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Published: October 24th 2009
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Leaving Port Douglas behind us, we head back down the Bruce highway, bypassing Cairns again and spend the night just outside of Babinda at a lovely rest stop in a field off the main highway. There are lots of other people here so its quite a cosy atmosphere as everyone is cooking their dinner and drinking wine, chatting outside of their vans/tents. No one is in a hurry to leave the following morning and we decide to stop off at the Josephine Falls in Wooroonooran National Park on our way to break the journey. Its a good call as the morning is spent at a beautiful waterhole with a picuresque waterfall. Lots of people are braving the freezing cold water but not us thats for sure. Instead we climb up to the top pool to get even more spectacular views. Having seen this sight we decide to spend some more time exploring this region as there are a number of waterfalls in this area. Next stop are the Mungalli Falls, which take us past the Crawford lookout point over the North Johnson river gorge. The scenery as we are driving is amazing and very reminiscent of England - very green and
lush and in places covered with spectacular pink heather. Surprisingly every 10 mins or so there is a sign for a railway crossing and we are expecting a huge train but no, its just for the wagons carrying produce from the fields!
As we arrive at Mungalli Falls we are met by quite a few teenagers and it soon becomes apparent that this area is used by schools for outdoor pursuit activities (a bit like Pendarren or Glasbury) The falls are a bit of a hike away and are the only freehold world heritage listed waterfall so we make the effort and hike down to them. Needing refreshments following our hike we head over to the Mungalli creek dairy where we are treated to a delightful free sampling session of their cheeses and yoghurts..mmmm! We are even given more to taste after we’ve finished our first samples and to top it all off are given ice cream samples to taste too...heaven!! It was definitely worth our detour here and as we sit outside in the beautiful gardens we wonder if we could do this every day! Continuing on our journey we head for the Ellinjoa Falls, the Zillie Falls and
round the day off with the Millaa Millaa Falls. All are different and beautiful in their own way and were definitely worth taking time out to go and see.
Heading back down the highway we stop at a rest stop at the corner of the highway and the turn off for Innisfail. Its a bit spooky as we are the only ones there but another camper turns up about 2 hours later.
The following morning we head into Innisfail but find there’s nothing much to it at all. After parking up and having a wander around and looking at a few of the art deco buildings we fill up with petrol and head back out again, travelling down to Mission Beach to kill some time.
As we approach Townsville we are totally unprepared for it being the biggest city up the north coast. We get totally lost trying to find the visitors centre and when we do we are not impressed with the many boarded up buildings or closed down shops (apparently developments going on in the future) We are guided to a free rest stop on the other side of the town which turns out to be a BP
petrol station truck stop. We are not sure about it as all we initially see are lots and lots of massive trucks. Its not until we drive around the back and see all the campervans and caravan trailers parked up that we breathe a sigh of relief and so find a nice spot by a grassy verge. On checking out the facilities I’m in total shock...we can use the facilities that are for the truckers so there are clean hot showers (own cubicle with a clean sink and toilet), a TV lounge with free newspapers and as it shares the petrol station with a macdonlads we can get free wifi here too. (Soon find out that all Mac D’s down the coast have free wifi that we can use) Its bliss and I waste no time in having a hot shower-I feel so clean!!
The following morning I wake up really early and am treated to a gorgeous sunrise. As the petrol station is next to a disused racetrack I decide to go for a jog and feel really alive. We have a lovely breakfast on our grass verge sitting and watching the look on peoples faces as they drive
out of the petrol station round the back and see us having breakfast!!
We head into Townsville and drive up to Castle Hill- a red rock monolith which offers panoramic views across the city, port and beach. We climb up past the Jenkinsons Post lookout and get fabulous 360 degree views. Driving back down we park up on The Strand (beachfront promenade) and wander along past the beachfront lagoon and onto the beach. Its so lovely and relaxed here its unreal and so many people are out exercising, having BBQ’s on the free barbies in the park or just chilling out. It seems that people are all out doing something rather than just sitting in front of the TV...thats what nice weather does for you!!
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