We had a big night last night at Anthony and Stacey's engagement party, and an early morning this morning. We got home around 2am, and then had to get up again at 4am to get to the airport for our 6:30am flight. Jihyeon had a harder night than me, and was struggling to fire on all cylinders.
Even after some go juice.
Our airline of choice was the budget carrier, jetstar.
Woo, on our way to Cairns.
We met my Aunty Val and Uncle John at the airport who picked us up and took us back to their house in south of Tully. We took the scenic rout and stopped off at a number of attractions along the way. I wish I could remember the name of this popular local water hole, but I can't. The water is crystal clear and freezing cold. Very refreshing on a hot day.
Jihyeon was feeling a little better after her nap on the aeroplane and in the car.
The next stop was Paranella Park. A Spanish immigrant dreamed of building his own castle, so in the 1930's he moved to Australia, worked hard, bought a beautiful plot of land, and built himself a castle. It's a great tourist attraction. There are super friendly and knowledgeable guides to show you around and the gardens are beautiful. It's well worth the trip and the money. Interesting fact, my Uncle John was the bank manager in Cairns at the time and approved the loan to restore the park man many years ago.
Even the toilet blocks are fancy.
Pictured here are the remains of the old wedding hall. Sadly, due to the construction techniques used and the very wet environment, much of it is crumbling and falling to pieces and no longer safe.
Picnic area by the waterfall.
After Paranella Park we stopped off at what was the smallest bank in Australia. It was moved to it's current location when it closed and is now used for storage.
Finally, we made it to my Aunt and Uncle's house. Once the sun started to set and it cooled down a bit, we went for a walk down to the beach. Once again, it was deserted and we had it all to ourselves.
The next morning we got up early. I was excited because we had booked a tour of the sugar cane mill today. On the way we stopped to take a photo of the giant cassowary.
When we got to the sugar mill they apologised and told us that due to a fault in one of the machines they had to shut the factory down. Bummer. We headed next door instead to check out another quirky local tourist attraction, the big gumboot aka the golden gumboot. I'm proud to say that my Uncle (ever involved in the local community) actually helped build as a monument to how much rain the region receives every year. It stands 7.9 meters tall (the amount of rain received in 1950).
It has an internal staircase you can climb for a view of the local sugar mill and town.
Hello.
We then headed back to my aunt and uncles house for some lunch. On the way we spotted a wiled endangered cassowary in the rainforest.
Yum, Soup for lunch.
This is another fantastic fresh water creek known as "The Boulders". I wish we had more time to stop and enjoy it, but we were on a tight schedule to drive all the way to cape tribulation. I'm definitely going to come back here. It's not far from the highway, has lots of picnic areas, and ample fresh cool water to cool down in.
Back on the road again driving past sugar cane fields which dominate North Queensland.
A couple of hours later the highway went from cutting through sugar cane fields to hugging the coast. It would have been great to stop and enjoy the setting sun, but we had to keep going. We were already running late.
We arrived in cape tribulation fairly late. The office was closed, so we grabbed the key they left out for us and, after stumbling around in the pitch dark, headed to our room to eat a quick snack and get some sleep. The next morning we woke and checked out our lodgings.
After breakfast, we headed down to the beach.
Deserted. We were the only people on the whole beach.
Small crabs burrow into the sand and as they dig they put the sand in tiny balls which makes all sorts of patterns on the beach.
There isn't a whole lot to do in cape tribulation. It's mainly about relaxing, but are a couple of adventure activities available. We decided to go "tree surfing", or in other words ride flying foxes through the rainforest canopy.
Cinderella
And the mad hatter.
The tree surfing course.
Getting hoisted up to the first platform.
Ready
Set
Go!
At the second station high in the trees.
At the third tree.
Don't look down.
Cheese.
On the last run they get you to hang upside down.
After working up an appetite surfing trees, we decided to have some lunch by the pool.
There was a free (dodgy) BBQ available to use.
Yum. Cafe de'phil
In the afternoon we checked went for a drive a little further north to check out some of the other beaches in the area.
The next day we left cape tribulation and headed back south towards cairns.
and had chips at the local takeaway.
My Korean nickname written in tomato sauce.
I decided to pull the car over at a random beach as we headed south toward cairns. I'm happy we did. The rocks were really interesting and the water looked great.
The forest up here grows right up to the edge of the road. It was a nice drive.
Another random stop along the road south.
We stopped here for a picnic lunch. It was one of the best beaches I've ever seen, and there was no one in sight.
Every few years the region gets hit by a serious cyclone and which washes out roads and causes a massive amount of damage. 10 months later, they are still fixing the roads.
The road in this section gets really twisty and turny. It takes a long time to drive, but it's a lot of fun.
A lookout along the way.
A map of the tourist attractions between the Daintree and Cape Tribulation.
Late in the afternoon we finally arrived at the Daintree River.
We found our hotel
And explored the local town.
The next morning we went on a crocodile tour.
The air was perfectly still, and the Daintree River looked like a mirror.
A cow grazing by the river. Our boat driver told us how he has lived in the area for 50 years, and when he was a young lad he would muster the cattle across the river on his horse.... while hoping no crocodiles would eat him.
A little bird decided to fly in and say hello.
We spent a couple of hours driving up and down the river, but unfortunately this is the only crocodile we saw. It was about 30cm long and was busy warming itself in the morning sun.
Bird busy drying it's wings in the morning sun.
We then hit the road again and kept heading south, stopping off along the way for the occasional photo.
At Port Douglas we drove up the top of the mountain to the lookout.
Late that afternoon we arrived in Cairns and met up with a friend of Jihyeon's from Korea who was living and working in Cairns. The next morning we went on the Kuranda Sky Rail. I arranged for a bus to pick us up from or hotel and drop us off at the sky rail. We would catch the scenic railway home. There are 4 stops for the Sky Rail (see the flags below).
Waiting in the queue.
On the Sky Rail
At maximum zoom on my camera, you can see the scenic railway which we would be catching home.
In the wet season water is normally thundering over the waterfalls, but since we came in the dry season there wasn't a lot of water.
The scenic railway again, this time stopped to look at the waterfall.
Almost at our destination.
Finally, we arrived ^^
We went for a walk along the river
and made some new friends.
The butterfly house is a must see place in Kuranda. There are butterflies everywhere.
the Kuranda Railway Station where we would catch the train home.
I wish Burpengary railway station was this nice.
The carriages are old heritage restored carriages. They are noisy and not that comfortable, but fun.
The next day we went to green Island to go snorkeling.
It was a bloody hot day.
As we left green island, they fed the fish off the back of the boat.
Good Bye
We caught up with Jihyeon's friend again in Cairns before heading back to Brisbane the next day.
