DAY 85 - THE SUNSHINE COAST

We visited the Sunshine Coast for a couple of days to visit friends and family.

First stop was to see Mackenzie, Kate and Bede's new baby.

We ended up staying at Noosa for a coupld of nights and we have appended a nice photo of Mollythe Cocker Spaniel.

DAY 82 - MORE DRINKIES

Eugene and Andree held a little soiree up at their 'skylounge' at Rosalie on Saturday night and was a very pleasant evening.

We met Paolo's Swedish love Lisa for the first time while they are back from London.

We were also helped Cliffo wet the head of the new baby boy Angus John. Our congratulations to both Mark ad Jodi for a new baby, we are all very happy.

We would also like to congratulate Kate & Bede on the birth of beautiful Mackenzie Anne Evans. We can't wait to visit next week and have a big nurse of Mackenzie.

DAY 81 -FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE CHALK HOTEL

We took the opprtunity to catch up with old friends on Friday night at the Chalk Hotel in Brisbane.

We had the best night and it was so great to see everyone and catch up on the brissy goss!

DAY 78 - BACK TO BRISBANE

With the dramas with Jiminy and the slow pace of insurance processing in Far North Queensland, we decided to fly back to Brisbane for a week or two. It is a good opportunity to catch up with family and friends and to start wedding planning.

The trip planning is on hold until we get Jiminy back, but hopefully we get the call soon that Jiminy is ready to go.

DAY 76 FITROY ISLAND

Neil's parents Bruce and Liz came for a visit in Cairns and we all went out to Fitroy Island for a day trip. It was the most beautiful day mostly spent relaxing on "Nudey Beach".

Fitroy Island is quite a beautiful little island with excellent snorkelling around the fringing reef.

PHOTOS FROM CAPE YORK (we haven't been able to upload them until now!)

Photos taken while we were in Cape York, though we haven't been able to upload them until now...

There were so many goregous swimming holes around the Cape...we would head out each day and look for new ones. Who knows if there were crocs around!!







Neil did a spot of fishing, and managed to only catch what Dord hooked on
the line for him....the best catch of the day was a pair of stingrays mating!!



















Cape York is scattered with old war planes and war memorabilia. Neil loves all this boy stuff, so we hunted down an old Beautford Bomber and he was more than happy to pose for these pics.






We set up camp for a few days at the Eliot Falls, we feel in love with this place and could easily have stayed on longer......

DAY 71 - MELBOURNE CUP IN CAIRNS

As the people of Melbourne shivered through a cool spring day for the running of Australia's national horse race, We were looking fo somewhere with airconditioning to watch the big race here in Cairns. Dordie managed to back the 3 rd placed horse for a place and we recovered a very modest $3.50 from our betting outays.

That night we caught up with some of Dord's old Brissy gang for $2 champers at the 'Rhinobar' in downtown Cairns. We had an awesome night catching up with old friends.

DAY - BACK IN CAIRNS

We are back in Cairns waiting for Jiminy to be transported down from Weipa to be assessed by the insurer. We got the local mechanic in Weipa to do most of the easy work to repair the Pajero like flushing diffs and giving the Pajero a grease and locate any significant damage. Looks like the automatic gearbox will need replacing which is expensive and will probably have to be road freighted the 2,500 km from Sydney to Cairns.

We do enjoy Cairns immensely and will probably stay here a week before flying down to Brisbane. We need to replace mobile phones and our laptop computer after all getting drowned at Cape York.

We also picked up the engagement ring yesterday as we we had it made in Cairns. Cairns is home to a surprisingly large number of jewellers and call it serendipity, but a good place to look for a diamond ring.

P.S. Unfortunately as the computer has been drowned...there will be a delay in putting photos up :-(

WEIPA

Weipa is a smallish mining community on the west coast of Cape York Penisular. It is home to the world's largest resources of bauxite, which is the primary ore for the production of aluminium. It is a well established town and those who have spent time in mining towns will now the feeling of a company town. We did the mandatory town and mine tour and dined at the local clubs and pubs. The local bowls club does a very good meal.

Jiminy was presented at the mechanic and news wasn't good. It appears we are very fortunate the Pajero made it to Weipa and the water has done some damage, namely to the transmission.

At this stage the insurance company will transport Jiminy to Cairns to be assesssed and repaired. This process will take time so we are flying out of Weipa to Cairns today (2 Nov).

At this stage we will be in Cairns for a week or so and most probably fly down to Brisbane for the duration. We will fly back to Cairns to collect Jiminy when ready.

DAY 61 - THE DRIVE TO WEIPA

We decided to make a dash for Weipa which was over 400km to the south west to get the Pajero looked at by ae mechanic to assess the damage.

It was a long day down rough roads and the automatic transmission wasn't working to well.

We made it into Weipa and found ourselves a cabin to relax in and thank our lucky break we weren't stuck anywhere.

DAY 60 - DISASTER

It started out a beautiful day, we were camping at Eliot Creek which is about 100km from the northern tip of Cape York. It is a crystal clear springfed creek with amazing water holes for swimming. We spent a relaxing morning swimming and tanning and generally relaxing.

We decided to head up what is called the 'Old Telegraph Line" to have a look around and find a nice place for another swim and lunch. The OTL is an old track that followed the original phone line to the Cape before technology (microwave link) made it redundant. It is a beautiful drive and a must for the keen off road drivers.

After some rough roads and nasty creek crossings, we made it to Nolans Creek which was an awesome spot, we decided to have lunch there. The crossing was quite deep but the Pajero almost made it through with minimal trouble. However, as the Pajero was exitting the creek, soft sand caught the pajero and down Jiminy went.

Fortunately a Telstra truck came by an hour later and towed us out of the creek and were able to restart Jiminy and return to camp for the night much to our collective relief.