Jimny off the trailer and found the battery dead flat, so back to Cooktown to get a new one then finally parked up in a nice spot at the southern end of the bridge.

           Monday 31st August
     Caught a nice bream off the bridge at Annon river today, not big, but legal!! tasted great for lunch, from the river to the pan with lemon and down my gullet - oh my!! so sweet.

Huge Groper in Annon River Cooktown

     Another camper  had his mud crab pots in the river, he was being troubled with the pots being wrecked. Thought it was crocodiles, there was one about 3 metres long that we saw  and it had been at the pots, but eventually discovered this huge groper having a go at them as well.  There were actually 2 of them, this monster and a slightly smaller one. Watched them feasting on the baits in the traps, they made a bit of a mess of the pots. I felt very priviledged to have witnessed this unique sight.

          Tuesday 1st September
     Lazy day today, fishing and reading. Never caught anything though. We went back into Cooktown this afternoon, making our way back south tomorrow but will catch up on the domestic chores first.

          Wednesday 2nd

The creek at the Lions Den Hotel camp ground and Dot

Entrance to the bar

     Only a few kilometres today to the Lions Den Hotel camp ground in the Rossville area. It is a lovely spot, nothing here except for the pub and camp ground. A fresh running creek borders the camp site and we took great advantage of the nice cooling water for swim for the pups and a paddle for me.

       I visited the bar in the early evening to listen to a couple of elderly diggers playing piano-accordions, had a thoroughly entertaining couple of hours, they both played by ear, most of the songs they played I knew and sang and clapped my hands along with them, not bad at all.

        Thursday 3rd
  
                      Heading south again.

Rocks on the hill out from the Loins den Hotel

     Back on the highway toward Lakeland I spied this rock formation in the distance. Having just left the Lions Den Hotel, was it just coincidence that this looked very much like a lion on the hill!! What do your reckon? am I seeing things or what?
   
         Moving along now.!!

Bower bird bower at Lakeland

 We parked up outside the Lakeland Hotel again for the night. While here the other day I found  Bower Bird Bower under a tree, they make a great nest area and decorate it with all sorts of stuff that they find lying about, bits of glass, coloured plastic and any thing bright usually, this one had a great number of land snail shells about it. there were a couple of bowers but the main one was in use as we saw the birds going in and out of it often. The other was maybe last years and a little in disrepair.I took this photo before we left the next morning.