Thursday Oct 16th - Sugar Train
Early morning Alan and I walk along the Rowes Bay boardwalk
before we pack up our cabin and head to Cairns.
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| These bushes are in bloom in the towns and around houses. |
The Coral Sea is across the road and we are go to follow the
board walk back towards town. Our first
sign this morning is one that warns of crocodile sightings in the area….we will
need to watch our footsteps.
The beach is not a clean sort of beach, so we stick to the
board walk. Eventually we come across a
mangrove area teaming with long billed grey and white birds with long legs and
beaks. Further down the path a much
different squabbling is heard. The
mangrove trees are filled with large, black bats hanging up-side-down in the
trees. They pay no attention to us.
Behind us is a large hill or small volcano. The homes are built up the side and
cantilevering over the side. One is
quite spectacular as it almost entirely on stilts….as the whole floor area is
suspended on piers 20 ft or so long anchored into the side of the hill.
We see a kookaburo, a wood white butterfly and a flock of
black parrots.
Our first stop on the way to Cairns is at Ingham. We stop at
the tourist info and end up walking on a long suspended boardwalk to an
observation tower. Nice surprise. Here we also see one of the large pieces of
machinery used in chopping up sugar cane. Also there is part of the sugar cane
train. We have seen fields of cane (and
pineapples) on the way up and understand there is a local mill to explore (on
the way back).
We checked with a travel agent in Ingham and the least
expensive way to reach Uluru will cost $1500 for a flight one day out, a one
hour sunset tour, one night in a hotel, a one hour sunrise tour and the flight
home the next day.
On the road again we pass many cane trains and many cane
fields. A road side vendor sold us fresh
melon and pineapple. The stand was surrounded by sugar cane. He explained that
the cane is full of snakes and they would burn the cane to drive out the snakes
then harvest the cane.
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| These little trains carry the sugar cane from the fields to the factory. |
At Cardwell we picnic in a park that has signs posted to
don’t feed the crocodile
We spent the night at Innisfail. We are going to be up early
as we have booked a tour at the Undara lava fields. We need to be up early.
Friday Oct 17th - Lava Tubes
We leave by six-thirty to head to Undara.
The clouds are low to the ground as we climb the mountains
towards Ravenshoe, built near an old extinct volcano (Windy Hill) and the
highest town in the area at 920 m above sea level. We were not impressed to see a large wind
farm of 20 units.
The next town is Ravenshoe (pronounced Ravens hoe), passing
a golf course along the way and see our first families of kangaroo’s in the
wild. We turn around to take the
opportunity to catch a few pictures.
We reach the Undara Volcanic National Park, the home of an
original 5500 sq km cattle ranch settled in the 1800’s by the Collins
family. As with many large cattle
ranches on savannah lands, keeping cattle watered was a difficult task. As our guide would explain, it is understood
that a horse wandered away from the camp and after a bit of searching was found
in the lava tube drinking from a water source.
And so the mapping of the Undara began.
At the beginning of the tour we saw our first
wallabies. They are the smallest looking
cute and cuddly. Further along the track
we see the much larger kangaroo.
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| In a lava tube. |
After 15 minutes we stop the entrance to the lava tubes and
exit the bus. It is a short hike to the
edge of the old river bed where the lava flowed and cooled creating the tube we
are about to see. Down several flights
of stairs and we are in the tube, a large, cavernous rock (lava basalt)
opening. The guide provides history on
why the tube originates here. This area
was covered in numerous volcanoes, some as early as 10,000 years ago and some
over 1 million years ago. The volcano
that created this tube was called Undara and was not an actual volcano, but a
lava vent. The old river bed creates the
perfect conditions for the lava to flow out of the vent and down the old river
bed creating the longest recorded lava flow (160 km long). As the volcano continued to spew its lava
(estimated at 32 years) it started to cool creating a tube where hot lava continued. After completely cooling the tube remained.
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| The Wallqroo |
Down in the lower area of the old river bed is where the
Wallaroo is found. A different species
of Kangaroo. The Wallaroo lives in this area as it has food, due to a water
source, and is protected from the wild dingoes, its predator, that roams the
area.
As we leave the area, we are told to climb the old extinct
volcano on the way out, the Kalkani Crater.
We park and begin the climb in hot, 32 deg weather. The view is spectacular from the top and the
walk up is not too far….600 m. Every
bump in the surrounding countryside was an active volcano years ago, over 35
known but many more expected.
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| Kookaburra trying to steal our chips at the Lava Tubes! |
This day was spectacular!
Saturday Oct 18th – Market Day
Another sunny morning in Australia. Today we are heading to Wooroonooran National
Park and the Mamu Rainforest Canopy walk.
First we head out on a 1 hr morning walk along the South Johnson
River. Its 7 am, the sun is up and the
air is already beginning to heat up but we enjoy the morning.
On the road through town, we stop at the local monthly
farmers market
Not far out of Innisfail we stop for fresh bananas
(1.50). Since we are in a banana
growing area we must have some fresh bananas.
As this is also a sugar cane area we just happen to run by a sugar
train. This small mode of transportation
seems to be the most economical way to transport cane around the area. The small train (mesh cars) and engine runs
on very tiny track, which appears to be not more than 2 ft across, hauling the
crushed cane to processing facilities in the area. We are lucky enough to catch a few good
pictures and a small video.
Next we stopped at the Mamu canopy walk, which is a walkway
including cantilevered bridge, elevated walkways and an observation tower in
the lush growth of the rainforest. Here
we see a moth that flys like a bird!
On the road we continue towards Atherton and make our next
stop at Malanda Falls. This area is one
of the original aboriginal lands of the Ngadjon-jii people who recognized the
falls as a special place. At the turn of
the last century the falls were found by quickly became a local attraction
including swimming. The area still uses
the base of the falls as a large swimming pool and the town information centre
is located above. Here we took the 1 km
bush walk. One of the signs indicates
that you must be aware of the “stinging trees”.
These trees have leaves with tiny silica hairs that emit a neurotoxin if
you brush up against it. This can be
very painful for many days even month
Sunday October 19th – Food Fair
It was a cool night last evening even requiring the use of a
warm blanket and turning the AC off.
Unusual for this area as we have had very warm weather for the past
week. The morning looks sunny and warm
so we head out for a walk
After a nice 45 min walk up to Hallorans Lookout this
morning we are ready for breakfast.
Today we are having a treat with bacon, eggs, toast and coffee.
We stop at a local book sale to find a used bird book. Good
luck, we find a bird book and a rainforest book along with some local silk
screened aboriginal fabric.
At the Rotary Food Fair we listen to local artists sing,
while checking out all the sales stalls, and sampling some of the local curry
and then French fries with mayonase and peanut sauce.
Monday Oct 20th – Fibre Art
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| Refrigeration in the outback! |
On the road this morning we travel to Mareeba. There is an amazing heritage village with all
sorts of historic items here using all authentic items from around the area.
The local jail door was found on a ranch not far from town buried in a
field. We also saw one of the first
refrigerators, named – coolgarde, for the fellow who designed it.
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| Hospital Train |
It was a barrel inside a wire mesh wrap
filled with coal. As water ran off the
top of the barrel and through coal, air evaporate the moisture drawing heat
from the barrel. They also have an
authentic rail car ambulance with a Lisa lookalike inside, and an old phone
switchboard.
Jacques Coffee Plantation, our next stop and plantation
tour. Excellent coffee! Here we met
Dianne Porter as she was on the tour alone, so we invited her to join us for
coffee! We plan on meeting up with her in Bundaberg later on.
At the Golden Pride Wineries, Alan tastes some of the
authentic Mango wines and liquors. He
likes them so much we leave with a bottle of mango liqueur.
We finally arrive in Port Douglas and get the lowdown on the
cabin accommodation. We choose the
Pandanus Tourist Park and take the unit for two nights. The beach is beautiful
and long. They are protecting the dunes
with limited access. Even the rich must use the public walkways. This town is
much like Sauble Beach with very touristy but upscale like Aruba. We are surrounded by 5 star resorts.
Tomorrow we enquire into a snorkeling tour on the Great
Barrier Reef.
Tuesday Oct 21st – Rescue
We are awake early this morning as we have not slept to
well. The bed was not very comfortable
and the upper wall had open windows (no screens) and there were little bugs
flying in. Eventually we closed the
windows and turned on the very loud air-conditioning, which helped. At 6:30 we are out of bed and by 7 we are out
the door for a walk.
The day is overcast and we pick up a bit of rain as we start
out the door. We almost return to the
room but decide to head towards the rain and once we hit it we will turn around
and head back. We walk for about 20 min
then hit the rain and back we go. By the
time we are back to the room the sun is out so we continue on to the beach and
walk into town and up the steep Port Douglas hill.
Nearly back at the unit we decide we have nothing to lose by
looking at another place after our stay at the Pandanus Tourist Park. There are several things we would like to see
in the area (great barrier reef, Kuranda Scenic Railway and the Skyway Cable
Car) so we think we will stay for a bit.
Right next door we have seen a very lovely family apartment motel, the
Lychee Tree. We walk up to the office
and meet Grant. He is very accommodating
and suggests that he can better the price from the Pandanus - 100.00 and he
will even throw in the first night free. Buy two, get three so we can walk away
from the other place. Grant shows us an
amazing fully equipped apartment, with our own full stove, washer and dryer.
Not only does Grant rescue us from our previous cabin, he
sorts out our tours and deducts his share of organizing the trip from them to
another savings of over $100.00. We are
pleased as punch and will move in right away.
With a fresh outlook on the week, tours are planned we
decide to head to the Mossman Gorge. The
drive is very short, compared to other drives, and we arrive in Mossman within
20 minutes.
Heading out of town we arrive at Mossman Gorge. A beautiful site and building and we have
been told that we must pay to enter. We
buy a pass (17.00) and get on the bus.
After a short bus ride we are at the drop off point and head into the
park. The first part is like the Mamu
walkway with elevated paths and gorgeous views of the rainforest. Signs are posted everywhere for no swimming
and that swimming is dangerous. Despite that the locals are all swimming in the
river in a beautiful, bolder strewn stream with little pools.
The walk narrows and eventually heads into a 2 km circuit
through the rainforest. The forest is
very green here with many different type of beautiful trees. The root systems are spectacular with
buttress type roots holding up many trees.
Some Fig trees seem to be strangling the host trees but the roots are
amazing. The walk is about 40 min and we
eventually come to another small pool in the stream.
Tomorrow we are heading to the Koranda Scenic Railway.
Wednesday Oct 22nd – Freshwater Railway
Station
We are up at the crack of dawn as we need to be on the road
by 7:30 to make the Freshwater Railway Station for our trip on the Kuranda
Scenic Railway.
On the road we pass quite a bit of smoke and not too far
down the road we run past a wild bush fire.
It is very dry here in Australia and they are badly in need of
rain. The bush is tinder dry and we have
passed many burned out sections of bush during our trip. This one is actually burning right beside us through
the woods and tall grass as we pass. We
learn later in the day that it has burned over a km along the ridge heading
north towards Port Douglas. Who knows
where it will stop.
We take the Gold Class ride on the 100 year old refurbished
rail cars to provide the heritage experience.
Unreliable transportation routes to gold mining areas at the
turn of the last century necessitated the need for a reliable transportation
route to the top of the mountains. In
1886 a rail line route was chosen and with 1500 men using picks, shovels and dynamite,
they started the removal of 3 million cubic metres of earth in an unforgiving
landscape. By 1891 they were able to
build 37 km’s of track to the top of the mountain. It became an engineering marvel with 15 hand
dug tunnels, 55 bridges, 98 curves and difficult cliff mining to make the solid
footing for the rain line.
After the museum tour we headed to our designated Gold
seating location where we are quickly met and handed a tropical mocktail, fruit
juice, ginger ale, sprite and a bit of grenadine, oh yes and with a fancy straw.
The train arrives and shows off its Buda-Dji colours (aboriginal roots – which
portrays the legend of Buda-Dja the carpet snake said to have created the
Barron Gorge) and we begin to board.
We head out of the train station and wind our way up the
mountain, through the rain forest and to the Barron Gorge.
The scenery is breathtaking as we slowly chug through the
turns and tunnels up the mountain. The
trip is expected to take 1.5hrs to cover the 37 km’s. We take many pictures while experiencing the
exceptional hospitality of the Gold car.
Snacks and drinks are served continually through the ride. Luckily we took the gold service train as the
tour has been closed for two days and is packed to its limit. We are seated two across and have amazing
views. In the general cars they are four
deep squeezed like sardines. Barrons falls are beautiful.
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| Part of Barrow falls. |
Next, we take the cable car from the Diamond line and board
the glass bottom cable car with another couple.
We share the car all the way to the bottom, stopping several times to
see the sights and sounds of the rainforest, once again the Barron Gorge, and
to change cables at Red Peak Station. At
the bottom we stop for a couple of lattes while we wait for our returning bus
to take us back to the Freshwater Station.
We stop at the RSA for dinner. The Tin Shed is their local restaurant. I had the local Gold Snapper and Alan had
Bangers and mash. What a great meal!
Thursday Oct 23rd – Great Barrier Reef
We are up early again today as we have to catch the bus to
the boat at 08:05. At the entry to the
large boat we meet Margo who is our hostess.
She explains the day and we climb aboard the boat. We are handed masks, snorkel and fins to help
us with our day and find a nice table inside the cabin. Others entering head to the top and front
deck for a better view of the sea as we head out. Our emergency briefing also includes the
locations of little white bags for those that are not too used to the rough
seas.
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| Calypso coming back from the Great Barrier Reef! |
The ride to Agincourt reef takes 1.5 hrs and the sea is very
rough. I took ginger pills for
seasickness and use the pearl seeds on my ears. Alan is fine and I manage to
make it.
The first stop arrives and everyone is keen to get into the
water, we are provided with specific directions on how to signal, how to get
into the water, when to put on your fins, where to swim and what not to do over
the reef. Rules such as: don’t put your feet down, watch where you swim….if the
water appears shallow over those areas of the coral in front it probably is too
shallow and don’t swim there, and if you do brush against the coral come and
see the attendants on the boat as the coral can cause serious infections to
your skin.
The water is warm, the fish are beautiful, all the colours
under the rainbow, the reef is amazing and we follow the boat directions to the
tee. We do see some sections of the reef
that look sick and we are old that the fish eat the coral, but we wonder if
climate change is showing its effect. The giant clams are amazing and the coloured
fish too! After our one hour swim we head back to the boat, climb out, take off
all our gear and have a nice hot cup of coffee.
Even though the water is 26 deg C, after being in for an hour you do get
chilled.
With all back in the boat we head on towards the next stop,
10 min up the reef. The next part of
the reef is very different from a coral point of view…..spectacular fan coral,
huge brain coral and it appears much more alive than the last reef.
Up on the upper deck Jes talks about these sections of the
reef. We identify some of the types of
fish we have seen, parrot fish, puffer fish, morrish idol, fusiliers, clown
fish, anemone fish, rabbit fish, needle fish and a great big fish over a meter
in length. He came and hung around the boat.
Our last stop is challenging as we are close to the
breakers. We continually have to swim
against them in order to examine the reef.
Alan and I climb in first, as many held back, because there were very
large fish swimming right where you get in. We last about 45 min have had
enough and climb out. You could swim
with these fish forever as they are so beautiful but after two and three
quarter hours we are getting a bit bushed.
The ride back is very rough with waves over 3 metres
pounding the boat. The skipper carries
on and back at the dock he indicates this has been a good day, not too
rough.
What an amazing day! I never thought we would snorkel on the
Great Barrier Reef!
We try to walk down the beach to home. Since is is 32 in the shade, the sunny beach with no breeze or shade is not an option. 
