Wednesday, August 23

Baron Gorge

Tourists again, this time to Kuranda at the top of the hills overlooking Cairns. Bit of a tourist trap, but a nice place to visit. The Baron river flows nearby and we went for a walk along the tree top walk to see the Baron falls and Baron Gorge. Not a lot of water in the falls but the walk through the rain forest canopy was great. The pic shows Kathy pausing on the way to the viewing platforms.

Saturday, August 19

Granite Gorge

We are having a few days being tourists. Yesterday we went to Granite Gorge, a few ks out of Mareeba. A warm day so we took turns to walk through the gorge so that one of us could stay with the dogs. The pic shows the swimming hole near the weir. Nice walking through the rain forest part, but got hot when crossing the rocks and climbing out of the gorge.
Today we had a drive around Lake Tinneroo. Very nice drive, but it is alarming how low the water is, There is a drought on up here and the lake is the lowest it has been in 15 years.
More touristy things tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 16

Cairns and Atherton

We completed our judging assignment in Cairns, (see the dog blog for their success stories) and now we are tourists for a few days. The Cairns City Kennel Club were very hospitable and went out of their way to make sure everything we needed was available, even arranging an extra couple of days in the showgrounds so we could do the tourist thing around Cairns. The pic shows the beach side recreation area at Port Douglas, about 60 km north of Cairns.
We have left the Cairns Showgrounds and moved to Walkamin, a little town in the Atherton Tablelands. We are regulars here as this is our third time at this beautiful park. In 10 days we will be judging the Atherton trials, but until then we will be looking at all the new and the old attractions around here.

Monday, August 7

Queensland Again -1 year later.

We have been very busy knocking down an old house so we could build a new one on the original site. We moved in a month ago so that is long enough for us to be on the road again.
We are heading back up to Far North Queensland for Dog Trials and holidays, The pic shows the Land Cruiser and the van near the Peanut Van at Nanango where we stopped for lunch.
Bad weather for the first two days, heavy rain and strong wind until we got to Goondiwindi and then we have had good weather since. The moist air caused condensation in the van which gave us damp beds. Two nights at Ipswich Showgrounds allowed us to dry out and visit relatives on the weekend.
The dogs have been really good. They spend long periods in the car then get a walk at the end of the day but they take it in their stride, curling up and sleeping most of the day, doing their "wee on command' trick when we are pushed for time.
We should be in Cairns by Thursday.