12 - Lake Tinaroo 1/7 - 12/7/2019

Entry 12           Lake Tinaroo 1/7 – 12/7/2019

Returning to our Lake Tinaroo residence, ‘Norty’s place,’ virtually one month since we had left to explore some of the nearby northern regions, the property looked like the surrounding rainforest environment had been attempting to reclaim the land. Though a majority of the mess would have been created by the 10’s of thousands of sulphur crested cockatoos gnawing away with their beaks stripping the overhead tree canopies. The noise created by the cockatoos was deafening making it impossible to have a conversation at times. It is a regular occurrence around Australia with the authorities are unable to come up with an effective strategy to address the ongoing plague of these birds.

It took close to two hours of work, clearing the driveway and other areas we required access to, before we entered the driveway with our caravan. We were both worn out, very tired and were in bed around 6 pm - both instantly asleep. The following day we finished tidying the rest of the grounds and spent the evening at the ‘Smicks,’ catching up on one another’s news and activities for the last month.

It was good not having an itinerary or set goals for a while. This allowed us to address some maintenance needs and catch up with all those modern-day electronic details. The second day at Norty’s our caravan TV expired. Mary wasn’t happy as she was looking forward to watching the Wimbledon Tennis tournament, a special treat considering we spend most of our time travelling in areas without TV reception. It was out of warranty by 3 weeks and a polite email seeking assistance with this predicament was met with silence.

Adding to the mix our tow tug was due for a service and the two local (Atherton Table Lands) service centres were unable to assist for 3 weeks. We were into our 7^th year travelling all over Australia and had never experienced being unable to obtain a tow tug service any longer than a week out. Our 6 monthly service due date was within a week and we were about 400 kilometres shy of the 10,000-kilometre limitation. We directed many questions to both dealers to discover there was a 1-month grace period with the stated time limit to maintain ongoing warranties but the kilometres travelled needed to be within limitations. We assessed the kilometre restraints over this period of time to be too restrictive and rang the Cairns service centre located a bit over 100 kilometres away, booking our vehicle for its required service within all limitation requirements.

We were up early travelling to Cairns for one of those major services, $ on our tow tug. We spent the day walking around Cairns while our tow tug was getting some pampering returning to Tinaroo late afternoon. We were very tired and were glad to be provided with a lovely roast tea on our return complements of the Smicks. We then played one of the Smicks card games into the evening. It was a game we hadn’t previously played much before and the play kept running our way. In the end we were directed to “Get Out.” You’ve eaten all our good food and you’ve smashed us at cards, get out. The Smicks have been such good hosts for us!

Norty spent another night at his lakeside residence where the five of us shared an evening meal and chatter late into the evening.

Another delicious meal. Thank you Mary.

We continued to enjoy the relaxed setting of the Lake Tinaroo watching various lake activities from our porch and the accompanying bird life.

 

Rainbow Lorikeet

Another recently retired couple whom we have socialised with over the last 20 years or so were travelling to Cairns with their caravan for a week’s holiday. In our opinion they were still in working life mode zipping about, needing to slow up, travelling around 8,000 kilometres over a 5-week period till returning home in Adelaide? Once we became aware of their itinerary, we offered for them to spend some time with us at Lake Tinaroo which they took up, being it only for a day and a half. On the way from Adelaide to Cairns they detoured to the Undara Larva Tubes, another location we had previously promoted as worthwhile. When Lyn & Pete arrived at Lake Tinaroo, we were a bit nervous if they had enjoyed the Undara Larva Tubes as much as we had. We were pleased to hear their bubbly conversation about their Undara Lava Tube experience. We quickly set them up in the prime lake viewing spot.

Pete was in motion for a Toyota jump, "Oh what a feeling," unfortunately Steve misjudged the timing of the camera shutter.

Next, we needed to come up with a plan for suggestions on what they might like to experience while in the Atherton Tablelands, a location we were expecting to allocate a period of three plus months, with Lyn & Pete allocating 1 ½ days. We assessed their wish list, “bucket list,” for things they would like to experience during their life time. One of Lyn’s wishes was to view some Texas long horn cattle. She was going to pay $180 when they travelled through Charters Towers a few days prior but missed out due to issues with the farm provider. Well we started mid-afternoon on the day of their arrival to see if we could assist with their bucket list wishes driving them around to nearby locations, continuing through their second day, waving them off the following morning.

Texas Long Horns. ✔

The Avenue of Honour. ✔

A Platypus in the wild. ✔

We had spent copious days watching the waterways hoping for a platypus appearance till successful with a sighting. Whilst conveying Lyn & Pete to various areas we had stopped at one of the platypi viewing areas and immediately spotted one within a minute of arrival.

Some water falls. ✔

Up close to a wild Echidna we spotted on a walk. ✔

Walking through rainforests. ✔

Turtles in the wild. ✔

To see a tea plantation and the making of tea.  ✔

This had been our third Nerada tea plantation visit and it was the first time we had seen the harvesting of the tea plants.

A visit to Nerada Tea Plantation is not complete without sampling some of their tea's, naturally with scones, jam & cream

A sighting of the very rare tree kangaroo. ✔

To be chauffeured around by that great guy, Steve and whilst chattering away to experience the feeling of our tongues being sent through the vehicle’s windscreen. ✔

Experiencing a chalet type setting on Lake Tinaroo and its nature. ✔

Beautiful sunset

Lovely sunrise

They loved the Curlews as we do

Experiencing time with other like-minded special caravanning people, (Smicks.) ✔

Another one of Mary's creations

We had followed up with more communication with our T.V. provider, requesting for the contact particulars of their supplier. We were happy with the efforts of the business we had purchased the TV from, ‘Caravans Plus,’ with their T.V. supplier arranging for collection of the T.V. via courier for assessment of repairs as if it was still under warranty conditions. We were now at the mercy of time lines for assessment of repairs and courier conveyance times hoping for a speedy resolution, suspecting it may be at least another month.

The same day Lyn & Pete moved on we received a request from ‘that’ other Adelaide couple Judy & Jim for a blog update with pictures of our time with Lyn & Pete. Later that day a phone conversation with Lyn reiterated Judy’s request. Well it looks like you guys owe us with the likes of a night out when we next get together. Under duress from peer pressure, Steve spent several hours compiling this next blog entry with a further 1 ½ hours spent uploading it.

The below two pictures are for Judy & Jim’s information, they are not the only special couples to frequent these two locations.