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.