Evil Oddie

We checked in to the Sebel Reef House and Spa on Sunday.  Our room is fantastic! We have “ocean glimpses” and it was a bargain on Wotif.

View from our room

Glen testing out the bed

View of the pool from our room

Dog getting in on the act

On Sunday after we checked in, we went for a walk down the beach and wandered down the esplanade.  It is a really touristy spot and if you plan on using the campground, book in early.  It’s pretty busy.  Most of the restaurants / eateries charge approx $30-$40 for a main meal, so if you want to do Palm Cove on the cheap, get an apartment rather than a room like ours (as awesome as it is).   Mind you, honestly, every meal that we have had here has been fantastic!  The banana pancakes from the Sebel’s restuarant were devine.

Monday we did the tourist thing that you’ve got to do when you’re up this way - Kuranda.  We were picked up from the Sebel by bus (at 7:10am) and we  caught the train up to Kuranda.

Dog on the Bus

Dog at the Museum at Freshwater Station

Dog on the Train

We had 3.5 hours to do what ever we wanted while in Kuranda.   I actually got Glen to come with me to the markets (and I bought a dress - two ground breaking moments in a day!)

Dog at Kuranda

We also got some pistachio nut bobbleheads…

Dog with Pistachio Nut friends

We caught the Skyrail back.  I can honestly say that getting off at all the stops is worth it.  Take a wander to the lookouts and look at all the stuff they’ve set up for you.  At Red Peak, wait for the Ranger to do the guided walk, the info that you get is really interesting.

Dog on Skyrail

Glen and Dog check out Barron Falls

When we got back to the room, we were both pretty tired.  We watched “Love the Beast” with Eric Bana.  After we watched the movie, we went to go get some dinner.  We were going to go to Clifton Beach to get Fish & Chips.  When we got in the car, I said to Glen, where did you put the aerial?

Glen’s response “F*ck!”  Our aerial had been stolen from our car.  I went to reception to see if / what they could do… not much; they gave me the Smithfield Police phone number.  I called them and the number rang out.  We called Suncorp, and there was nothing they could do - our excess was more than the aerial.  Glen was furious!!!

We had a pretty restless night as we have our tent (Oztent’s 30 second tent), gazebo, spare tires and other good stuff stored on the outside of the car.  Glen was  doing multiple trips to the car to check on it.  Hamish, the employee that checked us in, caught up with Glen near the car and had a good long chat with him.  Very much a fate thing.  Hamish actually works in the restuarant here and was taking out the rubbish when he saw Glen.  Hamish reckons that it could’ve been the local kids… grrrr…

Tuesday involved chasing an aerial.  Obviously, this event has really dampened our holiday mood and has jaded our thoughts on the people around here.   We ended up getting the aerial from Dick Smith. $198… bugger…

When we got back, the Sebel’s Maintenance guys hooked  up a hose for Glen and I to us to fill up our 60L water tank.  It didn’t take very long to fill.  We went for another walk down the beach and esplanade trying to soak it all in.

We went back to the room for a cuppa tea (well that’s me anyway).  It wasn’t long before Glen got a call from Scott to say that they had just finished their Skyrail ride and they were on their way to Palm Cove.  We met them at the Coles at Clifton Beach to do final shopping (milk, bread, cheese etc).

We’ve just had dinner all together (Garry, Ristan, Luke, Alex, Scott, Glen & I) at the Thai restaurant.  We’re meeting at 8am at the Camp Ground at the end of the esplanade to start the actual trip to the Cape… part 2 of our holiday - woot….

Maybe a while til we get coverage again…

NB. Glen and I are no longer embarrassed taking Dog with us placing and setting him up.  We’ve actually  turned into entertainment for other tourists, pointing and talking to us.  The pistachio nut photo was pretty amuzing.  People were taking photos of me setting up the photo - lol!

Today, we slept in.  That’s a first, we didn’t get out of bed til 7am.  Glen woke up at 4ish again, but went back to sleep.  We packed up quickly and went down for the breakfast that was included in the room’s tariff at SeaBreeze.  We were the first guests down for breakfast and caught the staff during their break having coffee.  They were really friendly and showed us to where the food was and our table.   We had raisin toast, fruit, yogurt, cereal, juice, tea & coffee.  We checked out and were on our way to Townsville.

I really wanted to stop at That Sapphire Shop at Leap, but it didn’t open til 10am.  Glen has said that we’ll stop there if we come back the coastal road.

We stopped at Home Hill.  Glen and his olds lived in Home Hill some time ago.   We drove around looking for Glen’s old house, but it has been knocked down.

Home Hill Caravan Park

Glen has got a Tourmaline at home that he bought from Home Hill when he was a boy for $6.  So we went to the store to check it out (seeing I was disappointed about the other gem stone store).  We had a look at the tourmalines and they were now $130 for a decent  size rock.  I had a look at the Sapphires (my birth stone) and they were all chips and expensive.  Very keen to go back to That Sapphire Shop to see what they’ve got!

Dog posing in front of the Gem Store at Home Hill

On our way to Ayr, dog met his first snake!  He was not impressed!!

Dog meets Snake

We stopped at Dal Santos Gourmet Deli in Ayr for lunch.  We had to wait 20 minutes for a couple of sandwiches (read cranky Glen), but it was well worth the wait!  I had roasted capsicum, grilled eggplant, semi-dried tomatoes and jarlesburg on a pannini and Glen had pretty much the same but with meat.  The latte was perfect too!

We met a couple of kiwi ladies at the Deli and Glen was comparing stories with them.  Their husbands were in Townsville for the V8 race and they were kicking back in Ayr.  They told us that Townsville wasn’t that busy and they had enjoyed their day at Townsville the day before.  They had flown over from NZ just for the race.  Talk about keen.  They were so lovely, they even waved us off when we left.

When we originally planned our trip up to Cairns, we didn’t know or  investigate if there was anything else planned up this way.  So a couple of weeks ago when I read the Sunday Mail about the V8 Supercar Race on July 11 in Townsville, I freaked out.  After many calls, emails and rumours of rooms available, I got a room at the Dalrymple Hotel.  Glen was a bit tentative seeing it’s a hotel and we’ve heard how busy Townsville was going to be.  So far so good.  We’ve just had room service and the food was good.

After we checked in the room, we walked down the block and checked out Anaconda, Spotlight, Dick Smith and a couple of other stores.  Glen is very taken with Howard’s Storage World.

We checked out the race and here’s dog getting close to the action! Haha!

Dog getting close to the action

Next stop over Cairns (Palm Cove!).

After 18 months of planning, Glen and I left for our Cape York Trip yesterday, Thursday 9 July 2009.  Glen and I aren’t the biggest fans of having our photos taken so a work friend (Hi Tricia) gave me the idea of taking  a mascot and letting them tell the story of your trip.  Don’t get me wrong, there will be pictures of us during the trip but already we are having heaps of fun setting up our mascot.

Our mascot is… Dog from Footrot Flats.

Now to the story so far.

Glen had taken Thursday off work to pack the final things into the car and he picked me up from work after I had sent the 170+ PAYG Summaries out!!  Glen had packed the car, was ready to go and I still had work to do, so Glen went to say “Bye” to his olds in Brisbane before he came to pick me up.

Dog says Bye to Glen’s Olds

We left Upper Mount Gravatt at approx 1:30pm and we stopped at the BP northbound for lunch.  The first of many takeaway meals on the way up.  Seeing we were both starving and the fastest moving line was McDonalds, that’s what we had.  We had a pretty good run up to our first overnight stop, Bundaberg.  We stayed at my olds place.  Dinner: Glen - Pork Chop & Veges Me: Spaghetti Bog (yum yum my favourite) & Veges.  Dessert: Apple Pie & Custard.  After dinner we went to my sister’s for second desserts: Little Cakes, Chocolate Slice, Anzac Slice & Tea / Coffee.

Dog making friends with My Olds in Bundy

10th July: Glen woke up just after 4am, and we were on the road by 5am.   This is the biggest kilometre day for the trip up to Cairns, our official start for the Cape Loop.  We stopped at McDonald’s for breakfast - top hint - 24 hr open Maccas will give you old crappy stuff if it’s sitting there.  We didn’t eat all our brekky - we felt crook.

We stopped at Rocky for the touristy photo ops (and a P Stop).

Dog meeting a Santa Gertrudis

Dog at the Tropic of Capricorn

Dog showing the km’s to go from Rocky

Something that we’ve noticed is the amount of caravans that are heading up north with us.  We had two different episodes of where people pulled out in front of us (in a 110 zone) and Glen had to JAM on the brakes to stop from ramming into them.  I understand that the highway is busy at the moment, but hell, wait and not cause an accident!!!

We stopped at Sarina for some lunch - Bakery food.  Sarina reminded me of Bundy.  Probably something to do with the Mill and the smell.

Dog checking the ties on the Roofrack at Sarina

From Sarina, we stopped at Hays Point to check out the Coal Port.  Glen counted 32 ships waiting off the coast to come in to fill up with Coal.  The tugs bringing them in were awesome to watch.

Dog checking the Coal Port

Walking down from the car park at the Coal Port (Hays Point), I saw this sign and freaked out (wearing thongs!).

Dog making sure the snakes don’t get us

Our stop for tonight is Mackay.  I booked our accommodation on Wotif and when we plugged in the address, we kept driving and driving and we ended up at Slade Point.  It’s on the beach north of Mackay.  Driving through Mackay, Glen and I  really liked it.  The CBD is really beautiful, and there seems to be a lot works happening here, so we assume that Mackay is really growing and moving ahead.

Our room at SeeBreeze is pretty good.   I saw some dodgy places in Mackay that wanted $90 per night and we paid $100 for here and that includes Breakfast. The shower is awesome!

Dog enjoys the shower at Mackay

We went down and had dinner in the Bistro.   Glen got the seafood pasta and I had a vegetarian stirfry.  Big meals and pretty reasonable cost.

Our stop tomorrow night is Townsville.  Should be interesting seeing the V8 Supercars are in town this weekend too!