Mothball Manor and the Curlew Convention

Hello again!

I'm not sure how exciting these blog posts are for everyone else when we're only travelling in Queensland so I won't waffle on too much. ;)

We left Canarvon Gorge and drove back to the amazing looking national park (Minerva Hills) we saw on our way down. It was actually more spectacular looking at it from afar than walking in it but it was interesting.

We returned to Emerald, this time staying in a cabin in a lovely caravan park. When we arrived, these parrots were feeding on something on the ground nearby. What a colourful welcome!

We found a pub that would play the footy for us but the Tiges didn't rise to the occasion, sadly.

The next day we drove about 1.5 hours out to the Blackdown Tablelands, a cool place where a huge table-topped range rises up out of the flat land around it. To our surprise, we drove through coal-mining country on the way. Trains laden with 100 carriages each of coal sat idle on the tracks. We saw lots of these trains but none were moving, maybe a continuing result of the Chinese decision to buy less Aussie coal.

The tablelands were great and we had some gorgeous walks.

We made our way past wattle in full bloom to a beautiful swimming hole under a small waterfall. It really was stunning. I just wish it was warm enough to swim in!

We saw there was a 4 wheel drive track marked on our map and we thought we'd give it a go. It started off ok but got rougher and rougher. It was a slightly scary exciting introduction to serious 4-wheel-driving!

Even before the 4WD track the car was seriously starting to look like we had brought half of the channel country mud with us.....

We were in a remote area with no phone reception but John's phone pinged as we passed by a bit of a gap in the stone walls. It was Courtney. Chubby (our 17-year-old family dog) wasn't well. Courtney had been nursing him for  a week or two but it was time to see the vet. He needed blood tests done and we all awaited the results.

On our way back to Emerald, the vet called us. The news wasn't catastrophic but it wasn't good either. Chubby had a raging infection and his arthritis painkillers were making his kidney problem worse so he would have to go onto opioids. He was also mostly deaf, nearly blind and had some sort of dementia that made him do strange things like get stuck in corners or get lost near home.  He was getting anxious, refusing to walk anywhere and just sleeping all day. John and I spent the drive back to Emerald discussing what to do. Yes, we could prolong his life but to what purpose? Life was no longer enjoyable for him. We had long talks with Courtney and Cara that evening, with most of us in tears. The hardest thing of all was that Courtney was dealing with this on their own.

Finally the decision was made to put him down. Cara drove up to our place the next day and she, Courtney and my mum took him to the vet. It was a very traumatic time, particularly as all this was happening a bit over a day before Courtney was flying up to join us for a week. (Cara stayed in Melbourne to job-hunt). The kids got through it though and buried him at home. It was a terribly sad time for everyone.

We moved on to Charters Towers. I had wanted to go there as it seemed in my mind to be a quintessential outback Australian town but it turned out to be a gold rush town much like a smaller Ballarat. I dropped John off for a bike ride then wandered around the town but my heart wasn't in it as I knew the kids were taking Chubby to the vet at that time.

There were some lovely old buildings from the gold rush era.

There were some well-preserved signs that weren't as old but were still cool.

Near our accommodation was this huge tree. I don't know what it was called but it was absolutely covered in dried seed pods and when the wind blew, the whole tree rattled! It was incredible!

It was then just a 1.5 hour hop, skip and jump to Townsville where we were to pick up Courtney from the airport. We made use of some spare time in a city to grab a few essentials then waited for Courtney. We didn't know how Courtney would be holding up when they arrived but they had got through the Chubby drama quite well by then.

We made space for Courtney in the car then caught the car ferry across to Magnetic island. 

At last - a week of holidays! We had booked our lovely accommodation a long time ago but when Courtney decided to join us we had to switch to whatever we could get that would fit us in. We got the last property available - it was a three bedroom house, nowhere near the beach but it was absolutely fine. Except for one thing - it stunk of mothballs! The worst room was our bedroom and en-suite. We realised the mothballs were locked in a cupboard that we couldn't access. We had to sleep with the windows and curtains open so we could breathe.

As we were unpacking the first night in the dusk, John pointed out an interesting bird. We agreed it was probably a curlew. We later learned that there are heaps of these kooky, weird birds here. They look strange with their really long legs and funny way of running.

We learned it was mating season though. When one bird meets another, they call, twitter and scream! And they did this all night, every night - outside our open bedroom window........ Anyway, I still like them!

This video is taken from our verandah at night, so there's nothing to see but turn your volume up!

I won't go through a blow-by-blow description but we had a wonderful week on Magnetic Island. We all really liked it. The landscape is so interesting - gorgeous bays were lined with rocky outcrops and hoop pines were scattered throughout. The feel was very laid back and there were great places to eat. It was quite mountainous and we had some great walks.

On one walk we were surrounded by butterflies! It was amazing! 

We snorkelled at this beach but the visibility was terrible. We later tried another beach but couldn't find the good coral. Oh well - at least they're stunning to look at!

Karate training on the beach.

I was a bit smitten by the fig trees here. They put down aerial roots which then turn into wood and help hold the heavy branches up. The large ones form a weird mass of roots, trunks and branches. They're so cool!

There were lots of fun trees here.

One day we saw these really strange cloud formations. More weirdness!

The beaches were generally beautiful and untouristed. These kayaks were an exception rather than the rule.

We had one wild night at the local pub when we went to watch the footy. We somehow got talking to a few other people, including an extremely drunk lady who loved us all more and more as the night wore on. There were some classic comments from her that night, most best not repeated here...... Apparently the Tiges beat the Lions! It was hard to watch the game though with this woman telling me her life story at the same time.

We had some great meals - the local Italian restaurant was a favourite as was Scallywags, the great lunch place with plenty of vegan options for Courtney.

We went to the other side of the island one night to watch the sunset. We found yet another drop-dead gorgeous beach with not many people on it. What a place!

And that was our week in paradise. We'll be back here again one day, for sure!

Hooroo!

Heather and John