Keith hangs out at Machans Beach & Yorkey's Knob

April 30:  So Danny, Indigo and Keith turned up at Lissie and Buzzy's place on the beachfront at Machans.


I had spent a couple of days staying at my sister Lynda's and catching up with my pregnant niece, Melanie which was great.  I went to Lissie's school musical (v. good) and even watched "Avatar" for the first time.  I know,  I am the last person on earth to see it!  It was worth the wait 

 


 May 1, 2 & 3:  The next few days were spent enjoying the hospitality of my family. Machans is a wonderful place full of interesting houses and a really cool vibe. 

Danny and Buzzy did some time down the beach cast netting, then out the front with the rods...but to no avail.

Other locals tried cast netting out front (waist deep in water that can sometimes contain crocs and sharks!!)  but they did no good either.  A few prawns is all the boys caught.  But fishing is about more than just catching fish, isn't it... 

 Unfortunately for Indigo, Howard & Martha did not want her to stay at their place and so she slept (with 1 night of howling) in Keith.
They did all go for walks together around Machans and across the bridge to Dungarra Island. 






Danny spotted this pair of Birdwing butterflies along the esplanade.
The female is larger and brownish and the male a bright green & black.
My sister has a particular plant that the birdwing caterpillas love to eat and they grow quite big and fat before they go into their coccoons.

Danny and Buzzy also put on a bonnet scoop for Keith to decrease the amount of heat in the engine bay and help with the valporisation issue.
Before we left, Danny painted it white and it looks like it has always been there.

May 4-6:  
So we said our goodbyes on Friday morning (my nephew Elliott's 21st birthday) and went off up the highway, a few beaches away, to our 2nd Helpx gig at Yorkey's Knob. 
Villa Marine is run by Peter who also takes bookings for Cairns & it's surrounding attractions.  He was very busy so we didn't get to spend any time with him personally, but he was friendly to us and Indigo.

First, we went for a long walk on the beach to the river mouth.   Unfortunately there wasn't a villa for us, so we stayed in a bessa block duplex a few streets away.  Luckily for Indigo, a foster dog arrived that night and they had a couple of good plays in the back yard.

The Helpx work was cleaning windows & screens, mowing and whipper snipping, cleaning the pool and making up the 4 star rooms.  Each room had a slightly different theme and they were very tastefully decorated.  I learnt how to roll towels into a nice shape, do hospital corners on the sheets and we both whipped around the units as a team doing the basics:  kitchen, bathroom and floors. 
On Sunday arvo, we went off to the Yorkey's Knob Boat Club  (as suggested by Peter) for a Jimmy Buffet tribute.  Well, we got there late and there was a lot of middle age drunk people in Hawaiian outfits.  We had a Corona (on special for $5) and disappeared into the back room to play pool.  We called it a draw, because the table was shitty and so the decider game which we started in Reddo, will be played at a later date, somewhere on a better table.

Machans Beach  - always such a pleasure to see you and all my Cairns family!