Chris and Keith’s - Quinola Lakes - Atherton

 Quinola Lakes

We’ve been at Chris and Keith’s place now for 2 weeks -  acres of land including woodland, a dairy farm with 120 head of cattle which are milked twice a day, fields of corn grown for fodder and wheat grown and used as silage.  Virtually in the centre of all this farming they have built a Christian Camp Site consisting a big hall/kitchen, 4 cabins each sleeping 8, 4 covered wagons also sleeping 8 and stacks of space for tents.  There’s a swimming hole with slides and a big lake for canoes, swimming etc.   Our caravan is parked in Keith and Chris’s back garden but we spend most of our time in their lovely home ….. so you can understand why we’ve been here for 2 weeks - and would happily stay longer but we have places to go and people to see!


So what have we done over the past two weeks????  Loads - but I will pick out some of the high-lights.

We’ve attended two church services with Chris and Keith at Malanda Baptist Church and even went to the pastor’s home for “Smoko” (coffee break to you and me!) Buddy (the pastor) is a carpenter and recently won a competition for his carving of a whale - everywhere we’ve been we’ve seen pieces “carved by Buddy Smith” - so Geoff - in  his unique style - asked him if Church was a part time thing as he obviously spends so much time whittling away.  Thankfully Buddy took this ok and invited us to go see some of his work.

Chris and Keith took us to Lake Tinnaroo for a picnic lunch, followed by Lake Eacham where Chris and Ruth went for a swim.

We also had a day out with Chris and Keith at Chillagoe (about 2 hours drive) to some caves.  We did the ‘touristy’ thing around the three caves.  A lovely day - very hot - in fact, so hot even Geoff went for a swim in the Water Hole at lunch time.  (Unfortunately no pics to prove that tho!)

Today we’ve been to Church with Glen and Hanna (Chris and Keith’s son and daughter in law) followed by a bbq at Glen and Hanna’s home - yummy!!!

A guided tour of another cousin’s daughter’s farm (Lynn) - check Ruth out on the back of the bike!

A trip to local Hot Springs which was so relaxing - however the stream was so hot you could only just put your toes in for a couple of seconds.

Best Chinese EVER at Pagoda Restaurant where Chris and Keith took us for our anniversary!

Ruth attended a Women’s Christian Conference Day with Chris which was excellent and a film night at a local church.

Geoff has enjoyed helping out about the ‘place’, cutting acres of lawns on the “ridey on” lawn mower, mending the lawn mower and cabin after Ruth drove into it (that’s another story!!), and cooking meals.

And loads of other little trips to local places, markets etc.

And next - we’re off to Cairns - parking up at Judy and Murray’s home and spending time in and around Cairns for a few days before taking a trip up to Cooktown.  (Think Cooktown may well be the next Blog instalment).

Looking forward to some time on Trinity Beach and catching up with Phil and Kayleen and family too - a handbag shopping trip with Kayleen and Sheree is calling me while Geoff is looking forward to some serious fishing.  Will let you know who catches the most!