Back to Sydney

We fly back to Sydney this morning where hopefully we will see some blue skies this time.

Monday we drove to Charter Towers but unfortunately it was shut. It only looks like a snip on the map and it’s the next place inland from Townsville but Australia is a big place and the journey there is over 130km. Quite a few places don’t seem to open until Monday evening around Australia but it seems that few are open in Charter Towers. It’s another of those old fashioned towns that is like Australia used to be so worth a trip if you don’t visit on a Monday. I saw a sign on the way back to another waterfall but it was an extra 110km so we didn’t bother; we needed food which we bought from Woolworth’s. Another BBQ of T bone steak, new potatoes and salad; Claire’s favourite. The T bones that we have seen over here are cheaper than most other cut because they cut the fillet part off to sell separately only leaving the corner bit on the steak. Another difference that I have noticed over here is that they grow their spring onions with really long white bits and not much white where at home we prefer the reverse. Anyway the old Stock Exchange building has lots of shops and Claire wanted to eat in Henry’s but it was closed on Mondays. On the way there and back I noticed, what first looked like pointed stones sticking out the ground which I thought were unusual. Having thought about them for a while Claire had a power nap, I thought they may be some sort of grave stones because they looked so regular in shape and size. On the way back I took about 6 or 7 photos of them as I was driving past but the photos didn’t show them but by then I thought they must be termite mounds. Anyway the next Creek was called “Anthill Creek” so I guess that answered my thoughts. They have these huge trucks along this road that they call road train's and are over 50 meters long with 3 wagons on the back.

Tuesday Claire cleaned inside while I gave the outside a seeing to, starting with the BBQ. It was brand new when we got here and only been used once or twice from the look of it but we used it almost every day we were here; I love it. All I did really after that was to sweep all the decking down by the house and pool and hose the car down. I was saturated with sweat by the time that I had finished because of the humidity here. There were also a lot of branches everywhere from the cyclone that passed over so I moved them to the pile of branches already started. When I picked one up, a lizard ran up the branch and along my arm before jumping for cover when I nearly jumped out of my skin. Which reminds me, that Monday night I couldn’t sleep because it was too hot ,and when I went to the toilet I discovered that Claire had left the windows open in the toilet so I closed them. Any bugs and mosquitoes would come in with the smell of carbon dioxide from our breath and eat me alive. I thought of what to say to Claire in the morning and realized that a snake could even have come in. I was grumpy when I woke up and poor Claire got the worst of it. Anyway, I don’t think she will be leaving the windows open anymore because when she had her arm in her handbag in the morning, a cockroach ran up her arm, which made her jump and shake as she ran away, and it didn’t do much for the cockroach either. We sprayed the room, closed the door and left it for a few hours and found the roach dead under the bed later. So remember don’t leave windows open in the tropics because the air conditioning doesn’t work properly.

Once our cleaning duties were over we headed off to reading Cinema for the last time to see 3D Avatar. Which Claire new nothing at all about and all I knew was that Avatar is one of the Hindi Gods that comes down to Earth in human form. I also new that it was written and directed by James Cameron the biggest budget film and already the biggest box office hit since Titanic which was also directed by Cameron. You had to where those silly plastic 3D glasses and we had a laugh just watching the previews in 3D. Claire said, “It’s not a kids film is it?” And I replied I don’t think so but the kids would probably like it as well. It was a long film, almost 3 hours and it blew us both away from start to finish; probably the best film I have ever seen and Claire thought it was one of the best she had ever seen and she doesn’t normally like sci-fi films. I have never seen anything like it before; spectacular! It also had a hint of what I imagined happened here in Australia 200 years ago and they even called the indigenous people Aborigines at one point. I have since looked it up on the internet and found that James Cameron who wrote the script for a series of three films in just two weeks has already announced the first sequel. You have to go and see it if you haven’t already and don’t be afraid to wear those silly glasses. It’s definitely worth the extra cost to see it in 3D as it really comes to life. Claire kept dropping her glasses every time something was flying towards her. They even got a professor of language to develop the alien language of over 1000 words so I guess that the “Trekies” will have a new one to learn now. It also reminded me a little of an old film called “Enemy Mine” which is also one of my favourites. Get yourself out there now and watch this one!

For our last evening we had arranged to take out Graham and Jean for our last meal because they had been so kind to us. They invited us around for a meal at their house and twice drove us around Townsville to show us the sights. Joan is giving us a lift to the airport in the morning so we felt we needed to pay them back in a small way and have a good time ourselves at the same time. Back to everyone’s favourite restaurant, Michele’s. We had a lovely meal even though Claire spilt her red wine all over my trousers which again reminded me of Mark Avery. We all had a lovely meal and a great time and poor old Graham drove again. One of these days he will get to drink with everyone else. Cheers Graham, hope we see you all again sometime! Also a big thanks to Geoff and Denise who made this swap with us and we hope that we have left your house how we found it for your return. We will miss this lovely house but all good things come to an end. Goodbye Queensland!