Cooktown

We left Cairns with our newly powered up Troll dragging the near 2.5 tonne van up the twisting and steep Kuranda Range. We held up a few cars, but we climbed the range with few problems although we did spew much more black smoke than we have done before.

Hmmmm.

We overnighted just north of Mount Molloy at a free site and we walked back into town to buy a beer at the pub. The National Hotel is a nice pub, but it started ouring with rain while we were there and we walked home and got soaked.

One of the things we have always enjoyed is seeing the different "rigs" that people have in which they travel around, well this one was particularly interesting:

Yes, it is a small garden shed on the back of a ute, complete with a veranda.

On our way into Cooktown we drove through the Black Mountain Nat Park. I had been looking forward to this, but seeing these hills of black rock blocks seemingly jumbled into a couple of hills was less impressive than I thought it would be.

We arrived in Cooktown around midday and headed to the Peninsula van park before we took a look around the town itself.

We drove up to the top of the grassy hill (of James Cook fame) to check out the lighthouse. Surprisingly, instead of being built of huge masonry it is built of roofing iron.

The views from the top!

This one is out over the town

The Endeavour river

Out to the Coral Sea.

This will give you an idea of the weather we have been "enjoying". Yeah - that rain just doesn't want to go away.

We took a walk through the old Cooktown cemetery and looked for the older gravestones. Some of the stories that they told will break your heart.

Thoughts on Food

Food – essential stuff, and finding it out on the road is a surprising experience.

For example, we have recently travelled through central QLD and found roadside stalls, often unmanned and with a simple honesty box, that have provided us with some of the most tasty, fresh and cheap food you could imagine. We have recently found avocados and tomatoes (half a dozen avos for $2.50 and 2kgs of farm fresh tomatoes for $2) that have provided us with tasty and healthy lunches with bananas fresh from the farm (a dollar a kilo or thereabouts) for dessert. On top of that we have come away from our friends’ place with a huge bag of sweet mandarines from their fruit trees.

Country butchers are also pretty good news too with some of the tenderest meats we have eaten plus some interesting smallgoods and pies etc. One in particular is the "Continental Butcher" in Wangan (near Innisfail) who has some superb products.

We are enjoying this gourmet travelling!

Cairns

Cairns is the same as it was last time we visited – busy, expensive, stuffed with backpackers and really just too big a city to hold our interest.

The walk along the esplanade is still nice though, with the views out over the lagoon (with its attendant backpackers soaking up the sun) being much more attractive than the view out over the mudflats to the sea.

We did manage to have a Steinbauer chip fitted to the Troll to give us some much needed  mid range punch and it has had the additional benefit of smoothing out the engine as well. I hope it doesn’t adversely affect the fuel consumption though.

The weather has improved since leaving the wettest towns in Australia (Tully and Innisfail) behind though and while it has been showering on the Cape I am still hopeful that the roads won’t be TOO bad and we can get through to the top. I suppose some poor conditions will keep the masses away and that will be a good thing.

Heading off towards Cooktown tomorrow before hitting the Cape.

Innisfail

Innisfail - we arrived here in the rain and caught up with Neil and Liz, long time friends of ours who live here.

They have showed us five days of fantastic hospitality, providing us with a site to park our van and feeding us a series of superb meals as well as their company. We have had a fantastic time - thank you guys!

Those gorgeous meals were accompanied by far too much red wine and lots of chat and discussion. My liver will need some time to recover!

While we were here we organised a couple of things. We have had a stoneguard fitted to the van as well as booking in the Troll to have a Steinbauer chip fitted in the hope that it will help us find a little more power and make towing an easier and simpler affair. Fitting is next week in Cairns.

We also took a drive up to Josephine Falls - a magical place that was pumping as a result of the rain that has fallen.

As always, there were backpackers splashing about and risking life and limb in the water - crazy buggers - we watched one come oh so close to being swept over the top of a fall.

Beautiful isn't it?

Back at Neil and Liz's we endured a night where over a foot of rain fell in a steady stream. The next day we needed to get out and have the stoneguard covered and we found that the Troll had been parked in the downstream path of an overflowing stormdrain and had simply sunk in the liquid mud.

Hitched to the van, there was no way we could drive out so the Maxtrax were wedged under the rear wheels and I gently drove onto them where the wheels simply spun and we failed to get anywhere.

Ahhhh!

After a few failed attempts I then put some of those foam flooring panels (those things you by from camping stores that clip together to provide a soft floor) behind the front wheels and voile! We just reversed out without any further problems.

It kept raining though and over the days we were there and the need for me to move the van I ended up almost ploughing their front lawn and I remain embarrassed about it.

Still, the sojourn has ended and we will miss Neil and Liz and we remain grateful for our time there.

South Mission Beach

South Mission Beach is wet and horrible right now, but as we need a little remedial work done on the van we have to stay close to the place doing the job.

However, the van park has one redeeming point and that is that they have a cassowary that visits in the hope of scrounging a feed.

I never actually thought I would see one!

Here is the big chook just about to walk past our caravan.

The next day was miserable, cold and mainly overcast, but we managed to take a walk along the South Mission Beach itself and have a look at the place.

This is the view across to Dunk Island as seen from our camp site.

Looking south down the beach.

This is the main road along the beach.

We also took a drive along to the main Mission Beach and grabbed a coffee there. A nice enough little town, but it lacks a little something. Then again, miserable rainy weather will make anywhere look less than wonderful.

Jourama Falls

And so, we continue north and found ourselves at Jourama Falls where the campgrounds (National Parks, but obviously not managed by the same control freaks that manage Bowling Green Bay) are open and spacious and we found ourselves a nice spot.

The walk up to the Falls was well graded and easy, albeit steep, and the falls themselves were well worth the effort.

The creek is full of fish (sooty grunters I think) and saw shell turtles. I know they are saw shell turtles because that is what the NP information booth called them! 

Anyway, here are the falls themselves. A beaut series of cascades.

This is the creek.

And this is one of the turtles!

The national park has several points of entry and we took a drive out to one of  the others to see the Crystal Creek and the Rock Slides"

Well this is the creek, obviously low in water.

The Rock Slides turned out to be a series of waterholes on what will be a real waterfall when there is enough water, but for now they serve as swimming holes.

Karen cooling her feet.

Leaving the Rock Slides we drove up the escarpment (about 18klms of twisty and steep road - I never got out of second gear) to reach some lookouts near the township of Paluma.

This one was McLellands Lookout and although it is a bit hazy you can see the ocean out there.

Scary man at the lookout!

We drove over this bridge on the way up and we stopped to check it out on the way down.

It was built in the early 1930s as part of a work creation scheme to get people employed during the depression and the bridge was hand built using local stone then. It really is a work of art.

There are always the nutters though and this lad was jumping off the high rocks and into a pool below. Spinal damage anyone?

Bowling Green Bay NP

Just to make a bit of a change, we checked the map to see where we might fancy sleeping the next night and we booked (yes! We actually booked ahead!) a slot at the Bowling Green Bay National Park.

Let me advise anyone reading this to not bother going there. We found the camping area to be limited to tents and camper vans only and the spots they allowed you were bounded by low fences forcing you to camp on the gravel surface. We couldn’t fit into the place as these spots were about 3 metres by 6 metres and while we could get the van in there we wouldn’t be able (due to the fences) to open the door.

Very poor show indeed.

So we toddled off and ended up in a free rest area near a Caltex servo surrounded by backpackers in a variety of beaten up vehicles, but all of whom were polite and generally nice people to meet.

The servo offered showers and toilets and even a TV room although in our new van we have our own TV. It was there that I watched the Cats get beaten by Collingwood due entirely to some very, very poor marksmanship by the Cats forwards and some great opportunism on the part of the Collingwood midfielders.  90 seconds from the end it was tied, but Collingwood kicked the last two goals and we lost.

Bugger.