17 - 23 August 2010

17 August 2010

We were up and away early - Boris had a 9.30 appointment at the vet to get his three-monthly Cartrophen injection for his arthritis. 

We also had to pick up our new fridge that we won - very excited about that! We also bought a few other bits and pieces from the camping store including a new throw net to replace the one we destroyed at the Jeannie River. 

We also had to run around and do a few other things like pick up Ross' compuer that had been fixed under warranty and buy me my early birthday present of an Ebook!! Yay!! 

Mum and dad had stayed behind at Mount Molloy and were going to meet us back at Mareeba Rodeo grounds and we got there by about 4ish.  Did all our washing, etc. 

18 August 2010

We had a couple of hot-air balloons land in the paddock at the rodeo grounds this morning - very exciting stuff! 

Mum and dad have booked into a resort at Cairns on the weekend to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary coming up next month.  We were going to start heading up the Savannah Way today but Ross wanted to do a couple of more things on the car and van first so we all trooped back to Mount Molloy - again!

On our way through to Mount Molloy we found some great firewood to take with us so we strapped it all to the trailer and took it back to camp.  Mum made a fruitcake and a banana cake in the camp oven - both turned out perfect!! 

Ross spent the afternoon attaching the solar to the pod and I spent the afternoon transferring all the programs, etc from my computer onto Ross' which was the one that was fixed under warranty that we picked up yesterday.  My poor old computer is literally falling apart at the seams - you should see it - so funny poor thing - there are bits hanging off it everywhere, the casing is broken, it has bolts through it trying to hold it together as well as duct tape.  The hinges are also broken so its very hard to get the screen to stay where I want it - it keeps flopping around!!  I am going to start using Ross' computer for my work and he is going to try to "steampunk" mine which basically means that if the computer itself is ok but the case if broken then you recase it in something else - let your imiagination run wild!!  Can't imagine that anything too exciting will happen to it but Im sure Ross will come up with something to make it functional again! 

19 August 2010

I was all ready to start working on Ross' computer after having spent the afternoon putting all the new programs on, etc and went to start it up and - nothing - exactly the same as what happened before when we had to send it in for warranty!!  Couldn't believe it!  When it was sent in before they changed the motherboard because it had blown and Ross thinks the same thing has happened again so there is obviously something causing it to blow - maybe the power supply?  So now we have to wait around to get it fixed again with an hour and a half trip in to Cairns to drop it off.  We are waiting to hear back from HP to find out when we can take it in and hopefully they can fix it on the same day that we take it in so we don't have to have two trips to Cairns. 

It's raining and miserable today so we have the annexe up - thank goodness we have it!  Everybody is having a quiet day - the first quiet day we have had the whole time really!

It cleared up in the afternoon so mum and dad walked into Mount Molloy while Ross and I rode the bikes.  (its only a kilometre away).  We went to the general store and did some exploring around the town. 

20 August 2010

Well guess what?! Ross' computer has decided to work again - go figure.  We had been waiting on a phone call from HP about when to get it fixed and their tech guy was on the phone and they got it going again - no idea why it stopped working in the first place but we are going to turn it off and on a bunch of times before we trust that it wont do it again.


A young couple pulled in in the afternoon in a Patrol that had an annexe attached to it for shelter and Boris decided to go and visit while we weren’t looking. Luckily the young couple – James and Rebecca like dogs and Rebecca even gave Boris a biscuit! Spoiled doggy!! We invited them over for Happy Hour as I had just made a bacon, cheese and sundried tomato damper – turned out pretty good I must say and James was quite taken with it though Rebecca is a vegetarian so James had to eat her share. Turns out they are a really nice couple and we had a great chat with them and swapped lots of stories. Rebecca is an avid reader and we seem to like similar things to read so we had lots in common. We told them of a few places we had been and they told us a few places they had been and in the morning the boys are going to get together and swap movies, etc.

21 August 2010

We didn’t get going until after 12 in the end by the time I did some work and we chatted with James and Rebecca some more, swapped movies and information, etc. We headed towards Chillagoe but didn’t get there until about 3ish – too late for the last cave tour of the day. We didn’t really want to hang around till the next day because there was no free camping in the area so we decided to explore a couple of the caves that you didn’t need a guide for. The lady at the Information Centre said they weren’t very good caves but we went anyway and had a great time climbing around in them. Im sure the bigger, guided caves would be much better and if you like limestone caves it would definitely be worth the trip out there.

We were all hot and sweaty by than and ready for a swim so we headed to the town’s swimming hole which was just fabulous. It wasn’t all that big but oh it was refreshing!! There was a little waterfall and the water was crystal clear and just wonderful. Unfortunately you can’t camp there the night so we headed out looking for a campsite for the night. We started down the Savanah Way which was a dirt road that connects Chillagoe to the main highway. There was NOBODY on the road and we came to a river crossing that looked ok but Ross wanted to push on for some reason and it was getting dark.

We kept going because we could see other rivers on the GPS that we would have to cross and thought we could camp at one of them but unfortunately they were all dry so nothing looked very exciting. We finally decided that we wouldn’t find a nice campsite and pulled off the road and camped for the night – our first time on this trip alone in the wilderness!! If was a beautiful night with an almost full moon and a lovely breeze. We didn’t really set up camp as there was nothing to hang around for so we hit the hay early ready to head off again in the morning.

22 August 2010

Up early again and on the road. We crossed a few more dry creeks and then came to two beautiful little fast-running creeks with crystal-clear water in them – we think they might have been springs because they were too clear to be normal creeks – they were Salt Water Creek and Fossil Brook.

We weren’t too far out of Mt Surprise – a tiny town back on the Savanah Way. Mum and dad had told us to go and have a look at Cobbold Gorge which was on a bypass off the Savanah Way so we headed off towards Einasliagh down a rough dirt track and finally reached a beaut little river crossing just shy of Einasliagh and stopped for lunch. It was such a beautiful spot that we decided to stop there for the day and head off again in the morning.

After lunch we went for a bit of a walk and introduced ourselves to the other campers on the other side of the river – they were from Cairns and said they had been to Cobbold Gorge but that it was $70 each to visit!! We couldn’t believe it could possibly be that expensive but thought we would ask when we got to Forsayth which is at the turnoff to Cobbold Gorge. If it’s that expensive we won’t bother going.

We got the boat out after that an went for a putter up the river after putting the yabbie traps out. It was a gorgeous afternoon spent with our fishing lines in the water (using our Chux Cheese bait as we didn’t have anything else with us). We didn’t catch any fish but we just drifted with the current and had a lovely time. Part of the way we had to walk the boat because it was a shallow little bit of the river and on the way back I spotted a yabbie under a rock which we tried to catch but it was just too quick for us!

When we got back after we had a swim we checked the yabbie traps and we had 2 big yabbies – yummy!

We also put the fishing lines out and although we got lots of bites we didn’t actually catch anything. It was a beautiful night and a great campsite.

23 August 2010

We were up before the crack of dawn this morning – a beautiful morning! Checked the yabbie traps but all we had were some little fish - ?herring? Ross managed to catch a fish though it wasn’t very big – it looked a bit like a bream? We were on the road by 8am and we drove into the town of Einasliagh and had a look at the Copperfield Gorge which was just lovely!

We called in at Forsayth and the guy at the shop there confirmed that the price to go into Cobbold Gorge was $69 per person for a three-hour tour – out of our budget I’m afraid!!

We kept on going until we reached Georgetown which is back on the Savanah Way and stopped at the information desk to find out what was to see in the area and the girl there talked us into paying $11 each to have a look at the mineral Terrestrial centre which is a display of one guy’s lifetime collection of minerals and rocks – a huge collection that was definitely worth the money to have a look at – absolutely fascinating! We’re glad we stopped and let her talk us into it!

Back on the road again and were planning on stopping at one of the rivers along the way to camp for the night but for a start there was no phone reception at any of the places we were thinking of stopping at so I couldn’t do any work and secondly there was no water in any of them!! It was HOT and DRY and DUSTY and did I mention HOT? So we decided to keep going an headed for a place that was showing on the Camps 5 book just shy of Normanton at Leichart Lagoon Camping Grounds on a lagoon that said it had mobile reception. Unfortunately, when we got there the only reception available was if you plugged into a lead at the toilets that was attached to a big antenna on top of a water tower – not somewhere that I could work!! It was getting late and we were tuckered out and looking forward to a beer so there was nothing for it but to stay for the night and pack up early in the morning and head off again in the search of mobile reception as it was getting too late in the afternoon to push on.

We tried rigging up our extension aerial and although it was NEARLY picking up reception, it just wasn’t quite there – bugga!!