Cold tablelands & BIG road trains
Today we got up after a very cold night which was a surprise to us both since we are in Queensland. (Beautiful one day, perfect the next?) In fact the tablelands can be quite a lot cooler than other parts of Queensland. The blankets were the very thin, cotton kind and we didn’t think we’d need any extra, however I had the door open till late the night before since the wireless broadband seemed to need it open to stay connected however, we did not realise that the kitchen window was open all night! No wonder I was freezing all night and had to wear my tracksuit pants to bed. Never mind, at least I got the BLOG up to date and some photos uploaded.
We went first to the Nerada tea plantation since we have been drinking their tea for years we thought it would be interesting to see where it is grown and how it is processed. However, they weren’t doing tours of the processing plant because there had been frosts and the top leaves had to be harvested and discarded so they hadn’t been doing any harvesting until the plants recovered. We did learn that Australian tea growing is very successful since there are not pests so pesticide is not necessary and machines have been developed to make harvesting and processing more efficient and that their first plantation was planted in 1985. However, they didn’t even have a video to show us what usually happens like at the coffee plantation. We had a look at all the information they had about the company and its sister company, BOH in Malaysia then had a cuppa and scone and went on our way. Bit disappointing really!
Our next destination was to Georgetown along the Savannah Way. At first it was beautiful lush and green tablelands country side but slowly it became more dry and scrubby and the roads became narrower, single lane bitumen with some huge road trains coming the other way that you have to move over onto the gravel to let pass. They make it clear on the signs that the road trains have right of way and you are expected to move to the left. I would hate to be driving with a caravan on the back on that road but we saw some going the other way. We got to the motel and it was reasonably busy and in fact expecting a busload at 6.30pm. We were in a unit around the back of the motel which looks like it is still being completed landscaping-wise and there was a little lake we could see from just outside our room with some ducks on it. I went down there once we were unpacked and they seemed to expect to be fed so I got a couple of slices of bread and took it down to feed them. Following this I did some
work on photos to prepare them for uploading to Webshots while Fin sat outside and talked to a couple of fire fighters and a wife of one of them until it was time for dinner. They had been in the area teaching kids about fire safety and had a little fire engine on the back of their trailer. It was very cute. (No photo-sorry)
It was quite a warm night in contrast to Atherton and we had to put the air conditioner on to cool down the room and only slept with a sheet to cover us. Good sleep!
We went first to the Nerada tea plantation since we have been drinking their tea for years we thought it would be interesting to see where it is grown and how it is processed. However, they weren’t doing tours of the processing plant because there had been frosts and the top leaves had to be harvested and discarded so they hadn’t been doing any harvesting until the plants recovered. We did learn that Australian tea growing is very successful since there are not pests so pesticide is not necessary and machines have been developed to make harvesting and processing more efficient and that their first plantation was planted in 1985. However, they didn’t even have a video to show us what usually happens like at the coffee plantation. We had a look at all the information they had about the company and its sister company, BOH in Malaysia then had a cuppa and scone and went on our way. Bit disappointing really!
Our next destination was to Georgetown along the Savannah Way. At first it was beautiful lush and green tablelands country side but slowly it became more dry and scrubby and the roads became narrower, single lane bitumen with some huge road trains coming the other way that you have to move over onto the gravel to let pass. They make it clear on the signs that the road trains have right of way and you are expected to move to the left. I would hate to be driving with a caravan on the back on that road but we saw some going the other way. We got to the motel and it was reasonably busy and in fact expecting a busload at 6.30pm. We were in a unit around the back of the motel which looks like it is still being completed landscaping-wise and there was a little lake we could see from just outside our room with some ducks on it. I went down there once we were unpacked and they seemed to expect to be fed so I got a couple of slices of bread and took it down to feed them. Following this I did some
work on photos to prepare them for uploading to Webshots while Fin sat outside and talked to a couple of fire fighters and a wife of one of them until it was time for dinner. They had been in the area teaching kids about fire safety and had a little fire engine on the back of their trailer. It was very cute. (No photo-sorry)It was quite a warm night in contrast to Atherton and we had to put the air conditioner on to cool down the room and only slept with a sheet to cover us. Good sleep!
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