Checked out Cairns and booked our
Reef trip and collected our campervan which would be our home for the next 2
months.
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| Our home for the next 2 months |
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| Bob wanted a boomerang |
The trip to the reef was to a
floating platform on the outer reef. It was a fantastic day and both the kids
got out onto the reef for some snorkelling, seeing lots amazing fish and coral
just as advertised.
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| View from the submarine on the reef |
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| Ready to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef |
With campervan packed and stocked
with food and beers we headed north spending our first night at Ellis Beach. As
we had expected the weather would be wet and hot and it certainly was,
in between heavy rain the sun did
come out but swimming in the sea is a no no because of theStinergs ( jelly fish)
and the crocs. Very frustrating when you
have the most beautiful white sandy beaches, it is baking hot and you can’t
swim in the sea.
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| Deserted beach in Cape Tribulation |
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| Essential kit |
Next day we headed north still across
the cable ferry at Daintree river and stayed in a campsite near Cape
Tribulation, right in the Daintree forest. We were the only camp visitors along
with a vast array of insect life, birds and animals. The campsite did boast a
collection of crocs, Kangaroos, Wallabies, snakes and birds in cages.
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| Amber enjoys a cup of tea on the Daintree River Cruise |
From here we headed inland via a
croc spotting boat trip on the Daintree river, into the Atherton tablelands.
Much cooler here as it is higher altitude, stayed for a 3 days and visited many
gorges, waterfalls and swimming holes and lakes including a crater lake called
Lake Eacham , we passed by a 500 year old Curtain Fig which looked like a Lord
of the Rings prop. With it’s aerial roots coming down into a curtain.
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| The Curtain Fig |
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| Sarah and Amber at a misty Milaa Milaa Falls |
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| Granite Gorge walk |
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| Granite Gorge river crossing |
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| First fresh water swim at Mossman Gorge |
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Thirsty walk at Mossman Gorge
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| Enjoying one of the many swim holes and rivers (no Crocs) |
Leaving the tablelands we were
recommended a place called Etty Bay where Cassowary were sure to be seen on the
beach and the best Fish and chips in Queensland. Well it must have been 40
degrees at night time and 90% humidity, it was a very hot sweaty night in the
camper especially for the kids sleeping in the top. The insects were also at
their most ferocious, the fish and chips weren’t bad though, if you don’t mind
the odd fly, but we still didn’t see a Cassowary.
Next stop Mission Beach were we
stop of for a quick dentist visit for Bob, who has a bit of a cavity, and yes
we finally see a Cassowary!
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| Cassowary |
Then on and inland again to
Girringan National Park and Wallaman falls. These falls are the biggest single
drop falls in Australia and yes, very spectacular. This was a National Park campsite with very
basic amenities, ie. Cold showers and Eco loos (very Smelly) and although BBQ
facilities are provided the insect life make eating al fresco a challenging
experience. Kids not happy.
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| Wallaman Falls |
Back to the coast again. We had been recommended to go to Bowen, a
sleepy old seaside town where they filmed’ Australia’ with Nicole Kidman but
when we got there it was really drab,the highlight being a ‘big Mango’ so we
headed to Airlie Beach instead.
We found a lovely campsite with a
pool and kids park close to Airlee Beach where we stayed for a couple of
nights. It did pretty much poor with
rain for time there but we still enjoyed swimming in the fabulous lagoon at
Airlee.
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| Airlie Beach Lagoon |
Airlee was an ok place, loads of
bars, more suited to a younger backpacker crowd than us lot. We fitted in a roast dinner in a pub one
night which was great – but didn’t compete with Val’s roastie we had when we
left the UK.
We drove down through Rockhampton
(famous for cattle ranching), passing through the Tropic of Capricorn to Agnes
Water and the town of 1770, where we stayed for a night. What a fantastic place, 1770 having a small
bay perfect for paddling or fishing and Agnes Water having rolling waves.
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| Off to surf |
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| Nice hat! |
We enjoyed a day there before
heading off quite late to the close by town of Bundaberg where they make rum
from locally grown sugar cane. We
skipped the Bundaberg rum-making tour coz we didn’t reckon the kids would be
that interested and instead booked for that night’s visit to Mon Repos beach,
(so named as some French dude built a house there once and called it Mon
Repos), where the local turtle experts take tourists down to hopefully see some
turtle action on the beach. We booked
just as their offices where closing and then when we turned up for the tour,
your beach watch time corresponded to your tour booking time so we were last
out to the beach at around 9.30pm. We were so lucky to witness baby turtle
hatchlings emerging from their nest and running down towards the moonlight into
the sea AND witnessing a turtle laying eggs into her nest and then lumbering
down to the sea again AND helping to relocate those eggs into another nest dug
by the turtle experts as the nest Mrs Turtle had dug was a bit close to the sea
for their liking (no harm done to the eggs apparently). What an evening! Totally fantastic – like something from a David Attenborough
documentary. FACT: Turtles look like
they are crying when they are laying eggs but they are just lubricating their
eyes with a saline solution.
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| Baby turtles just hatched |
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| Bob moving turtle eggs |
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| Loggerhead turtle after laying eggs |
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| Moving the eggs to a safer spot |
Off again south along the coast
road to Rainbow Beach which was just south of Fraser Island. This was a lovely area, the beach was endless
and the sand made of many colours hence the name Rainbow beach.
We set off next morning for a day
at the Noosa Heads, famous for it’s beautiful and many beaches, surfing and
swanky accommodation by the sea. It was
gorgeous there and we had loads of fun in the waves albeit getting stung by
little jellyfish which was a bit of a nuisance but they weren’t bad ones.
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Sarah at one of Noosa's beaches
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| Sarah and a big shell at Noosa |
We thought we’d head inland for a
change and headed to Lake Cooroibah to a campsite in the woodlands on the river. It was very basic there and Sarah was a bit
nervous as the site seemed to be filled with gypo-types . We were able to build a good fire for once as
it’s not allowed very often in campsite and we needed the smoke to keep away
the millions of insects. We didn’t stick
around there long in the morning to get bitten more and headed further down the
Sunshine Coast stopping off at a beach in Caloundra.
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| Caloundra Beach |
This is yet another place that
isn’t really talked about but is so totally
wonderful, gorgeous houses, wonderful beaches, salt water lagoon on the
beach with free bbqs (which are everywhere dotted along the ocean roads) and
great play parks for Bob to enjoy. The
waves were ENORMOUS and gave us a right thrashing – great fun.
We headed inland to the Glasshouse
Mountains, so called as the early explorers thought the mountains resembled the
glass furnaces back in Yorkshire, they are in fact old lava plugs from Volcanos
jutting up into the sky. We stayed
overnight at a campsite run and owned by a chap called Steve Ralph who until
recently held the record for transporting the largest amount of people in a
horse drawn coach. He is working on a
new world record and is building a huge coach in his shed which he showed
us. What a great bloke – good luck with
your record Steve for Jan 2013!
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| One of the Glasshouse Mountains |
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| Steve Ralph and Bob with record breaking coach |
We then hit the road again
heading for Brisbane. We skipped Steve
Irwins Zoo which was en route as we had had our fill of elephants and crocs and
headed instead for the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which was a mini zoo/sanctuary
filled with real Australian-type animals such as the Cassawary, Wombats,
Tasmanian Devils, Kangaroos that we fed and more Koalas than you could ever
hope to get up close to. We enjoyed
watching an awesome sheep dog demo. Along with some sheep shearing.
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| Feeding the roos |
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| lovely couple of Koalas |
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| Sheep shearing display |
We stayed overnight in Brisbane
in the Ashgrove area and next day drove into the city, taking the CityCat boat
down river stopping off at Street Beach – a manmade beach and lagoon surrounded
by lovely restaurants and a market. The
CityCat was an easy way of seeing a bit of Brisbane and we had a delish
lunch. We had fun watching the huge
birds that roam around with long, curved beaks, finishing off scraps from
plates that diners had left.
