Atherton Tablelands

Arrived at our house sit in Atherton, North Queensland approx 80kms from Cairns in the Tablelands. After spending a couple of days with Les and Kay (owners) we were comfortable with what was required to look after the property and Cleo while they were away.  Cleo is the 18 year old cat who is certainly Queen of the House! We have certainly learned our place as she has attitude plus and I quickly delegated the giving of her daily tablet to Hels - who quickly realized the best time to administer is when she is fast asleep!

Cleo (AKA Precious) what she says goes!!

Les & Kay are a great couple who share many of our interests including outback travelling.  They are travelling to Perth via outback tracks including the Old Ghan Line and Anne Beadell Highway sleeping in their swag - Hels had to tie me down when they left as I was tempted to stow away in the back of the ute to go with them on their trip!!

Parked up next to the house, our camp for a while.

Hels took this artistic shot of the front yard from the veranda.  We spend a lot of time here enjoying the ambiance & drinking coffee.

Although its cooler here than we had envisaged, they have a lovely fire for those cool nights, only for Cleo though!!!  I am enjoying the opportunity to do those little jobs on the car and van which have been difficult to do when travelling full time.  It's also good to potter around the garden and I can't wait for the grass to grow so I can jump on the ride on mower. We are close to the Herberton Range National Park (Mt Baldy) so getting back to walking each morning, sometimes to the top of Mt Baldy and the "Widow Maker". Whilst I am enjoying the stay, Hels was ready to get going again after first week!! I am also

Early morning looking over Atherton south and Lake Tinaroo

Made it to the top of "The Widow Maker" - what a view over Atherton and the Tablelands

The Tablelands has many markets during this time of the year so we have managed to get to some close by including Yungaburra, Tolga and Atherton markets.

Hels with new bag over the shoulder ready to get a bargain at the Yungaburra market. This stall was selling sea snake bangles.  Hels refrained from buying it at the Yungaburra market but when the favorite bangle was still available at the Tolga market it was just too tempting.

We were also fortunate enough to be in town for the Atherton Show, held over 2 days.  We hadn't been to a show since Todd and Briony were in Primary school so the opportunity to attend a country show was not to be missed.  I could even get seniors discount!!!  Over the 2 days we saw the usual sideshows along with art and crafts on display, consumed a donut or two, the coffee and donut deal was too good to refuse.  The weather was favorable and even able to bring out the old shorts!  Spent a reasonable amount of time watching the events on the main oval, these included El-Jays free style riding display (motorcyle & pushbike), Cattle judging, which involved the High School students from the area being judged on their cattle judging skills, and finishing off with the Grand Parade.

One thing which stood out at the Atherton show was the back drop of the Herberton Range which in my mind made the experience of a country show even more fitting.

The side shows and rides with Mt Baldy in the back ground.

This was a team log chopping event, should have got some fire wood chopped. 

The Grand Parade

Would have been the best dressed in the Grand Parade.

El-Jays freestyle riding, El-Jay rode the motorbike up the small ramp onto the platform, that's not bad as would have been nearly a 3m vertical wall.

From Atherton we are going to take in day trips to see the local sites of the tablelands.  We have already been to Cairns on the Gordonvale - Atherton road, 230 corners over 53 km and 700 m in altitude.  I asked Hels to count the corners but after counting 10, I was told it was 230 given to her on good authority and didn't need checking.

Central Qld

I've been very slack of late and not updated the blog, mainly due to the fact we haven't done a lot of the tourist attractions and basically traveled from the Sunshine Coast to the Atherton Tablelands, FNQ leaving the east coast at Hervey Bay going via Monto, Emerald, Charters Towers to Townsville.

We stayed around Hervey Bay for a while to enjoy some nice sunny days but cool nights.  Coming into Noosa we cracked the windscreen which I had repaired at Novus, Hervey Bay.  The job was completed, but what I didn't realize at the time was the driver side mirror had been broken during the repair by the repairer.  I found this out when we had started travelling north so couldn't go back and thought this would cause an issue when I called to follow up.  I spoke to the proprietor who was away at the time of the repair and as a result he was most apologetic and had the mirror replaced without any question.  I wouldn't normally write about an event like this however because of the exceptional customer service from Ian at Novus, Hervey Bay to have my mirror replaced I would certainly recommend their service.

Had to take this piccie of kangaroo and joey 

Yep, cracked the windscreen going into Noosa so spent some time around Hervey Bay having the screen replaced.

Early morning not far from camp near Hervey Bay

More of that early morning mist as the sun peaks through

We traveled from Hervey Bay to Childers picking up some hot and spicy nuts from the roadside van in Childers.  Headed west towards Monto, camping north of Eidsvold adjacent to the Burnett River.  It's around here we could still see evidence of the 2011 floods which  was devastating in this area and of course Bundaberg.

Over night camp - Ceratodus Rest Area beside the Burnett River.  You could see evidence in the trees of the 2011 floods.  Nice camp spot 

Dawson River Rest Area, a very popular camp spot, we only stopped for lunch and continued on.  Good facilities and a gold coin donation.

Stopped for the night at a gravel pit about 30kn North of Rolinston.  No facilities but much quieter.

Fairbain Dam just out of Emerald, we stayed at Higher Ground Station Stay about 3km from the dam.

Our bush camp at Higher Ground Station Stay.

The Higher Ground Station Stay was a bush camp without facilities, although you could have power if require. Had to be self contained and take the sh**ter (toilet cassette) to the nearest dump point.  From Emerald to Charters Towers we found the camp spots few and far between.  What was available was very close to the road and sometimes cluttered with rubbish.  We stayed on the side of the road at a gravel dump with 2 other vans and woke to the rain that morning.  We left early morning and went into Charters Towers, pulling up at Macrossan Park 22km east for coffee.  This was a large free camp area along the Burkin River, would have had 30 vans camping, but as the rain persisted we had our coffee, a chat to another New Age owners from SA and continued towards Townsville in the rain.

Townsville from Castle Hill Lookout, if you have a good eye you can see the V8 track/pit area.

After a couple of days in Townsville we moved further north to Bramston Beach, where we meet up with Mike and Chris who we had met in WA last year.  We stayed for 4 days enjoying some sunshine, although not enough to fully charge the batteries and had a look around Innisfail and surrounding area. Lovely place to stay with beach access & on the cheaper scale of cost per night.

We were at Bramston Beach for the State of Origin game two -Trevor the caretaker organised the TV out by the camp fire and we all brought some finger food to share for dinner.  Unfortunately the local Queenslanders weren't too happy with the result.

Bramston Beach Council Park

Hels making most of the sun as we had seen plenty of overcast days.

Trevor (caretaker) arranged a TV to watch the State of Origin (2) unfortunately in the depths of Qld,  NSW managed to win the series, first time in 8 years. Mind you we had a few blue supporters who were very happy!

Looking North along Bramston Beach

From Bramston Beach we headed to Atherton to start our house sit for 2 months.