8th November to 18th November 2011

8^th November 2011

To celebrate the birthday of the world’s best mum (Barry’s) we drove into Townsville to the visitor centre which totally fooled our Navman as it has moved.  However, we parked outside the Museum and walked to the new visitor centre whilst taking photos in the surrounding vicinity of some of the old buildings.  We also had a bought lunch whilst there and walked back to look over the museum. 

This visit was cut short with a phone call to let us know that Foxy had escaped, found a convenient human in the caravan park and jumped up on his lap.  Fortunately her ID disc has our phone number on it, which is how he knew who to phone.  The park is very poorly designed, and our bay in particular has a fire hydrant with a concrete base right at the end of our concrete pad which stops us pegging the annex wall down to the ground.  This allowed our little troublemaker to get out underneath the wall, but we have now made modifications that should stop her little game.   Originally we were going to stop at a park 20kms south of Townville that claims to be quiet and peaceful but we decided to cut out the journeys back and forth and opted for the one near town.  This was a mistake as it looks nice from the outside but is badly designed making it diabolical to get the van into the allotted bay. Having eventually managed that without damage we found the pad is way too long to be able to put both front and back annex walls up as you can’t peg down the front wall down on the concrete.  We then found out that we couldn’t peg the back one down either, hence our little problem.  Add to that the fact that we had no idea that it is close to the domestic airfield plus a military airfield, a railway and a truck route, so it rather noisy.  There are domestic flights coming and going along with fly in/out mining flights and numerous military helicopters doing their manoeuvres during the day and evening.  On the brighter side, it is marginally cooler and not quite so humid.  From what we have seen of Townsville has assured us that we have no desire to live here but that also applies to all other cities and large towns.  After living in the Pilbara for about 16 years even Geraldton will feel too big by the time we get back to it. The problem will be finding somewhere that suits both of us and is still in touch with a decent shopping centre, medical assistance and suitable weather conditions.

10^th November

The bulk of the day was used for organising the next few weeks and juggling photos between our several external hard drives in the theory that this keeps our computer hard drives relatively free from photos, and if any of the external ones die we still have back-up. 

After dinner we drove into Townsville and up the steep winding road to the summit of Castle Hill that offers great views across the city both da and night, and will be doing it again in daylight.  There are six lookouts around the top of the hill to allow views in all directions and heights, and apparently plenty of unofficial lookouts, as we saw several idiots climbing back over the handrails after checking out the sheer drop.  Townsville is the second largest town in Queensland and as the views from the hill prove, it stretches a long way.  It was quite windy up there which actually made the night photography not-so-good as our tripods aren’t the most substantial units and allowed movement in some cases.

 11^th November 2011

About mid-morning we drove through to The Strand which is the Townsville beach area that has a regular swimming pool at one end and a couple of kilometres of well kept beach stretching out from it.  There is an attractive walkway along the length of this beach area with numerous kids’ play areas and surprisingly allowed dogs on leads so Foxy got to enjoy herself, and had free parking.  It was a very warm, humid day so after returning for lunch we stayed home and watched the Australian open golf tournament during the afternoon. 

12^th November 2011

We drove up castle hill again in daylight to see what we were actually looking at on our night time visit and found that it was still quite breezy at this altitude.  Whilst the views from the top are great they don't match up to the views from Mt Wellington overlooking Hobart.  We visited most but not all of the lookouts that we visited during our night time trip and despite the breeze were able to get some good photos thanks to daylight and faster shutter speeds.

After our descent we visited Queens Gardens, which also allowed dogs on leads, and spent an hour walking through the compact, but lovely, gardens.  We watched the golf again in the afternoon but did go out for some shopping at a large shopping complex with almost impossible parking arrangements.

13^th November 2011

We drove through town to the Botanic Gardens which you can drive through which was just as well as had nothing other than a Lilly filled lake to hold your interest so a few photos later we moved on to the Palmetum (botanic garden) which was totally different to the usual botanic garden, but still not as pleasant to walk around as Queens Gardens.  It has numerous segregated areas for different nationality species including a rainforest complete with bats. e then weaved our way through an upmarket estate along the Ross River to the Rivers Bend Lookout which is nicely presented and overlooks over a weir which at this point of time has no water flowing over it. 

We then drove to the ‘Jupiters’ casino and into the end of The Strand that we didn’t explore a couple of days ago. 

There is a regular outdoor swimming pool that doesn’t appear to get much use and on one side is a kids’ water playground that is fully utilised and on the other side is the war memorial. 

On the other side of the road is small cliff with a hotel/resort/ fancy house on the top with a waterfall down the cliff face to a pond at the bottom.  There is a pump house alongside the pool so we assume the water is pumped back up and probably through the swimming pool attached to the property.  It is very effective, and unexpected, at the side of the road in a town. We then headed home to watch the last day’s golf on the TV as the days is getting hot and humid again.  In the evening we treated ourselves to dinner at the local ‘Sizzlers’ which wasn’t too busy when we arrived but it soon filled out.  We were lucky as they placed us in a room separate to the main dining room which kept us away from the screaming kids so that we could enjoy the experience, which we did until we tried their disgusting coffee, so we left that and went home for some drinkable coffee.

 14^th November 2011

We packed up and moved on to Bowan where we stopped overnight on our way to Jeane and Marks place in Sarina (south of Mackay) were we stayed before. On arrival at the Bowan caravan park that we used last time there was no-one in the office so we retreated to one just up the road which was good from the noise point of view as we were a fair way from the road with no-one else around.  We were almost on the salt flats with no shade so we wouldn’t want to stay more than overnight.

15^th November 2011

We continued on our way to Sarina and arrived at Mark and Jeane’s just after lunch.  They have made a lot of changes to the surrounds round the house, and as expected, the modification that was made to the gate to let us get the van out last time made it very easy to get into the garden area this time.

16^th November 2011

We settled in at Jeane and Marks and did very little other than take Foxy for a walk along Armstrong Beach in the afternoon.

17^th November 2011

We took the Patrol to Mackay for its 110,000kms service and as it was a fairly hot day and we walk the town last time we were here we stopped off for a coffee at a cafe whilst we waited for the cinema to open.  Half an hour later we left and went to the cinema to watch a film called ‘Eye of the storm’ which is a 2 hour film, but we walked out half way through because it was a load of boring rubbish.   We decided to look for somewhere to have lunch and realised that we had left the morning cafe without paying for the coffees, so we went there to make amends but their computer system had nothing outstanding for that table.  It brought up our order as paid so either someone else paid it, or their system is not so good.  Either way it didn’t cost us anything so we stopped for lunch which we paid for this time.   We them walked along to the Nissan Service centre which coincided perfectly with the car being ready and proceeded to Caneland Central (the largest Mackay shopping centre) as Merry had a few requirements needed for her wardrobe, and then headed back to Sarina.

26th October to 7th November 2011

26^th October 2011

Yesterday was spent some time doing some shopping in Atherton and then packed up camp again ready to move on in the morning as the weather has cleared quite significantly.  We headed towards the coast to our pre-arrange destination at Paronella Park near Innisfail. 

Entry to the Park is $33 per person for pensioners and includes a 2 year pass for future free visits and an overnight stop in their caravan/camping section.  The price is the same whether you stopover or not so in effect the stopover is free.  The park was built as a dream by Jose Paronella and includes 2 castles, one for dances, etc, and the other as a cafe to service the bowls and tennis courts plus the house that he and his family lived in. 

The waterfall on the Mena creek was already there but he diverted some of the water in 1933 to drive a hydro-electric service (the first privately owned one in Queensland) to power the Park.  The generator was replaced a few years ago and is now providing all of the electricity to the park again.   He also built a tunnel through a hill on the property and emerged on the other side to find another small waterfall which he named Teresa Falls after his daughter. 

His concrete is not particularly waterproof so the tunnel is quite wet and now has a colony of micro-bats living in there.  It is a 13 acre property on which they planted 7000 trees and also has some ponds and fountains that are gravity fed from the Mena Creek waterfall.  There have been several floods in the Park during exceptional wet seasons and also a fire in1979 that destroyed much of the castle, including the ballroom/cinema.  We did the early afternoon tour which was probably a mistake as Val and Barry (2) did the one after us and they were the only ones on it whereas we has about 15 including an extremely annoying kid. 

We also did the evening tour to try out the night time photography again which was also difficult as it turned out that two groups did the tour and somehow merged so you needed a lot of luck to get a photo without some or many ignorant  idiots walking in front of you.  Barry eventually let them know how ignorant they were and then stood in front of them.  We had a late dinner and then walked round the park with our torches and no other people and collected some good photos and video. 

We also did the lot again in the morning before the rabble arrived and without standing around listening to the history lesson from the tour guide.  It took about 5 years to build the castles, house and gardens but it didn’t take long for Cyclone Larry and a fire to destroy a lot of it, but there is enough to see how grand it must have been in the 1930s.

27^th October 2011

We have now changed from our intended trip south to Kurrimine and turned north to Cairns for a week in order to visit the Botanic Gardens and allow us to see the town.

28^th October 2011

We had a lazy day but we did take Foxy for a morning walk alongside the creek that runs around the extremely nice Caravan Park.  There are a lot of fallen trees, both across the pathway and in the creek, as a result of cyclone Yasi that haven’t been cleared away except for cutting sections out that were blocking the path.   This leaves the creek looking not-so-attractive but is as nature intended, and would cost a lot to clear it even if you could get appropriate equipment in there to do the job.  The walk took us to a park where some of it has been put aside for dogs to exercise and then returned via the road back to the caravan park.  By this time the typical Cairns/tropical humidity had well and truly set in for the day so that we arrived back rather damp and uncomfortable.  The caravan park seems to host a vast variety of birds based on the bird noises, as we have seen very few due to the dense foliage on the trees.  Some of them carry on throughout the night so we have no idea when they sleep, or if they sleep.

31^st October 2011

We drove up to Copperlode Dam and its associated Lake Morris which entailed a slow drive up a very narrow, twisty road over a mountain and into the valley on the other side.  The ascent meant that we were on the outside of the road which provided both horizontal and vertical views, but being the driver Barry didn’t see much of it as he had more important things to concentrate on. We stopped at a lookout on the way up for views over Cairns and out to sea. 

The surrounds of the now closed kiosk and the viewing areas of the lake and dam are attractively done but the dam wall itself nothing special other than the fact that it holds back a lot of water.  It was rather surprising to find that since the kiosk closed the shire council has installed an electric urn and the provisions for a complimentary cup of tea or coffee until someone takes on the vacant lease.

From the Dam, and after our cuppa, we headed down the one and only second gear road to the city beachfront, and were surprised once again when our Navman suggested we turned right in 100 metres at Roberts Road.  We can only assume that would have been the road that we would have landed on, had we turned right into mid-air 500 metres up.  We have found that a lot of the Queensland mapping has been rather poor. 

We had our lunch in much the same spot as on our last visit as it either impossible to find parking space closer to the CBD and the swimming lagoon as it not advisable to swim in the ocean because of jellyfish stingers at this time of the year and the good chance of befriending a saltwater crocodile.   After lunch we walked along the beachfront with Foxy to the edge of the ‘No Dogs’ swimming area where Barry waited with Foxy whilst Merry checked out what the area had to offer.   The beachfront is nicely laid out with plenty of entertainment for young kids with a shallow water area with slides and fountains and also play areas with swings, etc, plus BBQ and picnic areas with well tended gardens.

1^st November 2011

 Another big day for us with a trip to the Botanic Gardens which started with a free guided tour and then left to explore on our own.  This is by far the most interesting botanic garden that we have visited as the variety of plants in flower is huge and vastly different to what we are accustomed to.  

Our visit was timed just right as they officially opened the new visitor centre last Friday which is a spectacular building  with an unusual shape and uses very dark tinted glass as its outer covering which acts as a mirror which makes it quite hard to see as it camouflaged by reflections of the surrounding trees. 

The garden is reasonably compact rather than vast area of lawn which is typical of the wet tropics and includes a wetland boardwalk on the other side of the road, but we didn’t find this part particularly good as we have already walked through this type of country quite often and didn’t appreciate the mosquitoes. 

When we emerged from the wetland area we had our lunch and explored the good side again on our own and got to see a few areas that we hadn’t been taken to on the tour. This included some art exhibitions inside some huge WW2 oil storage tanks but these exhibitions where photos of various wars and their atrocities which we didn’t need to subject ourselves too, so we returned to the gardens.  About mid afternoon when we had seen everything at least twice we headed homeward but continued past the caravan park to Redlynch to get a small amount of shopping. 

On the way we saw a signpost to Crystal Cascades which appealed to us so we gave them a visit after the shopping. 

It is part of Freshwater Creek which is fed from Lake Morris that we visited yesterday, and from the carpark it is possible to walk 1.2km alongside the creek on paved, bituminised and/or concrete roadway overlooking numerous small waterfalls, rapids and pools.  Some of the pools are designated swimming holes with steps down to them whilst other areas which are not so safe have unofficial tracks down to them despite the warnings that lives have been lost in these areas.  This probably happens when the rains cause the spillway at the side of the dam to overflow and allow a torrent of water down the creek which in turn attracts young invincibles to try their luck.  The roadway is eventually closed off at a point where a slightly larger waterfall can only be seen properly by climbing over the safety rail to move to the edge of the gorge in order to see the base of the fall.  It would have made sense to install a safe viewing platform so that people like us don’t need to climb over it to complete the view.  On our return to the caravan park we collected Foxy from a woman who looks after dogs for $10 a day that we had used for this trip.

2^nd November 2011-11

It rained during the night and into the morning so today was restricted to an afternoon trip into Cairns for some specialised shopping after it had cleared up and on our return so we had the chance to pack up the annex whilst it was dry in readiness for our move tomorrow.

3^rd November 2011

We headed south towards Kurramine as intended a week ago but took time out to deviate at Babinda to visit ‘The Boulders’ which we had heard about on a few occasions.   There is a very pleasant picnic area including a kids’ playground alongside a creek fed from the State’s highest mountain that presents a beautiful pebble-bottomed swimming pool alongside the picnic area. 

However, when you walk the 650 metres downstream it becomes a raging cauldron of water as the gorge narrows over boulders and water chutes cut through rock over the years.  It is very impressive and apparently very dangerous (which is rather obvious) and would be horrific in the wet season after some heavy rain.  It has an aboriginal love story attached to its history but that seems to apply to most of these places.

It claims that the several lives that have been lost over the more recent years are young men trying to find the love of the young girl who supposedly threw herself in because she could not have her true love from the wrong tribe.  In truth they where young idiots who thought they could bodysurf the water chutes and had their tiny brains knocked out.  One glance says you don’t go in there, even on a good day.  When we arrived back at the picnic area we were very surprised to have the pleasant company of a cassowary which are apparently struggling since cyclone Yasi destroyed a lot of their natural habitat and sightings are quite rare. 

We travelled on to an overnight free stay just north of Innisfail where we unhitched the caravan and explored the town for a few hours before settling in for the night.  The campsite was rather noisy, as would be expected with it being on a junction of the Bruce Highway and Palmerston Highway, but we managed.

4^th November 2011

We left the free campsite and drove out Flying Fish Point which didn’t inspire us in any way so returned through the out edge of Innisfail and back to the Bruce Highway and took the turn off to Etty Beach.  This turned out to be one of the useful townships that let you drive 20kms to get there and inform 50 metres from town that it is a No Dog area with a second sign saying No Dogs beyond this point.  They don’t have the sense to put a sign up at the beginning of the road and they also don’t have the sense to put in an area where you can turn round at this point, especially with a caravan, so Foxy got to have a look at a most pathetic beach and township.  Its claim to fame was the fact that it was an area for American troops to have R & R during WW2 from the South Asia area.  We moved on after a10 minute stop to visit other beaches but decided to leave out Crowley Beach and continued on to Mission Beach.  We had been led to believe this was a great place but it did nothing for us but it did allow time and an appropriate shop to buy the gear to make and fit a second pole carrier to the caravan.

5^th November 2011

We moved on to have a look at South Mission Beach but that didn’t inspire us either so continued south to Tully.  We called in at the visitors centre to inquire about Tully Gorge, as we had seen a sign pointing to it, and also discovered that a Murray Falls is in the area so decided to stay in the area for a night to give us a chance to check them out.  A free campsite was suggested by the visitors centre staff but on arrival at it (19kms out of town) it actually was dump wanting $13 a night with no power, no water and you can’t run a generator.  We returned to the caravan park in town which is nothing special as it more a work camp than a van park, but closer to the areas we wanted to visit.  However, since our arrival and setting up in the park, it has rained almost continuously, quite hard at times with thunder, so we will do the trips tomorrow all being well, which should show the waterfall at its best, and then stay another night to leave on Monday.  We did manage to fit a new non-return valve on the water inlet so that our pump doesn’t pump water back out from our tanks when we stay in free camps.  We also have to find somewhere to buy a new ‘U’ bolt for one of our ride levellers as it has been damaged clipping a speed hump.  Tully is still struggling to recover from cyclone Yasi with many building still using tarps a s roofs.

6^th November 2011

It rained hard enough during the night to disturb us several times but come morning it has eased off, at least temporarily, but still there is still light drizzle to contend with.  We checked out the town and very surprisingly found a hardware store that was open and bought our new ‘U’ bolt.  After lunch we drove out to Tully Gorge despite more rain. 

We visited Tully Gorge from the Ravenshoe side where the lookout gave a view into the Gorge from the top, whereas today we drove beside and slightly above the river actually in the gorge with a few lookouts tracks down to the water’s edge. 

The road ended at the hydroelectric power station fed from the water that is diverted away from Tully Falls.  At this point is a launching arrangement for rafts for people to white water raft down the river if they so desire ending at the picnic area where we stopped at the water’s edge earlier.  

We then returned to Tully and the main road to head south and then west again to visit Murray Falls which was performing well with the last 36 hours of good rain.  The fall is not especially high, or wide, but makes for a good view despite the light rain, and has a day use area for safe swimming a little further downstream.

7^th November 2011

We moved on to Townsville with a brief stop at Cardwell, which also suffered badly from Yasi as it is a beachfront town, to visit the Old Post office and Telegraph station which was very well presented and interesting.  We also had a very brief stop at Bluewater Park, about 20kms north of Townsville and almost chose to stay at this free camp, but moved on to a caravan park just out of Townsville.