Cowboys and Cowgirls

Friday 16 – Sunday 18 July
Lots of excitement today. We were off to the Mareeba Rodeo. There are quite a few rodeos in towns all over north and west Queensland at this time of year but we hadn’t managed to be in the right place at the right time for any of them until now…and this is one of the biggest. None of us have ever been to a rodeo before.

We packed up the van and left our camp spot at Kairi, drove through more cane and corn fields to the main highway at Tolga and then up the road to Mareeba. Everywhere we have been on the Atherton Tableland so far has been so lush and green, very beautiful area. A few kilometres from Mareeba however, the countryside changed from green to brown. We only went down a slight hill and we were still on the tableland so we are unsure why there is such a big contrast in the vegetation but it was like driving back out to western Qld. As we neared town we noticed a big sign promoting the 300 days of sunshine a year at Mareeba.

The entry fee for the rodeo was fantastic value at $75 for a family and that included three nights of camping at the rodeo grounds - we were very close to the action. On top of the rodeo, the weekend also doubles as the Mareeba show so there were also heaps of rides and show food to excite the kids even more. It was like camping at the Ekka (Brisbane show).

We arrived at the rodeo grounds at about lunchtime and set up camp.

The kids were very happy with our own ponies behind our camp spot.

With lots of people around it was a great atmosphere. On Friday night we headed into town for the Mareeba Rodeo parade.

It was a bit like the Pine Rivers Christmas parade – heaps of lollies thrown into the hands of waiting kiddies. Our guys collected a few weeks’ supply.

Saturday morning it was time for the action to begin. The people on the early hot air balloon flight had perfect weather.

The first events of the day were little kids riding the poddy calves – many of the kids were so small. Our guys couldn’t believe that little kids were allowed to do this…of course Luke wanted to enter.

You can’t quite see the little rider here – there are lots of protectors.

We watched a few events from our spot up in the grandstands…

…and then had a look at some of the other activities. One of the favourites was the woodchops. These big boys are so strong and we loved watching them power through the logs.

This baby cow (calf) was born only an hour before we came by. He or she was trying to stand up and kept stumbling. It is probably the youngest animal our kids have ever seen – there were lots of “Oh…he’s sooo cute”, especially from Ella.

Back to the rodeo for some of the big events.

Our favourite events were the bucking broncos, the bull ride and the cowgirl’s barrel racing. The cowboys and cowgirls are so skilful (and courageous). Ella wasn’t so keen on the steer rope and tie – very concerned about the welfare of the cows.

Ashley also loved the performances of the Crack Up Sisters in between some of the rodeo events - they were pretty funny. She checked the program and made sure she was in the stand each time they were on.

The rodeo has some new fans. They have already requested that we come again next year.

The kids enjoyed making some new friends and playing cricket, flying the kite and running around. One kid in particular was really funny – his name is Bray. Only five years old and he had the thickest country accent we have ever heard and spoke as if he was much older. He kept saying “Check it out!” and told us heaps of lies while keeping a straight face until he had sucked us in and would start laughing. Great kid.

In between the events and other activities we had a few goes on some of the extremely overpriced rides (operated by some of the shadiest looking characters we have ever seen). Luke and Ashley’s favourite was the dodgems where they both practiced their V8 supercar driving skills. Luke was very good at avoiding being hit while cutting others off.

Look at the concentration here. The tongue is like U Mick.

And Ella enjoyed that drive too.

Her favourite though was the huge jumping castle.

Luke also won a little penguin on the basketball game.

The atmosphere at night was especially exciting with lots of bright lights and noise.

We had an absolutely awesome weekend at the Mareeba Rodeo. Hopefully we’ll get back there again another time.

Tropical Wet Qld

Monday 12 – Thursday 15 July
We’d heard lots of good reports about Paronella Park (just up from our Liverpool Creek camp) from lots of people and it was rated as the number one must do in Qld on an RACQ list so we decided to have a look. The entry fee was a bit steep for kiddies at $17 on top of the $34 for adults but at least we only had to pay for two kids. Having said that the entry fee included a night at the caravan park, a day tour and a night tour so that made it better despite the van spot being wet and boggy.

Paronella Park was built by Jose Paronella in the 1930’s mostly by himself. He was a Spanish migrant (qualified as a baker not a builder) who had always dreamed of owning his own castle, so he saved enough money to buy some land and built himself one.

It was sort of an early day theme park with a picnic and swimming area by a waterfall…

…a ballroom with picture theatre - he also built himself a hydro electricity plant and was the only property for miles that had electricity so he used to show movies and newsreels. People would pay to watch.

There were also tennis courts…

…and tea rooms

The scenery around the property is quite spectacular. It is amazing to think that he did most of the work by himself, much of it involving lugging sand and water up these stairs (which he also built).

He also planted most of the trees and plants himself. Kauri Avenue - great foresight knowing that these trees take many years to grow.

The kids really enjoyed feeding the fish and turtles.

The whole place had a pretty special feel about it – even more so at night.

Unfortunately Jose took some shortcuts on some of his building methods (eg adding too much sand to the concrete to make it go further) so many of the buildings are falling apart. It does make the place look much older than it is though, like a lost city in the jungle.

After being very popular in the 1930’s and 40’s, after Jose’s death and a few natural disasters the property was left to be overgrown by the rainforest until the current owners bought it in the 90’s and started to resurrect it.

On Tuesday morning we headed into Innisfail to look around and restock on supplies. Side note – the ramp out of Woolies is great for riding the shopping trolley down. Not too steep. Luke thought it was fantastic and wants to stop in there on the way back down the coast.

With the weather still ordinary we decided to head inland from Innisfail up into the Atherton Tableland and time it to be at Mareeba for the rodeo next weekend.

Tuesday night we stayed at Henrietta Creek. Good spot surrounded by rainforest. Reminded us of Tassie.

Steep and slow drive up the range on Wednesday morning (still raining). The waterfall circuit near Millaa Millaa was worth the drive. Ellinjaa Falls, Zillie Falls…

…and Millaa Millaa Falls (good for a swim) in particular, very beautiful.

On the way north we checked out Malanda…

…and Atherton, both nice little towns. We camped at a great free spot in Kairi near Lake Tinaroo. Had a shower and lots of grass for the kids to run around.

Despite the continuing ordinary weather on Thursday (it looks ok in this photo but sunshine was rare), we had a great day at Lake Tinaroo.

Free hot showers at the day use area had us all feeling great and we then spent the day playing in the park…

…and ripsticking along the smooth pathways. We also enjoyed toasted sandwiches on the BBQ’s. Lake Tinaroo has some fantastic recreational facilities that really encourage people to get out and be active. Would be great at Lake Samsonvale and/or Kurwongbah.

Back to the Coast

Tuesday 6 – Wednesday 7 July
Shorter drive today from Charters Towers to Townsville. On top of the normal grey nomad migration to the north, Townsville is hosting the V8 Supercars race this weekend so accommodation is hard to come by. We had called a few caravan parks without any luck so decided to head about 25kms north of town to a free spot at Saunders Beach. We were in luck, and what a top spot…

A car park set up right on the beach with a playground for the kids, free BBQ’s. And all this is free – better than paying $50 for a caravan park site. Stays are limited to 48 hours which is fair enough – that will do us. The car is booked in for another check up on Wednesday so this will be a good base.

The kids were absolutely rapt to see the coconut palms lining the beach. They had been asking if we would see any on our trip as they wanted to try some coconut. After collecting a few off the beach, the chief chopper was in business using a machete that a couple of backpackers kindly lent us.

How tropical does this look? Happy days…

Who’s the clown? Mister bunny ears can’t help himself.

We all had great fun collecting shells, playing in the park and on the beach. Flag races had the kids worn out by tea time.

Thursday 8 – Friday 9 July
Just up the road today to another free spot at Rollingstone – Bushy Parker Park. Nice spot in a big park by the creek with beautiful clear water. This new fashion line is the latest trend up here. The kids love making bush outfits and bush huts.

It’s only a few kms down the road to Balgal Beach where we spent Thursday afternoon.

On our walk we spotted a couple of Jabiru on the beach. Great looking birds.

On Friday we headed up to Paluma in the mountains which loom over the coast here. On the way up we stopped at the very beautiful Little Crystal Creek.

Paluma used to be known as cloudy creek. Very appropriate name. The view from the lookout reminded us of the Blue Mountains.

Very beautiful scenery all the way up the mountains with rainforest surrounding us on all sides. The weather was a fair bit cooler than down the bottom. We had lunch at a park at the top and did a short rainforest walk.

Back at camp the kids were happy to be able to have a camp fire. They set up early ready to roast marshmallows and cook damper.

Saturday 10 July
Heading north through sugar cane country.

Cardwell is a nice little town with great views out to Hinchinbrook Island. We stopped for lunch and had a look around…

…before heading up to Hull Heads (near Tully) for the night where it was only $13 at the council campground on the beach. No luck with the fishing here.

In the background here is Dunk Island to the left and Bedarra Island to the right. Only $1300 a night to stay out there.

Sunday 11 July
The mountains are very close to the coast in this part of the world – as a result the rainfall in Tully is arguably the highest of any town in the country. I say arguably because Babinda, a bit further up the coast makes the same claim…anyway it rains a lot around here. No wonder they have the big gumboot (and yes it was raining while we were there).

The main line of work in this region is sugar cane farming. There have been plenty of these little trains running around.

Heading to here (sugar mill)…

We wanted to go out to Mission Beach to stay for a few days but due to the inclement weather decided to go there on the way back down the coast – hopefully the weather is better then. Our camp spot for the night was at Upper Liverpool Creek right next to the water at a little town called Japoonvale. Once again the price was right ($0).

We had a nice walk (and skip) around the sugar cane and banana farms before another stint on journals.