Townsville

Townsville is Australia's largest tropical town, with industries such as minerals processing and export, higher education, scientific research, tourism and a large military presence. Due to a quirk of geography it has much less rainfall than most other Queensland tropical cities, so the landscape resembles typical Australian scrub rather than the lush rainforest we've been experiencing for the last couple of months. Several granite outcrops provide some excellent lookouts, the photo at left is taken from Castle Rock which is right in the centre of town.

We've taken advantage of the ample shopping here to get a few things for the van. We've played all three of the major golf courses in town, thoroughly enjoying each of them. A highlight of our visit here has been catching up with John's cousin Neil, who is with the army and has been living in Townsville for 10 years. We had a lovely Sunday lunch with him and his family, as well as dinner during the week.

Magnetic Island is just off the coast here, you can see it in the background of the photo above. We caught the ferry over for a day trip, hiring a mini Moke to explore the island. With the driver's seat not being adjustable, John very quickly tired of trying to drive with his knees under his chin, so Wendy took over for most of the day. It was certainly an experience hurling the tiny vehicle around corners and roundabouts, the noise it made getting up to a zippy 60km an hour gave the impression of doing at least a hundred!

During World War II the island hosted an army base protecting Townsville from Japanese attack, we walked around the ruins of the camp exploring the remains of the command post and signalling hut, as well as various gun emplacements and ammunition magazines. We also did several other walks and lookouts around the island. It wasn't all work however, we had a very pleasant lunch on one of the island's many beaches, and for a change of pace visited the local history museum.

Ingham

Ingham is only about 100 kilometres south of Tully, and is surrounded by sugar cane fields. There are several national parks in the area, and we had planned to do quite a bit of walking in the week we spent here. First port of call was Wallaman Falls in Girrungun National Park. At 268 metres, Wallaman Falls is the largest, permanent single drop falls in Australia. The 50 km drive up the mountain to the falls was very scenic, and the falls lookout suitably spectacular. Unfortunately most of the walks we had planned to do in the national park were still closed due to damage from Cyclone Yasi earlier this year, although we had mixed feelings about being unable to do the walk to the bottom of the falls, it looked like it would be awfully hard work to get back up again!

The day after our trip out to Wallaman Falls a rain belt arrived. Ingham has been at the very southern edge of the rain, with showers and drizzle for the last 4 days, compared to almost half a metre of rain (451 mm) at the last place we stayed, Tully, only a little further north. No wonder they proudly display a golden gumboot! While we escaped any flooding, the rain has been enough to keep us confined to the van most of the time. We did do a trip to the Paluma National Park, in the hope that as it was a little further south it may have escaped the rain, but the constant drizzle prevented us doing much exploring, which was a pity as it is almost the only national park we have come across on the east coast where all the walking tracks are actually open.

Another day out we had planned while at Ingham was a boat trip in the Hinchinbrook Channel, between the mainland and Hinchinbrook Island. Once again the weather put paid to that idea, as you can see in the photo at left we've had not just rain but wind as well, certainly not suitable boating weather. It seems that most of the delights of the region around Ingham will have to wait until we visit again some time in the future.

Tully

Tully claims to be the wettest town in Australia, the 'golden gumboot' in town is the height of the amount of rain they received in 1950 - 7,900 mm, or 7.9 metres. That's a lot of rain! Luckily for us most of it falls during the tropical wet season, and we experienced hot, dry conditions.

Tully is just inland of where tropical cyclone Yasi hit the coast on 3 February this year, causing immense damage to the town and surrounding districts. Many buildings are still covered by tarpaulins as they wait to have roofs repaired and you can see many damaged and derelict buildings. However the town is well and truly open for business, and I am sure would have appreciated the money we spent during our stay.

The countryside all up the Queensland north coast is sugar cane country, and the sugar mill at Tully is one of the last that still runs tours. We've done quite a few tours on our trip around Australia, mostly of mine related sites, and typically you are driven around in a bus and not allowed to even open the windows for a decent photo, let alone to get out and get close to the action. However, the Tully mill tour kits you out in a hard hat, safety glasses and ear plugs and takes you walking all around the site. We got to see the whole process up close, from the time the cane is tipped from train bins onto conveyor belts, through crushing, washing, purifying, crystallising and drying, all the way to raw sugar crystals. Further refinement of the raw sugar down to the white sugar we are all familiar with is done elsewhere, and all of the product from the Tully mill is exported. The mill generates its own electricity using the waste cane after crushing ('bagasse') and in fact earns several million dollars annually from selling surplus power back to the grid. It was a fantastic tour, we got to peer through a window inside the red hot furnaces, look down into the crystallising machines (holding onto our hard hats so they didn't fall in) and taste the molasses laden crystals before final processing. We even got a small sample bag of the final product to take home!

The Tully River is reputed to have the best white water rafting in Australia, and thanks to the hydroelectric power station 50km upstream of the town the water level is guaranteed all year round. We spent a fantastic day rafting down rapids up to grade 4, getting very, very wet in the process. We were probably 30 years older than everyone else (maybe 20 years older than the guide) but we paddled, screamed, hung on and fell out with the rest of them. In case you are having trouble picking us out in the photos at left, we are in the second back row of the boat, with John on the left of the photo and Wendy on the right in a red helmet. The trip included a barbecue lunch, which provided a welcome respite for us to recover our strength before the final hour down the river. Our arms ached for a couple of days afterward, and we had to reschedule the golf game we'd planned for the next day - neither of us felt we could possibly swing a club with any sort of enthusiasm! But we had a great time, and showed all those youngies that you don't have to give up on adventure just because you are past the first flush of youth.

We'd planned to do a bit of walking in some of the national parks around Tully and Mission Beach, which is on the coast about 20km from Tully. However quite a few walking trails are still closed because of cyclone damage, and it took a couple of days to dry our runners after the rafting trip. We did manage the 2km return walk up Murray Falls, which was steep enough in the tropical heat to count as a decent walk. The rest of the trails will have to wait until we revisit this beautiful part of the country.

Paronella Park

We moseyed slowly down from the Atherton Tablelands, stopping at the dairy centre exhibition at Malanda and several waterfalls and lookouts. Our destination was Paronella Park, 17km south of Innisfail (and only 104km south of Cairns).

Jose Paronella came to Australia from Spain in 1913 to make his fortune and 11 years later, through buying and selling cane farms, had pretty well succeeded. He went back to Spain to marry his fiancee, Matilda, only to find that she had married another. Maybe the fact that she hadn't heard from him in all that time had something to do with it. Undeterred, he married her younger sister Margarita instead and, after a whirlwind honeymoon visiting the major sights of Europe, returned with her to far north Queensland.

Jose had always dreamed of having a castle, he acquired 13 acres of virgin rainforest and built his dream. The development included a ballroom that doubled as a movie theatre, tennis courts, refreshment rooms, more than 7000 trees planted in grand avenues and one of Queensland's first hydro-electric plants to power it all. Jose passed away in 1948 and Margarita in 1967, their children and grandchildren continued running the property until it was sold in 1977. A fire swept through the castle in 1979, the new owners battled on until Cyclone Winifred caused the park's closure in 1986.

The current owners acquired the property in 1993 and have been gradually restoring the grounds and derelict buildings. There was a hiccup in 2006 when Cyclone Larry roared through, but the grounds at least are now looking splendid. The buildings are still in ruins, but look very romantic.

Almost by accident we found that included with the park entry fee was one free night staying in the attached caravan park. Given we intended to visit the park anyway, we figured this was a deal too good to pass up. We arrived at lunch time, so spent the afternoon doing the tour of the grounds, then wandering around taking photos. Staying in the park also meant it was very convenient to walk back in the evening and do the twilight tour, where we got to see the ruins lit up and the wildlife that lives in the beautiful grounds come out for their night's foraging.

Paronella Park was a labour of love for Jose and Margarita, and the current owners are carrying on the tradition. Although the admission was fairly pricey, having a night's caravan park fee included made it very reasonable, and we enjoyed experiencing a piece of almost forgotten Australian history.

Atherton Tableland

The Atherton Tableland, also known as the Cairns Highlands, is in the Great Dividing Range inland from Cairns. As the name implies, although nestled high in the hills, the area is basically flat. Europeans first came here in the mid 19th century chasing tin and 'red gold' - the fabulous red cedar trees that used to abound in the lush tropical rainforests. Once the timber was all gone, the cleared land proved to be wonderfully fertile, and the region now produces nuts, fruit and vegetables, as well as having the world's only tropical based dairying industry. Roadside stalls sell local produce and several dairies in the region produce local cheeses, so we have stocked up on yummy fresh foods.

We based ourselves in the town of Atherton, and easily filled 4 days exploring the tableland. The township of Herberton is only 20 km south of Atherton. It was founded in 1880 when tin was discovered, the last tin mine didn't close until 1978. We did a strenuous but interesting walk around some of the old mine diggings in the hills around the town. Most of the remaining mine buildings and equipment were destroyed by Cyclone Larry in 2006, but there still plenty of holes in the ground, and the mining heritage centre had interesting displays.

Although most of the tableland was cleared for farm land, there are still some pockets of forest remaining, often where the ground was too steep or rocky to be easily cleared. Most of these pockets are now protected by national parks, and the tableland has a huge variety of walks, drives, lookouts, lakes, craters and just downright breathtaking scenery on offer. Lake Eachem is estimated at only 10,000 years old, like several other lakes in the area it was created when underground magma superheated ground water which exploded out through cracks in the rocks, forming an almost perfectly round lake with no creeks entering or draining it - the water is at the level of the groundwater. The aboriginal dreamtime legend about the lake says that once the lake area was dry, and a group camped there. Most of the men went off hunting, leaving some young men behind. The young men disobeyed the law and tried to eat the fruit of a certain tree, the dreamtime spirits punished them by causing a huge explosion which swallowed up the camp and replaced it with a lake. Not a bad interpretation of what must have really happened, handed down as a story for countless generations over 10,000 years. We didn't go swimming in the lake but did do the walk around the perimeter.

One of the distinctive trees in the tropical forests of far north Queensland is the strangler fig. This parasite grows from a seed dropped by a bat or bird in the crook of another tree. It sends down roots to the ground, wrapping the host tree in the roots until finally the host dies and the fig is left standing on its own. Some of the tableland specimens are massive, with root structures that extend many tens of metres around and up into the air.

As well as doing lots of walks, we also found time to visit the sole remaining building in Atherton's once bustling Chinatown. The Hou Mong temple would have been the hub of community life in the early twentieth century, but gradually the local Chinese either moved back to China or into town with the Europeans. However, even once the rest of Chinatown's buildings had been demolished or moved, the temple remained in use right up to 1974, when the last remaining worshipper died. You can still see the worn marks on the floorboards where she would kneel every day in front of the altar to kowtow to the gods. The temple is now owned by the national trust, and a volunteer gave us a very interesting tour through the building, then we spent some time looking through the Chinatown museum.

Many people do the Atherton Tableland as a day trip from Cairns, we were very glad we decided to spend some time here to do justice to the huge number of things to see and the wonderful scenic walks and drives. The handmade chocolates were pretty good too!

Port Douglas

Port Douglas is only 60km north of Cairns, but we decided there is enough to do there that we would spend some time staying there, rather than just do one or two day trips. "Port" was a tiny fishing village in the 1980's until Christopher Skase opened the Mirage resort; Skase is long gone but the resort remains, along with many, many other holiday options. We checked out the golf course attached to the resort, but it has been let run down and is not in very good condition, despite this they are still charging resort prices so we passed. We did, however, have a couple of games at Sea Temple, the other, newer resort here.

Just north of Port Douglas is the town of Mossman, which is almost a 'dormitory suburb' for the workers at the various tourism businesses at Port. Inland from Mossman is Mossman Gorge, in the Daintree rainforest, with a very pretty creek walk. The lush tropical rainforest of the Daintree is a total contrast to the dry scrubland further inland, fuelled not just by the huge rainfall in the wet season, but by 'cloud stripping' all year round - the clouds come in from the coast, hit the trees on the highlands and drip all over the ground. The rain forest is a declared world heritage area, which protects this vast area of natural beauty for future generations to enjoy.

The Daintree river drains much of the highlands of the rain forest. The only way to cross the river is by ferry, we came across in the bus a few weeks ago on our way back to Cairns from Cape York. We drove back to the river from Port Douglas to do a wildlife spotting boat cruise. Binoculars were provided on the boat to enable us to spot lots of birds, and we even saw a crocodile sunning itself on the bank. The boat operator was very knowledgeable about the area and its inhabitants, and provided a very interesting commentary. We also visited the Daintree village, which is a small hamlet which survives solely on tourism, with cafes and craft shops almost the only businesses.

Port Douglas also survives on tourism, and many activities and tours are on offer. The Great Barrier Reef is closer to land here than almost anywhere else in Queensland, so we decided to try some snorkelling. We didn't feel that we'd want to spend a full day going to the outer reef, so we chose a 2 hour tour to an area known as the Low Isles, only about 16 km offshore. The trip out there and back was an exhilarating 15 minute journey each way on a jet boat - if you really want to know about bad hair days try going swimming then zooming along on a wild boat ride! Neither of us had ever snorkelled before, so we were feeling a bit nervous about how we would go at it. The tour company provided all equipment, including optional wet suits. We were glad we took up the wet suit option, the suits provided good buoyancy as well as keeping us warm, particularly during the trip back! We struggled a little at first getting the hang of breathing with your mouth through the snorkel, but it only takes one lungful of sea water to make you remember. We were soon paddling along peering through our masks at an amazing array of corals and marine life. Corals of every size and shape imaginable, with fish big, little, flat, long, round, stripes, spots ...... we even saw a turtle! It was a wonderful experience, you felt you were actually entering the watery environment, and the fish didn't seem to mind welcoming us into their world. Our time in the water flew past almost as fast as the journey out there had, but the heaviness in our legs afterwards convinced us we'd made the right decision going for the shorter trip.

With our caravan park being only a short walk from the town centre, we took advantage of the huge number of cafes and restaurants to have several meals out. We even had the excellent buffet dinner at the Mirage resort for our wedding anniversary, made even more enjoyable by the fact that our caravan park neighbours gave us a discount voucher which brought the price down by almost half. All in all we've enjoyed our stay at this famous Far North Queensland resort town.