22 June 2017 - Gin Gin to Twin Waters

In spite of a cold morning at Gin Gin, we managed to unfold ourselves from the bedclothes and head for home.  It was a quick 310km today along quite good roads.  They were really good just south of Gympie.

We were buoyed by both proximity to home and the win by the Maroons last night, so we barely noticed the miles flying by.

As is our practice we provide, in the last blog for the trip, some highlights.

The Dinosaur display in Winton remains high on a must see list, even if dinosaurs don't figure strongly in your interest suite.  The site itself and the manner in which displays are presented are worth seeing in their own right.  The views from the jump up are really good.

Our main reason for the trip was to see the Lawn Hill Gorge and to travel the Savannah Way between the Burke and Wills Roadhouse and Cairns.  The Savannah Way enabled us to expand the gorge focus by including Cobbold and Copperfield Gorges.  Tacking on the Mossman and Barron Gorges added to the value.  Each has its own qualities which make it unique, so we can simply say we enjoyed them all.

We should not forget the Undara volcanic tubes. Their origin is interesting and their extensiveness most surprising.  

Mother nature was at its best in the Barron and Bloomfield waterfalls. The views on the trip up the coast to Cape Tribulation and the beauty of north Queensland's rain forests are memorable.  The rain forest and the Barron Falls are well demonstrated in the Skyrail trip from Cairns to Kuranda. This trip would be a must for any visitor.

We were blessed with good weather on the whole.  Others have received the message too because the caravan parks were quite full in Cairns and points north, and there were more on the way, passing us as we headed south.

Some technical aspects:

• We travelled a total of 7051 km, 5478.5 km with the anchor (van) attached and 1572.5 km without the van
• We consumed 1380 litres of diesel at an average rate of 19.01l/100km 
• The dearest fuel was 149.9c/l at Gregory and the cheapest 118.9c/l at Townsville.

Our trip was quite busy and we must admit we arrived home ready for a couple of days in relaxed mode.

This is the last blog in this series.  Where to next? Time will tell. 

20 June 2017 - Koumala to Gin Gin

There was not a lot to see today, beyond bush, distant hills and a lot of caravans heading north searching for the warm.  The countryside south of Sarina changes, in particular the sugar cane fields disappear.

In desperation we took a shot at the town gardens at Marlborough.  This name of the park is by no means a misnomer.

210617 At the Lions Park in Marlborough

We travelled 546 km today before we stopped at Gin Gin, a small sugar town.  Yes we are amongst the sugar again.  It will stay with us off and on until we reach the Sunshine Coast and home.

Tomorrow we will complete our journey.  There are a couple of other things to note.  Today is the shortest day of the year and tonight is the second Rugby League State of Origin match. Go the Maroons.

20 June 2017 - Townsville to Koumala (20 km south of Sarina)

It was a great morning to start our trip down the coast to Sarina.  We could not get a place to stay in Sarina, so we went a further 20km south to Koumala.  Our overnight stop is a small caravan park but it is clean and satisfies all our needs.

In all we travelled 445km today so the homeward bound tail wind is really behind us.  We wish we could say the say about the headwind. A 15-20 km/hr SE wind was in our faces the whole day.

We have not photographed the countless mountains we saw, the rivers or creeks we crossed, nor the many sugar mills we passed. However,  as per usual, there is always one that is a little bit different and for which you have to be lucky to get it.  Such was the case with the sugar train which crossed our path, fully laden and off to a sugar mill near Mackay. We think it might have been to Wilmar's Plane Creek Mill.

201617 We had to stop for this sugar train on a railway crossing

We do not know where we will alight tomorrow.  This is just part of the fun travelling without a full-blooded plan.

19 June 2017 - Cairns to Townsville

We woke to another warm day to wish us auf wiedersehen from Cairns.  A very iconic looking mountain to the south of Cairns wished us goodbye too.

190617 A signature mountain on the south of Cairns,
also signalling auf wiedersehen from Cairns

We are now on the Bruce Highway, the A1, which runs from Cairns to Brisbane. This means we are back to plenty of traffic, heaps of traffic lights, and rush, rush, hurry, hurry, a vast difference from our days on the Savannah Way.  However we have adapted quite quickly.

The highway runs down the coastal plain with the ever present mountains on our right hand side and the sea on our left.  Sea views however were minimal as we were not attempting to call in at beaches this time.  We passed many signs alerting us to the presence of waterfalls and gorges on our right hand side, but we passed by these too.

While sugar dominates here, there were several banana plantations on the way.  We bought some bananas at 25c each.  Pineapples are grown here too, but we had passed the one plantation we saw, before we could stop for a picture.  You know, rush, rush, hurry, hurry. The car and van take quite some time to stop from 100km/hour so, if we get no warning, we miss.

190617 Not only sugar cane but also bananas

Well known towns we passed through today included Gordonvale, Babinda (near Mount Bellenden Kerr and Mount Bartle Frere, Queensland's two highest mountains), Innisfail, Tully, Cardwell, Ingham and then into Townsville.  We travelled 366km today. 

190617 Mt Bellenden Kerr, the second highest mountain
in Queensland, with its top hidden in cloud. The highest,
Mt Bartle Frere, was completely shrouded in cloud
so we did not photograph it

190617 Tully Sugar Mill

Townsville is in a rain shadow so the rain forest has deserted us for the moment and we are back to dry sclerophyll forests.

190617 Castle Hill behind Townsville

Our feature for today is the view overlooking the Hinchinbrook Channel and Islands.

190617 Hinchinbrook Channel taken from a lookout
south of Cardwell


190617 Hinchinbrook Channel and islands from the first lookout


190617 Hinchinbrook Channel and islands from a second
lookout.  The sugar terminal mentioned is at Mourilyan

Given we are on the homeward run, we have a fair wind behind us. We have passed this way before, so we may not feel compelled to take too many more photographs.  We did include some from south of Townsville during our around Queensland trip last November, so these could be accessed from that blog - November 2016.

However, tomorrow is another day, and some photos may just be unavoidable.

18 June 2017 - Skyrail and Cairns

We were able to book on the Skyrail, a chairlift which runs from Smithfield, a northern Cairns suburb, 6.5km up a mountain, across rain forests, roads and the Barron River to the town of Kuranda.

There are two spots from which you can alight.  The first is at Red Peak Station for interpretive tours of the rain forest and the second at Barron Falls Station, where splendid visions of the falls are within 50m walking distance.  Sadly there was not a lot of water flowing over the falls.

We had morning tea at the beautiful Kuranda Railway Station and then took a walk through Kuranda, which is very tourist orientated.

The return Skyrail trip was every bit a good as the ascent.

We shopped after Skyrail and found this like any other supermarket experience. We lunched on Sushi and then went to town.  It was Sunday and there wasn't much activity in Cairns, beyond the tourists soaking up the sunshine on Cairns' Esplanard.  We couldn't find a place to park so we got only one photograph, on the run so to speak.

So ends a brief visit to Cairns.  The sun is shining, 28 degrees, and we are rested for our trip to Townsville tomorrow.

The following photos are a collection of shots taken during the day, mostly on the Skyrail trip.  We enjoyed the experience.

180617 Just having left Smithfield on the Skyrail

180617 View at the start of the ascent

180617 Going up

180617 Looking down on the Kuranda road

180617 Looking down on the rain forest and our shadow, centre left

180716 View got better the higher we went

180617 From the highest point looking west

180617 The town of Kuranda in the distance

180617 Our destination - Kuranda, with reflection

180617 Kuranda Skyrail terminus

180617 Kuranda Station

180617 Saw this one first

180617 Then Di saw this one

180617 Barron Dam - water to feed the Barron Hydro
 Electricity Station.  That's our shadow bottom centre

180617 Barron Falls

180617 Barron Falls

180617 Train from Kuranda stopped to overlook 
the Barron Falls

180617 Crossing the Kuranda road with no 
danger from the traffic

180617 View looking left on the return Skyrail trip

180617 View looking right on the return 
Skyrail trip - beautiful

180617 Water skiing anyone?

180617 About to return to Smithfield on the Skyrail.
Note the open air gondola 

180617 Ground orchids at Smithfield embarkation point

180617 In a tree near the ground orchid

180617 Another orchid immediately above the one
 in the previous photo

189617 The Esplanade Cairns

180617 Video of the Barron Falls

180617 Video - Leaving the Smithfield embarkation point

180617 Video of the vista before us as we descended 

the Skyrail (apologies for the reflections)

180617 Barron Falls from another lookout

180617 Video of the approach to Smithfield

17 June 2017 - Port Douglas to Redlynch (Cairns)

It was sunny today and we were faced with a short 60km run down the Captain Cook Highway from Port Douglas to our camp for two nights at Redlynch, a northern Cairns suburb.

It might have been only 60km but it took us a couple of hours by the time we pulled over many times to let cars pass on the twisting road and stopped to look at views and man-made structures on the beach.

The highway hugged the coast all the way and inevitably we came across a view or two. The trouble was, the parking spots at the lookouts were small and we had difficulty fitting in.

170617 Ellis Beach on the way down from
Port Douglas

170617 On Captain Cook Drive, looking towards Cairns

One spot, which attracted quite a lot of interest, was between Ellis and Pebbly Beaches, where passers by constructed stone cairns. The structures don't last forever because high tides or heavy seas knock them over.  There were plenty of stones around and cairns appeared before our eyes.

170617 Cairns (of rocks) between Pebbly and Ellis Beaches

170617 Dino's rig overlooking the cairns

170617 Kids of all ages were building cairns

170617 Rock collection on the beach north of Cairns

170617 Video of the rocks

We were approaching Cairns through its northern suburbs and we were in tourist heaven. We tackled Palm Cove and manoeuvred ourselves through the very narrow beach front street and the numerous tourists as they "gawked" their way around the beach precinct. Our conclusion, "We will not attempt a similar feat at any of the other northern beaches".

170617 Road along the beachfront at Palm Cove

We arrived safely at Redlynch and have decided to take the rest of the day off.  It is still sunny and decidedly warm, 30 degrees in the caravan.

16 June 2017 - The Daintree and Cape Tribulation

What a miserable start to the day.  It was heavily overcast and raining, not heavily but enough to dent expectations.

Undaunted though we set off to the Daintree area and Cape Tribulation.  At the ferry crossing of the Daintree River, it was still raining.  Even the Cassowarys had gone to ground. However as the day went on it stopped raining and we experienced some dappled sunlight through the rain forest, and there was plenty of rainforest.  The Daintree area is described as the place "Where the rainforest meets the sea".  Never were truer words spoken.

After crossing the Daintree River by ferry, we travelled up the 40 km stretch of road to Cape Tribulation.  Just north of Cape Tribulation the bitumen runs out and you are on the Bloomfield Track. We chose not to do the Track.

We spent time at Cape Tribulation and then headed south again, calling in at various beaches and headlands.  One has to say there is much similarity between the beaches, with stretches of grey/white sandy beaches and headlands at each end.  There is no wave activity of any note, given the Great Barrier Reef is not far offshore, offering its ever present protection along the coast.

While rain forest was ubiquitous so were the tourists.  The place was "as busy as Bourke Street" at times. Just like us, they were enjoying the beauty and majesty of this place.  Sun all day would have made it even better.

The final stop was at Alexandra Lookout.  The vision from the lookout capped a great day.  We were particularly pleased about this because we called in there on our way up, but were met with a complete whiteout.

Following is a series of photographs taken during the day which we hope will provide a glimpse into this timeless and beautiful place. 

160617 Disembarking from the ferry after
crossing the Daintree River

160617 Where the bitumen runs out and the Bloomfield 
track begins - taken from the Bloomfield Track

160617 Looking north along South Noah Beach

160617 Looking south along South Noah Beach

160617 Looking out to Cape Tribulation Beach
through the rain forest

160617 From the lookout on Cape Tribulation looking north

160617 Rainforest down to the sea at Cape Tribulation

160617 Rainforest in the sand at Cape Tribulation

160617 The northern side of Cape Tribulation

160617 The bay north of Cape Tribulation

160617 The northern side of Cape Tribulation

160617 The rain forest in the sea at Cape Tribulation

160617 Video of Cape Tribulation Beach

160617 Thornton Beach - rainforest meeting the sea

160617 Looking NE along Thornton Beach

160617 Thornton Beach looking south

160617 Thornton Beach

160617 Lunch in the rainforest near Thornton Beach

160617 Rainforest with rainforest on mountain in the background

160617 Daintree Tea plantation

160617 Cow Bay looking north

160617 Cow Bay looking south

160617 Standard at all beaches, this one at Cow Bay

160617 Alau Wugirriga (means "look about") or Mt Alexandra Lookout



160617 Video taken from Mount Alexandria Lookout

160617 Approaching the Daintree Ferry on our return
from Cape Tribulation

160617 Daintree River from  the ferry looking upstream

160617 Daintree River from  the ferry looking downstream

160617 The sun was out but the clouds were
still on the mountains

160617 More clouds, more mountains, more sugar cane

Tomorrow we head off to Cairns, a mere 60km away. 

PS The rain did not clean the car and, as is our remit, the tide was out.