Quick update

Sorry peeps...I've not been able to update the blog because we left our computer at a friend's house in Cairns (I say friend but really just someone we didn't know but who invited us for dinner when we arrived...it is the way things go...now we are staying with someone else we met that day and she lives on a sugar plantation so we are watching them harvest it today with a machine that looks like it is out of Thunderbirds - great, spiralling cutters at the front.)
The woman here is called Shaneen and she is an architect who works for QLD govt on Aboriginal housing projects - absolutely fascinating as she has to negotiate their traditional beliefs and practices and incorporate them into her designs. She introduced us to a friend of hers the other day who is Aboriginal and he showed Patrick how to play the didge as it is 'man's business'!
The boys didn't have a go because they were too busy riding around the farm on a motorised cart - you can imagine how much Oscar is enjoying that!
Unfortunately our camera broke just before we left Brisbane - I think it got too much sand in it and the shutter won't open or close properly - so we have been using the boys ipads to take video and photos. We will update the blog with photos as soon as we get access to wifi which will probably be at the weekend when we get to Bangkok.
Since arriving in Cairns we have been pretty busy: we hired a car for a couple of weeks and have clocked up 2000km so far. We picked up some camping kit so that we could be self-sufficient and we had to decide between cheap kit ($15 tents) or expensive kit that we might bring home with us. Given that our rucksacs are already overloaded we chose the cheap kit...but there have been times when we have regretted that choice - next time we will get thermarests to sleep on at least!
We've been up to Mossman Gorge to walk and swim in the rainforest and then onto Daintree which is a world heritage rainforest that runs down to the sea. Wonderful beaches en route to Cape Tribulation. We've done quite a bit of swimming because this is out-of-season for stingers in the sea but crocs are a continual problem so you have to be very careful near creeks and even in the sea.
We've enjoyed sleeping out under the stars - incredible depth to them here and we now know how to find south using the southern cross. Love seeing the crescent moon at a different angle too - here it is on the bottom rather than on the side.
We drove up to Cooktown to do a guided walk with an Aboriginal from Hopevale called Willie Gordon - it was fab... will provide some photos later but it involved lots of rock art and eating green ants!
We spent a day out on the 'GBR' - Great Barrier Reef - went out from Port Douglas rather than Cairns. Only 10% of the GBR business leaves from Port Douglas so it is a bit quieter. Simply amazing on the reef!
I've bought a painting from a local woman who is also a weaver at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair which was on this weekend - hoping to get it back in one piece!
We've camped at hot springs out in the bush and travelled through very dense rainforest. Had to remove leaches from our shoes and legs at regular intervals.
I've ridden a 'green' horse, only 4 years old on a station north of Cairns. 'Zippy' had only recently been backed and ridden a few times, the last time was some weeks ago so she was pretty lively. Amazing station - again pictures to follow - Alfie met his namesake, a Droughmaster bullock weighing 1000kg called 'Alfie' and complete with deadly horns.
Talking of deadly, Alfie, Patrick and I went for a jog at sundown and I was 2cm from treading on a venomous snake. Found another one in the woodpile. Plently of deadly ones around here e.g. Taipans that kill you in 2 minutes! Best not to walk around barefooted at night!
Anyway, Oscar is whizzing around outside on a motorised cart - I can hear him revving it up to max speed. We are just about to head off towards Cairns for the day...may go up the pyramid (Volcano) mountain that is near us if the top is not shrouded in mist!
Preparing to leave in two days time...booked 5* hotel in Bangkok for some last minute luxury - not expecting to find pythons living in the cupboards there or to have to share the bathroom with spiders and frogs or watch out for ticks, leaches or crocs but there again I prefer these critturs to smog!
TTFN

Running success

Alfie came 2nd for his age group in the Queensland Cross-country championships...3000km.
He won the school 800m by at least 100m! Alfie is looking forward to the x-country season in the UK!
Patrick then went on to win an ultra-marathon (50km trail race) the next day in the Glass House Mountains. He is preparing for an epic run through Wales in September: starts in Snowdon and then crosses all the mountains that run through the centre of Wales...a race that has only been run once before (1992) and which is called 'The Dragon's Back'. He will be running for 5 days and covering about 40 miles per day (with excessive amounts of climb). We hoped that our friend Steve Black from Underburg in South Africa would be coming over to do the race but like quite a few other people who thought they would be doing it, he has dropped out...shame!
With this race in mind, Patrick is out as I type, running a four hour training run...inspired by the women's 10000m Olympic final that we watched this morning!

Booley Hut

Last weekend we spent the night in the 'Booley Hut' ...not sure how you spell 'Booley' but it was built by Ali's dad, Vernon, at the bottom of their garden, adjacent to the Brisbane river. It almost got washed away in the 2010 floods - often people comment on the height of the floods and the devastation they caused...yet everyone seems to have rebuilt pontoons, houses, factories etc. in exactly the same places that got flooded in 2010 (and 1974). I guess they might be safe for a couple of decades!

This hut has got one room downstairs and a mezzanine upstairs which is where all the kids slept. It was very cosy when we got the fire going. We all paddled here (and back the next morning) in a couple of kayaks and a larger canoe but only after we had dropped off all the bedding etc - very easy!