Marreeba & Port Douglas.

 Mossman Mill crushing finished 15^th November 13.  With 7580 hectares of sugar Cane harvested and just over 587,000 tonnes crushed in total.  This was the largest crop the Mossman Mill had handled for 12 years.

Steve is now camped up at Mareeba with the camper trailer, driving sugar cane trucks and delivering to Mareeba Mill.  However due to the heavy rain over the last week, it is extremely dangerous to get on to the pads (field) to pick up and drop of cages.  Work has been cancelled now for a couple of days.  Steve was on nights last week and broke down for 3 hours at night, in the dark and everything switched off (at 100kh) and he had no steering or lights etc.  One truck parked behind him and another parked in front of him, until the mechanic got the truck fixed again.

                                      

                              My little cabin in the Pandanus Caravan Park, Port Douglas.

 

Apparently the wet doesn't really arrive until January???

 

 

The wet is here and so is Dengue fever!!

 

Today we both had the same day off so headed back up to Mareeba to check on the camper trailer and whilst there, went to Jaques coffee plantation, which over looks the Great Dividing range.

The Jaques family have a long history of growing coffee in Australia, developing the world's first mechanical coffee harvester, with many trials & tribulations battling to grow the perfect coffee.  Now at the 3rd generation of coffee growing, the plantation is furnished with 85,000 Arabica coffee trees on rich soil, boasting a smooth & vibrant flavour unique to this location.

 

Arabica Coffee trees.

 

Coffee trees in flower.

 

 

Steve enjoying his coffee & cake.

 

Me & Mr Bean!!

 

A Bustard hanging around for coffee!!

 

Christmas lunch!! Whoops I mean Helmeted Guinea Fowl.

 

 

Another stunning look out coming down one of the ranges.

 

 

What a place to have a new house built.

 

 

Who lives in this house?

 

Well the guy that owns AMart stores that's who, its one of his weekenders!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mossman 3.

Near the Truck drivers smoko hut is a Lychee tree, as I had not had Lychees before, some of the drivers picked some and I found them to be very pleasant.

 

Lychee tree loaded.

 

Lychee's hanging on the tree.

 

Lychee's ready to go in my bellie!!

  

Up on the Tablelands the eggs are excellent, so one truck driver said to the other “if you stop for eggs get us a tray”, well the driver stopped and asked for 2 cartons instead of 2 trays and there are 15 dozen eggs in a carton!!! We all had a good laugh and have been eating lots of eggs!!!! 

 

2 dozen for me!!

 

                                          

                                                      The Bananas in our garden.

 

Me at Mojo's Restaurant, with garlic & Parmesan bread, yum!

 

Steve with his Duck spring rolls, Mojo's Restaurant, Mossman. 

 

Ok so on my day off, I went out in the truck with Steve for a day.  We left at 0430 from Mossman and drove up the range (86 bends in 8 klms) and it drops 470metres.  The first trip was pretty dark, we drove through Mt Molley, Mareeba, Tolga  & Atherton.  The scenery was absolutely stunning and changing as the light came up.  We had to drive through the clouds.  Coming down the range we have to stick to a speed of 25 klm per hour.

 

Sun's up on the Tablelands 6am.

 

Table lands early morning cloud.

 

Early morning on the Table Lands.

 

Early Morning.

 

Steve checking his truck is correct before he drops his bin.

 

Dropping the bin.

 

The empty bin is off!! (A bin holds approx 20 tonne).

 

A piece of sugar cane.

 

Sugar Cane. (It all gets crushed).

 

Just pretty.

 

Sugar Cane planted this year.

 

Year old Sugar Cane waiting to be cut.

 

Look at the cloud.

 

Driving through the cloud.

 

A couple of hot air balloons were floating around.

 

stunning scenery.

 

A bend followed by another bend!!!

 

My truckies breakfast!!!

 

Steve's breakfast!!

 

 

We passed many crops, Strawberries, Mango's, Avocado's, Bananas, corn on the cob, Peanuts, Potatoes, Water Melons & some we didn.t know what was!!

 

 

Corn on the cob crop.

 

A tractor tipping the cane into the bins. (10 tonne). 

 

I did a bit of Cane Toad killing whilst Steve was on nights.  Three nights on the trot (excuse the pun) we had pig's visit, to eat the mango's falling from the trees.  The first night there was one massive pig and three smaller ones, the second night the same massive pig and four or five others & the third night the same again.  Well I had a couple of pops at them, but it was just to dark!!!  The fourth night some of the drivers on days stayed up to see the pigs (& chase them) and they never came that night or any night!!! Lots of mangos were waiting to be eaten but I think the country boys shot them!!

Mossman 2. (Including Cane Toad hunting).

We are still camping at the Sugar Mill in Mossman. Steve is still truck driving, they have now started to fetch the cane from the tablelands, which means longer and more scenic drives to Mareeba & Atherton.  I am also working as a house keeper(or room attendant as they call it in Queensland) at the Cayman Villa's & The Meridian Apartments (Port Douglas).
Steve also took me for a drive up the range (Mt Molloy) where the truck roll over was (see last blog). The pictures were taken from the look out a little way down, now I understand why the trucks have trouble not crossing the white lines and every car we saw couldn't stay on the correct side of the road either.  There are 86 bends on this steep range, which is an 8klm stretch of road.

This is Mossman from the lookout.

 

The Topography.

 

Steve at the look out, Mt Molloy.

 

The coast from Mt Molloy.

 

SOooooooo pretty.

 

One of these????

 

These are Pied Imperial Pigeon's eating the berries in our garden.

 

Then there are these????

 

 

Now some pictures of my handy work.........

 

One bed roomed apartment at Meridian.

 

The view from the balcony.

 

The balcony with Jacuzzi in the corner.

 

Does this Sparkle?? Very similar to my kitchen, I just pretend I have a home for a few hours!!!!

 

A studio at the Meridian.

 

This is The Cayman Villa's 3 bed roomed apartment.

 

Master bedroom with large on suite & balcony.

 

 

Just a couple of snaps of the Sugar Mill.......

 

Full steam ahead.

 

I just love the Sugar Cain Trains, so cute!!

 

A carriage of Sugar Cane waiting to be empty & crushed.

 

 

So for our UK audience Cane Toads are venomous, a pest and kill many of our native animals, birds, reptiles etc.

Cain Toads - are native to America and were brought in to FNQ (Far North Queensland) in 1935, about 3000 were released into the wild, to eat the sugar cane beetle, unfortunately these beetles live at the top of the cane and the toad lives at the bottom, so that didn't work!! 

Ct venom is a mix of toxins that primarily affects the functioning of the heart. This toxin is present throughout the ct's body & is secreted as a milky liquid from the parotoid glands located over the toads shoulders.  Envenomation is painful but rarely deadly to humans.  Humans have died from eating ct's or their eggs!!

The life span of ct is 5 - 10 years.  (Not in our garden). 

The group name is Knot or Nest.

When fully grown they weigh 1.4kg (3lbs).

Today they have spread from FNQ over to Western Australia, they thrive in this environment and now there are millions of them.  People are encouraged to kill them and dispose of them.  They also make a lot of noise hopping round the garden at night, when we are trying to sleep.  So Steve got his fish spare gun out and on the first night killed 12 and last night got 8!!!  It's definitely quieter at night!!!!

 

 

Steve Cane toad hunting in the garden.

 

Spared Cain toads.