Back to Cairns

We are back in Cairns and are resting up for a couple of days so that Aidan can get well again, we are also waiting for some repairs to be completed on our boat motor before we head off again. Unfortunately we are not able to go up to to Cape York because of the extended wet season this year the roads are all still closed heading north and we are simply not going to be able to get up there. Therefore from here we will head west towards Northern Territory in the next couple of days.

Ellis Beach

After a big day exploring Cape Tribulation and the Daintree we headed back down south to camp for the night. The kids had a ball riding in each other's cars and talking on the CB radio to each other. There was a bit of excitment when riding back across on the punt and we spotted our first crocodile swimming in the river, After a while communication died off from one car, when Cody and Sarah, who were exhausted caught a bit of shut eye - mind you Cody is still trying to tell us that he didn't fall asleep!

Cody and Sarah exhausted!

On the drive back south to Ellis Beach

Ellis Beach - The view from our campsite next morning!

We camped the night at Ellis Beach, just above Cairns - what a place for Arnold, Vicky, Jake and Sarah to spend their last night in Australia! It was BEAUTIFUL here. Unfortunately Aidan picked up a stomach bug and did not have a good night and was too sick to play much the next day. We spent most of next day at Ellis Beach with the others while Arn and Vicky packed up all their stuff so that could fly to NZ that night. It was very sad saying good-bye to them, we had a great time with them all and we wished we could have met them sooner so we could have spent more time together. It is a shame we live on opposite sides of the world as they have become great friends, but we will just have to plan a trip to Canada!

Our campsite Ellis Beach

Cody and Jake going for a walk up the beach to swim in the netted off area

Playing cards - they all told me they couldn't look up as they were too busy gambling!

Kelso's and Neufeld's

Thanks again guys for a great few days, travel safe for the rest of your adventure!

Cape Tribulation & the Daintree

From Mossman we drove onto Cape Tribulation, stopping at a lookout over the mouth of the Daintree River to then find a found a place to camp where the kids enjoyed a swim in the pool. The next day we drove further up Cape Tribulation to the beginning of the Bloomfield Track.

We had hoped to drive the Bloomfield track but it is closed due to the extended wet season. But we climbed a giant fig tree and vines, found some water holes where there were no crocodiles, explored some beaches, and went for a walk through one of the tracks in the Daintree Rainforest. We could not get photos which truly represented the beauty of the rainforest; you need to be able to take a panoramic photo from the ground, right up to the very top of the tree tops. It was another world inside the rainforest.

It would also be great to see this area in sunny weather, and also later in the year when all the wet season runoff was gone so that the ocean was blue instead of current brown colour. The landscape was stunning, but you can just imagine amazing it can look.

Mossman & Mossman Gorge

Aidan swinging on a vine on the walk into Mossman Gorge

The next day we travelled on to Cape Tribulation, stopping on the way at Mossman Gorge for a swim in freezing water! Everyone had a great time here, swinging on a vine on the walk into the gorge, jumping off the rocks and either trying to swim across the strong current of the river and grab onto rocks or just diving into the current and letting it pull you along until you found a rock to grab hold of. It was a pretty spot although we all agreed we were expecting it to be more impressive being called a gorge, it was just river with big boulders.

Mossman Gorge

Cody jumping into a waterhole with Jaime, Aidan and Jake lining up to go

The boys at Mossman Gorge

A butterfly which loved the blue on the boys clothes and towels

Cody, Sarah, Jake and Aidan at Mossman Gorge

We following this with lunch at a very picturesque park in Mossman before jumping on the punt and travelling up into Cape Tribulation and the Daintree.

Park in Mossman where we enjoyed lunch and a play

Port Douglas

On the road from Cairns to Port Douglas

We travelled north to Port Douglas with our Canadian friends (Arnold, Vicky, Jake and Sarah). Port Douglas is a really nice little town. We spent a bit of time having fun around the pool before going in near the marina to see George the giant Groper being fed. Unfortunately there were a lot of other people wanting to see George as well so it was very difficult to find a spot where you would be able to see. George didn’t hang around for very long, but a few of us caught a little glimpse, he was big.

Port Douglas

Aidan and Jake sitting on the swimming net to protect from Stingers & Crocs at Port Douglas

At Iron Bar watching Cane Toad Races

 That night we had a bit of fun in the Iron Bar Hotel at the Cane Toad Races. Everyone was given a numbered ticket on entry and they drew tickets out of hat to select ‘Jockeys’ for the cane toads. We were lucky to have 2 tickets from our group selected. Sarah and Jake went up, but Sarah didn’t want to pick up a Cane Toad and kiss it (understandable!) so Aidan went up to help her. To win you had to encourage your cane toad to jump off the table. Jake’s cane toad did quite well, although not winning. Aidan and Sarah’s cane toad was uninterested in the whole event and never moved from the starting position! It was great fun, and certainly a good laugh.

Jake trying to kiss his toad - it didn't want a kiss! Check out Sarah's face!

Aidan picking up his and Sarah's toad to give it a kiss!



Jake and Aidan trying to encourage their Cane Toads to jump



Cairns - Great Barrier Reef

We arrived in Cairns late on Wednesday night, and booked into a hotel to have a few days relaxing, getting jobs done and enjoy Easter. Of course we also headed out to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef! We went on a Sunlover Cruiser to an outer reef called Moore Reef, it was fantastic!

We all agreed that although the coral is amazing we actually thought it would be more colourful, but we don’t know if that was because of coral bleaching or just a bit of lack of clarity on the day. The fish were certainly not lacking in colour though, they were incredibly beautiful! There was such a variety of fish, all different shapes and sizes and an array of colours and colour combinations. We loved it! While out on the reef we meet a lovely Canadian family whose kids are the same age as Aidan and Cody and they are 10 months through a 12 month around the world holiday! At the end of the day we arranged to travel with this family for the next few days before they leave Australia

Mt Surprise

River crossing

We headed a little west again to Mt Surprise to have a go at fossicking for more gemstones, this time we were going for Topaz. We had a couple of river crossing to get over, which are always great fun and then we hired some fossicking gear (shovel and sieves) and went and found a spot up one of the creeks. We dug and sieved for about 2 hours and found 12 pieces of topaz! We were amazed just how easy it was and how much we enjoyed doing it. We enjoyed a night camping here and swimming in the river before heading to Cairns.

Digging at our fossicking site

Sieving out the dirt and small stuff

We may have found something!

The Topaz we found

Across another river

Undara Volcanic National Park

The next day we headed to Undara Volcanic National Park where there are larva tunnels you can do tours through. 190,000 years ago the area was covered in active volcanoes which were erupting for 50 years straight sending enough larva out to fill Sydney Harbour 3 times over. This larva created a whole series of tunnels underground.

We went for a 4 hour tour which took us through a number of these tunnels. Some of the tunnels are only short and you can see all the way through because they have collapsed over time. While others are longer but end at a wall because they head further underground and have filled with sediment over time.

The tunnel we enjoyed the most was one of the tunnels which have filled with water due to the wet season and as of this year they are allowing people to swim through it. This was a fantastic experience, the water was a really nice temperature, and crystal clear, but the tunnel was pitch black inside so the guide had a head torch on to guide the way. There is actually a walkway with hand rail through the tunnel which they use when it dries out but we were able to either swim the whole way or walk along the hand rail with the water up to our shoulders. Great experience and can recommend it. Great assortment of accommodation there too, including old train carriages.

From there we went and walked up one of the extinct volcano craters.

It was very difficult to get good photos inside the larva tunnels due to the fact that it was pitch black inside them, but we gave it our best shot - we thought it was such a great experience.
Below is a You tube link, a video message and a little hello to all the teachers and kids in Yr 5 and Yr 3 at St Marys!

Porcupine Gorge

From Winton we headed up to Hughendon, where we stopped for lunch and a swim in the river. After speaking to the information centre there, we followed their advice and headed up to Porcupine Gorge to camp for the night.  This was a beautiful gorge and the next morning we climbed down to the bottom of the gorge for a swim in great waterhole underneath pyramid rock.

Porcupine Gorge

Our campsite at Porcupine Gorge, Cody dancing on the trailer!

Cody jumping into the waterhole

Aidan following him in

All of us having a dip below Pyramid Rock

Back to Longreach - Stockman’s Hall of Fame then on to Winton

From Windora we camped a night at a lookout on the way back to Longreach. Then we spent the morning in Longreach checking out the Stockman’s Hall of Fame before heading off on more long straight sections of road to Winton.



Stockman's Hall of Fame



More straight road and flat country in all directions

There was plenty to see in Winton and we spent a couple of nights out there. Most things in Winton were based around dinosaurs or Waltzing Matilda, and then a few other funny little points of interest. We didn’t do it all and ruled out most things on Waltzing Matilda and museums as we had done enough of both of those in Longreach. But we did drive out to Lark Quarry where they found the footprints preserved in mud of the dinosaur stampede which occurred over 90 million years ago. It was amazing how many footprints were there and the fact they were still there after all this time. The country side out near Lark Quarry was very different to the rest of the flat channel country. It was up amongst ranges which were very dry and rocky. It was interesting to learn how this part of the country in particular has changed, how it used to be covered in rainforest with an inland sea next to it.

The other things we liked in Winton were Arno’s Wall, which we actually camped next to - you may have seen this on TV before (see the photo). We visited the musical fence and Aidan and Cody had fun playing all instruments made from junk. Aidan and Cody also loved the garbage bins in Winton and Jaime found sign in the newsagent’s window which we found amusing.

Windora

First Solar farm being tested at Windora

The next morning we headed to Windora and after checking out the first Solar Farm in Australia which is being tested at Windora, we decided to set up camp on Cooper Creek and do some swimming as it was a very hot day. Cooper Creek is all part of the channel country and a beautiful place. Aidan and Cody put the nets in and caught a couple of great feeds of blue claw yabbies and 3 sooty grunter fish. The river was so full of small fish, that when swimming around or even just standing still you could feel them swimming past you, and you had to be careful not to tread on them. Aidan and Cody had great fun trying to catch the fish. Cody managed to catch one in his footy shorts after it swam inside his pants! Aidan caught a few just in his hands but wasn’t quite so lucky in that he managed to catch a catfish which spiked him and then he managed to step on a catfish as well, which also spiked him and caused great pain from the poison they inject into you.

The next day we headed to the other side of Windora to where the red sand hills are. The red of this sand was incredible, especially when looking at it against the blue sky. It was VERY hot that day and there was a lot of ground cover we had to walk through to get up to the sand hills, due to long wet season, so we decided it was wise to wear jeans and sneakers in case of snakes. Aidan and Cody got a very good idea of how difficult it would be to spend a long of time in a desert. We got a few photos and then got out of there pretty quickly!