Farewell to the tropics .... for now ...

Header Photo: Part of walking trail at Hervey's Range Tea Rooms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tonight is my last night in my home town with my extended visit coming to a close .... well, for now - but that's another story.   It's the tropics and it is POURING tonight.  It is good, it is needed.
It has been such a precious time with my children; simply blending in with the routine of day to day life and immersing myself in this north Queensland tropical town (albeit in the crisp, cool months) all over again; revisiting the old, and exploring the new..... and catching up with some old friends.
I wonder what Christmas in the tropics would be like?  Mmm, now there's a thought.  Here in Oz we melt.

This time tomorrow night I will be back 'home' (full day in transit!)  Many things have occurred during my absence but most concerning for me is that the 'Team' have not faired entirely well but an update on that will ensue after I have all of the details.

I'll be back blogging in a few short days, and I'll leave you with some pics to enjoy - a tribute to these amazing people in my life - who just happen to be 'mine'.

'Home-girl' & hubs

Grandson - 'Jack', a real "star"

'Spice-girl' & hubs

 

~~~~~~~~~~~

.......... and a few shots I've taken with my new CAM, playing with some of the features when visiting the Hervey's Range Heritage Tea Rooms. 'Spice-girl' totally surprised me with a Sunday drive up to the Tea Rooms - it was a beautiful day and a wonderful outing. (click any pics to enlarge for reading or better detail)
                                                                                           (This is my personal favourite)

...... and an Aussie billabong out the back along the walking trail

and a little further I was charmed to see a real "bush Chapel" through the trees - so totally unexpected

...... a lot of old things were strewn around

 

..... and some shiny new beauties were carefully parked, but not a sign of the riders anywhere Jim B.!

(Click to enlarge if you would like to read it - and scroll down and across etc)

We did NOT choose the Kopi Luwak from the menu selection!  Has anyone out there indulged in this?

Click HERE to find out about CAT POO Coffee!

HAPPY BLOGGING and TAKE CARE

'Another' full moon in the tropics...and a bit of flesh

Header Photo: (taken from our day on the Strand, and 'Homegirl' is shocked at what she sees [below])
                          Yes, you guessed it folks - a NUDE lone bather on our family friendly beach. ;)

Oh, I digress from my post's title. 

Here's another stunning full moon rising behind 'Spicegirl's' house this evening.  

It was quite wonderful to be able to easily watch the partial lunar eclipse happening tonight but the photos I took did not show it at all. :(

PS: Just recently Blogger has (once again) changed it's format for the dreaded Word Verification.

I discovered this when visiting a few of my favourite Blogs who insist on keeping Word Verification

(which is simply NOT necessary) sorry no offence intended. Anyway it is now even more difficult,

with 8 tries at one Blog, 4 tries at another and 5 tries and 2 knock-backs at yet another!!

I am almost at the stage where I will be joining hundreds of others who now refuse to comment on

Blogs with Word Verification. I will continue to visit but am unsure if I will continue to comment,

such is the frustration of this unnecessary feature.

The ONLY WAY you can tell if you have Word Verification turned ON is if you SIGN OUT of

your own Blog and visit your own Blog as a visitor and have a try at COMMENTING!! If you

find your first try 'easy', you were just plain lucky!

(Get rid of your Word Verification and if you feel its necessary, select the "wont show until after Blog owner approval" instead.)   :)

HAPPY BLOGGING!

Day 32 ...... weekend trip north to Cairns

Header photo:  taken by Rose from lookout near top of Atherton Tablelands


We left Townsville 6.45am Saturday and arrived in Cairns at noon.  The trip up was picturesque, green, lush and oh-so-tropical, but with a twist - it was bordering on chilly which is unusual for the far north tropics. It showered on and off which was kind of nice as well.  I took hundreds of photos but more than half are either fuzzy due to travel blur or, blurry due to 'shake'. And many of the perfect shots are totally uninteresting!  Hence, why I am not and never will be the world famous photographer I see in my dream-state.

Travelling north to Cairns we kept to the coastal highway, with the return trip on Monday being via the glorious Atherton Tablelands.

The further north we traveled the more sugarcane farms and banana plantations we passed.

We got that 'room with a view' but no sunshine!

Coming home via the Atherton Tablelands - beautiful farms abound up here.

and the jungle meets the road in many sections....

..... beautiful rainforest trees at every turn

Catch one of these in the many lakes Jim!

With many towns on the t'lands averaging an elevation between 600-920 metres I could easily live up here!

One would need a week up here to fully explore all of the t'lands natural wonders - pristine creeks, rivers, waterfalls and deep volcanic lakes. And not to mention the quaint little villages.

HAPPY BLOGGING

I am now looking forward to paying everyone a visit and catching up on your posts!

Day 21.... architecture.... and some oddities...

I have a busy weekend ahead and it starts tonight with a sleep-over at my best friend's house. And on Sunday there's a pool party here at 'Spice-girl's' to celebrate her hubs birthday. So I may not get the chance to visit your Blog until Monday. But I will, and look forward to it as there are sure to be lots of new posts up out there.
I'll leave you with some Townsville architecture and other bits and pieces. Enjoy!

The old (above) and the newer (below) - inner city

The old above and the newer aquarium - inner city

Two lovely old pubs on the Strand - above is the Queens Hotel and below is the "Cri"

Some beautifully designed homes on the lower reaches of Castle Hill overlooking Cleveland Bay

I'm awfully sorry to interrupt this post, but I no longer feel comfortable in calling this local 'strange', 'weird' or 'odd'.  The dedication to the 'sport'/'past-time'?? is striking to say the least,  and my admiration swells - she's been at "it" for 3 days straight now. . . . . . .

On a far, far more worrying note is how these locals dress to go out for afternoon tea.  I can only but fervently pray that neither of these peculiarities are in any way catching or heaven forbid that as time passes they become appealing to the visitor...er, you know, like to 'give it a go'.............

And I'll leave you with the lovely old Customs Building on the Strand.

Happy Blogging!

Day 18 .... a day at the local beaches

We visited the Strand, Cape Pallarenda and drove the windy road to the top of Castle Hill today.  It was very difficult to decide which pics to post as there were so many good ones. We had the best day - please enjoy the local scenery and a couple of, er ..... very strange 'locals'.

Taken from the look-out top of Castle Hill (above & below)

Along  the Strand (above and below) looking out over Cleveland Bay

A lone kite flyer at Cape Pallarenda (above and below) with Magnetic Island in the background.

And here - those very strange locals doing very strange things in a Moreton Bay Fig tree.

Blogger has given me more grief tonight than it ever has before. Inserting the photos was an absolute nightmare. This is the first time it has really frustrated me. 
Here's hoping the next lot will be easy-peasy. I'll try again in 48 hours.

HAPPY BLOGGING