Hey it's Mingo here again!
It's been a couple of weeks since we went camping at Kooroorinya Falls and I'm very sad to report that that was dear old Spike's last trip. He passed away peacefully last week with his family around him. We were so glad he was able to make that last trip with us. Now he is running free forever with lots of wonderful memories. We will never forget you little man ♥️
Sunshine is missing him too, so has had even more cuddles than usual, especially from Steve!
Laura was especially sad and missing Spike a lot, so Steve decided to take us on a Mystery Tour! She also had some earrings made with Spike's photo, so he could be with us in spirit 😊
Steve packed the van in secret on Sunday arvo and then at 8.45am on Monday, we headed off, with only him knowing where we were going!! We had made some further additions to Swifty since last time - I will cover those in a later post for you.
We dropped Sunshine off at the home of Jen, the Fur Mum, at her lovely home on a small acreage in the rural suburb of Yabulu. This was a good clue as to where we were headed, since the only time we don't take her is if we're going to a National Park!
We then headed north along the Bruce Hwy. We had fruit in the car for brekkie and just enjoyed the scenery as we passed through Ingham about 10.15am. The weather was 26 degrees, dry but cloudy and there were some storm clouds over the Cardwell Ranges which is about normal for this time of year.
The rain started to fall softly as we stopped to top up the Triton and fill two jerry cans with fuel at Cardwell and succumbed to the lure of deep fried Servo food!
Rejuvenated, we headed onwards towards Innisfail, with the endless cane fields filling the landscape. The clouds hung low over the Ranges but the valley remained pretty dry, which is always nicer for driving!
We arrived at Innisfail about midday and popped into Kmart to buy a couple of towels, since neither of us had remembered to bring them! Great preppers we are haha!
Just north of Babinda we drive past what Steve calls the ugliest garden in Australia.... It features various elaborately carved stone benches and arches with statues of men, women, children and...err Jockeys... wearing actual clothes... Very odd! Pics to follow!!
By now, Laura was grilling Steve mercilessly, trying to get clues of where we were going... He was keeping his cards close to his chest however and she was none the wiser by the time we turned off the highway at Gordonvale...
We wound our way through the ancient rainforest. Steve commented on the smell which he loves. We then turned off again and started to climb, as we headed towards Goldsborough. Laura still had no idea where we were going and Steve was laughing at her!!
The scenery was spectacular with green lush hills and homesteads dotted around. There was even blue sky!
We crossed a couple of pretty riverswith plenty of water in it, not like our parched creeks in Townsville.
The sun came out and everything looked even more sparklingly beautiful 😀
Laura had a sneaking suspicion she knew where Steve was taking them. She knew there were local rumours of Bigfoot somewhere around here..!
Suddenly the road turned into a steep gravel track, winding through the vegetation up the valley side. Steve put the truck into 4WD and we headed on... It was getting very wild and exciting!!
Then suddenly the track opened up into a glade with a crystal clear river running through it and a beautiful grassed camping spot complete with firepit!! Absolutely stunning! It was so tranquil all you could hear was the sound of the river running over the gravely bottom and the Bellbirds in the trees. Ah bliss! It was like a magical secret garden, just for us! Clever Steve!! He had booked the only site in the whole area which was situated right on the riverbank. It was an absolutely stunning location.
Tuesday morning. We got up early to a beautiful clear sunny day and Steve decided to skinny dip in the braving waters of the Mulgrave River!! Once he had defrosted, we headed into town to the indoor Pistol Range at CRM Gunsports for a shoot. Steve had a fun half hour shredding lots of paper targets while Laura watched and kept well out of the way of flying brass behind him!
We then went to the Bottle-O but could only get a few cans of beer because you can't buy cask wine within 7km of Cairns before 4pm. So we stopped in for a Goonie at Gordonvale instead which has more relaxed rules!
We then drove back to our beautiful campsite enjoying the beautiful sunshine and pristine jungle.
Laura went straight in for a dip whilst Steve "supervised" from his camping chair half in the river and half out! The water is so clear you can literally see every detail in the bottom, right across to the other side. Just magic 😍
After a short rest, we decided to inflate our latest toy! It was so much quicker than the Flamingo - 5 minutes vs about half an hour!!
We both got on and headed off downstream at a cracking pace! About 5 minutes later we hit the rapids and our Iskand took em on and beat em! It was so fun, and we were cackling all the way til we thought we'd better stop as the river was bending away from the campground! We scrambled out at a secluded little beach with a natural swing made out of vines! It was like something out of the Jungle Book! We will go back tomorrow and take pics.
We sauntered through the green soft grass, back to our lovely campsite as the last of the sun's rays filtered down through the trees. Ah, what a great day.
Steve made a huge fire and Laura got the snags on. Time to crack open those beers (and open the elusive Goonie) and kick back.
You know those times when you feel like you're the luckiest people in the world? Well that's how we were feeling 😀
Shortlt afterwards however, our euphoria was somewhat shattered when a Ute pulled up and out got the Ranger, whose body language could only be described as confronting.... He swaggered over and demanded to know what we were doing! We showed him our Camping Tag which we had purchased online and was "prominently displayed on the outside" of Swifty as per the instructions! As soon as he saw it, his whole demeanour changed and he apologized profusely, saying our booking wasn't showing up in his system and that they got a lot of people camping here without permits! We graciously accepted his apology but then he saw our beautiful fire and went straight back into his aggressive mode, telling us it was illegal to collect firewood in a National Park! We patiently explained that we most certainly had not done that and that we had brought in our own firewood in our specially designed cage on Swifty's drawbar.
Again Mr Ranger was taken down a peg or two and became friendly again. We further explained that we were the sort of people who collect other people's rubbish and remove it regularly!
We then chatted for a bit longer before he took off. Once he'd gone we had a bit of a laugh about him, but to be honest, he probably wasn't used to responsible campers like us, so we figured his attitude was probably fair enough!
After that we had our snags and a couple of beers and then happily went to bed.
Another great day. Life was most definitely good 😀😀😀
Wednesday morning we slept in til 9.30am! We woke up to a wet morning, with the sun just peaking through the clouds, warming up the beautiful lush grounds.
Everybody else had left, so Steve decided he was gonna do a nudie run to the river for a bracing dip! However it didn't stop there; he then decided he was gonna be the Naked Chef and make breakfast in the buff too!! Sorry no incriminating photos but here's what he made (very carefully!!):
I have to say, it probably could've done with a little bit more water, but honestly, it tasted exactly like regular scrambled eggs!!
Well that's another tick for the new dehydrated foods Steve was trialling. Laura did suggest that since he was getting such great results, perhaps he'd like to take over the cooking every night, but he respectfully declined!!!
Laura decided to take a shower, so two thirds filled the bucket up from the river and then added a jug of boiling water to make it a good temperature. She then hooked up the 12v shower over the awning support and had a good 5 minute warm shower. The remaining water was put in the fire which was still smouldering from the night before. Awesome!
We sat for a while enjoying the peace and quiet and noticing the wildlife. Tiny frogs the size of your pinky fingernail, were hopping around in the wet shady grass, bellbirds and wrens in the trees were calling to each other. A turkey even wandered through our campsite. There were some March flies but not too many, and luckily these ones were easily put off by a liberal spraying of Bushmans.
In the river there were Jungle Perch and Sooty Grunters everywhere. But perhaps the two most amazing creatures were a poodle and a T-Rex... Yes really! Check them out!!
First, here's the Poodle; side on, looking to the left, with a big poofy pompom on its head:
And here's the T-Rex: looking right with its jaws open:
After our brekkie was digested we headed into town for another quick shoot at the Gun Range. And whilst the Gunsmith was calibrating (zeroing) the new telescopic sight on Steve's Ruger Mini 14, we stopped in for some delicious rice paper rolls in the famous Thai shop in Sheridan St. Highly recommended; healthy, tasty and only $6.50 for two!
We went back and picked up the gun and then headed back to the campsite. It started raining in earnest as we left the city and half an hour later as we turned onto the Goldsborough Valley Road, it got even heavier. We both commented that we wondered if we'd get cut off if the rivers rose over the causeways. Ah well, only time would tell!
Swifty was warm and dry inside, so we spent the rest of the afternoon reading and relaxing. Laura made some popcorn and it was just perfect, with the sound of the rain falling outside.
Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
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