18th July 2012
Richard and the kids took a long
walk/clamber over the boulders beyond the wallaby feeding area in the morning
to a waterfall and back in the morning and went swimming near the weir in the
afternoon. We did some shopping in
Mareeba in an effect to keep up with the way food seems to evaporate with Ric
and the kids around, but Barry mainly rested his foot which has developed a
problem with the Achilles heel which has brought him to a standstill, hopefully
temporarily.
19th July 2012
Barry’s foot is better to the point that he
can hobble short distances so didn’t go with Ric, Rory, Jack and Merry on the
walk/clamber to the waterfall to show it to Merry.
20th July 2012
We drove to Tinaroo Dam wall and then on
around the Lake to the Cathedral Fig Tree and then stopped off at Lake Barrine
for a picnic lunch. We then moved on to
Lake Eacham where they could have had a swim but chickened out as it was a
pleasant but breezy day so took the hour plus walk around the lake whilst Barry
continued resting his dodgy heel which is slowly improving.
21st July 2012
Richard and the kids spent their last
totally free day in the rocks and in the water hole plus feeding the turtles,
birds and wallabies.
22nd July 2012
We packed up the tent, etc in the morning
and took Ric and the kids to Cairns airport to catch their flight out to
Brisbane where they part, with the kids flying to Canberra and Ric flying to
Perth. We made our way back up the
mountain to Mareeba were we will be remaining for a couple more days. Ric and
the kids had made friends with the woman managing the campground and as a
result chose not to charge us for the extra two days that we elected to stay
here for. That was accepted gratefully.
23rd July 2012
As it is an overcast day with a cold breeze
we chose to do the bulk of the remaining washing, cleaning and packing. Barry’s foot problem is still improving so
tomorrow could be the day to walk/clamber to the waterfall.
24th July 2012
The weather is much warmer, no cold breeze,
so we tackled the 2kms walk/clamber over the rocks where the kids would have
been rock hopping. For us it was a
struggle but we survived and Barry’s foot doesn’t seem any the worse for
it. We only met one other group of three
much younger people on the route so despite the number of people in the
campsite, which seems to be very popular and includes day tripper and bus
tours, it appears not too many get much beyond visiting and feeding the
wallabies, which seems to be a big deal for overseas visitors.
25th July 2012
We finalised the packing and moved off to the
Daintree Rain Forests on Cape Tribulation with a stop in Mossman to do some
final shopping to stock up for a week as there is only a small, expensive IGA
store in the Cape. The alternative is an
80km trip back to Mossman which would include having to use the ferry each time
at $10 per return trip. We then caught
the ferry across the Daintree River and made for Lync-Haven Caravan Park which
is quiet, restful and very dark at night with several rainforest walks
available and there are several cruises available, either on the Daintree River
or the Coopers Creek, to see the wildlife including Crocodiles. We set up the camp and then discovered there
is no Internet, no TV and very limited phone access. In our case, we were able to set up our
satellite dish on the other side of the road to where we are parked with the
cable running across the ground so that the dish could see the sky through a
gap in the tree tops at the correct angle, and elevation, and were able to
watch TV.
27th July 2012
The day started with a Cassowary visiting
the campsite before we drove to the Daintree Rainforest Discovery Centre and
enjoyed the walks and the view from the tree top tower, but unfortunately didn’t
see any wildlife. The entry fee for the
Centre initially sounds a bit high but it includes the use of audio units with
keyboards to type in the displayed numbers and then listen to the information
related to that particular area, and also a booklet that you keep which costs
$9.50 if bought separately, that contains a map of the site and explains the
flora, fruit and poisoning effects of the fruit. The entry fee is valid for a week which
allows multiple visits if you so desire and is well worth the visit. That took us up to lunch time so drove the
short distance out to Cow Bay Beach and used one of the available tables for
our picnic lunch prior to taking Foxy for a walk on the beach. We then drove back to the ferry to find out
the details of the river cruise which operates from the other side of the
river. We didn’t want to pay to use the
ferry again so we phoned and booked for tomorrow and they collect us from a
small landing beside the ferry docking point.
On the return journey we turned off to a lookout with view over the bay
and then continued on to check out the details of the crocodile cruise on
Coopers Creek. This amounted to a phone
call again which didn’t raise anybody but may have been returned later in the
day but the reception wasn’t good enough to talk to anybody. We drove on to Thornton Beach and took Foxy
for another walk along the beach back the Creek estuary but staying well away
from the water’s edge so as not to offer ourselves up to any crocs that may be
lurking in the shallows. On the way home
we stopped, once whilst a Cassowary crossed the road a few cars ahead of us but
by the time we got to it we only photographed the back end disappearing into
the bush, and again at a roadside stall to purchase some locally grown Daintree
Tea.
As arranged, we met the solar driven cruise
boat alongside the ferry and being the only passengers at this point we had the
pick of the seating, and as luck would have it chose the right place, at the
front on the correct side of the boat.
The boat cruised along one side of the river which was on the side of
the boat that we had chosen so we had an uninterrupted view of the bank and the
crocs that were sun baking there. The
passengers on the other side of the boat got the same on the way back but
didn’t get to stop at each croc like we did on the outward trip.
We saw four crocs from very young to quite
huge plus a green frog and a Striated Heron, however, having seen crocs before
it wasn’t a particularly enthralling trip for us but it was quite cheap, and
the overseas visitors were obviously impressed. We decided not to bother with the cruise on
the Cooper Creek as that is another croc hunt in the mangroves.
29th July 2012
As Barry started to take Foxy for her
morning constitutional walk they left the caravan and almost walk headlong into a cassowary with its
chick walking past our bay, so retreated with Foxy who wanted to take it on,
and grabbed his camera. Merry extracted
herself from her bed and hurriedly dressed and immerged with her camera in time
to see them both retreat into the bush. Barry
was more successful with several good shots and some video. This is the fourth Cassowary that we have
seen since arriving in the Far North of Queensland despite the fact that their
numbers have declined since cyclones Larry and Yasi. The chick is old enough to have outgrown its
striped appearance and now has a brown appearance, the equivalent to our
teenage years, and has yet to turn black and develop a coloured neck and head. After lunch we drove out to Jinbalda Boardwalk
which is a 700 metre walk through the rainforest, however on arrival we found
there is a second walk 2.7km long on a rough steep track, so naturally we took
that walk which lived up to its description but offered little for
photographs. When it rejoined the
boardwalk track we did that circuit also which didn’t offer much more other
than a smooth surface to walk on.
30th July 2012
Had a lazy morning but took the on-site
rainforest walk and found some Penny Turtles and a spotted fish in the creek,
but no cassowaries today.
31st July 2012
We drove to the end of the bitumen and
visited a look out of a bay and then did the 1.7km rainforest walk and then on
the return trip stopped for a bought lunch and then walked another boardwalk
out to the beach. We continued the
return trip with another stop at yet another boardwalk which was different to
the previous ones, and diverted to the beach which turned out to be the same
beach as before but further along it. We
then had another stop for another 1.2km boardwalk but this time through a
swampy area and we were lucky enough to photo both male and female Shining
Flycatchers.
This was a big day out with a drive along
the 30kms Bloomfield 4WD track to visit the Bloomfield waterfall. The track is only classified 4WD only because
the extra ground clearance is an advantage as there are five creek crossings to
negotiate although not particularly deep at the moment. Some patches were rough but in general quite
reasonable and we never had the need to use 4WD, however we did require bottom
gear on several occasions to get up the hills.
A couple of the severe hills have been concreted and are so steep you
feel that the vehicle will tip over backwards and without the concrete road
would need the use of the low range gears.
The final river crossing is across the Bloomfield River via a culvert
type bridge that is waiting for repair and then turned upstream for a few
hundred metres to the waterfall car park.
We had taken a chance and taken Foxy with us but there were no ‘No Dog’
signs so she got to walk with us. The
last part of the track involved rock hopping which she managed better than us most
of the time.
The waterfall is on the
other side of the river, which you don’t go too close to as there are crocs in
there, but you can get a good view of the Falls. We parked up near the river crossing for our
picnic lunch and then headed further northward towards Cooktown to the turn off
to Hidden Falls which requires a half hour walk each way from the carpark. It took us about 45 minutes each way as the
last 500 metres is a clamber/climb scramble over boulders and includes a river
crossing. Foxy did very well considering
how small she is but was helped on to a lot of boulders and carried some of the
way including over the water crossing.
It was tough going but we made it and passed several minor waterfalls on
the way. On the way back we came to a T
junction and looked for the pink ribbon indicators to guide the way which turned
us to the right, which led us up a strenuous hill climb which neither of us
remembered coming down but continued following the marker ribbons. Eventually we gave it away and turned back
and discovered the track we were on went to an old mine works, and
that had we seen any pink ribbons to make us turn left we would have had a very
short level walk to the carpark. We
estimate half an hour was wasted climbing the hill and back which was daylight
time we would have preferred to use on the Bloomfield track but we did actually
arrive home in daylight, but only just.
2nd August 2012
We re-visited the Discovery Centre to cover
the part we missed as our entry fee entitled us to re-visit as many times as we
like within 7 days of the original entry.
In the afternoon we started the packing up process ready to move out
tomorrow.
3rd August 2012
We started out with the intention of
stopping at either Mossman or Port Douglas but as we approached Mossman we changed
our minds again and took the long haul back up Mount Malloy and then headed
north to Cooktown. That was about a 300kms
journey over several mountains that took nearly 5 hours including the lunch
break, whereas the 4WD track would have got us there in about 2 hours but is
far too rough for the caravan. The only bitumen road means heading 80kms south
to Mossman before tackling Mt Malloy in a westerly direction almost half way
back to Mareeba before heading north.
