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.