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Published: June 29th 2012
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Hi Eveyone, it's been a while since the last blog and we have travelled many kilometres since then but I'll backtrack to where I left off and slowly make my way to present time.
Next stop was Winton, famed as being the place where Banjo Patterson penned the words to Australia's iconic song "Waltzing Matilda", the museum in town is a testament to all things outback! In more recent times Winton has become famous for its dinosaurs, large fossil finds in the area have made it a Mecca for paleontologists. There is the dinosaur stampede footprints at Lark Quarry, about 100k's from Winton (we didn't go there) and The Australian Age of Dinousaurs Museum situated about 15km out of Winton and perched on top of a small escarpment that rises above the plains.
This private museum is run and founded by a local farmer( come dinosaur expert) who found the first fossilized bones on his property over 30 years ago. The largest and most complete dinosaur skeleton of a sauropod nick named appropriately Matilda is the pinnacle of there collection. The museum is a beautifully designed structure with heaps of information about the history of dinosaurs in the region
and paleontology in general and as a part of the tour you also get to visit the work sheds where staff are engaged in the meticulous task of removing the dirt and soil from the fossilized bone fragments.
It's quite fascinating to think that this part of Australia was quite a different place millions of years ago and in a different part of the globe if continental drift theorists are correct. It challenges in some ways, young earth theory and traditional views of creation, that I have held to, the jury is still out though!
From Winton we were going to push on out to Charleville and Mt Isa but at the last minute decided to head to the coast, the cold nights out West were getting to us and as well it was getting financially impossible to see everything and go everywhere. The cost of all of these museums and things in every town for a family is quite prohibitive, so we have had to be a bit selective on what we do. So we headed for Townsville in one big drive arriving early evening on the 8th May ( I think).
We loved Townsville, a
thriving and growing north Queensland city with fantastic amenities and the magnificent Castle Hill in the middle of it giving brilliant views by day and night over the city and it's surrounds. Townsville has a wonderful boardwalk along the coast called The Strand and we spent at least a couple of evenings strolling along this beautiful place. We liked it so much we ended up staying 9 days, enjoying the free swimming at the 'rock pool' on the Strand and at 'Riverways' an amazing free outdoor swimming complex near where we were staying. Most times we were there we virtually had it to ourselves. During our time we also visited Crystal Creek and took a drive up to Paluma, on the way enjoying a beautiful swim and seeing some spectacular waterfalls and rock pools. Visits to Ross River Dam and other local sights made Townsville a great place to visit.
Next stop was Mission Beach, however the rain had caught us again as we left Townsville and followed us all the way up the coast. Undeterred, as we passed through Ingham we decided to make the 100km round trip detour to Wallaman Falls, the highest single drop falls in
Australia. The rough winding road led us higher and higher into the Great Dividing Range till we stopped in the misty rain at the Wallaman Falls car park. To our dismay after making the walk to the lookout we found all we could see was the cloud that filled the valley below, we could hear the falls but there was no way that we could see them, doh!
It was pouring when we arrived at Mission Beach and we had a miserable time setting up in the rain which stayed with us for most of the next four days, regardless we enjoyed our time there and went on a few Rainforest walks and saunters down the beach, watched skydivers fall from the sky and did our darnedest to see a cassowary, but were unsuccessful. Nevertheless it was a beautiful place though you could still see the scars left by Cyclone Yazi.
One of the highlights of our stay in Mission Beach was a trip to the fascinating Paronella Park, the remains of a castle built on 13 acres of tropical rainforest in the 1930's by an eccentric Spanish imigrant, Joseph Paronella. In its hey day it was quite
an achievement and the vision and hard work of this guy was extraordinary! We all loved our visit there and if your ever up that way it is certainly worth a visit.
In a dry moment we packed up and got the cover on the camper trailer just as the rain came down again and headed off up in the driving rain towards Atherton. The weather made it impossible to stop or camp in that area, so all we did was have a look at the 'Crystal Cave' in Atherton, but we are so glad we did! It really is quite amazing, a whole warehouse/shop front turned into a man made cave with copious amounts of expanda foam and gems and crystals from all over the world set into displays within the cave formations. It's very cleverly done, a highlight being the worlds largest amethyst crystal over 2m high and a couple of tons, quite spectacular! On the way out we let the kids crack open a couple of geodes from a mine in Mexico and inside each was a beautiful crystal display, we loved it, so much fun and so very interesting and informative! Nature is just so
amazing!
We headed off after that interesting interlude to Cairns but more on that next time!
Cheers
Steve ,Jen, Zan and Will
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