Second attempt!

  16/5/2012

Bugger! We left Cairns three days ago and right now we are camped 5ks away from where we set off from at Clifton Beach.
After a decent result with the gas man yesterday we got the thumbs down from the electrician this morning and nobody else to turn to up here on the tablelands. Nothing for it but a trip back down the range to the big city. We had a look through yellow pages for  fridge whisperers and eventually found the right guy to help us, just down the road from Clifton, not far from the airport. We rocked up around 3pm and by 4 he had sorted us. At first we were looking at a new fridge, cost of around $1300 plus another $100 to fit it, that on top of the $50 we paid the electrician it would have meant a shed load of loot just to keep a few beers at the right temperature…….and some other stuff I suppose. Anyway our man waved his fridge wand about , we parted with $500 and were on our way.
 So here we are at Lake Placid Caravan Park where it all started 2 ½ years ago as it was here we first met Phil and Julie. Tomorrow we will have another go at leaving Cairns.

 17/05/2012
  So far so good, we have finally escaped from Cairns. Up onto the Tablelands again, stopping at a coffee farm for a long black and a cappuccino, then a grapefruit farm where we bought a bagful of grapefruit for 50c each and a bag of complimentary mandarins thrown in! At another stop we bought a bag of avos for 2 bucks, then later the peanut shop for warm curry flavoured nuts, chilli and lime and honey coated flavours. All our shopping, health giving supposedly. We won’t mention the other 2 slabs of Tooheys Extra Dry from the bottlo,
 We are now camped at Archers Creek just west of Ravenshoe. That’s not far in the great scheme of things but right now it’s a case of gently gently. If all goes well we will head out into the outback tomorrow. Free camping means just that, no fees, but we have to be self sufficient, no power supply, and very basic amenities with just one dunny.  We have one or two neighbours, some have got fires going. We will cook on gas and use the auxiliary battery to power the lights and the fridge. We also have an L E D lamp so we should be good……fingers crossed.