Mareeba Rodeo

Back in Mareeba for the Rodeo... QLD vs. NSW... Queensland won of course, but all
together is was a good show. We did a short whip and fire twirling show after the rodeo finals
for the comity and some of the rodeo cowboys... we had some fun sharing stories, piggy back and
wheelbarrow racing in the main arena, coming out of the bull gates and camp fires later.

 Big crowds for the rodeo - almost impossible to find a spare seat




After a couple of late nights at Mareeba we moved onto a quiet spot on the Tinaroo
Lake/Dam, where Nath caught some Archerfish for dinner. The next day we drove through sections in the wet tropics of the tableland area were we came across Cathedral Figtree, which is a bit smaller than the Curtain Figtree further south.


View of Tinaroo Dam from our camp site...

Tinaroo Dam wall

Looks so sad... I didn't want to put this photo up but the request was there. poor fishy!!


Admiring the big fig tree!



 Someone was artistic, we thought this was pretty good so it goes on blog! enjoy:-)

Yarrabah
An Aboriginal township on the beach east of Cairns, with a few old ship wrecks not far from the shore, this was a nice spot to visit.




Babinda 

Back again!! and must say the rain has not stopped from the last time we were here!! in fact it has been even worse than last time!! all the creeks and rivers are up and there is 2 inches of water under our tents... ok, maybe that's a little exaggerated, but it's pretty muddy and wet!! We would have been long gone already but committed ourselves to do a show in Cairns and Babinda is pretty much the closest free camp to Cairns:-/

Before the Monsoonal Rains


After the monsoonal rains had flattened our tarp and drenched our tents!!

Split Rock

Split Rock Rest Area in the Ang-Ganrra Aboriginal Community (near Laura) on the way back from Cape York.

This place was marked in the camps 6 book as just a rest area, however, the surrounding
landscape and history here was amazing, with spectacular scenery of cliff lines and
caves, which were painted with some very artistic aboriginal artworks. Was well worth
the stop and the walk.

climbing the rocks again!


termite chairs - must say they were more comfy than our camp chairs (which are made up more of duct tape than anything else)...

The rest of Cape York

Charlotte Creek

Our camp spot off the red dirt HWY just north of Archer River Road house. This creek was alive with all sorts of creatures... we were going to go for a quick dip, but a snake poked its head above the surface, we watched the water surface for a bit longer and then saw 4 more snakes coming up for air. We think they were tigers!! Further upstream we saw the perfect environment for a croc habitation! Nathan also went fishing here, but didn't catch anything that night.
In the morning Jem heard some big splashes and thought that Nath fell in!! She asked "What are you doing?" A few seconds later he said "open your tent!!" Jem zipped open her tent to be greeted with a Cod dangling in front of her face!! Was a really yummy fish called a Sleepy Cod, apparently a highly sort after table fish!

 

Palm Creek Crossing
After having our awesome breaky of fish, we drove on to watch some young fella's get their cars down through and over the deep ruts, ditches and muddy sections of Palm creek crossing, the start of the Old Telegraph track.









Fruit Bat Falls
After driving through red dust and camping out withno showers or swimming, we were really glad to make it to this beautiful creek. the water was crystal clear and so refreshing with no snakes or crocs :-) We had a lot of fun here, as you can probably tell, we were more under the water than up!! Haha...

















contemplating whether or not to cross the creek to Eliot Falls... when it went over the top of someone else's vehicle's bonnet we decided not to!

Jardine River Ferry $129 return!




Our mate Ben (from Bluewater, near townsville) at Seisia.


 $8 GOLD chocolate from Bamaga!!

Somerset Beach

Somerset Beach camping was a beautiful spot on the Cape overlooking Albany Island, very quiet spot, we had the whole East beach to ourselves. A very historical spot with pearl diver graves, cave paintings, an old well and windmill remains, canons and monuments. Also a great lookout not too far away at Fly Point! The beaches further up from Fly Point were very pretty too, however, they were littered with tonnes of rubbish. We lost count of all the tooth brushes and shampoo bottles, amongst all the other plastic waste!!

Enjoying the view in luxury!







The cave painting you could walk to on low tide!



















The Tip

Next on the list was getting to the most Northern part of the continent!! We achieved this on the 7th of the 7th. Fishing from the Tip was great!! Nath used his cast net once and caught about 20 good size mullet, which were used as bait to catch some awesome blue spotted coral cod and the yellow Stripy! We had Mullet for lunch and saved the pretty fish! we thought they were too small. Some fishermen said they were the best eating fish though!


 Water crossing couple of km from The Tip














Punsand Bay

Punsand Bay Camp ground was also an awesome spot, but really windy!!! our tents were blown over a couple of times. We enjoyed out stay here regardless and did 2 shows of fire twirling and whip cracking with a fantastic audience each night. The staff here were also very accommodating, friendly and all together good fun to hang out with. After one of the shows we went out with a few of the staff members (Jack,  Bill & Dave) to spot crocs, but we ended up sitting in a circle sharing stories, star gazing, having lots of laughs and picking green ants off branches and licking their bums! Got to say they are the most interesting and weird tasting insects... zingy tangy acidy lime!!

Unfortunately we do not have any photos of our shows to put up here... but plenty of families, with a few of our younger fans, took home a picture of us with them as a memorable souvenir from Cape York!


Jesse's tent was not happy, we had to create a spiders web to hold it up!!


These tents had an amazing view for a day and night... then a massive gust of wind came to flatten them:-( you could not walk on the beach for very long unless you fancied being sand blasted! A few youngin's started screaming!! it took a few parents awhile to work out why... but apart from the wind this was a beautiful spot!

On the road back

Travelling back down!! it was very sad to leave and even stopping just out side Bamaga to really contemplate whether we should turn around and go back, we eventually all agreed that we needed a break from the wind and all wanted to head back for the Mareeba Rodeo, and said if we ever have the means to come back we definitely will...

 

So the long journey of dusty bumpy road began once again!! it didn't last long before everyone needed a stretch!! the girls decided to hang of the roof rack at the back of the car... in light coloured singlets... no longer!!


What a wonderful world and what beautiful creation God has made for us to enjoy! Amazing Beauty!