Queensland 2018 - Trip Home

 

 

Hello Dear Readers, a confession.

I'm writing this post YEARS after this trip as I never got around to finishing them at the time.

As I was going through old posts and reediting them (in 2026)  I thought I should go in and finish these posts and backdate them. So I'm a bit hazy about what was what and where things were!

Anyway, this is my best ideas starting with a sugar cane train.

 

And here is the Ford focus that Graham sold on years and years ago.

Yes we drove all the way to Cairns.

We stopped at a wonderful lookout, Mount Inkerman, which is south of Townsville.

We stayed overnight in Rockhampton and visited the zoo and Botanic Gardens.

I took a lot of flower photos!

 

 

 

And bird pics...

 

 And a beautiful pelican ballet..

 

 Then we came home via Toowoomba.

 

Great trip. A bit of a relief to put the final photos on the Queensland 2018 posts after EIGHT YEARS!!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Queensland 2018 - out on the Great Barrier Reef

 

 

Today we took a cruise from Cairns out to the Great Barrier Reef.

 It took us out to a pontoon where we had a swim with the fishes and a trip on a glass bottom submarine.

 Met a fishie...

 and relaxed in the sun.

 

 

Queensland 2018 - Part Four - One way up and another way down.

Well Dear Readers.

See what all the Queensland sunshine and humidity does to my hair!

Really!.. I look like an old granny in the above picture.

But I'll never catch up to, or be as old as, the grumpy old man in the photo below! Ha!

I am reliably informed that grumpy is not an attitude,

its a lifestyle choice! 

(If you see the T-shirt with that slogan can you let me know so I can buy it for him for Christmas).

 Anyway, enough prattle,  today we went up the Skyrail near cairns.

This was a great trip across the top of the rain forest and  finishing at the village of Kuranda.

We then spent a couple of hours having lunch and wandering around the markets.

 I bought a comb...

Did you know I have negative hair so I need a positive comb!

(Hey, whats that snorting noise? It must be Mr Grumpy from the above pic).

Anyway Its a beautiful comb. Its carved out of cow horn in the shape of a curlew... 

(and it cost $70).

 So the return trip was down the mountain via the train.

 We went gold class, so it included snacks and beverages...

And its another big day out tomorrow, as we are going out onto the Great Barrier Reef.

Queensland 2018 – Part Three – Port Douglas and the Rock Stacks

 A short post on our visit to Port Douglas.

The water has cleared and now it is the traditional tropical crystal blue.

And this is the latest craze. Building rock stacks?

Really!

Why?

See newspaper article below - it seems to be just for amusement.... 

Rock formations between Cairns and Port Douglas delight motorists

Kimberley Vlasic, The Cairns Post

January 12, 2016 7:00am

ROCKS piled precariously high at a stretch of beach north of Cairns continue to delight motorists and are finding fame online.

Whitfield resident Maureen Parkin has lived in the area since 1968 but only spotted the mysterious formations, situated between Pebbly and Ellis beaches, on Sunday.
“We went to Port Douglas and we couldn’t understand why there were lots of cars there, so on the way back we stopped,” she said.
“I thought it was magical.”
Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures owner Angela Freeman said stacking the rocks had become popular in recent years.
“As soon as you get a high tide or storm they get knocked over, then people build them up again,” she said.
“You find them all over Australia ... people just do it for amusement.”
Tourism Tropical North Queensland’s Jane Wilson said the formations were proving to be a popular tourist attraction, with a growing number of Instagram users sharing photos via #exploreTNQ.
Ms Freeman urged motorists stopping in the area to exercise caution and not to remove rocks from the site.