Herberton

  26/10/2011
  We were surprised how cool it got last night, after weeks of very warm evenings, even in the heavy rain it stayed warm. Not sure of our altitude but whichever way we leave Herberton it’s downhill.
  On the outskirts of Herberton is the Herberton Heritage Village where, for an admission fee you can spend a good half day looking at how people lived in the late 1800’s. The buildings date back to 1870 and there are about 50 in all, ranging from school house to public house to a miners hut. There is a coach house with some very nice carriages, a butchers, a blacksmiths, in fact everything you need for a thriving mining community. We had intended to do much more today but got so involved in the Heritage Village the best part of the day had gone before we knew it. Down the hill in Atherton later it was really hot, so after lunch by the large Lake Tinaroo we drove out to lake Eacham, where there is a nice swimming area and no boating activity as at Tinaroo.
  Back at our caravan park at Herberton we met the owners of the park, he is from Yorkshire and she is from Balsall Common, small world.

  27/10/2011
  Back down at sea level now in the heat and humidity though we do get a bit of breeze from the ocean being so close.
 On the journey back to Clifton we stopped to look at 2 giant fig trees, one known as the Curtain Fig tree and the other, a monster of a tree called the Cathedral Fig tree. The Cathedral has a girth of 42m and is as tall as a 5 storey building.
 The river at Yungaburra is noted for Platypus but it was platypus-less when we stopped to look so we had a coffee.
  From the top of the mountain range, some 900m above sea level,  the descent is 19K’s of steep hairpin bends and a third gear job. Quite scary in places.
  Here in Clifton we are settled back into our unit and we have been informed by Julie that she has organised our weekend, once again it sounds messy.

 28/10/2011

  This place is not unlike Newbold in many ways, any excuse for a piss up! Julie held a candle party last night ( girls only thank God!) a bit like a Tupperware party, people paying daft prices for something they don’t really need. Anyway it all disintegrated into a bottle party round the pool and this morning got off to a very slow start.  I walked along the beach to find that the council have started to put up the stinger nets. It will be a big enclosed area in the sea, the net designed to keep out crocodiles and box jellyfish, both of which can be fatal to humans. Soon we will have a safe swimming area on the beach. 

  More of the people we have met are moving back south. Tonight we said goodbye to a couple we have made friends with as they fly tomorrow back to Sydney. We are so lucky, we are accumulating friends who we can visit on our way round Australia.

  29/10/2011

  A lazy day doing nothing much. Swims have alternated between the ocean and the pool, the sea water being marginally cooler. 

  Last night we had dinner with Don and Laurel, who today have flown back to Sydney. Tonight we are having dinner cooked  for us by Geoff and Lesley in their apartment. They are the last guests here and leave for Tasmania in the morning. That leaves all the units empty but we may get the odd guest occasionally. 

 Still haven’t quite grasped how, now it’s officially summer, everyone migrates south where it is cooler! Bring on the heat we say…….. But not the monsoons or cyclones.