Tazzie Talk 9

Beautiful Paronella Park

Tazzie Talk 9

I’ve just had an absolutely amazing time this week and a bit.  My favourite thing was Paronella Park and that was just beautiful.



The waterfall lit up at night

 Paronella Park

I looked out of the window of the car to see this scene that looked like a page of a fairy tale. It was the most beautiful site ever. It had 2 waterfalls and 2 castles. It was all built by a man named Jose Paronella a man with a massive dream.

He built everything by hand and it was just amazing. I loved the 2^nd waterfall. He named it after his daughter. Come on dad I would like a waterfall too, go find me one!!! The first waterfall was bigger and you could swim in the river right next to the waterfall. The castles had passed the test of time. They survived Yasi and Anthony. They have had a bit of damage done to them but I would have expected much more.



you could swim right out to the waterfall



My favourite thing was the day walk. It was a history walk and I love history. It was amazing to see what the place had looked like without the little damage from the cyclones, the little damage made a big difference to the place but it still had my mouth on the ground.



Kurrimine Beach Caravan Park

“WAHOOOOOOOOOO” I said as we pulled up to Kurrimine beach Caravan Park. I had been nagging mum and dad to take us to a caravan park with a jumping pillow. As soon as the car stopped Ry, Taj and I all ran as fast as we could to the pillow. It was so fun. I looked across to see that there was a jumping pillow in the pool.

I ran off the jumping pillow to get my bathers on. Unfortunately I had been beaten and had to wait for the sun cream. Slip, slop, and slap I was free to go in the pool. I ran super-fast and jumped in to the pool. It was a beautiful temp. As soon as my head had reached the surface I swam to the large floating island and jumped on. It wasn’t easy getting on but it was well worth in. I ran and penguin slid off the island and felt a rush run through me.

“GET THEM” I yelled as my new friend Kara and I pushed Ry and Jayden off the island. We had just invented game called “Island domination” girls vs. boys and so far we were winning. The winning streak didn’t last long Ry came up from behind me and tackled me off the island. Luckily he came off too and Kara was still on the island until seconds later when Jayden smashed Kara off the pillow. I had so much fun at Kurrimine Beach and it was hard to say good bye to such an awesome place.

The Boulders

“It’s so co-ld” I said as my foot touched the water from the crystal clear river in the boulders. The water was amazing, so amazing that I fought the cold water and went for a swim. The water had its freezing patches but that made the cold patches feel cool.

When we were walking back dad said “Who wants to see a wild Cassowary”? We all said me not realizing that there was a huge cassowary right in front of us. It was the most beautiful bird. They look more beautiful in the wild then they looks in zoos. It was a lot bigger too. This cassowary was not over exaggerating bigger than I was. It was so calm and didn’t mind the paparazzi that came along every time it showed its beautiful face.

The German lady that was beside us said “It comes up so close. Last night I had a sausage and it chased me around the table”.  “But it was all right because I had a pen so if anything went wrong I could use the pen as defence” I tried my hardest not to laugh at that. “I dropped the sausage and then the bird ate it and walked away” It was so hard not to laugh but I managed to hold off.

Lions Dean Caravan Park

“WOW” I said as I looked at the out of control fire that covered the road ahead of us. We didn’t want to risk going through the fire so we went back to a town for lunch. After about 1 hour we went back to the road the fire had covered, we were able to drive through. It was amazing there were still trees on fire but it was safe enough for mum to poke her head out to get a picture.



Finally some water without crocodiles in it.



What a massive day of driving we had had. When we pulled up at the lion’s dean I jumped out of the car and ran to the little playground.

On our last day it was boiling so we went for a swim in the beautiful croc free creek. The water was a lovely temp and I could have swum for hours but we had to go. Next stop Cooktown!

 

 

Cooktown

Dad and I at Cape Tribulation

“What a beautiful caravan park” I said as we pulled up to a nice shady site. It was a really good set up day because after we were set up we were going to try and see a massive croc down at the massive river.

“You’ll see ‘him at fisherman’s corner, mate” The man said as we tried to find where you can see the croc. We drovedown to be told that we were a bit late. We went to the place where you see the croc every day to be told the same thing “You’re a bit late mate crocs gone”.



Windiest place in Aust.



I didn’t like Cooktown very much too windy and with the cute town it was it had some rough people that liked to fight at the back of the caravan park.





Our survivor hut at Noah's beach

Newell Beach Caravan Park

“Look the pools right at the back of our site” I said as we pulled up at this cute little caravan park. As soon as we were all set up Ry, Taj and I jumped into the pool. It was a beautiful temp and it made me feel fresh. It was a really deep pool so it made it a lot of fun.

There was an awesome skate park. It was really good for people who can do drops (like me). It was a lot of fun at the skate park my favourite thing was my little course that I made up. The skate park was cool because it was the sameon both sides the jumps in between were a massive 6ft drop and a square jump in the middle.

The playground was really good. It was huge. I really liked playing a game where we had to try to catch the small dog that was a bit of a terror. It was hard to catch the little dog. I managed to catch him 4 times.

That was my super fun week and a bit. Until next time from Taz

Kristy's 10th Cairns

Doomed! Our stay at Caravilla was short lived.

To say I miss my friends and family is a gross understatement.  I wouldn’t give this adventure up unless I absolutely had to and believe me that situation arises more often then I’d like.  Unfortunately our dogs have been an endless source of drama back home with Scarlett constantly escaping and Scout becoming miserable.  Time and time again my fabulous friends back home have come to the rescue.  Scarlett has been picked up from the pound by one person, billotted out to another person then rehoused with yet another.  Scout has been picked up and relocated and the cats have all been checked on.  I’m so grateful to get messages from friends at home who all say, “don’t worry we’ll deal with it”.  Now I’ve just heard from my Mum who has told me that she will be going under the knife in Oct for spinal surgery.  Aghhhhh if ever I need a friend it’s now.

Ann-Maree couldn’t have arrived in Cairns at a better time and the fun began immediately.  Ok it was a little slow to start, mainly due to the ridiculous time Amz, Dylan and Rob had to get on a plane.  We settled into a gorgeous caravan park in central cairns.  Parking ourselves at the pool for the afternoon we learnt that the caravan park was being used to house all of the displaced Cook Islanders after Yasi destroyed their homes.  Our kids quickly settled in with the locals, Snowball became one of our own.  Unfortunately all the staff would leave the park grounds at night and quite a few of the fellas would get on the drink.  On the third night a party broke out at midnight.  Taz packed herself and came flying into the van.   As bottles started breaking Chris and I ventured out to get Ry out of his tent (he was still sleeping like a baby even though the group of men was only 10mt away).  All safely locked in the van we waited for the park managers to come out and intervene, after an hour we called the police.  Strangely Chris didn’t even need to give the address.  The police just said, “Yep Caravilla, are the drunken people indigenous”.  Chris, the least racist, fascist person I know said simply “Um, I’m not positive but I don’t think they’re white Australians”.  It’s a difficult situation to be in but obviously a common problem.  The next day we were told by another camper that it happens regularly.  To add to the drama all the kids plus Snowball (yes it is his real name) headed out to do some cane toad catching that evening.  Each kid has their role in the hunt and they all know not to touch the toads with their bare hands.  They excitedly returned with 26 toads bagged and ready to put in someone’s freezer.  All the kids stank and there were all sorts of bodily fluids leaking from the bag.  After rebagging and sealing them up for the freezer all the kids washed their hands and headed off to bed.  Five hours later Taj started to stir in his bed, we were thinking that all the noise outside must have been disturbing him.  Then he started to whimper and said, “I’m going to be ……. Blughhhhh”.  Vomit went everywhere.  Hello Toad Poisoning.    Just what we needed while locked in a caravan with three kids fearing for our safety.  Thankfully he recovered quickly.  We were prepared to give it another night but by this time the kids were too scared to return to their tents.  I was too scared to go to the toilet at night and there was no way I was letting the kids go.  The final straw came after another night of partying when I went to the toilet in the morning.  Some disgraceful pig had done things in the toilet that don’t bear mentioning and I was told that the cleaners would be in on Monday.  Off to Cairns Villa we all go.

We were busting to get the kids to have another go at snorkelling after their time at Airlie and Green Island promised plenty of opportunities.  The reef is only about 10mts from the shore so the kids could make their way out gradually or stay in the shallows.  Giant trevally came within touching, nemos danced around their anemones, wrasse of all different colours teased the kids from the ocean floor.  It was beautiful.  To top it all off we took a glass bottom boat trip where we hovered right above a green sea turtle.  What a day.  One neither the kids nor adults will ever forget.

Our second great adventure commenced on the Kuranda Scenic Railway.  We meandered along the tracks winding all the way up to the top of Barron Gorge.  We stopped to take some photos of the amazing waterfall but I’m sorry to say the photos do it no justice at all (just put it on your things I must see before I die list).  We completed the first part of our journey at the little hippy town of Kuranda where we wandered around the street markets and enjoyed lunch.  The final stage of our day saw us board the most amazing chair lift I’ve ever seen.  We’re seated in these little six seat glass pods that are suspended 100s of feet in the air at the top of the rainforest canopy.  I challenge anyone who does this to tell me honestly that floating over the Barron River doesn’t take their breath away.  Lifting in and out of the rainforest is amazing and the view at the end as you come down from the final coastal mountain is just, oh there are no words to describe it.  Even the kids were speechless.

 

 



View from Skyrail as you pass the Barron River



Our day at Port Douglas was lovely but I’d have to mortgage the house if I was going to stay there for a period longer than 8 hours.  We enjoyed the market and Ry finally got the top he’s been begging for since Byron Bay. The coastal drive was beautiful.


Ry's new fav top.





Amz's backflip



Our final (unplanned, impromptu) adventure was a trip out to Fitzroy Island.  Like Green Island the reef was right on the shoreline and we were gliding our way across the coral in no time.  I couldn’t believe my eyes as I watched Tamsyn, Ry and Dylan confidently swim out further and further without a care in the world.  Hours passed by like minutes as we all drifted out finding our own adventures.  The kids were also treated to a water trampoline but were truly shown up when Ann-Maree pulled off the perfect backflip landing feet first in the water! As the day passed by it became apparent that we needed to get into the shade for a while so we headed off on a rainforest walk.  Our eventual destination was Nudey Beach (observe photo below if you don’t believe me). 

You may want any young children to look away before scrolling down to the next photo.

Sorry some photos are never meant to hit the net.

Well the week flew by so quickly and today we hugged, kissed and farewelled the Clutterbuck-Lang gang.  It was so lovely to have a little touch of home and the timing was impeccable.  However if we’re going to complete this lap before Chris is due back at work in Feb we better get moving again. 

It’s into the sunset for us now as we head west.  A common catchcry for Territorians is “Territory Tough”, well look out NT the Pentland’s are on their way.

Kristy's 9th Cooktown - Daintree

Well I knew there would be some hairy moments on this trip but I’m not sure that it’s such a good idea to throw two of them up in two days.  We were driving along and noticed smoke ahead.  I assumed that it was just another cane field burn off which would have made perfect sense if we were still in cane field district.   As we got closer the kids got a bit excited because where there's smoke there's ...... animals running wildly.  As we passed oncoming traffic no one seemed too bothered, no flashing lights to indicate trouble ahead.  Then around the corner we came and realised that we might be in a spot of bother.  There was one lonesome policewoman on the road looking into the smoke.  We pulled up and assessed our chances of turning out 16ft van around on a two lane road.  A lady pulled up coming towards us and she told me that nobody is stopping the cars at the other end and she had driven through.  She was really shaken.  The wind was blowing hard and knowing how quickly wind can change Chris and I made the decision to turn and not burn!  Brilliant manoeuvring by Chris had us heading 30km back to the nearest town. After lunch we decided to push on and easily passed the area where we had turned around earlier.  What we didn’t realise was up ahead there was still a lot of smoke and flames.  We successfully pushed through.  As we get to more remote area it appears that the dangers become more apparent.  I just hope that the fire killed a few of the cows who will apparently push your car over if you stop to look at them!  Tough country this!

The Lion’s Den is apparently an essential stop for all travellers to the far north.  Being the conformists that we are we stopped in.  Indeed it was unique.  A place to stop and recount the tails of the Bloomfield track to the south or the development road to the north.  We asked a few of the fellas if they thought we might be able to get the van through the Bloomfield thus reducing our drive back to Cairns by about 200km, “No worries mate! There’d be a couple of interesting bits but you’d have no problems pulling it with the Patrol mate aye” (everyone ends a sentence with “aye”.) Being the sensible, inexperienced 4wdrivers that we are we decided to try it first without the van on, thank God for common sense.  We certainly could have taken the van through but my nerves would have been shot.  Finally we made it down to Cape Tribulation.  I guess to sum it up I’ll quote Tamsyn, “well it’s kind of just like the Prom but a bit warmer and the prom doesn’t have snap snaps.” “Yep I like the Prom better” chimed Ry.  We settled for a play at Noah’s beach before I tried my skills and drove us back out the Bloomfield, quite an achievement!

Cooktown proved to be a beautiful little town with lots of artwork and interesting history.  We went in search of the mighty Cooktown Croc but seemed to miss him by an hour or so every day. Who would have thought a 7mt lizard could be so good at hide and seek.  Cooktown is in an incredibly windy place and the wind was relentless the entire time we were there.  On one trip out to the lighthouse my three boys decided to test if the wind was strong enough to blow your pee back onto your feet if you weed into the wind.  What can I say, they’re a classy lot!  Let’s just say that it ended with lots of laughs and a new game called how far can your spit with the wind at your back.  Ten metres won it in case you were wondering.

 

Having already driven the Bloomfield track we opted to retreat to the Daintree River via the main rd.  We settled in the lovely little town of Newell Beach just north of the Mossman Gorge.  What can I say we were back amongst our favourite people, the Grey Nomads.  Happy hour was alive and well again.  The Daintree Rainforest was lovely but having listened to all the hype I have to say it was a little overrated. Don’t get me wrong it is beautiful but driving through the Dandenong’s on a misty day tops it hands down.  The best part of the Daintree was the two river cruises we did where we saw crocs, snakes, birds, lizards and much more.  As you step on the boat you’re asked to keep all body parts well within the confines of the boat.  As we got cruising Ry began to relax (he had been terrified when we got on) and instinctively lent on the side rail exposing a good part of his elbow and forearm to the water’s edge.  The cruise operator stopped the boat as we all stared awestruck at a crocodile.  AS we all snapped away with the cameras the driver snuck up behind Ry and tapped his elbow with a dead crocodiles head.  Ry almost pooped himself and jumped into Chris’ arms.  He soon saw the funny side along with every other person on the boat.  Lesson learnt!

Well that’s the end of our northern journey through Queensland. 

We’ll now spend a week in Cairns catching up with some of our Upper Beacian friends.

Take care Aye,

We’ll talk soon Aye

Lots of love to you all Aye

Love Kristy....... Aye.

Guest Blog by Dylan Clutterbuck



Taj attacking me in bed



We arrived in cairns and it was stinking hot the Cairns Villa was quiet for the first 2 nights until they had a massive party so then we moved to Caravillae and its way more quiet.

Supermodels

At Green Island we saw big fish and some little fish we went on the glass bottom boat that you can’t sink we saw giant GT and bat fish we did a lot of snorkelling.

We went to Kunundra by train and come back by sky Rail it was awesome.

Fitzroy Island was full of coral and attacking clown fish I got to touch a green sea turtle it felt hard the day was great.



"Attack"



IT WAS GREAT SEEING THE PENTLANDS.

Dylan     

Ry's report 8

Cardwell was the first beach with crocs that we came across.  The caravan Park was really nice.  There was a big fat lab named Abi who came to visit us at every meal time hoping to get a snack.  Unfortunately we couldn’t feed her because on her tag the vet had written, “strictly no food”. There was a really nice pool with a rock waterfall.  My bike had been given me the poopers because it was getting wrecked on the back of the car, the handle bars were wobbling up and down and the gears weren’t working.  Dad found some kids on the side of the road who were selling their old bikes.  None of the bikes were in great condition except one.  I got the one that was in great condition, it’s a pink and black  BMX. It cost me $10 and I traded them with my old bike.  The boys were really happy because they got my gear bike.  They took it straight to the backyard with their toolbox.

We went to Wallaman falls.  It’s the biggest sheer drop waterfalls in Australia.  After we had look at the falls we drove to a little creek were we saw one turtle.  Then 2 then 3 then hundreds of turtles.  They looked very hungry so we went to the car and got some watermelon.  We started throwing in little pieces.  It was really funny watching the turtles swim as fast as they can.

“Wow”, I said as we arrived at a beautiful big rainforest with a waterfall.  We had just driven into Paronella Park.  As soon as we had set up Tamsyn, Taj and I walked down to the waterfall.  There were heaps of fish and one eel. That afternoon we went on a guided tour to see all the amazing things.  The fish were still there and the guide gave us some food for the fish. We had a look at all the buildings and then we went in the tunnel of love.  I fell in love! With the microbats that live in there, they were fully grown but even smaller  than Taj’s fist.  When we did the night tour we got to see all of the bats in flight.  They were amazing.  The fruit bats were so much bigger than the microbats.  On the last day we had breakfast down where the fish hang out.  There were old tables and chairs there that were made from concrete by Jose Paronella 70 years ago.

I had been nagging mum and dad to take us to a caravan park with a jumping pillow and finally they did.  Straight away we jumped on the jumping pillow.  It was really fun.  Later on we went in the pool that also had a big jumping pillow in it.  It was really fun; we kept sliding off the pillow and splashing into the water. We tried fishing in the river where the crocs were but we didn’t end up spotting any crocs or catching any fish. There were heaps of kids at this park and we all made new friends. On the last day I made another new friend named AJ.

We arrived at the Boulders which is a national park.  The best things were seeing Cassowaries.  When we were walking back from having a swim in the creek Dad asked who wants to see a cassowary.  We all said me.  Dad pointed to a cassowary crossing the road. When we were walking back to the van a lady told us that the night before she got attacked by the cassowary.  She said it chased her around the picnic table until she dropped her sausage.  The cassowary was taller than me and looks a bit like a beautiful emu.  As I was running to the toilet it came out from right beside the car and its beak actually touched me.  I almost pooped my pants, I got such a fright.  Every time I’ve seen a cassowary at the zoo there have been signs saying how dangerous they are. Cassowaries have even been known to kill people.  Now I realise that you’d have to do something stupid to get attacked by one because they are pretty harmless creatures.  AT night there were about 16 bandicoots around our caravan.  There was even one that crawled up Tamsyn’s tent.  We even got to hand feed them.  Their fur felt just like a dog.  When we went snorkelling in the creek I saw a turtle and dad saw a fish, Taj and I swam right across to the deep rock pool.  Taj put his foot down on a rock not realising that it was soo slippery and he slipped on his butt and went straight under.  When he came up he just swam straight back to the edge laughing.  He told me to have a go because it was really fun.  SO we kept sliding down and swimming back to the edge. Dad swam across the river with Taj on his back because it was so deep.  I swam back beside Dad, it was really cool, and I kept trying to spot a turtle, eel or fish.

As we were driving through to go to the Lion’s Den we got stopped by an out of control bushfire.  There was no fire truck there so they couldn’t put it out.  We ended up having to turn back to Mareeba for lunch until the fire passed.  When we drove back an hour later the fire was still going but we were allowed to go through.  There were hundreds of Hawks and Eagles swooping down and eating all the little animals that were running for their lives from the fire.  We drove for hours this day until we finally got to the Lion’s Den.  The Lion’s Den is a little caravan Park. It had a creek with no crocs so we were allowed to go for a swim.  The water was a nice temperature.  When we were swimming I sat in the rapids and got washed down to where the path was.  There was also a little playground which we liked.  We played a game where we went down the slide covered in dirt.  We drove all the way to Cape Tribulation along the Bloomfield track.  At one point when we were driving Dad hit a slippery bit and Dad almost crashed into the embankment.  There was another part where we were right on the edge of the cliff, it was really cool.  My favourite bit was driving through the river crossings.  We ended up at a place called Noahs beach where we made a big hut out of sticks.  We played for hours while Mum and dad went for a walk.  We dug holes and played wombat holes.  There was a funny aboriginal policeman with a really stressful job.  He was sitting at a cafe and telling us which way to go.  When Mum asked about going down the Bloomfield track he just laughed at her.  Then mum asked him “should we give it a crack?’ he laughed again and just nodded.

Cooktown was windy.  We went up to the light house and tested who could spit the furthest.  We all got it over 10mt because the wind was blowing so hard.  We went looking for a big croc but we always arrived a bit late.  We had no luck fishing.  Twice I got hooked on my lure.  Once I was trying to pull it out of the mangroves and it broke free flying straight up the bank and going into my shin.  Mum had to dehook me, it really hurt.

Now we are heading south to meet Dylan in Cairns. 

Until next week, from Ry the Racoon.