Toowoomba: the city of flowers

We have friends in Toowoomba, though we don't keep in touch alot with them, we do know that we can pick up the threads from the last time and weave a little more of the tapestry of life together each time we see one of them. This time, we stayed in the driveway of long time friends, Leo and Alice. We met up recently with Leo and Alice briefly when we were all at the Bathurst CMCA Rally back in July this year and they kindly invited us to stay with them when we came through.

It was a lovely coincidence that we were in Toowoomba at the tail end of the Festival of Flowers. The organizers must have been wrought with concern with all the most unseasonably wet weather. We delayed visiting the gardens until a dryer period since we were staying a week and had the time. The whole city is filled with flowers but certainly the main gardens are spectacular. In my opinion I think it beats Canberra's Floriade by an artistic mile. In fact we loved the gardens so much and took so many photos that I will dedicate one post just to the flower festival.

Rob is loving the variety of flowers esp the tulips.

We filled some of the time visiting the Cobb & Co Museum and a drive to the privately funded Wellcamp Airport. Rob and Leo know the family that built this forward thinking public airport.

I didn't get my own photo, but this plane is truly up inside the airport terminal!

Dump Point Grumbles

On arrival before we rocked up to our friends, it was time to empty our black water tank. We had tried to use the one at Calbutra and found that it was unsuitable as it was 3 ft high. We need to use gravity to empty the tank. We have since been advised that it can be accessed lower, but you couldn't tell by driving up to it, hence we drove on past it.

So we had to use the dump point here at the Toowoomba showground and found that it was rather difficult to access. It has a 1 metre fence all around it. We couldn't park close enough to use it easily. For the first time ever, we had to use our extension hose, which I doubt many motorhomes would have.I reckon that the councils and waste water boards should seek CMCA advice before adding such services to make it as practical as possible. We've also been to ones where you have to reverse in to use it which would be very difficult for some RVs and caravans. A bit of forethought and planning would make a dump so much easier.

Toowoomba

Welcome

We arrived in Toowoomba just in time to attend church. Today we attended the Reformed Church. We have some association with the Reformed Churches of Australia with Rob having grown up in the Reformed Church in both Orange and Wollongong.


Being a relatively small and a very much family orientated denomination, we know many people right across the majority of the churches in Australia. If we don’t know someone in that church ourselves, we will come across someone who is related to someone we know and vice versa, they’ll know at least one of Rob’s relatives. This makes it very easy to assimilate and it opens doors of hospitality.

Toowoomba Gardens

We were invited to lunch with a couple that we knew from years back and from this we were invited to stay overnight in their driveway. It was great to catch up with John & Helen and do lots of reminiscing. Just as we were about to leave, Helen has a visitor whom we recognized, our wedding photographer who is also the sister of our best man at our wedding, so of course we had to delay our leave taking. We had also been invited to lunch before leaving Toowoomba by another couple from our past, or was it that we invited ourselves??? Anyway Liz is a sister to my husband’s cousin and as I said earlier, there is often a family connection somewhere. I actually like this as I come from a very fragmented family and grew up as a only child until my mother married when I was 8 and then my half sister was born. So to have this family connection is a big part of what clicked with me when I joined this church and denomination.

Toowoomba City of Flowers

I have since learnt that mostly it doesn’t really matter which church or domination I attend, that I am with a family of believers.

Sorry, we were so wrapped in visiting friends and it was not our first visit to Toowoomba, I didn’t think to take any photos of the town. It is beautiful with lots of flowering Jacarandas in evidence as well as lots of spring flowering plants including numerous roses. None of these photos were by myself. Credit given accordingly.

Altar Quilt photo by Helen Moes

The quilt in the photo can be seen at the Toowoomba Reformed Church. It is absolutely marvellous and was designed made by the ladies of the church themselves.  It is a marvellous blend of various applique techniques as well as embroidery. I would have loved to have had the opportunity to meet the designer, but unfortunately she wasn't in church this weekend. It truly deserved to have been exhibited at any of the highest quilting exhibitions within the country. I am no expert but I reckon it could have won at least 1 medal, it certainly is the best quilt I have ever seen and I have attended many quilt exhibitions at the Sydney Quilt Shows.

Malanda Falls, Yungaburra & Mareeba

The Atherton Tablelands 

Since we needed to hang around within cooee of Cairns until we met up with some family later in Cairns, we decided to spend the time up in the tablelands.  Even though we had spent some time here before we went up to the cape, there was still many things to do and see around here. Lakes, waterfalls, markets, history, arts & crafts including public murals. The Atherton Tablelands has it all and is absolutely delightful.

Yungaburra Markets

Ravenshoe on the southern end of the beautiful Atherton Tablelands

After picking up the Robbiebago, we were to have a few days on our own before meeting up with the 4WD club again at Dave & Tracy’s place just outside Ravenshoe. We used this time to rest and then to clean up the car and repack everything more suitable for us being in a caravan again.

 Camped at Dave & Tracy's

Dave & Tracy live on a large 4 or 5 acre block of land and there was plenty of parking for all 8 vehicles and their trailers or tents. It was great to meet up with these people who were now firm friends rather than the strangers most of them were just 3 short weeks before. Travelling and camping together creates its own special bond.

Morton Telegraph Station

As mentioned in the last blog entry, John, Ian & Wes got a good head start to get along the track. We slept in, if you can call it that as we left at 9.15. After nearly 2 weeks of packing and unpacking we find we are a tad faster, but we still need to allow an hour to have brekkie and pack up.  We caught up to them at Bramwell Junction, where they reported that everything was still holding together.

Ferns in the understory near Bramwell Juntion

Closeup of the same ferns

We then continued collectively to head on to Morton Telegrapgh Station for tonight's camp arriving around 2pm. It is a nice big relatively flat area adjacent to a crocodile infested river. (I haven't seen a croc anywhere this trip yet!) 

The very Tip of Australian mainland

On Sunday 15 July, 2012, we reach the ultimate goal of this trip, which is the Tip. The tip of Cape York is traditionally known as Pajinka.
 

We took yet another narrow & rough track suitable for 4WD only,  travelling over a couple of creeks. The drive is through some beautiful rainforest with lots of dappled shade and some flowers. Once we joined up with the main road, if you can call it that, we met lots of traffic going to the same place. We were fortunate to find parking for all our vehicles.

A good rambling but steep climb leads you up and over some small hills and eventually after some 800 or so metres you can see the famous sign that said you have arrived!  We all took lots of pictures both as a group and individual  couples. This is the pinnacle of Australia.

At the Tip of Australia

We returned to the carpark and walked on past to the now abandoned Pajinka Resort just 400 metres from the very tip. It was privately built and then apparently handed over to the Aboriginals, the Injinoo people who are the traditional owners of the land, who apparently did not approve of the resort and let it go to ruins. It seems such a waste to our ‘white man’s sensibilities’. There seems to be a lot of myths and half truths of what happened, A fire guttered the generator plant, the resort created a lot of environmental fall out, the Aboriginals hated it and destroyed it, etc, etc etc.

One of the beautiful flowers at the top

Interesting colours of a oyster fungi growing on a tree trunk

Next stop was Somerset beach for lunch. A lovely picnic and camping area on a beach setting.  We went to see the ruins of the Somerset homestead, one of the Jardine family's homesteads. There’s nothing much is left of it, but it's worth looking at for insight into the European history of the region and the impact of the Jardine  Family on the peninsula. 

Bob sitting astride a cannon at Somerset Homestead

Typical jungle abounds both side - note the smooth track - that didn't last long!

Some mangrove roots

Just down the road is Fly Beach, which is where you will find an extraordinary amount of rubbish washed up from the sea.  Thongs, shampoo bottles, you name it anything plastic. I hear even tv’s and such are found occasionally washed down from Indonesia. Shari said it’s nickname is Thong beach and it is easy to see why. Young Ryan was delighted to find and show us handfuls of these tiny little crabs. Hey curl up into little balls of no more than 1cm diameter.

Lineup of our vehicles on Fly Beach

On the way back to camp we stopped at the fabled ‘Croc Tent’.  This is a shop that is literally in a road side tent that is apparently open seven months of the year selling souvenirs. They even try to ensure that as much as possible their souvenirs are made in Australia. 

Tonight we all chipped in and we had a great pot luck type of feast including a fabulous baked dinner and a variety of other yummy goodness including a giant damper of course.

Ravenshoe and the Millstream Falls

After leaving Archer Creek, we stopped at Millstream Falls. A nice easy walk down a bitumen path to a platform overlooking Australia’s broadest waterfall.

The beautiful Millstream Falls

The campground at Ravenshoe (Camps 6: 235) is actually right in town and next door to the Historical Railway which is operational most Sundays, but at the time of our visit, it had been recently derailed and thus it was not running. The railway volunteers offer a very efficient hot water showers for a gold coin donation as well as the toilets. The campground is virtually on the main street (which is relatively quiet at nights as the highway by passes Ravenshoe).

Lo and behold we parked right next to Brian and Lorraine, whom we had first met back at Walker Creek (heading to Karumba) and again just at Cumberland. We made more new friends here esp Ros and Trevor from the Central Coast, travelling with their Winniebago.

We spent the afternoon, chatting and get acquainted with the town. Just across the road is a FoodWorks supermarket and a Laundromat. We enjoyed a rambling stroll up the main street, where you’ll discover the normal range of shops, including a newsagent, pharmacy and a IGA supermarket. Up the top end is a wonderful local art gallery called Win’s and you’ll get to meet the artist, Winsome, who paints lovely scenes of the surrounding countryside. She also has some lovely hand-blown glass works, and some local woodwork that are of a high standard and a few miscellaneous items, including art cards. I can recommend the fish and chip shop that is the other side of the Laundromat and their pizzas look scrumptious and I was told that it tastes good too! The nearby bakery is also highly recommended by yours truly.

The lovely eggplant coloured plumes of the tall native grasses

On the first full day there we went for a drive to Tully Falls, which was a lovely drive but I was disappointed to discover that there are no waterfalls except in the wet season, due the construction of a hydro electric scheme somewhere and this has severely restricted the amount of water flowing at other times. There is a short walk adjacent to the lookout and the little creek and subsequent waterfall is delightful. We didn’t go much further and thus didn’t see what was at the end of the walk, probably just another look at the dry granite where the waterfall should be.

The lovely Little Millstream Falls - note the grass in the foreground

On the return trip we called in at the Little Millstream Falls and this is truly delightful. You can walk all the way to the bottom and can even swim in the pools at the bottom. Make sure to stop and the first major U bend in the walk and you can walk out the top of the waterfalls and look down. I wish it had been a warm day as I just love to swim under waterfalls, there’s just something magic about it.

Thundering at Little Millstream Falls

Contemplating at the base of Little Millstream Falls

That night we cooked & sampled our first Frittata. I chose a zucchini frittata recipe and loved it for the taste and the simplicity. This will become a staple in our camping menus.

On the Sunday we went to the local Uniting Church which though it was with a style & songs that we knew some 20 years ago, it was very friendly and once again we were invited to fellowship afterwards with them.

Cumberland Mine Historic Site (The Chimney)

The Chimney had been recommended to us a few times and so we had to go there. It is a large quiet area on an historic mine site. There is a lovely billabong there with water lilies that are flowering right now. We liked it a decided to stay here for 2 nights. Just before dusk each night, the local Brahmin cattle amongst the caravans to get some fresh grass. They are quite shy creatures and liked to be left alone.

That first night, our neighbours were 2 Israeli boys and we invited them to share our campfire. From this small beginning we ended up having a mini United Nations evening. We also had a German girl and a French couple join us later. Don't forget Rob is Dutch and I am 2nd generation Australian from English stock. We introduced some of them to the delights of toasted marshmallows.

The next day was spent lazing around. Bob got out the metal detector and played around , finding next to nothing for the effort, whilst Michelle made some more felt animals for her grand daughters. We even had a go at making a new Cheese and bacon Damper – it looks perfect - pity the taste didn’t live up to the visage.

Our fabulous looking Damper

Wild flowers and some drama

After leaving Geraldton, we free camped right alongside a seaweed covered beach at Cliff Head North where there were a million flies per person. It was so bad that no one wanted to sit outside until Happy Hour and even then it was a battle with the flies though thankfully with the cooling temperatures they mostly disappeared.

The next stop was the Western Flora Park near Eneabba which is owned by an amateur botanist and his guided wildflower walk came highly recommended. However we were unlucky in our timing as there was a bushfire burning nearby to which our guide was fire fighting and thus unavailable for the guided walk. So instead I went off and walked myself. At first, I thought there wasn’t much there but when I really looked there were heaps and I took 2 hours walking and taking photos. So if you aren’t interested in flowers, then you had better skip to the end to find out about our mini drama. The wildflower photos are mostly from the Western Flora Campsite. I tried not to give you too many wildflower photos but it is so hard to leave some out...yet I did leave out many!

The wild man amongst the wildflowers

Bushfire!

And our little drama???

Packing up to leave we noticed we had a bad burning smell. As there was a bush fire burning nearby and roads were closed off around us, it took a while to find the source which was inside the Robbiebago. A light wire near the fans cooling the fridge was burning almost to the point of catching alight. Thankfully it happened whilst we were still stationary and inside the van so that we were able to notice the burning smell – it could have just as easily happened whilst we were driving and thus gone un-noticed until there were flames. Bob isolated the current and removed the wire to be replaced at the next place with a larger wire and a smaller fuse put in place to prevent it happening again.

Driving back to Geraldton

Bob sitting on top of London Bridge

First stop was Mt Magnet where we left the van for a trip to Sandstone to see a natural land feature called London Bridge. Sandstone is delightful. It is a small, friendly, lovely, clean and tidy town with lots of public garden filled with flowers in which we stopped for a picnic lunch. We then went on the heritage trail drive seeing the old brewery site, London Bridge, a gold battery, and a water pump before heading back home. (Home is wherever the Robbiebago is.)

The elusive Wreath flower (taken off a photo)