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Published: September 30th 2009
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Cradle Mountain Lodge
Dusk at Cradle Mountain Just been looking at my last blog and realise I have been a little bit slack. No blog since May!!!. We have heaps of events to share with you and I promise I will try, I said 'try', not to mention the weather and the fact that since the last blog in May, we have barely seen a cloud. Infact Australia and certainly Queensland is experiencing one of its warmest driest winters in decades.....the down side (apart from the extra expense in sun cream ) is that we are not only still on water restrictions but we are on high fire alert for bush fire season! So with temperatures already in the 30's, and it is Spring time, what else to do is there but to go to the beach! So I think, I said 'think', I have mentioned the weather enough for now!
So what have we been up to? Well, July was a fabulous month as we had 'pommy' guests. ( I feel I can use that term now as an Australian tax payer! ) Kate and Tris and Caz's god daughter Ellie, came to stay with us. Ellie, is 6 years old ( hope I got that right
The Wombat
Spotted by the road in Mount St Clair National Park ), so I felt it would be great if we could somehow 'hire a child' for a few days to keep her company! Dellannuziata's ( our neighbours ) to the rescue. We borrowed Illaria, a delightful 7 year old trendy Aussie beach bum, for a couple of days and we visited some of the delights of South East Queensland, including the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, in particular Sea World, where us adults found the kids a great excuse to be childish! The obligtory BBQ by the ocean took place of course.
Having waved goodbye to Katie and Tris, early August saw Caz and I migrate on our annual mid winter holiday and once again headed South to the chilly Southern Island of Tasmania. We spent the first half of the week in the West, high in the mountains of Cradle Mountain National Park. We stayed at Cradle Mountain Lodge, a stunning timber and stone building with log fires in all the rooms, fabulous food and wine and great bushwalking tracks round lakes, rivers and snow capped mountains. The wildlife was plentyful and for the first time we saw Wombats in the wild. Huge, cumbersome creatures, that wander around
Dove Lake, Tasmania
Caz and I by the tea tree stained waters of Dove Lake rather uncomfortably, grazing on the crisp frosty grasses. The drive from West to East was stunning, passing over high mountain roads, lush green valleys and emerging by the calm waters of Great Oyster Bay. Once again we stayed in our favourite beach cottage, and enjoyed some lovely sunny but cool winters days, walking by the ocean and venturing in Freycinet National park to once again embark on my favourite walk to Wine Glass Bay, one of Australia's iconic beaches used in many a tourism advert for Tassy!
Now should I mention the weather again? Keeping it brief, since our return from Tassie, mid August, we have not seen a cloud in the sky apart from a rather large dust cloud to which I will refer later! So we have had temps in the mid to late 20's and what else should you do but go to the beach. So for a number of weekends, we would head up the coast for an hour to Caloundra and spend the weekend by the sea, swimming, sunning and generally chilling. We drive back to Brisbane on Monday morning and even had time for a coffee in 'The Valley', a part of the city
Cradle Mountain
Cradle Mountain from Dove Lake centre, before getting to the office.
The first week of September saw the start of Brisbane Festival with heaps of free outdoor events including Riverfire. Riverfire is a saturday night fireworks extravaganza on the river, the city bridge and from the roof of some of the tallest buildings which culminates with a fly by and fuel 'dump and burn' ( very environmentally concious - not ) by two F 111 fighterplanes. This year, we were invited to a 'freebie' insurance company roof top party ( thanks CGU ) - yes folks that is where your premiums go to! From here the view was stunning although it got a little more blurrey as the night went on and the free 'grog' was consumed.
Talking of Insurance 'freebies', ING put on a great day out for me on the proceeding Monday and paid for me to drive like a maniac in the Australians' petrol heads favourite pastime, V8 supercar racing. We headed out west from the city to Willowbank Raceway and 'burnt some rubber'
September also saw another milestone, that is Caz and I celebrated our 6th Wedding Anniversary. So we headed North 4 hours to Hervey Bay where we booked a
The Cottage in Great Oyster Bay
Caz on the beach in front of the cottage - fire going to warm the rooms! trip Whale watching. Every year, Humpback Whales migrate from the Antarctic to the warm waters of Northern Queensland and PNG. They give birth and then head back south and take the time to play in the protected waters of Hervey Bay. They estimate as many as 10,000 Whales pass through so they guarantee sightings between the migration months of August to October. We set off on a four hour trip between Mainland Hervey Bay and Platypus Bay off Fraser Island. Now the calm waters of Hervey Bay are usually extremely calm with a south easterly wind blowing but a north westerly has the opposite effect. Great fun for me and Caz as we dont suffer from sea sickness, but for 1/2 of the people on board - about 30 - I am not sure if they saw any Whales or just the bottom of a 'sick bag'! For those of us with sea legs, the Whales put on a show! 50 tonne females were breaching the water and splashing and playing, apparently the breach is to see where they are in relation to the land - no sat nav available it seems! The calves were still 10 tonnes plus and
On the balcony
The cottage in Great Oyster Bay huge. They swam under the boat, around the boat and there quite literally was no need for binoculars or zoom lenses! Truely amazing and a must for anyone - just pick a south easter!!!
Now I mentioned a dust storm! What a dust storm it was! A very hot dry winter in the centre of Oz and dry hot winds from the North has displaced millions of tonnes of red dirt/sand/dust! I am sure you saw the pictures of Sydney and maybe Brisbane, but if not I have included a few for you all. We had all the windows in the house closed, all the vents on the cars closed. Did it help? No! Breathing was hard for a few days, you couldnt see more than a few hundred metres on the day of the storm, it was a mess. But we are back to clear skies again and 32 the forecast temperature for the weekend, so I reckon a once in a decade event is worth it, altought we have been busy dusting off since!
So, we have had a busy Winter and Spring and in two more weeks, we have more overseas visitors - my mum and dad!
Wine Glass Bay
Looking out over Wine Glass Bay They are here for nearly a month so really looking forward to that. We have a week away on the sunshine coast planned, a few days in Sydney planned and no doubt will be doing what we can to find for them a few Australian critters for the holiday snaps......, kangeroo's, Kookaburra's, Lizard's, Snake's, Spider's...you know the drill. So for now farewell and I will no doubt have more to tell in a few months. Best wishes to all our friends and reli's in the UK and anywhere else for that matter! Stay in touch. Matt & Caz
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Ju
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Greetings
Hi guys, Another great blog, it always amazes me that you seem to have more play than work! SOOOOOOOO