It’s more than 2 weeks since our last update and everything is still going well for us. We hope it is for you too.
We spent a week in Cairns and were lucky to be able to spend time with friends who live in Cairns so that was nice. A highlight of the week was a 1-hour flight to Lizard Island, flying over the Great Barrier Reef then 6 hours on the island, swimming, snorkelling, walking on the beach and having a fabulous picnic lunch, including wine. We flew back along the coast, looking over the rain forest and places that we had previously visited by road, such as Cooktown, Wonga Beach and Port Douglas before returning to Cairns. It was a great day.
The amazing Great Barrier Reef on the way to Lizard Island
Life is tough at Palm Cove, near Cairns
Rainforest in the mountains at Kuranda, with Cairns in the background
After leaving Cairns we drove 90 km to Bramston Beach where we stayed for 4 nights. This small town has a hotel, one cafe and one small caravan park. At least half of the people in the park are regulars who stay for up to 3 months every year. They enjoy the fishing, although this year has been a bad year for fishing, and generally relaxing in the warmth. While there we spent quite a lot of time over 2 days washing the remainder of the caravan that still was covered in red dust from the previous few weeks. We also visited Babinda and a couple of local water holes, the Babinda Boulders and Josephine Falls.
Next stop was Etty Bay, which is one of the best beaches we have ever seen. The Bay is only 400m wide, with beautiful sand, very small waves, warm water and lots of shade. We swam every day and Ted helped the small life saving club with its nippers program on Sunday morning. There are crocodiles in the area but everyone ignores them at this time of year, just as we ignore sharks at Brighton. A crocodile was sighted only 200m from the beach in the morning that nippers were in the water but presumably it wasn’t hungry as we all survived. Etty Bay is really just a tiny van park, a cafe and a life saving club and we loved it. We hope to be able to return one day.
Sunrise at beautiful Etty Bay
A cassowary enjoying a stroll at Etty Bay
Unfortunately it was time to start the journey home as we had 3100 km to travel in 10 days. We did 390 km to Charters Towers, 380 km to Clermont, 250 km to Rolleston, then 100 km to Carnarvon Gorge National Park. We stayed at an amazing new camp site called Sandstone Park, about 5 km outside the National Park, on the top of a ridge with spectacular views of the white sandstone cliffs along the gorge. The camp site has no water or power but does have toilets and the huge sites all have a view. The gorge is very interesting, with a variety of terrains and vegetation along some quite challenging walks. We walked 14 km in 3.5 hours then rewarded ourselves with a steak burger and chips. Sandstone Park has been open for only 4 months and is already known for its sunsets – but they are not as good as Brighton.
Sunrise at Sandstone Park, Carnarvon Gorge
A creek crossing in Carnarvon Gorge, with a new friend.
Now the pressure is on to get home for some appointments that we made awhile ago. So we drove 450 km to St George and, leaving Queensland behind, 530 to Bourke,NSW, where we are now. From here we have 1150 km to Adelaide over 3 days, if all goes well.
Love and regards to all. From Ted and Jo
Ted and Jo 