Well our Xmas in July event was great with food and entertainment last night and we met some people from W.A. who also are full time travellers. Yesterday morning we ventured into Mareeba for their local market where we bought some fruit, after a walk down the main street we returned to the camp ground at Davies Park. After a great night of entertainment today was rather subdued with a market and displays put on here at the camp ground which was open to the public for most of the day. We are going to Irvinebank, an old tin mining town, next weekend for a festival there as it is not that far from here and only 14kms of dirt road. The "Hillbilly Goats" are playing there for the whole week-end so we will have a look around the local area over the next few days before going to Irvinebank, which has free camping and hot showers for all attending the event.
We arrived in Mareeba this morning and found the CMCA "Xmas in July" event at Davies Park, which is the local Rugby League oval here. We met up with Lindsay & Sue whom we met awhile ago at Rollingstone. They have a new Winnebago and arrived here just after us and ended up parked right next to "Lucky Pigs". Our Xmas dinner is on Saturday night and cost is $25.00 each and is catered by the Mareeba Leagues Club. Tonight we are to entertained by a group called "The Hillbilly Goats". There are quite a few motor-homes here!
Leaving our camp at Wonga Beach we headed back through Mossman and up the mountains onto the Atherton Plateau to a nice camp at Rifle Creek which is 1km north of Mt.Molloy township. We decided to stay here for two nights and head south to Mareeba on friday morning for the CMCA Xmas in July event there.
Tonight we are camped north of Mossman overlooking a beach just south of Wonga Beach. After leaving our camp this morning we traveled into Port Douglas, but alas it is just a place full of tourist apartment hotels etc... a real dive indeed not worth the detour off the highway at all. Northwards again to Mossman and out to Mossman Gorge, where we went for a self-guided tour only to realise afterwards that you are supposed to only go on a guided tour with a local aboriginal guide... oh well!
Then back through Mossman, which is a small cane town, then northwards to visit Daintree before heading back south to our current camp just south of Wonga Beach. We had a relaxing afternoon reading and walking on the beach, but it has become quite windy during the day and high winds are forecast tomorrow and chance of rain as well.
After leaving Stacey and Charlotte's and doing some shopping we headed north out of Cairns, visited a place called "Palm Cove" which had a camping area, but is just a real tourist dive place so we decided to keep heading north and found a nice camp about 45kms north by the beach just south of a little place called Wangetti Beach. We had a few walks on the beach, but dogs where only allowed on the beach between 9pm and 8am. A few other campers stopped later in the day as well.
Leaving Babinda around 11am we travelled the 60kms to Cairns where we parked "Lucky Pigs" and walked around the foreshore of Cairns, well as much as we could because dogs are completely banned on the foreshore itself. So after having some lunch and obtaining a town map we made our way to the apartment block where Stacey & Charlotte where staying. They both have got hospitality jobs in town and invited us to stay for tea which was very nice, so we did that and just camped out the front in "Lucky Pigs" for the night, as the local showgrounds no longer allows travelers to camp there.
Spent another day at Babinda Park as we wanted to have a look around the area. So taking the Suzuki we drove down to Bramston Beach, which also had a nice camping area right on the foreshore. After a walk with Daisy along the beach we travelled around Eubenanee Swamp National Park through some banana & sugar cane country until we found ourselves back on the Bruce Highway between Innisfail & Babinda. On the way back we detoured up to have a look at "The Boulders", which is a park and a limited camping area up on the side of Mt. Barte Frere. The boulders are the bedrock which is all that is left in the creek bed as all the top soil has been washed down by the high rainfall that occurs here. Tomorrow we intend to reach Cairns and catch up with Stacey & Charlotte, the young english couple from BlazeAid who have found jobs in Cairns and staying there for awhile.
After leaving our great campsite on the Liverpool River we headed into Innisfail to do some shopping and then headed north again past Mt.Bartle Frere (highest peak in Queensland) to a small RV Friendly town called Babinda and heading east across the railway line we found our planned campsite crowded with several travellers, but we managed to find a good grassed spot alongside the local river. The afternoon was spent reading & knitting in the sun.
Leaving Bill & Lyn's property near Cardwell we headed into Tully to pickup our mail and do some shopping etc. Heading north from Tully we refueled at a small town called El Arish (Diesel $1.489) and turned off the Bruce Highway at Silkwood towards Paranella Park. Just past Japoonvale we arrived at our destination and campsite for the night on the Liverpool River, which we had spotted one day whilst doing a job in the area for BlazeAid. We were joined shortly afterwards by Barry & Jill from Maroochydore. After having a drink and chat with them we found that they were also travelling northwards.
For the last few days Peter has been helping Bill around his property, whilst Lesley has been washing, knitting & crocheting. Tonight Bill & Lyn took us out to "The Beachcomber" for "happy hour" then tea in Cardwell, which was very nice indeed. Captured one of the many Azure Kingfishers around the property on camera as well today.
Bill & Lyn took us south to have a look at the very long jetty at Lucinda which is at the southern end of Hitchinbrook Island where we had lunch then returned via Taylors Beach and back along the Herbert River to Ingham. The area around Ingham is very similar to the Burdekin area around Ayr & Home Hill with sugar cane farms everwhere. Upon returning to Cardwell we once again just relaxed as Peter is going to help Bill around the property over the next few days.
Today we accompanied Bill & Lyn to have a look around Cardwell after they returned from Townsville yesterday. After travelling up to a lookout above Cardwell and looking through the old post office museum we had a coffee and pies on the foreshore. After this we returned to Bill & Lyn's property and just had a lazy afternoon just reading and knitting etc.
After a nice day we awoke today to showers and an overcast sky. The rain was not heavy and the rain was intermittent, so we washed the Suzuki, knitted and read. During a break in the rain and whilst walking Zac the dog, we took some great photos of the rainforest flowers around the property here at Cardwell. Also the chooks laid 8 eggs today!
Yesterday afternoon we departed Tully showgrounds and BlazeAid for a while as we are looking after Bill & Lyn's 30 acre property near Cardwell, whilst they are in Townsville. We are looking after 7 cattle, 14 chooks and their dog, called Zac, who is only 12 months old and just loves all the attention. Today we just had a lazy day and did some washing. Started out a fine sunny day, but has become overcast this afternoon and it is trying to rain, and rain is forecast tomorrow. Vodafone Internet is poor, but mobile and Digital TV coverage is good here.
Today Lesley had a rest day and did some washing and Peter did some voluntary work for BlazeAid down near Mission Beach South. We are taking some time off from voluntary work for BlazeAid starting tomorrow as we have been asked to look after a property owned by Bill & Lyn down near Cardwell as they have to travel south to Townsville for a few days. After this we will venture northwards towards Cairns and Mareeba as a local chapter of our motor-home club are having an event called "Xmas in July" at Mareeba at the end of July. Tully is surrounded by Banana plantations (photo) and as a lot of them were damaged by Cyclone Yasi some will take awhile before they are producing bananas again.
Today we travelled north of Tully doing some BlazeAid volunteering work along with Stacey, Charlotte and Paul on a property owned by Tony & Marg at a little town called Mena Creek, which is where a famous tourist attraction called "Paranella Park" is situated, so after we finished our day's work we took a look at it (photo). Marg originally came from Maitland and her sister lives in Blackwood in South Australia too! Tony was very grateful for the work we had done on his property that later in the afternoon he travelled all the way back into Tully to bring us all a carton of beer. Of course we all drank it whilst having a good chat at the Tully Showgrounds
Today we travelled south of Tully to a property owned by Val, whose property was badly damaged by fallen trees and other debris from the cyclone. She also works in an aboriginal artist gallery in Cardwell. The work was very hard but we all enjoyed the wonderful roast Val cooked us all for lunch. On the way back to camp we came across a Tiapan snake that was on the side of the road. There have been quite a few sightings of these snakes lately and some cattle deaths have been caused by them as well in the area. They are a very aggressive snake and will not retreat when confronted and we have heard several stories to confirm this!
After doing our washing and having a relaxing day around the BlazeAid camp yesterday, we decided to do some sight seeing around the area today. First we took a drive down to Hull Heads and then Tully Heads on the coast and were sorry to see that so much cyclone damage there is still apparent with the local houses here which must have taken the full force of Cyclone Yasi as it crossed the coast there. After this we drove inland and up to the Tully Gorge some 45kms inland. At the end of the road high in the mountains is a Hydro-Electric power station. White water rafting is carried out along this section of the Tully River and wonderful waterfalls occur as waterways flow into the river over basalt outcrops (photo). On the way back we headed back towards the coast and south near the mouth of the Murray River, which is definitely crocodile country so after trying a few quick casts from the boat ramp we quickly left and headed back to the Tully showgrounds.
We finished fencing at Bill & Lyn's property yesterday and today we ventured south of Tully again to a property in the hills near Murray Falls owned by Deb. They are building a new house upon the property and as the road to the house passes through the rainforest there was trees down everywhere and after spending the morning chainsawing and clearing debris we ventured down to the steam nearby before lunch and Peter slipped on the rocks and fell in! During the day we spotted another cassowary and so many beautiful butterflies everywhere. After finishing our volunteering work we took a look at "The Golden Gumboot" in Tully, which is the height of the highest yearly rainfall ever recorded here. (Photo)
Finally after trying to photograph the huge Ulysses butterflies around Tully today we managed to find one in the garden of the property upon which we were working today. They are huge butterflies which in the rain-forests you think that they are birds flying past and they very rarely stop still long enough to get a good shot. Rain finally stopped and it was quite warm today here and a little overcast at times. Lesley spotted a huge Goanna as we drove out of the property today but we were not quick enough to grab a photo of it.
Tonight we are camped north of Mossman overlooking a beach just south of Wonga Beach. After leaving our camp this morning we traveled into Port Douglas, but alas it is just a place full of tourist apartment hotels etc... a real dive indeed not worth the detour off the highway at all. Northwards again to Mossman and out to Mossman Gorge, where we went for a self-guided tour only to realise afterwards that you are supposed to only go on a guided tour with a local aboriginal guide... oh well!
