Friday 26/09....Woke up early...6ish...This damn camping...waking up up at dawn...it was beautiful..mist on the river as the sun came up. Spent a while wandering around with the camera taking pics. Lee checked her Yabbie pots about soon after to find a whole bonanza, about 50 !
You could live and camp for free year around here, mind you, you'd get sick of Yabbies !
Moved off about 10ish for the shortish 200 ks trip to Townsville. Road, was a road train route and there was masses of road kill, almost seemed like a roo every 100 metres or so.
Came down over the ranges, but bypassed Townsville and stopped for Lunch in the strangely named Rollingstone. Found a great little cafe, right down on the ocean with a crocodile infested creek running past. Aptly had some fish and chips and a couple of beers, it was stinking hot, but great. Asked one of the locals about the crocs and he was typically droll, 'yeah there's 3 residents, couple of females and a 4 mtr resident male, freaked a couple of people out the other night on the boat ramp' (just below where we sat)
Decided to head about 40 kms North up into the hills and hopefully somewhere cooler - Juinana Falls. Beautiful campsite, very quiet, with a couple of ks walk to the Falls and masses of swimming holes. Waterfall was spectacular falling off the escarpment in a series of zig zag falls down into the gorge. Spent a little while rock hopping and swimming and then back to the camp for a delicious dinner of Muesli....!
Saturday...Beautiful morning again...what is it with this QLD place...?
Rode through Ingham and then up and over a headland to a spectacular look out over the Hinchinbrook channel and across to the Island. This really is a stunning country, I know it's big, but the variety and quality of the places and scenery is amazing. Cruisy ride down to Cardwell where we had the morning special Coffee and Profiteroles (Almost matched Sonia's...I said almost...alright). We're both feeling very chilled and hung out there for a while, just taking in the scenery.
Headed up from their to Innisfail, through classic QLD coastal country of dramatic rainforest ranges sloping down to Cane fields and then the ocean.
Stopped at the Innisfail RSL for lunch, but at just 2 the kitchen had closed, so we had a beer instead...
Rain clouds had been chasing us all day... and so donned the wet weather gear for the first time ! and set off in Misty rain up to Cairns. Only 60 odd kms to Cairns and arrived there with a great sense of Relief...bikes, everything, a part from a couple of minor hiccups had gone well...3500 kms and counting.
Arrived at the Bohemia resort and settled down at the pool with a couple of beers and waited for Leslie, Fiona and Susie to arrive...they turned up, mand we decided to stay in and have the resort bbq....yummmm..meat !
Sunday... Fairly relaxing morning, not having to get up and pack all are stuff for a change... slept in a bed too. Decide to head up with Susie to Mossman Gorge and Cape Tribulation.
Took the Captain Cook Hwy up the coast, about 20k out of Cairns turned into bikers paradise, every headland had 4-5 40-50 k bends all in sequence, spectacular scenery as ranges coming right down to the beach. About 40k out of Cairns stopped at Rex's lookout, a great view down the coast.
Headed off from there upto Mossman gorge and being QLD school holidays and a good road to the gorge...there were heaps of people, however after wandering 100 metres through the bush, had our very own isolated spot of river.
Beautiful place, lovely river. Crystal clear and warm, with masses of boulders, brought back those dreamy childhood memories of family holidays in Dartmoor and Scotland...a river of dreams !
Spent a while rock hopping, swimming and taking photos.
Time was running out a little but still we decided to head north to Cape Tribulation, got the ferry over and up and over the windy single track road through the Daintree, but to be honest in the time we had, it was just a sniff...waiting for another trip.
Fanged it back to Cairns down the gorgeous road again and arrived just as I needed to to remove my sunnies.
Went into town with Susie for a Greek feed, which was excellent...another memorable day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment