A beautiful spot for lunch.

My son and daughter-in-law are, at the moment, holidaying at Ellis Beach, just north of Cairns. It is a beautiful spot and one of the most picturesque beaches between Cairns and Port Douglas.  Every time we are driving home from a trip to Cairns we comment on just how truly lovely it is.  Hubby reckons it reminds him of the Caribbean and I agree.  White sandy beaches fringed by palm trees with rainforest as a back-drop.
Marco rang to invite me to a bar-b-que lunch at the unit they were staying in and I readily agreed.   I've always wondered what the units were like and was not disappointed.  The units are right on the beach....well a couple of steps away.....and the view over the Coral Sea is just magnificent.  It was also the perfect Queensland spring day.  Balmy weather with hardly any humidity and sunshine aplenty.
We sat down to a delicious meal of grilled lamb chops, haloumi and Suzie's famous tossed salad all washed down with a Vodka and fresh orange juice.....aaahhhh!  I of course could not indulge in any more than one alcoholic drink as I was driving so I was then treated to a freshly juiced drink consisting of watermelon, pineapple, berries, apple and orange,  I think it was the best fruit juice I have ever had and that is a big call!
Here are some photos that I took.

A curlew sunning him/herself right outside the unit

View of Ellis Beach looking South

And looking north

The holiday units are right on the beach!

Madeleine

After breakfast at Palmers Golf Club I headed south to Kuranda for a bar-b-que at our friends house.  Our friends have just come back from a cruise around the Mediterranean so I was eager to hear about the places they visited and enjoyed.  Hubby and I did a similar cruise a few years ago so I was familiar with a lot of the places that they visited.  We both agreed that Venice received a big tick of approval.
I was also pleased to finally meet their newest grand-daughter, Madeleine.  You may recall a photo shoot that I did back in May (you can see it HERE) of the very pregnant parents.  It was lovely to see their little bundle of joy and what a beautiful little girl she is.  I just could't put the camera down.  She is just so adorable.
I had a lovely day and made my way home before dark.  Unfortunately (I think) I will get a speeding ticket when I passed through Mareeba.  It seems so unfair.  The police had set up a camera car just before the 80km zone on the east side of town.  I looked down and I was doing 67kph.   Fingers crossed.
Some photos from the day.....

Such a lovely family photo.

Madeleine's second cousin.

Just all smiles.

Oh! Those eyes!

Birthday Breakfast

The birthday girls celebrations continued with a delicious breakfast brunch at Palmers Golf Club on Saturday morning.  I had been here once before for a yoga christmas breakfast and found it to be a glorious setting and the food, although simple, was delicious.  It was just as good this time around.  The breakfast is just $25/head and the buffet had plenty of both hot and cold.  I particularly enjoyed the banana bread with the fresh fruit that rounded off my breakfast.  Another big plus is the coffee.  Oh my goodness.  All freshly brewed to order.  Here is a photo of the view from our table.  Glorious.

Sunset Cruise at Port Douglas

The president of our Photography club has a twin sister and they turned 50 this week.  Happy Birthday Nada!  They planned a whole weekend of festivities kicking off with a Sunset Cruise aboard "Aquarius" on Friday evening.  It is something I've always wanted to do and even though Hubby was not here to enjoy it with me I decided to go anyway.  I'm glad I did.  There was about 25 in our party that boarded the yacht and we headed straight for the front of the boat....by far the best place to be!
We were treated to a glass of champagne as we boarded and then plates of yummy Nibblies were brought around during the course of the journey.  The yacht made it's way out of Dickson Inlet and then headed south to sail along the length of Four Mile Beach.  As the sun started slowly sinking we made our way back to the Marina at Port Douglas.
The group had a great time on board Aquarius.  For those that did not have to drive at the end of the journey the drinks flowed and the birthday girls really had a ball.  Someone (I didn't see who) threw a jug of ice over Nada and so the fun began with ice flowing in every direction!
I did try and get some photos but the fact was that I just wanted to soak it all up without a camera at my eye!  However these are the ones I did get.

Joan with the perfect seat right at the front of the yacht!

Getting comfortable before we set sail.  This is our party.

One of the birthday girls.

Glorious Port Douglas

Dickson Inlet.

In full sail aboard Aquarius

Delicious Nibblies

Another of the sunset cruises

Looking towards Black Mountain

Sunset over Dickson Inlet

Hosting Photo Club.

Last week-end it was my turn to host the monthly photo club meet.  All members arrived at our place at about 10am for tea/cofee/cake and shortly afterwards we all displayed our photos for voting and points.  Everyone was keen to then take a walk around the garden to photograph some of the flowers that are loving spring.  While we were taking photographs, Hubby fired up the bbq and cooked up sausages and onions for the sausage sizzle.   After a leisurely lunch we then made our way to our cars and drove to the top of the bump track where we walked into Robbins Creek.  The track was unusually dry.  Any other time we have walked it we have been attacked by leeches, but not this time.  But, also because it was so dry we missed out on all the wonderful fungi that is usually seen.
Robbins Creek is a most beautiful spot and a place we have visited often.  The serenity however was broken by a couple of cyclists who came down the track at a hundred miles an hour!  Wow those bikes fly!   If you were unlucky enough to be in their path you would surely come out the worse for wear.
We spent about an hour walking around Robbins Creek taking photographs before deciding to head back up the 2.5km track.  Most of us had functions to go to that evening so we didn't stay as long as we might have otherwise.  The Bump Track is only a five minute drive from home for us so we will come back again in the next month.

A well camouflaged goanna.

Fathers Day

When we took delivery of the car on Friday the salesman told us that we needed to "run it in".  This meant not sitting on one speed but varying it from time to time.  We decided that for Fathers Day we would do the circuit, Julatten/Mareeba/Kuranda/Port Douglas/Julatten.  This gave us a good couple of road stretches to break the speed limit a little and see what this car was made of.  We weren't disappointed.  We had morning coffee at Mareeba and lunch at Speewah Country Tavern.  We hadn't been there before and it is definitely a place we will re-visit.  The food was excellent and the prices didn't break the bank.

Philip ordered a seafood basket....

and I ordered a ceasar salad with calamari....yummm!

After lunch we made our way to Kuranda and Rainforest Station.  Philip's mum had told us how much she enjoyed it there, and most particularly how much fun the Army Ducks were.  She wasn't wrong.  We had a great time and would recommend it to anyone visiting Kuranda.  But before boarding the Army Duck we wandered around the zoo enclosure where we got up close and personal with a Cassowary, a Wallaby (with joey) and Freshwater Crocodiles.

The crocs apparently don't eat turtles!

After the zoo it was on to the Army Duck.  What an amazing vehicle they are and we were stunned to learn that because the menfolk were overseas fighting in the World War it was left to to the women to build these incredible vehicles.  Maybe that is why they have stood the test of time.  We all know women do it better!  Hahahah!

After we left the Rainforest Station we headed back down the Kuranda Range and then north along the Cook Highway back to Julatten.  It was a simply beautiful day and as always the drive was gorgeous so we decided to make a detour into Port to visit our favourite coffee shop "Whileaway" to enjoy a good coffee and vanilla slice before making our way home.

It was a fantastic day and just to put a full stop to the day we sipped on a nightcap of Penfolds Grandfather Port that son and DIL had given Philip for Fathers Day.  Ahhhhh. Bliss.

A new car.

When Kurt was still with us more than 14 years ago we used to talk about our dream car.  Kurt and Marc loved the big powerful V8 super cars, and of course so did we.  Most particularly the HSV's.  We always had these conversations when we were about to trade in a vehicle.
Living in the west with dirt roads made our choice of car quite easy.  Toyota Landcruiser or Toyota Landcruiser.  These vehicles just simply stood up to the job of boggy roads in the middle of the wet season.  We had tried different makes of vehicles over the years for our "workhorses" but nothing came near the good old Toyota.  We had Hi-Lux work vehicles and Wagon town cars.  We never kept the vehicles more than four years as they had too many kms on them after that.
But we always remembered the talks we had about the HSV's and we secretly longed for one!
When we moved to Julatten we traded the Landcruiser Wagon on a Honda Accord and we have loved that car for almost eight years and 180,000 km.  But it was time to say goodbye.  We talked about what vehicle we should buy.  Gosh, there are so many on the market.  We didn't need a four wheel drive as the Toyota tray back that we own is just fine for if we need to go off-road so we decided to stay with a sedan.
The HSV was our top choice, but, (a) did we want a V8 (Yes!), (b) would we mind paying for extra fuel (Yes, but we would drink one less bottle of wine each week Hahah!).  So after months of procrastinating we finally ordered a HSV Senator Signature.  They advised us that it would take about three months to build and would be here about the middle of September.  Image our surprise when the Holden dealership rang us and said it would be ready for delivery on the 5th September....Kurt's Birthday!!!!  It was most definitely an omen.
So, Kurt and Marc this one's for you.  Hope you like our choice.....