Darwin, Hot & Sweet

Friday, burning in the sun. 

At the morning we headed to Darwin water front and specially to wave pool. We checked ourselves in and enjoyed the big waves and hot sun foSun was burning and  most of us got slightly sunburned even we tried to use sunscreen.

After wave pool we headed to Wharf to have calmari, fish and chips for lunch and after that we had big ice creams from the shop where Aino used to work in spring. After tasty ice creams we headed back to the city and wondered in shopping mall searching for souvenirs and breakfast items.

Saturday, chasing crocodiles. 

Saturday morning Aino went to see her friends and we headed to Crocosaurus cove at the center of Darwin. We spent couple of hours in there watching fish feeding, crocodile feeding, reptile feeding. Nice things to see and we also got a change to hold a baby crocodile, it’s skin felt so nice, so different than I thought.  Then it was time for lunch and we wandered to Red Roosters another place that Aino worked in spring and had nice nice light lunch and headed for shopping again.

At night we headed to Cullen Bay to see the sunset and have dinner. Nice walk down there and nice Italian restaurant. Others like their dishes but my selection was little too hot, only tasted the chili in my pasta. On the way back I took couple of photos over Cullen bay marina.

Sunday, Penni  joins the team.  Another lazy morning we were getting rest and waiting for Penni to arrive from Melbourne. After that we prepared quick lunch and went short sightseeing drive to see  museum with some aboriginal arts and local animals etc. After that we drive around some of their past living areas and through first airport in Darwin, which is currently one street close to race track.

At night we went to Bingil Bay market to see some performances, listening music and meeting Emils family, Aurora and Jan. There were also some wonderful performances like guy who was doing nice paintings with spray cans and newspaper.  After beautiful sunset we had a picnic dinner beside the beach.

At Monday morning we had breakfast on balcony like seems to be common in Darwin. After breakfast we walked to the city to do some sightseeing and shopping. We also bought a new suitcase and met Penni in a coffee shop, had nice cup of coffee and watched gingerbread man swimming in mango “jam”.  Afternoon we did some driving around Darwin with Penni. Wisited  at Curanda beach, night cliff and south side suburbs of Darwin, what a wonderful views from high hill to the city over the bay.

Next morning plan for me is to go with Emil and check out two barge coming to his company for repairing. Emils company rents and repairs workboats for harbor and jetty builders. Anyway at early morning Emil pick me up from Penni’s place saying it’s cool morning (+26C J) and we might get some fog on the bay. We drove to their site to see if everything is ready to take in the barges which are on their way. Before that Emil showed me the place at the front of wharf where they will park the barges for check out. Among the other action we also checked the boat that should take us out to the bay to check the barges and it was also ready to go. Then we drove to other side of peninsula to see if the barges have reached that point.

Yes barges were there nicely at the middle of bay towed by a chip, nicely in line due to outgoing tide that flows like a river at this time. BUT they have stopped there because the fog was coming over the wharf. We decided to go and get some breakfast and take care of some other things while waiting. After about 2 hour waiting Emil  dropped me back to Penni’s place because fog was still laying on wharf like pea soup, no worth of waiting any more.

At night we went to Pee Wee’s for farewell dinner we meet almost all relatives there in our last night in Darwin. Beautiful place, nice atmosphere and delicious food in the warm Darwin night. Very pleasant.

Ingham & Cairns

Saturday morning we all went to the local Lutheran church for service. It was nice even little difficult to follow the service in foreign language. It was nice to sing along the familiar song written by Pekka Simojoki & Anna-Mari Kaskinen (original words). After service we had some refreshments and had nice walk in the town.

 At night we went to Lucinda beach to have fish and chips for dinner. It was nice to see the sugar loading harbor and storages. Huge buildings in fact where  sugar trains drop their loads for temporary storage and from where the sugar was moved to ships on the sea with 5,75km long convoyer belt. Loading capacity is 1400 tons of sugar in hour. With that you can quickly get enough sugar to your coffee mug. Some idea about the size of the convoyer you can get if you think that beside the convoyer there there is service road for cars to transport people and material for operation. Unfortunately convoyer system was out of operation because previous cyclone in February made some damage to it and they are repairing it all the time. Currently sugar is transported to Townsville (~400km south) for shipping.

 For dinner we had Spanish makrill with chips and it was extremely good. Best fish and chips ever. I also got my first touch to Bundaberg ginger beer (non alcoholic version) and that was also vary tasty.

Sunday brought us possibility to participate barbecue party in Satu’s place. Food ws very delicious and we enjoyed chatting in good company and watching kids playing various games and getting along without any language barrier. They found their way easily. After barbecue we visited Ingham cemetery. Interesting mixture of different kind of tombstones visualizing the customs of different churches. Minor stones in Lutheran area, huge monuments and chapels in catholic area and something between in other areas. Feels little strange when thinking that those marble or concrete & tile chapels may have been more expensive than the houses where live their life in that time.

Moday was lazy day again gathering some strength for coming days. During weekend we tried to arrange cruise to great barrier reef. We tried to arrange the trip from Mission Beach because that is close enough for one day trip. We tried Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, no  couldn’t make it, too much wind to go there. That’s a bitty but we have to leave something for next trip also. We also did some shopping and mailed some post cards to our dear friends in Finland.

Tuesday. Huge views day. Marko has day off from his work in paramedic and took us for a drive to Wallman Falls. What a great trip. Incredible long winding road and also narrow in some places. Pirjo-Liisa has survived so many occasions. I think this might be too much for our motorhome and thank God Marko has that nice AWD for comfortable ride.  On the way up we also got together with one cassowary, which is the national bird of Queensland. What a nice bird it was a bit like emu but nicely colored head and black hair. We got higher and higher and what a views up there.  ~250m high free waterfall. There is also hiking track down to waterfall but it was closed and we didn’t plan walk there anyway because it requires very good physical condition or heaps of time. Marko also said that he does not like to go down there because he has rescued some peoples from down there and it takes 8 hours  from 8 persons to go down and carry injured person back to the top. Helicopter can not be used due to difficult winds. Way back to town we drive to look the place where Lea and Esko used to have their sugar cain farm.

Wednesday, time to go ahead. Early morning we started up from Ingham and headed to Mission Beach to meet a nice couple from Finland. Mission Beach is the area that got the worst damage from the cyclone in February this year. Lot’s of boats were smashed and thrown from the water up to the cliffs. Now Sauli and Pirkko have nice view to the Pacific ocean over a row of houses and two roads but before the cyclone forest of palm trees blocked the whole view to the ocean. Effects of cyclone can be easily seen on the hills where all the forest is “blown” away and new trees coming up. We also saw many banana farms on our way that were completely destroyed and new trees planted and growing.

From Mission Beach we headed up to Cairns and built our camp on caravan park enjoyed the last rays of the sun at the terrace of our motorhome. After sunset we walked to the city and had our dinner in Subway.

Thursday morning we checked out from the caravan park and headed to the cairns beach esplanade. We parked our motorhome at the north end of the beach and walked the beach walkway south about the middle of the beach enjoying the sun (or maybe enjoying the shades because we started to feel little hot at north) Change of the climate has been clearly visible during our trip from Brisbane to Cairns. In Brisbane we have to use the heater at evening to get proper temperature for sleeping and wake up at the morning and switch heater on again to heat up before getting out from blankets. At the middle we just heated up before sleeping and in the north we have to use air conditioner to cool our residence before we go to sleep.

Anyway we had nice lunch in Italian restaurant and started walking back to the car letting our right shoulder get some sunshine this time. After checking out our motorhome we had a taxi taking us to airport and checked in to our flight to Darwin, relaxing a bit at the airport and arrived to warm Darwin night nicely in schedule. At Darwin airport we were gladly surprised by Aino’s friend who was at the airport to welcome us and provided a lift for Aino, Anna and Anni and some luggage to Penni’s house so me and Pirjo-Liisa take one taxi for us and followed them. Unfortunately Penni was not in Darwin at this moment due to her brother birthday in Melbourne. 

On the road

Our trip is coming to it’s end. Current location is Darwin and tomorrow we take off for Perth/Fremantle. It has been busy time within these two weeks while driving motorhome from Brisbane to Cairns and seeing friends.

In last update I told about our visit Gavins farm which was interesting to see how they are growing strawberries, pineapples and mangoes.  Second driving day we had little problems to find caravan park with free power site and we had to dive little longer than we were planned. After about 525km drive we landed in Rockhampton and it was already dark. This part of the trip was fairly empty with ~100km without any houses and road was not in good condition. Noise in motorhome was fairly annoying sometimes.

This leg was long and there were lots of trucks on the road and they were driving fast. We were all the time tailgating even I tried to keep good speed about 90-100kph. Trucks drive about 105 110 or maybe more. In Australia overtaking lanes are for trucks to take over small cars and not opposite like in Finland. After setting up the camp we walked towards the city to find some dinner. And this night we decided to test Hungry Jacks.

At morning we browsed Rockhamton for display cable for Aino’s laptop which display got broken. Aim is to use TV screen in motorhome as computer display. We found the cable and later we succeeded in our plan and Aino could use her computer again. Views were almost like previous day but roads maybe slightly better. Some cattle wandering inside fences trying to find something to eat among the dry brown grass.   Next stop was MacKay distance about 330km and we arrived well in time and girls got some time to spent in the pool. This caravan park was nice and tidy. After pool break we headed to shopping center to get dinner and some breakfast update to our motorhome.  Walking distance appeared to be longer than we thought but we ended into Red Rooster for dinner and bought some food items from woolies from the neighbor.

Next stop was planned to Bowen and nice looking Harbor Lights caravan park jus beside beach. That appeared to be disappointment, yes it was close to beach but not a sandy beach at all and it was low tide and even some boats laying on bottom. Caravan park was also partly used as long term storage. So quite soon we decided to start our motorhome again and drive couple of kilometers to Queen Beach little north and spend some time at there, walking  on the beach, enjoying the sun and collecting shells. Then we headed back to center of Bowen to have a pizza. Unfortunately that restaurant was still closed and we headed to caravan park and set up the camp and wondered back to center (500m) and enjoyed extremely good and big pizzas and brought almost half of that with us for next days lunch.

Friday morning and our last leg to Ingham. Early start because we planned to stop in Townsville to see the reef trip possibilities. But at first we stopped in Ayr for a cup of coffee and little walk at the main street. Nice little town and weather was so nice that we really enjoyed the walk. Then we headed to Townsville and stopped in information center before the city and grabbed some leaflets and maps but no information of reef cruises. Then we headed to beach that was right beside the city and that was nice. We went swimming into the sea because there were lifeguards and marked (net fenced for jellyfish and sharks) area for swimming. That was nice water was about 24 degrees and fairly bright. After a while of beach life we headed to Ingham to meet our relatives in there and we arrived nicely in time before darkness laid down.

Friday night we meet Lea and Esko and their family and have dinner together. Their house was fairly crowded because Marko and his family were staying there because their house was under repairmen after the cyclone damages. So we spent our nights in motorhome which was fine for us because we had used to that already. 

Brisbane

Few days behind in Jimboomba with relatives and sights. 1^st day after arrival we grabbed the motorhome from Brisbane and headed south to South Port and Surfers Paradise to get some driving practice with Lily’s great advices. Next day we headed back to South Port transport center where Aino arrived in Grayhound bus from Sydney. We happened to drive there over Tamborine mountain (Nort Tamborine and Eagle Hights) and those narrow, steep, winding serpentine roads were quite experience in noisy motorhome. But we arrived to Jimboomba in good health and during daylight time. Next day was mainly planning the road and night stops on our way north with little motorhome ride and introduction to Jimboomba and also having some rest from travelling.

Then comes Sunday and tour in Brisbane with Tero. Nice sights from CitiCat on Brisbane river and walking across the city having cup of cappuccino and then back to Jimboomba and once again over Tamborine mountain this time from other way around and really to top. What a view to the coast upto Surfers Paradise and Coolangatta. Ride was much nicer when Tero was driving and we were not riding in motorhome (ask Pirjo-Liisa if you don’t believe me). Safely to Jimboomba again just nicely for the delicious dinner like all the other nights as well.

Now it is Monday and first driving day is behind with it’s 200 km ride. Short distance is due to visit in Gavins farm where he grows strawberries, pineapples and mangos. Nice to see the activities and machinery from cultivating to picking and packing. We also got some tastes with us for the road. Then we went to Sunshine Beach  and spend some time enjoying the views and waves of Pacfic Ocean. Now we are spending night in caravan park in Noosa Heads (Tewantin) in our motorhome and playing and laughing. Tomorrow we will start north again let’s see how far we will get. 

(I will add images later)

Fremantle and Adelaide

Visited at Hillary’s marine to have a lunch and meet some more relatives, amazing sea life in Western Australia Aquarium and driving home through Perth city that does not seem as my place at all (like no other big urban city). After reaching our base in Fremantle we headed out for some walking on beach and Fremantle streets. Had cup of cappuccino in San Curro and then back to the base where Rhonda has prepared a wonderful Indian curry with sides and it was delicious.

Next morning we had early start for Adelaide where we headed into special surprise. Suddenly Aino-Maria popped in hotel reception. She was changed her plans and moved her Sydney flight to that same night and we can spent evening together. We were looking eyes wide and then it was hugging and so. We went out to have a cup of cappuccino. We walked and tried to get into St Peters cathedral but it was already closed so we headed into Rundle Mall and walked around and did some basic shopping and started walking back to the hotel and Aino started her way to airport for her flight.

After doing our best to get hotel room warm and beds heated up to sleeping temperature and slept good night sleep and waked up late we headed to St Peters cathedral again and wondered it around. It was nice place to see I can suggest that when you come nearby. 

Then we decided to head up north to O’Connell street for some small snack before going down town. We walked through the old Adelaide to hotel and that appeared to be maybe the best sights to see we saw old (late 1800) built colonial houses on Stanley street. 

Because girls were little tired of walking we decided to take a free connection bus and drive full round from our hotel to downtown and back, but that was a fail. In the middle of the trip driver stood up and said that this was it for today and asked us to step out the bus because he is closing for today ( and believe we even double checked the schedule in bus stop to confirm that last bus from downtown should leave at 6pm and it is only 4.30). 

We were next to Chinatown and we decided to walk to next stop through Chinatown to wait next bus to reach the hotel. Good: We had a chance to see the Adelaide Chinatown also, Bad: While waiting the bus with others (locals?) it came clear that it is late and will come after 30 minutes. We decided to go on walking to next stop. Worse: We soon reached next connection bus stop saying “this part of the route is out of operation due to roadwork ahead”. Worst: We have 3km distance to hotel. We look the map and planned the road to hotel and start walking. During the walk, most part within the bus lane, we did not see any of those connection buses driving on the road. After arriving to hotel we decided to reward ourselves with some ice cream, cappuccino and hot chocolate in cafeteria close to hotel.

Now we are waiting clean laundry from the dryer and packing things for tomorrow because we are now heading northeast to Brisbane and will meet there more relatives and celebrate Aino’s birthday.

1st two days

What a wonderful day we had yesterday, wondering around Fremantle by foot watching beautiful buildings and having nice cup of coffee in chocolateria San Churro.

We saw many interesting places like old maritime museum, Fremantle markets, Prison etc. Delicious dinner in good restaurant (Sandrino), delicious food and wonderful service even when have to eat outside at the terrace at winter time. After dinner we travel to Tastula with photos and videos remembering peoples and their moves through the time.

Whole day walking, walking, walking, nice and I liked that very much. Here is winter but weather was good for outside walking not too hot and not too cold. Nights are cold below 10 degrees but we can manage.

This day we spent out in wild life park with Rhonda. Nice animals kangaroos, birds, koalas and so on. you could even go and touch some of those. It was surprising how soft was the fur of giant red kangaroo. Then we enjoyed a cup of cappuchino at the park and drove back to Fremantle to fresh up and watch some rugby and Australian football from TV.

Then lovely dinner that Rhonda has cooked for all of us and discussions while listening music.