Another week has nearly passed and while it is still really full on, it’s a very different full on to anything experienced in Sydney. The lifestyle is just so much more laid back. It takes me 4 minutes to get to work and 4 minutes to get home. Peak hour is about 2 cars on the road and I am usually home by 434 then head out along the beach for a walk for about an hour.
Dogs don’t play with balls here they play with coconuts. Ben would love it, although knowing him would probably get eaten by a Croc within 5 minutes… The mind ponders
The Easter weekend was a bit hard being away from Friends but spending part of the holidays with Maria and her husband was great!
The weekend started Thursday afternoon. Michelle had given me the Girudala car (a new Xtrail 4wd WHOOP!) as always anything that happens to me is never normal. I got to the servo to fill it up, and low and behold couldn’t figure out whether it was petrol or diesel. (For those reading no it was not on the inside of the cap OR the manual). I knew that Nissan released both models and I have watched enough TV to know what happens if you mix them up. Not wanting to be responsible for the untimely death of the Xtrail I went in to ask the servo attendant. He came out, and was no help. A man walking past with his kid also tried to help, he looked under the engine and couldn’t tell and then he did something that I did consider however didn’t really wish to perpetuate the stereo type, he sniffed the petrol tank… Still couldn’t tell. So I jumped back in the car and drove back to the office. I asked Bruce to which his response was “why which one did you put in?” Turns out its Petrol.
Friday was an early start to get to Ayr for a day of adventure in the country. The trip out to Charters Towers was a long one, but went quickly as Maria and I discussed our progress and I got some great Advice off Steve (He just became one of my 6 “go to” people). We had arrived in Charters Towers. It was a lot bigger than I imagined it would be, but just as country. We saw a hotel and thought we would head in for a drink, after all it was good Friday and nearly 12 so why not. Well, if you see a hotel in the country one would automatically assume it has a pub. Not here! The Barkeep (which we named Dave although he never told us his name, probably for good reason) came to greet us and offered us a tour. A museum we thought! Fantastic we can get some insight into Charters Towers history. After all it did have Australia’s first Stock Exchange and was responsible for supplying a large portion of Gold that came out of Australia. So we saw two…three… four then five of the rooms, some of the backpackers accommodation and around the time we were introduced to some of the tenants was when we started to question where this historic part came into the mix. Turns out it wouldn’t, the hotel is as the word means a hotel. And he was merely showing us all 25 of the rooms. I must say they all had individual charm and character and Dave was a great guy for showing us around, although still seemed a little odd. But hey we were on holiday and happy to wander around. We headed up to Tower Hill which is where the towers name of Charters Towers came from if you believe Wikipedia then headed onto Ravenswood, which as Dave called it was a certified Ghost town!
As we drove in to Ravenswood we saw houses with cars out the front, pubs, cars on the road, schools… not the makings of a Ghost town if you ask me… but we continued on. A very cute old town though, we headed into a pub (are you seeing a theme here?) which had OPEN ALL EASTER WEEKEND plastered out the front. By this time it was about 1pm, went to open the door… Locked, tried another also locked. We walked around the back… closed up. So we did as anyone else would and headed to the cemetery to have a look around (fresh graves… the ghost town theory is slowly becoming misleading) some of the grave stones were well over 100 years old and fascinating to read. You could see all the family generations and given I have a strange obsession with how people in the 1800 and early 1900s died, was quiet pleased most of them explained how they died. Majority were due to fallen earth, so I would assume were miners?
We then left and went up and had lunch at a working quarry overlooking the dam. Here is where we called shenanigans on the Ghost town theory completely. There was industry, economy and population. Wikipedia later confirmed it is not a listed ghost town in Australia.
Saturday Maria and Steve arrived early again and we headed down to Airlie. I was in love!!!!! The place was beautiful. We headed into a place called “Shipwrecked”. If you are ever in Airlie it is a must eat!!! I had Oysters Kilpatrick and a fabulous seafood tasting platter which even writing about it is making my mouth water. Washed down with a few Mojitos and I was in the Easter spirit. We then trekked onto Mackay about an hour south, and stopped off at some shops and then had “Linner”. The weather has been unbelievably kind to me during my time here and for at least 5 weeks I get to experience the summer Sydney never had.
Sunday was just spent hanging around Bowen, I checked out Horseshoe Bay, rose bay and the markets. I found out that crocodiles do in fact inhabit the beach (where I regularly walk) and croc infestations are occurring more frequently in built up areas which they now have to work out what to do about it. I am not going outdoors at night now.
Monday I went out for a coffee and decided to just keep driving back down to Airlie. Hung out there for a few hours then made the trek home and started to prep again for Tuesday. As much as I love a good long weekend, it has taken a few days away from me that I would love to have spent working with Renee on the project, but never the less I shall preserver.
It is now Wednesday and today marks my half way point of my journey. I hear Sydney is shivering through this week, I am enjoying 33 degree days and dreading coming back home to the cold. I am still so excited about this project and kind of sad I will have to leave it without seeing it fully completed and implemented…
Nights are no longer lonely, and I am comfortable in my apartment (I think it was just a settling in period and having the car on the weekend helped so much) The animal noises at night turned out to be only 1 possum who is only tiny but seriously make the noise of a 90kg person walking on the roof, and the geckos continue keep me company (one of them watches me shower which is a little creepy but he doesn’t move).
Maria and I are planning on heading down to Airlie and over to one of the islands this weekend, so fingers crossed the weather gods continue to be good to us.
So until next time, hope you all rug up and stay warm.
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