To any one who happens to be reading this we both want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Back in Cairns.

We then headed back to Cairns to wait for Pat and Pete, Allen and Anne and Stuart and James to arrive. We finally found a nice apartment to stay in when the boys arrive. The campsite we are on at the moment have free wireless internet so I will post some of the photos that we have taken along the way.

Paronella Park

We were going to visit Paronella park on our way to Townsville but it was raining and we didn’t really feel like getting wet again. The weather forecast was promising an improvement in the weather so we decided to go to the park on our way back up to Cairns. This is an area next to Mena Creek and waterfall that Spanish immigrant Jose Paronella bought and proceeded to create an estate which consisted of a castle, tearooms, water features and a beautiful garden in the rain forest back in the 1930’s. It suffered major damage due to flooding on several occasions and was eventually left to crumble. Back in the 1990’s the current owners bought it and decided to bring it back t life. They have restored the gardens but the buildings are heritage listed and cannot be restored back to their original condition. It is a really good day out and as they do a night tour you can camp for one night free. Their web site is http://www.paronellapark.com.au/ and I would recommend it.

On down to Townsville

We still had time to kill so decided to head down to Townsville for a quick look round. We went through Mission beach, Wongaling beach and South Mission Beach all of which were deserted. We ended up in Ingham and stayed at the Hotel Noorla Resort which has a beautiful 1920’s hotel that the owners are restoring. It was then on to Townsville where we walked into town along the beachfront known as the strand. There are swimming nets and playgrounds for the kids a garden of remembrance and all perfectly clean and well looked after.

Innisfail

Innisfail was hit by category 5 cyclone Larry in March 2006. The town took the full brunt of it and the damage was huge. It also took out most of the banana plantations which is why the price of bananas in Australia is astronomical. They are now beginning to recover but there are still plenty of buildings that are still waiting to be repaired. It didn’t help that for four months after the cyclone it rained making the damage worse and rebuilding difficult. The good thing though was that nobody was killed. We walked the heritage trail round town and the then and now pictures say it all. We also visited Flying fish point, Josephine falls, Etty Bay and Mourilyan harbour and we got to see a cassowary in the wild.

The Atherton Tablelands.

We headed south again and our first stop was in Mareeba. There wasn’t a great deal there but the view from our campsite was over the river. We then headed off to Atherton via the Mont Uncle Distillery and on to Granite gorge where there are huge granite boulders that you make climb over and swimming holes which are croc free. We also fed the rock wallabies which were so cute. The next morning it was cold and raining so we headed off to Yungaurra and the curtain fig tree, Lake Eacham, the giant red cedar which managed to avoid being chopped down for timber but got flattened by cyclone Larry. Then it was on to Lake Barrine where we got soaked and to the cathedral fig tree. As we were already drenched we decided to visit the Falls and then on to Ravenshoe to Tully Gorge and falls. Unfortunately the cloud was so low the views weren’t all they could be. It was then on to the Millstream Falls which are supposed to be the widest in Australia which doesn’t say a lot for any of the other falls as they weren’t all that wide at all. We then headed off to Innisfail through the mountains yet again in the pouring rain.

Cooktown.

Arrived in Cooktown which is where Captain Cook spent a couple of months repairing the Endeavour after it was nearly sunk at Cape Tribulation. We found ourselves parked next to a couple from Leeds Joan and Sean. We spent the afternoon wandering along the main street and checking out the local bars. The following morning we set off for Endeavour Falls although we weren’t sure that we could get there as the road was not tarmac all the way. We got there in one piece but the falls were a bit disappointing as the river wasn’t flowing much. Got back into town and then headed to the botanical gardens and for a wander to Finch Bay. Met up with Joan and Sean in the evening and with another couple Vinnie and Ruth who invited us all back to dinner at their place. It was very good we had roast roo and mango jack fish which Vinnie had caught. We were supposed to leave the following morning but the guys decided to go fishing in the morning. The guys met up on the quay about 6.00am and Joan and I turned up about 7.30 and Ruth about 8.00. A fishing boat arrived to unload and Ruth asked if there was a chance that she could have one. Apparently they had been fishing on the reef for coral trout and they are quotered so they couldn’t let her have one but they may have some something else. After they had off loaded they gave Ruth two huge trevally so it was round theirs again for dinner. They were delicious.

North to Cooktown

We realised that we couldn’t really spend a month in Cairns so decided to head north. We left Cairns on the same day as Graeme and Hazel left to go south. Our first stop was at Port Douglas it was Sunday so we wandered round the market and then round the town. It’s a beautiful drive from Cairns and the town is lovely as well if not a bit commercialised. The following day we headed in to the Daintree rainforest and up to Cape Tribulation. Again the scenery is spectacular. We couldn’t follow the coast road to Cooktown though as it’s only passable by 4WD so we had to come back down to Mossman. This gave us a chance to go to Mossman gorge which is surrounded by rain forest and surprise surprise it poured down with rain while we walked along the gorge and through the rain forest. We then had to take the land road up to Cooktown and we left the green lush landscape and headed back into the dry arid landscape of the outback.

Cairns the first time

Our first mission when we arrived in Cairns was to find somewhere to stay over Christmas and the New Year and to decide what we were going to do on Christmas day. So began a long and arduous search round the various bars, restaurants and hotels. It was a task that we accepted reluctantly and took us a week to complete before deciding that we still couldn’t decide where to stay or what to do. Graeme and Hazel were already in Cairns when we turned up. We visited the night markets to do some shopping and have a Chinese from one of the food stalls. Our eyes turned out to be bigger than our bellies and there was enough left for the next day! While Graeme and Hazel went diving Graham serviced their van. It gave him something to do. We all went up into the rain forest at Kuranda for a day and spent another day at Palm Cove.