First stop was Waratah; it’s a little country town in the mountains and its claim to fame is a waterfall in the main street. Once I read about that we had to take the 7km each way detour to have a look. What a pretty place! The town is set around a gorge that contains the waterfall and the whole area is lush and green. There’s a footbridge that crosses and small lake in the park and over the road the creek flows through a waterwheel continues on a bit further then becomes a waterfall cascading down over the rocks to the valley bellow.

The petrol station attendants told us the easiest way to get to Stanley. They asked if we were going to see the gorge. We could take the scenic route via Hellyer Gorge or the easy way via Burnie. They said that Hellyer Gorge was well worth a look but that the road was steep and winding for quite a few kilometres. We decided to take the easy way; steep winding roads are no fun with the trailer pushing the bike down through them.

At Burnie we stopped and had some lunch and bought a small gas stove. We left our stove at home because I’d booked into caravan parks with camp kitchens. I forgot about the week that we’re at the AGM though; there won’t be a camp kitchen there.

We’ve been hearing about the camp kitchen at Stanley wherever we go, everyone told us how good it is. I think that the one at St Helens is just as good, they are both excellent kitchens.

Our tent is right beside the sea and after dinner we went for a walk along the bay to the wharf; I got some really nice photos.

We took our chairs to the beach (it’s only a couple of paces from our tent) and sat and read the newspaper and watched thousands of little crabs on the sand.

You can view the waterfall from the top or take the stairs to the bottom of the falls; we did both. The water falls down over hexagonal rock formations; they are most obvious from the viewing platform at the top of the falls. We stopped at the bottom a while and took some photos before climbing the stairs back to the bike, the walk down was a lot easier than back up!

When we were almost back to Stanley we saw a sign that said “Ulysses members most welcome at Wild Wood Gallery”, so we decided to have a look. They have some very nice timber creations and two beautiful golden retriever/ Samoyed cross dogs.

After dinner we socialised with some other Ulysses members who are staying at this park. Barb & Brian and Sue & Lou from the Burdekin group. It turns out that Barb & Brian know many of the people we met while we were in Townsville. They know Gary and Monnica, the couple we met in Townsville who were travelling also.

The AGM starts tomorrow! We’re both really looking forward to catching up with people that we’ve met while we’ve been travelling.

We rode to the Chairlift at the Nut. We enjoyed the ride on the chairlift and the walk around the top of the Nut; it probably took us about an hour, stopping now and then to take photos. Brian & Barb, Sue and Lou were there also. From the top we saw about 6 bikes and trailers arrive at the caravan park. There are views right across the town.

We took a ride to Smithton, the next town west for a bit of a look.

Back at the caravan park I made some pancakes for lunch. Hazel and Wayne, who’d camped next to us at Strahan arrived and came and said hello.

We went to say hi to the people who had arrived on bikes while we were at the top of the Nut; they were at the camping end of the park. While we were there a camper bus arrived and got bogged in the sand and we helped them get it out.

We stayed at the caravan park for the rest of the day. In the evening we sat in the camp kitchen and talked with Wayne and Hazel.