There and back again

Two weeks have sped by since I last made an update. We certainly have no problem in filling in our days and it is quite a while since we had a day where we did nothing. After our stay at Lake Tinaroo we spent a day at Mareeba, the major town in the Atherton Tablelands. Around Mareeba there are several coffee plantations and we visited a couple of them and bought some nice coffee. The country around Atherton and Mareeba is rolling hills with rich red soil and a common crop is mango, but unfortunately it is out of season now.
We then went to Cairns where we spent a few days. While there we went on a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We were on a catamaran with about 78 others (including a couple of Kiwis that we had run into the day before while in the Botanic gardens) and it took us about 2 hours to motor out to the reef. First we stopped at Paradise reef where there was nothing showing above the water but the coral was in places only about 2 metres below the surface. There was an amazing array of corals and fish. It was too much to take in with all the different shapes and colours of coral and all the different brightly and gaily coloured fish. Many fish were swimming just out of arms reach and were unconcerned that we were there. We snorkelled there for a couple of hours before lunch was served. After lunch we went to Michaelmas Cay, which was about 10 minutes away. We had been there before on a reef trip a few years ago. The cay is a sandy island and is a sanctuary. The birds and other wildlife get to use most of the island and the human visitors only a few square metres. The water wasn't quite as clear there and while there was a lot of coral it didn't have the variety of colours as at Paradise Reef. Here we saw some very big clams about half a metre wide. We had another hour snorkelling here before going back to the boat and returning to Cairns at 5pm. It was a fantastic day out.

We then motored about 100km up the coast to Wonga Beach and from here we went on a day trip to Cape Tribulation. The road to the cape is sealed all the way and to get across the Daintree River we had to take a small ferry, as there is no bridge. We drove through tropical rainforest that goes all the way to the beach and there is not a high-rise building to be seen. Most lodges and houses are generally hidden in the forest. We saw several lovely beaches, white sand and palm trees but no swimming as there are crocodiles around, such a shame as the water is warm and the temperatures at least mid 20’s. We had a picnic lunch at the cape before returning the way we had come. A highlight of the trip was seeing a cassowary. We had stopped to walk through the forest on a boardwalk and there was a cassowary chick fossicking around the car park area. While taking it’s photo it walked within a metre or so of us. Before returning to camp we went on a boat cruise on the Daintree River where we saw 4 crocodiles of varying sizes. The biggest was about 3 metres long and the smallest only about 40 centimetres (almost cute). We also saw a green tree snake, which was 2 metres long.

Our drive from Wonga Beach to Cooktown took us through sugar cane plantations, and then when we were 50km away from the coast and had climbed 400 metres we were in semi arid tree dotted grasslands. We spent an interesting hour or so at the Cooktown museum where they have a section on Captain Cook’s visit to the area. There were excerpts from his journal about his visit in 1770, after being stranded on the Endeavour reef. We went to the spot where 239 years and 1 day earlier Captain Cook beached the Endeavour. The museum also had an anchor and cannon from the Endeavour that were salvaged in the 1970's. Cook jettisoned these in an attempt to refloat the ship when it ran aground.

We were camping near Cooktown with friends, Mary & Tom, who we met a couple of weeks earlier. We decided to go on a day trip together to Cape Tribulation via the Bloomfield Track (the coastal route). This is a 4WD recommended route and while the road is generally in good condition there are a few river crossings and some steep sections. It is now the dry season and the river crossings were no problem but it would be a different story after some rain. We arrived back at the camp with a good coating of grey dust over the truck.

A couple of days later the dust on the truck took on a reddish hue when we went on an overnight camp out in the Lakefield National Park, north west of Cooktown. Along with Mary and Tom we went from Cooktown to Laura via Battle Camp road. Battle Camp is the site of where there was a battle between aborigines and settlers. The road was another 4WD road and apart from a rough patches here and there and a few river crossings it was a good gravel/dirt road. We found a lovely camping spot beside Horseshoe lagoon. The water had lots of white water lilies and a few purple ones. Egrets, ducks and jacana birds were feeding in the water and in the evening some cattle also came into the water to feed on the water lilies. It was a bit unnerving at first to hear them splashing about in the water when it was dark as we had read signs saying that crocodile may be present in the water. Once we had used our torches to spot that it was cattle making the noise we were able to relax again. We had a lovely evening watching a red sunset then sitting in front of our campfire while having dinner and chatting.

photo - passenger found inside on the truck window as we were about to leave.

The next day we continued on to the town of Laura and called in at an Aboriginal Dance Festival. There had been a 3 day competition to find the best dance team and as we arrived when it was nearly finished we got in for free. It was interesting to see a couple of teams perform but not something we would want to watch or listen to for very long. It would probably have helped if we understood their culture.

The next day we drove from Cooktown to Mareeba, which is our setting off point for our journey west to Normanton then to Mount Isa and on to the Northern Territory. While in Mareeba we have had an unwelcome noise in our truck diagnosed as a crook rear wheel bearing and have had this fixed. The noise had been there for a while and we initially thought it was a problem with the tyres. We thought the noise was at the front so changed one front tyre and when that didn't fix it we put the original back on and changed the other front tyre but that didn't fix it either. We are carrying 2 spares so put both spares on and still not fixed. The test drive with the mechanic still pointed to a problem at the front and it was when the truck was run on the hoist that the problem was found to be at the back. Needless to say we are good at changing tyres now! I guess if it was going to happen here was a good place to get it sorted out as once we start heading west there will be a lot of kilometres between major centres.

Into the Tropics

We stopped in Townsville for a couple of nights. It is a nice city, mainly flat with some big rocky hills here and there. We spent a day looking around the city and did some shopping and part of the next day was spent returning the things that didn’t work or didn’t fit properly!

In Queensland the opportunity to free camp has been greater than in NSW, so we are using the free camps as much as possible. They generally provide a place to park up, a toilet block and sometimes have showers and drinkable water. We find these camps much more social, and they are usually occupied by people who are travelling like us, rather than parked up for a prolonged holiday. There is usually a restriction of up to 3 night's stay, sometimes only one night. Another advantage of these camps is that you can often light a campfire, which is nice to eat ones dinner beside, sup wine and bake the odd scone.

We spent 2 nights at a free camp at Toomulla beach, about 50 km up the road from Townsville. The camp was a few metres from the beach and at low tide low tide we picked up many different and interesting shells. There were different kinds of coral washed up on the beach too. We drove Paluma, a small village surrounded by tropical rain forest, 800 metres above sea level. While we were there we saw Ulysses butterflies with a brilliant blue on the upper wings. Unfortunately they never stopped long enough for me to take a photograph.

We had an interesting day at Paranella Park, not far from Innisfail. The park is set on 13 acres beside a stream and in the 1930’s it’s creator Jose Paranella set about building his castle and gardens. Today most of the buildings are in ruins. The scale of what he created is impressive and the tropical forest has enhanced the beauty of the ruins. Our entry fee included both day and night time tours through the park and a free stay at the adjacent camping ground.

We had one more stop on the coast at Brampton Beach before heading inland to Lake Tinaroo in the Atherton Highlands. The lake is renowned for barramundi and red claw crayfish so we headed there armed with a trap for red claw. We camped at a Qld National Parks camp, which is on the shore of the lake and is amongst regenerating rain forest. We found a spot 60 metres back from the lake and slightly elevated so we have great view. Our campsite is screened from other sites by trees and we have a fireplace beside us for our campfire. We set our trap and the first day caught 8 red claw. They are quite small crayfish and the tails of the 8 gave us about 2 cups of meat, which tastes very similar to the NZ crayfish – yum. The next day we caught a further 3 red claw and the following day only 1. We did have an empty trap and no bait that morning so maybe they escaped after eating the bait or maybe someone else cleared out trap. It is Queens Birthday weekend in Australia so there are a lot of people at the camp. There are no designated sites and lot’s of space so every one is well spread out.

As our travels continue kookaburra have become commonplace. At almost every camp if we don’t see them we hear them. At Lake Tinaroo we had barely got set up when a kookaburra came and perched on the end of our awning. It didn’t mind us walking by within a metre of it. Fortunately their laughter in the early morning doesn’t disturb us too much.