Fri, 19th Apr, 2024 Jon & Annalise’s place, Cairns to Grant & Tracy’s property, near Davies Creek, Qld (Mum 3 years passed)

Hard to believe it has been 3 years since Mum moved on to her eternal life. Still miss her so much but chat with her about everything and she is lovingly looking down on her two newest great grandchildren.

More rain through the night - not very helpful for our packing up this morning. Got camper loaded back on - not that easy with the slope but we got it straight and onto the truck.

Another cuddle with Beau before we headed off. Will see them in 3 weeks at Byron Bay for Annalise’s brother’s wedding.

Back on the road again. The old Kamerunga bridge is visible now that the water has gone down in the Barron River.

Up the Kuranda Range which is speed limited to 40kph as they are still doing repairs after all the slips etc from the heavy rain earlier this year. Good view here too as the trees got thinned out.

Another fresh slip.

Across the Barron River again at Kuranda.

Continued on, across Davies Creek then we turned off to meet up with Grant and Tracy. They were at their friend’s lychee farm so we met them as well - lovely couple, Chris and Marie. Rick met us there too, Kaylene was not well so she didn’t come up.

I went in the buggy with Tracy and Grant hopped in with Steve. Looks a bit muddy!

The track into their property is still to wet at the moment so we are taking the alternative route. The chap who had owned all this land had let the Catholic Church use a section as a retreat and monks had created a wonderful haven with, house, beautiful gardens, lots of stone masonry and a chapel - Tracy showed me the photos. It is all up for sale now and it would be a great buy for someone with a spare couple of million to make a wedding venue there. There is a huge lake too. This section was narrow bitumen then we cross the dam wall.

We waited for the boys to catch up.

We crossed over - Tracy is a very good driver. Then watched the boys cross and come up. All good.

Meandered our way up and down the hills. First view of their lake.

Across their causeway which was recently running very high - glad it isn’t today!

Over we go - nice view up the lake which goes for a long way apparently.

Around to the flat area they have chosen as their holiday retreat. Perfect. They have done a lot of work clearing it then getting the grass to grow etc. They have their vans set up here. Amazing location and only an hour from Cairns.

We set up camp.

Went for a wander - looking back at camp area.

Down to the other end of the flat where the lake continues. Would be great to have a couple of canoes etc.

Had a great time chatting and hearing about all the work they have done and their future plans. They had rain here last night like we had but today it is just overcast.

There was gold found around the area so the boys went off with the detectors for a look. Not so squeezy in the buggy!

Unfortunately they only found rubbish but they did their bit cleaning up the block!

Their kids and partners arrived too so we had a great afternoon and evening chatting.

Certainly cooler up here.