Cairns & Atherton Tablelands - Lots of work, finally.

Lake Eacham. 

After a lot of searching, applications and talking to people I finally got a bit of work cleaning at the Malanda Dairy Factory, you've probably seen there products in the shops, dairy farmers milk, dare ice coffee etc. 

It's a pretty cruise job, but plenty to do, 6 hours a night Mon to Fri for 4 weeks. There's a nice coffee machine in the lunch room, a hot shower in the locker room and all the free milk you can drink. 

Since milk doesn't completely agree with me I made it into yogurt, simply warm to 35-45deg add culture and put it in a warm spot, for me it's next to my fridge vent, next day nice warm yogurt.  Make smoothies or just drink it, so good, and free. 

The Dairy factory at Malanda is about 1.5hrs from my camp at Dans place near Koah,

So I figured I will just pack up and stay near work during the week, explore the new area during the day work at night, and camp for free where ever I like the look of. found two good spots, a small side track into the rain forest in Curtain Fig National Park, just long enough to hide my truck, had to clear a few branches but it made a good camp for a few days. Another spot was near Lake Eacham, a side road had been closed for a bridge to be fixed, but it was never even started, so I Had about 3km of deserted tar sealed road in the thick rain forest all to myself, this is what all roads will look like after the 'apocalypse'.  So close to Lake Eacham, a volcanic crater lake, deep, clear, blue and the warmest place to swim on the tablelands. I spent several days exploring it's shores and swmmimg. 

After a nice week of working nights and exploring days I got another job on a kumara farm,(sweet potato ) so worked nights at dairy factory 6 hours then get up early and work on Kumara farm 8:00-17:00 then back to cleaning dairy factory 18:00-24:00, find a camp along the rd between the two jobs and do it all again. Hard work! But I've got work finally. 

After only 2days picking, sorting and packing Kumara I had the weekend off, and several boxes of free Kumara to eat and give away to everyone I meet. 

After working Friday night's I would stay along the road, on my way back to Koah and check out the weekly Saturday morning markets, at a different spot on the tablelands every week, amazing markets with so much local produce, cheap, home grown or farm seconds, and a grass fed Wagyu butcher selling directly from his farm, very cheap meat, everything I need. 

Curtain fig.

On my way to find a camp on Friday night after midnight in my dazed state a run over a rabbit, it was nice and healthy looking so I chucked him in the back, wen I got back to my main camp at Koah I skinned the rabbit and he made a good stew, some nice kumara and fresh herbs, perfect. Could only use half the rabbit because of the mud grip tracks left on it, so I gave that to Simon giant Mastiff dog across the road, we are best mates now LOL

Then following Monday afternoon I had a nice drive back to work at the dairy factory,  through the tablelands, Mareeba, Atherton, Yougaburra to Malanda, green rolling hills, red soil, patches of forest and lots of cows, reminds me a lot  of NewZealand.
That afternoon an air con man called me, I had seen one if his work Utes when I went into Bridgestone Tyres a few months back to replace the tyre that  I blew up at Cape York, and asked the fella driving if they needed any air con guys he told me to go to the office, which I did, the boss wasn't there but the receptionist told me to email my resume in. I had also done that to a dozen other air con companies more recently after calling every one goggle could find in Cairns looking for a job.
 Any way Cairns Evercool  company ,wanted me to come in for an interview on Tuesday, so did my night shift cleaning and got up when it was still dark in the morning after a few hours sleep and drove 1.5 hours down the Gillies range to Cairns for a 7:00am appointment, there was no interview, instead he put me to work straight away, best way to find out about each other I guess. Worked all day at several different locations across Cairns with Rob the fridgee guy from Inisvale.We worked till 16:30 then 1.5 hours drive back up the range to Malanda work 6 hours at dairy factory finishing at 24:00 midnight, drove back towards Cairns and found a camp in the rain forest on the Gillies Range. Had to do it all again for the rest of the week barely time to even think, 8 hours air cons in Cairns,  6 hours cleaning in Malanda Dairy Factory, 3 hours driving that's 17 hours plus time to make food less that 4 hours sleep, so tired and the Gillies Range is a very dangerous road.

Lots of work: -15 hours driving-30 hours cleaning-40 hours air cons

That's 85 work hours. Doesn't leave much time for making food, and sleeping, but finally have some money. Good thing I cooked a 2.5kg Wagyu beef  rolled roast last Sunday, fed me most of the week. 

At the end of the second day doing air cons the boss said he had an away job for me, it's in Bamaga, at Cape York, I said yes I'm keen, I just got back from there, only thing is they need us to start asap so we can finish it before Christmas short notice, so I told the cleaning boss at the Dairy Factory I had to finish this week, but had to do the marathon  work week to get both jobs done, maybe I can rest in Bamaga. 

Rainforest camp in curtain fig national park. 

Lake Eacham

'the jumping tree' lake Eacham. 

My view well deserved sleep in on a Saturday morning. 

Rainforest camp near lake Eacham,

Abandoned road. 

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Koah -New Camp, Slash & burn

Slash & burn. 

Still in Cairns-After a few weeks in our rain forest hut, we managed to make a few new friends, one of them Daniel, offered his place for us to camp, he said there's nothing there and we can build what ever we want.

Just across the highway at Koah, is Daniels block. He is just finishing a little batch for the owners so they can rent it out, now our job in exchange for a free place to stay is to help him finish off the batch, and move to his block right next door, with nothing there except trees, scrub, lantana, Bandicoots and a nice river front.

There is no power, but we do have a water tank which we fill from the creek  with a generator.
Also a thing called a donkey, it heats water on the fire, and does a very good job of it, all stainless steel, you can make a cuppa straight out of the tap.

My new bath tub 

First day at the new camp we cleared a space to put a tent and park the truck, then selected a nice gum log, jammed it up in a tree fork and tied the other end with tire wire with a forked gum log to support it, that was our ridge line. Strung a tarp over the top of the log to protect the new camp from sun & rain. Heaps cooler underneath already. Cut a few more trees down, dug out the stumps and raked up the leaves. That's enough for one day I think.

Now when ever we feel like it and weather permitting, we clear a bit more scrub, leaving the nicer trees for shade, and in the evening set fire to the piles of sticks and Guinea grass, which occasionally gets out of hand. That's OK, more burnt means less to clear.

We cut a new track down to the bottom corner of the block, where there is a deep bend in the river and a beach, it's only waist deep but it's the deepest spot on the property, and it gets sun, the river is still icy cold so it's only good at midday wen the sun is in it.

Helping Daniel tidy up, cleared some more scrub to make space, moved 2 caravans and a lot of building materials, timber, sheets of iron and gum poles. between the swimming down at our new beach of course.

Went to visit Simon, across the rd from Dans, up a long rough narrow track, makes you feel like you are way out in the bush. Simon's camp is a shipping container with a big tarp, kitchen & everything at the side of the container under the tarp, a bunch of caravans and a giant Volvo bus, with queen sized bed, couch, TV, computer and air con!, and a nice big fire in the middle, all running off a generator.  Helped him tidy up a but, planted out some gardens, exchange for dinner and s few beers. We can also camp there. Two new good friends willing to help us out wherever they can.

I have found a local market, at Speewah Tavern,  which has everything I need except meat, all local produce, eggs, dried fruit, a lot is spray free or organic. Very low food miles,
And very friendly people.

I'm starting to like this spot, apart from the lack of fish. Oh and I found a chocolate pudding tree ( black saporte ) at Dan's. If you haven't tried them they are amazing, even though they look rotten when ripe, if I can beat the bandicoots.

6' Guinea grass 

Clohsey River, our drinking water source. 

Bush camp. 

Collected some fire wood with Dans chainsaw & bush basher car. 

The Donkey. Endless Hot water. 

Private beach. 

Friendly Bandicoot about the size of a cat, looks like a giant rat. 

Fixed my bottle jack. 

300mm Skink escaped our clean ups. 

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