Doing a Steve irwin

Fishing off the beach at woody head, just up from iluka, we caught 3 juvenile stingrays - or the same one 3 times. Flipping the second one over to take the hook out it got me on the wrist with its barb. Could feel the venom for a couple of hours up my arm like a bee sting, but glad it wasn't anywhere more vital...

Too old and fat pt 2

To fit in at Surfers Paradise in schoolies week, when all the 17 year olds leave mandatory education and come down here to party. I know we were all idiots at 17, but watching them with baseball caps and skateboards I don't think we were ever that stupid - at least we were sneaking into pubs and falling off motorbikes at that age. And having a nose ring may look good in a prodigy video but in a bus queue it doesn't achieve much

On the other hand we were gravity enhanced at wet and wild, although we missed Mr Reynolds contribution. And we were not the only ones with some grey hairs, although the others all seemed to have their grandkids with them :-(

Can't see the Leonids...

...for the lightening

Back at flaggy rock with the kukkaburras and had hoped for clear skies to see the leonid meteor shower tonight. Instead we got overtaken by the top edge if the storm system that hit Brisbane yesterday with a reported 33 thousand lightening strikes. We've been getting a flash every 2 - 3 seconds at its peak, really impressive.

Another unpublicised benefit to 5th wheel caravans - you can continue to BBQ under the nose cone if it rains suddenly. And the lightning helps you to see what you are doing...

Oops

Left cairns this morning, heading for Brisbane by Tuesday. Got as far as Innesfail and this happened to one of the van tyres. Didn't feel a thing, but heard it flapping and saw the smoke in the mirror, but by the time we found a spot to pull in it was a bit of a mess. Just started changing it when a plod turned up - didn't do anything to help but sat in his car with the lights flashing so at least the traffic slowed down.

Got it changed ok, but local tyre shop didn't have exactly the same size tyre so have had to put the worn spare on the proper wheel and the brand new slightly larger tyre is the new spare. Might look around for 4 replacements in Brisbane or down in Sydney if they are cheaper than the only ship in a small town, otherwise we'll get 3 more goodyears when the next one blows

Booorrriiiinnngggg.....

to quote Mr Reynolds, who sadly couldn't be with us today

We got up at 4:00 in the rain and whilst there was a small gap in the clouds in Cairns, it was mostly overcast so we rolled the dice and went inland back to Mareeba up on the Atherton tablelands. 60km drive in the dark on wet steep winding roads before having a coffee was not a good way to wake up, but we called it right and our luck was in

we missed the first 5 minutes of occlusion as the sun cleared the last of the cloudbank and trees on the horizon, then it was clear uninterrupted view all the whole time.

totality was 1.41 minutes, and you could definitely see a couple of promontories in the corona, then the famous diamond ring lasts for about 3 seconds and after that you can't tell there is an eclipse still going on without using the glasses as your eyes adjust again so quickly to the light

next one is continental US on August 21st 2017....start planning and saving now. We've put the glasses and welding lenses in a safe place, so they will probably never be seen again

top 2 pictures are Kevin's, bottom one Maria's. There are much better images on the web, but this is what we saw

And then there were 3...

Picked Kevin up at the airport yesterday and he's with us until Friday. Ran around some local views/waterfalls/beaches yesterday getting an idea of what is where and where we might go to watch the eclipse on wednesday as some roads are being closed off. Today was Kurandu scenic rail and tomorrow we're going croc-spotting up on the daintree river.

Weather today has been heavy cloud and intense showers, and its not looking good for wednesday, so we'll just have to get up around 4:00, see wat the skies look like and decide whether to try the local beach of if it might be clearer going back up onto the tablelands where there is often a bit of a drier microclimate

Tiggers bouncy neighbours

Staying at Mareeba rodeo grounds some of the locals have put in an appearance around the van...

Flyproof

Metres of flymesh and shadecloth, 4 dozen bulldog clips, a lot of intense swearing and god knows how many hours of hand sewing, but the fly mesh ends for the awning are approaching reality. We got some really cool door curtains that have magnets up the centre joint so you can just walk through and they snuck snuck closed after you

Bored with beaches

so we've been spending some time inland in the wet tropics rainforests and Atherton Tablelands, free camping or national parks, so no connectivity

Rainforest parks are full of waterfalls and walks, river swimming holes and insects. The noise just after sunset is incredible - can't hear the stereo for the racket, but then it quietens down a bit after 20 minutes. Also saw some fantastic fireflies - like green LEDs floating in the air and visible 50m away in the forest. Up close they look like a crane fly or something - very flimsy, and glowing underneath

Atherton tablelands are at about 800m above the coast, so nice and cool at night - need the duvet instead of the aircon, but still warm during the days. Dairy produce, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, potatoes, tea, coffee - it all grows up here, and some spectacular lakes and hills from the volcanic past

I also know why they cast Russell Crowe as Maximus - taking on the march flies with teatowel and swat is very reminiscent of a gladiator's net and trident :-)