20th July 2011 - Mission Beach

Co-incidence or what!  From the time that we started caravanning, we have followed the blog of a Melbourne couple, Mike & Minette. They sold their house and have been on the road full time for nearly 3 years, and every step of the way Min has entertained and delighted us. They'd been camped at Exmouth & Coral Bay in West Oz for some time, and then we followed them as they rather quickly moved up the coast to Broome (very short stop), and across to Darwin. Meanwhile, we were moving up the east coast and around far north Qld before setting up at Mission Beach. What do we find on day two – the fellow two sites from us was working on his boat, and I struck up a conversation with him. Wheels started to churn; facts seemed to be meshing; his name was Mike, he had a boat, he drove a Toyota LC200, he had a South African accent. Yep, it was they. Hopefully we’ll bump into them again, and share another drink or two. 

The entire ‘Cassowary Coast’ is certainly showing the aftermath of cyclone Yasi. Where once there was thick and lush rainforest, there are now many fallen or bare trees with huge areas that are impenetrable because of the debris.  Dunk Island is but a kilometre or so offshore and suffered the full force of Yasi, is still closed and will remain so for 12 months or more.

Paronella Park (google it) is 20 or so km south of Innisfail and what a magnificent place it is. But, it used to be even better! Cyclone Larry in 2006, then Yasi this year has caused major damage to some buildings. Because of the unique nature these buildings can never be fully restored to what Jose Paronella created all those years ago. If you ever find yourself wondering just what you can achieve, or doubt how much you can do by yourself, visit Paronella. 

Another interesting place is Innisfail. Way back in the early 1900s the town was virtually flattened by a cyclone. The vogue architecture of the era was Art Deco, so many of the new buildings were of that style. Seeing the individual flair that this gave the town, the civic leaders chose to apply pressure to anyone doing a commercial building to use that style. The town now has a specific and definable visual appeal that clearly identifies it as Innisfail. Pity other places didn’t follow and create their own special character.

One of the odd and interesting results of Yasi relates to the amount of damage to the cane crop(s). We did a tour of the Tully sugar mill and were amazed at the range of rubbish that is scooped up by the harvesters – yes, everything including the kitchen sink. It seems that a local was in the process of doing a bit of home renovation and had his new kitchen stored under the carport when Yasi came along and redistributed it into the middle of a nearby cane crop. Come harvest time, it ended up at the mill where the sorting machinery pulled it out and diverted it to the junk bin with all the roof panels, guttering, carports, cycles, and farm machinery.

As we were leaving the mill, our tour guide handed us small packets of “Tully Sugar” with the advice that this was the only way that we could get Tully sugar in Australia!  Tully is now owned by a Chinese Govt company and doesn’t hold a licence to sell within Australia. The entire output is exported to China. 

Mission Beach is a wonder to behold (even in its Yasi modified guise) as it seems to go forever, with each step backed by tropical rainforest or palms, and fronted by an island dotted sea of aquamarine. Typical of Queensland beaches, it is quite shallow and you need to walk out a fair way before you get your bum wet.

Our caravan site is totally surrounded by rainforest that, like all this area, holds small populations of cassowaries.  We had the magical experience of a male and his chick (yep, the female walks out as soon as she lays the egg) visiting the park and just wandering around like a movie star.

Packing up now and moving out to Townsville.

9th July 2011 - Atherton

After coming to grips with the fact that it was raining – and would continue for some time, we decided that a few rest days would be nice. But who the hell decided that ‘a few days..’ would last for a week?  To be fair, it hasn’t been pouring rain but simply continual relentless gentle rain.  As if that wasn’t enough, the night temperatures dropped so much we needed to put the doona on the bed – 9 degrees one night!

In between showers we managed to visit the Tolga Woodwork Gallery.  As someone who likes to do a bit of woodwork, the quality of the items on display is simply overwhelming. Everything from major furniture pieces to exquisitely small detail ones is presented. I must stop taking Shirl to these sort of places – she just keeps finding more things that she wants me to make (at the moment, my ‘to do’ list is full up until 2087).

There appears to be an innate need among the human race to apply pedantic superlatives to almost everything.  Sport is, perhaps, the most frequently encountered arena where this propensity is displayed.

“Bill Bloggs just bowled the fastest ball ever delivered on a Friday, from the south end of Kickatinalong, within a first class match, and by a left handed bowler shorter than 5 ft 8 inches, to a batsman of greater than 6 foot, etc etc etc”

This human need was brought to mind when we went for a ride on a steam train at Ravenshoe.  Record books show this town as the highest in Qld. However, Tumoulin at the other end of the line, is higher! How so, I hear you ask.  Tumoulin is not a town: only a settlement. Makes you feel a bit ripped off.

 Steam Train at Tumoulin - the highest & wettest thingo in Qld

Queenslands Highest Pub - about 2 metres higher than the one over the road.

But wait, there’s more. Babinda and Tully, on the coast, are the towns that we usually think of when considering which the wettest town in Australia is. Tumoulin is wetter than both, but doesn’t earn a Guernsey because it isn’t a town.

Then we get to waterfalls, of which there is a plethora (like that word?), up here in the tablelands. Every one of them comes with its own superlative – widest, highest, highest dual drop, greatest fall of a single drop within a multiple drop ...... the list continues to expand. The one ultimate fact is that they all look good and for some odd inner tranquillity, they make us feel good as we go ooohhhh, aahhhhh, wow.

Millaa Millaa Falls

Millstream Falls - widest in australia.

Nuts! Everyone knows that Kingaroy grows the majority of Australia’s peanuts – wrong. The Atherton Tablelands has the most acreage of peanuts, however most of them go into peanut butter, peanut oil, flavouring etc, and only a small amount into table nuts. We enjoyed our visit to the peanut place, and expect that the after effects will be with us for a while.

Another thing they do up here is coffee – 90% of the coffee that is grown is Oz, is grown here. We did the taste tour where 21 different coffees, plus 42 chocolates and 3 coffee/chocolate liqueurs are on offer.  It’ll take us a week to come down of our high!

The ‘Coffee Works’ tour includes entry to their museum of the history of coffee. Absolutely amazing the financial impact the coffee trade has had on the growth or decline of nations. Another eye opener was the enormous variety of plungers, percolators, blenders, and machines that have been produced all with the simple purpose of brewing your coffee.

I’m sure that within the local rainforests there are thousands, no make that millions, of strangler figs. When it comes to superlatives, there can be no doubt that the Cathedral Fig, and the Curtain Fig  near Yungaburra are supreme. You can’t help but be gob-smacked by each of these.

Cathedral Fig with Shirl standing inside it.

Curtain Fig - too big to get in a single photo.

Our two weeks at Atherton was a period of go go go – so much to see, so much to do.  The rain slowed us down a bit, but we still seemed to be going somewhere each day. Highly recommended.

Statue at Millaa Millaa - not sure just what he's meant to be doing?

We leave for Mission Beach on Sunday. The road down should be fun given that Atherton is at 750 mtrs, but you then need to climb up to nearly 900 to go through Millaa Millaa before dropping down the Palmerston Highway to Innisfail. It is the easiest of the four roads between the coast and the tablelands. The next one north is the Gillies H’way from Gordonvale to Yungaburra which is quite skinny and goes for over 25 km without a straight bit of road. It’s not super steep, but it doesn’t have any guard rails!

27th June 2011 - Atherton

We ended our stay at Wonga Beach with another day of ‘Croc spotting” on the Daintree River. As well as the obligatory big monsters, we also spotted a baby (500mm) croc laying on a branch, plus a big python doing similar. The departure point this time was a pontoon near a boat ramp, and the tour guide told us that they had a ‘big fellow’ that had taken up residence under the pontoon! And this was but metres away from all those fisherfolk guys who were paddling around as they launched or retrieved their boats.


Mossman Gorge was another spot we got to. The only regret we had was that our photographic skills weren’t able to do justice to this amazing tropical river gorge. As you wander through the rainforest, accompanied by the sound of the water flowing and rushing across the boulders and rapids of the river is ..... well, it just is! Numerous places to swim, or just to sit and cogitate or ruminate – Ah! Feel the serenity.


Mossman River





Mossman River (2)



walkway thru rainforset

I’d hazard a guess that most Aussies wouldn’t know how important the events of June and July 1770 were to our history. Well, let me enlighten you.

Capt James Cook had finished his explorations at Botany Bay and was sailing up the coast. Somewhere around the Whitsundays (which he named), he realised that he were hemmed in by a very long and large reef – he continued on, looking for a way out. On 11 June, just off Cape tribulation (which he named because that’s where his ‘tribulations’ began), they struck a reef. Oh! Bugger. After throwing everything that they could, the Endeavour floated free on the high tide, but with severe damage. After temporary repairs, they limped north looking for a safe harbour.

Finding the mouth of a river, they weren’t able to enter because of rough weather. Finally - and this is really important – Cook’s journal says that they were forced to WARP their way into safe anchorage. Thus we have absolute proof that Australia was founded by intergalactic travellers. Logic! Capt Kirk had Warp drive: Capt cook had Warp drive. Capt Kirk commanded the Enterprise: Capt Cook commanded the Endeavour. Capt Kirk explored strange lands with animals and plants never seen before: Capt Cook did the same.

After entering the river, which Cook named the Endeavour (the only Australian river that he named), the ship was careened (beached) while repairs were carried out.

Cook Landed Here

So, what did they eat? Fish. Plus a strange animal that they thought the locals were calling Kangaroo, but in reality, it should have been pronounced Gangurru (Gang,gur,u). So, for 240 years we’ve been calling it by the wrong name.

The view from the hill that Cook climbed to look for a route through the reef, is one of the great sights that Australia has to offer. Looking over the river mouth, as well as out to sea, there are many postcards that capture the view, but actually being there at sunset is to really nail it – a memory.

what cook seen from the hill (without the lighthouse)

Endeavour River entry

Sunset from Grassy Hill

We also did what has become a bit of a ritual for us: we visit the local botanical gardens. Firstly, the size and quality of the gardens was way above the size of the town. Secondly, they solved an issue that I have long wondered about – where do they come from (see photo).

But can we get different flavours?

A week at Cooktown is about right unless you wish to travel up to Cape York – Cooktown is only 9,654,493 corrugations away from the Cape. Another iconic 4x4 track is the Bloomfield. Older folk may recall the 70s when the “hippies, greenies, and anyone else who wanted to strip off all their clothes and chain themselves to trees” fought a long, and ultimately fruitless battle to prevent a road being bashed through the Daintree. The track runs for 70km from Cape Trib to near Cooktown and includes one of the ‘must do’ great challenges for heavily laden 4x4s – the hill! Most need low range to climb it in the dry, and recourse to higher powers and gods to do it in the wet.

The Bloomfield did rejuvenate one marvellous old icon – the Lion’s Den Pub, 20km from Cooktown. Way back in the gold mining days, a bloke started up a pub and a tradition. The miners needed a safe place for their funds – the camps were full of thieves and villains so they took to leaving their money at the pub, and used the corrugated tin walls to keep a tally. These days, if you donate to the local rural fire mob, you can add your name. Amazing result – almost every bit of wall and roof is covered. PS: they serve a great lunch.

Love the attitude

We also met one of the most interesting blokes imaginable. Willi runs Guurrbri rock art tours. The tour includes far far more than just looking at a few bits of rock art – Willi also talks about bush tucker, historical movement of aboriginals, relationships between clans and families, plus the spiritual aspect of aboriginal culture.

The great bit is that Willi will change your views and beliefs about the ‘aboriginal’ question. Regardless of you previous views, Willi won’t challenge you, but he will gently and simply explain a few things, not directly, but by way of comparisons with ..... well, with life. And you will come away with a different understanding.

You will change your thoughts, but won’t be able to explain why – you just will.

Left Cooktown on Sunday for Atherton where it started to rain.