Around and about

30/10/2011
  Another laid back day in Far Northern Queensland, though we did make the effort at some exercise by walking a couple of kilometres along the beach to Palm Grove. A coffee and then the walk back.
  Late afternoon, we were invited to nibbles and a few sundowners on the beach, in other words happy hour, which goes on for a little longer than an hour. There were 12 of us on the beach, sat round chatting, as we do in our yard, though there’s no need to get rugged up!

  31/10/2011
  Spent the day up in the hills, first at the touristy village of Kuranda. This the village that can be reached by rail, car or sky-rail. The village has lots of shops selling arty-farty stuff, paintings, aboriginal art, jewellery, beads and tee-shirts. Jane has decided that that’s the place to go for Christmas shopping. Kuranda is also very close to the Barron Falls and Gorge, in fact the sky-rail passes over the gorge. We followed the rain forest walkway to a view point overlooking the falls, they would be very spectacular with a lot of water flowing.
 Next we drove out to Davies Creek N P where we were hoping for a swim in the creek. We are not sure we went to the right place as the river was too shallow, (so just had a paddle) yet there is supposed to be a swimming hole somewhere there, we need to investigate a bit more, though the creek is at the end of a 10K dirt track, which meant more punishment for the poor old van.

  1/11/2011
  Today is a great day in the Australian sporting and social calendar ------ It’s Melbourne Cup day. Probably the most important day in the Southern Hemisphere horse racing season. The whole of Australia comes to a standstill when the race is on, even Prime Ministers Questions is brought forward to enable M P’s to watch the race. The event is another excuse to party with everyone dressing in their Sunday best, going out to lunch at clubs and pubs to have a good time and watch the race on T V. We were invited to lunch at the local restaurant here in Clifton, but declined as were a bit short on posh frock and the like, it being quite expensive too.
 We spent our day mostly in the pool except for a trip out to see Catanna Wetland and Yorkeys Knob.  The wetlands weren’t very exciting as it hasn’t yet matured, being reclaimed land. It used to be a sand and gravel quarry with odd blocks of suger cane growing and was only converted to wetland in 2009.We will have to come back in 50 years time! Yorkeys Knob ( of the Welsh Yorkshireman fame) is a very nice seaside resort, much larger than Clifton, but also very affluent. Still not sure how we have managed to fit in here!!