Saturday 18th March – Maria Island

Caught the boat at 9 am only took 50 min to get to Maria Island. Lovely trip seeing the land from where you have come. Saw a pod of dolphins very beautiful. On the Island we did a 9 km walk taking in the Fossil cliffs, Painted cliffs, and everything in between. You take everything you need as well as your water intake for the day as there is no shops or supplies and you take all rubbish home. Lots of old ruins, just far to many to post in the website. Long and wonderful day, extremely windy late afternoon which was tiring. Caught the boat back at 4.30 pm. Very steep hills to climb but pace yourself and its worth it. I do have lots of photos in this posting so take your time. Enjoy. 🙂

 Our ferry, its very cool at present, its 8 am. Another plant.
 Off to drop the crayfish pots.  Old plant that is now not working, not sure what they were producing.  These people are heading back from sleeping over.  Silo’s.  We’re all taking in the view of where we’ll be for the next 6 hours.  I did the red circuit and the orange circuit.  Jetty in background, silos can be seen.  Dormitories.  BBQ and shelters. Looking back over towards Triabunna.

Whale bones, Ribs I was told.

 Wombat wondering around.  Top 2 images are fossils of sea shells, Oysters.  Fossils quarry down on left.  This is the way to start climbing the hill over there yonder, you can see some people in the right hand side going up the track.  Convict Barn from 1844  Looking down to the settlement.  Tasmanian Native Hen.  Fossils quarry cliff, the person shows just how big it is.

Sleeping wombat.

 View from half way up the hill on circuit.  Painted Cliffs. Heading down to the Painted cliffs, the peninsula out across the bay is where they are. Tide in makes it a bit harder to get good shots of the cliffs, I’ll just do what I can.  On way back to settlement where the Maria ferry will pick us up in the bay from Jetty.

 

 

 

 

 

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Forth, Day 2

Yesterday was taken with getting some repairs done. It is fine this morning after a very windy and wet night. We are going for a drive up in the hills of Forth, have a job to do on the way. Love the countryside around here. Camping at the sports grounds.

 Fields of Wheat.  Cabbages down the back.  Watering system.  Opium poppies.  Countryside of Forth.  Kangaroo paws.  The paddocks remind me of patch work quilts.  Mt Rowling in the background.  Fields of grasses.  Field of Poppies.  Very hilly area.

Forth river a bit different to two years ago, but they’ve had big floods.

Sofala

Had a great spot down at Sofala, lovely small town, my mother stayed here for some time panning and just loved it, said the hotel had a nice spirit living in it so I inquired, some said yes others didn’t know. Local swimming hole where we were, and got very busy during the day. I saw a Red Bellied Black snake, thought it was a shiny black stick, when it moved, then I knew.

dscf6868  Amazing landscapes, taken through the car window while driving, cant always pull up with a camper trailer in tow.dscf6872  Storm brewing.dscf6883  Countryside.dscf6890  Looking down at Sofala.dscf6914  Local water hole, we camped here. Camper in background.dscf6919  Very deep, quite cold.dscf6921  Resident dog, she was lovely, kept hanging around. dscf6933  The local kids jump into this hole from up the cliffs, we had lots of entertainment.dscf6938  Very cold nights I intend to keep warm. 🙂dscf6945

Fire.

Day 3

Wednesday 23rd September. Happy Birthday Nancy

Hi I’m back, been out of action a week so now to catch up. Last night was a pretty noisy one as we camped at a intersection where trucks pull in and check their loads, but hey its a break. Chattered with a truckie, nice block, learn lots about the area chatting. I was up early this morning, sent my daughter in law a mental happy birthday, we have no coverage. We are going to Barcaldine today, that’s the plan. Here’s a few photos from along the way.Roads from Rolleston to Springsure are pretty rough at present. Got to Barcaldine 4.15 pm so was a long hot day. But fun.

_MG_6836Springsure Infrared  Did a Infrared shot here where we had a quick stop and put fuel from jerry can into Pathy.IMG_6514Entrance to Springsure  Entrance signs into Springsure, quiet a few of the towns have these sort of sculptures, really nice.IMG_6519MT Zamia_Virgin Rock  View of the hills.Mt Zamia & Virgin Rock, Springsure. Qld Then we discovered the hills have a story, They are Mt Zamia on left and Virgin Rock on right.

Day 13

Thursday 1st January 2015  Happy new year.

Woke to a beautiful day,  had breakfast and then went for my walk.  Was pretty hot, so I’m going to start doing it earlier. Had a quiet day,  I cleaned the house, washed the sheets etc while Don went for a walk up the valley.  By afternoon the clouds were building and we got the most lovely lightning show, we only got a light shower and it cooled things down nicely. Went down to Kays while Don had a sleep.  They had a wine and I had my water and a cracker.  Lovely cool night for sleeping,

IMG_8971  Wonderful way of keeping cool and the sun off as well. Thanks Guys, lovely family.IMG_8976  Don signaling that hes back safe from hike.IMG_8970 Don heading off on a hike up into the hills, keeping his clothes dry until he gets over the other side.

Day 14

Monday 25th

Up and away by 9.15 am. Went thru to Sarina and had morning tea at the train station. Then onto Mackay. Stopped at Caneland Central,  did some shopping. The drive and country side was real nice to here, lots of rugged hills and cane farms.  We got away from Mackay about 2.15 pm and headed towards Eungella,  pulled into a rest stop at Plummer River and ate lunch. Had chicken and salad, Got to Boulder Creek at 4 pm, long way out of the way for what there is,  but one never knows until you do it. At least the turn off to Eungella is only 1 km back, good short cut. Not a very big area,  nice wee creek running. We are only staying the one night seeing as its not fantastic.

IMG_2358  Entrance to Boulder Creek camping on left.IMG_2339  Boulder Creek.IMG_2337 IMG_2332 IMG_2330BoulderCreek
 This is the only area to camp in here, not big.

Day 4

Tuesday 4th February 

The youngest son had to head back to where he lives, we all spent some time looking at new places in the area. Some photo’s of the town of Murrurundi, lots of history here.

IMG_6513 IMG_6520 IMG_6524 IMG_6536 Wednesday 5th February

Today my eldest son returned from a trip in NZ and it’s at his place we have been staying. Very dry out here in Murrurundi and keeping the gardens watered is a big job. Once Garry was settled after his flight, next day he drove us up to some real nice spots as well, we are very lucky. Here are some images of the rock formations up in behind the town, real amazing shapes and they are so huge.

IMG_6625 IMG_6633 IMG_6678  Looking at the town of Murrurundi from the rock cliffs in behind the town.IMG_6731

Star trails from top of the hills.