Raewyn's visit

My friend Raewyn came to visit last weekend! Here are some photos of what we got up to:

Went on a scenic flight from Mareeba over the Great Barrier Reef,
down to Tully for lunch, then back to Mareeba via Mount Garnet

Saw the Curtain Fig Tree (near Yungaburra)

Visited the Herberton Historic Village

Went for a bush walk at the top of Stoney Creek

Herberton Historic Village

Herberton is a small town south of Atherton, population 855 and home to the Herberton Historic Village. It's an interactive museum made up of around 60 buildings, each housing displays of various items from yesteryear. If you're into that sort of thing, be prepared to spend the whole day there!

School house

Blacksmith at work

Apothecary (pharmacy)

One of the 'streets'

Haberdashery

Printing shop

Sawmill

Lifejacket

As part of my EPP (Emergency procedure proficiency) training, I had to demonstrate the use of a lifejacket.

Step one: place over your nose and mouth head

Doing my best flight attendant impression of blowing into the tubes

Pulling on the red tags does work

'In water lifejacket experience' can now be ticked off the list!

MAF conference

This weekend the MAF staff from Cairns and Mareeba got together for a mini conference. It was good to talk with a few people whom I'd only met in passing before (or not at all).

Our speaker was Matt Hannan, who shared a number of lessons we can learn from the book of Numbers (based on 1 Cor. 10:1-6 - that the Israelites' faults are warnings for us). In summary, we can be guilty of:
- Complaining about our circumstances (Num. 11)
- Criticising other people (Num. 12)
- Contempt towards God (Num. 14)
- Conspiracy (Num. 16)
- Controlling behaviour (Num. 20)

Challenging stuff, but refreshing to hear someone teaching from the Bible!

Afternoon tea on a lovely sunny September Saturday

Mt Bartle Frere

Mt Bartle Frere is the tallest peak in Queensland and accessible from both the Cairns and Atherton sides of the range. Coming from the Atherton Tablelands side you have the advantage of starting at 700 m above sea level.

While the official site suggests that it takes two days to get to the top and back, it would seem from other accounts that it is doable in a single (long) day.

So I decided to have a go!

I camped slept in the car overnight at the start of the track and started out at first light. Another couple of guys, John and James, also turned up at the same time and were happy for me to tag along with them.

It took us about 5 hrs to get to the top and 4 hrs to get down. Thankfully I didn't attract a single leech, and we didn't see any snakes either. Now, 3 days later, my limbs are still aching, so it could be a while before I'd be willing to do it again - and it would have to be in the dry season too (hence the desire to get it done before October or so). But all the same it was a great sense of achievement, and a major walk ticked off my bucket list.

Mt Bartle Frere, viewed from the Atherton side. The track basically follows the ridgeline from the left

View from the boulders at North West Peak

The track passes around and over large granite boulders - some of them were quite significant obstacles!

Unfortunately the top (1611 m) is heavily forested. But it was also cloudy on this day - this was the most we had of a view from the summit, towards Innisfail and the coast

James, John and me at the summit

The track back down

Looking out over the Atherton Tablelands