Happy Birthday Sarah!

Cairns & The Tablelands

The Lagoon in Cairns, Tablelands, Curtain Fig and Lake Eachem

It kept on raining in Cairns, the mountain range was hidden in thick fog and clouds. So we had a quick stroll over the Kuranda markets before heading into Cairns to get our Jeep serviced. No car and rain on and off, we decided to spend the afternoon in a shopping centre. At least Sarah could hop around on a little playground in there and we could buy some things we needed. When it cleared up a bit, we went to the Lagoon, a lovely swimming beach-pool overlooking the ocean. 

Next morning we started early to get to the Mareeba markets - a drive through the lovely landscape of the Tablelands. We stayed the night on a campground at Atherton and lucky enough the German Family (Louisa, her parents and grandparents) we met the same morning in Kurranda showed up as well! Sarah and Luisa (nearly 6 years) had a ball playing in Luisa's Campervan! We spent the night baking cake, wrapping presents and blowing up balloons for Sarahs birthday. Next morning we skyped with Oma and Sarah opened 2 presents before Luisa came over to wish Sarah a happy birthday - and off they went to play again. An hour later we all had birthday cake in the camp kitchen and decided to spend the day together since the kids had so much fun. We went to the Curtain Fig and walked along Lake Eachem, where we saw lots of fish and turtles. Then it was time to say good-bye. Luisa and her family drove to Innisfail and we visited a dairy farm with lots of chooks and cows. What a great birthday for Sarah!

'I'm 3 now!' - Skype with Oma, Sarah and Luisa are blowing out the candles of the birthday cake

Queensland specials: Ravenhoe and Millstream Falls

Heading south-west from the tablelands to the Savannah-Way we stopped for lunch in Queensland's highest town Ravenhoe (930m) and then went to see Queensland's widest waterfall. The typical Australian 340m bitumen walkway "hike" to the lookout is worth the stop.

Innot Hot Springs

Innot Hot DYO pool, Sarah and Ally collecting tadpoles 

The Innot Hot Springs is a natural creek with hot mineral waters. Instead of going to the official pools we made our own pool in between the very hot and cool part of the creek and played in there for 45 minutes. Part of the creek is so hot, you literally burn your feet! But it was a great relaxing stop and Sarah was so tired with all this hot water that she fell asleep in the car while eating her rice cracker...

Rain, rain go away...


Ingham – Tyto Wetlands

Beautiful birds and more Kangaroos at Tyto Wetlands in Ingham

We stayed for one night in Ingham, beside the Tyto Wetlands. If you’re ever up here it’s a must do. They reckon there are about 230 bird species here – however we’ve only seen a handful. There is also an abundance of crocodile warning signs. So, we made sure to stay away from the water.

Ingham also has a great Italian Deli supermarket (Lou’s deli) with olives, cheese, sausages and a huge variety of pasta. Unfortunately, Casa Pasta, recommended by Monica was closed due to the public holiday but the fresh pasta from Lou’s was as delicious as their coffee!

Sugar – Tully

Sugar Cane Train, an old cane-cutter hut and the Tully sugar mill

Between northern NSW and up past Cairns there are about 6000 Cane growers and 26 Sugar mills.  Australia is the 2nd biggest sugar exporter in the World after Brazil.  We have seen a lot of sugar cane on our travels so far. Those fields seem to go on forever. Beside the roads you also see the sugar cane rail tracks, a network that is apparently 4000km long.  The sugar cane harvest is just about to start, so we haven’t seen any harvesting or filled sugar trains, however they seem to get ready and to put the empty trains into the fields. To get the most sugar extracted out of the cane the freshly cut sugar cane has to be processed in the factory within 16 hours.

The Lucinda 5.6km long Jetty  

Australia has several sugar bulk storage facilities and terminals to ship sugar to the rest of the world (mostly Asia). One of those terminals is in Lucinda just east of Tully. With 5.6km it is the longest Jetty in the southern hemisphere. It just seems to go on forever and you can barely make out the terminal in the far distance.

This is how 7.93m of rainfall looks and a special picture for our friends at Silky Oaks

Sugar Cane needs a lot of water – apparently 30% of the production cost is for irrigation. So no wonder a lot of the cane is grown in high rainfall areas. Tully’s highest rainfall was in 1950 with 7.93m!! They’ve built a giant gumboot exactly that height. Impressive to think that so much water can fall in a single year. 

The cane cutter way – Paronella Park

Tully is also the start of the World Heritage listed ‘Wet Tropics Rainforest’ and as I write this it’s raining heavily outside (despite visiting during the ‘Dry season’).  We’ve visited dense rainforests, stunning waterfalls and great swimming holes.

Beautiful swimming holes and waterfalls at Upper Murray Falls

Paronella Park shows the remains of Jose Paronella’s dream castle built in the 1930. It’s now a strange set up of rainforest-covered ruins with waterfalls, fountains and parks. Flooding, cyclones and fire have destroyed a lot of what once was a stunning park – said to be the first ‘Themepark” in Australia.  After a fire destroyed the main ballroom the whole park got abandoned until a new owner bought the place in the 90’s. They are now working hard to restore it to some of its former glory and to continue Jose’s dream.

Paronella Park

Since it was still raining, we drove off after breakfast and picked up some “fresh” bananas for $1.50 per kilo at a road stall in Innisfail. The next stop was Josephine Falls - the rain didn’t stop but we still walked the 600 m to the viewing platforms. We decided to drive a bit further to ‘The Boulders” just off Babinda. What a difference to Bowen. A big free RV parking area with toilet and a dump point in Babinda, big parking lots for RVs with a toilet block and cold showers with 72h stay for free right at The Boulders. And what stunning views: enormous rock formations, rounded and smooth from thousands of years of running water, rock pools and swirls… what a shame that the weather is not the best to captures this in our pictures - and there’s even a playground here for Sarah :-)

Josephine Falls, and the Babinda Boulders in rainy weather

The Muster

We met Diana and Richard about a week ago on another campground. They run a cattle property with about 250 cattle just north of Townsville, and very kindly invited us to their property. We gladly setup camp on the bank of the Black River.

Horses, Birdlife, Wallabies, missed fishes and campfire life on the bank of the black river

The Muster

Due to the worst drought in more than 30 years they are currently downsizing their cattle herd. They also have to separate the older calfs from their mothers to give the mother cows a chance to make it trough winter until the start of the next wet season in hopefully November this year.

Luckily for us Diana and Richard did their mustering while we were camping here. Never seen a muster before, we were not sure what to expect: It's about sorting the cattle out for sale to the meat works, separating the older calfs from their mother and vaccinate the herd.

Alice lead the heard home, while Diana was at the back, Britney at the side and Richard chasing any cattle that broke out. 

First the cattle had to be fetched from the paddock were they were grazing. They prefer use horses and cattle dogs to drive the cattle home. It was amazing to see the three dogs and the four horses work together to lead the heard home. We got chauffeured by Alica in a little cart. (No sore bums for the tourists ;-). Interestingly they also train the cattle to get used to the dogs, so the cattle pretty much know as long as they follow the leading dog, they have nothing to fear. 

Once the cattle was in their enclosure, they started to split the heard into three groups:

  • cattle over 400 kg go to the meat works
  • mother cows and smaller cattle got sprayed against ticks and flees and they also got 2 vaccination shots
  • calfs to be branded and castrated.

Sarah with the cattle dog, cow and calf, vaccinating, branding, Diana and Alice

The cattle going to the meat works all received an ear-tag, so it can be tracked back to the farm where it grew up.

The biggest and hardest work was the smaller calfs. All had to be branded, ear marked and de-horned. Additionally, the little bulls had to be castrated as well. Obviously they won't hold still for this procedure, so they had to be clamped in a vice like device and then pushed on the side.

It was a very exiting experience for us, first seeing the horses and dogs working, then being up close to the cattle. And they can be quite big and aggressive when they are threatened. The mother of the little calf pictured above was very protective and she didn't want to go through one of the gates. Instead she charged towards Alice and Alica. Gee those girls can run fast and climb those fences...

Thanks Diana and Richard for an awesome day and having us on your property. 

Animal experience part 2

Fishing at the Campsite

full moon, Sarah with her first catch

After a bright full moon night at our farm campsite Martin and Sarah went fishing first thing in the morning. And believe it or not, Sarah caught a fish! We threw it back because it was too small, even though she wanted to eat it for dinner :-)

Reef HQ Aquarium in Townsville

Sarah clown fish, a blue-spotted ray, a starfish and a stone fish

After breakfast we drove into Townsville to visit the "worlds largest living coral reef aquarium". It is a beautiful display of different corals and fish with lots to learn and discover about the Great Barrier Reef. Sarah wasn't a 100% fit and so we missed out on reading most of the displayed information but enjoyed the colours, the shapes, the floating and flowing.

Animal Experience

Townsville Billabong Sanctuary

From Alva Beach we drove to Townsville where we are staying on a cattle farm - people we met on a campground a week ago invited us to their property. They also suggested to visit the Billabong Sanctuary just south of Townsville. Since the entrance fee is quite high we thought twice before we decided to go in, not knowing what wonderful experience was lying ahead of us...

Cuddly Koalas, a great Eastern Brown, Sarah and the Salty, the blue tongue lizard and a black head python

One show followed the next, hardly time to look around and have a snack... we started with the koalas, the usual pretty, cuddly experience followed by the reptile show. The talks gave a good inside in animal habitats and behaviour as well as first aid for the snakes bites. It didn't bother Sarah too much, she still wanted to pat every animal she could get her hands on...

Black Cockatoo, Frogmouth, Barn Owl, Cassowary

The cockatoo and the frogmouth are so used to visitor that you can get really close and have a good look. The owl flew from one care taker to the other, right through the guests, getting some of them to dug because it was so close.

Crocodile feeding time

The crocodile show was very impressive. These huge animals can stay under water for up to 2.5 hours, and only need a little breath before disappearing again for an hour or so. Not seeing one in a creek doesn't mean they're not there! So stay in a safe distance. They are amazingly fast to jump into the air to a hight of easily 1.5 m. Even Sarah was impressed (but she still wanted to pat them :-))


Bowen

Daydream Island

Feeding fish, Bruce the lemon shark, coral sand, mermaid and old jetty

On our last day in Airlie Beach we headed to Daydream Island. It's a small island resort about 30 min by boat from the main land. They have a large artificial coral reef around their hotel. We've seen Bruce, the lemon shark and Pancake and Pieklet, the stingrays alongside thousand of smaller fishes. Sarah loved pointing out all the fish to us and playing in the coral sand. We feed some of the wild fish just on the shore and within minutes we had hundreds of small reef fish together with some mullet and parrot fish around our feet. 

Bowen

Sunset and Vistas of Bowen

After saying goodbye to Brooke, Melissa and Scott we headed towards Bowen. The clouds disappeared and we had fantastic weather and  photo opportunities. After booking into a caravan park for the night we went on a hike around the little bays and outcrops up from Horseshoe bay to a little lookout. What fantastic views and vistas! Sarah was hiking really good, but needed to be carried towards the end of the walk as it was a bit longer and harder than we anticipated.

Bowen is a strange place. The people we met were very friendly and helpful. The scenery was stunning and the town had everything you need. However the coffee shop on top of Flagstaff Hill, one of the advertised look outs, was closed during high season. There is plenty of wonderful parking along the beaches and viewpoints, but the signs not to stay there overnight are very big. So in a strange way we didn't really feel welcome here. Funny how little things can turn you off a place.

Alva Beach

Tomato and Mango plantation, Burdekin River Bridge, Alva Beach and a Kingfisher

We got a tip from some fellow travellers to head to Alva Beach, a little south of Ayr, to a lovely caravan park. It's a sleepy little town, set on a beautiful beach. We drove trough some Savannah looking country, lots of sugarcane and crossed Burdekin River on the famous Burdekin Steel Bridge.

We setup camp on the local caravan park next to a couple named Jeff and Marianne. We started talking and it turns out they are heading to a private cattle farm north of Townsville tomorrow - to the same people we met about a week ago and we're visiting tomorrow, too. They even knew about us and that they may have to share the private camp site with us. We talked for a while and it further turns out they are from Brisbane, too. In fact they live about 500m away in the same little suburb as us! 

Off we went to the beach, but we ended up on the local playground (as usual) - there we met Rebecca and Felix whom we already met on a playground in Mackay. It really is a small world...

Airlie Beach

Getting Stuck

Deep Washouts and an overgrown track

On Friday we decided to hike up the little hill (which we saw the evening before from the beach) to enjoy the views. And on Google Earth we found a nice little track going up. So we unhooked the caravan and went for a bit of a 4WD drive. We didn't expect the track to be washed out and overgrown so badly that eventually we had to abandon our hiking plans and turn around. 

Off we went to Proserpine for lunch. Good parking on the side of the main street. Unfortunately the road had a strong chamfer (fall to the side) and I parked the caravan so close to the side that we nearly touched the side posts of the sidewalk verandah. After lunch we tried to manoeuvre the caravan out of this tricky parking, but the more I tried the closer I got to the posts. The only way to get out was to unhook the caravan and manually back the caravan out with the ratchet on the jockey wheel. This whole manoeuvre took us a good 30 minutes, but at least we were abel to continue our trip without any damage to anything.

Airlie Beach

Sarah enjoys playing with Brooke, Airlie Beach scenery and the Dragon at the Saturday markets

We continued to Airlie Beach, were we stayed with Brooke, Marissa and Scott whom we know from the mothers group back in Brisbane. They are running a business doing customised 3D printing on phone covers (http://www.mybffmobile.com).

Sarah loved going to the markets, splashing in the water and playing with her friend Brooke. They even showed us their block of land overlooking the islands on which they want to build their dream home later this year. The weather is cloudy, so the pictures aren't as picturesque, but this is certainly a stunning corner of Australia with turquoise waters and lush green hills.

Man style excercise 

What a fishing trip!

Yeah! My first fishing trip. I went out on Sunday morning with the guys from Reel Deal Fishing charters for a stretch of my arms. After about one hours trip we drifted over a gutter in about 50 meters of water. It only took a couple of minutes for me to hook onto the first fish of the day and another minute or so later I landed my first of 3 Nanagi. What a beautiful fish with its pink/red colour and just perfect in size about 60-80 cm. We fished for about 2 hours and 8 guys managed about 20+ Nanagi, some Trevally, a Spanish Mackerel, and some other species. One guy even landed a Chinamen, which is protected and had to go back into the water.
Back on shore the 2 crew cleaned and filleted all the fish for us. What a service! All I had to do in the evening was cock and enjoy some Spanish Mackerel.

Mackay

Sugar Cane Country

sugar cane plantations, a harvester and the bio-ethanol distillery in Sarina

Driving through this beautiful landscape all you see is sugar cane plantation. We stopped in Sarina for a playground-tourist information-morning tea break and had ice cream at the Sugar Shed, which is a big bio-ethanol Distillery. Being told that Hay Point has the better beach we drove on for another 30 min and stopped at: another playground for Sarah :-)

Solonika Beach in Hay Point

wave hopping, our shell collection and sand patterns

The beach is a pretty good playground as well! Sarah and Regine had fun jumping over the waves and collecting shells. We love the fascinating patterns that the little crabs create when digging their holes.

Mackay 

Our next quick stop was Mackay and we visited the Lagoon: a great water park with a playground right next to it. It was overcast and  the water was pretty cold, even for Sarah. And actually, I was glad she didn't want to go because the water literally bucketed down! We spend 2 hours on the playground making friends with a boy and his mother who are also going up to Townsville before driving on to our camp for the night: Midge Point. The landscape on the drive was stunning, unfortunately the weather wasn't good enough to get those breathtaking pictures of the mountain ranges. Sarah enjoyed a relaxing chat with Martin before we went to the beach for more beautiful views.

Coconuts 

coconut palm, watch your head, Martin the coconut cracker

The area is full of palm trees and there are coconuts everywhere. We collected a couple and they are delicious but hard work to get to the flesh!

Capricorn Caves

Marcia

The area north of Rockhampton got hit by Tropical Cyclone Marcia on 20. February 2015. The category 5 storm made landfall near Yeppoon. There are still some houses covered with tarpaulins and a section of the coast road near Yeppoon is still being rebuilt. Once you look closely one also notices a lot of fallen trees in bushland areas. It also shows how resilient nature is - some of the trees have lost most of its limbs, however they are now all covered in re-growth and it is actually pretty hard to spot the storm damage.

Severe Tropical Cyclone Marcia was a Category 5 severe tropical cyclone that made landfall at its peak strength over central Queensland, near Shoalwater Bay on 20 February 2015.[1] The cyclone went on to affect various areas including Yeppoon and Rockhampton. It reached Yeppoon as a Category 4 system, then traversed over the regional city of Rockhampton as a Category 3 system on the same day. Eventually, the cyclone weakened, moved southeast out to sea, then dissolved. Marcia caused at least A$750 million (US$590.5 million) worth of damage.[2]

some of the damage from cyclone Marcia and tree regrowth

Capricorn Caves

The Caravan park near the Capricorn Caves got badly hit by Marcia and it took them 2 months to fully clear the sites. They had to move some 80 truck loads of rubbish.

Capricorn caves - a dry cave system

We all enjoyed the tour through the caves. There is one hall called the Cathedral. They are having lots of weddings in there and even some opera singers as the natural acoustics is fantastic. Sarah really enjoyed the climbing up and down and exploring the narrow paths. But she was very glad to be sitting on mammy's lap when they turned off the light in the Cathedral and everything went pitch black.

Capricorn caves was formed millions of years ago by the sea, but eventually got lifted out of the water by tectonic movements. It's now a dry cave system above the water level and the only wet is coming from rain onto the surrounding rocks. 

On the road again

On the road towards Mackay and Martin using a stick to drag Sarah around in the cold water

Today we had a driving day - there isn't much to stop at between Rockhampton and Mackay. It is especially hard to find a nice playground for Sarah to let her energy out. We eventually stopped at Flaggy Rock at the old school. It's a nice spot for self containt vehicles with a nice care-taker couple, a playground and a swimming pool. However the water was too cold for anyone above three and so I had to drag Sarah through the water with a stick.

Emu Park

The Singing Ship at Emu Park

After another day looking around Rockhampton and eating some delicious food at a multi cultural festival we decided to head down to the water at Emu Park. It was Sunday and we did expect a bit of traffic, but not thousands of people for the classic by the sea hot-rod-get-together. We had a quick look at some of the old cars and Sarah had a very quick bounce in the bouncing castle, but it was way to busy for our liking, so we rather had a look at the singing ship. 

It's currently very windy at the coast, which was good for the singing ship. It generates a sound when the wind blows into some tuned  tubes.

Cool Sarah and some classic cars

Bluff Rock

Thanks to Wiki Camp we found another gem of a free campsite. Right on the beach with fantastic views towards Bluff Rock. Sarah is starting to enjoy the little hikes we do. This one was 2.3 km with fantastic views towards Great Keppel Island.

Camp is setup at Bluff Rock and views from the lookout