No more chances!!: January 2008

Gees, how slack am I - Oct 07 was the last time I posted. Just looking back at my old pics on my blog after seeing the latest ones taken over the past week - I shall pat myself on the back!! I'm lookin good If I can say so my self..

Christmas was nice. Only had mum and dad over for a BBQ lunch, the kids spent most of the time in the pool whilst the adults played around with building the Thomas Train Set. Santa wasnt too bad for me since we dont do the 'adult gift' thing.

Miss JudyDun and her miss 10 arrived on boxing day. We spent that afternoon just chilling with a coldie. The Thursday since us at the Strand - praying the rain was to hold out. It NEVER rains at chirstmas in Tville! So it was like WTF!! Cooled it down though, not the best swimming weather, but at least we all were not sitting in a pool of sweat from the high humidity normally experienced this time of year.

Friday we set sail for the drive up to Cairns. It was a nice drive. Mind you, we checked the weather and road conditions before we left just incase. It seemed the further north we went, the rain seemed to dissapear and the heat seemed to set in. Sugarworld was great fun. There were 4 water slides and even miss 4 ventured into them. Luckly they were all walking up hills and not stairs to get to the top!! Somehow it was here that I think I hurt my right foot. Not sure what I did to it, but it did limit the amount of walking I was doing over the next few days. Miss J sat on the sidelines watching us silly people walking up and down the hills just for a minutes thrill on the way down! I tell you, I think she has the brains!!

Saturday night was brilliant! We went to the Cairns Safari and had a night time venture. They supplied meals and drinkies whilst leading us by torch light around the park. We seen a pride of 16 lions right in front of us eating their dinner. The monkeys were stretching, and the Rhino was very shy and timid. Bongo drums were beating away all evening and you could even hear the lions roar as we trecked up and down the hills of the park. Dinner was so yummy!! We ate a varity of African and normal meals and my lovely clan had boring old nuggets and chips! Talk about missing out on an experience!! Anyone heading to Cairns, the safari is on the must do of things to do!! Again the rain just held out till after we got back in the car for the hour drive back down the mountain to Cairns.

Miss J's birthday was spent in Karanda. We all pilled into a train that took about 90 odd minutes to climb the range. We went though 15 tunnels which were all hand dug!! The Barron Falls was a sight to see, even though it was only flowing to a trickle... and we thought we were seeing something amazing! The smell of a rainforest is something - so fresh and clean. Who would have thought there would be so many different colors in the forest - all shades of green! Definetly a sight to see. The weather again held out for us to be able to walk around the markets. Luckly it is also about 10 degrees cooler than on the coast! Miss J bought herself a nice dress and we had lunch at the Karanda Hotel Motel. Since it was Miss J's birthday, we celebrated with a lemon mirange pie - boy was it lemony!! Total devine with icecream and cream on the side. Should have got the whole pub to sing happy birthday to her! So I hope that it was a nice day for you Judy.

The treck home was a longer than expected one. We decided that we didnt need to see the coast road again, so trecked back up the mountain past Karanda and headed inland. The rolling hills of the Atherton Tablelands are perfect, again in many shades of green. We drove around the waterfall circuit which included Milla Milla falls, the water spash was rather cold and we had the two older girls begging for a swim!! Didnt happen.... The site of a military hospital for WW2 had been made a memorial park with many plaques erected. Very peaceful. The road from the tourist drive around Atherton was very windy and it even took us past a wind farm! Boy those things are huge!! Wouldnt like one to fall on me! We watched the vegetation change from rainforest to red dirt and normal bushland. The roads were also then shared with roadtrains carting from Ravenswood out near Charters Towers. We dont mess with them!!!

New years eve seen us stop in Greenvale - around 250kms still from Townsville. This was an unexpected stop, but you get that when you are sticky nosing at everything along the way!! We were directed to the "Greenvale country club...." - um, okay - tin shed maybe!! The golf club were celebrating in style with a spread of home cooked meals and a closest to the pin competetion. In which we all had a go and Miss Alex took the title for the kidlets! The toilets there made me giggle, again a tin shed but this time they have supplied you with a shower curtain for privacy!! We ended up gatecrashing for the whole New Years Eve and then camped the night. The last 250kms home was uneventful but tiring.

All in all a great week was had by all. The children behaved - even the big ones! Not too much drinking was done, the food was pretty okay - 1.6k gain for me.. So pleased with myself ! NOT. So another year has passed and 2008 has begun in style at Greenvale!!