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Very exciting day for us today as it is our first day out as a family in a long time and we have decided to make the much anticipated trip to Crystal Creek that we tried to accomplish a month ago with the Woods, which was cut short by their accident......
We were all ready and on the road at 8:30am, which we thought was a tad early but we were all looking forward to this day out as work had taken over our lives for the past 6 weeks or so. We headed off out Ingham Rd towards Paluma, the country landscapes was putting on a great show with rolling hills and tropical plants. The weather was brilliant, not too humid and hot, but hot enough for a swim which was on the agenda for the day. We arrived at the turn off to Paluma after about an hour or so and arrived at our first stop, 'the rock slides' at Big Crystal Creek. We drove past what would have been our campsites if we made it last time, and they were awesome with luch grass and toilet and shower faciltities. We made the walk up the hill to the rock slides, not knowing what to expect. When we got there it was beautiful, huge rock bolders with a small waterfall. There was another kiwi family there enjoying the magic too. We quickly made our way down the rock steps and jumped into the waterhole. It is eay to forget how great the spring water is to swim in. The rocks were a bit slippery, so we were careful with our steps. The waterfall, although small, was powerful that Marty and l couldnt swim to it, we kept being washed away.... I got to take some awesome pics of a blue/green butterfly which l had wanted to do for a while, experimenting with my Nixon. After a while of refreshing swimming we decided to walk up the path to the next set of rock slide waterholes. It was such a busy place, cant believe we havent made our way up here before, We had another swim, watching all the teens sliding down the natural rock slide, getting grazes and small cuts with their experience.
We headed off to our next stop, Little Crystal Creek. I had seen some amazing pictures of this old rock bridge which l couldnt wait to see in person. We made our way down the track from the car park and l was spellbound with how rustic and natural this bridge looked. We got to the underneath of the bridge and l spent some time taking pics of it at different angles as the girls splashed around in the water. I treid to take a pic of Marty and the girls but these arrogant Italians wouldnt get out of the road, god some people frustrate me. Anyuway, there was a bigger waterfall here too which was quite noisy and again, it was a popular site for a lazy Sunday by the looks of it. We spotted an eel in the lower waterhole so decided not to have a swim down there.
After a little bit we got back in the car and decided to head down to Paluma to get some lunch, as Marty didnt want me to pack a picnic this day. We arrived in Paluma to find a small community of houses nestled in the tropical landscape, but no shops!!! Decisions needed to be made as we were a tad hungry so of course, l made the wrong one. I suggested we should keep continuing on our drive thru 'Hidden Valley' which l thought was meant to lead into Townsville. We could have turned around and gone back the way we had been, but of course l thought this would be better. WRONG!!! After 3 hours we arrived back into Townsville, all hungry and famished. I had a little snooze in the car as did Meg. Suprisingly the girls had behaved, usually they would have whinged about being hungry, lucky we had a box of shapes biscuits to tie them over... McDonalds was the stop for food, at 3:30pm we had our lunch.
Even though the later part of the day hadnt gone to plan, we didnt want it to end so we headed down to the Strand to the waterpark. The girls thoroughly enjoyed playing in the water, running a muck. After an hour or so we headed back to the caravan park, to rest up to start our working week again. The day was great but l wished we had spent more time at the water holes and not made that stupid decision that got us lost. Oh well, the trip is about experiences ey....
Getting a bit excited as our working time is coming to an end and we have decided to head off before Christmas and experience inland Queensland for 10 days then making our way to Boof and Nikki's on the Sunshine Coast for New Years drinks..... We leave on the 20th of December, so not too far away....
Bell XX
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