Tablelands Touring

So it turns out that this was actually our Easter Monday and the other Easter Monday was the Tuesday. Ah well, what is a day muddle up between friends.

On the real Easter Monday we headed to the Atherton Tablelands. On thing my Stepdad really wanted to check out was the area that Mr Sparky grew up in. Also, being a farmer, I think just checking it all out interested him. It was an area they whizzed through 10years ago so I think he enjoyed checking out some of the pretty places and tourist attractions around the place. Sis G really wanted to go to Millaa Millaa Falls (well any waterfall would have done it), Mum was pretty happy to have a look around the Tablelands again and Bro S, well he was happy to go with the flow and the waterfall swimming idea appealed to him too.

First stop, after heading up the dreaded Gillies Range, was Atherton. We checked out Hallorans Hill lookout to get a great view of the area.

We had thought about stopping here for morning tea but then realised that I didn't pack cups (oops). So off we trotted, into town for a quick stop for some cups and to find another park to sit and eat. By then it was more like 'munch' time (morning tea/ lunch). Yes, I just made that up.

After relaxing with the turtles we hit the road again, headed to Ravenshoe (said Ravens-hoe rather than Raven-shoe). On the way there we passed the Wind Turbines on Windy Hill and being the tease that I am I asked Bro S if he wanted to look at them and then drove straight past. We did end up reassuring him that we'd be back. We only did a drive through of Ravenshoe, up the main street and back.

Then it was time to stop in a Windy Hill. It was a bit of a novelty for me to see the Wind Turbines in the sun rather than the fog and rain and it was just a plain novelty for everyone else to see them up close.

Bro S was particuraly interested, giving the information board a good going over.

The wind turbines are actually surprisingly quiet with not much noise other than the obvious turning through air/ moving air sound. The cattle on the farm they are in quite happily graze beneath them.

Then we were off again, along the Old Palmerston Highway, a windy single lane bitumen road that took us through to Millaa Millaa. It is hard to imagine that not that long ago this was a pretty main road, well it was the main road. 

We stopped in at the cafe in Millaa Millaa for some fish and chips. We were getting pretty short on time by then, I had to work that evening, so we took our fish and chips with us to Millaa Millaa Falls.

Another novelty to see the falls in the afternoon sun. More often than not it is raining when I am in this neck of the woods.

I was a lovely day to be hanging out at a waterfall. Sis G and Bro S were keen on a swim and had been hanging for it all day so this was their chance for a quick dip in the chilly water before we headed back to Cairns. I opted out, not because I didn't want to go in but because we were rather short on time and I knew I'd be cutting it tight to be ready for work in time.

It was a nice day, just I shame I had to work and rush us home. It was okay though because I'd managed to get a few nights off so this was one of the very few rush afternoons.

Happened this week: ANZAC Day

This, That and a Sunrise

To say I've been a little slack on the blogging front is probably just a tad of an understatement. I just haven't been feeling it, the motivation, the words to write. It isn't like I've been doing anything else terribly exciting recently. My 'what I've been up to' list comprises of looking at jobs, cleaning the house twice for the owner to come by and sign a new agreement (changed the date, by a week, grrrr), watching crap t.v and getting addicted to Once Upon a Time which is on after lunch, procrastinating about everything, napping, looking at rubbish on Facebook, googling random stuff and occasionally taking photos in a uninterested, unmotivated and uncreative fashion. 

In good stuff last week, I did get to catch up with an old work mate from my first post high school job who I worked with for about 4 years. We had one of those morning teas where you meet up at about 10am and then realise at about 2:30pm, when your parking is overdue for the second time, that we should part ways while continuing to chat in the carpark for another few minutes before actually leaving. I then did another quick catch up to re-meet her daughter who has moved up here. I also got to catch up with my friend from Thursday Island who was unexpectedly in town. We did the shopping and movie thing, well she did the shopping. I realised the last time I had been to the movies here was with her, about two years ago. Honestly, it isn't that I don't like movies, I just don't like paying for them. We went and saw 'Sisters' which was good for a laugh. Plenty of swearing involved but also plenty of oh so funny moments. We both enjoyed it.

On the weekend we went for a little overnighter. We headed up to Mr Sparky's mate's farm for their daughter's 6th Birthday party, on Sunday, and stayed the night on their fold out lounge. It was a nice change, although the change of bed wasn't so enjoyable. We had a lovely evening with homemade pizza, drinks of choice, chatting, new faces (for me), kids running wild, puppies underfoot and a cool evening after watching storms go around which was so different to Cairns. By the way, what is with fold out lounges being sooo uncomfortable. I swear they design them so the bars sit right where it is the most uncomfortable. In saying that we had brought the trusty blow up mattress along but the fact that Miss 6 had made the lounge up just for us meant we could hardly not use it. Monday morning dawned dewy and cool. So refreshing compared to our sticky, humid mornings at the bottom of the range. I went for a quick sunrise wander before I was treated to an egg cooked in a cool microwave thingy by the family's youngest boy, after I had helped him take the sausage pups for their morning walk. Those pups were so cute I could have pup-napped them, especially after they had spent part of the evening before snuggled on my feet. Come to think of it, they were barely the size of my feet. We left their place laden with mangoes off the tree and a pumpkin fresh off the vine (spoilt, much), leaving them to go collect much needed tractor parts for planting corn and to weed pumpkins.

Mr Sparky commented several times about how nice it was to not have people around. I made a weird face at him as we were staying with a family of six and there must have been around 30 people there Sunday evening. He followed on with a you know what I mean, to have space around, to not have neighbours right there, for it to be so quiet (when we woke up). I knew what he meant the first time but thought it was a funny way of putting it. I guess you could say that after 3 years of city living (THREE!!!!) we are definitely still country bumpkins at heart.

Oh, also last week they came and put up stuff for NBN (internet) on the outside of our building. The drilling and cutting was very loud from the inside of our concrete building, but I guess this means we might soon be able to get connected. That option is a little exciting. I find it funny that my mother, living in a rural area had NBN before we do living in a city. I guess that has to do with how far north we are. Someone also came by to put in a fence and gates which was also noisy. As you can tell my napping was successful last week. The gates look nice and new but would certainly look nicer hung from the other side so they open to the fence rather than the middle of the yard. I also really love the way they fixed a new gate to a very broken fence which is not attached to the posts it should be. A fence, which it turns out, they won't be fixing. Smart one.

 

Wild Bird Wednesday

Tuesday's Treasures