Animals on the road between Barcaldine, Sapphire and Emu Park on the coast.

It's weeks since our last blog as I have been in Tassie and didn't get around to putting the final photos in of the trip to the drought-stricken hinterland.  From Longreach, we went to Barcaldine which has a strong Scottish connection and is the birthplace of the Labour Party and unionism with the shearers strike starting there in 1891.  It's a fascinating place with the Tree of Knowledge which sadly was poisoned in 2006 but a huge structure has been built which, at first glance, is rather clumsy looking but at night it is beautiful and when studied is clearly an architectural tour de force!  The sounds, as the wind whips through, are supposed to echo the voices of the shearers.  Anyway, it's certainly worth a look, as is Sapphire with its prospecting.  Angie and Annie went back into this region when I went back to Tasmania to see Patrick so they can tell you much more someday!  We also loved the coast around Emu Park and Tannum Sands.

The Tree of Knowledge

 

Animals on the road or in the campsite. Green tree snake- bottom right.

 
 Looking out to Great Keppel Island  Dentist's chair-Childers        

 
                                                                                                                              Bundaberg rum visit

At last, I'm getting to the dinosaurs!

There are four sets of dinosaur prints in the stampede to the left.  On the extreme right of the right-hand photo, the lass is showing us that the outside small bone belongs to a bull and the bone beside it is the equivalent bone in the body but it belongs to a dinosaur!  They have uncovered many, many bones - enough to keep them busy for the next twenty five years chipping the excess rocks away to leave the originals as seen here.

 

 This is a model of a Tyrannosauropus, and they have many of the original bones but not all of them, yet!  On the left you can see how dry this country is as three emus run away from the roadside as the van passes.

 

 A little bit of skylarking on the wing of a 747 and getting ready for our ride on a Cobb and Co stagecoach!

 

 

 A cruise on the Thomson River at sunset and then during a bush poetry evening.

 

 Whale watching at Cairns, where, unlike Norway, I was able to see whales without being seasick!

 

The hinterland continued plus the birth of Patrick James and the engagement of Liam and Bebe!

Introducing Patrick James
Isn't he a cutie!

An old hotel in Charters Towers

 Swimming at Porcupine Gorge National Park, Hughenden.

        A delicious  seafood lunch at Horseshoe Bay

The happy couple-pretty cute too!                                                                                                     

From Cooktown to Longreach.

Well we've been a bit remiss with the blogging lately so I'm going to cover a few thousand kilometres in this one!  On the 6th of August Angie drove us into Cooktown-something she has wanted to do for many years so it was a rousing occasion!  We really enjoyed the trip there through the Atherton Tablelands even though it was raining-the first rain we had seen for 4 months!  It blew and it poured for most of the time we were in Cooktown and for a lot of the time in Cairns but we still really enjoyed both places as the rain was spasmodic and warm!  I learned a great deal about the settlement of Australia, from Angie and from the museum!  I'm including a picture of the mouth of the Endeavour River into which Cook and his crew limped after running aground on coral around Cape Tribulation, aptly named by him, and having to throw his cannons and anchor overboard to lighten the load!  We did some great walks, saw some wonderful plants and trees at the Cooktown Botanical Gardens (see photos in previous blog) and also enjoyed what we saw in the way of rainforests when we moved on to The Daintree and Cape Tribulation where the sea and the rainforest come together magnificently.  From there, we headed to Cairns for some successful whale watching and less successful viewing from the sky train as the rain was so heavy that day that we couldn't even see the next cable car heading towards us on its way to Kuranda!  After Cairns, we headed to Mission Beach and actually stayed for a week at Wongaling Beach because it was beautiful and great for bike riding along the coast.  Again, lots of walks and some quiet time before heading to Townsville for some minor work on the van under warranty.  We even got the radio fixed which both Angie and I thought I'd broken because of fiddling with the knobs, trying to get it to work, but in fact it was a loose connection and nothing to do with me! Since Townsville, we've been very busy in the hinterland as we've been to Winton to see the dinosaur stampede.  (I didn't even know it existed 'til Angie brought me here!) Then on to Longreach, which is in the grip of a drought, to the home of Qantas and a great look through the museum and tours of the planes.  I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking!

Rainforest/beach                                                

A cassowary, an endangered species 

 

Cooktown, the Endeavour River Daintree

 



 

 
 Mission Beach and South Mission Beach plus a rare picture of Angie on the bike!

 

Lava tubes at Mt. Surprise

 We visited the Lava Tubes near Mount Surprise and we also saw another beautiful sunset.

 

     

Joyce pondering 

                  her next question to the poor guide!

Arrival in Cooktown and I was keen to try the local cooking!

A visit to the Botanical Gardens at Cooktown

  







 

Beautiful view halfway up Mt Cook.



The mystical Uluru in all its glory from sunrise to sunset.

We walked around the base of Uluru and this was our favourite spot: the water hole which is looked after by the Rainbow Serpent. It's amazingly peaceful and reminded us of the calmness of Iona in Scotland. The photos below are of Uluru from early morning, at sunrise, with the Olgas in the background and then at various stages of redness through the day to the purple haze that is seen during sunset.  Sadly, the camera does not capture it in all its glory but it's the best we can do! I thought about climbing it but Angie put the fear of death in me by saying the indigenous people didn't want us to, so I decided not to and when we got there it was closed because of wind. Good karma!

 

 

 

Sunrise with the Olgas in the background

The water-hole

Just after dawn.

A few minutes later.

Mid-morning

Angie looking at the Aboriginal art in a beautiful cavern.

Sunset.

Katherine Gorge

Delicious scones!

The wee green men!

A little bit of frivolity: martians at Wycliffe Wells and, Annette and Maddy, look at these scones at Timber Creek.  Below are some Queensland sunsets to compare with WAs.  These are at Karumba,on the Gulf of Carpentaria, where we also had lunch with Bazza and Tom and ate fresh prawns!

 

 

The end of the evening sunset at Karumba.

A fiery sunset at a free campsite on the way to Karumba.

 

Out to lunch!

The beginning of the evening sunset at Karumba.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angie enjoying the prawns while I take the photos! Method in her madness! (Actually she shared!)


 

I love this sunset at Karumba but not as much as the Broome one!