Saturday 16th September 2006

Judy's communication with a higher authority still hasn't resulted in fine weather as we had some rain overnight and this morning the blue patches of sky are being attacked by large fluffy grey things and at this time it looks like those fluffy grey things are winning the battle. How do we know it rained last night??? well when the 'Other One' slipped his feet into his thongs this morning, it was like stepping into a swimming pool and 'One of Us' didn't miss the opportunity to remind him that he 'should have' put them under the awning a bit further...

After watching the AFL football last night we figure we will have one pretty happy son and daughter in law this morning, even if they can't speak due to overworked vocal cords as they watched their team, the Fremantle Dockers' win their first ever finals game when they beat Melbourne and earned themselves a berth in the next round of the Finals.

Once we had managed to get ourselves somewhat organised (if that is possible) and had a mid morning cup of tea, it was not possible to keep the girls away from shops any longer, so we all piled into the Patrol and set off into Cairns Town centre to show Judy around, however in the interests of Judy's financial planner, the 'Other One' just drove past all the shops and down to the Esplanade without stopping. There were quite a lot of preparations being made for the 'Reef Festival' street parade due to take place along this area later on this afternoon. Unfortunately we were unable to show Judy the water along the Esplanade because we think it must have taken the weekend off and gone out to the islands for the day, it certainly wasn't anywhere near the beach.

From the Esplanade we drove through the suburbs of Cairns out to the west and then returned toward the south end of the town until we came to a shopping centre about two or three kilometres past the caravan park. Regardless of all the tactics instigated by the 'Other One', the girls just wouldn't let the steering wheel go so we ended up parked outside the door to the shopping complex and they were heading in through the doors at a run. After about an hour and a half they finally extracted themselves from the store with a shopping trolley full of goodies. In the meantime they had sent the 'Other One' into the liquor store with instructions to purchase another cask of white wine which was required for medicinal purposes (To be taken orally each evening by the 'girls' to assist in the relief of stress in the 'Other One'). The purchase cost $68 but did include beer and red wine to provide stronger relief when necessary (Which is most of the time!).

On return to the caravan park at about 1:30pm it was time for a late lunch which was enjoyed whilst sitting under the swaying palm trees and by this time, some larger patches of blue sky as, although the battle continued to rage above, the blue patches seemed to be getting the upper hand over the grey fluffy bits by this time. The open ham and salad sandwiches were complimented by a cup of cappuccino coffee before the girls caught a glimpse of some ice creams that had been kept in the freezer... The operative words here are 'had been', as they are no longer there.

The rest of the afternoon was spent either in deep and meaningful discussion (or waiting to get that word in edgeways) for a while, then out came the books to fill in the little extra time available until Happy Hour(s) starting at 5pm. The dinner menu consists of roast chicken and vegetables followed by Eagles and Bulldogs on an oval platter, or at least on a TV screen whilst they battle it out for the honour of progressing to the next round of the AFL football finals.

Tomorrow we intend to start the day early (well for us anyway) and head off up to Port Douglas, Mossman, the Daintree and Cape Tribulation so we may be a little late getting back to the caravan park and completing the website. However that is another day and we can't get too stressed about it at the moment because this day hasn't finished yet, we will have to relax for a while and have a think about it.

Sunday 17th September 2006

Estuarine Crocodile on the Daintree River

Buff Chested Kingfisher on the river

Another Estuarine Crocodile waiting for a feast

After an entree of prawns with cocktail sauce, main meal of roast chicken and vegetables and the Eagles winning their AFL game to progress to the Preliminary Final, and we won't mention the number of glasses of white wine (She said not to mention it!) Judy retired to her cabin a very happy woman last night. That was after a bit of a dance around the caravan park waving her Eagles scarf and letting everyone know that they won. Only problem was up in North Queensland they say "AFL, what's that??". But Judy knows her team won the game anyway.

This morning we thought the day was going to be fine and cloud free, but that only lasted about an hour or so until the cloud cover started to come over once more, however there did not appear to be a lot of rain threatening to come down with the cloud.

We set off out of the caravan park at about 8:50am and made our way north along the Captain Cook Highway, heading for the Daintree river and forest. As we were not sure how long it would take us to make this journey and make all the stops that we may want to for tourist type activities, we decided to travel up to Cape Tribulation without too many stops, then on the way back we could stop where ever we wanted to, leaving the sights closer to Cairns for another day if we run out of time.

Up past Port Douglas and Mossman we went, then turned off the highway before Daintree Village and made our way down to the cable ferry that crosses the Daintree River. Just before boarding the ferry, we called in to the car park where the crocodile cruises leave from and Judy raced us to one of the cruise stalls and purchased tickets for us to spend an hour and a quarter on an electric cruise boat (powered by two electric outboard motors) that was extremely quiet in the water. When we were ready to board the boat we thought we may have been the only people on it, however three more turned up before we left and once we were underway we were absolutely charmed by one of them, she was (almost) three year old Carly. She was such a beautiful friendly little girl who considered us all to be friends because we were on the boat together. Even the skipper of the cruise boat said he had a lot of competition for the attention of his passengers because Carly was centre stage. She spent quite a lot of time on the knees of Pammy and Judy and on leaving the boat, without any prompting whatever, gave us all a hug goodbye. (however we did meet again on two more occasions during the day) The Crocodile cruise was a real success as we saw little Carly, four crocodiles, two snakes and a great range of birds, including a Buff Chested Kingfisher which is not so easy to find we were told.

After the cruise we drove down to the ferry crossing and when instructed to do so, drove onto the ferry and were carried over the river, past any crocodiles that may have been there and drove up the bank on the other side and continued on our way through some beautiful rain forest. After winding our way up a mountain side and down the other, then traveled a few extra kilometres before we turned off to the Rainforest Discovery Centre. Here we paid our entry fee and also $5 each for electronic guide sticks and set off along the tree top walk. Well the walk was only part the way up the trees as the tops of the trees were a long way above us even when we were on the walk. Just after we started on the walk, we had the privilege of seeing a Cassowary wandering on the forest floor not taking any notice of all the tourists clambering for a spot to take a photograph of him. After this we spent another three hours learning so much and enjoying the rainforest as it was presented to visitors to the centre. At the end of this visit we decided that we didn't really have the time to continue up the road to Cape Tribulation and that we could visit this location when we drive up to Cooktown, so we headed off south from here, back to the ferry over the Daintree River.

Once back on the south side of the river safely (the girls didn't push the 'Other One' overboard to the crocodiles because he wouldn't let go of the keys to the Patrol), our next top was at near Mossman where we made our way out to Mossman River Gorge. Here we took the short walk to the water hole in the river and even crossed the Rex Bridge which is a cable suspension bridge. The girls were really 'rockin' on the bridge but the staggering was not due to any white wine intake at this stage. As time was flapping it's wings really fast and leaving us behind so we made our way back the the Patrol and continued our journey toward home.

We headed down the Captain Cook Highway until we came to Port Douglas where we drove into the town centre and up to the top of a lookout that gave splendid views over the coast line to the south of Port Douglas. Then it was back onto the highway again, down the highway along the ocean side and into the edge of the mountains until we came to Palm Cove where we deviated through the resort area and 'One of Us' decided that she would like to return here one day to stay in one of the many resorts and be spoilt rotter. Unfortunately the 'Other One' suffers with tinitus (a hearing disorder) and didn't hear anything she said.

By this time Judy was almost hysterical as it was not just past 5pm, (start of Happy Hour) it was after 6pm and that is the end of Happy Hour... Judy wasn't happy!!!! To calm her down the 'Other One' promised that we would turn back the clock and pretend it was still happy hour when we arrived back at the caravan. That worked but she kept us up to that promise and that hour was enjoyed, with interest (She had a great deal of interest in it and even invested quite a number of extra minutes into it!)

We did not arrive back at the caravan until about 7pm, then Judy cooked chicken risotto for dinner (One glass for Judy, a bit for the pot, another glass for Judy, none for the pot and on it went.) which we all really enjoyed greatly. By this time it was way past all our bed times so we all dispersed and went our way to catch up on our beauty sleep. Tomorrow we plan to have a day with shorter strenuous activities and more time to relax, but we have heard that before so will wait and see what transpires.

Monday 18th September 2006

Paronella Park and the swing bridge

A castle in the trees - Paronella Park

Waterfall and lake at Paronella Park

The morning came a little too soon for us but the clouds kept the bright sun from shining through the windows and waking us before we were ready. However there was a reasonably firm wind blowing and the clouds and this seemed to disperse them from time to time.

As today wasn't going to be a big day of sight seeing we didn't get organised too early and it was about 9:05am when we drove out of the caravan park and turned south on the Bruce Highway. Our day wasn't really planned so we just drove until we arrived at Babinda where we turned into the town and had a look along the main street before stopping at the local war memorial for a few minutes to have a look and take a photograph or two. We then continued along that road out of town as we saw a sign that said we would reach The Boulders after a few kilometres, but after we arrived at the car park to the Boulders, there was a sign that said the walk was closed due to cyclone Larry.

It was then back into Babinda, then off south again on the Bruce Highway which took us through a number of small towns or in some cases just a building or two with a sign at the entrance, however we finally reached Innisfail. This town had been so badly battered by cyclone Larry it was really a bit of a surprise as although there is still a lot of evidence that it was damaged badly, it appears to be quite vibrant and still has many indications that it was inhabited by the Italians that migrated to Australia shortly after the Second World War.

After a brief drive around Innisfail we decided to head a little further south as we thought there was a Sugar Industry Museum in a little town just south of Innisfail, however when we arrived there it appeared the museum was not open so we had to find another attraction to visit before lunch time.

From here we left the Bruce Highway and made our way west to South Johnson, then turned south again and made our way to Paronella Park which is located in the little village of Mena Creek. This place has a fascinating history as it was built by a spanish fellow by the name of Jose Paronella who came to Australia in 1913 and worked very hard in the cane fields for 10 years before returning to Spain to marry the woman he was betrothed to. Typical woman... just because he had not communicated with her for ten years, she thought he was not returning and married someone else. He was so heartbroken that he married her younger sister... At least she had the sense to realize she was on a good thing because he hadn't spent much of the money that he had earned and was extremely wealthy for that time. He returned to Australia with his new bride and by 1929 they had purchased the land of his dreams, 13 acres of land that has a waterfall on it and was the place he was going to build his castle. And that is what he did, mostly his own labour, he did build a castle and developed the grounds with all that was needed to attract paying visitors. His achievements included a Hydro electricity supply powered by the water from the waterfall. By 1935 he opened the castle to the public and entertained paying visitors from then on. Unfortunately in 1946, due to a log jam in the river that held back the water for about an hour, then gave way to create a huge flood, a lot of the area was damaged and parts of it destroyed. Although he had the place open again only six months later, it is thought the hard working life he had and the stress of the flood damage caused his demise with a heart attach in 1948.

The castle from then onward had many changes and eventually became a run down old site until 1993 when Mark and Judy Evens (from WA) were traveling past and saw a 'for sale' sign and they bought the place. It is now a very popular attraction as a historic site and guided tours are provided on the half hour. The stories of Jose are told with great reverence and it makes a good 45 minute experience. After the guided tour we walked around the area really taking in the achievements Jose had made and we also fed fish and turtles in the river, spending another couple of hours there before leaving. More information on this park is available at www.paronellapark.com.au

We then headed back to Innisfail where we stopped down by the river in the middle of the town and enjoyed a lunch that Pammy had prepared before we started out this morning. It was then time to start back toward Cairns as we had been quite a bit longer than we had intended to be but along the way we saw a sign that directed us about 8 kilometres off the Bruce Highway to Josephine Falls. On arrival at the car park we found we had a 700 metre walk to get to the falls and on Judy's reckoning, that meant that if she walked in to the falls that should mean she could have an extra glass of wine or two... So off we went and made the pilgrimage to the falls which were well worth the extra glass of wine and provided a few more photographic opportunities before we returned to the Patrol and headed off for the caravan park.

On arrival back in Cairns we filled the Patrol up with diesel in preparation for the drive to Cooktown tomorrow, then pulled into the caravan park at about 6:20pm. This was just in time to participate in Happy Hour before thawing some King Salmon out and cooking it on the BBQ. There was even a little white wine used to cook some of the fish, although the 'girls' may not have been happy seeing it used that way... It may have meant less for them to consume, but it doesn't appear that they noticed so the 'Other One' survived!

Tomorrow we are rising with the sun and hope to be under way toward Cooktown by about 7am. Yeah... Maybe... but it will mean that our return from Cooktown may be late as the journey will be about 650 kilometres we think. At least the 'girls' should be wide awake because they are both in dreamland by now and the 'Other One' is the only one silly enough to still be up at this time, (10:30pm) but that is about to change very soon. ZZZZZzzzzzz.....