An accident waiting to happen!!

Hi everyone, once again.

Due to unprecedented demand, Les has been

instructed to update the blog today :)

Since the last post here, Les had a very quick

trip to Brisbane to catch up with his eldest

daughter, Tanya as she is now some 31 weeks pregnant

and was missing her daddy, (and vice versa).

It was a fleeting visit to see how all is going.

Left Cairns Thurs lunch time and returned to Cairns Sun arvo. The road trip from Mount Surprise to Cairns

is some 4 1/2 hours so was a long journey  all up.

We had a State of Origin do  in camp here
and most of the tourists

attended in the main dining room. Plenty of decos

and had a sausage sizzle also.

Had a great night made even better by the

QUEENSLAND

win, yeeha!!

The accident waiting to happen unfortunately was Susan

riding the motor scooter.

A week ago she was returning from showing

a customer their site and a couple of the boys working here

were playing with a frisbee.

It was thrown in the direction of Susan and she thought

it was coming towards her so moved slightly,

however, the frisbee actually hit the front wheel

and caused the scooter to slip on the gravel.

Soooo, Susan came down with a thud, got ugly gravel rash

on the left arm and leg. The boys had to help get the bike off her and were feeling pretty bad about it all.

Susan has since been to the nurse at the clinic

here and she advised Susan she has at least one broken rib and has pulled the muscle all around her shoulder.

Of course Susan just continued on working till she started

to feel how painful it was. She is feeling better now and

has some better movement in her arm.

Unfortunately, the broken rib/s don't heal that quick.

This is the worst of the gravel rash on the arm.

It is quite deep.

During our last break we visited a great little

town called Yungaburra, below.

The town is very similar to Tamborine, Maleny etc,

markets and craft shops etc.

There was a small collection of motorcycles outside the pub, check these oldies.

Well that's all for now we will update again as things happen around here.

Cheers for now

Another photo below of one of the lava tubes.

This the Arch and is quite large.

Hi again, managing to get another post onto the blog.

We have been very busy still and yet to get busier.

We have our full compliment of staff now, however,

a couple of the tour guides are still waiting for

drivers authorisation from dept of transport.

we had our first "staff meeting last night round the campfire,

with most having had a few drinks already, so was

full of laughs as the night went on. Susan

worked in the kitchen till about 8.00 so she arrived as we

were starting the meeting, but hadn't had a drink

at that stage.

They run some fund raising activities during the season

to raise some money for us to use at the end for a trip/party

to finish off, the meeting was started to decide what

activities we would be doing after hours etc to rope in

the tourists to spend their money.

We were at the post office the other day and
noticed a sign at the school for a cleaner.
We went in and asked about it and when Susan
said she has school experience, child care,
blue card etc, they nearly fell over themselves
to get Susan to start work.

So Susan has 2 hours a day cleaing the one teacher,
8 student school. At the moment it is 3-5 pm, but once
Susan's shifts change next week,
she will probably do the cleaining in the
morning before her shift starts here.

Had to put this photo of Susan on the camp scooter
which she has now learned to ride:)

This is one of the Undara lava tubes

Les is conducting tour guides into.

This one is known as "Mikoshi"

This one is known as "The Arch"

quite spectacular once inside.

Note the reflection below the boardwalk.

This the Savannahlander which

travels from Cairns thru Mt Surprise

to Forsayth and return.

Cheers for now post again soon

All settled in

Hi everyone, finally an update from Mt Surprise.

Well, we have both been into work from 1st May

Les has been training with the owner Joe

doing tours to Undara Lava Tubes

Einasleigh and the Cattle Station.

Susan has been continuing with a mix of

reception, cleaning and kitchen hand.

We have now been in camp for two weeks

and having a great time. Learning heaps of stuff

and meeting new people. We still have another two couples coming in for work, one couple will be doing

cleaning and the other couple,

just the husband will be tour guiding.

We had our first fruit and veg run Sunday, Mother's Day

into Atherton which is a five hour round trip,

so we won't be going there too often.

Having said that, now that we are more settled,

we can order groceries through a delivery

service out here each week, so depending on our

four day breaks, (work 10 on and 4 off),

 we may be able to avoid the groceries.

The tours run from here will be most days as the

park will be close to full capacity very shortly.

There is a variety of tours to Undara,

including half day, short trips, full day.

Les has been flying solo running tours

to Undara for a week now.

The tours take in a variety of lava tubes and one

volcano crater which we climb and walk around the rim.

The views from the rim are quite spectacular when

you relise all the hills and peaks around it

are volcanoes of one type or another.

Susan has learnt heaps about the park and running

various aspects, so the experiences we have gained will

be of great benefit to us in the future, (should we decide

to continue doing this past October).

Les will have to decide by end of October whether he

goes back to work for a while/ resigns / or stays on

at Council, that will be a big decision .

Below are some photos of our time to date.

Bedrock Village entrance

There are hundreds of butterflies all around the village

Les in his Tour Guide uniform

preparing to send some customers off on the

Savannahlander train fom Mt Surprise

to Einasleigh, where he will then meet

them again and bring them back to Mt Surprise.

Susan was also sent on the train to allow her

to get a feel for the tour so she

can sell it at the counter.

View through the front of the train

Copperfield Gorge at Einasleigh

The road and rail bridges can be seen in the distance

Einasleigh Pub, "GulpCountry"

Billy Tea beside the Einasleigh River

Entrance to one of the lava tubes at Undarra

Boss/owner Joe with a customer

in the "Wind Tunnel" lava

tube complex

Surprise Surprise

Yes Surprise alright, we are at Mt Surprise and settled.

We left Emerald Sun 22nd and took our time heading north.

Our first stop was at Les's nephews place in Rockhampton to leave the bike to ship back to Brissie.

then left the next day for Mackay, no big travel days

just taking our time.

Then headed for Townsville where we spent

four nights as we headed to the dawn service for ANZAC day then had a look around a bit. Went up to Castle Hill

for a view of the city.

The next day we spent on Magnetic Island nice and quiet

not too many tourists! Mainly backpackers.

Friday we had booked in for hair cuts, colours etc as it would be some time before we got a chance to have it done.

Saturday headed off to Innisfail for the the night, then

off to Mt Surprise on Sunday.

Some great scenery up the north, especially around the tablelands and out from there.

Had a nice lunch at Mt Garnet pub on the way out

Arrived at Mt Surprise around 3.30 met the owners

and a couple of the staff. we were allocated our

site and began getting our home in Bedrock Village

organised for the next few  months.

Here is a selection of photos from our travels and our new home.

Castle Hill

Townsville

Short stop in Mackay

Susans new found friend

Townsville set up, beside the lake, had our own ensuite

Stinger net at

Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Isl

Old Command Post on Magnetic Isl

Built during WWII

This is situated on a 2hr round trip walk we did

This is from the Comms Tower, highest point

we went topless  on the island

Hello again

Hi again from Emerald maybe for the last time from here.

We are heading off to Mt Surprise to commence

work at Bedrock Village by the 1st May.

We are going to take a week or so to travel north, leaving here

Sunday 22nd and going

via the coast and have a look around.

probably be in Townsville on ANZAC Day and for a couple of days

looking at spending a day on Magnetic Island.

We have both been busy with work as usual lots

of activity from the mining sectors, strike action

by the BMA workers yet again.

Two mine sites north of Emerald, Middlemount and Norwich Park

have been or about to be closed due to

non profitability, (both BMA mines - coincidence? you

have to wonder)

We managed to get out for a bike ride last weekend, went

out to Springsure and back via the dam.

Another quaint town which is also involved

in the mining these days, although not to the extent

Emerald, Blackwater etc.

Couple of photos below of Susan in the bike gear

and Virgin Rock.

The rock has been named so because it resembled the Virgin Mary and child.

It is hard to see the detail from the photo, because we

couldn't get any closer as the road out to the

hills was closed due to the recent flooding in the area.

Beautiful 57 Matchless motorcycle on display

 at the local shopping centre.

A shot from the major rodeo event on Easter Saturday

in Emerald, huge event.

The bike in Springsure

Couple of our coaches we use in Blackwater

for some of the mine transfers

Bye for now, will update again soon

Hello again

Hi everyone, yes finally updating.

we haven't had too much to talk about so haven't

updated here.

Some two weeks ago, Emerald and surrounding areas copped quite a bit of rain and subsequently, we were flooded yet again.

This time on the Thursday, it had rained so much

during Wenesday night, we couldn't get to work in Emerald,

or go the other direction towards Blackwater either.

This only lasted the day so by late Thursday arvo,

we could at least get into Emerald, but

they were only letting local traffic move around.

Because the water hung around the whole area including

the coal fields, we couldn't drive the miners and

contractors out to the mines, so we were doing

shuttles around Emerald and taking them

to the airport, where the mining companies

had hired light planes to fly the workers

out to the mines and bring them back to Emerald.

This continued for three days, the money involved

out here is just incredible!

This the recent flooding, there is a bridge under there, even

when the water drops we can't use the big buses as they

place a 9t limit till they can inspect it,

it causes a few dramas for jobs around town

for the mining runs.

This is from the first session as we arrived in Emerald.

See there is a bridge.

Over the last weekend we  had a night in town,

stayed at a motel Sat night, went to dinner

at the Irish pub, had a few drinks and back

to the motel, very relaxing night.

Sunday, we did a day trip out to Sapphire and Rubyvale,

"the gemfields"

Very interesting places, found a great caravan park

in Sapphire of all places, worth a stay at some time.

There are many gem shops in town, locals

trying to sell their finds and their own

jewellery mostly all hand made and the gems are

generally mined in the area also.

Didn't try any fossicking, ran out of time, but

will go back there at some time.

Rubyvale had a very nice gem store and a great little

country pub, had lunch there.

Great food, great service.

These towns are a must see, really eye openers.

Main office at Sapphire caravan park,

no grass, but very well set up and packed during

the winter months of course.

Very friendly staff, place was spotless.

This is the camp kitchen, great set up.

Rubyvale Hotel

Hello again

Hi again everyone,

well, a few developments over the last few days.

Susan has resigned from the pharmacy, just not working for her.

Having said that, Susan started work at the local Foodworks store today,

it will be four days a week, so it will keep her

out of trouble most of the time :)

Couple of the photos from the pharmacy before it was ready, Susan spent

most of the time putting up shelving and stocking them,

she came home quite exhausted every day.

Les is still working 6 days a week, the mine sites

are plentiful around this whole area,

the sites Les has been to so far include

BMA Blackwater, Wesfarmers Curragh,

Ensham, Kestrel including a new extension,

Crinum and Crinum East, Clermont.

We don't see each other a great deal after Les finishes his morning

runs, which is a mine run, then lately he goes straight to the school run, he usually has a nanny nap, then lunch and back to work

in the early afternoon. Then he doesn't get home till 8.30 - 9.00pm, then it's shower then have tea, off to bed.

We only have five weeks left here before we head off north, time goes

very quickly here.