New Generations

Spent time talking to the 11 and 13 yar old whiz kids of tomorrow. Their IT interest is all driven by their game space at the moment eg gaming platforms like Steam and the best browsers to get at the stuff.  Open Source Software is my hobby horse says the 13 yar old.  "Netscape" was the first browser, I say, and it was turned into OpenSource. Then they chime in with "Yes it was the basis for Chrome, Opera and Firefox".  These guys will be running the World from their lounge rooms.

Remember this.

No Pain No Gain

That's ok if you are training but us retirees are meant to be putting our feet up, except when your back starts irking and the ever present crooked fingers are giving trouble. That's nothing compared to the pain of trying to replace a broken DVD player. Four weeks ago I placed an order for the next Panasonic model home theatre. Now they tell me its out of production and there is no replacement. I have cables in the walls I say. Sorry we only have floor standing towers.  I have now put in for a Sony complete with another set of six speakers.

Can you have a 12 speaker system?

Too Caso-Wary

One of the things to tick off is spying a Cassowary. But we could not find one. The signs were everywhere. We lingered at the cassowary crossings but no birds. However we did bust a bustard. This is an equally big bird and rare as well. These are big and we saw a pair of them.

Big Bird Bustard

Between Planes

Were fully deviced! The IPad app for virgin is working well now. I had to delete and reinstall it after our last flight to get to Hamilton Is. The Everest film is around 2 hrs and the flight from Townsville to Brisbane is 1 hr 38min, how inconsiderate. We have also been in contact with the Tower here at the airport, not something you do everyday. I have arranged for our next flight to take runway priority. haha.  This is the second time I have been to Brisbane. The last time was in 1976 and I passed thru on a bus. This time just passing thru again. 

Ground Control

Paper Maps don't lie

We were using the phone to navigate to Townsville airport but there are numerous airports mostly RAAF and the phone had trouble distinguishing between. Always have a paper map nearby.  The airport wifi seems to work ok. It's 28 degrees here we will land in 14 degree temps. I think we need to return in better weather and also pick an island that is closer to the Great Barrier. Highlights this time around would be Whitehaven, Paluma, Undara and the Bush Breakfast. This was just like a Rogaine Hash House but with waiters.

Adjustable Toaster

Undara - Long Way

As in 150000 yar ago the lava flowed along way in order to make the lava tubes.  The Undara volcanoe was a gentle slow oozer.  The lava filled the creek beds then cooled at the surface but kept flowing in the centre.  After 18 months the lava ran out and left kilometres of tunnel. Only 8 short sections of up to 700 metres can be walked as a tour. These tunnels are huge.  We also walked up the Kalkani volcanoe and around the rim of the crater. Very similar to the Mt Eccles walk we did years ago.

Undara Tube

Low Profile Undara Crater

Then and Now Pool Shredder

Notice my use of shred.  Only hip cool bloggers use shred.  Try not to clothes peg your nose this time but at least this picture got in before the fingers reached the nostrils. Just.

2005 Blue Sky  jumper

2016 Grey Sky

80 yar old tree

Had a look at Rowes Bay Caravan Park in Townsville. In 1951 you just picked a spot say under a gum tree. That tree is still there but a lot bigger.

set up 1951 style

same spot 2016

Lugger Bay

Haven't had bikes out so far this time so we hired two for $15 each for the day.  We rode in rain the whole time, including lunch, it was a five hour period. The rain worsened steadily until it was a drenching downpour for the last hour. As I look out the balcony now it is fining up and I can see lighter cloud.  It was around 25 or 26 degrees for the ride. Lugger Bay was a 2 km walk at the end. Large forest trees backed right onto the beach very impressive. 

Lugger Bay

Rainy Ride

Dry Season NOT!

We were here during a cyclone. Come back in July they said, It's the dry season they said.  Don't believe it. It has been raining for 8 days. We drove through three hours of bucketing rain this morning. We have managed to dodge most of it and it has been muggy at 27 degrees today.  Mission Beach is a great sweeping beach with the classic palm trees drooping at the edge. It reminds me of Port Douglas but this beach seems better.

Mission Beach - I have decided to accept it!

WaterMark

I saw a Frenchman on the beach today wearing thongs. Not unusual you say, but his name was Phillipe Phillop.  Back in Townsville the Watermark restaurant gave us the best meal so far. I had Barramundi and desert was home made apple pie.  I recommend it.

BarraMundi on HungryTuesdi

World's biggest Dog Bath

I saw a dog have a crazy moment. It was spooked, probably sniffed the wrong dog or something and was running through the underbrush dragging the table it was attached to.  The café owner was chasing it, the dog owner was chasing it and passer byes were adding to the may hem. Some time later how do you think this dog owner was going to get the grass seeds out of its bum? Why don't I wash it in the swimming pool.  I was just about to jump in when I took the photo. I believe I have footage of the dragging table incident but that will have to wait.

Too bad Life Guards can't arrest people

Paluma

Drove for an hour or so to Paluma. This is a great waterfall and swimming hole with an old bridge nearby at a place called Little Crystal Creek. If you are ever driving down Highway One to Townsville then call in here for a look.  It reminds me of places I have seen in Europe like the Diablo Bridge in France but on a smaller scale. The swimming here is like a natural bubble bath but a bit cooler.




Little Crystal Creek upstream view 

WaterSlide



Townsville

This is around the 4th or 5th time we have stayed in Townsville, each time in a different hotel. We are on the 10th floor of the Aquarius another high balcony view this time of Magnetic Island. The 3 hour drive was OK  with a bakery stop in Home Hill. Did another then and now photo of the bridge over the Burdekin River. If you have a spider problem don't walk across this bridge.

No cars in 1951

2016 traffic city

Orb

The Beak

Conway National Park has some large walks like the Great Whitsunday Walk however we were looking for a shorter effort and the 5km return trip to the Beak was it.  We found a small waterfall along the way and came onto Coral Beach. This is literally covered in old coral with no sand at all. The beak has a wooden tower for a view over the water.

Edible Fruit

Hard Rock Coral

Airlie Beach

We were Early at Airlie so fluffed around with slow time looking at the craft market, then some coffee then some ham off the bone cooked sandwiches for lunch.  We have a Mitsubishi SUV type car now but have only used it to get to the Marina Shores. This place is an apartment so we are going to eat in with barbecues and our own cooked breakfast.  All our meals on the island were restaurants. Last nights was the most interesting being Asian Fusion at one stage we were making our own spring rolls. The roast duck was good stuff.

Coca Chu Asian

Marina Shores Apartments

Coral Cove

We have been here twice and both times on rainy days.  We smuggled out four croissants with ham and some cakes from the breakfast venue. We made a makeshift seat and table from drift wood and with the champagne had a great lunch, watching the rain sweep across the beach.  It was also a steep road in and out and slippery with gravel. After all that it only takes one step on a wet deck and you end up flat on your back.

Lunch on the Beach

Creeper Orchid

Ice Pack Bruiser

Passage Peak

Walked about 9 km today on a round trip to Passage Peak. It has a distant view of the Whitehaven inlet from a different direction. The sun has not arrived today and the wind has picked up as well. Our balcony is north facing so is largely unaffected by the southerly wind. There are a number of walks to coves on the south side which we will try tomorrow.

PS Good riding by Michael Mathews yesterday.  We spent a couple of nights inside the Carcassonne walls a few years back. Very tricky to get in as cars are left outside.



Distant Whitehaven

Lord Howe vs Hamilton

Both of these islands have an airport, coral reefs, hills, walking trails, roads, transport. Hamilton is bigger and more convenient, easier to get to via both ferries and jet planes and golf buggy cars are included in your stay, if you are staying at either end of the island. This time we are at Reef View in the centre of the main beach action and where the walking trails start. Overall I would say Lord Howe is better. Go there first. 

2006 Did they sell this statue?

Cyclone Larry 10 yar ago

Is Stat ue still dere

These trees have grown.

Whitehaven

This is a squeaky beach like the best of them with the very fine mica.  I can see why this beach is one of the best 10 in the world. Even though it was Bourke St it is still a good thing to do despite being outnumbered by school kids. Just keep walking and you can leave them all behind. Another approach to this is to camp right at the beach and watch all the day trippers disappear. Don't leave any food for the goannas.

Picnic lunch provided

Your Go Anna! campsite prowler

Beach Day

Make beach while the sun shines. We are hearing that an Antarctic blast is on its way so it is amazing to be swaning around in a bikini in the middle of July. We idled the day away and finished off on the balcony15 floors up where we had a moment with 10 cockatoos.

Hello

Hamilton Reef

Whilst the conference call with NCAT is going on I can always do a blog post. We snorkeled out to the reef this morning. It is a deep section with a reef wall. Well worth the 500 metres to get there and you can walk half of it. Not as colourful as other areas we have been to. There were rainbow colours in the fish and some quite blue plates of coral. We also saw a large clam and a ray in the shallows.

Sunrise Orb

9:00am Snorkel

Hamilton Revisited

It was around 10 yar ago I visited Hamilton Island in January. There was a cyclone hitting the place and they said you have come during the rainy season and you should come back during winter.  Today was 23 degrees but the local forecast is saying rain for the rest of our stay. Hopefully that wont be the case. We are in the Reef View Hotel, which looks to be an original built back in the day but there is a lot of room and the bed is facing right out to the WhitSunday Island.

From our balcony

From our balcony

Berry Good Poo

Had another session up a rickety ladder cleaning off dark matter from white surfaces. We have tracked down the source to a tree next door where dark currant like berries are hanging in bunches by their thousands.  The electric company has severely cut this tree and now there is an explosion of berries. I'm thinking some flock of fruit eaters are stuffing themselves silly then getting spooked and crapping their selves during a hasty retreat.

Top of the Ladder 

Unprocessed Poo

Strike revisited

My hands are getting worse especially where bowling is concerned. Nevertheless managed to get over a score of 100 with some spares and strikes along the way. It's a good party venue but I'm not sure about the mighty Quinn crawling between the bowling balls.

Laura got lessons from Fred Flintstone

Molly 22 already

The Black Box

This is the $6 book I got when the Hall St bookshop was closing down. A 400 page fast read through a 20 yar old cold case, although the detective who solved it was actually at the scene 20 yar earlier. Michael Connelly has churned out plenty of books including The Lincoln Lawyer. This was made into a film in 2011.  At Clunes last week, the Lincoln Lawyer was available in our room and we hadn't seen it. I put the DVD in the slot but I could not get it to play. I wiped it, I cleaned it but it would not play.  DOOHH.

Cold Case

The case of the broken DVD

Quinn the Eskimo

Started off quiet enough with one visitor Caroline Kennedy.  She wanted to take a photo of our shriveled toadie stools. "No problem" I said. "By the way do you want a hat?" she said, "for the Mickey Mouse".  "OK" I said. "I'll drop it around with the photos of the toadies." she said. Then the long lost relos from Darwin dropped in being Brian, Jennifer and Marie not forgetting they had Pam in tow. Laura came after that looking for a needle in a hay stack and then Elyce arrived with   Cowhen, Lincoln and Quinn.

"You'll not see nothing like the Mighty Quinn"

Air PnP

Yes air poo and lots of it.  We had a strafing run last week. We have a white house, recently painted, a white car, a white fence. None of these go with the black bombardment we have had. If you stand back you can admire the pattern of splatter and see the direction and angle that it has been delivered. I have just now cleaned off a second lot from a different direction.  It has to be a large flock but how do they co-ordinate all shitting at the same time?

Paint eating bat shit