Atherton...

Hello everyone!

We headed to Atherton in the hope of finding some work to fill the kitty back up again...and get poor Magnum serviced...as we have clocked up 10,000kms already! and 3000 of them were HARD kms...so he was well and truly creaking for a service...

Atherton 40kms

Big 4 Atherton Woodlands Tourist Park (Stop 26)

We headed to the Big 4 as it was recommended and it was really nice...our site was a great little one! directly across from the camp kitchen and no direct neighbours, we even had our own picnic table and rubbish bins! The owner was a little bit perdantic about where you parked your trailer/car so we were a 'tight' fit and we couldnt fit the annexe out but it only rained the first night so it was fine...

Our first night here there was a little concert in the camp kitchen, we have come to realise that this must be a regular occurance...maybe we should learn to sing and travel around with free accommodation at these parks? I must admit it is starting to get a little bit colder than I would like..OK during the day but....brrr...at night!

The next day we decided to go check out the 2 unusual giant fig trees in the area and The Crystal Caves.

The Curtain Fig tree near Yungaburra--

Pretty spectacular!

this might be as close as I get to a tree kangaroo...

 The Cathedral Fig a little further out of town...down a dirt road that we had promised Magnum that he wouldnt have to go down any more for a little while! Sorry mate...
This one was big but wasnt as huge as the Curtain Fig but you could walk inside it which was awesome...

click on the photo and find me!

The platypus track across and along the river....once again..no platypi!
Was a pretty long and cool suspension bridge though

Big Frog at the servo!

Smaller big frog at the servo! This one even offered me a cuppa!
But due to his support for QLD in the state of origin George wouldnt allow me to accept tea from random QLD frogs!

If you cant find them, JOIN THEM! Sherii the Platypus!

 We then headed back to Atherton to check out The Crystal Caves www.crystalcaves.com.au It was a shop in the main street that had a mine style mineral museaum underneath! Was a bit of fun and we got a discount for staying at the Big 4! And of course it has the BIGGEST Amethyst Geode in the world 'The Empress of Uruguay'!

Miner Mott

Head miner Taylor...
I say 'head' miner cause he hit his head so many times it was hillarious!
To his defence, the 'cave' was LOW like midget low!

The 'cave'

 So we wandered through the cave looking at all the great precious gems and other interesting stuff...its all stuck into the walls like you are descovering it all with your helmet and light...we didnt get many pictures as the lighting wasnt being cooperative with our camera...

Then we got to THE EMPRESS... So sparkly and pretty! and BIG!

This was a waterfall made entirely from Rose quartz, called The Fountain of Love" It was all lit from underneath and behind...very pretty! The lighting doesnt do it any justice

The next day we headed out for more exploring...

Big Fish @Millaa Millaa Malanda Road

We were still waiting on some job peoples to get back to us so we headed to the local free camp for a few days...so we could head out wherever we needed to...

War Memorial Free Camp - Atherton (Stop 27)
Really nice BUSY camp...with toilets, but no showers, max of 3 nights allowed and no fires allowed, gold coin donation box.

looking into the camp from the main road!

We found the first night here was really good then the next day was WINDY...so windy that we were worried the tent was going to take off and the poles groaned all night and day, during the day we had to open the whole tent up so it didnt act like a sail but did I mention that it was COLD...sitting in a windy cold tent is not fun...so we headed off to Ravenshoe, the highest town in QLD...dont you worry we had lots of 'highest town' jokes... This was also the start of our Waterfall tour (but thats for another post!)

After a few days of miserable windy weather, lack of power, phone reception and it was going to rain we decided at 10.10am that we had had enough! So we were packed up driving out the gate at 10.50am --our quickest time yet! Amazing what a bit of rain motivation will do for you!

We rang around and found another caravan park in town that was cheaper than Big 4 and closer to town...

Hallorans Leisure Park (Stop 28)

We organised to stay for a week and a half to get the car serviced here, but have since extended it a few more days...this will be our record for the longest stay so far... 9 days in Rockhampton was the closest...everywhere else has been max of 3 days...it will be nice to settle for a little while...
Nice quiet little caravan park and we are just near the ammenities (well the ladies ones anyway! --hahah..finally!) Was great to get some washing done and we finally cleaned the last of the red dust out of the trailer! I also reorganised our tool boxes...much easier to see whats in there and moved both batteries to the tool box as we broke a tie down point in the car! Oh and they have a microwave here...I hadnt realised how much I missed one until now! SO much easier!

first attempt at the fly tarp as it rained the first few days...pretty quick setup..
good option when we dont want the annexe!

We also had to say goodbye to our little gas burner (sorry Gary) it was suffering what the gas man thinks is probable internal rust damage...mmm...could be from the many beach trips with the boys, coming home and not being cleaned for a few months :-/  So we forked out for a new hybrid low/high pressure system...its a little bigger size wise so that my pots can now both fit on the middle of the burner which was nice...AND they have now (like last month) made high pressure extention hoses which we were unable to get made or find anywhere when we left so we can now leave the bottle on the trailer which is GREAT!

kitchen set up...

We headed around town and noticed that Edward Scissorhand lives in Mareeba!! Who would have thought!

there were so many...

we are still not entirely sure what all of them are...but they are great regardless!
Edward must be so proud..I am yet to see him though ;-)

George has got a few job interviews so far so when we hear back from them we will decide where to next!

George celebrating...celebrating what you say???
who needs an excuse to celebrate!

OH yeah...Magnum had his service which was fairly uneventful EXCEPT...They found out what the smell was that has been driving me INSANE since we bought him! A service guy in Rocky had suggested it to us but these guys sorted it out! It was a gear dust boot! It had perished and was not sealing the horrible gear oil smell out of the car...We will see if that sorts it out but it seems better already! AND all under warranty... Thanks Atherton 4x4 Centre Nissan!