8 August 2011 - Kerribee Park Rodeo Grounds, Mareeba, Queensland

Wouldn’t you know it! No rain during the night and clear skies greeted us in the morning. After all these rainy showery days and now we were leaving Cairns, the good weather showed up. We will simply have to return to see a sunny Cairns.

I made a final rather desperate call to the Post Office just in case the weekend had brought the elusive mail; what was I thinking! So we have proceeded further on these Queensland’s roads, with no current registration sticker displayed and risk the mighty hand of the law. Chris suggests that the next attempt be to request that the sticker is mailed to the local Transport Authority. They will not like that suggestion, however it may be the only solution. Surely we cannot be the only people in Australia to have experienced this ridiculous run around?

We flew up and over the Kuranda Range in no lower than second gear, managing to let built up traffic past at each slow lane, past the turnoff to Kuranda, and on to road not yet traveled, out of the rainforest in to the more open bush, and finally to the open agricultural land of the tablelands.

Mareeba is a rural town with a population of 9,600 which boasts 300 sunny days a year and an ideal elevated temperate climate, and is known as the Gateway to Cape York. With a couple of supermarkets and all the other services such a population demands, it is indeed that for us.

The town is also considered the fruit bowl to the Tropical Coast, with sugar cane, avocadoes, coffee, pineapples, mangoes, lychees, bananas, and an extensive list of exotic fruits and vegetables. We have yet to see proof of that, however do hope to visit one of the tourist attractions around the coffee industry while we are here.

We pulled in to the Visitor Centre, armed ourselves with the local maps and brochures, and wandered through the Heritage Museum attached to the centre. This is well laid out with some wonderful stories and vignettes of people who shaped the area. There is also a section about the coal mine disaster at Mount Mulligan when 75 miners lost their lives in 1921. A volunteer who acts as curator told us stories of weird co-incidences and mysteries that I suspect are more fable than fact. I was moved by it all because I immediately compared the event with the loss of life at the Pike River coal mine in New Zealand last year.

As we drifted about this small but delightful museum, we found ourselves in conversation with a couple, Ray and Bernie, who had just returned from their three week Cape York adventure. In that short time, we found much in common and were delighted when they pulled in to this park this afternoon. We hope to catch up with them tomorrow and spend some quality time together.

The rodeo grounds are about three kilometres west of Mareeba, and are huge. We often stay at show and rodeo grounds, but none have been quite like these. The amenities are old, numerous, painted in bright colours and very clean. There are well over one hundred motorhomes and caravans in here tonight. There are apparently kangaroos that hop about and should not be chased or frightened, however roos are a bit ho-hum after all our wildlife spotting. Black cockatoos flew over squawking like their white cousins this afternoon and we may well see hot air balloons over head in the early morning; they have apparently occasionally landed amongst the vans when they miss their landing base across the road.

Tonight we contacted my parents on Skype, or at least we could see them and they could hear us, and they nodded or shook their heads in response to our twenty questions. We did cut the contact short however and hope that they can figure out how to un-mute the mike, if that is the problem. We also caught up with Larissa and Andy and all their family news, nothing of great consequence or concern, but all important to us in family.