23rd to 26th Aug, 2023 Jon & Annalise’s place, Cairns, Qld (Crystal Cascade walk)

Wed 23^rd 

Steve back to work. Malcolm was going down to see him so he dropped Kerry at Cairns Central for a wander. I went in and met her for a cuppa which took a while with all our chatting.

Checked out a nice house at the back of Edmonton up towards the hills with Dan & Fran - it has everything they wanted and a good price too.

Roast dinner with Malcolm and Kerry as they head off on Friday. Annalise was on late shift so we took over the patio and enjoyed the view.

 

 

Thurs, 24^th

Picked up Kaylene for a walk along Freshwater Creek to Crystal Cascades. Haven’t been up here in years. We spent many hot days cooling off here when we were kids. Pretty entrance now. We used to be able to drive further up.

Info board with a photo of the top falls taken with a drone.

Lots of info boards along the path which is wide and flat now - big change from when we were kids.

There is a track from here up to Copperlode Dam - our water supply that this creek comes from. It is 6.6km, rated hard - takes about 3 hours through the Dinden National Park.

It is a lovely walk and lots of spots to get down for a dip though its a bit chilly for us!!

Lovely little waterfall coming down from the hillside. My photo of further up was fuzzy but I remember when we were kids bringing my cousins, Peter & Judy here and she got stung with a Stinging Tree leaf which was very painful. I found this old photo - Judy is on left holding her hand and I am behind her.

Lots of info about the animals and birds but we haven’t seen any.

Lovely big pool with the waterfall at the other end.

The waterfall comes down a long chute carved in the rock. View from the top.

Nice pool at the top.

Above that is a small weir with an old water pipe.

Reached the top platform which has some historical plaques to read. Took one photo then the battery in the camera died.

I had left my phone in the car so we walked back, got it and walked back up again - getting good exercise today. Back to the platform for more photos of the info - fabulous aerial photos too.

View from up on the platform.

Walked down the steps to the creek for a few more photos.

Back up to the platform then I went up the top of the road to the fence - very steep drive up from there. View down to the waterfall. Selfie to prove I was there!

Back to Kaylene for a selfie - bit hard trying to take it with the phone so I didn’t realise I had my tongue between my teeth!!

Slower walk back again - down hill. Back to Kaylene’s for a cuppa till lunch time.

Asked Steve where we used to swim as I can’t remember exactly and he said in all those pools and in the chute too.

Cuppa with Wendy in the afternoon.

 

 

 

Fri, 25^th

Annalise & I took her car for a drive to Babinda to clean out the ‘cobwebs’. Had a cuppa and one of their famous cream buns for morning tea down at the Boulders. Misty rain showers coming over so we didn’t do any walks.

Home for lunch then I helped her clean out the spare room and pack up all the wedding bits and pieces. She coloured my hair as Steve has been too busy with the engine and the greys were making their presence known!!

Rain again and some quite heavy showers too.

Steve took a video of the engine running with his commentary so I posted it on Facebook. Lots of great comments back. Unfortunately it is too big to put on the blog.

 

Sat, 26^th

More rain this morning. Steve and Dan working on last bits that Dan has to make for the truck. He and Fran are putting in an offer on the house at Edmonton. Hope it all works out for them.

Booked our tickets for the Spirit of Tassie ship for Jan next year. Will have a month from 21 Jan which will be lovely and looking forward to seeing my uncle and cousins and a few other friends then too.

Cuppa with Rebecca and Clive.

First day of Cairns Festival - brings back all the memories of my Miss Cairns days when it was the Fun In The Sun Festival. Unfortunately the Council had to cancel the parade tonight due to all the rain.

Annalise and I watched from the balcony while we were chatting with Jon (before he went onto night shift), a plane doing tricks over the Esplanade - very impressive. More light showers came over so glad we didn’t go down. Will have to go in another night as I wanted to see the light show on the Library building walls.

Steve came back - nearly every day he has been working on the engine - big job. Speedway had been cancelled too so Fozzie stayed and he and Steve worked more on the wiring which is causing a few problems but they will work their way through it.

More rain when we heard the fireworks at 7.30pm so we didn’t go out to watch it from the house balcony. What a shame for the start of the Cairns Festival.