Total Eclipse

 12/11/2012
  Lunar lunacy is really taking hold with thousands of people from all over the world converging on Cairns and up here on the Northern Beaches. If the weather is good we will get the best view of the eclipse here. We are invited to Joan and Kevin’s house which is half way up the range with views out towards the sea. It’s a fabulous vantage point, all we need is the cloud to go away.
 Julie has got 4 outriggers (boats)here ready for her fund raising scheme. Her punters will have a first class view of the eclipse out on the water providing it’s not too rough. We have been having big tides recently (3m), some of her paddlers may regret the 100 bucks they have paid. Our 6am champagne breakfast sounds the better option, and it’s free!

 13/11/2012
  Really poor weather conditions today, thick cloud and heavy rain squalls, it seems the only place in OZ where the weather is bad today is here in the far north. It has to improve for tomorrow or else there are going to be a lot of disappointed lunar loonies.
 Jane spent the morning, between showers, polishing the outriggers with Julie, tho as fast as they baled them out , along came another shower to fill them up again.  I took some photos.
 Later all the outrigger crews came up for a BBQ and will stay here tonight so as to be up early and out on the ocean by 5 30am. It’s building up to a messy couple of days!

 14/11/2012
  E Day and everyone and his dog up before dawn to find a good vantage point to watch the show. Julie and her boat crews were up and about at 4am and had their boats in the sea by 5 30am, not bad considering nobody went to bed before 11 30. We watched the launch then hoofed it up the hill to the Rangers house leaving hundreds of people on the beach. Some people commented on us going the wrong way, but they didn’t know about our lookout on the hill. We had a champagne breakfast, looking at the sun intermittently through our special glasses (cardboard and thick black cellophane, someone had a welders helmet) until 6 38 when you could look at the totality safely without glasses for 2 minutes. We were so lucky with the weather, the cloud broke just in time so that we saw the perfect eclipse. 20K down the road in the city they didn’t see a thing, too much cloud.
 The two minutes of darkness confused the birds as they had not long come off roost and then suddenly it’s time for bed again!
 The outriggers had a great view with all of Julie punters well pleased with their trip and the tropical breakfast.  Later in the day, Julie and 5 other of the crew paddled one boat back to Yorkeys Knob, against the tide and the wind, it looked like very hard work. It’s been a long day with beer o’clock coming 4 hours early, getting up early has it’s compensations.

  16/11/2012

 A $15 investment at Centrals rugby club every Friday night is definitely the way to go. Again we won a meat tray which will do us several meals, though we will have to wait until we have access to an oven to cook the two legs of lamb we have so far. The rest we can BBQ. The next chance to roast our lamb will be when we house sit for the Macnamarras at the end of the month. We will be there for about 6 weeks. 

 Julie, away down south, has left Phil with us so he joined us at Centrals  and for some reason we all managed to get trashed finishing up later round the pool with pizza and coldies.

 17/11/2012

  Just a little fragile this morning but perked up when I discovered that the tiny island of Samoa, which is somewhere out to sea off the Australian coast, had sent 15 amateur rugby bloke to play the Welsh national rugby XV and stuffed them……..deep joy. 

 The day got even better with an afternoon BBQ at the Macnamarras and a look around their property to give us an idea of our duties when we move in and house sit for them. The Macs house is an old Queenslander but built on a slab as opposed to stilts and truly beautiful. The yard takes most of a day to mow using a ride on mower and has it’s own 3 car garage and pub, with loads of memorabilia from Pauls travels and time in the Police Force. I may be sounding like an estate agent but anyone wishing to buy this place would need to stump up over a million bucks. Can’t wait to live there.

 18/11/2012

  All change in the units as three lots of guests went home yesterday and three new lots moved in today, making it evens between Aussies and Pommies. The new guests are actually living in Australia but hail from Salford, London and Kent, so Brits rule right now. After an afternoon on the deck at Yorkeys Knob we later had Allen, Lorraine and Phil up for sundowners. Just like the old times when we were in charge of the units earlier this year.