Cairns, the gateway to North Queensland - 10th July

See photo - Cairns Lagoon.

We arrived in Cairns after our morning cane steam train ride at around 2pm, it wasn't a long drive from Port Douglas and the traffic was OK even for a Sunday. We booked in and got setup at the Cairns Holiday Park which is located close to the Esplanade and is the closest Caravan Park to the Cairns CBD (not on the Bruce Hwy! ) It was easy to swing into the Cairns rhythm as we got our gear and headed for the Lagoon located on the 'Esplanade' in the centre of town. With no sandpit toys Aiden  took a bit of settling but soon enough he was in to it with his 'jet ski hand' playing in the Lagoon pool. This is a great setup, which is much needed for the area as you are unable to swim in the water due to all the "deadly critters "and the mud flats.

We decided to head home for an early dinner and give the boys a ride on their bikes, it was a good thing we booked ahead for the site as by the time we returned from the Lagoon the holiday park was fully booked with not even a tent site available, that night the noise level was good .. or it's just us getting use to it.... thank goodness the boys are good sleepers now and accustomed to the noises of the van and all our friendly neighbours. 

Green ants and the Bush Stone-Curlew .... have we told you about our two favourite wild pets.... eerr pests? They are lovely except when the green ants invade your space, BBQ, clothes line etc,  and the Curlew's scream all night! We first found out about these creatures in Darwin, the green ants are a great help to the fruit trees and are very aggressive, they attack anything that comes near their territory, as for the Curlew's we look forward to a nights sleep without thinking someone is screaming in the camp site!!............ of which this campsite has both!

Monday morning it was an early start with a walk up to the Crystal Cascade Water Falls, in fact a series of water falls, as we were the first visitors there for the day we coaxed the boys into being quiet  (as quite as a 4 and 5 year old can be ), we were rewarded as we managed to see a wild pig, a bush turkey, a sleeping owl, 4 turtles and some fish......... not a bad score!
We then made our way to Barron Falls National Park and the Hydro project, they had a visitors centre with a 1/12th scale cut away model of the hydro turbine and generator assembly, they also had some footage of the latest floods and what the Barron Falls are subjected to, there used to be a tour, but due to OH&S legislation they no longer conduct them ( like the sugar cane industry ) unfortunately.
We then headed for the Esplanade to give the boys a "Playground" fix, in one of the most incredible setups we have seen to date, we had a BBQ lunch and let the boys " go for it ". We then got some coffees and settled back on the grass in the sun for some R&R ......... from our hectic schedule.........


See photo - Over Barron Falls on Kuranda train.

Next morning it was another early start as we were booked for the Kuranda Railway trip up the mountain to.... err...Kuranda, some lunch, sightseeing and then the Skyrail back down to Cairns. We were not disappointed, the railway was fantastic, it was pulled by two 1000hp locomotives and consisted of 8 carriages handmade from Silky Oak !, the railway was constructed between 1882 and 1891.....9 years, and all by hand!!!, it was considered one of the worlds greatest engineering marvels of the era, and even today is considered an engineering feat of tremendous magnitude. Hundreds of men were employed to build the 15 hand-made tunnels ( some 2km long ) and 37 bridges that stand as a monument to the pioneers of tropical North Queensland who lost their lives while working on the railway. Rising from sea level to 328m, the journey to Kuranda passes through World Heritage protected tropical rain forest, past spectacular waterfalls and into the awesome Barron Gorge.

See photo - Skyrail - magical view after magical view

We arrived in Kuranda and as we made our way into town we were met by a man standing on the corner of the Kuranda Pub cracking a stock whip enticing the crowd in for a meal and a beer.......... who were we to argue! We finished our sightseeing and headed for the pub before making our way down to the Skyrail and our return trip down the mountain. The Skyrail was incredible, it has been voted Australia's premiere attraction and we can now see why, the .7.5km gondola cable car consists of 25 towers averaging 39 meters rising out from the rain forest. We managed to get back to the caravan park, do a quick pack and off to Outback Jacks for dinner with the boys for a treat, the next morning we would be setting off for Airlie Beach camping along the way!

See photo - Bramston Beach.

Wednesday saw us up and out of the caravan park by 9am, Bell took the boys to the shops for some supplies and we were on the road to Bramston Beach. Now, if anyone reading is looking for a place to retire to, we have found it!. Bramston Beach is 17km off the Bruce highway 80km south of Cairns just outside of Innisvale, you can currently buy a furnished 4 x 2 on the beach for under $400K, compared with Perth prices this is incredible, if you cant afford to buy here do yourself a favour and plan to visit and camp on the beach if you ever come to this part of the world, you wont regret it! We setup camp and headed for the beach for the afternoon.

We got up early the next morning to see the sunrise and then packed up and headed for Balgal Beach just outside of Townsville, we detoured thru Mission Beach and Tully to view the destruction from cyclone Yasi, and they are still clearing up this area, unfortunately it does not seem they have had any support from the Queensland government to rebuild in time for the tourist season....... but then again there only the government..........

See photo - Balgal Beach.

When we arrived at Balgal Beach it was full !, where to stay?, then one of the locals came over and told us the ranger had been in the morning and would not be returning for 3 days so just park over there and we'd be OK..... you beauty! This place had the biggest tide we have seen to date the beach receded over 700 meters and dropped nearly 4 meters, once the boys were asleep we went for a look and the tide was high up the beach!

We left early the next morning covering 350km thru Townsville, Ayre and Bowen, the pick was Ayre a beautiful little town surrounded by cane fields, we arrived in Airlie Beach and booked into the Island Gateway Holiday Park, great spot within walking distance of the centre of town and the Esplanade. We got setup and headed for the nearest Tourist centre to line up a holiday at one of the islands.................. stay tuned for the next Blog and our trip to the famous Whitsunday Islands!!!

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