August 1, 2013 - Cairns, Australia
It has been an interesting few weeks weather wise. The rain gods were definitely smiling on us for a while. Zoe’s 9th birthday was a highlight as well as some beautiful scenery.
We left the lovely free camp at Rollingstone to head to the small town of Lucinda. It is town that has a sugar mill and a caravan park and not much else. People head to Lucinda each year for their annual migration and stay for 3-4 months. They go out in the boats each day and with Hinchinbrook Island only a few km off the coast, why wouldn’t they. Unfortunately for us, the weather was so bad (windy/rainy) that we could barely see the outline of the island. Pete found a little creek/mangrove area that he threw some crab pots into. After over a year of trying, he actually caught some!! Unfortunately they were all too small so none made it back to the van. We caught up with a couple that we met at the free camp and even went to the caravan park sausage sizzle. After 4 nights we left to try to find some sun.
We decided to stay in a national park near Cardwell. Cardwell was all but destroyed 2 years ago by cyclone Yassi. The camp site we are staying at is called Murray Falls. It is a popular spot with about 20 vans/campers already in when we arrived. There was no phone/internet/tv reception so it was guaranteed to be a quiet few days. It is such a beautiful spot with the water falls just thru the trees. You could see it from our site. We went to sleep every night to the sounds of water rushing from over the rocks and down the river. There were 2 short walks that we did (one was a 300m boardwalk and the other a 2km return walk up the hill) and were rewarded with spectacular views. We swam in the river and swimming holes which had rock slides and 2 rope swings set up by the local kids. The rain continued, but that didn’t stop the kids from having a camp fire every night. We celebrated Zoe’s 9th birthday with ice cream on pancakes for breakfast and a chocolate mud cake that Zac made for afternoon tea. She got some lovely presents and received some birthday wishes too. We were quite impressed with this spot and it’s facilities and would recommend it to others.
After 4 nights at Murray falls, we got to our next destination, Babinda. This small town calls itself the “Home of the Umbrella” We couldn’t possibly work out why. Here they talk about rain fall not in mm but in meters! The average rainfall in the area is between 4m – 6m a year. While it is raining we have decided to free camp, so with that I mind, Babinda provides a free camp area with hot showers ($2), toilets, a dump point and drinking water. The space is huge and was pretty full the entire 3 nights we were there. The Boulders are the local attraction for the area only 6km from town. It was a magical spot with stunning waterfalls and a crystal clear swimming hole to boot. Even though it was raining, Pete and the kids still went for a dip and we all did the walks. We did a bit of a ring around, and seeing as it is raining everywhere south of Carins, we have decided to head even further north to find some sun. We booked into Mossman caravan park and Wonga Beach caravan park so that should get us some sunshine.
We only stayed in Mossman 2 nights, which was enough to fill up the cupboards and do a load of washing before heading onto Wonga Beach.
Wonga was recommended to us by some friends back in Streaky Bay. We are so glad we came here. Apart from the sun finally shining, it is the gateway to the Daintree Rain Forest. We would not have come to the Daintree if it wasn’t for the weather, so the rain actually did us a favour. The council run caravan park cost us the princely sum of $240 for the week, which is great for us and is set on the beach. There are not many sites here and most people come year after year. Every afternoon at 5, is happy hour. Most of the park goes down and has a laugh or two. The sites here are really big and full of tropical plants. It is one of those beaches that you imagine sitting on where the palm trees come right up to the waters edge… just beautiful. We took a day trip to the Daintree and went on the car ferry and into the rainforest. We went to the discovery center ($7
and had a fantastic time. The interpretive centre is a must. They even provide audio commentary guides for everyone (kids included) to get the most out of the experience. Other places to see here are the ice-creamery, the beaches and Cape Tribulation – the end of the bitumen. After that, it strictly 4WD all the way to the cape. The weather has been a huge improvement with sunny days (about 25 degrees) and warm nights (about 15 degrees). We stayed for a week and then began the trip back south to Cairns.
We are staying for a week at a caravan park right in Cairns. It has a great pool area that the kids could easily spend all day at. I bought my new camera and so far so good. The high-lite of this week is most definitely the Skyrail and Scenic railway trip from Cairns to Kuranda. We took the Skyrail up over the hills of Cairns to a spectacular view. The gondolas as they are known are glass on all sides and provide 360 degree views. Once we got to Karanda, we had about 2 hours to check out the town. It is quite a hippy style town with markets and stores all over. At 2pm we hopped on the Karanda Scenic Railway to head back to Cairns. It was a 1.5hr trip back going past waterfalls, over bridges and thru tunnels. It was finished off with a bus ride from the train station back to the Skyrail station. We think we have covered almost all types of transport in one day. The other nice thing to do in Cairns is a visit to the foreshore. It has a swimming lagoon and childrens’ playgrounds. Unfortunately you can’t swim in the ocean up here, but on the news the other night, a German tourist thought he’d try to walk out in the mud flats off the esplanade and got stuck. The police/firerys had to rescue him much to his embarrassment and the amusement of heaps of onlookers.
We are now off to Bali for 10 days of relaxing and no school work!! Everyone is very excited and the kids can’t wait to go on their first plane ride and first overseas trip. After that we get to catch up with Lyn & Rowan which will be really exciting after not seeing them for over a year.