Emma's 30th birthday

Saturday 20th May. Headed off about 9am to drive to the airport to pick up Scott arriving from Melbourne. His plane was delayed disembarking, then we were finally on the road, stopping at Mareeba, then arriving at the Station about midday.
Curraghmore Station is about 150,000 acres, 40kms long and 60kms wide. The station is a 2 hour drive north-east from Cairns, or an hour west from Port Douglas on the Mulligan Highway about 10 minutes past Mt Carbine. Two rivers run through the property, the Mitchell and the McLeod River, and also Campbell Creek and Desailly Creek.
The Station appears to be a non-working cattle station. There are some cattle on the property that do not belong to the owner and are agisted. There are also some ‘clean skins’ that are not tagged, that belong to whoever’s property they are on. Nice green grass around the station homestead which is watered by bore water. The water for cooking is from a rainwater tank.
We were greeted by 6 dogs (2 belonging to the property owner, and 2 of Emma’s, with 2 foster dogs). The owner of the property, Adam Kazel was also at the property, but left after an hour or so.
Some visitors arrived early and, and more arrived as the afternoon wore on, all here to celebrate Emma-Jean’s 30th birthday. 18 family members travelled from Victoria to Far North Queensland for the event.
Soon after we arrived, Barry took us on a buggy ride to check out some of the campsites along the river to see which one was best suited for when we came to stay next week. We chose Site No. 6, with river frontage, open space for solar and a good turning circle.
We had a lovely afternoon, celebrating Emma’s birthday and meeting up with family who had travelled so far from home. Emma looked lovely, she had decorated and had balloons and fairy lights. A fire was lit in the firepit, and we did appreciate it when it got cooler later in the evening. Cheese platters, then dinner was brought out about 6ish, as the spit had been cooking all day. After the birthday cake, 12 of us left in 3 cars heading back to Cairns. Others stayed on to continue partying.
There was a fire alert due to a burn off in the area, and we passed through some burning embers and smoke on the side of the road shortly after leaving the Station. The rest of the drive home was not too bad, but I really hate the windy roads driving down the Kuranda Range. Surprisingly there were quite a few cars on the road. So glad to get down the windy hill and back home and have a cuppa before bed.Read more