A trip back home...to be a Mexican!

As we have found work in Cairns for a while and seeing as we have rented a unit, PI our trailer has been hanging out in the carport, so we decided to take him back to the Sunshine Coast, visit our families, and surprise my brother at his 30th Party! We had 7 days to get there, have fun and be back again to start work the next day. 

 

 

 

 

Magnum gave a 'little' groan when we put the trailer back on, but he took it well

 

playing with camera filters again...



Systems check...all clear...



So off we went in the wee hours of the morning...past the Big Frog on the Banana

 

 

 Past the other big banana

 

 

We got stuck behind several large loads, the largest of which was 6m across...very interesting listening to the chatter it causes on the radio...but was great to get the heads up when a big one was coming in the other direction... They were great to piggy back through the multitudes of road works out there at the moment, as they clear the road for them, we were just in front of one that was so heavy it couldnt stop on any sort of incline, so they just clear everything out of its way, he didnt stop for anything...was great!

 

 

Then we headed past the Big Pizza Eating Tucan

 

 

To the new "Big Hot Water Service" near Gympie!

 

 

After many hours of driving, some terrible food poisoning, which waylayed us for a few hours!

We are almost home!

 

 

To be greeted by my our baby Hugo xx

Who wasnt too sure about us at all!

 

 

 

Then we had a day to catch up, drop the trailer off, get some stuff from out of our container at Mum and Dads place, and then to the SURPRISE Mexican Party!

 

George the Tequila Bottle and Sherii the Chilli

 

My neice trying on my Chilli costume

 

A Sleepy Mexican...yes that is a real moustache!

 

My nephew getting in on the Mexican action x

We went out for dinner with the family, which was a nice goodbye and then back to Cairns!

 

 

We drove straight through this time, luckily without any incident... We were greeted by the cane fires when we got close to Cairns

 

 

 

So we had a nice break and now back to the saving for the next leg of the trip...

The dreaded MOULD...

We are still in Cairns working and have gotten a short term lease on a small flat in the city (as it was cheaper than the caravan parks) so we packed up, leaving the lovely Crystal Cascades.
We unpacked our camper trailer into the flat..only to find our stuff doesnt take up much space, and most of it isnt really much use here anyway...so we have a half empty flat, but we still eat of plastic plates and picnic cutlery so we still feel a little like we are camping!... Except we have a microwave! (which of course we dont have anything that I can cook in, for a microwave) so we have had to buy a few containers and eat a bit of takeaway food to gather up some containers (well thats my excuse anyway!)   :-)
Anyway the point of the story was...THE MOULD>>>
We settled into our new flat and a week or so later, I thought we should pop out our poor lonely camper as I thought PI might be missing us and I wanted to give it a bit of a clean now that its empty.
We opened our poor PI to find he had sweated...sweated BIG TIME... the smell alone was staggering!
His blue walls were white with fluffy mould...His white roof, black with red spots...it was so so sad...
So after some research we made up a solution of vinegar and water and set to spraying him down inside and out and scrubbing off the offending stuff!
The walls came up perfect and it was good to get off all that red dirt from the cape but the roof...is now permanently stained, hopefully with a few more stints in the sunshine it will fade a little... we did always complain it was very bright in the morning in the tent...at least its a bit darker now!!
So when he is sleeping now we will put a moisture absorber in with him...

George gave his bag a good scrubbing (for about the third time) to reveal that yes it is shiney and not covered with red dirt! The trailer scrubbed up pretty well too...but it still has that ingrained red-dirt look that I think he will have for a long long time...

So PI now gets the carport and Magnum, our car gets the street park...

We have done a few day trips to Port Douglas...more on that later.... oh and we have found two quirky little 'big things' in Cairns

The flamingos looking out off the balcony to our pool and backyard...

***PAUSE*** Cairns Cairns Cairns...

Hi again!

We came to Cairns for a job interview for George and they offered him the position that afternoon! So we found somewhere cheap to stay in Cairns (hahahaha--I wish...) We stayed at the Cairns Villa Resort which is in Manora..Yes is was cheapish at $25 a night...$10 less than anywhere else, we were hoping this would be a good option and booked in for 2 nights.. It was old, which Im fine with...but when the permanent residents are a little scary, the police are called, patrol the park and then when we head out we see a local kid steal this dude riding a bikes hat... OFF HIS HEAD! So we lock our trailer in every way possible...and look for a new option that is closer to Georges new job. After visiting a few parks we decided to go back to the Crystal Cascades Resort we stayed at last time we came to Cairns..we would have loved to have stayed at Lake Placid as they were so nice and the park was lovely but they were just that big more expensive... So we decided on Crystal Cascades...but they cant get us for a few days...so we will stick it out here in town for another day...

So after 3 weeks of chasing leads for work....George has got a part-time job... I have put in heaps of applications for work also, so hopefully between the both of us we can afford to live here and save a little cash!

So for now we are planning on settling down in Cairns for a while up to 6 months! So the blog will no doubt be left at idle for a while. We may have a few day trips here and there which might pop up form time to time...Hope to be able to get some SCUBA diving in!

We will caravan park for a little while and when I get a job we will try for a house...(heres hoping that our babys Hugo and Mont might be able to come visit then) Miss my boys! x

So leave your email on the right hand side of the page and subscribe to get a notice when I make a new post...that way you wont keep checking when there is nothing here! ;-)

So the adventure is on idle but not switched off....

Hopefully see you here soon

Sherii and George... (oh and Magnum and PI who will be getting a well deserved rest well PI will anyway)

The Great Waterfall Circuit...

The Tablelands and Cairns region has some of the most awesome waterfalls...and as you know we love a good waterfall!...So much so that they have created a 'Great Waterfall Trail' that stretches from Townsville to Cairns... We only just found out about it when we got to Atherton, which is halfway on the trail. So we had already done some of them, missed others and took a few alternative routes but here is our list so far... We did most of these all in the one day!...VERY tired legs after trekking to all of them..but worth it!

So the trail starts with the Barron Falls at Kuranda..(we did this one when we stayed in Cairns) then goes down to Davies and Emerald Creek Falls and also Granite Gorge at Mareeba (we missed these--might come back) Then it follows the Palmerston highway for a while to

 The Dinner Falls

George of the Jungle...

good to see George is heading the warnings

Dinner Falls

Cauliflory..pretty cool aye?

and The Hipipamee Crater

George collecting rocks to throw in the crater!
He even packed a bag so he could collect some big ones!

Its Deep...really deep...

WOW thats a long way down!

Preparing to throw...

everyone looking as the rock falls...

plop! and shortly the duckweed closes back up...

I love that after 140m of exploration they put a ?
Cause they dont know whats further than that!

I really wanted a better view of the crater so I snuck behind the fence, climbed up above the viewing deck, bare foot cause it was too slippery to climb with shoes and made it all the way to the top to find an old overgrown track with concrete blocks and then...this sign...

view from my sneaky position...past the warning sign
I got REALLY close to the edge and freaked out a little and forgot to take the photo...great view though!

then on to Millstream Falls near Ravenshoe (we are still debating if its Ravens-hoe or Raven-shoe)

Widest falls in QLD

This is as close as we could get cause a group of backpackers refused to move from the viewing platform!

and Little Millstream Falls

Tully Gorge/Falls

The great Tully Falls that George said we should visit,
 that we drove many many kms of terrible roads to see

What we actually saw....  :-(
Spectacular gorge though...

I see your Kung Foo is strong.....whhaaaa!

at least there was a little set of falls for us to look at

Pepina Falls

cool mossy tree...it was so soft...

A lot of the tracks were a little overgrown, more like tracks that animals take to get to the water...
it was raining gently and I was just saying to George..."this looks like leech territory"

Souita Falls

just after I asked "whats that on your leg?"....leech!
got him early though no damage done!

Malanda Falls



Malanda falls are strange, they have been dammed to make a big swimming pool, would be great in summer for a cool swim and there was a nice BBQ area too..

too chilly for a swim!

Millaa Millaa Falls

supposedly the most photographed falls in QLD

Elinjaa Falls

howz the rainbow!

Zillie Falls

yep, youve gotta walk all the way back!

Hello there!

We have also missed Mungalli, Nandroya and Tchupala Falls near Innisfail

Then if flows on to Mena Creek Falls at Paronella Park (which we have seen)

then the Jourama Falls near Townsville

Coolest navigation through the boulders, following the path and yellow arrows randomly around

lucky I was there to catch this boulder falling!

Im sure that they are very spectacular in the wet season!

cause I nearly died hiking up here!

the boulder field

and The Wallaman Falls near Ingham-- The tallest single drop waterfalls in QLD. The drive to the falls is a long way 49kms from Ingham, up some very steep hills, half of which had washed away and is now only single lane in spots! Bloody scary...Then up a dirt mega potholed road, then back to uphill...but so so worth it...Im glad we backtracked to get there! Im not so glad that it was my turn to drive!



I cant explain how huge this was...the photos just dont do it!

Once again, daredevil Taylor sneaking past the keep out signs...

 and then heads up north again to Josephine Falls, The Boulders, Golden Hole (which we have been to all)

And so that is the Waterfall Circuit...we have nearly done it all!

sunset as we leave the falls area...