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

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.