MULTI-TALENTED PEOPLE AT MT SURPRSE

Quiet day at "home" today, we've been doing housework, the washing, washing the car etc.  Our neighbours are Pauline and Kevin from Kurri, who we first met at Malanda- we were amazed to run into each other again because they were going in the opposite direction, but changed their minds. Good to see them again.  Turns out they both knew a relative of Chris, Jack Donne, who used to manage Stockrington mine- Pauline's father was the under manager and Kevin worked there.  It appears that Jack passed away very recently. Small world.


Yesterday we walked down to Elizabeth Creek, which is very pretty.  The walk from the caravan park brought home to us the nature of the land here.  It's all basalt rocks just under or on top of the ground, the locals say if you want to dig a hole here, be prepared for a lot of hard yakka.  On the way in we passed long piles of rocks and wondered who was responsible, now we know it was Telstra workmen putting in cables, and the roadworkers building the road.  The caravan park owners put in a lot of time clearing the ground in little bits, it's been 14 years to get it to this stage.  

              Elizabeth Creek, Mt Surprise.

We walked back along the railway line, which was much easier and not at all dangerous because the only train runs out here on Thursday and returns on Friday. 
There's a tourist train ride to Einasleigh which Pauline and Kevin have decided to do.  They've already been to Undarra a few weeks ago.


It appears everyone in Mt Surprise has another string to their bow.  The caravan park owner is a mechanic and can mend anything, they also run tours to Undarra and on the train.  The post office across the road doubles as a cafe as well as a gem shop and runs fossicking tours.  Down the road a bit there's another much more basic caravan park where the owner runs snake shows and I think he's also the owner of the little museum.  The service station is also the grocery store and a cafe.  And so it goes.  I suppose you have to be resourceful in a place like this, which is over 300 kms from Cairns and most of the other towns on the road are fairly small.  I'm hoping to find someone who can cut hair as I'm looking like a shaggy dog, last had my hair cut in Bowen, which was a long, long time ago.  Chris has had his done a bit more recently so he's not too bad yet but a trim probably wouldn't go astray with him either.


Did I mention that Rocky, the dog who accompanied us fossicking yesterday, had an encounter with a freshwater crocodile a few years ago?  It bit him on the nose and he needed 28 stitches- it hasn't stopped him swimming in the same creek though.

            Rocky the croc attack survivor.