ARCHER CREEK
▼
RAVENSHOE
▼
KAIRI
|
|
THANK YOU FOR BEING PATIENT WHILE THE PICTURES LOAD |
|
Day 23
Thursday 1st September 2005 Click on the pictures for larger versions
|
|
||
|
After a great night's sleep we sat outside the caravan and had brekky. When we were setting our site up the day before, I had to look around to find a site that suited us but didn't impinge on other's privacy. As I looked around I noticed a campsite near the toilet block, with a caravan and annexe and a large sign saying "The Molkies". At the time it rang some sort of bell in my head but as I was otherwise occupied it just passed into the back of my thoughts. After brekky I had to visit that toilet block. As I passed that site I noticed the sign again and had more time to think about it. In the recesses of my mind I seemed to remember my sister saying something about friends she referred to as "the Molkies". I tried to remember what was significant about them and it came back. When she first learned about her computer she was receiving emails from "The Molkies" as they travelled through various parts of Australia. I'd never met them but heard all about them when fixing her computer. The Inbox was full of mail from them. As I headed back to our campsite I saw the male owner come out of the annexe. My curiosity was too much, so I walked over and asked what the sign meant. He was very friendly and said it stood for "The Molkentins". Peter and Rosalee Molkentin from memory. I couldn't believe it could be the same people I'd heard about probably 3 years earlier but had to ask if they knew of my sister and brother in law. To his and my huge surprise they had! We interacted for a while and his wife came out when she heard us talking. We went back to our campsite and I introduced mum and Judy. They were just as amazed. Because I had the mobile phone in the Daihatsu, I called my brother in law Neil, who is a long distance truck driver, and told him who we'd just met. He was taken aback too. I put Peter on and they happily caught up. Thinking about the chances of meeting and knowing who they were still blows me away. |
||
 |
 |
 |
| 10.03am | 10.03am | 10.04am |
After we finished talking to the Molkentins, Judy, the dogs and myself took a walk down to the creek, Archer Creek, behind where we were camped. Above and below show a couple of spots along it. Beautiful! |
||
 |
 |
|
| 10.04am | 10.05am | |
The dogs couldn't resist the water and Judy couldn't resist seeing if I would break her camera. |
||
 |
 |
 |
| 10.06am | 10.06am | 10.10am |
Regrettably we had to pack up and move on. The next stop was for lunch at Ravenshoe. As we drove up the range, clouds started rolling over. As we drove into Ravenshoe it started to drizzle. We hadn't seen rain/showers since Day 3 - Friday 12th August 2005. Mum needed to get pills at a chemist so we walked up the street on the western side of Ravenshoe. She found a chemist and Judy and I looked around for somewhere to eat. We found a pleasant cafe and ordered. Mum joined us eventually. The dogs were happy looking out of the Daihatsu windows. Seeing it was raining we had no worries about them being too hot, in fact it had become fairly cold. Below should give you a good indication of the type of weather we drove into. It was great actually as we'd gone a long way in dry, droughty areas and the green, wet surroundings were a really pleasant change. |
||
 |
 |
 |
| 1.30pm | 1.31pm | 1.32pm |
After lunch we drove on. I'd always wanted to see the Wind Generators I knew existed on the Atherton Tableland. I knew they were around Millaa Millaa somewhere so I followed the signs towards there, hoping to come across them. Well, it happened. As we came over a hill in thick mist and drizzle, what seemed like a giant in the mist came into view. As I drove on, other giants with their tops in the mist started appearing. We reached a turn and found a lookout which had been built to view them. I didn't take the caravan up to the lookout but instead parked it beside the road and walked around taking shots. We were told by a passerby that one of the generators had developed a fault and a blade had thrown off. Below centre and right is the result. I was really impressed with them. Some people are against them saying they spoil the surroundings but I'd rather see them than burning coal and the resultant smoke/dust being released into the air through giant chimneys. (As it turns out, here in the
Kingaroy/Dalby area, the Bunya Mountains in fact, something like 250
towers are to be built in the near future - I am writing this in
February 2009) |
||
 |
 |
 |
| 1.54pm | 1.55pm | 1.55pm |
 |
 |
 |
| 1.55pm | 1.56pm | 1.57pm |
 |
 |
|
| 1.58pm | 2.02pm | |
After leaving Windy Hill Wind Farm I had to decide where our next camp would be. We headed for Tinaroo Dam, north east of Atherton. The scenery on the Kennedy Highway was brilliant. It reminded Judy of living in Colombia. She loved the winding road with steep drops and the green canopy. Left to Jude she'd willingly live there. I would have loved to take shots of it but it was getting late and there were very few places to pull a caravan over. After passing on the outskirts of Atherton we headed out to the Tinaroo Dam, hoping to camp there for the night but it wasn't to be. The area was very commercialized and there were no free spots to camp. So, we backtracked and our Camps Australia book showed we could stay in the Lions Park in a small settlement called Kairi. Little did we know the site had been deleted. It wasn't until I looked at the updates after arriving home that I found out. Oooops! I wondered why I copped abuse from a neighbour when walking the dogs. We weren't the only ones who made the mistake though, as a Britz van with a German male with two Asian girls parked over from us for the night. They must have had the same version of the book. The night had
turned really cold and we needed to clean up. Shower and toilet were
provided but the shower was cold, as most campsite showers are. After
looking inside and feeling how cold it was, I decided to rig up a
"hot" shower. See below. Across from the Lions Park was the Kairi Hotel. Being
so late we decided to have a meal at the hotel. The meal was good and
the surroundings lovely and warm. |
||
|
Our makeshift "hot" shower in the amenities block at the Kairi Lions Park which only had cold water. Thanks Lions members, and sorry for the mistake. |
||
 |
||
| 6.24pm | ||
|
|
|
|
