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Published: September 11th 2009
At the end of my last blog I put in a photo of Merry, Sue and Brian but somehow did not include an explanation. When we had our kennels in Busselton we had the great pleasure of having Lyn working for us and since we left the kennels we have kept in contact with Lyn and her husband Barry. A couple of years ago we were in Albany and met up with Lyn and Barry and had lunch with them and Lyn's sister Sue. Now back in Mossman in Queensland a few weeks ago. Trevor was chatting to a chap who had a Busselton number plate on his car and mentioned that we ran the kennels in Busselton, and a man standing nearby heard him and came across and said that his sister-in-law Lyn used to work there. What a coincidence - Barry, his wife Merry and Sue (both of Lyn's sisters) were camping nearby, thousands of kms from home. Of course we had a good long chat, rang Lyn so that she could be in on the act and then enjoyed happy hour together, along with the folk with the Busselton number plate, Pat, John, Nigel and Michele. We almost
ran out of space around our van to put deck chairs.
Well, after 3 weeks in Mossman we left reluctantly and headed down through Cairns to Bramston Beach, a delightful camping area sandwiched between the beach and the rainforest. A lovely spot to relax and enjoy the scenery. This area was to be the real high light for me as I have wanted to visit Paronella Park for many years and it is close to Bramston Beach. When we had our Kodak Express shop in Perth it was my job to print all the holiday photo's for the customers and through them I saw many places I put on a wish list to visit and Paronella Park in North Queensland was one of them. It is a long story but in a nutshell Jose Paronella came to Queensland from Spain back in 1913 and had a dream to build and Spanish castle and pleasure ground (what we would call a resort nowadays) in a tropical rainforest. He came to Australia with nothing and made his money firstly by cutting cane, then went on to buy rundown cane farms and sold them at a profit, he was a pioneer, farmer, architect,
builder, landscaper and business man. He chose an area near Innisfail called Mena Creek where a river ran and there was a natural waterfall. There he built Paronella Park for his wife Margarita and lived there with her and their two children Teresa and Joe. The park proved to be very successful in its time with many people visiting for an enjoyable day out. Sadly the park went through a series of natural disasters, cyclones and floods and finally fell into disrepair mainly because Jose had not used the proper sand and cement and steel to strengthen the building. However, to me it is simply beautiful in its present state and walking through the grounds you get the feeling of Jose being there and how it must have been when he had a ballroom with revolving mirror ball, cafe's, theatre, swimming hole with diving boards and changing rooms and picnic tables. It is impossible to show it all but I hope you can see some of it in my photo's. Trevor bought me the Biography of Jose Paronella - The Spanish Dreamer - and when I get home you are very welcome to borrow it. Jose died at the age
of 60 and it is inconceivable to comprehend how one man could achieve so much in such a short time. I am in awe of him and his achievements. One morning I was walking Millie on the beach and met a lady about my age who clearly remembers going to Paronella Park as a child and swimming in the water hole and she clearly remember Jose himself walking around the grounds chatting to the people there enjoying his wonderful creation.
While we were at Bramston Beach Trevor celebrated his birthday and we sat having an early morning cup of tea with Pat and John while he opened his cards watching a superb sunrise.
Another place that is well worth a visit while in this area is Babinda Boulders, situated just outside the small village of Babinda. This is a gorge made out of the most enormous boulders and the local council have made a very very substantial path which you can walk along and see the entire gorge from a safe perspective. There was very little water in the gorge when we visited as this is the dry season but when you see upturned trees lodged in the boulders with
their huge root system in the air you realize the amount of water and the force it flows during the wet season.
From Bramston Beach we decided to stay in a free park just north of Townsville. We have the Camps 5 book showing all free camp sites and Queensland have some beautiful ones, with toilet facilities and this one was beach front with a boat ramp for river access. One the first night we were there we sat out under the stars to view one of our favorite programs, Dancing with the Stars. Unbeknown to us there are minute sand flies, like grains of sand, and the following day we realized they had made a real meal of us all. The spots were itchy and it was not long before we were feel the effects, drowsy and no energy. To cut a long story short, we moved on and with potions and lotions managed to get the spots under control and a week later we are feeling more or less normal. Talking to folk since we have discovered that the sand flies are a real menace and the advice is to keep inside after dark and keep away from
rivers and mangrove swamps. A lesson we have learned the hard way.
From there we dropped down the state further to Bowen which is near Airlie beach best known for the Whitsunday islands. Bowen is a nice clean town with lovely beaches and our caravan park at Queens Beach was great. Lovely people all around and it was an enjoyable week we spent there. I am sure you will not be surprised to learn that dogs take up a big part of our lives and being on holiday is no exception. When we first arrived there our neighbour was trying to bath a little apricot poodle in a bucket. I offered our big tub which I bath Millie in and some shampoo for dogs too. We were soon to learn that Marg and John had just been given this little dog (called Lizzie) and she was full of fleas. The bath itself did not eradicate this problem so the next day I offered to clip little Lizzie (whose coat was badly matted) I clipped while Marg held her and after a couple of hours the most beautiful little poodle emerged from the pile of fur, wagging her little tail and
showing real gratitude for our efforts. Soon Pat arrived on the scene and out came the tub again, flea shampoo, tweezers and after another hour little Lizzie stood there looking an absolute picture. You would not meet a more gorgeous little dog, so happy and affectionate. She had been badly neglected by her previous owner who left her all day at the back of her home in a flea ridden kennel. Thankfully she decided to give her away and it was Lizzies luck Marg and John arrived on the scene at exactly the right time. Marg and John are on their way home to Melbourne now and have rung us twice to say that Lizzie is travelling well and they are so thrilled with her. A lovely ending don't you think?
While Paronella Park was on my list of thing to do, Trevor had the Whitsun Islands on his list so off we went on boat trip. Morning tea of coffee/tea and lamington cakes was served as we made our way to Whitehaven Beach. This beach is on Whitsunday Island itself and is just miles and miles of the finest white sand and clear blue water. If you take all
the holiday brochures you have seen for holiday destinations then put them all together you would have an idea of just what this beach was like. The only way to access the beach is by boat, helicopter or sea plane and these are littered along the beach with groups of people enjoying the water having arrived by that mode of transport. We had 1.5 hours there and it was spectacular. From there we boarded the boat again and were given a lovely lunch of cold meats and salad with fresh rolls, tea and coffee. We then arrived at Hook Island where we walked across the island to the wilderness resort. Some of the more adventurous went snorkeling but we sat under the palms and enjoyed an ice-cream. Next we went down below the sea level in the underwater observatory to view the colourful fish, some were strange until we realized that two scuba divers were under water cleaning the outsides of the viewing windows. At least these window cleaners did not need a ladder. Following this we boarded a semi-submersible boat and were taken out over the coral reef and saw coral of every shape, size and colour. From here
the boat took us to Daydream Island, serving tea, coffee, cheese, biscuits and beautiful platters of fresh fruit. Daydream Island is a real resort island with huge swimming pools, cafe's, shops and a very up-market holiday resort. The Island is zig-zagged with interesting path ways that lead to lovely gardens and views over the surrounding islands and little buggies buzz around giving lifts to visitors to take them to their destination quickly. sadly we missed all of these and returned to the boat foot sore but happy. To add to our delight a hump back whale surfaced in front of our boat on the way home and shot a plume of water into the air.
We are now in Rockhampton and installed in a very nice caravan park in Gracemere, just outside the city itself. The washing is one the line and vacuum is ready for action so I will away to do some boring chores and will chat again soon.....
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Carol
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Wonderful reading Marilyn, feels like we are with you. Keep enjoying the trip. Love to you all. Carol