George and Sherii Explore Australia One Big Thing To The Next!: Palmer River & Mareeba

So dirty and tired searching for somewhere to camp after finding Lakeland full...

and finding the James Earl Lookout...not quite right for us...

awesome view but not quite set up for camper trailers..

We headed on to Palmer River Roadhouse...
Stop 24

how dare that caravan set up in the middle of the camper trailer section! hahaha...they were actually there before everyone else!

You may notice in the picture above that our tent appears to be tied to our Wild Turkey esky! The ground was too hard to get any pegs in the ground..and it was too windy not to peg down so George had a brainwave to put the esky out (which is full of stuff and very heavy) and we would tie off to that! Probably looked pretty funny but worked a treat!

a reminder of where we have been...

The Mighty Palmer River Roadhouse was pretty awesome. Lots of gold panning and opal memorabilia. They actually are the hosts for a large gold panning competition every year!
We had turned up on Saturday and it was $10 BBQ night...so good!...Various BBQ meats, potato bakes, vegies, salads and rolls...it was so good that the locals from the surrounding towns turn up too...then after they eat they locals take off, and thats when a surprise dessert turns up! A sweet little passionfruit cake with icecream...worked out perfectly! So we had a few bevvies with the others from the campsite, had a shower and had an early night.
I forgot to mention that the bathrooms were a funny little labirynth! Some doors open inwards some outwards and all different sizes and the hot and cold taps were around the opposite way to normal...bit of a trick if your not paying attention! Now we have seen some pretty retro tiles and colours in the parks/camps we have seen but this was the best so far...the tiles were bright orange with large florals all over them...I loved them...George didnt seem to notice...boys!!...

We got up early to find that the roadhouse also had some pretty awesome breakfast options.. bargain $12 breakfast! So we ate up and watched some news, caught up on what we had missed out on from being out of civilization for a few weeks...so much has happened...

We popped back to the tent to find...the whole thing was FILLED with little black ants...and the buggers BITE! I was covered in them trying to get rid of them! We broomed off the tent but will need a full spray when we setup again.

Packed up and off to Mareeba

what keeps us going...

Via Mt Carbine...

Us at the Tungsten mine...

for you dad xx

Stop 25- Mareeba Country Caravan Park

We got to Mareeba to find the Rodeo was on its last day so we set up really quickly and got into our Rodeo gear (those who know me will know that I am laughing out loud as I type this...as if I get into rodeo gear! hahahah But you know George LOVED it) any excuse to get out his RM Williams stuff and boots and hat...Love you xxx

The sign says 300 Sunny Days per year...it was raining...
I asked the guy in the caravan park about it and he quite simply said...
"300 sunny days, yes..but then 65 rainy ones they are all in a row!...only another 64 rainy ones to go!"

The midget set up! hahaha

The amazing Bouganvillia in the caravan park

Bloody freezing watching the Rodeo...

Steer wrestling

After spending the afternoon at the Rodeo watching all the events, eating show food and loosing some money to the carnival folk...one lady felt sorry for me and let me have a green panther...so I guess it wasnt a total loss!

It was pretty late when we got back so we got Maccas for dinner..the old budget is taking a beating this week!

Im not sure if it was the show food or the McDonalds but I was soo sick all night...AWEFUL...This is one of those moments when camping I have been dreading...climb over George, climb down the ladder, put pants on, put shoes on, unzip the tent door, walk 100m to the bathroom, unlock a door, switch the lights on and then find a toilet with toilet paper and then go back to the tent and 15mins later repeat...repeat...repeat...I do feel bad for the poor lady in the caravan near the bathrooms that had a motion sensor light on it...I set it off all night! oops...

Anyway after a sleep in and some water I felt a little better so we headed to Cairns for the day to watch a movie!

Heading down the Kuranda range, pretty spectacular drive..

view from a lookout on our way down the range

looking up at the skyrail that we went up to last month to Kuranda

After the movies we headed back to rainy Mareeba and found there was a cute little man set up playing his banjo in the camp kitchen for all the oldies in the camp...he was pretty good...so I went to sleep to country music....

We headed to Tolga to see THE BIG PEANUT MAN