Tully Gorge

Tully surprised us - well some of us, as we’d only driven down the Bruce Highway previously. We never knew the town was across the railway line and is quite a substantial town with the big gum boot a feature. This represents the highest rainfall recorded in  Tully in 1950 - 8 metres or 320 inches!  Tully does supposedly have  the highest annual rainfall in Australia. 

This town has a sugar refinery and production is just starting this season.

We did a few jobs in Tully and shouted ourselves morning tea at the bakery then headed inland  along  the most beautiful road winding through banana plantations and into the rainforest. 

We booked our sites through the very complicated online National Park process and seeing there were 65 available positions, we were confident we’d have lots of spaces. However, it turned out to be a very busy place as it’s a white water rafting base and a huge group were celebrating a birthday so we were quite fortunate we arrived early enough to claim our area. 

The campground was very pretty, set alongside the raging Tully River - unfortunately not a swimming river due to crocodile sightings but we enjoyed watching the white water rafters. 

Without our tour guides, I doubt we would have found many of the sights so once again, we are very grateful for Mark & Kerri’s knowledge. We found a couple of beautiful waterfalls reached by walking through narrow tracks - luckily we only had 1 leech problem! 

We also explored the abandoned town of Cardstone which was built when the nearby power station was built in the 1950’s and dismantled in the 1980’s when the station was  automated. 

We were very fortunate to enjoy sunny days so we didn’t have any power issues (except maybe Kerri running over the corner of Dennis’s panel, and Dennis falling over Darryl’s! ) 

We have left that glorious part of Queensland and.are now in Paradise! You’ll have to stay tuned to the next blog to see where we are! Hope everyone is well. Love from Brays, Brays and Greenwoods ❌❌❌❌❌

Cardwell

It was wet and dreary when we packed up and left Ingham but the day improved and we enjoyed a pleasant day. Our tour leader found a wonderful morning tea spot at Five Mile creek.

We travelled just a few kms out of Cardwell and set up in this beautiful bush setting at Meunga Creek -  with a little bit of cheating as we have power and water as well! It is so nice to sit around a camp fire again and to be set up in a less regimented manner. We have the backdrop of a pretty little creek - which unfortunately is out of bounds due to crocodiles and of course it hosts millions of mosquitos! We now lather our selves with repellant rather than body lotion. 

In Cardwell we strolled up the jetty and admired the beach fringed by palms. There’s no swimming here of course  as crocodiles frequent the area. We visited the Coral Sea memorial site which was well done. It’s sobering to read how many lives were lost saving Australia from invasion. 

Mark & Kerri have been telling us and showing us photos of a blue swimming hole at Cardwell, but until we actually visited it and saw it with our own eyes,  did we realise how blue it is. It’s the chemistry between the rocks and water which creates the blue. It was a great spot for a quick dip - and to enjoy the natural spa.

A shorter trek at Attie Creek revealed a series of waterfalls providing more photographic opportunities. 

Today we saw the marina which sadly is in a bad state as it hasn’t recovered from cyclone Yasi and recent floods. So.many big lovely houses probably dropped in value and the marina is being overtaken by mangroves. This afternoon we visited Murray Falls and had a dip in the river Murray - very different to our Murray! The falls are so pretty and accessed by an easy board walk. 

Cardwell was also impacted by the recent floods and reading how many cyclones have struck here, you admire the resilience of the locals. They also contend with humidity, rains, mosquitoes, midges, crocodiles and stingers!

 Kerri has taken her task of booking sites to another level by securing us sites at a caravan park in Cairns for $30 a night - we were thinking we’d be paying much more than that. Luckily we’ll  have more funds for dining and retail shopping! We have 5 more nights before we hit Cairns where we’ll meet up meet Chloe & Bryce. We send our best wishes to all readers ❌❌❌❌❌❌

Ingham and surrounds

We finally got to test out our endurance with a rather strenuous walk to the base of the Wallaman Falls. These falls are the highest single drop waterfall in Australia, plunging 268 metres and are very spectacular,

The trek down - and up was so pretty, through the rain forest along a goat track which in places was quite slippery and muddy - especially for Darryl and Mark in their thongs! 

As we travel further north, we are realising the Queensland floods not only impacted roads and walks, but towns and farmlands. Here in Ingham, the town was inundated and is still recovering from the disaster  - the ladies at the information centre are working out of a windowless container as their beautiful building is closed due to mould. The caravan park we are in was flooded - the water came so quickly at night, that all guests were evacuated to higher ground and all their cars and vans were ruined. The owners here have done a magnificent job in getting the  place operational again and you’d never guess a few months ago it was under water.  These stories are especially sad when in NSW these events are being replayed again. 

We are in the midst of sugar cane country - some crops have been flood impacted and others are in flower, showing they are ready for harvest. We visited Lucinda which has a sugar export facility - the jetty is almost 6 km long and the sugar takes 22 minutes to travel along the conveyor belt to the ship. Unfortunately it’s a covered jetty so no strolling along here. It was amazing to read that cyclone Yasi saw waves wash over the top of the jetty and it was partly destroyed.

We had a pleasant day touring the local beach side towns of Forrest Beach (where Jack and June Kennedy live) Taylors Beach, Halifax and Lucinda. These are beautiful beaches but out of bounds due to crocodiles and stingers! There are however, lovely structures and murals along with the magnificent trees.

We went to a lookout to have a good view of Hinchenbrook Island and the river  Herbert estuary.

This had been an excellent spot to spend a few days and we’ve used the camp facilities where Mark became a wildlife instructor, showing this green tree frog to a couple of German children.

Life in tropical areas is very problematic for some of us with sandfly or mosquito bites bringing up huge itchy welts - despite us walking around covered in repellants and smelling like citronella. We hope our bodies soon become less attractive to these bugs! We have a rough plan in the days ahead before we reach our turn around point at Cairns. The weather has been good - sunny now and almost 30 - but quite humid. Till the next blog, the happy travellers sign off ❌❌❌❌❌❌

Paluma Range National Park

We had our longest journey for a while, travelling a whole 277kms from Bowen to the Paluma  National  Park. We’re teaching Mark & Kerri about morning tea stops at 10.30, about looking for opportunities to cut firewood and Mark is  learning to increase his beer consumption! At the same time, Mark & Kerri are teaching us all different board games - and we’ve found out Mark can fix everything! We did notice smoke in the mountains along the way and hoped it was a  controlled burn off.

We camped at the Big Crystal campground in the National Park, even though we were once again disappointed with road and walk closures. We’ve found all along that the rains earlier on in the year here in Queensland, created havoc with rock slides and debris and we’ve come across these signs often. It’s disappointing but we can’t complain as we could be travelling around the flooded NSW areas.

The campground was very pretty but we learned very early that the picturesque settings under trees is not good for solar and very much time was spent moving solar panels around trying to capture a wee bit of sunshine. We could walk to Paradise Pool and some of us braved the cooler water for a refreshing swim. 

There were lots of brush turkeys around and we had to ensure our rubbish bags were not within their reach. Our days were relaxed and we enjoyed reading, pottering around, moving solar panels and of course the board games. We were very fortunate to be spoilt by afternoon tea from the Dennis kitchen. 

After 3 days of poor sunlight we awoke to cloudy drizzly weather this morning so a decision was made to move to a caravan park in Ingham to power up! Along the way we called at the Jourama Falls campground where we’re supposed to be and what a beautiful spot it is! We had morning tea there and walked as far as we could to a beautiful swimming spot. 

They have a stay 4 pay 3 nights deal here at this nice little caravan park, so we’ll use this as a base to sightsee around the area.  We hope everyone is well and not too cold. From tropical Ingham, love from us travellers. ❌❌❌❌❌❌

Beautiful Bowen

We’ve discovered many beautiful spots in Bowen under Marks guidance and the town has much more to offer than we originally thought. We strolled up the town jetty which is more than 150 years old and still in use for recreational fishing as well as a base for the tug boats used to tow in coal ships at the export place at nearby Abbott Point. 

During WW2 there was a Catalina Base here and at the site is a lovely display.

The 2008 movie ‘Australia’, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, was partially filmed here in Bowen and for a few months, a mini Darwin was created at the waterfront. The Grand View Hotel was renamed the Territory Hotel for the movie and still stands today. 

There are some lovely beaches and today some of us braved the water and did a bit of snorkelling at Horseshoe Bay. We had an excellent view of this bay from a lookout.

We are in a small friendly caravan park and at the beachfront area we enjoyed a drink whilst watching a beautiful sunset. Views like this make us realise we are in the tropics - this is known as the North Whitsundays area.

We’ve made use of our time here to catch up on jobs and we’ll head off from here tomorrow with full cupboards, beautiful toes, neat hair and very clean cars and clothes. The weather continues to be perfect although the locals think it too cold! We are heading north to the Paluma Range National Park for the next few days, hoping to see some gorges and waterfalls. We’ve been away for 3 weeks and it actually feels like longer so we must be feeling very relaxed. We hope all readers are well and not feeling too cold. Lots of love from Brays Brays and Greenwoods. ❌❌❌❌