Exploring the Atherton Tablelands, Qld

Saturday afternoon the 29th of September and by 2:20... everyone who was going to gather in the camp kitchen to watch the AFL Grand Final already had. There was only a handful of people - and for a moment it brought us back to reality that we are, after all, in far north Queensland, where the AFL is considered a lesser code and a pre cursor to the following day's NRL Grand Final.

Watching the Grand Final in the camp kitchen

With not enough people to take part in the sweep, it didn't go ahead, much to Richard's disappointment but we all sat and watched the game anyway, along with a handful of others.
We all stayed for a sausage sizzle afterwards and some good conversation with some other travellers. We started chatting to another family from the west, Rod and Hayley, who also have 3 kids... they left Perth and headed north while we left and headed south so there was lots to talk about with them.

By this stage, the kids had made a heap of friends and were off playing and getting to know each other, Nina doing the girlie things - watching DVD's and getting her face painted...

Nina gets her face painted

The finished work of art

...and the boys off hunter gathering with their crab nets in the Lake.

Sunday the 30th of September, the boys were up early to pull their crab nets... arriving back at the caravan an hour later all excited, with a count of 21 red claw, similar to julgies.

We then decided to head off and explore some of the Atherton Tablelands region.
Our first port of call was a place called CoffeeWorks for a cuppa before arriving in Konundra to check out their famous weekday markets.
We then decided to head towards Cairns along a winding road down the mountain....

Looking down to Cairns

Harry, Jack & Nina

...and then to Port Douglas in time for lunch, that trip from Cairns to Port Douglas along the ocean was so picturesque.

After lunch we had a walk around Port Douglas before heading back towards Lake Tinaroo a different way, stopping in at a pub in Mt Molloy, where Richard spent an afternoon a few years ago with a group of Nissan dealers. We also had to stop to get a photo of the big Peanut, it's the closest Jack has ever been to a nut...

The kids under the big peanut

We arrived back at the caravan park by late afternoon, in time for the boys to go back and pull their crab nets. Again they added to their collection of red claw with another 16 to add to the bucket.
Richard went to watch the NRL grand final in the camp kitchen while I kicked back in the caravan for a quiet night.

This morning, the 1st of October (where has the time gone) was a quiet one. The boys arrived back with more red claw... they now had 87 in total... enough for a feed!

A bucket of red claw

The hunter gatherers with their catch

We said goodbye to our friends from the West who were leaving and then began to clean the caravan and do some washing. Richard had invited some of our neighbours and the caravan park managers around to try some red claw so by around 3ish, our guests had arrived.
The red claw were delicious in Richard's famous singapore chilli sauce, it was a nice chill out afternoon.

An afternoon gathering

The red claw dish

Tonight, we all went down to the camp kitchen to watch a movie before returning around 8:30... exhausted after a busy day of cleanups and entertaining.