well been here about 12 days now.
had a few outings.
One was to Greenmount Homestead, not that far if you know where you are going, but we managed to take wrong roads and saw a lot of sugar cane fields for a while. In our favour there were road wokrs and the sign had been taken down so we did pass the place prob 3 times while huffing and puffing at each other me being blamed for map reading and me blaming tom because i was hot in the car !!!GRIN!
so we found it ...........it was a Homestead kept as it was in the 1930's owned by the Cook family who were into sugar and cattle.. It was a nice short wander around the house and the garden.



the little corrugated tin shed was the abode of the aboriginal couple, in the 1913-to 1930's must have been extremely hot in ther, mud floors, an ol metal bed and a rusty range was still inside.



Not hard to imagine how life was , when you see it even now, reminded me of the slave huts in south carolinas plantations, after that the housekeeper was given a quarter in the house.



The last housekeeper Gloria was treated very well and became a loved part of the family and allowed to live on when the house went to national trust. We met her and she was saying how much nicer the house was when it was full of people, i could see she was a bit alone there with her memories.

We have been back and forth to the beach and got rather sunburnt..........mustnt forget to slip slap slop as they say..............


I was paddling the other day and saw the lifeguard aiming her board staright at me, i thought whys she doing this , but she was coming to tell me to leave the water as a shark siting had been told by some girls on boards.............toute suite i was out !! then the red flags came out and off they went in a lifeguard boat to look for him or her or maybe it ended up a big fish and not a shark i dont know................next day all was back to normal.



We went to the rainforest by car, decided to break this inot 2 trips as too much to do in one trip so going again tomorrow.
the first trip was to finch hatton gorge............stopping first for tea and cake.



we didnt bring any water with us which was silly , the car went over a number of fords acorss mountain streams which were quite shallow compared to when it rains id imagine judging by the meter high measures..................







and along dusty unmaintaned roads.........i did notice when we got to a parking area everyone had four by fours and where we were in the ecomomy car with bycyle wheel size tryes.................hmmm...........we started to walk up the paths thru the thick rainforest, birds and animals sounds and also silence.....


towards the waterfalls at the top............i was sooooooooooo hot and i came over a bit sicly, i think lack of water. next time we are equipped.



the way back was easier than the way up thats for sure.




stopped off on route home for a take away pinnacle pie from the pinacle hotel famous for its pies and also we both sunk a large beer really quickly as we were desperatly thirsty.......pies were yummy...........and great to eat as weve been rabbits for a while and salad can get a bit boring so calories felt good !!

got home and found out my debit card had been cloned and someone was trying to spend all my money good job the bank got on to it quick......think it was in the states but maybe in england before i left .......so thats sorted out..........

the sugar cane harvest started in june and finished in december so it show how many fields there are it goes on and on for hundreds of miles i think.............. there is a nice sweet smell when you go past the harvester which is similar to our combines..............the cut sugar cane is them loaded inot lots of metal baskets which are on tiny rail lines...........they are all connected and thers a little train which takes it all back to the refinery...........but these trains and the lines zig zag all over all the fields and also across roads, there are little junctions and most roads you drive down there are crossings which arent gated just have lights to stop traffic, the trains are little choo choos and dont go very fast...........





the actual refineries are huge and in and around the main town of Mackay which is where we flew in about 20 mins drive from here............as you drive past the sugar refinery it smelles of molasses...............

so back at the house here...........we have been invited to dinner at another neighbours house Herman, a german man who lives half here and half in indonesia. His house is on stilts and a lovley green wooden home with verandsa ll around that have a stunning view across the creek the view was like a tropical island. Herman ,a sweet man, had us for dinner with Jimmy and Kay who are very nice. Made us very welcome and a yummy lamb meal.




we had the kookaburra visit us he was not impressed when i gave him bread and he wasnt budging,



it was as if he said come on you know what i want but of course he didnt know we are POMS...... and poms dont know what to feed kookaburras..........


but this pom does know now and its meat and more meat...........he had a bit of our mince dinner........as he had

They all seem very sociable and proper neighbours in the sense they keep and eye on each others homes and there are no fences between them, today Jimmy was out cutting the grass all around they all muck in and cut the grass for each other.





well we are back to the rainforest tomorrow , a dferant spot and hope to see some platypuses.............
did i say woolies was alive and kicking down under............shame it went bust in england eh



we have about 10 more days here and then were are off to the Whitsunday Islands for a few days and then up to Etty Bay and no doubt it will get hotter and hotter............i actually found myself saying the other day oh good some clouds and then thought my god sue dont say that, i will some wish for sun when im back home eh !

lors of love to all, miss home at times, and the kids and the cats........xxxxxxxxxxxx