One definite destination for us on this trip was the Great Barrier Reef. We had tried to go there in the past but have struck bad weather. So we were so happy that we got a totally beautiful day to go on the Quicksilver Reef trip. We had a wonderful day, lots of snorkeling, a glass bottom boat ride, and barely enough time for a buffet lunch. Highlights would be the diverse and colourful fish, we saw a huge fish as big as an adult. We weren't sure how Jake would go, as in the past he hasn't snorkeled so well. But this time he was amazing, just put his head under and away he went. It was so special to be snorkeling around and hear your children squeal underwater in excitement at what they were seeing. It was a pretty expensive day, but so so worth it.
Prior to going to Cape York the other families we travelled with had been to Hartley's Croc Farm, they recommended it. So seeing Charlotte is snake and croc mad we thought we should go. It was a fabulous day. Charlotte even said it was the best day of her life. We saw the inside story of croc farming, not so keen! But the shows were really interesting, and of course the boat ride and croc feeding. But most of all Charlotte loved the snakes. She got to hold a couple of snakes and a blue tongue lizard, and is now annoying me more than ever for a pet snake. A interesting day, but I am still not so scared of crocs, they seem cuteish to me!
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| Is it a boy or a girl?? |
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| Croc feeding time |
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| Watching the croc show |
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| Patting the baby turtle |
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| My happy reptile girl |
The Ellis family also came to Mt Molloy, and set up next to us for a couple of days. We were pretty busy sightseeing, but the kids still managed plenty of time for play.
From Mt Molloy we drove to Ravenshoe, the highest town in QLD. We stayed at the free camp in town. It is a cute town and we ended up staying a few days, had to do a bit of school work etc. Mark of course went to the highest pub for a beer. We went to Windy Hill, where they have a heap of wind turbines. But it was just a tad foggy, and they were really hard to see. The best experience for us in Ravenshoe was when I went to the electrical shop. I got talking to the lady who own the place, and she noticed Charlotte's plastic pet snake she wears around her neck. They chatted about snakes and the lady said her son had some pet ones. So she took us out back of the shop to her house and we got to pet her snakes, Charlotte once again was in heaven!! Gotta love the friendly people in these country towns.
We also went and had a look at the Milla Milla waterfalls, they were OK but not so spectacular. I think we are almost waterfalled out, gosh I sound spoilt!!
We went next to Mt Surprise, it was almost on the way to Undara Lava tubes. We stayed at this 'camp' ground, pretty basic, called Planet Earth, but the guy who ran it was great. Russel put on a snake show for the guest, so you can imagine how Charlotte was. She ended up being in the show, holding the Black Headed Python. Even I had a hold, I don't mind pet snakes, but no way was Mark going anywhere near it!!!
The next day we got up early and headed to Undarra Lava Tubes. It was a pretty interesting place. Went on the bus to the tubes and with a guide walked through them. Weird to see the path the lava took. But my only complaint would be that it was $150, so expensive, makes it hard to afford to visit these places for families.
We stopped the next night at a free camp at Fletcher's Creek. So many vans around, we ran into people we had seen at other places, seems like everyone is heading the same way. Its a nice spot by the river, just too popular!!
We got up early the next day and went to Charters Towers. I did the groceries then we spent most of the rest of the day at a park. Mark had to change our alternator, as our battery problems continue. So he found a nice shady spot under a tree for the car and van and fixed it. We are so lucky that Mark is a mechanic, otherwise it would be so $$$$$. Then we drove to Hughenden.
Hughenden, the start of the dinosaur trail for us. We were to stay at the free camp but they are really strict. We did the right thing and went to info centre, only to be told you have to have a grey water holding tank not just a hose or bucket. So much to our disgust we had to pay at a caravan park, we are spending so much on diesel, that we are trying to save with accommodation. First stop the next day was the Discovery Centre. An interesting small place, with a great kids area.
We had a walk around town, checked out the sights. They have a really large dinosaur in the main street, a Muttasaurus. Its nice down by the river, but no water. We did see a guy training his horse on the river bed which was pretty cool.
Then we went out to Porcupine Gorge. They call it the "little grand canyon". A pretty magic view from the top, but we had planned on walking into the gorge for a swim. It seemed a long way down, and it was. But so worth it, a really picturesque spot and a lovely place for a cool swim.
We'd had such a great day out, we wanted to keep going. Charlotte had the guide book and we read that you could watch the sunset over Mt Walker. It was lovely up there, a fabulous way to cap of our day out.
We debated about heading to Richmond for a day trip but decided we'd like to take the van for a few days. We camped in the free camp in town, a bit of a dust bowl but OK. Kids had a ball at the free water park by the lake. Its a man made area just as you head into town, with a walking track around the lake, bbq's and playgrounds. In other words a great spot for families. We met another travelling family Jules, Steve and Hannah with Jason, so spent a night chatting around the camp fire, Charlotte was very happy as they had a 10 year old girl.
The next morning we went to Kronosaurus Corner, another dinosaur place. I probably should mention that these areas are all part of what is known as the Dinosaur Triangle (Hughenden, Richmond and Winton). They have this great guide book for kids with heaps of activities and tick lists of what to check out in each town. We did pretty well, we saw almost all of them. Lots of fossils and displays at Kronosaurus corner and luckily a kids corner. And a great viewing area to see the paleontologists working. We all found it very interesting, only problem being that the kids and I liked it for an hour or two but Mark looked for a lot longer!!!
From there we headed out to the a dig site to fossic for some fossils. It was hot and dusty, but the kids and Mark loved it. Me, I didn't really find it that interesting, until we met up with the other guys. Our kids found a few shells, but basically not much. But the other guys had found a turtle fossil, really cool. The Paleontologist had come out to check it out and we had a great talk to them and watched them start to work the site.
We went back to camp for a while and met a lady riding her horse. Mark took the kids up and chatted to her and she let them feed the horse carrots. Once again friendly country people! That night we went back to the water park and had a BBQ tea and watched the sunset, so beautiful. The next day we said goodbye to Richmond and drove to Winton.
We free camped just out of Winton at the billabong, along with a few other people. A nice spot, peaceful and quiet with a great view. Winton is known as the home of Waltzing Matilda, as it just near here that the poem was written. We had a fabulous couple of hours exploring the Waltzing Matilda Museum. They have a very moving and informative movie plus lots of displays about the area.
We had a bit of a walk around town. There's not really much there, we went to a couple more 'tourist attractions' if you could call them that!! Kids had fun riding on some saddles we found.
We went to check out Arno's Wall, a weird concept. It features as a tourist attraction in all the info on Winton. And its basically a cement fence filled with an old mans junk!!(or should i say treasure). Weird but also a little fascinating. Would have taken a lot of time and energy.
The Age of Dinosaurs was a really interesting and great place. You get to see all these old dinosaur bones, and they are pretty big. Then they take you on a tour of their facility where they are working on the fossilised bone. We had this really unusual but lovely guy as our tour guide. We found out later he appeared on the TV show Beauty and the Geek (his name was George) for anyone who has watched it. Apparently he is a minor celebrity in Winton!!!
We drove out to the Lark Quarry where the dinosaur stampede occurred, its a fair drive out of town, 100kms or so. But we really enjoyed it, worth the drive. Our tour guide was an old fella who had lots of stories about the discover of the area. Kids did get a little bored, but Mark and I enjoyed it. Basically they found dinosaur fossilised footprints, then kept looking and found evidence of a stampede. They had done a fabulous job of the centre and preserving the area. Theres a lovely short walk you can do outside. I really enjoyed that, I never realised how much I would appreciate the beauty of the outback. The red dirt, weird spiky plants and formations against the bright blue sky are just amazing!!
From Winton we travelled to Longreach, kinda heading in a backwards direction, but this was a place we had always wanted to visit. We free camped again just out of town in a dusty 'park' area. Not the nicest, as there were heaps of people, but it was free.
Mark had always wanted to go to the Qantas Museum, had heard lots of good reports. We went there, and the kids and I enjoyed it for an hour or so, then we had enough. They had a great time playing an a pretend cockpit but otherwise not much interested them. So we left Mark and came back and got him a couple of hours later!!
As our kids do distance education, we thought we would check out the Longreach School of Distance Education. Was really interesting to see how each state runs the schools differently.
Near where we were staying there where all these horses, apparently its the town common and you can adjist your horses there. Some of them were pretty wild though. The kids were keen so we took some carrots around but the horses didn't seem to know what to do with them! There had to be 30plus horses, so I was very brave from the car... They were big and scary, apparently not for Mark and the kids. Mark wasn't very happy when one started gnawing on the land cruiser though!!!!
The kids and I were a bit museumed out so Mark went by himself to the Stock mans Hall of Fame. He had a great day out and really enjoyed it.
We were really lucky on this trip to Longreach to be able to spend a couple of days at a property called Tamar. My sisters friend Pete arranged for us to stay at his parents farm. We had a fabulous time there with his parents Michael and Helen, we even got to meet his sister Melanie. They have a fair bit of land and run mainly sheep and some cattle. We arrived there and Helen had made a lovely lunch for us, including sponge cake for desert. My kids had to ask what it was, poor deprived kids! Michael was busy working so Helen took us for a tour of the property which was really interesting. We got to see the river, an old homestead store, the shearers quarters etc. She even put up with me, the city girl asking all these pretty silly and basic questions about how a station runs!!! When we got back we had a hit of tennis on there court then went for a walk to the dam. Once again Helen fed us, a really tasty meal. Luckily Jake decided to dress up as Batman and put on a show for them. Our kids aren't used to being in a house and can be a little overwhelming. I think Michale and Helen enjoyed it though!!!
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| Charlotte ready with the bats and ball |
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| These really cool, completely round rocks found on the property |
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| Tennis girl |
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| Beautiful sunsets in the country |
The next morning Michael rounded up some sheep and brought them to the shearing shed. We all 'helped' him sort them and run them up inside the shed, Jake was still wearing his Batman mask! Then Michael showed us all about shearing, crutching, tail docking and most confusing for Jake, typing a ring on the males balls. That took a bit of explaining!!!. Was a big eye opener for us, well not Mark. Marks a country boy and his dad was a shearer, so he knew what he was doing at least.
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| Batman counting the sheep |
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| Charlotte the sweeper |
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| Charlotte helping Michael carry the wool to the sorting table |
We had a fabulous time at Tamar. Helen and Michael are a lovely couple who were so wonderful to us. It was such a great opportunity to see country life. Helen showed me photos and explained the impact the drought had on them and other farming families. They had such hard years without water, they have done such an amazing job to survive it and to build the farm back up. Really made me understand the effect of the weather may it be drought or flood on farmers. Such a amazing but challenging life!
After we left Tamar we went back to Longreach to go to the horse muster and rodeo for a couple of days. We were all so excited to go. We had a great time, lots to see for us city folk. I enjoyed the horse muster, there were some fabulous riders, not so sure about the bull and bronco riding. I held my breath every time one of the riders hoped on. One guy on a bronc actually got thrown over the safety fence right in front of us. I think its a pretty crazy sport!! I loved peopled watching. It was like another world, all these people (cowboys and cowgirls, as Charlotte called them) wearing jeans, boots, belt, tucked in checked shirt and Akubras!!!
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| Please note the outfits, Charlotte had to have us dressed properly!!! |
After a great week in Longreach we had to head pretty fast to Alice Springs as my Mum was flying in for a visit. We had one over night stop then arrived the next day at Cammoweal billabong. We met up with the Ellis family and their friends Rasmus, Julie and their kids, Ben, Casper and Molly. Kids and Mark had a swim in the Billabong, was a bit muddy for me!! There were lots of cattle around and lots of calves. Mark and I went for a walk around the billabong and we actually saw a calf being born, that was pretty cool, for me. We had to leave the next day, much to our kids disgust but we will see the Ellis in Alice.
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| Jake and Will relaxing |
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| The girls having a tea party on the bunk |
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| Will, Jake, Sam, Molly, Zac, Ben, Casper and Charlotte. |
Big moment, thats right we finally left Queensland!!! So now we have a couple of nights before we get to Alice and set up for the next few months. We have really loved our time in QLD, am hoping we love the Territory just as much!!!
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