TravellingStrom

After a late rise, I checked out the town for an internet cafe. The Library could not help with using a laptop and the cafe across the road was closed. The only choice was the backpacker’s hotel which was open until 5pm. That sorted I headed off to look at the 1 mile jetty.

You have to pay $2 which goes towards repairs, so I wandered on down to the end. It does not go for a mile because it is blocked off.

And the reason for this is because they had had a fire around Christmas time which destroyed quite a number of pylons, that is what the cash is for, to save up for the wooden pylons, here is a view through the fence of the missing section.

If you look at the water, it changes colour around the end, this is where the water goes to 26ft deep and that is where a lot of big fish have been caught, big Spanish Mackerel and other types as well.
If you paid an extra $1 you could save yourself the walk and take a trip on the Coffee Pot train 🙂 I walked as I needed the exercise

There was also a museum next to the jetty which had some nice old displays, like this shearers clipping line with motor and pulleys set up.

This is a replica of the old steam train that used to run out to the jetty, it was carved by a chainsaw and a grinder but with a chainsaw wheel on it.

Outside was this interesting pump. It used an endless chain with coil springs on it which drew up water within the links, quite efficient and the 2nd photo shows it stopped with the coil springs covering the actual chain links.

After that I went and bought some internet time for an hour or so, before I headed back up north for a trip to Quabba and the blowholes. That was quite interesting, especially when I took a wrong side track and ended up in deep sand, I had to jump off and nurse the clutch to get it to drive around and back the way I came. I did not drop it though, I must be getting better 🙂 The blow holes were great, but would have been better without the gale force winds shearing them sideways.

Then back to town and had a look at the big dish overlooking the town. This was used back in the 60s to help with the moon landings, it is disused and showing signs of rust now though 😦

But the view from up there was nice and you could see all the plantations of bananas, beans, mangos etc.

Then the last port of call was the HMAS Sydney memorial drive. I took this photo to show the wind strength mainly, but each of the tall and small palm trees have a small block in front of them with the name of one of the 645 crew members of the Sydney which went down with all hands in 1941. This memorial drive goes for over 3km.

Then I went to the pub to find out if I could watch the broncos play tonight, they said no worries and I stayed for a couple of heart starters as apparently it was 5 past 5 and time for a drink.

After a few beers I went back for a feed and drop the bike off prior to returning by taxi. I was paying way to much for rum, $6.10/nip and after leading the game for 79 minutes, a dropped ball saw Melbourne take the points and Wayne Bennet and Toni Carroll both get to leave the club without a fairytale ending 😦 It was a great game to watch though and in the end, the Storm wanted the prize more than the Broncos.

Day – 189km
Trip – 10,151km
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