The WET Tropics - Townsville to Cairns

After heading north from Townsville our first stop was Paluma, described as a rainforest village in the mountains – and it was just this! A beautiful little village at the top of a long, very winding road through rainforest providing spectacular views of the surrounding landscape, waterfalls and a beautiful old bridge. The road and bridge were built by hand during the Depression years as an employment project. Whilst exploring the area we spotted some bright blue Ulysses butterflies and were lucky enough to see up close the rare Golden Bowerbird and his bower. This bird is only found in the rainforests of north Queensland above 900ft. Are we turning into Twitchers?! I haven’t spotted a Cassowary yet...

To explore Paluma we camped in the nearby National Park for two nights. There was a beautiful swimming hole with fish and turtles only 100 metres from camp. We both agreed it looked like Canada and took advantage of the peaceful spot to enjoy our morning cuppa and a wake-up swim.

Unfortunately this is where Stuart started to feel itchy!! And then broke out into a rash all over his torso. We were straight to the doctors the next morning in the closest town of Ingham. The doctor was pretty certain it must have been insect bites that set off the rash. He prescribed cortisone cream and advised Stuart to knock himself out for the next few days with three Phenergen tablets, several times a day!

So we holed up in what we thought would be an enjoyable seaside town of Lucinda for three days and Stuart fell in and out of his drug induced coma! Lucinda turned out to be a no swimming mudflat with croc warning signs, and a caravan park full of retirees, big caravans, big four wheel drives, fishing tinnies and private happy hours full of lawn bowls and Tom Jones. Only one person bothered to chat with us and we were the only people I saw under 60 for three days. Apart from the retirees, the place probably only exists as a result of the 5km long wharf to load the sugar on passing ships. We did get out of town one day with a trip to Wallaman Falls - the highest single drop waterfall in Australia at 265m. Even with this little side trip, I couldn’t wait to leave Lucinda!

But the rest did the trick for Stuart, and we were excited to next be heading up into the mountains to a Spanish style castle built by Jose Paronella in the 1930’s. The castle has a chequered story behind it whereby Jose promised to build the castle to convince his new wife in Spain to move to Australia. In recent years it fell into disrepair, but has now been turned into a tourist park – Paronella Park. It’s built next to a waterfall so Jose installed a hydro-electricity generator and lit up the waterfall, showing off to all around him because at the time no one in that area of Queensland had any electricity at all! He then built a grand ballroom, a movie cinema, tennis courts, walk trails, bridges and lots more and then hosted grand events for the community! Our entrance ticket included a day tour, a campsite for the night, and a great night tour! After our night tour we walked over to the local pub and enjoyed a meal and a few bevies, both being very happy to be away from Lucinda!

Further up the coast we had booked three nights at Ellis Beach, as a quiet alternative to staying in the hustle and bustle of touristy Cairns. Little did we know that the caravan park is sandwiched into a 50-60 metre wide strip between the Cook Highway and a surf beach – it’s nice enough, but a little noisy!

Our first adventure was a full day snorkel trip on the Great Barrier Reef!! Yay! After flicking through bucket loads of brochures, and contemplating the various options (and prices!), we decided to go for a day at Green Island which is closer to the coast which allows you longer in the water snorkelling, but doesn’t get you onto the outer reef. We woke up to raining and overcast conditions, but who cared – we were going to get wet anyway, and headed off wearing raincoats and in good spirits for some fun. The day turned out to be great, despite the weather. The reef was beautiful and full of life. We even spotted a turtle that let us follow along behind him for a while. Amazing! Stuart’s underwater photography was pretty good! He kept claiming it was the camera, but I don’t think I could have aimed and focused as well underwater as he did. We now have some beautiful shots to print when we get home.

Back to Cairns and its still raining! We spent this morning considering how uncomfortable living under canvas might be for a prolonged period of time, as the wet weather is not looking like easing any time soon. The camper is nice and dry inside, but obviously everything is getting a little damp! We headed off to the town of Kuranda for a day of exploring the markets and sights of this rainforest town. It was still a fun day, wandering around in the rain, looking like drowned rats and even hiking up the Barron Falls lookout! Check out the photo!

So we’re currently kicking back in the camper, listening to the rain on the canvas. Tomorrow it’s off up the coast to Cape Tribulation for three days. This was meant to be a bit of kicking back on the beach, soaking up the sun relaxation, but not sure how we are going to go given the forecast is rain, drizzle and then a bit more rain! We are hoping to drive the Bloomfield Track (4WD) through to Cooktown, but the advice is to steer clear if it’s wet as there are some very steep sections that become quite slippery when wet! We’ll have to play that one by ear.

Red Centre to Sea

Hi everyone!

As we left Alice, for the first time on this journey we had friends and family to say goodbye to! We said goodbye to Sue and Geoff at the caravan park after having dinner with them the night before at the local English pub in Alice. We then headed to Em and Sandors to say farewell to what seemed like our new family members! Em made sure Stuart was alert for the journey with the strongest brewed cup of tea in the world! Made to Em’s usual taste apparently, but Stuart thought he was never going to sleep again! Ha ha.

We headed north east along the scenic Arltunga Road which joins the Plenty Highway a little further out of town. Whilst in Alice, Stuart had rear suspension air bags fitted to the car so it was better equipped for towing and the heavy loads. An extra precaution against the Plenty Highway, which is all dirt and only recently opened after heavy rains! The car handled much better with the trailer in tow, however about 150km’s out of town, Stuart noticed a little rattle - the new airbag mounting brackets had worked loose and had to be tightened up! No problem for Mr-fix-it though!

The Plenty Highway was an interesting drive, with conditions varying from smooth and flat, to rough and corrugated! We had a couple of breakages, with a few cans of beer popping their lids (much to Stuart’s dismay!) and a carton of milk splitting open in one of the tubs. We didn’t find this until we smelt it!

We reached the border feeling great and excited about the next leg of the journey. Our plans were to visit Lawn Hill National Park near Mt Isa and then head to Cairns via the coastal towns in the gulf. But our plans changed when we encountered the Queensland National Park booking system and realised we couldn’t get into Lawn Hill as soon as we would have liked. Instead of hanging around Mt Isa for a week waiting, we decided to cut straight through the middle of the Queensland outback and get to those swimming beaches ASAP!!!

Our journey across the outback was quite fun and full of more country quirkiness! We stopped two nights in the town of Winton and were entertained for free each night in the caravan park by country singers and the Two Short Sheilas who were champion bush-poets and comedians. They were fantastic! We made a day trip from Winton to Lark Quarry, where footprints of a dinosaur stampede had been discovered. There were 3,300 footprints and you could see where the large carnivorous dinosaur had charged in amongst two types of smaller dino’s and had scattered them into a panic. We were both really impressed!

On the way back from Lark Quarry, I had a drive! Look out – everyone! I got into a situation where a car was overtaking me on the right, and ahead on the road was a dead kangaroo (a couple of weeks old at least!) As I couldn’t swerve right..... Stuart yells “Straddle it!” and I planted two wheels straight through the middle of the rotting carcass. Nice one Mish! Lovely bits of dead roo all up the car!

Stuart was hopeful that the dead roo was dried out enough that it would be ok...that was until we got back to the camper and he opened the passenger door! At this point Stuart decides it’s can be cleaned later as he is really tired and needed a sleep. Only, as he reclined in the camp chair, the wind changed and he couldn’t sleep because of the stench!! I creep off the front office to find where the car can be washed and return with directions to a truck bay with a high pressure hose. When we get there we arrive only seconds after a truckie has finished hosing down his livestock road train. As Stuart is washing the car, he exclaims that he’s not sure if the car is clean, as all he can smell is the cow shit he’s standing in!!

A quick overnight stop at Porcupine Gorge National Park (not sure how it got it’s name!) and on to Townsville. How the weather can change – rugged up in the morning and then breaking out the shorts in the afternoon. Once camp was set up, it was into the bathers and on the bikes to the beach. Yes the swim was fantastic!

My little ride on the bike must have worked all the collected bulldust into the brakes, as the next morning, the front brakes on my bike were locked on. Stuart bled the brake lines (their hydraulic) but it still didn’t fix the problem, so we rang a couple of bike shops who couldn’t help us until the middle of next week! So it was off to Bunnings to buy a couple of tools and Stuart spent the afternoon pulling the brakes apart and fixing them!

The bike problems didn’t stop there, as Stuart’s bike had a series of punctures. After many repairs, it was off to the bike shop for some new harder runner tyres which were fitted and finally we seem to have sorted all of the gremlins!

We also spent one night at a multicultural festival, consuming a mix of food, from El Salvadorian tamalies, Thai green papaya salad, finished off with Spanish churros, whilst watching a mix of entertainment from all over the world.

Today, we are off up into the rainforest and mountains for a couple of nights, before heading back out to the coast near Hinchinbrook Island.

Bye for now!

Last days in the Territory!!!

Hi everyone! Hope you are all well and enjoying our blog!

Well my first glance at Uluru blew me away! It was amazing, I saw it as we drove into Yulara, the nearby resort town. None of the hundreds of pictures you see of it prepare you for that first glance. Its awe inspiring!

We checked into the Ayers Rock Resort, which is disappointingly the only accommodation available, as camping isn’t permitted in the national park. The resort is rather expensive ($30/night for an unpowered camping site!) Coupled to that, all we could hear all night was the resorts power generators, rather than the peace and quiet of the desert. However I did see a Desert Hopping Mouse! I admittedly freaked out as per my fear of mice, despite Stuart trying to convince me ‘it’s not a mouse, it’s a really tiny kangaroo!’ I was still pretty excited to see one, even if I was constantly scanning the ground with a big arse torch while doing the dishes for fear of it running up my leg.....I know, I’m pathetic.

Anyway! First night there we headed out to the designated sunset viewing area to watch the colours of Uluru. It was beautiful, even despite the crowds of people and chaotic parking. The next day we walked the 10km base walk around the Rock (we decided not to climb). The caves and gullys around the base are beautiful, and its enormity is just mind blowing! We were a little disappointed with the walk as a large section of it was quite far from the Rock, which doesn’t give you as great a perspective of it’s stature and size as the sections where you are up close and under it’s towering sides. Unfortunately, some sections of the trail are actually aligned on the road verge which makes for a pretty average walk! Our other disappointment was the lack of non-Aboriginal information and interpretation about the Rock. We eventually found one page in a booklet about the parks geology, but that was it. We found this a little surprising, as it’s geological significance was one of the first reasons it was nominated as a World Heritage Site. We couldn’t find any information on that either!

The next morning we headed out to see Kata Tjutu (The Olga’s). We only did the first section of the Valley of the Winds walk, as all the walking and climbing of the last coule of weeks were starting to take it’s toll on me and I was beginning to feel under the weather! The Olga’s were completely stunning, and we also did do the Wangu Gorge walk while we were there. In between the rocks, there are some beautiful diverse patches of vegetation with some of the plants not found anywhere else in the world. Very special.

On our journey home we spent a night at the Henbury Meteorite Craters. This turned out to be a very peaceful spot with a waterhole at the bottom of one of the craters which supported a huge population of birds! The bushes were teeming with gorgeous little finches and budgies! We lit a campfire for warmth and watched a perfect desert sunset!

We are now back in Alice Springs getting prepared to cross the border over to Queensland. We are taking the unsealed Plenty Highway, which is supposed to be pretty rough so Stuart has had air bags fitted to the rear suspension of the car to improve the towing on all of the rough, corrugated roads. He has also been busy modifying the camper again, buying a few tools and building a wooden box for the pots and pans, which are now stored under the BBQ, making them accessible when the camper is packed up! Me? I’m relaxing......reading, sewing and dreaming of warm beaches in Queensland!

We have also caught up with Stuart's Aunt and Uncle, Sue and Geoff, which has been really great. They are actually staying in the same caravan park just a couple of sites away, before heading off on their way to the Birdsville Races!

All the physical activity we have been doing combined with the healthy diet has made a huge difference and my spunky fiance has lost 10kg! Looking good!

We would like to say a HUGE THANKS to our friends Em and Sandor here in Alice Springs. They have been great hosts and we have really enjoyed hanging out with them! We look forward to repaying the favour guys, when you are next in Perth (when we are back as well!).

Michelle (& Stuart)

Been havin' so much fun!!!

Hi all! Yeah, yeah, we know it has been a long time since the last entry, but we have been really busy out and about! We made it to Alice Springs and are really loving the surroundings and hanging out with friends Em and Sandor!

The drive to Alice was a long two day push, stopping at a couple of very quirky outback stops to break up the journey. Lets just say.... UFO Capital of Australia and a pub completely covered in anything anyone wanted to leave, with the nightly entertainment by a bloke with a live chook on his head! (No, we didn’t stay for that!)

As we approached Alice the humidity disappeared and we were back in spinifex country. As it was cold and wet when we set up camp, we quickly accepted an invite to dinner at Em and Sandors! It was great to hang out with friends and find out about their lives in Alice.

At Sandor’s suggestion we headed out the next day to Altunga in the East MacDonnell Ranges. We had such an entertaining day wandering amongst the ruins of a gold mining settlement. Stone houses, the police station and jail had been beautifully restored, and remnants of the gold crushing battery were laid out to explore. We even were able to climb underground into the hand dug mines and explore them with a torch! We loved the area and history so much the day passed and after taking the scenic route home crossing the Ross River, we arrived back in Alice well after dark!

The next day we had arranged sunset drinks with Em and Sandor, so we headed out for another day of exploring the past. This time it was west along a 4WD trail following the Old Telegraph Line in Owen Springs Reserve. It was a very peaceful day with beautiful scenery along the river where we stopped for morning tea and watched the budgies fly down to the waters edge to drink. Later in the day we stopped again for lunch at what would have been a fantastic camping spot if we had taken the camper with us!

Thanks to Sandor’s connections as the local constabulary, we viewed sunset from the top of the range overlooking Alice and the West MacDonnell Ranges! We bought drinks and food watched a stunning sunset full of colour, albeit a little cloudy and windy! After laughing ourselves stupid at Sandor’s stories about policing in Alice, we headed back to their place (warmth!) to cook dinner and kick back.

Stuart had the car serviced (we have covered almost 10,000 km’s since Broome!), thanks again to more of Sandor’s connections! Then back to their place for another dinner and more drinks! We were getting used to this by now!

We headed out of town for the weekend to another of Sandor’s recommendations, The Harts Range Races, which is held at a bush race course about 200km north east of Alice. It’s an amateur horse racing weekend amongst local stations (the ‘Bushies’), and a good weekend away for the folk of Alice (the ‘Townies’). The races are followed by a weekend of rodeo action, gymkhana, family fun competitions – including running races, sack races, three legged races and a womens cow tail toss (much to my surprise and amusement, they actually bought out a bag of freshly cut, meaty cow tails!). Stuart tried so hard to get me join this but I was too shy! We have both decided that all rodeo riders are officially nuts (who else would get on the back of an angry bull for fun???) The Saturday night there was a 70’s themed Ball in the outback shed, and all we can say is these people know how to party!

The only downer for the weekend was the weather, as it was blowing a gale and FREEZING! The second night actually saw us awake at 3:00am in the morning, watching the camper’s poles bending with the strain of the wind on the canvas! A quick discussion ensured, and we decided to get up and quickly fold up the camper and retreat to the car for the remainder of the night. A wise choice, as we woke the next morning to see a few disintegrated tents around the camp! Even with the weather, it was great fun to experience a little piece of the station life, especially in such a remote area.

Back into town, we set up and headed straight to Em and Sandors for more dinner and drinks! Stuart has been getting krafty in their kitchen and has so far cooked up a bbq steak with broccoli pesto pasta, curried sausages and a paella! We have been having lots of laughs and are loving their company!

After resupplying in town, we hitched up the camper and headed out on our next loop, a week or so, taking in the West MacDonnell Ranges, Kings Canyon, Uluru and the Olga’s via the Mereenie Loop. Em and Sandor joined us for the first day of sight-seeing, visiting Ellery Creek Big Hole (too cold to swim), followed by lunch at Glen Helen Lodge. This was an old homestead built at the base of a sheer cliff face with the Finke River running just behind the restaurant. After more laughs, beers and food we took a walk along the river and discovered that both Stuart and Sandor are pretty bloody good at skimming rocks, and Em and I ....mmm...not so much! The last stop of the day for all of us was Ormiston Gorge, where a steep climb up to a lookout platform gave us magnificent views of the gorge. As the end of the day drew near, we said a temporary goodbye to Em and Sandor, and we continued west to Redbank Gorge to find a camp for the night.

The next day we spent hiking the last section of the Larapinta Trail, which consists of a 16km return ridge walk, up to the Mt Sonder Lookout. The walk was grueling, almost a constant uphill climb, but the views at the top were spectacular!

The next day saw us drive the Mereenie Loop Road ending up at King’s Canyon. We didn’t head out on the walk until the next morning, as it was a couple of hour’s long, starting with...

Yep - another steep hill! But the pain was all worth it, as the canyon is quite unique and very beautiful!

We’re actually now at Yulara, working out what we are going to look at around Uluru and the Olga’s, but we’ll save that for the next blog!