Skyrail and Scenic Railway.

Dear Family and Friends

Wednesday.

It is now Saturday. We set off on Wednesday for our day touring on the Kuranda Scenic Railway and the Skyrail. As planned we met up with people we had become friends with at Mt Surprise and here at Walkamin. Bob and Ngiari left Walkamin to go up to Mossman and Pt Douglas for a couple of days. Steve and Sonja headed off down to Cairns a day later while Ken and I stayed put here at Walkamin. We set Wednesday as our day to regroup and do the day sightseeing.

We met at 9.30am at Freshwater Station which is just outside Cairns where we caught the Scenic Railway train. The train itself is one of days long ago meticulously restored to her original state with highly polished wood and a deep browny red upholstery. You could easily close your eyes and imagine that you were in another time and another era. The rail line runs through dense forest winding its way up to the Kuranda township. The scenery is breathtaking as you go through the Barron Gorge and wind your way upwards. Along the way you can see the Barron Falls dropping some 280 metres down the escarpents to the Barron River that you can occasionally glimpse far below and right at the bottom you can see the Barron Gorge Hydro electricity power station. If I remember rightly they said that there were untold number of injuries building the rail line but only 23 deaths. The line was commenced in 1885/6 and completed in 1891 and was built in three sections. The Navvies working on the line had to provide their own tools which consisted of a pick and a shovel whilst the company supplied the dynamite. The train goes through 15 tunnels, the longest and last one being 490 metres. During its construction the tunnel collapsed and 7 lives were lost, there are also 93 curves where you can get a great picture of the train sweeping around the corners.

They tell us that the journey up the mountain very soon became a sight seeing destination and Kuranda has made it's reputation as the sightseeing Mecca of the Far north Queensland for over 100 years.

The only disappointing part of the journey was that Ngiare didn't enjoy the train trip. She openly said she hated heights but was convinced or coerced by Bob to go. At times there was little between the train and the drop down into the Gorge. I began to wonder how she was going to get down the mountain because we had booked to take the skyrail back to Feshwater but my worries were unfounded as she thoroughly enjoyed the ride down on the skyrail. She was very proud of herself and made sure she had photoes to prove she did it.

Once arriving in Kuranda there was a courtesy bus waiting to take you up the hill to the top end of town. It was very steep so I think we all heaved a sigh of relief when we saw the bus. On the way the driver pointed out places of interest to visit and left us all to wander down the hillside at our own leisure and back to the Skyrail buy our depature time of 3.30. We separated and went our own ways to work our way through the different shops and markets. It was quite a warm day, around 30 - 33 degrees, and I'm really glad it was no hotter or it would not have been as nice a day.

Our shopping over we met up again at one of the hotel beer gardens and had a lovely cold lemon squash before the remainder of our walk down the hill and back to the Skyrail.

Ken and I got on one skycar and the others piled in together on another one and what a ride that was. You go up really high and glide over the Barron Gorge and rainforest that stretches for miles / kms It includes over 1200 flowering rainforest plants, 800 of which are classified as rainforest trees. There are also orchids, ginger plants, strangler figs, palms, stag horns and elkhorns and any number of climbing plants. the tree trunks are so long as they vie for the sunshine. It's an amazing sight and when you look at the density of the forest you get an even greater sense of the enormity and the hazards of building the railway and more recently the skyrail. Not long before the jouneys end you leave the rainforest and there is a steep decent as you drop down to the journey's end. The view here once again is spectacular and it is a little like coming into land in a light aircraft. There are the same sensations that you experience but a much clearer panorama of the landscape below. You can see the farming paddocks dotted below, some reddy brown. some green and some yellow. You can see Cairns and the smaller seaside townships like Trinity Beach, Clifton Beach and Palm Cove. Then still further on you see Trinity Bay and Cairns' section of the Great Barrier Reef. There are no words that describe the differing tones of blue water and blue sky all wrapped up together as one.

We did not go the Butterfly Sanctuary, The Koala Gardens or The Birdworld. There just wasn't time and we can go back at some time to enjoy these places as it looks like we will be here till the end of the wet season.

We arrived home exhausted but elated at all that we had seen and done, It most definitely sits as one of the best experiences we have had so far.

You may want to read this blog in stages as there is so much we have fitted into these past few days.

Thursday

We had planned for a quiet day but we got an early morning phone call from some people we had met at church with an invitation to join them and go out to the home of another couple also from church for lunch. Robin and Pauline lived about 10 klms the other side of Ravenshoe (QLD's Highest town but still very much part of the Atherton Tablelands). On our first Sunday at Church I had chatted with Pauline and Robin while Ken was chatting with Peter and Erica and when I told Robin and Pauline where we were staying they had said that we were welcome to bring the van out to their place where there was planty of room to park it. I thanked them for the invitation and had agreed to visit them after they returned from Cairns where Robin was having treatment for cancer. We drove to Peter and Erica's place at Herberton, which is just the other side of Atherton and then bundled into their car to travel the half hour or so to get to Robin and Pauline's place.

We had a BBQ for lunch and enjoyed a very pleasant day getting to know each other. Robin and Pauline had spent a number of years in New Guinea and also in Victoria. We knew one of their children by name and as the afternoon progressed we found quite a number of other people that we both knew. We arrived home late in the afternoon excited about the idea of staying at their 3 acre farmlet. They have a little two storied cottage near the main house where we would park the van which has a toilet, shower, bedroom, and sitting room that we can use if we choose too. We've got a couple of places we want to go to here before we backtrack a little to Ravenshoe. So probably we'll make the move in the next week or two. They tell us they are away for Feb, March and April so it seems possible that we may well house sit for them during this time.

Friday.

Another amazing day. This time we set off with Peter and Erica who took us on a sight seeing drive of the local Atherton area. You could describe Atherton as a mountain top experience with dramatic landscapes and gently rolling hillsides. It clearly has a high rainfall as the rolling hillsides and vast farming plateaus are very green and the cows have the thickest long green grass that I have seen in a longtime. Lots of cows, both dairy and beef, but no sheep at all at least not that we have seen so far.

All the places we visited we will at some time go back to them. A quick overview of where we went. This is not in the order we visited them and I will describe them more next time we visit each one. We drove to Dinner Falls and the water filled Crater. We also went to Hallorins Hill and the Curtain Fig which is going to be hard to describe. We stopped at a lookout that spans the width and bredth of the tablelands including the seven sisters which are a group of mountains located close together, we stopped to spot the platypuss playing in the water but were unlucky because it wasn't the right time of the day. We had a picnic lunch at Lake Eachem and drove around Lake Tinaroo estate (Very much like Newlands arm near Bairnsdale). Then to conclude the day we went back to Peter and Ericas place and had tea with them before returning home exhausted after another busy but wonderful day.

I'll finish off now even though there is much more I can say about our day sightseeing but I will keep it for another day and another blog.

Love to all

Ken and Lyn.

More tomorrow

Dear Family and Friends

I've been a bit remiss of late and have not blogged for a while. This is just a quick update as I'm about to go to bed. We are still at Walkamin. The weather is consistently around 30 degrees each day. We still have had no rain even though weather reports say it is raining all around Cairns.

Tomorrow is a big day. We are going on the scenic railway and the skyrail with some friends we have met Steve and Sonja, and, Bob and Ngaire. We are told it is a must see.More to follow tomorrow.

Love to all Ken and Lyn.

Walkamin

Dear Family and Friends

We are now camped in a caravan park at Walkamin. Its a small town pretty much in the middle of Atherton and Mareeba. The park caters for grey nomads and although it's is now past the busy season there are about 25 - 30 vans here. They have a sign up at the entrance saying "no tents" and there are no children here also. There is a huge shed here that allows large groups of people to gather. In the shed they have a huge open fire (which we had going last night as it cooled down a bit) with a variety of single chairs and lounge chairs surrounding it. There are the normal things that you find in a camp kitchen, plus they have the largest array of books, puzzles and games that I have seen in any van park (probably because people come here for a week and stay three months). The chap behind us came for a month and stayed for 4 years. He got a job picking avocados and is now a surperviser.

The night before we left Mt Surprise a couple we met who live in northern Queensland told us about this park and recommended it for a long term stay. Our intention had been to go to a freeby at a War Memorial Park just a few klms down the road where they allow you to camp for 72 hours only. Our neighbours at Mt Surprise (Steve and Sonja, Bob and Nyari) also intended on coming to this spot so we knew we would meet up them again. Because we didn't stay there (and it was a great spot) we went back late on Sunday afternoon to see them and tell them where we were. They've now joined us here at Walkamin and like us they are thinking of making this a long term stay. If you book for a week it costs just $105 so that also makes it a great spot and they have the cleanest toilet and shower blocks we have yet seen on this journey.

There is just so much to see and do around here. Cairns is about an hour away, the Atherton Tablelands are here to explore, there are forests, gorges, waterfalls, dams and lakes. There is also the Kuranda Scenic Railway as well as The Sky Rail. There is a butterfly sanctuary, a bird park, Koala and other aussie wildlife sanctuary and the Hartley Crocodile farm is up this way too as is Paronella Park.

We are thinking that we might drive up to Cooktown (without the van) and stay in a cabin for a couple of days so that we can have a look around there.

This last weekend we noticed that the Rotary Club were hosting a venture called "The Taste of the Tablelands" So on the way home from church on Sunday we found a parking spot not too far from the entrance and decided to take a look. All stalls and produce were local (44 in total) and there was a range of stalls ranging from goats milk soap to doggy treats to Indian, Thai or Greek food sensations to nuts, wine, dried fruit, jams, honey and much, much more. This is its second year and well worth going to. Parking was horendous as it usually is with events like this. We think this was probably the main fundraiser for the local Rotary Club and it looked to be a huge success.

That's about it for now so I shall say goodbye untill next time.

Love to all and God Bless.

Ken and Lyn

Mt Surprise

Dear Family and Friends

From Charters Towers we drove just 40klms down the road to a free camp spot called Fletcher Creek. A beautiful babbling brook with crystal clear water runs through here and by the look of the surrounding area and the big bridge it floods here after heavy rain. We were on the high side but there were about five or six caravans parked on the lower side. So far we have dodged the heavy rains that seem to have hit QLD but somewhere we are going to run into it.

We set of early yesterday morning as we knew we had a fairly long drive ahead of us.We reached Mt Surprise late in the afternoon. We travelled up the Gregory development road and have now begun to pass the road trains, some of which have four trailers behind them. They are a bit scary when they pass you. Often the road way is just one lane and so you have to get off the road. They don't slow down and they don't move over. There are call points along the road where you identify where you are and so you get a little warning that they are ahead.

We stopped off Undara where there are the world reknown lave flows are. Two of the tours had ceased as it is now considered to be 'off peak season' and the easiest tour had some 300 steps plus a walk of unknown length. It is unaccesable by car so they take you in a bus so far and then you walk the rest. (the chap serving us couldn't tell us how far the walk would be) so we decided against it and continued on to Mt Surprise. The landscape here is very rocky and unusual in that the rocks are these huge basalt like boulders and many of them are boulders but many are small but all are dark. It must have been one heck of an eruption to spew out the size of some of the rocks.

Mt Surprise has just 60 people living here and for today we are just going to make it an overnight stop.

So with that I shall write again soon

Love to all. Lyn and Ken

Moving on

Deat family and friends







As planned we left Willows Gemfield on Friday morning setting off about 7.30am with the intention of returning next year for the annual Gem Fest which occurs each August.

We had such a good time there and made so welcome by all.





We headed north via the Gregory Developmental Road and what a long boring journey that stretched into as we travelled through Capella and Clermont. From Claremont through to Charters Towers, some 400 klms, there was one lonely old service station at Belyando Crossing which obviously had the monopoly on fuel and food, a little bit like the Nullabour when you pay an arm and a leg for anything. Thankfully we had enough of eveything till we reached Charters Towers.





The Bathurst Races were on this past weekend which meant that Ken was glued to the TV for the weekend. We did some shopping and some cleaning and today we will do some sight seeing.



Charters Towers is a very, very old place by Australian standards with a population of 30,000 people in it's hey day. the population is now only 7,000. It boasts the first pub outside Brisbane and it's own stock exchange from days gone by.







The architecture of many pubs and buidings is amazing.

Willows

Dear Family and Friends

Our stay in the Gemfields region is nearly over. There is a rich spirit of friendship out here as most people are miles and miles from family and so friendships are very important for everyone. Some of the locals have begun a Recreation Club. With funding from State Government they have been able to oufit a large shed where people can come just for a cuppa and a chat, Some come for a beer and a smoke, others come to play pool, and others to play the Wii. And on weekends like the one just passed with the footy finals people come just to watch it with others who enjoy the game. Each weekend the club is opened from 3.00 till about 7.00. they are licensed to sell alcohol between certain hours and every Sunday night they have a meal of some kind available. Last Sunday night it was fish and chips night, and for $5 you got two pieces of fish plus a heap of chips. They have an outdoors area with shade sails up so depending on the day it can be either indoor or outdoor or both.

The tourist season is now ending and so by late November they will close it down till march next year. They say even then it is too hot even for the locals and some townsfolk migrate south for to cooler climates. Last year they had 10 consecutive days with temps over 45 degrees. the weather since we have arrived has been 30 and above almost every day, quite a few of then around the 35 degree mark.

On Sunday Sharon took us for a drive around Sapphire, Rubyvale and Anakie, all of which are part of the Gemfields. During tourist season there is always markets at Sapphire on a Saturday where you can buy raw stones or peices of ready made jewelry. In the next few weeks even this market slows down as the tourists are all gone and the locals know who to take their stones to to get a fair and honest price for them if they want to sell them, or make them into jewelry.

After looking around this area Sharon took us to "Pat's Place" to have morning tea. Pat's Place is a coffee shop plus a jewelers where you can purchase local stones already made into jewelry. Sapphires aren't just blue but can be found in all colours and hues. Green, yellow, purple and some which are multi coloured are called party coloured and a highly sought after.

While we had our drinks at Pat's we found the rosellas and lorikeets were very friendly and they would come very close to you knowing that food was available. So tame that they came to our plates and licked the caramel that was left on the plates. They even stuck their heads into our coffee mugs to see if there was anything left in them.

We have had no luck with the famous red claw that Ken was hoping for. The local water holes have been unsuccessful and that might have to do with the unusual weather they have had here. Only yesterday someone said that the water is still a bit too cold which means they have burrowed down into the mud. When Fairbairn Dam was nearly empty everyone was taking them in big numbers and so the council decided they had better see how many were left incase they were depleting the numbers of them and when they checked they found out that there was so many of them that they burrowed down to about 20meters under the mud. When you catch them you have to soak them for a couple of days in clean water so they flush out their whole systems otherwise they are not nice to eat.

Sharon and Ricki took us down to their dig site and showed us where they are working. They have their own hand machine which helps them separate the dust particles from the actual rock. After they have done that then they have to wash the stones in what is called a Willoby (no idea how it is spelt but it is pronounced as Will O Bee) If they are washed properly in the sieve then the heavyier stones (Ie the sapphires) settle in ther middle of the sieve. The sieve is then tuned out onto a cloth and you begin to look from the middle to the out side. A pair of tweezers is used to pick up the gems. At first is hard to see them but you soon learn to recognise them.

Yesterday (Wed) we went to Rubyvale to Willies Wash and here you buy two buckets of stones for $25 and he has all the equipment you need to find stones. A few of us went and we spent a couple of hours there. We found quite a few small stones with a possible 2 that we might be big enough to be faceted. This is a tourist spot, though, on this occasion it was only us there. As Sharon and Ricki said you will always find small stuff but never likely to get anthing big as it is "Salted" which means that when they get the buckets ready prior to your arrival they throw in the odd stone here and there, just enough to keep people's enthusiasm up. They know this because in one of the buckets a Garnet was found and Garnets are not found locally. All in all we had a good time. From there we headed back to Anakie and had lunch at the local pub.

Yesterday Sharon took me to the home of Robyn a local lady who paints. Sharon and Ricki have one of her paintings in their home and so she took me to see some of the others that she has painted. She mostly does landscapes and portraits and she is good at both.

The other place we went to visit was Geoff and Madds. Geoff is an encyclopedia on Arachnids. He said he has been facinated by spiders and insects since he was a small kid. He studies them and breeds them, he sells some (there is a growing market for people who buy them as pets, though he limits who he sells them too) and he keeps some, some for many years.

He also has scorpions, one of which he showed us under a special light and it comes up all green in colour. And they are not little. Some of them were almost the size of his hand. He fed some while we were there. We asked him what happens if he is bitten as many are the deadly funnel webb spiders and he said he has had so many bites over the years that he has built up an immunity to many of them. Some, he said might give him a bad headache for a few days. Some make him weak and sick for a few days and then he gets better. He has some though that would make even him sick and there is one he has that if he gets bitten it is so venomous that it will kill him within 7 minutes of being bitten. His collection of spiders include species of spiders that have never been seen or named before.

Today we went specking which is when you just walk around looking for stones on top of the ground.We had no luck except for one which Sharon found. Specking is usually done after it has rained as the dirt is washed away and the stones lay on top of the ground. "If it shines pick it up" was the advice given. Specking is best done on a sunny day as you use the sun to spot the stones. Many of the stones I have seen are just like a dark rock with silver striations on it. To tell the difference between a rock and a sapphire a) you feel its weight, sappires are noticeably heavier than a rock of equal size, b) rocks are solid and cannot be seen through where as colour can be seen when you hold a sapphire up to the sun and c) Sapphires are hard They have a hardness of 9 on the Moh's scale beaten only by diamond which is a 10.

To finish off our stay here at Willows Sharon and Ricki are having a BBQ here tonight to farwell Barry, Ken and myself as we are both leaving here tomorrow

Barry is heading south and we are going to continue north with the intention of reaching the Atherton Tablelands.

So for now God Bless and all our love

Ken and Lyn

Cactus Flowers, only last one full day

Photo 2 The old house needs a little TLC

Photo 3 This bridge was completly covered by water in 2008 floods

Photo 4 Ricki, Barry and Sharon

Medway River a great swimming hole
remains of a train bridge that washed away from flooding. A train came along in the dark and crashed killed about 25 people

Georgie (big dog)and Groovy (small dog) just love their swims.

Meday swimming hole

Groovy in the water

update on Willows

Dear Friends and Family.

Ken reminded me of another camp site that I neglected to include. It was a place called "Duaringa" and we came on it by accident and surprisingly no one had yet told us about it. We turned off the main road at Duaringa to have afternoon tea and drove to where Ken thought would be a short stop parking area but it turned out to be a place where you could stay officially for 24 hours. At about 3.30pm there was already about 25 vans set up for the night so when we were told there was both water, free hot showers and BBQ vailable we decided to stay for the night. We spotted a tap that no one was using and pulled up beside it and within 15 minutes I had some washing on the go and we were sitting down to have our cuppa's. The showers were free but they asked for a gold coin donation for their upkeep and anyone and every one is happy to pay that.

Duaringa is the welcoming gateway to the Central Highlands and is the oldest township dating back to 1860. The park we stayed at has many fine examples of the Budgeroo or the Duaringa stringy bark tree

Yesterday was shopping day and so all of us except Sharon went into Emerald to do some shopping. Ricki picked up a lady who needed to go into Emerald for the night and she took her in and Barry, Ken and I went in in Barry's car. It's about 70klms to Emerald so it's not too far except for those times you get home and find you find you've missed something essential. Ken and I have to go in again today as we need to see a doctor from some new scripts. last night Sharon blew the lightbulb in her bedroom so as she had no spares we will pick up one for her today. There are a total of eighty residents in Willows and I gather that when something is needed urgently there's usually always someone going into town who are happy to help out.

Ken, Barry and Sharon have just walked down to the towns small dam. It's the water they use for watering garden's and what ever, not for drinking. The dogs George, Groovey Puppet and Squirts swim in it at least once a day and yesterday they put a few nets in to try and catch the red claw. So it will be interesting to see if they have caught anything.

Yesterday, when we were about to head into town Sharon told us of a place that she thought we might like to see. It has two names. One is Fairbairn Dam. The other name it goes by is Lake Maraboon which means 'Where the black ducks fly' in aboriginal. Fairbairn Dam is the name of the dam wall and the spillway. Whilst we didn't see them the huge expanse of water and surrounding bush is home to birds such as rainbow Lorrikeets, pelicans and black swans.

This enormous dam is said to be over three times the size of Sydney Harbour and like any volume of water it is an ideal spot for recreational sports. The building of this dam provided the Emerald shire with an ongoing water supply and created new industries such as cotton (the Emerald area produces over 25%of QLD's cotton), coal mining, vineyards and citrus orchards. The girls tell us that less than two years ago the Lake was almost empty and if it wasn't for the floods in 2007/ 2008 it would be now. It is an awesome Lake out in the middle of nowhere and the last thing you would expect to see this far west.

The photos tell their own story.

As I said today we are going back into Emerald and tomorrow we are going on a picnic to Bogantungan. In years gone by this little place had a population of 10,000 but now there is only three residents remaining. It's about half an hour from here heading west. Tell you more next time.

Time to go. Love to all.

Ken and Lyn