Leaving On A Jet Plane !

Let's go "Off Road !!!"

Since my last entry we've bought ourselves fishing rods and been to dip our lines in the Barron River at the old Kamerunga bridge where Jedd caught a Bullrout - a spiky nasty looking fella with poisonous spines on his back.

We've also been off road along the Tinaroo Creek Road which starts from the road between Kuranda and Mareeba up on the tablelands and changes from tarmac to narrow tarmac, to unsealed road with red earth dust and goes up over the mountains around Lake Tinaroo with some spectacular rainforest and views and rocks and stuff then down to the lake through forest with muddy slippy downhill sections.

So we now have had our Patrol actually in 4WD mode although only 4H and not 4L yet and have christened it with some mud and a few splashes of muddy water even over the bonnet and windscreen. I certainly enjoyed and so did everyone else I think.

Once we came down we joined the Danbulla Forest Drive which again is an unsealed road that runs round Lake Tinaroo, visiting some of the campsites/day areas dotted around the lake. It's a very nice place despite being a man made dam as there are plenty of valleys off the main one that was flooded and lots of walks and woods to explore. Not to mention the fact that it's Oz's premier place for Barramundi fishing ! It's $35 for a permit to fish and lasts 1 year and covers not only Tinaroo but 30 other dams in Qld. The permit covers a couple i.e. me and TWS, kids under 18 fish free. Bargain ! We're also gonna try for some Redclaw if we can buy a couple of  redclaw pots.

So we've decided that it's a good a place as any to do our first camping trip and are booked in for this weekend. $18 per night, right next to the lake, no amenities other than bogs and a firepit each to burn wood and toast marshmallows on sticks by the fire so should be good.

On Sunday I went for a bike ride up to the Palmer River Roadhouse (nice burgers!) with Jeff. The road over the tablelands and further on Northwards towards Cooktown gives views of spectacular mountains and dry savannah forests etc.

Stunning stuff, great views from Bob's Lookout and loads of things like birds of prey floating about above you. Not too hot as long as you stay on the move either despite it being the middle of the day. Warm but comfortable.

On returning home I got a message from Lou that they were at Lake Placid which is near the fishing bridge, maybe 15 mins from home so headed up there. The kids had been swimming in the lake, they had rented a couple of Kayaks and attacked the rapids  and swum in them too !

I should explain that the lake is on the Barron River and the river sort of flows through it with rapids at either end. If you stand on the bank you can see big fish, turtles and eels in the water (no fishing unfortunately !) and there's a tree you can literally walk up from the bank and jump off and also a big rock to jump off. Even I jumped off the rock !

The kids were the subject of fascination and wonder from a group of Japanese tourists (again !) who actually had the daredevils posing with them for photos. They seemed to think we were very brave for jumping in and swimming in the lake. Very polite people they are too !

Took a couple of pics up at Lake Tinaroo, will post them later.