13 - November 2025 - 19 January 2026
We moved into the guest house at Lake Barrine and were very glad to be settled while we waited for our house to be finished. There had been some delays and it looked like we would not be moving in for a while yet, so we set about enjoying our temporary home. Even though we hadn't budgeted to pay rent at this stage, we knew we couldn't continue to live in the camper trailer through the wet season.
The guest house has a magnificant view over grazing lands towards Yungaburra, and backs onto the National Park rainforest surrounding Lake Barrine. All in all a fabulous location. We made the most of our time there and did lots of organising for our own home, as well as going out and about in the area.
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| A foggy morning at Lake Barrine |
We were staying very close to two of our favourite places - Lake Barrine and Lake Eacham - so we visited often, sometimes to walk all the way around and sometimes just to hang out and do some birding. We also had a lovely lunch at the Lake Barrine Tea House one day.
One day while on our way to Lake Eacham we stopped to walk down the Wright's Creek Road. Mick was hoping to do some birding along the road that has been closed since flooding damaged the bridge some years ago. On the way to the bridge we noticed a sign to Vision Falls - no indication of how far - so we ventured along the bush track anyway. This turned out to be a lovely spot with a beautiful small waterfall and some terrific birding.
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| Vision Falls |
A visit to the famous Yungaburra Markets to do some Christmas shopping was also in order. There are markets held on the Tablelands every weekend and Yungaburra is the biggest and the best, but you have to be early to get a parking spot that doesn't require a long walk. We bought lots of locally produced goodies to give as gifts to family - and to eat ourselves too!
We also had lots of "regular" outings including trips to Cairns to pick up things for the house (and a spot of birding) and coffee with our Ravenshoe friends Rob and Cheryl. We were starting to feel quite at home up here.
We had invited our Warnambool birding friends Tony and Julia to stay with us for a few nights, thinking that we would be in our house by the time of their visit but that wasn't to be. We hosted them in the guest house instead and had a great time touring some local birding spots including some that Tony had heard about that we didn't know. We also did some of the "tourist" spots like Malanda Falls and Peterson Creek.
As Christmas approached I travelled to Cairns to pick up daughter Jo from the airport on her way home for her grand adventure sailing to Darwin and back to the Torres Strait. Her flight was coming in mid-afternoon and then she would leave on an early flight to return home to Hobart. I decided to spend the night in Cairns so I could do the last of my Christmas shopping, pick up some of the furniture we had ordered, as well as do the airport pick-up and drop-off. I was nice to have a night out with my daughter, even if it did mean getting up very early to get her to airport for a 6:00am flight.
When we thought we would be in our house we invited both the girls and my sister to spend Christmas with us. As we became more and more concerned that the house wouldn't be ready we sought an alternative and found an apartment at Trinity Beach that we thought would suit our needs. We didn't want to cancel so booked and set about re-arranging our plans. Julia and Jo had booked to fly in on the same flight, arriving on the Monday before Christmas. Mick and I decided to head to Cairns early to do some birding before picking them up at the airport and it was just as well we did, as we had serious car trouble and couldn't get it going. After many calls to RACQ and mechanics we eventually arranged for the car to be towed to a repairer in Cairns and for Julia to pick up a hire car. I travelled in the tow truck and the girls picked me up at the mechanics. What a day! We were all worn out by the time we arrived home, but the good news was that the problem was going to be easily and cheaply fixed.
The following day we packed up the hire car with all the things we would need for a family Christmas and drove back to Cairns. We were able to check in to the apartment before picking up my car, returning the hire car and then collecting Bronwyn from the airport. After depositing her at the apartment, Julia and I headed back to the big shopping centre at Smithfield armed with a huge grocery shopping list.
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| Family drinks at a brewery. |
We arranged to have a simple grazing platter for dinner, and accompanied by a few drinks we were finally able to relax after a couple of busy and stressful days.
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| We even managed a Christmas tree! |
We spent the next 5 nights eating, drinking, lazing in the pool, walking on the beach and generally having some fabulous family time. We visited a local brewery, a bar and a pub. We also ventured into Cairns for some birding and an ice cream on the Esplanade.
A bit of excitement for Julia was the impending blooming of four Titan arums - Amorphophallus titanum at the Cairns Botanic Gardens. As luck would have it there were actually three about to bloom, but unfortunately none were ready on our first visit the day before we were to depart. We would have to return.
On our final day we dropped Bronwyn off at the airport and Jo off to pick up her hire car. We then went back to the gardens where the arums were closer to blooming - but not quite there. From Cairns we drove with Julia on a bit of a long way home - via Mossman and Julatten so we could do some birding. Julia had bought herself some binoculars and had started a bird list so was very keen to add some more new species to it. Our main target was the Buff-breasted paradise kingfisher. This gorgeous bird migrates from New Guinea to breed in the rainforests of north Queensland around November each year. It was raining and miserable when we turned down an unsealed road but we were well rewarded with a number of close sightings. The first bird flew right across the road in front of the car, and after that we saw several more. It was well worth the detour even with the awful conditions.
We returned to our temporary home with Julia and spent the next couple of days doing some Tablelands touristy things, including birding at Hasties Swamp and Lake Barrine. The day Julia was to fly home to Hobart we left early enough to include a return visit to the Botanic Gardens and were delighted to see that not one, but two, Titan arums had bloomed. Such a treat!
Jo was enjoying her time in the Daintree and even managed to get photos of cassowaries. She called in to the gardens on her way back to the airport and was rewarded with the last of the titan blooms that had started to open the evening before. How lucky was that!
We spent the next couple of weeks quietly, mostly at home waiting to move into our new house. After a number of delays and some very stressful times we collected the keys and moved in. There is much work to do, particularly in the yard and garden, but we now have a home again. We'll still travel, but will probably not embark on any more trips that take us away for months at a time, or maybe we will.
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| Cheers to a new home! |
