Cassowary Coast

SOUTH MISSION BEACH a lovely beach with views across to Dunk Island, another island just off here is the elite Bedarra Island, you will need a very large bank account to enjoy a stay there. At the caravan park where we are, are hundreds of white lipped frogs that make a real racket in the evenings. 

TULLY holds the title as one of the wettest towns in Australia with an average rainfall of 4 metres a year. The Golden Gumboot is 7.9 metres high which was the rainfall recorded in 1950.

CASSOWARY with chicks, alas we did not see them on our rainforest walk today, these were models outside the information centre. The males have the job of raising the chicks and they don’t get their black plumage until about 9 months old.

PAUL PHONING HOME checking up on relations to see how they got on after the 7.1 on the Richter scale earthquake in Christchurch, all was well thank goodness.

Catching Up

US WITH ANDY AND RUTH friends who live in Cairns, who we caught up with last night and had dinner with. Our time in Port Douglas is drawing to a close, we were due to leave on Sunday but have decided to start our journey south on Friday as the weather has been unseasonally wet for August, so may as well hit the road. Have been to the beach a few times, got some books read and photos sorted for a photo frame, still need to cull again for an album, so all good.

A Dream Comes To Life

PARONELLA PARK Back in 1935 a Spaniard, Jose Paronella built a castle with ballroom that transformed into a movie theatre, 2 tennis courts and a picnic area beside the water on 13 acres beside Mena Creek falls, he even generated power from the water falls, pretty unique when other homes in the area did not get power until 1952.

The castle has been destroyed by fire, damaged by floods and devastated by cyclone Larry but the grounds and property is still open to the public after some fellow ‘caravaners” in 1993 called in for a visit and bought it.

KAURI AVENUE created amongst the 13 acres of tropical plants and trees. For more info - wwwparonellapark.com.au/highres

JOSEPHINE FALLS A nice easy walk to these falls in part of the Wooroonooran National Park which flows from Bartle Frere, Queensland’s highest mountain.

THE BOULDERS south of Cairns inland from Babinda which is a really nice town, the gorge must look spectacular in the wet season. There seem to be so many places that would be great to brave the wet weather to revisit and watch in all their glory.

The Tableland

GILLIES HIGHWAY LOOKOUT On our trip to Port Douglas with the van in tow we travelled down this windy highway from the tablelands so no chance to stop. Today we revisited the area and it was a lovely clear day with views across the valley to Gordonvale.

CATHEDRAL FIG TREE The tree is spectacular and the board states that the weight of the leaves alone is equal to a small car, a girth of 44 metres, the crown covers 2000 square metres, it is 48 metres tall and is around 500 years old. The rainforest around it was lovely with an abundance of bird life.

LAKE TINAROO we did the Danbulla Forest Drive around this dam which was built to service the Barron River hydro scheme. There were a lot of people camping and it is meant to have a great source of barramundi. The spillway would look very impressive in the wet season.

The tableland has a variety of crops; sugar, bananas, mangos, lychees, coffee and potatoes to name just a few.

R and R

THE INLET,  Port Douglas we have been really lazy the last few days and have mastered doing not much. Weather has been kind and the beach has been lovely, August seems to be a great time to visit here, we highly recommend it.

Back in Paradise

FOUR MILE BEACH,  Port Douglas this morning. After all our travels this is still our favourite holiday destination. Since we got here on Sunday the weather has been a bit ordinary but somehow the days have flown by. We did pop into Cairns on Tuesday to get the tyres rotated and do some shopping, funny being back in the big smoke, two lanes of traffic, round abouts, traffic lights and lots of cars. It is really nice to be set up for a few weeks, funny not getting up in the morning and go, go, go.

FOUR MILE BEACH, Port Douglas this afternoon, it was lovely to see clear blue skies, bit of a strong wind coming off the sea though. Have spent a few hours today sorting out photos to get printed, a job I have been delaying, but good to have under way.

CAR WASH Paul giving our house on wheels a much needed wash on our way north to Port Douglas, so nice to be rid of  most of that red dust.

Back to the Tropics

EMU AND CHICK on our  way yesterday to Mt Surprise, they sure do blend in with the surroundings. It was a lovely easy drive from Normanton, with savannah and then some ranges close to our destination.

ATHERTON TABLELANDS it was great to see green rolling hills after the last few months. We are now in Cairns and have travelled 2357 km's since leaving Katherine on Sunday. It was nice to park up today and actually set up our house on wheels, even though it is only for two nights. Sara's Mum is here in the park so we have had a chin wag and will catch up tomorrow. Tonight we are meeting other friends who live here, so very social.