Whitsundays Islands

Yeah, yeah, we know you’ve all be waiting for the next update – sorry it’s been a while, but we’ve been in cruise mode for the last couple of weeks!


Stuart building the MkII

As it turned out, our planned short stop in Townsville turned into an extended week after I twisted a muscle in my neck (for the second time this trip!) and could hardly move. I was only doing some gently stretching exercises! So while I rested on doctors orders, Stuart kept himself busy dismantling the wooden storage box he built back in Alice Springs, as it had gone really mouldy in the wet, damp weather we have been experiencing. Enter a trip to Bunnings, and ‘Wooden Box - MkII’ was constructed, being of much sturdier plywood and more functional design utilising plastic tubs as drawers. He has painted this one to try and ensure it doesn’t go mouldy like the last one!

One night we decided to have a seafood cook-up, as Stuart really wanted to have a mud crab. We couldn’t find any mud crabs, so we settled for Moreton Bay Bugs, king prawns and some barramundi cooked on the BBQ. This was also coupled with fresh vegetables we bought at the local market. I also found a fantastic stall at the markets selling vintage clothing, buying four dresses for $65!

Whitsunday Island

After three extensions on our stay in Townsville, my neck was finally feeling better and we headed off for Airlie Beach and our Whitsunday kayaking/camping trip! Yah!!!

We booked a water taxi company called ‘SCAMPER’ who ferried us out to the islands and provided us with fresh water and stinger suits. They dropped us and our kayaks off at Joe’s Beach on Whitsunday Island. Originally, we were planning to island hop in the kayaks for four days and get picked up from a different beach, but given my neck was still a bit tender, we opted for a standing camp at Joes Beach, and just do day trips out in the kayaks exploring and snorkelling.

Sunset from our campsite

When we were dropped off we were really excited to discover we were going to be the only ones camped on the beach – we had it all to ourselves for the first two days and nights! Our days consisted of getting up, having a leisurely breakfast on the beach, lots of swimming and snorkelling straight out from our beach, exploring in the kayaks, the odd afternoon snooze on the beach, and fresh entrees of rock oysters (Stuart found them at low tide!), and topped off with sunset dining on the beach. It was really hard to take! Honestly!

Having the kayaks was a real bonus, as our paddles rewarded us with close encounters with numerous turtles, stingrays and reef sharks. In some instances the turtles and stingrays swam directly under our kayaks and we could see them in every detail. It was absolute magic!

Our third day on the island saw a young French couple join us on our secluded beach! Another beautiful day ensued, however that evening the heavens opened in a massive way. Hamilton Island nearby recorded 66mm of rain overnight. We were nice and dry in our tent, but our neighbours tent wasn’t up to the deluge! We woke to discover that they had spent the night floating on their air mattress in their tent, and everything was saturated. To make it even worse, a little local resident (a native marmot) had paid them a visit during the night and chewed through the side of their tent and had a chomp on their food (ours was safely stored in our kayaks). They were cold, wet and not looking forward to spending another night on the island with everything soaked!

Stuart had turned on our phone to check what the weather was doing, when to my surprise, SCAMPER rang to see how we had faired overnight! We managed to arrange a pickup later that morning, much to the relief of our neighbours! It was a day early for us, but the forcast was for continued rain (which it did for the remainder of the day!). We found out when we got back into Airlie Beach, we had to stay the night there anyway as the roads out were all closed due to local flooding!

So we found a cheap motel, and after a hot shower and a warm cuppa, we started trying to dry all of our wet gear. Not sure if the owners of the motel would have been happy having everything spread out around our room! We spent the evening catching up with our caught up with our French friends for a couple of cold beers and pizza’s.

Eungella National Park

Pioneer Valley from Eungella

The next day the roads opened and we headed up into the mountains to Eungella National Park where we had read you have a good chance of seeing a platypus. We camped just out of the national park, in State Forest on the banks of the Broken River. We had the entire campground to ourselves for two nights! Originally, we planned to drive back into the park to a platypus spotting platform, however it turned out that we had our own resident platypus directly out from our camper! We were both very excited and as luck would have it, the little platypus came out every evening and morning that we were there! We were able to watch him up close through binoculars as he duck dived, chased his tail and even rolled over onto his back. He was soooo cute! I loved him!

Just after dark each evening there were also fire flies buzzing around the river banks. One of them actually flew into our camp and landed on the table between us, allowing us to see him up close – it looked like he had a little pulsating LED strapped to his abdomen!

Eungella is actually located on top of the ranges, and given the record wet weather this area has been experiencing, we were actually camped in the clouds. This combined with some heavy showers of rain, the camper’s canvas was absolutely soaked, resulting in everything starting to get really damp. So we decided to pack up and headed out to somewhere a little drier! Driving back out to the bitumen, we found that the tracks were also now really wet and slippery. My heart leaped a little when the car started to slide in the mud going down one of the hills, but Stuart had it under control fairly quickly (coupled with a big grin!) We also had to get out the axe and hack back a tree that had fallen across the track!

After a quick check of the weather forecast on the internet, we decided to head south to Rockhampton to try and dry out for a bit. It was a good decision, as we have now managed to dry out the camper and all of our wet gear. Given Rockhampton is the self proclaimed ‘Beef Capital’ we decided to go out and have a big steak at a little local tavern, as we had been given a tip off by the visitor centre about their 2 for 1 offer on a Thursday night - $24 saw both of us with a beautifully cooked steak, chips and salad!

We have about a week before we take the car and camper out to Fraser Island, but given the unseasonal rain, we are having to revise our plans, as we have been told that there are a lot of roads closed around the place due to all of the rain. But there is no lack of things for us to do!

Love to all!
Mish & Stu

Northern Queensland

Well, all weather had been sunny until north Queensland. There has barely been a day without a shower for about two weeks now! But besides the problem of trying to keep the moisture out of anything made of fabric (canvas, towels, bed linen etc..), we are great and thankful that its warm rain!

Due to the unseasonal wet weather, even the bitumen roads into Cape Tribulation had flooded in parts and were only passable to 4 wheel drives, so when we arrived we practically had the camp ground to ourselves! We were only metres from the beach tucked behind a dense pocket of rainforest! Perfect! We relaxed, went for walks and explored the Daintree Rainforest from here. The beach was lined with coconut palms full of coconuts, so of course Stuart was in heaven collecting wild food and became quite adept at shelling coconuts! We drank the liquid, and ate the flesh as well as pulping the flesh for coconut cream – Yum!

I finally spotted a Cassowary whilst on my pushbike! It was with a young baby which was covered in softer brown feathers. I was practically on top of them before I saw them, and stopped around 3 metres short. A bit scary really, but really exciting! The Cape Tribulation area was just full of dense rainforest, freshwater mangrove swamps, waterfalls and fascinating wildlife. We even saw a brush turkey chasing a metre long monitor lizard! Go turkey! Oh yeah- and the wet thing that landed on my foot that I thought was a leaf until my torch revealed a big, fat cane toad - gross! The little townsite had a funky restaurant/bar/cafe/cinema. Stuart enjoyed his BBQ ox tongue (no thanks) while I had the salmon. After our meal we purchased drinks from the bar and were led upstairs to a movie cinema room full of bean bags and recliner lounges (which we had all to ourselves!) to watch Date Night.

Thankfully, after the first night being pretty wet, the next couple of days at the ‘Trib’ were reasonably sunny between the showers! The break in the continual rain allowed the roads to dry sufficiently for us to head up the Bloomfield Track, which is only suitable for 4 wheel drives, due to the extremely steep country, along with the numerous creek crossings – which are even more challenging when you are towing a trailer! We heard someone on the UHF stating that one of the descents hit 30 degrees! Stuart was very pleased with how the car performed towing the trailer. At the northern end of the Bloomfield Track we enjoyed some more beautiful scenery, the full flowing Bloomfield Falls with resident saltwater croc basking in the sun (no swimming!) and an enormous pile of granite rocks called Black Mountain and lunch at a quirky old pub called the Lions Den before arriving in Cooktown that evening.

Cooktown was quiet and more raw than most other tourist towns we’ve seen. With not much to entertain the locals and a long isolated wet season, they seem to make their own fun at the pub or fishing off the pier. The town is ... lets say... slightly obsessed with the event of Captain Cook beaching the Endeavour there in 1770 to repair a hole in the hull after hitting the reef offshore whilst charting the coastline. Aside from the name of the town, there are roads, bays, bridges, suburbs, mountains named after Cook, as well a statue, monument, two or three museums and a musical ship in the park! The museum actually have one of the anchors and a cannon that were raised from the site where the Endeavour ran aground on... wait for it... the Endeavour Reef! To lighten the boat, Cook ordered for any unnessessary weight to be thrown overboard when it started taking on water... go on... ask us anything about Cooks beaching of the Endeavour!!! This town is not about to let you leave without knowing all about it!

Cooktown was to be our most northern point reached in QLD, as we decided not to venture to the tip of Cape York as originally planned. There has been some serious rain further north and the word around the caravan parks is to avoid many of the river and creek crossings as they are either really deep or have been chopped up with the combined traffic and moisture. We’ll just have to come back for another trip!

So as we headed south we took the inland road through the Atherton Tablelands, determined to spend more nights camping in the national parks and away from caravan parks. It was a great relief to find that our camp destination at Lake Tinnaroo was peaceful and picturesque, the water was great for swimming and we even got to paddle the kayaks again. The only place we had mobile coverage was in the middle of the Lake, so it was from the kayak that Stuart phoned the Parks authority and booked another night’s camping!

The rest of our journey through the Atherton Tablelands was filled with surprises and fun. We visited two AMAZING fig trees that were about 500 years old. We viewed a spooky lake 35 metres deep into a volcanic crater at the Hippopamee National Park. This was where we spotted another Cassowary. This time it was quietly preening itself in the bushes only a few metres away from the end of a boardwalk we stood on. It was quite content and we observed it for ages as other holiday makers joined us on the boardwalk. We all felt rather honoured for the experience, but the spell was broken when a boisterous, overweight Queenslander arrived, declaring his excitement to finally see a Cassowary! After viewing it for all of three seconds he strode off towards the end of the boardwalk, which the Cassowary thought was rather threatening and it decided to charge! See the fat man run! – IN OUR DIRECTION! From this point it was everyone for themselves with everyone trying to get out of the way! We all bolted back along the boardwalk with one woman scaling the hand railing!! The bird stopped faily quickly and no harm was done, with everyone finding it quite amusing! But then the fat man decided to have another go and the bird was not about the let anyone pass! Stuart and I departed at this point, stifling our fits of laughter!

We also enjoyed our visit to the Nerada Tea Estate, were we did a tour of the factory, followed with a beautiful pot of fresh tea straight from the factory. It certainly tasted different and wonderfully fresh that the packaged variety!

Our final night before our return to Townsville was tucked away in the Wooroonooran National Park, near Henrietta Creek. We had a bandicoot visit our camp and then turned out the lights to enjoy the stars, and to our delight spotted a fire fly and some glow in the dark fungi! Stuart has captured the mushrooms on camera with a stunning 30 second exposure! This was all before the heavens decided to open and it bucketed down all night! We were nice and dry in the camper, but the campground outside was saturated and turned to mud! Great fun packing up a wet camper the next morning!

Given how wet and damp everything was, we decided to head direct for Townsville for a couple of nights to use a washing machine and a dryer! We still stopped at the MaMu treetop walk (Queensland’s version of the Tree Top Walk), which included a 10 metre long cantilevered platform, a 350 metre elevated walkway and a 35 metre high viewing tower. It’s pretty spectacular and different, but we still liked our’s better!!

We’re now comfortably set up in Townsville for the next couple of days, while we give the camper a bit of a spring clean! Do you realise we have now been on the road for over 4 months!!!

Hope everyone is well at home!

Love,
Mish and Stu