A Drive in the Country

KISA had Friday off so decided to go for a little drive in the country to put the required klms on the car. We set off about 7am and headed north. After stopping in Ayr for coffee and Ingham for lunch we found ourselves late afternoon in the bustling metropolis of Cairns.
It was pouring with rain. Very hard. In fact it had rained so much that day that there had been flooding, cars drowned and a landslide on the Kuranda Railway which had derailed the train. We were planning to go on that tomorrow. Drat.
So we checked into the Cairns Colonial Club. This is what $99 gets you there if you flutter your eyelashes at the check in counter.
We had this living area. See KISA surrepitiously standing out of shot relected in the mirror door? Lets cross Film Director off the list of alternative occupations, shall we? That led into this kitchenette, which had 12 wine glasses in the cupboard. So technically that is permission to hold a party, right? A separate king sized bedroom, with king sized bed. And a teeny tiny bathroom in which to hold said party. We were very happy with this find!Well the rain did not let up, so we decided that Cairns was a washout for sight seeing and decided to head inland. So we gave up the fabulous room and headed to Atherton, where it was very misty, and travelled on the Gregory Development Road to Charters Towers. The views were great and on a fine day would be spectacular. The tablelands were lovely and we promised ourselves to come back with the camper and stay a while. Not far from Ravenswood, the highest town in Queensland, apparently, we came across a wind farm at a place called Windy Hill. Oddly.

We stopped for a look, these windmills are quite large and make quite a loud buzzing noise. They provide power for the towns of Atherton and Ravenswood. Quite impressive setup. See the mist rolling in? By the time we got back to the car we couldn't even see the windmills, it came in so quickly! The scenery changed somewhat out of Ravenswood, and became more scrubby. Everything was green from all the rain we have had lately, and the soil was a deep red. Everywhere were these huge fat termite mounds.

This is the shot I took before the previous one, I was trying to catch the termite mound, at 90km per hour (KISA stops for no one) and got this TV instead. Guess the termites couldn't fit it in the mound.The road was being upgraded so there were lots of road works and road trains ferrying dirt and gravel for the road works. They had 4 trailers on them and you had to leave the road to let them thunder past. A few cattle wandered across the road at a few points as there were fences down on one of the properties. We spotted this red cliff somewhere near Charters Towers. It looked more imppressive in real life. This is what $99 gets you in Charters Towers. Admittedly it was a lot tider the evening before, but we might have lingered longer there if we hadn't felt so ripped off. This was a cabin in a caravan park for heavens sake. At least they had a McDonalds, so we ordered breakfast and a couple of large coffees and hit the road. It was great drive, very green, no traffic, we overtook 3 vehicles going our way. That was all in 360klm till we turned off to head to Mackay. There was a lot of this straight stuff, KISA and I loved it, it was all new ground for him and for me.