Charters Towers

G'day
We spent Sunday in Bowen which is a lovely little seaside community south of Townsville.  We stayed at a park on the beach and strolled along the beach collecting shells.  Bowen was touched by the southern edge of cyclone Yasi and there is evidence everywhere.  Tress ripped out and washed up on the beach, lots of debris and parts of the boardwalk missing and washed up on the beach.  The sunset was beautiful framed by palm trees.
Driving through canefields and watching the thunderheads form over the mountains.  The tops of the mountains were covered in cloud and we could watch the isolated storms moving in.
We are now in Charters Towers which is inland, as we are trying to avoid to new flooding north of Townsville, ironically, this area is famous for 300 days a year of sunshine, by El Nina seems to be messing with that.  Charters is a old gold mining town with lots of beautiful old building built in the heyday of mining.  The climate is a bit less humid and not as much rain.  These areas typically get a lot of rain, the gutters are like drainage ditches!  Lots of trees ripped out and debris around, covered parking has had the covers torn off.  We are heading north to northern Queensland, so we will see what the weather brings.  Not sure how the internet contact will be.
Finch Hatton gorge in Eungella NP, nice swimming place.

Kim and Dan
ps thanks Stuart

Cape Hillsborough NP

Greetings
Well this is my second attempt at this posting, I ran out of time before I could post it.
After leaving Eungella, we travelled  back to the coast to Cape Hillsborough National Park.  Queensland has a lot of parks which are quite lovely and diverse.  This park had a caravan park in it, which was quite lovely, as Aussie caravan parks are like mini resorts with pools, nice facilities including camp kitchens and laundries.  This one was right on the beach, so we could listen to the sound of surf while drifting off to sleep (or passing out from all that inexpensive aussie wine).  The Australians take camping very seriously, they have these amazing trailers which fold out into these massive tent/homes complete with kitchens, fridges, full tables and chairs.  They are truly a home away from home, but you need a course and lots of patience to construct them.
Cape Hillsborough is a national park so there was a fair bit of wildlife.  The roos and wallabies grazed anywhere undisturbed, even on our campsite (see picture).  They were a bit timid but not afraid of people.  Kangaroos are interesting, they pivot using their tail and front paws while lifting their back legs.  I guess it uses less energy as their hind legs are large and powerful.  One of the wallabies had a joey which grazed from the pouch while mom ate.  Their were kookaburras which landed next to us waiting for some food, they like meat.  The possums are  nocturnal and like raccoons, always looking for food.  They are quite cheeky and will come right up to you while you are eating (it gets dark at 700pm as Queensland does not use daylight savings time, it also gets light at 0530).  The possums raided one of the trailers next to us the other night.  Fortunately, they can't open things like raccoons.
We went for a hike up the mountain (which is a large hill but feels like a mountain in this heat).  Some fabulous views, we, yes Dan, went for a swim.  The ocean is like bath water and the pools are a bit cooler, but still quite warm.  We then sat on the beach and read our books, very civilized.
The aussies love the beach.  Their was a couple of families playing cricket (still have no idea how the game works), some fishing, swimming and going for a stroll.  Their were a couple of blow buggies (sailboat on wheels) sailing along.
The beaches are left natural and often have a strip of natural vegetation between them.  The coast is one cove/beach after another.   Unfortunately as you travel north, stingers inhabit the water (box jellyfish), so I will need to buy a stinger suit.  The weather has been improving as El Nina is breaking up.  She is responsible for all the rain and wild weather.

sulphur crested cockatiel

 tree frog along for the ride

kangaroo eating at our campsite in Cape Hillsborough, he is right in front of us

cheers
Kim and Dan

Eungella Park

Hello
Sorry, its been a while seen my last entry, but internet access is proving a bit difficult.  The National Parks do not have internet and the Maccas is so slow.  I am sending this from Macca's, so I am not sure how many pictures I can send.
We travelled up the coast from Hervey Bay and spent the night in our old haunt, Yeppoon. (Last blog).  We then headed inland to Emerald and the gemfields.  When we lived here, the area was brown and desolate due to the drought.  They were slaughtering cattle because there was nothing for them to eat.  It is now green and lush, with lots of cattle and calves.  It is wonderful to see.
The gemfields cover hundreds of square kilometres and this is where most of the world's sapphires are found.  Did you know that sapphires are graded by hardness, not colour?  Sapphires come in a variety of colours, most commonly blue, but yellow, pink, green and red (rubies are red sapphires).  You can stake a claim anywhere (not already claimed) and start digging, as long as you have a licence (ten bucks or so).  It's hard work,  it is quite hot here now, 30+ degrees and the ground is hard.  We tried our hand at "fossicking", with buckets of wash (dirt already picked and piled), we then washed the wash and tried to pick out the gemstones.  Got a few small sapphires, not big enough to cut, but lots of hard work, just washing them.  Would not want to dig for them now.  The gemfields area is quite deserted now, but in the winter, the"grey nomads"  ie the retirees from down south, pack the place.  Quite a few have heart attacks swinging their picks looking for riches.
We then headed off to Eungella National Park, eungella means "land of the clouds" in the aboriginal language.  It's not hard to see why, its quite a steep windy road up and the top is covered with clouds.  It's a bit surreal after the hot coast to be cool (had to wear jeans and a long sleeved shirt!) and shrouded in clouds.  It is a subtropical rainforest which has been cut off from the others, so it has several species of bird, skink and flowers that are not found anywhere else.  It is also a great place to see the duck billed platypus.  We saw a couple of them, very strange looking.  They dive for their food, with their eyes closed.  They detect electromagnetic field coming from their prey with their bills, so they often live in murky water.

Add caption  Duck billed platypus surfacing for air before diving down again to fish.

Floods in Australia

Hello
Well we travelled from Hervey Bay to Yeppon today.  We used to live in Yeppon several years ago.  A beautiful spot on the water with a lovely seabreeze and always a few degrees cooler than inland.   It is quite warm today, low 30's and some humidity.  A storm front is supposed to move through and break the humidity.  Pictures to come.  You can see the levels and the year of the flood, river is off to the left.

It would normally taken much less time but we had a lot of stops due to road repairs.  The roads have been damaged, and in some cases washed away by the flooding.  You can see evidence of it everywhere.  Creeks are still flowing like rivers and trees are partially submerged.  I can't imagine what it was like a full flood.  Fences look like clotheslines with grass and debris hanging from them.  Large grooves are carved into the hills and roadsides from the torrents of water.  We saw a boat that had been washed up against a building.
As I said before flooding is not unusual in Australia, although. these floods covered a larger area than normal.
Enclosed is a picture of a building on the Mary River in Maryborough, it shows the floods from years gone by.  Apparently the latest flood did not come near to the highest one.

Also are a few pictures of a very common site in Oz, showing flood levels for low lying roadways.  When we were up north, we routinely drove over roads which were submerged.  It was like driving across a river, you had to make sure that your vehicle could clear the water (hence the markers).
I took the flood signs, which is why they are crooked.
Kim and Dan

Fraser Island

 The top photo is of Fraser Island ( Maria and I are swimming in the warm clear water) which is the largest island made completely of sand, its a giant sandbar which is 120 km by 15 km.  It has inland fresh water lakes (200 of them) forests, sand dunes, and tropical rainforests.  There are no roads, you can only travel by 4WD on the sand which is packed quite hard.  It can only be accessed by ferry and you can't get on the ferry unless you have supplies (no stores) and a 4 WD.  We went over by boat with our friends and swam in beautiful crystal blue waters with white sand beaches, paradise.  We also swam in a tidal creek (Coomgul Creek) where the current was quite fast due to the full moon.  I could barely swim in place it was so strong.  I also had puffer fish nibbling at my newly pedicured red toes.  Apparently the fishermen use red lures to attract the fish!
The water was so warm that Dan spent most of the time in the water (pictures to come).
We had a lovely dinner on the waterfront, lots of fresh seafood and reasonably priced Australian wine.  We also had a lovely lunch at the beachside pub, wood fired pizza and cold Aussie beer.  Which brings me to the liquor stores.  We visited one that was the size of Canadian Tire (with better service).  There were rows and rows and rows of wine and spirits.  Free samples in real glasses ( in fact I had to tell the girl to stop pouring) and they were their featured fine wines.  (Could have used some in the mediation session).  And the prices, wow, I was like a kid in a candy store!.  They have wine now which they call Cleanskin which is the end of the batch of well known wines.  It has a plain black and white label which tells you the wine and where it comes from.  They are priced from $1.95 to 9.95.  I will not be getting liver function tests done when I return.  Most of the liqour stores give a discount for buying 6 bottles at a time and you get a gas discount coupons with your purchase.  Civilized.
The above picture is of a drive in "bottle shop" or liquor store.  You drive your car in and place your order and its delivered to you car.  No staggering, I mean walking back to your car.
We also have been eating wonderful Indonesian food prepared by our friend Maria, yum.  I will definitely be on a diet when I return.
Having a wonderful time in Oz, sorry to be missing all the dramas, NOT!
Kim and Dan

Traveling in Australia

G'day
Well I am not sure if I have this blog thing down, but here goes.  Yes, I know that I named it incorrectly, I thought it was just for that session, WRONG!  The technically inept gets into trouble again, help Don and Jen!
We have been in Australia for 1.5 weeks now and have done alot of visiting.  Visited friends in Sydney, Alstonville (northern NSW) and Hervey Bay (north of Brisbane).  Wifi availability has been spotty so we have not been able to send any emails.  Maccas  (macdonalds) has let us down!
We have travelled north along the coast from Sydney and are now about 300 km north of Brisbane, one white sand beach after another, it never gets boring.   We spent the night at Rainbow beach which is named for the beautiful coloured sands, red, white, green, black.  There is also the Carlos sandblow, which is an area where the wind has blown the sand over the landscape, taking over everything.  Trees are now just stumps and there is no vegetation.  It travels several metres a year and is noticeably bigger than the last time we were there.

Yesterday, we borrowed bikes and yes, Dan rode into town along the Esplanade.  It was a lovely 20km ride along the waterfront.  We stopped to look in shops and have lunch, very civilized.  The Aussies have developed their waterfront quite nicely, with paths and parks.  Many have paths which wind along the waterfront.  They have also left alot natural, so its a nice mix.
There is very little evidence of the flooding, everything has been cleaned up and business is back in full swing.  Flooding is very common here and a fact of life.  Except for Brisbane, which was severely hit, most towns don't look like they were affected at all.  In fact, this was not one of the worst floods that they have had.
It is raining in the centre, still, due to the cyclone, hopefully, it will stop soon.  If it does we plan to visit, which should be spectacular.
The first pic is a galah, a local bird.
the second is the Carlos sandblow and the third is Rainbow beach.
Love to hear from you, HINT HINT
Kim and Dan

Traveling from Hong Kong

Hello
This is a test.  I am going to try a blog as opposed to emails to see if this is easier.  Let me know what you think.  Feel free to pass the website onto friends.
Kim and Dan