THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF CARVANNING!

The photo above was taken from the top of Tower Hill in Charters Towers, a rural town about 120 kms west of Townsville. Now why would be staying in a small rural town? Check out the photo below and you'll discover why! Yep, zooming along the road, off on the big trip across to the Northern Territory, and we broke down at a thriving metropolis called Homestead - about two men and a cat live here, but they DID have a phone at the local store which we were able to use, as we had no mobile phone coverage and the stupid Telstra public phone only took phonecards. How useless is that? Anyway, here we are in Charters Towers and they can't look at the car until tomorrow (Monday), so we should be back on the road again hopefully by Tuesday. Warren is pretty sure it's the fuel pump and the RACQ guy who came out to tow us back to town is also based at the local Ford dealers, very handy! It was certainly something different to do on a Friday night! But hey, we look at the positives - it's only the car that's broken down, it can be fixed. there's nothing wrong with us, and it wasn't an accident or something else equally yukky. One has to be grateful for small mercies!

Prior to this happening we had had the most wonderful week in Port Douglas. Basing ourselves there, we toured this beautiful region, visiting the Daintree, Cape Tribulation, Mossman Gorge, the Mossman Sugar Mill, and just looking around Port Douglas itself. OH! and how could I forget the highlight of our trip thus far - snorkelling Great Barrier Reef. This was a day we will never forget.

We crossed the Daintree River on the car ferry (there is no other way to get across, only swimming, which I wouldn't recommend!)

This is the ferry coming towards us, the river is immense, and so calm on the day we were there.

The scenery through the Daintree area is just breathtaking. So much wildlife too - beautiful birds we had never seen before, and we saw another Cassowary!

This is Cape Tribulation beach. We were expecting a bit more fanfare when we got to Cape Trib - maybe a sign or something saying "Welcome to Cape Tribulation", but nothing! all very low key.

Where the Daintree river meets the Coral Sea.

And this is why you wouldn't swim across the Daintree! enough said!

The suspension bridge in the middle of Mossman Gorge. How's this for an artisitic photo courtesy of Mr Connor! This was a great walk - all rockpools and rainforest, talk about humid, it was like walking in a sauna. (and it's not summer yet!)

This gorgeous lady was the tour guide through Mossman sugar mill. We all donned hard hats and ear plugs, and off we went! She was great fun, very entertaining, as you can see! It was really interesting finding out how sugar is made, where it goes to, and the different forms it can take.

Most of the sugar cane (which I told you about in an earlier blog), comes to the mill in "cane-tainers", pulled by a train. Photo below shows them moving slowly into the mill, photo above shows the sugar cane being tipped onto the feeder which will take it up to start the crushing process.

AND THEN THE BIG DAY OUT!

THE MARTIANS HAVE LANDED!

Now most of you are probably saying yeah, yeah, big deal. Don't forget this little lady only started swimming last year, so for me this was a HUGE deal! We had the best day, it was calm and sunny, we were just overwhelmed with the sheer beauty of life under the ocean. We saw a humpback whale and her calf, we swam with the turtles, we swam really closely with all kinds of fish, we slept really well that night!

Wozzie swimming with the sea turtle. I could have lain on top of the water and watched her for hours and hours.

Me with a sea star. That's what the marine biologist guy who was diving with us called them anyway!

So that's what we have been up to for the past week or so. it has been full on, and now, here we are, relaxing at Charters Towers, (enforced relaxing!) Hopefully we will be on our way again tomorrow or Tuesday, and I will have more exciting things to tell you about. We are heading for Katherine, we have work there in the Mango sheds for at least four to six weeks, (that's if we don't melt in the heat).

Catch you next time!