Thursday 20th January 2023

So, what's been happening since the lat entry. Well the weather has continued to be very mixed - very hot and sticky and lots and lots of rain. Infact on the television it showed a placed that we drove through on our way - Proserpine - which had 317mm ( 31.7cm) of rain!!

Reasonably quiet week, but once again our supposed Hot air Balloon flight was cancelled due to the weather. We are hopeful that it will happed this Saturday as the long range forecast is reasonably good.

Sunday 15th January

We met up with friends and family for a get together lunch at hotel in Tolga (which is on the Atherton Tablelands) - which are somewhat reminiscence of the English countryside. 16 of us in total and in usual 'Aussie style' a bit of a free for all - everyone offering and paying for their own meals which were not necessarily delivered in the same order. Again, usual 'Aussie amount of food. Diet when we get back home.

Monday 16th January

Merle and I took off from the farm and headed for the coastal towns. We booked three nights at a lovely resort in Trinity Beach which is north of Cairns. We had a lovely relaxed drive down from the farm - over age famous Kuranda Range, stopped for lunch, did a bit of shopping and made our way to the resort. We visited some of the other beaches as well. We had a very nice ensuite unit with a kitchenette. Just relaxed. 

Tuesday 17th January

Merle was up early and had a nice swim in the pool - had the pool to herself.  Walked up to the local shops, and back to the beach area where we had one of the mandatory 'coffees', and generally did a bit of exploring - Trinity Beach is a lovely place, but like all of the beaches you cannot swim in the sea except within the prescribed 'stinger net' areas. We are currently in the ''''''stinger ' season - 'Stingers' being Box Jelly Fish' which f you get stung by can be very very painful and sometime fatal - not to mention that there is also the possibility of a hunger 'croc' somewheres about. Our grand-daughter Hannah, who lives and works in Cairns, came over to Trinity for dinner. we found a very pleasant Italian restaurant in town and had a very pleasant early evening meal with her - guess what - it actually rained and rained and rained!!

Wednesday 18th January

Wednesday, we took off to Hartleys Crocodile Experience which is 20 minutes or so up the coast road. We spent pretty much the whole day there - and yes - it did rain and rain - but it didn't spoil the day at all. We had some good fun. The highlight I suppose for many is the trip around a large lake area which is invested with approximately 30 crocodiles, and you are guaranteed to see them, including watching them trying to grab food. see the photos and video below:

we also saw a fantastic selection of other animals, birds and snakes. Below are a few pix of some of them - owls, koalas, the kookaburra, large (1+metre long) Iguana, the Cassowary ( particularly rare and extremely dangerous non flying bird, and it is big (emu sized), Wombat.

During the afternoon we were entertained with a 'snake' experience where we saw, experienced(didn't hold) both a non venomous Python and an extremely venomous Taipan. It was very entertaining and informative - especially the bit about what to do if you do unfortunately get bitten - 'don't panic' he said!!! Then proceeded to demonstrate what to do.

This was followed by an equally impressive display and experience involving a guy and a 3 metre+ crocodile. Lots of fun, lots of croc splashing about trying to catch him, but again very informative.

We got very wet during the day, but it really didn't make any difference, it was a great fun day out. Then back to Trinity Beach.

Thursday 19th January

We left Trinity beach in the morning and went south down into Cairns, and in particular the harbour area where we haven't visited for a number of years. It was very sad to see the Pier (a large complex of shops and cafe's) almost empty of them and obviously not many people. We did manage to find a cafe for yet another 'coffee'. There was also a large cruise ship in the harbour so we had a very pleasant walk down through the gardens to the cruise ship, and met a very pleasant lady with whom we had a good chat.

Decided to make our way slowly back to the farm, so stopped off for a lunch, followed by a nice drive back over the Kuranda Range and towards Atherton ( more coffee) and then back to the farm. all in all a lovely and relaxing break.

The weather forecast looks promising for the weekend - so hopefully we'll get to do the Balloon flight.