Cairns at Last

THURSDAY, 30 JUNE 2016

Birds and boats - and a high tide!

Late Monday afternoon in Atherton we experienced a tropical downpour which lasted about an hour.  Naturally, it started again just as we were about to start packing up on Tuesday morning!  However, by the time we had driven about 10 kms towards Cairns, the road was dry and the skies clear, with the temperature rising quickly.  The drive down the Kuranda Range was uneventual at we were at Crystal Cascades Caravan Park before 10.30 am, with Phil waiting to direct us onto our site.  We were well set up my mid afternoon, so decided to play our usual Tuesday night bowls.  Unfortunately, the bowls muscles haven’t had any practice for the past six weeks and it didn’t take many ends for the legs to stiffen up.

Wednesday was time to vote early and we had been told there was a polling booth at the DFO – very convenient – so spent the morning wandering around there.  After lunch, as the muscles were still groaning, we quickly agreed that a visit to our friendly reflexologist was called for and following that a visit to Movenpick for that long awaited ice cream, which was enjoyed watching the birds and boats.

Today, after a long walk along the track beside the cane fields and a quick visit to the local medical centre, we continued our catching up with local favourites – Bunnings for him and Cairns Central for both.  A lovely pair of red Sketchers did find their way back to our caravan!

The weather has been lovely, between 27-29 degrees during the day and dropping to a cool 20 degrees overnight.

Atherton

MONDAY, 27 JUNE 2016

Fluffy red flower

Mauve fungi

White and brown spotted fungi

Spot the red-browed firetail

Scrub turkeys

Yesterday, we had a long drive of 14 kms from Yungaburra to Atherton, our final stop before Cairns.  The weather was quite overcast and we even had a few misty showers during the afternoon.  We are staying at the Big4 Woodlands Tourist Park and it is so nice to have the four and a half stars again: we are both so over red dirt, red mud and red dust.  This is a large park, mainly cabins, set among tropical gardens and with plenty of birds to keep the birdwatcher happy.  Apart from the usual honeyeaters, we have spotted the beautiful king parrot and the very tiny red browed firetail, along with plenty of butterflies – even the Ulysses!

Atherton is the biggest town we have stayed at so far this trip, evidenced by a Coffee Club, Brumbies Bakery and McDonalds.  Lunch at the Coffee Club was a nice treat.

Today, with the weather looking kinder but very humid, we set out for a good walk and intended to take in the Chinese Museum and Temple, only to discover they don’t open on Mondays.  We made do with a walk through a patch of rainforest either side of a very unpleasant looking creek, complete with domestic ducks and scrub turkeys.  A walk along both sides of the main street completed the morning.

Yungaburra

SATURDAY, 25 JUNE 2016

View to the front of the caravan

View to the left

Yungaburra Hotel

Strawberry pickers

Poinsettia

Waiting for the senset

Afghanistan Memorial

Six months to Christmas!

Yesterday, we left the mud and much behind and travelled all of ten kilometres to Yungaburra – and sun, dry red dirt, grass and beautiful views over Lake Tinaroo.  The park is very clean and tidy, although the amenities could do with an upgrade.  Directly across the road is the Afghanistan Memorial; the flames trees have grown so much in the last few years.

After settling in and enjoying the sunshine, we drove back to Yungaburra to “do” the village.  It is such a pretty place, with hanging baskets along the streets and a beautiful old pub which probably dates back to the 19^th Century.  Then it was a short drive to a strawberry farm, which not only sold strawberries but yummy gelato.  It was probably not the ideal time for the man of the farm to bring out his blower/vac and blow away the leaves from around the tables area.  There was some dispute as to which was tastier – vanilla bean or chocolate and blood orange (which won hands down!!!).  The afternoon concluded with an impressive sunset over the lake, with all the birds returning to roost.

Today we visited the Yungaburra Market, which is held once a month.  We joined hundreds (maybe thousands) of other people who wandered around looking at the overpriced produce and the usual array of jewellery and imported clothing.  An anthurium for decorating the awning and a few limes were our only purchases, along with an addition to his t-shirt collection!  We spent a couple of hours after lunch at the bowls club, enjoying a district championship game.  Late in the afternoon, about 100 motorbikes and twice as many bikies turned up at the memorial for a commemoration service - it is three years since the official opening.  Fortunately, they all left afterwards.

Lake Eacham

THURSDAY, 23 JUNE 2016

Farmland

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Friendly locals

Caravan park dam ...

... camping area ...

... and bananas

Lake Eacham reflections

Looking for turtles

and found a snake!

Jungle walk

Boooo!!!

Good looking couple at the lake

Malanda Falls

Scene outside the Malanda Dairy Centre

It was a warm and cloudy Wednesday as we moved out of Georgetown and headed east.  The road between Georgetown and Mt Surprise alternated between two and single lanes but the surface was good.  We had a short stop at Mt Surprise before continuing to the Atherton Tablelands.  As soon as we climbed on to the Tablelands, the scenery immediately changed from outback to lush, green grazing lands, complete with dairy cows.

Despite obtaining the GPS coordinates from Wikicamps for our destination at Lake Eacham Caravan Park, Doris Tomtom was very insistent that we drive down farm tracks to a paddock in the middle of nowhere.  We decided to stop in Malanda and recheck the address, ignoring the coordinates and were at Lake Eacham in only a few minutes.  Moral: don’t believe everything written on Wikicamps!  Unfortunately, the owners of the caravan park didn’t have a record of our booking and then discovered they had booked us in for Thursday and Friday nights.  A quick move around of some motorhome bookings and a site was found for us.  This is a lovely small caravan park set among the rain forest, which also means high humidity!  The roadway was a bit on the muddy side – something to do with constant rain for the last fortnight, evidently.  We have a drive-thru site with a concrete slab and plenty of shade.  There are lots of little chooks and even smaller chickens wandering around, I have even spotted a mouse.  All this, of course, means that there will certainly be snakes!!!  After setting up and another shower for Himself, we decided to treat ourselves to an early afternoon tea (lunch didn’t seem to happen for some reason) on the balcony at Lake Barrine.

Today was lovely and sunny until about lunch time, when the clouds appeared and the temperature dropped – slightly!  This morning, we visited Lake Eacham and enjoyed a walk around part of the lake – not having the correct footwear did restrict us a bit.  However, we did enjoy the beauty of the lake (along with a busload of backpackers), spotting some turtles and lots of archer fish.  We then stopped at the Malanda Falls which empty into a concrete swimming hole and have a road bridge just above them, but are still pretty anyway.  A very enjoyable lunch was had at the Malanda Dairy Centre before returning to the caravan.

Cobbold Gorge

TUESDAY, 21 JUNE 2016

Blue faced honeyeater

Infinity pool and dam

This is what we ended up climbing!

Termite mound

John Corbett's final resting place

Leichardt's breadfruit - bushtucker

Desert rose - and more thorns than a garden rose!

We were on top of this cliff

Yesterday, we travelled from Croydon to Georgetown – a relatively short hop of just under two hours.  We had intended to book into the Goldfields Caravan Park, having stayed at Midway in 2009 when we broke down.  However, a mix-up with phone numbers found us booked into the Midway Caravan Park, and after checking out the other one, we definitely made the right choose – even if it was a mistake!  The park has new owners and has certainly been cleaned up a lot and we have a lovely big grassy site with a tree behind us that seems to be home to a large number of blue faced honeyeaters.

This morning, we were both up bright and early for our 8.00 am pickup for the Cobbold Gorge Tour.  Cobbold Gorge is 90 kms south of Georgetown and about 80 kms is very rough gravel road with lots of steep creek crossings.  There were nine of us on the truck/bus and it took an hour and a half to get to the resort.  There was time for a quick comfort stop and a look at the above-ground infinity pool before we were ushered onto more buses, along with about another thirty people.  We drove directly on the sand across the dry Robertson River and saw the pump extracting fresh water from one metre below the surface – the resort’s water supply!  After arriving at the creek, we discovered that the three hour tour involved a two hour bush walk (thank goodness for 4WD shoes)!  The first part was easy walking, with frequent stops in the shade to look and learn about the vegetation and bush tucker, as well as the local history of the property.  After reaching John Corbett’s grave, we about turned and then discovered we were going to climb to the top of the sandstone escarpment!!!  A couple of ladies decided to sit this out but the remainder reached the top without too much trouble.  We found we were directly over the gorge but could only see a small amount of water in the distance and had strict instructions from the guide to keep away from the edge – not that he needed to worry!

After retracing our steps, we were loaded into the small boats with electric motors and glided into the gorge.  Such an amazing place, with high walls but very, very narrow – in places, it would be possible to touch both sides of the gorge at once.  Needless to say, lots of Kodak moments were all the photographers, but very tricky light conditions and beautiful reflections.  The gorge is 450 metres long and we went right to the end before returning.  Unfortunately, all the freshwater crocodiles were feeling a bit unsociable today.  After our cruise, it was back to the resort for lunch beside the pool and the rough journey home to look forward to.

Lots of photos today and most are self explanatory.