Cooktown to Ravenshoe

Day 82 (continued)

After slightly too much sashimi for lunch we both sat for a while and tried to encorage it to go down with a cold beer.
By the time this had happened it was nearly time for tea and so out came some more fish, Mackerel this time and two huge slabs of fish were slapped on the BBQ and again we ate far too much... (our omega 3 levels must be through the roof)

This is the one we ate

Day 83
Pack up early as we have the drive back to civilisation today. (Basically a 323KM backtrack to Cairns (good for the KM's))
Now we have a slight problem here as the freezer compartment in Pollys little fridge is hardly big enough for our bait let alone all of the fish we have left. We have thought ahead though and put it all in the freezer at the campsite overnight so it is now rock hard. We put this in a chiller bag, in a bucket full of ice and wrap our beach towels around the bucket to insulate it. That should do it.
With the fish 'on ice' we fill up with fuel and head off on the long drive, 15 kms out of town i look down to notice the oil light is on!
'Oh shit' Carmen tells me i said.
Pull over and check the dipstick and it is well below the low level. This is where all of that advice people have been giving us came back to haunt me.
'No we dont have any spare oil' was the answer but ill let you figure out the question.
Luckily we werent far out of town so we turn around and head back (With the fish still on ice), a quick check of the manual and im back into the garage to buy some oil. I even borrowed a funnel from the guy to fil it up.

Now even with a funnel a full bottle of oil is not an easy thing to manouvere, especially when the engine is under the passenger seat and so on filling i may have spilt a little. I check the level and all is good so we reverse out.. But whats that dark patch where we were parked?
Jump out and its a puddle of oil.
'Oh shit' Carmen tells me i said.
Well i looked at the oil and it all looked new and clear (probably that stuff i spilt) but with quite a big drive ahead of us we wanted to be sure and so pulled over somewhere else and waited for 20 mins with crossed fingers to see if it was leaking.
Checked it again and nothing there so finally leave town and head off towards Cairns.

Arrive in Cairns and put David's (A friend of Peters) address into Tom and 5 mins later we are there.
David had kindly agreed (although im sure there was some arm twisting going on fom Peter) to let us stay in his house for the next few days.

Richard, Carmen, David

It was nice to finally put a face to the name as we have been hearing stories about 'Dubba' for years in Sydney. We were made to feel at home and lubricated with a few beers whilst we chatted to David and Pierro (another friend he had staying).
It was Pierro's last night in Cairns and so we all went out to a local Vietnamese for dinner and continued the chatting (and the drinking).

Day 84
Woke up in this weeks luxury resort (we seem to be doing alright) and as it was a Sunday were treated to bacon and eggs for breakfast (thanks David).
Then it was time to jump on the bikes and explore Cairns so we Cycled along the esplanade to the man-made lagoon (there is no beach in Cairns)

Cairns beach

This is where all the tourists hang out, sunbathe and swim. We locked up the bikes and headed for 'Rusty's' Cairns farmers markets.

Some great fresh fruit in hand we walked to the RSL for a roast dinner (it really is Sunday) and after a lazy stroll headed back on the bikes to David's where he was already cooking a Lamb curry for dinner.
Devoured the beautiful curry and sat down in front of the gogglebox (a novelty for us) whilst we chatted some more.

Day 85
Up in the morning and David is off to Weipa for work this week so wish him good travels and thank him for letting two strangers stay at his house when he is not there (very trusting these Queenslanders).
This is our last big city for a while so spend the day getting things ready for our onward travels.

Get some big jerry cans (fuel and water) and get a man to have a quick look at Polly's pop top (where she sticks her bum up a bit) but he couldnt see anything wrong with it.
Back to Davids house and its Tuna steaks for tea, pan fried and finished in the oven. Very masterchef and very nice!!


Day 86
After a leisurely breakfast we cycled along the esplanade and visit cairns art gallery which seemed quite small but had a good exhibiton of aboriginal art.
Did some more shopping (Carmen got a bike basket for her upcoming birthday but dont tell her!) and headed back to the house to catch up on all of our washing.
Hot in the afternoon and so cycled back along the esplanade (again) for a swim in the lagoon.

Cycled the esplanade (hopefully for the last time) home and started preparing not one but two fish dinners (were both getting sick of fish morning, noon and night by now). We cooked ourselves a lovely baked mackerel for dinner and used the rest in a curry to take with us

Day 87
Time to pack all our clean washing (and the curry) back in Polly and head onwards for Chilagoe and the famous 'Chilagoe caves'.
A stop on the way at the Skybury coffee plantation for a caffeine hit and a look at the lovely view.

The road to Chilagoe is pretty good, its the Burke development road and is a nice smooth sealed surface all the way until you are 35KM away and then, for no real reason the road turns into dusty gravel, then back into tarmac for a bit and then dusty gravel again. It was actually quite good gravel with few potholes or corrugations and so the journey was pretty easy although Polly is starting to get a tan in all the dust.

Arrived in Chilagoe and stop at 'the hub', the towns information and basically its all about the caves in Chilagoe, fabulous limestone caves just outside the town, its only lunchtime and so we have time to catch the afternoon tour through the Royal arch cave and so we get our tickets and head out to the caves.
When we arrive the previuos tour is just finishing and so we have a chance to chat to Dug, a ranger who runs the tours.
A bus load of people finally arrive and we head into the caves, a series of underground limestone caves full with bats (Much to carmens amusement and she is also remembering that she is slightly claustrophoic) through to a cave where the roof has collapsed.

Strange golden trees

Dug is pretty funny and a good guide and tells us about the other, nearby caves which are self guided.
'That sounds more like it' I say (Ive always been a fan of caves) and we promise to come back in the morning and have a look.
Drive back to town and check in at the campsite (there is only 1), rough and ready but we have power and running water so are happy.
Call over the road to the local (we should have been doing something on pubs around Australia...) the Post office hotel. Named, it seems from the fact that it is over the road from the post office. The barman is quite chirpy and we stay for a drink and head back for some of that fish curry we made last night.

Day 88
up early this morning (6.45) as we want to look at the caves before heading back to Mareeba (a bit more backtracking).

Pack up and drive up to have a look at Bauhinia cave and Pompeii cave.

Both are good, we probably could have explored tham all day with lots of little passgaes but we dont want to get lost and so head over to the second site to lok at Balancing rock which is pretty good, just a big rock balancing really (hence the name) and some Aboriginal cave paintings, which after our tour with Willie a few days ago werent that impressive.

Brilliant though and we both enjoyed a mornings spelunking and all before 10.30!!
Next it was over to the Crazy ford man, a bloke that has some sort of obsession with Ford cars and so has loads in this garage in the middle of nowhere (He also runs the BP garage). So we pulled up and had a look round and the crazy guy (with no teeth) comes up and starts chatting to us and hes a nice bloke really but a bit hard to understand (with no teeth).

He did have a good collection of cars and trucks but his pride and joy was in something i have never seen before, a 'carcoon', bassically an inflatable bubble that you keep a car in!

It was a Ford falcon Gt 351 and was a nice car but surely not much good to you in a bubble?
then it was the long, hot, dusty drive back to Mareeba and then onto lake Tinaroo, where we set up camp for the night.

Day 89

Up and no mucking about this morning as we are meeting Dean and Tammy at the pie shop in Ravenshoe (an hours drive away) at 10am.
A nice drive through the Atherton tablelands up some windy roads and through some lush farmland we are about 5 mins outside Ravenshoe when we see a kangaroo hopping out of the bush in full bounce on a collision course with Polly!!
I slammed on the brakes and swerved but WHACK, we had hit him...
As i pulled over I saw the bugger get up and bounce back off into the bush so thought we had avoided something more serious, he was huge (for the Australians reading deffinatly a roo and not a wallaby). So got out (a bit shaky) to inspect the damage and was surprised to see that he had only smashed the indicator plastic, not even the bulb, the bumper is now a bit loose and we have a head shaped dent in the bonnet.

Could have been a lot worse.
Drove slowly into town and parked up to meet at the pie shop.
Happy to meet Dean and Tammy (and Bella) again and once we had explained what had happened they took us around to the only mechanic in town to have a look.
The closest Mitsubishi dealer in our direction of travel is in Mount Isa (about 900Km away!) but he reassured us that as long as the light is working (which it is) then were fine to drive and suggested that we call ahead to mount Isa to get the part ordered in before we arrive (about a week and a half).
Thankful we head back to the pie shop with dean and Tammy and have 'Axeman' pies, a meat pie with bacon and eggs on top. Bloody good it was too.
We follow Dean and Tammy out of town and up to their block of land on the top of a hill where we plan to spend the weekend.
We approach the driveway and we have been warned that it is 'pretty steep' by Dean but when we get there i cant believe this is the driveway. Round a sharp bend and you are almost vertical (it felt like it) and Carmen took one look at the hill and got out to walk up not watching.
Polly actually handled it pretty well and flew up the hill and we were here.
The block occupies the top of a hill and is surrounded by bush and borders a creek and this is where dean and Tammy intend to build their dream house. In the meantime they have a shipping container and a tin shed lean to on the side which is all wired up for power and water and even has guest acommodation (a tent).

We settle in for some lunch and Tammy cracks the first bottle of champagne and we enjoy catching up (it has been a few weeks).
After lunch i ask Dean about this creek at the bottom of the hill and if there are any fish in there and so armed with machetes we head off into the bush in search of water (just like the explorers).
It is steep and loose underfoot and the foliage is thick and it takes us quite a while to sight the water and even longer to actually get there. Dean has started building steps down but has only put the first few in and there is a long way to go.
We carefully climb along the rocky creek side and are making our way back when i loose my footing and Splash, Im having a swim.
Dean hears the splash and turns around to see my head poking up out of the water and smiling.
the water is lovely but thank god i didnt have my phone in my pocket!
We scale the hill again know that once the girls see this i am not going to hear the end of it.
Lo and behood much amusement is gained from a wet Richard.

I get changed and we watch a glorious sunset over the hills with a cold beer.

A treat for dinner is a seafood Thai red curry with apple pie and custard for desert!
This is luxury camping.