Sammy and Danny write a country song: "Longford Station"

July 14:  Danny and I worked in the garden and on the shed and finished our song:  "Longford Station".  We sung it for our hosts that night and they were very happy - Sally had a tear in her eyes and Lindsay said no one had ever written a song about Longford.  (While we have been at Hamilton Downs Youth Camp, near Alice Springs, Danny has put together a video clip with photos from our 2 week stay.  I can't upload more photos at the moment, but will update later on)

July 15:  The morning was spent working on the shed and cleaning the freezers and in the arvo we all set off to see and photograph the eagles.  There were two big babies in the nest.  We also checked on the bores and Sally gave me a lesson in gate hitching.  Yes city folk, there is a knack to it!  That night we watched a Johnny Cash doco we had brought with us.  Lindsay was getting inspired by us playing music and had started to muck around with one of Danny's guitars.

July 16, 17 & 18:  The next few days Danny spent working on the shed - finishing the rest of the perlons and starting the roofing iron sheeting.  It was a big job (and a big shed!) but he and Lindsay had really knocked over most of it.  Meanwhile,  I cleaned the kitchen cupboards, did some cooking, gave Sally an eBay lesson and made some tab curtains for one of the spare bedrooms.

July 19:  Our 14th Anniversay!  We did some work in the morning - Danny on the shed and I made a re-inforced material bag for our solar panel.  Then after lunch we all set off (well, Indigo stayed at Longford)  to Lindsay and Sally's other property "Glenholme", about 120km away.  It's near the town of  MacKinlay, famous for the Walkabout Creek Hotel from the movie, Crocodile Dundee.  First, we checked the bores, said hello to the curious young bulls and then had a look around the rustic homestead.  There was a big pile of miscellaneous rusting objects:  cars, bottles, bullock wagon parts...We had some drinks (not Sally and Lindsay as they were still on the dry July, the troopers) and then went off to the pub for dinner.  Our hosts shouted us a lovely meal and the chef had made us a special dessert.  We headed back to Longford with full stomachs, having had a great Anniversay and last day. 

Thanks Sally & Lindsay and Longford Station for a fantastic two weeks of learning new skills, great food and musical inspiration. 



Hull Heads & heaps of Fishing Pt 1

  April 16:   We popped into Tully to get some supplies from the IGA and then went back down the highway to the Hull Heads / Tully Heads turnoff.  Along the way we saw a Cassowary and her chick by the roadside.  This was our first Helpx gig - you work at someone's place / business for 4hrs a day and get your accommodation and meals provided.  It's an international organisation, like WOOFING.

The Buoys B & B is run by B1 & B2 (aka Bruce & Bruce) and set on 2.5acres of semi-cleared (thanks to Yasi, a bit more cleared!) bushland.
We parked Keith behind the unit and B1 gave us a tour of the property and what needed to be done.  Still large piles of trees to clear and maintenance for us to do that had been put on the back-burner after Yasi.  She hit Hull Heads really hard and wiped out 75% of the houses on the waterfront.

That afternoon, Danny repaired: clamped and glued a wooden dunny seat and I started on the big job of cleaning their mate Kiwi's old caravan that got damaged in the cyclone and suffered from a bit of bachelor pad neglect as well.    

April 17 - 22:  The next 5 days were spent:  whipper snipping & ride on mowing; building a vege garden & cover (below); restoring the deck bannisters; cleaning the old caravan... 

and exploring Hull Heads and surrounds by bike and Keith (Sammy even drove around the back streets!)    

Danny went yabbying Saturday arvo, then fishing that night with Neolo. a local CES guy down the Tully River.  Danny saw something in the water with his head torch and Nealo said:  "They're crocs".  Danny was quite alarmed but then Nealo clarified:  "No, they're YOUR crocs".  Danny had left his shoes on the bank and they had floated away!  But there are real crocs in the river, but they didn't see any.  They did catch lots of fish that Nealo filleted (he used to do it as a job) and turned into sushi and marinated Nummus.  

The next night Jimmy popped over, who coincidentally used to go to Clontarf High (at the same time as Danny) and Nealo brought the fish and we had a big feast.  Jimmy was a bit loud and intoxicated, so Nealo took him home to his mum's in Tully Heads.

April 23:  We did some work in the morning, then went into Tully (about 20mins up the highway) for lunch and a look around.
We climbed The Golden Gumboot and found an unusual motorhome (below) a Morris from the 60's.  We also had a look at a nearby waterhole, Alligator's Rest which was quite lovely.

That night, I made Vietnamese Cold Rolls for the boys and Danny went fishing again with Nealo.  
In the dark, on the banks of the Tully River:  crocodile territory.

But everything did not go as planned...