Relaxing in the Daintree

Day three in the Daintree has turned out to be much-appreciated relax day.  A sleep-in, followed by a walk along the babbling creek which flows through the rainforest below the house set the pace of the day.
Photo left shows this lovely little creek, although it can display its angry side during the wet season.
Photo below is of a King Fern.  The only other examples we have seen were in Ward's Canyon at Carnarvon Gorge.
To keep the exercise daily average up, after lunch we had a walk around the block.  This ended up being about 4km, but worth every step as we were rewarded by numerous splendors of the rainforest.
Tomorrow we'll be on the road again, heading back to Mission Beach.

Cape Tribulation

Beautiful Thornton Beach provided the perfect place for a leisurely stroll up to where Noah Creek meets the Coral Sea, low-land tropical rainforest. Although we didn't spot  any, we're pretty confident there were a few beady eyes checking us out, hoping we would stroll too close to the water's edge. Where's the dog when you need it? Thornton Peak is in the background. This is the backdrop to Jeanie Baker's book 'Where the Forest meets the Sea'.

A short drive up the road took us to The Marrdja Boardwalk. This leads through the mangroves where we saw several record-breaking Mangrove Jacks which Earl assures us are great eating. Unfortunately it was part of the wet tropics World Heritage site, so the fish knew they were safe.

 This amazing water hole is called, strangely, the Blue Hole, which is part of Cooper Creek. You need to park your car on the road and walk down a previous roadway for a few hundred metres and then you arrive at this absolutely beautiful swimming hole. No wonder the locals prefer to keep it a secret. There are fish cruising along as if no one else was around; the rainforest reaches to the edge of the creek; the water is cool and crystal clear; the berries from numerous trees are scattered over the rocks in their reds and purples; so are the cassowary droppings; and it's so peaceful.

Seen today: CASSOWARIES!!!! Yahoo!, a black butcher bird - the colour of the rainforest variety, fabulous ice-cream (Mango, raspberry,wattle seed, and jackfruit), tea plants growing as a hedge and plenty of sunshine.

So, ferry, 'cross the Daintree...

 You know you are in far Nth Qld when you get signs that roughly translate 'Swim here if you wish to be the main course'. We've actually managed to stay out of the water so far! This is the Daintree River in the background.

 Crossing the Daintree River on the ferry is a bit like using the Moggill ferry - drive on, drive off 27 cars at a time. We struck it at a very busy time and waited in the queue for over an hour.
But... it was actually quite relaxing and picturesque.

Once we were off the ferry we climbed up the Alexandra Range where we had a view of the mouth of the Daintree River and Snapper Island (old English slang term for a pick-pocket and named most likely by all the sailors who travelled through the area).
Our destination was Cow Bay, so named after the sea cows/dugongs - not because some early explorer thought it was a cow of a place.
We are staying with John's cousin Ann and husband Earl in the rainforest. When Earl built the house he had too many windows to pass council regulations but got special dispensation 'cause he threatened to send Ann around to discuss this (not really but it makes a good story). The rainforest comes alive at night with many sounds strange to us city dwellers.
Seen today: Beautiful stretch of beach, Newell Beach, Mossman, coconut palms, tourists, no cassowaries. (ho hum)

Kuranda

Today's little excursion sow us drive only about 30km to Kuranda and an early morning ride down the mountain on the Skyrail. Our first stop on the way down was at Barron Falls.Luckily there was water flowing. Along the walk through to the lookouts were objects from the early development of the railway and the wooden cars they travelled in. So glad for the modern day versions. We enjoyed the trip down and the conversations on the way up with both travellers and tour guides from a cruise ship making its way up the coast to Port Douglas.

We drove to the Barron Falls lookout and walked down to where the train stops for everyone to jump off for a look at the falls. This gave us a view from both sides of the gorge.

You can't leave Kuranda without a wander through the markets.It was particularly busy with all the visitors from the ship, and there were numerous stalls which still looked like they belonged in the 60's. Some great art work, timber work and an amazing array of teas and coffees.

Seen today: Beautiful sunny day, a scrub turkey which thought I had food for it, no cassowaries, amazing scenery, black cockatoos, white cockatoos, an ice-creamery, and boomerang throwing 'school' with those that didn't come back, still lying on the roof of a nearby building!

Mareeba

This morning we did as we usually do when in a new town while travelling - went to the Visitor Information Centre here in Mareeba. Apart from gathering some great information about things to do and see in Mareeba (coffee and tea plantations, wineries, chocolate factories etc) we spent ages looking through the Historical Museum attached to the centre. What a fabulous collection! We found ourselves walking through the history of the tobacco industry in Mareeba, a hospital rail carriage, school, blacksmith's forge and a small village of shops and old stores. Really helpful staff and a great venue.
The afternoon saw us travel out to the Jabiru Wetlands area. What a lovely, peaceful place. The centre (at left) has all the usual facilities and a breeding area for the Gouldian finch - such a beautiful little bird. We took a boat ride around the lake and found out that all the lakes there are man-made. Apparently the left over water from the irrigation canals used to just flow into a creek, so an environmental group built these lakes, which are now homes to a myriad of birds and fish. They are only between 3 and 6m deep.
We thought the guide was raising the level of his electric motor to avoid the bottom of the lake - we thought it was the bottom of the lake we were looking at. It was however algae which rises to the surface as the water gets warmer. Great for the black swans which feed off it wherever it is close enough to the surface.

Let sleeping ducks lie because if you lie down with ducks you'll wake up with quackers!

Yungaburra area

This morning saw us spending the morning catching up with more of John's friends from so long ago.

Highlights of the day included a scenic cruise on lovely Lake Barrine (spotting turtles, pythons, eels and fish) with lunch on the deck of the boat house; a casual walk to the giant Kauri trees nearby; a trip to Lake Eacham and the Curtain Fig; a walk along the Avenue of Honour on the shores of Lake Tinaroo.

Curtain Fig Tree

Seen over the last few days: tea and coffee plantations, banana farms, irrigation channels, still no cassowaries.

Atherton Tablelands

Leaving Mission Beach we took the Palmeston Highway to the Atherton Tableland. After driving through farming land and rainforest we arrived at Milla Milla which is renowned for its lovely waterfalls scenic drive.

The Crater

Dinner Falls

From Milla Milla we travelled to John's favourite memory site, The Crater near Herberton. It's sheer walls and green covering on the water so far below still beg for a rock or two, just like 40 years ago. This area is also the headwaters of the Barron River with the Dinner Falls walk another treat. A knowledgeable local explained the name 'Dinner Falls' comes from the 3 waterfalls in close succession which represent the 3 courses of dinner! Makes sense to us and even if it's not true, it's a good story.
Then it was on to Herberton where John was thrilled to catch up with some friends he knew 40 years ago there. It was then on to Mareeba where we're spending a few nights with friends.

Mission Beach 2

Our first walking trip was to Bicton Hill at Bingle Bay. A very pleasant walk up the hill to a lookout at the top with views of the islands - Dunk and Bedarra the closest with Hinchinbrook in the distance. No cassowaries in sight! This was followed by the first of many relaxing walks along the beach.
This has been a really relaxing few days where we explored the therapeutic qualities of fishing at dusk and dawn in the surf, beach and rainforest walks (to Tam O'Shanter headland which is part of the Kennedy National Park) and push bike riding. Again, no cassowaries!

Tonight we dinner with friends of Chris's who live at Bingle Bay. She last saw them about 30 years ago after working with them in Blackwater.

Tomorrow we head to the Atherton tableland so there'll be more adventures then.

Seen these past few days: Palm trees, coconuts, green tree ants, no cassowaries, delightful views across to the islands.

Mission Beach

We left Sarina on Wednesday and had a really leisurely drive to Mission Beach.Our first stop was in Townsville for a casual walk along The Strand. It has been many years since either of us has been to Townsville and we were really impressed with what has been happening on the foreshore. They are gearing up for a special program of activities and one of them was the displays of sculptures and art work along The Strand. There was everything from sand sculptures, metallic sharks and fish to crocheted and knitted coral and sea creatures. It was also great to see the 'Saint' still painted on the side of Castle Hill.
We ended up in Cardwell for lunch. What an amazing transformation the foreshore has had since the last cyclone. It is such a draw card for travellers.
Our journey then took us to Mission Beach and a mission of our own - to see one of the elusive cassowaries! John thinks it's just ploy to get people to come to the north, as we have spent the last couple of days finding much evidence that they have been around, but have seen none. The Davidson Plum seeds in the droppings are a dead give!

We arrived at our friends place easily enough and after settling in went for the necessary walk to the beach. How wonderful to step out onto the beach and look across to Dunk Island, then to follow the beach all the way up to a creek and the setting sun.  Our friends put us on the path to checking for croc tracks and more importantly, croc lookout. So far we haven't seen evidence of either (luckily).
The day ended with a fishing expedition to the creek and surf. While we didn't catch anything we could keep we really enjoyed the peace and calm.

Heading north

Our first beach stop on the way was at Clareview, south of Sarina. We knew we were nearing north Queensland because there were coconuts just lying on the sand under the trees. It would have been easier with a machette but John's persistence/stubbornness paid off  with our rather large travelling knife. The coconut was delightfully tasty.
After a lovely night catching up with friends in Sarina, we have worked our way further north and tonight are in Ayr.

It doesn't matter how long you've been away, as soon as you pass a working sugar mill the smell memories flood back! The mills are now in full swing as you can see from this photo just north of Mackay. The motel owner told us that burning is still necessary before harvesting in this area. Cane burning is more rare these days. Everyone around here has black feet if they go barefoot, from the ash.
Seen today: Commercial salt pans at Bowen, the jetty where they filmed the movie 'Australia', great little museum at Proserpine and the well known Burdekin River bridge.