Touring near Cairns- Week 2 waterfalls and caves.

Another week off back at Cairns, need it after 21days of work.
Once more truck is already packed up and ready to go, everything I own is in there. stopped at the farmers market and butcher to fill up the fridge. Headed south to the next range rd going up to the tablelands, inland from Inisfail and Mission beach, the Palmerston.

Josephine falls was a great spot to stop for lunch,   a huge deep pool with crystal clear water,  catfish cleaning the bottom and a waterslide waterfall!,  and that wasn't even the best part of the view lol. Found a free camp near by at gold hole,  but decided to carry on up the Palmerston. This rd is locally famous as the main part of the "waterfalls circuit":

Josephine falls

• Tchupala falls
• Walacha falls

Henrietta creek for a swim and lunch. This was a nice camp spot too but it was full up. So we continue on.

• Nandroya falls
• Silver falls 

Left into the thick forest to an old logging camp for the night. Continued up the Palmerston range to

• Suoita falls
• Pepina falls
• Zillie falls
• Mangali falls & Mungali Creek dairy factory, awesome milk with cream on top.
• Ellinjaa falls
• Mila Mila falls, Mila Mila town & Milla Milla look out, Mila is water in aboriginal and it's a very suitable name,  alot of waterfalls around these parts, we visited 11 within a couple days, was too many to swim them all. 

Oh and for dinner we checked out dinner falls and the crater, hard to describe but it's a like a giant post hole straight down into the rock,  50m wide 100m deep I estimate, very impressive.

Found another free camp after trying a few unsuitable ones, past the rain forest and into the dry euclypt bushland. The next day, Herberton for the info center To Help decide Where to go next.

Due west, follow the signs towards Darwin, stopped at an old cob & co horse and coach stop for lunch,  but not much left,  just a sign post and some concrete pads, be good to have a look around with a metal detector. 

Carried on to Chillagoe where there is the remains of a old  mine & smelter plant. And saw an ausco camp (same as the camp we are building at work,  but they get grass and gardens,  we get dust or mud.

There are over 600 limestone caves at Chilligoe, for safety reasons only 6 are open to public, the rest are accessible via the caving club. But any little track off the road leads to a cave if you know where to look. The entrances are safe to explore if you are careful not to go too far in. And they make good private camping spots.

Visited several sites including some amazing rock art and a type of cave that was mostly sheltered overhangs and catherdrel type,  that where once home to aboriginals. 

Camped that night down a side track near a rocky outcrop with several restricted caves and rock formations. Through out the night we thought we could hear a noise like a puppy or injured animal, in the morning while having an early coffee I herd it again,  went for a short walk through the maze of rocks being careful not to get lost,  and Spoted a couple little fluffy looking dingo pups. Decide they where OK and didn't want to disturb them so kept my distance, mum was probably out hunting and they where calling to her. 

2more caves pompie, another one,  they are pretty intense, hard to get into and many directions to explore. Difficult to climb around diffinatly need a torch. There is no need to go into the restricted caves when these ones are so good. Especially when only have a couple days. 

Found a place to swim under the coolabaa trees had a cuppa then all the way back to Cairns, all in 6days. What to do next time.

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Cairns -Touring 1 week at a time.

Atherton Tablelands- Looks alot like NZ

Been working 3weeks on 1week off for a while now. To ensure that I'm ready to go back to work I try to get out away from the city ( Cairns) and explore. Since I live in my truck already it's easy, quick top up of food from butcher & farmers market and I'm ready. Doing  Lots of short trips every time I'm back for my week off from Weipa. Have to do something to be ready to go back to 3weeks of boring work, did I say that twice. 

The travel  to work is good, plane ride, ferry ride 4x4 bus ride, but the work is boaring and stuck within the camp boarders gets a bit much, also we are not allowed to take photos and post stuff on social media so it's just work anyway. 

Week 1-

Looking south east towards cairns city and Yarraba peninsula from the lookout on kuranda range.

So all packed up, wasn't sure where to go so headed south to Babinda Boulders, where there is a free camp, it's a great spot I stopped at on the way north last year. Perfect day for swimming, then it rained which made it even better, a warm tropical down pour while I was in the big deep pool. A great spot to unwind from 3weeks of boring work. 

                                   Cool waters of the Chlosey,  surrounded by rainforest.

The next day I headed north back through Cairns and up onto the tablelands to Kuranda, checked out the Barron falls and a few of my old camp sites from when I wasn't working away. One of them is close to the Clohsey River,  Curtain fig tree, another was right under another curtain fig,  an enormous dinosaur tree the photos don't do it justice.

Curtain fig, the dinosaur tree time forgot

A rare sight, spotted quol only found in FNQ and very rare. they belong to the tassie devil family. 

Droped in at an old friends camp,  Daniel to get kayak back,  finally. Afew things missing but it's been awhile.  On through the tablelands through Mareeba down to Atherton & Crystal Caves, an amazing collection of crystals set up on display in a man made cave. Further down the tablelands to Malanda & dairy factory where I used to work and Lake Echam, a beautiful blue volcanic crater lake,  where I also camped while I was working at the dairy factory. Nice walk around the lake past another curtain fig tree that I actually climbed up last time I was here.
Took canoe out for a test run ,cant remeber how to paddle LOL been that long since I had it. 

Got to Yungaburra on the right day for the biggest of many tablelands market, stocked up on nice fresh food,  including some to take back to work,  hope it's not too heavy. Oh and some amazing  local tablelands grass-fed wagyu beef, direct off the farmer at a ridiculously cheap price. I lived of this meat when I was up this way. 

Just out of Yungaburra is a creek,  with Platypus and a maimai (viewing hide), this isn't the first platypus I've seen but cirtainly the least shy,  he must get alot if visitor's. Back down the Gillies range to get ready to go back to work. Can't believe I drove this road twice a day while half asleep working 2 jobs. Seems like just a dream now but I know every corner and every rockface.

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Bamaga - Cairns - Weipa.........

Bamanga - Cairns - Weipa.-Packed up in a hurry, hope I got everything this time, not leaving anything like last time. Found a good fishing rod tube another worker most of left behind, James and Pierce dropped Herman and myself to the airport and went back to 'work' (probably the pub, LOL), it was about smoko time, and I realised my flash coffee mug was still in work Ute, no coverage to ring and get it dropped off, will have to get it posted to Weipa. Its a real good cup, Contigo one $35 new, I found it at 2nd hand shop for $0.50, still new. and keeps coffee hot for hours, and spill proof.

So on the plane  to Cairns ,with 2x25kg tool bags and rod tube, everyone was jealous of my home made lunch, it's just a habit now. Down to Cairns, into the workshop, pick up truck, go to Jame's house, repack for Weipa, catch up with my mates at Rusty's Market again for supplies, back to workshop on Monday, mine inductions, and a piss test LOL. and I passed the piss test too, no surprise there. 

Choc banana ice cream/ smoothie,
 2 frozen bananas, 1 egg, cream & water to blend, tsp honey, tsp cacao, tsp coconut oil drop of vanilla.

So fly  to Weipa on Tuesday, now I find out I must wait in Weipa for the full induction on Thursday, so I picked up the work Ute from parking and went to the house our boss has for his Weipa workers, & went fishing. Tried a few spots with a lure, no luck,and was very windy. Next day I grabbed a small pack of bait and went for a drive to find somewhere out of the wind. I nice quiet spot under the rail bridge on the way to Mapoon. Chucked a bait in and started flicking the lure again, no luck on the lure but while I wasn't watching my other line something grabbed it and snagged it under a log, that's OK, that's what I wanted, to find out whats there. So broke that rig off and set another in the sane spot, instantly had bites and pulled in a 30cm brim, followed by a 25cm, ( I called them dinner and Breakfast  ) and a 20cm which I threw back.  So yes, awesome caught my dinner. Didn't have to buy anything, except bait. 

Now onto induction in the morning with fish in my lunchbox, and ferry over the Embley River. I am unsure what I am allowed to talk about the project on social media / Internet, but it's just work, Air cons in Donga buildings like the old days at ATCO. All in a line all the same, with the addition of a lot of safety rules, and a remote location, oh and a lot of sun & red dust. 

Sometimes I imagine I'm on the moon, work boots, long pants, long sleeve shirt, gloves, hard hat with brim and neck shade, safety glasses, walking through the red bull dust( super fine powder dust) like walking on the moon. Oh and that gear is just normal minimum requirement, have to add lots of extras if you actually want to do any work: face shield, dust mask, earplugs etc. 

Had a camp fire on our Sunday arvo off. For aboriginal culture week, NADOC.- The local elders and traditional owners came to speak, welcomed us to their country, so that the spirits of the old people accept us, and told stories. Was very interesting, and a campfire always makes a place feel like home. 

The food is a bit average, but managed to survive by selecting the better things on offer and sometimes hoarding a bit in my room from dinner & breakfast, for when there is nothing good on offer, and 10days without butter is hard to do. But they finally got some more. Started taking a box of food with me to supplement my diet, makes it a bit more bearable.

Finished installing & fixing the Air cons now I've gotta clean them. Boss sent up some nice new tools. Battery pressure washer, & a big vinyl bag that hangs under the Air con so I can hose it out, works great. 

They let us go to the beach, quite surprised really. Really nice spot, fishing, beach cricket, long walks or just chilling in the shade after a long hard hot dusty week. Caught a few fish, reef sharks, Bluebone, Queenfish, Flathead, Catfish, Brim.  but unfortunately we are not allowed to keep them, which actually makes sense when there so many of us. 

So 4x 3 week swings and we have finished the camp, not sure who they are getting to do the next stage. hopefully  us, yep its us, so ongoing work, hopefully I can stick at it for awhile.its pretty rough this full time work thing.

Fly back to Cairns, change oil in truck & tidy stuff up, if there no work for a while I mite go exploring somewhere.

A soft fresh termite mound,  sprung up out of the dry red dirt overnight. #nofilter that's just how red everything is here. 

Try to catch a few sunsets after work,  on the way to my room, reminds me of camping. 

2 nice brim, 35cm (breakfast)  &45cm (dinner).  Better than the food they serve at work. :( 

New on left,  old on right,  not to fit it all in and carry it: to airport,  on plane,  on bus, on ferry,  on another bus,  then to room and work. 

Bower Birds Bower, an elaborate display that the bower bird builds to attract females each one is different as its built to each birds individual liking, utilising what ever is available including our rubbish. 

Found this under the back hedge in weipa after I saw and herd the bird singing &dancing. 

Another good sunset. 

SUNSET

The Embley river. We catch a ferry across takes 40mins. 

Sunset 

Barramundi painting by a local arukuun artist. 

They actually let us have a campfire for NADOC week  

Sunrise,  Wat you can't view is a bunch of work to be done in the dust. 

My new work mate,  doesn't say much,  or do much work,  just lays in the shade eating caterpillars. 

A glimpse of weipa bauxite mine as we fly in. 

Scar tree display, the scars left from stone tools of aboriginal, most from harvesting native honey from stingless bees.  The mine gets the traditional owners  to identify them in areas that will be cleared and save them. 

Couple of air-cons I finished off in cairns while waiting to get mine clearance. I actually prepared this job on my first day of work nearly 1year ago. 

Icy,  it's not supposed to do that. 

They actually let us go to the beach. In singlet, shorts & jandals/barefeet  shocked. It's a good spot to relax in the shade after a 66hr week, on our only 4hr afternoon off. Better that looking at buildings and red dust. 

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