Friday 12 July 2019

12 - Lake Tinaroo 1/7 - 12/7/2019


Entry 12           Lake Tinaroo 1/7 – 12/7/2019
Returning to our Lake Tinaroo residence, ‘Norty’s place,’ virtually one month since we had left to explore some of the nearby northern regions, the property looked like the surrounding rainforest environment had been attempting to reclaim the land. Though a majority of the mess would have been created by the 10’s of thousands of sulphur crested cockatoos gnawing away with their beaks stripping the overhead tree canopies. The noise created by the cockatoos was deafening making it impossible to have a conversation at times. It is a regular occurrence around Australia with the authorities are unable to come up with an effective strategy to address the ongoing plague of these birds.




It took close to two hours of work, clearing the driveway and other areas we required access to, before we entered the driveway with our caravan. We were both worn out, very tired and were in bed around 6 pm - both instantly asleep. The following day we finished tidying the rest of the grounds and spent the evening at the ‘Smicks,’ catching up on one another’s news and activities for the last month.
It was good not having an itinerary or set goals for a while. This allowed us to address some maintenance needs and catch up with all those modern-day electronic details. The second day at Norty’s our caravan TV expired. Mary wasn’t happy as she was looking forward to watching the Wimbledon Tennis tournament, a special treat considering we spend most of our time travelling in areas without TV reception. It was out of warranty by 3 weeks and a polite email seeking assistance with this predicament was met with silence.
Adding to the mix our tow tug was due for a service and the two local (Atherton Table Lands) service centres were unable to assist for 3 weeks. We were into our 7th year travelling all over Australia and had never experienced being unable to obtain a tow tug service any longer than a week out. Our 6 monthly service due date was within a week and we were about 400 kilometres shy of the 10,000-kilometre limitation. We directed many questions to both dealers to discover there was a 1-month grace period with the stated time limit to maintain ongoing warranties but the kilometres travelled needed to be within limitations. We assessed the kilometre restraints over this period of time to be too restrictive and rang the Cairns service centre located a bit over 100 kilometres away, booking our vehicle for its required service within all limitation requirements.
We were up early travelling to Cairns for one of those major services, $ on our tow tug. We spent the day walking around Cairns while our tow tug was getting some pampering returning to Tinaroo late afternoon. We were very tired and were glad to be provided with a lovely roast tea on our return complements of the Smicks. We then played one of the Smicks card games into the evening. It was a game we hadn’t previously played much before and the play kept running our way. In the end we were directed to “Get Out.” You’ve eaten all our good food and you’ve smashed us at cards, get out. The Smicks have been such good hosts for us!
Norty spent another night at his lakeside residence where the five of us shared an evening meal and chatter late into the evening.
Another delicious meal. Thank you Mary.
We continued to enjoy the relaxed setting of the Lake Tinaroo watching various lake activities from our porch and the accompanying bird life.






 
Rainbow Lorikeet
Another recently retired couple whom we have socialised with over the last 20 years or so were travelling to Cairns with their caravan for a week’s holiday. In our opinion they were still in working life mode zipping about, needing to slow up, travelling around 8,000 kilometres over a 5-week period till returning home in Adelaide? Once we became aware of their itinerary, we offered for them to spend some time with us at Lake Tinaroo which they took up, being it only for a day and a half. On the way from Adelaide to Cairns they detoured to the Undara Larva Tubes, another location we had previously promoted as worthwhile. When Lyn & Pete arrived at Lake Tinaroo, we were a bit nervous if they had enjoyed the Undara Larva Tubes as much as we had. We were pleased to hear their bubbly conversation about their Undara Lava Tube experience. We quickly set them up in the prime lake viewing spot.
Pete was in motion for a Toyota jump, "Oh what a feeling," unfortunately Steve misjudged the timing of the camera shutter.
Next, we needed to come up with a plan for suggestions on what they might like to experience while in the Atherton Tablelands, a location we were expecting to allocate a period of three plus months, with Lyn & Pete allocating 1 ½ days. We assessed their wish list, “bucket list,” for things they would like to experience during their life time. One of Lyn’s wishes was to view some Texas long horn cattle. She was going to pay $180 when they travelled through Charters Towers a few days prior but missed out due to issues with the farm provider. Well we started mid-afternoon on the day of their arrival to see if we could assist with their bucket list wishes driving them around to nearby locations, continuing through their second day, waving them off the following morning.
Texas Long Horns.

The Avenue of Honour.


A Platypus in the wild.
We had spent copious days watching the waterways hoping for a platypus appearance till successful with a sighting. Whilst conveying Lyn & Pete to various areas we had stopped at one of the platypi viewing areas and immediately spotted one within a minute of arrival.

Some water falls.

Up close to a wild Echidna we spotted on a walk.



Walking through rainforests.

Turtles in the wild.


To see a tea plantation and the making of tea.  
This had been our third Nerada tea plantation visit and it was the first time we had seen the harvesting of the tea plants.

A visit to Nerada Tea Plantation is not complete without sampling some of their tea's, naturally with scones, jam & cream
A sighting of the very rare tree kangaroo.



To be chauffeured around by that great guy, Steve and whilst chattering away to experience the feeling of our tongues being sent through the vehicle’s windscreen.

Experiencing a chalet type setting on Lake Tinaroo and its nature.


Beautiful sunset

Lovely sunrise

They loved the Curlews as we do



Experiencing time with other like-minded special caravanning people, (Smicks.)
Another one of Mary's creations
We had followed up with more communication with our T.V. provider, requesting for the contact particulars of their supplier. We were happy with the efforts of the business we had purchased the TV from, ‘Caravans Plus,’ with their T.V. supplier arranging for collection of the T.V. via courier for assessment of repairs as if it was still under warranty conditions. We were now at the mercy of time lines for assessment of repairs and courier conveyance times hoping for a speedy resolution, suspecting it may be at least another month.
The same day Lyn & Pete moved on we received a request from ‘that’ other Adelaide couple Judy & Jim for a blog update with pictures of our time with Lyn & Pete. Later that day a phone conversation with Lyn reiterated Judy’s request. Well it looks like you guys owe us with the likes of a night out when we next get together. Under duress from peer pressure, Steve spent several hours compiling this next blog entry with a further 1 ½ hours spent uploading it.
The below two pictures are for Judy & Jim’s information, they are not the only special couples to frequent these two locations.



Tuesday 2 July 2019

11 - Port Douglas, Daintree & Cairns 21/6 - 1/7/2019


Entry 11           Port Douglas & Daintree 21/6 – 1/7/2019

About 40 kilometres west of Port Douglas we propped up in the Mountain ranges staying a couple of nights in a promoted rainforest location full of birds and wildlife. It was ok but we thought the publicity was a bit on the ambitious side. We did enjoy viewing a variety of plants even if they hadn’t self-germinated.
Impressive entry

Nice camping area












It had been mentioned to us the Sunday morning Port Douglas markets were a must do. We were up early and, on our way, arriving around 9 am, finding a suitable parking location with the caravan attached about a kilometre away from the markets. We spent a couple of enjoyable hours wandering around looking at a large variety of stalls and obtained our weekly supply of fresh food directly from the farmers.
Booking in time at our Port Douglas located caravan park was 11 am and we were near completion of setting camp by 11.30 when Adelaide friends, Judy & Jim knocked on our door. Their accommodation was around a 5-minute walk down the road. They liked the sound of the Markets and we were back at the markets for another walk around. It was nearing the market finish time of 1.30 pm with most fresh food sold out, so Judy & Jim had to satisfied with shopping at the nearby supermarket. The evening meal was spent in our caravan.
One of a few lookouts we stopped at travelling down from the mountains to Port Douglas


Early the following morning we set off to explore the much-publicised Mossman Gorge. We walked all the non-cost trails feeling very satisfied with the scenery. It was a busy morning and our bodies were feeling weary after around 8 kilometres of walking.




Lovely clear flowing water







That evening the 4 of us participated in a sunset sail cruise. The sails were out supported by a strong ocean breeze. The boat put on a good speed and we were getting tossed about on the waves. Mary was hoping for a great time on the water able to cope with her past motion sickness issues. This was to be Mary’s last time on a sail boat due to a reminder, her body doesn’t cope with the rocking and rolling.
Our boat



A promoted sunset cruise and this was it for a few minutes only


Skipping along

Some of many luxury boats in the harbour
We had booked for a meal out, after the cruise and thought Mary’s meal may have been compromised. Luckily back on land she quickly improved and managed an entree sized meal.
Once again, we woke early the following morning and were on our way to our next targeted destination the Daintree region a World Heritage Listed Rainforest location. Ironically Judy & Jim were off on a days guided tour of the Daintree. As we drove down the road we waved to Judy & Jim who were standing out the front of their accommodation waiting to be collected with what looked like their transport approaching about 100 metres away.

We needed to cross the Daintree River to access our targeted area for exploration and were happy to have avoided the publicised lengthy queues waiting to get on the Daintree ferry arriving early, prior to the peak period.
There's our ferry on the other side of the river

Crossing the river
As soon as we drove off the ferry, we were in amongst the Daintree rainforest delighting all our senses with our eyes awash with a lush green environment. It was a narrow windy road with a maximum speed limit of 60 kph for the best part of the Daintree region roads. We stopped for a look at Cow Bay, a location without signage, “Not suitable for Caravans.” Near 11 am we booked into our caravan park for the next 3 nights. We enjoyed walking the caravan parks rainforest trails and viewing some of the wild life. We did enquire about the very publicised Cassowary sightings to be notified it was nesting season where they didn’t expect to hear about Cassowary sightings due to nest sitting duties for around the next month.
A regular feature signage driving around the Daintree

And another feature



More trees blocking the track
Just a small base for the downed tree






Each time we drove out onto the main road we were immediately mesmerised by our rainforest surroundings. It was simply beautiful.

The primary bitumized area of road networks from the ferry stretched north for about 40 kilometres before changing to a 4wd track (named the Bloomfield Track) and we were camped in round-about the middle region. Day two we explored our northerly regions. True to form as we had experienced at Mossman Gorge the first publicized boardwalk was closed for maintenance. Possibly this region has similarities to our Canadian experience where there were two primary seasons, construction season and the wet season. With a very wet season making it impossible for most outdoor activities leaving the dry periods for outdoor construction and maintenance. Further on, the Dubuji Boardwalk provided splendid viewing with the disappointment of missing out on the Marrdja Boardwalk quickly evaporating.

Mary standing next to the scrub fowl nest


We were delighted to spot the scrub fowl nearby





Lookout point was another worthwhile viewing location.

We had been informed by the “Smicks,” that at Emmagen Creek there was a nice walking track to a great swimming hole along the creek. About 5 kilometres back down the road on our way to Emmagen Creek a car had been following us for a while being so close to us, we thought about stopping and opening up our rear back hatch for them to get in. At about this, 5 kilometre mark the bitumen finished with a 4wd only signage displayed and suddenly this car was no longer behind us. We suspect it was a hire car with overseas occupants? It had been raining the previous night, the road was quite wet and we were having our share of traction issues over the 5 kilometres of dirt road to Emmagen Creek.






We treasured our rainforest walks with some magical settings, enhanced when we stepped out of a dense rainforest onto a beautiful beach or ocean setting.

Day three we had planned to explore the area south of our camp. We woke to the sound of rain tapping on our roof and experienced several heavy showers of rain up to 11 am. With the rain appearing to abate we headed out to our planned destinations a bit after 11 am. We were looking forward to another publicized national park walk only to find it too was closed for maintenance. That added to around half of the main national park walking tracks as closed for the Daintree region. In hindsight perhaps we should have prior checked the national parks web site for status updates. Unfortunately, in the Daintree region there is no phone reception which also means no internet, thus no access to national parks web site. Next, we attended the main lookout with alleged views of the Daintree River travelling into the ocean and Port Douglas in the distance????

We did stop at a couple of highly publicized commercial operations which also turned out not to be as advertised. Our last planned day in the Daintree turned out to be a bit of a miserable wet day not enticing us to stay longer. We still enjoyed looking around at our camp site setting amongst a splendid rainforest back ground locale. Would we return to view the Daintree region? Absolutely yes. It would have been one of the most special rainforest settings we have experienced. We would look favourably to an opportunity to explore those areas that had been unavailable due to refurbishment work in the national park areas, including retracing those locales we experienced.

Naturally the day we departed the Daintree region the weather improved. Our target locale was in the Cairns region catching up with one of Mary’s cousins. The scenery along our route from the Daintree to Cairns was rather spectacular.


We hadn’t been to Greg’s home before and had been offered a parking spot for our caravan if we could fit. His road started to get quite steep requiring low range 4wd for the last part. It was not only steep but the road also narrowed inhibiting our turning capabilities. After about six attempts, removing one fence panel we were best part in, with a slight inconvenience of only able to half open our caravan door due to a retaining wall incursion. With a bedroom in the house available for our use we managed to overcome the awkward access into our caravan.
Getting tight
Fence panel was in the way, so it was removed

Steve stood on top of the retainer wall to enter the caravan from a partially open door

Even the gradient required low range 4wd.
There were lots of butterfies fluttering about in the tree lined street
We had a wonderful time catching up with Greg, his wife Thanh and son Xavier.


Initially we were thinking one evening would provide plenty of time for a catch up, aiming to leave the following day. So, we thought. Thanh had two close friends coming from Vietnam to stay the following day. Thanh and Greg talked us into staying longer where we all spent time in the Cairns ‘Rusty’s Markets,’ Cairns Aquarium, with Thanh and her visitors providing plenty of delightful Vietnamese food experiences.



Leaving Cairn’s, we made our way to Norty’s Lake Tinaroo property which we were thrilled was still available for our use about 1 ½ hours drive away. This we planned to be our base for a while, enjoying its relaxing environment while planning our future options.