Fountainash

A little late starting this but here it is finally - hope I can keep it up-to-date as from this point we're moving on fairly often. Weather has been wonderful - I think only one grey day since we left Port Macquarie on the 1st July. We've been in WA for 2 weeks now, and although I wasn't going to start this blog until we got here, I've decided to include a few pics from the journey to WA.... read more

26th - 31st July: Arrived at Mission Beach via 2 Dick Smith stores, to acquire a new antenna for our TV on the PC. It is raining, raining, raining. On Tuesday the checkout operator at Woolies told us that in July they’d had 20 days of recorded rainfall in Tully (it IS the wettest place in the country!) and they were hoping it would stop soon as the Tully show is on this weekend. The caravan park is somewhat sodden, but we’ve booked and paid for 18 nights - surely it can’t go on raining for another 18 days! Rain eased to intermittent by Wednesday 28th, and today (Saturday) is beautiful, after the usual Mission Beach early morning high clouds that look threatening but soon roll away. As well as our new antenna, we’ve acquired a ... read more

22nd July: Left bright and early(ish) this morning and were at the Glengarry van park at Port Douglas for lunch. Gorgeous drive down to the coast once we turned off the Cooktown road (it also has some fantastic views, but we’d seen those on the way north!). Went into Port Douglas itself in the afternoon to stock up for a few days. The town hasn’t changed much since last visit - it reminds me very much of Noosa, but further north and with more backpackers and overseas visitors. I know Noosa has those too, but there’s a higher concentration of them here.... read more

17th July: We walked downtown this morning to see what Cooktown is like - it’s a lovely town, with the most beautiful mountains all along the Endeavour River, and still some of the old buildings standing from the days when it was a bustling port for northern enterprises and gold from the Palmer River rush. There were markets on this morning, but didn’t buy anything as they were mostly food - both fresh and cooked. 18th July: Breakfasted at the kiosk on the waterfront this morning (but came home for coffee as they didn’t have espresso machine! We do!) Very good eggs and bacon. 19th July: Walked to Finch Bay on the Coral Sea today, and back along Cooktown’s main street where we stopped for a hamburger for lunch as the walk had taken longer than ... read more

10th July: Saturday’s special event in the caravan park is a free Barramundi BBQ, singalong and general group participation concert. I sang 2 songs accompanied by the visiting priest on his guitar! There were all kinds of acts, some good and some pretty, shall we say, unusual. Sun 11th July: Breakfast at Sunset Tavern - yummy bacon and eggs overlooking the incoming tide, and then some acquisitions in the adjacent markets (to be revealed upon our return). 12th July: Set off reasonably early this morning for the drive to our next campsite, Mt Surprise. We stopped for lunch in Croydon - nothing like its English namesake! In its Gold Rush days it boasted a population of about 7,000, and 90 hotels!! Only 1 hotel left now, and a population of about ?250. The Gulflander train (a ... read more