New additions to the family

Getting back to my interest in being a little more self-sustaining - sadly the north queensland heat has killed off most of my veges and with my attention focused on travelling and renovations over the last couple of months, it has had little help to recover.  Project garden will start again with earnest very soon, I promise.

Luckily despite perhaps a little neglect (they possibly haven't got as many scrap treats as usual) our chooks & ducks continue to lay lots of eggs. In fact, we have some additions to the family.

It started as a bit of an experiment. I had a hen go broody, and I had fertile duck eggs - so decided to put the two together and see if the hen could hatch us some ducklings.  It was a big learning curve and sadly we lost 2 out of 3 - they started to hatch but died before they made it out. The 3rd, Daisy, continues to amuse us as he/she grows.  Hopefully Daisy turns out to be a girl (thus the reason we named her Daisy) because two male ducks aren't much good to us.

Daisy hatching

Daisy 1 day old

Daisy with her 'mum'

Daisy about 1 week old

Daisy today - nearly 3 weeks old

Daisy now lives with some Aracauna chicks I bought. Aracaunas are the blue egg layers and I wanted something a little bit different. I got 6 in the hope that at least half will turn out to be hens. We can't keep roosters here so they would have to go. Time will tell!!

Renovations

I seem to be one of those people who find it truely difficult to sit still for very long. I always have to be doing something - working, planning, dreaming......  True to form, the last couple of months have been non-stop. Only now that I finally have a little bit of time off work with not much planned, I can sit down and write this.

There was barely chance to unpack after our wonderful holiday up the Cape before we were settling a house and undertaking major renovations....ourselves....again!  Having already undertaken such ventures several times in the past, it would seem we are suckers for punishment.  The 2 weeks we gave ourselves, turned into 4 and then some. Only now do we finally have a tenant moving in to (hopefully) look after the place.

I've always had a passion for old Queenslander houses. The unique features and design is one thing, but also being made entirely out of timber, there is just so much scope for re-designing these houses.  The possibilities are endless.  I get so much joy out of buying an old run down, ugly, unloved house, and turning it into a beautiful lovable home once again. And it doesn't take much - a good clean, a coat of paint. Even new bathrooms and kitchens can be done on a budget.  One of the houses we've done, we found a 2nd hand kichen on Gumtree.com.au for $900 which was in great condition and included appliances. With a little tweaking we re-fitted it to our ktichen, had new benchtops made, and voila.. a new kitchen for under $2000. But the Pièce de résistance would have to be uncovering beautiful timber floors hidden underneath newspaper/vinyl/carpet for generations - ripe for sanding and polishing.

If I didn't need to keep my current job, I'd seriously consider doing this for a living. To be in a position to pay someone to do the hard stuff, even better!

Here's some before and after pics from our latest venture.  Its not a classic Queenslander, but we think it has potential - the worst house in a good street. In fact, this house used to be a RAAF duplex and was relocated in the 50's to its present site. There is evidence of where walls have been removed and whats left is a unique layout that we may one day redesign. And luckily the kitchen was already done!

she ain't pretty but has potential

the back

 

Lounge - as it was originally

Lounge - removing vinyl tiles and masonite revealed timber floorboards ready for sanding and polishing

starting to sand the floors and apply filler

Fully sanded but not yet varnished

Main bedroom - original

Main bedroom with new dividing wall for walk-in-wardrobe

Main bedroom finished

2nd bedroom - original

2nd bedroom finished

3rd bedroom finished 

3rd bedroom - original

bathroom - original

bathroom - original

bathroom - in progress

bathroom finished

bathroom finished

Gumtree.com.au - Great for finds like this Blanco dishwasher, only a couple of years old, for $90

Kitchen - luckily all we had to do here was paint the walls and add new blinds. We also replaced the stove and added a dishwasher. The rest had already been done.

Day 15

Day 15, 16, 17 & 18 (Destination – Port Douglas/Home)

Waking to a damp campsite at Hann River Roadhouse, we took our time packing up to allow everything to dry out a bit more.  Driving was a different experience today, the roads were muddy instead of dry and dusty.  The rodeo finally looked like it had been through the mud.  It wasn’t long before we hit bitumen again, on and off again before we left the dirt behind us altogether. 

We stopped at Mt Quinkan aboriginal rock art site. Very interesting and well worth the $5 per adult fee.  It was a short but steep hike up a hill to a couple of different sites where there are clear paintings and plaques to explain what you were looking at (if you couldn’t quite make it out on your own). There was a funny English chap at the entrance hut, no vehicle it sight so it appeared he’d hiked there. He was sweeping and pruning, but also gave us a very helpful idea of how far the walk to the site was and persuaded us to go through and have a look.  Still not sure how he got there (Laura was at least 10-15 km away I think).

Continuing on, we stopped at Palmer River roadhouse for fuel and lunch, again under a shady tree (tuna and crackers this time).   

In no time we’d reached Mt Molloy and the turn off toward the coast. The familiar sound of text messages started coming through some time around Julatten. We hadn’t driven this way before and were quite impressed with the scenic drive coming down the range. 

James Earl Lookout

And so, to end our fabulous journey, we spent 3 days relaxing in Port Douglas, staying at Tropic Breeze caravan park and walking the short distance to the beach or into the town centre.

Brett finally had success fishing, catching a huge (65cm) Fingermark on a estuary boat charter we did - very happy. 'Did I tell you about that big fish I caught.....' became his favourite phrase until we all just started rolling our eyes and swatting him with whatever was on hand. 

We were also able to coincide our travels with attending our friends, Karen and Rodney's, wedding in Port Douglas which was wonderful.

Our camp at Tropic Breeze Van Park, Port Douglas

Enjoying a walk along the beach at Port Douglas

Heading home a few days later, we encountered a near-disastrous accident where a boat trailer detached from the towbar on the car travelling in front of us. Fortunately it happened when we had slowed down for roadworks after the Cardwell Range, and although the boat trailer ended up firmly wedged under the rear end of the car, Brett was able to help them get the trailer back on the towbar and on their way with only a damaged bumper bar to show for it. The rest of the trip home was uneventful fortunately!

The End....

Day 14

Day 14 (Destination – Hann River roadhouse)

After a good nights sleep by all, we packed up again. Brett, thinking a fishing charter might be our last hope of catching a good fish, decided we would go to the Weipa library to use their internet and see if we could book something for when we reached Port Douglas or Cooktown. After a half hour of ‘research’, we decided it was all too difficult and gave up.

We headed toward Merluna Station, thinking this would be our next overnight stop, however it wasn’t that far a drive from Weipa and upon arriving and seeing it didn’t really have what we were looking for, we decided to keep driving. ‘The more driving we do today, the less we have to do tomorrow’ became our motto. (We had to be in Port Douglas by Sunday for a friends wedding.)  Several hours later, after a very long day of driving, we stopped at Hann River roadhouse. Upon approach it is a fairly rough and ready looking place, with a large compound of demountable buildings presumably for the road crews work in the area.  However, looking past the demountables, there is quite a nice little camping area beyond. We set up camp again and got looking for firewood. Plan was to cook roast lamb and veges in the camp oven tonight.  There was also a pony, a peacock and an emu wandering around that were quite friendly and the kids enjoyed handfeeding the peacock some bread. 

Our camp at Hann River

A little later, while enjoying our meal, we watched a huge lightening storm in the distance, saying ‘it won’t come this way’….famous last words again! An hour or so later we were battening down the hatches, throwing our camp chairs under the Rodeo, zipping up all the windows and hunkering down in the camper to try to sleep.  It’s a bit daunting trying to sleep under canvas while heavy rain is pounding down, and thunder and lightening all around. Luckily it eased almost as quickly as it came and we all fell asleep.

Day 13

Day 13 (Destination – Weipa)

Woke early, Brett and the kids going to retrieve the crab pots hoping to have at least one. Well there was one, but too small to keep.  We are feeling like giving up on fishing!  We were running low on water, power (clouds had come over so solar panel not much help), and we were a bit tired of the flies too so we decided to move on. 

We were sure that gap looked worse than when we drove across 2 days ago

We headed back to the main road, stopping briefly to have a quick splash in the creek running under the log bridge (beautiful cool crystal clear water again), and then south again, taking the bypass road this time.  We got to Bramwell Junction around lunch time so stopped and made sandwiches and replenished our water tanks. As we were standing there, a voice called out to Brett. Long story short, one of the grouped camped because us at Vrilya for 2 days included a good friend of Bretts and neither of us realised. They were part of a group with a boat and had a bit better luck fishing than us, although they were now heading to Mapoon. After a quick catch up, we headed off again.

We were originally headed for Merluna Station for tonight but decided we would have to make the trip into Weipa for supplies anyway so would stay there instead. The Weipa caravan park was a nice break from bush camping and we enjoyed the amenities again. Caught up with lots of washing as well.  

Waiting for mine trucks to cross at Weipa

Mine water truck

Mine Truck

Our camp at Weipa Caravan Park

Day 11 & 12

Day 11 (Destination - Vrilya Point)

All the locals we spoke to said Vrilya Point was the place to go for fishing so off we set. Before getting the ferry back across the Jardine, we checked out a few more points of interest. Somerset ruins and the graves of early pioneers, the Jardines. Again, no signs so we weren't really sure whether we were in the right spot. We also went to see 2 of the WW2 plane wrecks that remain in the area. These were interesting enough and it helped that there was a plaque with some information about what happened. You can still see large sections of the planes and visualise where it came down.

We stopped in Bamaga briefly to refill out water tanks, buy bread and beer.....although we were an hour too early for the bottle shop to open so we had to hang around a bit longer.  We had lunch under a shady tree just outside Bamaga and then drove out to Seisia for a quick look. This is where Brett spoke to someone at the petrol station who said "yes go to Vrilya Point, good fishing but BIG crocs. Don't go near the water at all, and keep your camp fire burning at night"..... Yikes!  We decided we still had to go and check it out, couldn't be that bad surely.

Finally got our beer and headed back to the Jardine ferry.....only to find that the ferryman had gone on lunch and it grinds to a halt. The joined the several vehicles already parked under shady trees just waiting...waiting...waiting! It was over an hour before the ferryman returned and resumed operations and we were on our way again.

The turn off to Vrilya Point is not too far south of the ferry, driving straight past it at first (apparently the navigator wasn't doing her job..woops).  We felt sure the corregations on the main road had worsened in the 3 days since we last drove through.  The road to Vrilya Point wasn't that much better and involved driving over a rather precarious looking log bridge with a nice wide gap right where the wheels could go.

We wanted to go to North Vrilya Point which meant driving along the beach for about 11kms. Brett dropped the tyre pressures and we managed it just fine. We stopped briefly to look at the old light ship wreck. Not much remaining but interesting just the same.

We continued on the headland where we found a dozen or so other campers, immediately feeling abit more comfortable. Hopefully any marauding crocs would think twice with so many people around.  The camp ground is quite far back from the high tide line for the most part so we felt quite safe. There was loads of flotsom and jetsom around, washed up from somewhere. Someone had got creative with some bits of fishing net that must have washed up and had made a sort of 'thong' tree and hammock out of it.  The bad thing about Vrilya - the flies...everywhere!

We set up camp and decided to throw the lines in for a bit. Brett and Annieka caught 2 small flathead but nothing else. After dark at least the flies give you a break.

Day 12

Woke to a very low tide, the water is right out for miles so the kids are exploring the sandbanks finding hermit crabs and interesting shells. Brett has gone looking for a good spot to throw in the crab pots. There is apparently a creek behind us somewhere but requires a bit of a walk and is easier to get to during low tide.

The rest of the day was spent attempting to fish and getting terribly sunburnt (me).  We all practised cast netting (and caught lots of little flathead and throwing them back), Brett got a really good bite once and thought for a second he had the 'big' one but wasn't to be.