Leak-free travels in the Marybell!: September 2014

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!

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!