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Published: September 14th 2010
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Lake Tineroo
Kayakking with mum We were quite settled by Bramston Beach and it felt like such an effort to move on. After driving along past Bartle Frere ( the highest Mt in QLD) we took possibly the worst road of our trip so far. In order to get up to Lake Tinaroo we had to take an extremely steep, narrow and windy road. The continual hairpin turns for over 20km left us all feeling car sick with both the boys crying. We (finally) arrived at Lake Tinaroo and spent a couple of nights in this peaceful and beautiful part of QLD. We spent the days kayaking on the flat crystal clear water and marvelled at the starry sky at night. We did however have a gas bottle incident with the perished connection bursting off the cooker and catching on fire. Luckily no injuries or damage, just a screaming woman throwing food in the air. Continuing through the tablelands we lunched in Atherton and then set up camp at the rodeo grounds in Mareeba. We awoke in the mornings to the sound of hot air balloons landing in the open grass area at the camp. It was funny to see a whole lot of people (mostly
Cairns
Happy birthday Jack nomads) standing out in their PJs watching the balloons land. Finn was still in his Grobag. After a visit to the Mareeba Coffee Works we discovered the feeling of eating too much chocolate and drinking to much coffee. The drive from the tablelands down to Cairns was breath taking. With the rainforest surrounding us we looked out over the fields of cane sugar and to the sea. Unfortunately that was the best view we got of Cairns. The next few days delivered a continual shower of rain. We wandered the shops and visited McDonalds just to get out of the camper. Oh, the joys of rain when camping. We caught the scenic railway to Kuranda for Jack’s birthday. He had a great day. After opening a few pressies and pancakes for breakfast, we drove 2 very excited boys to Freshwater station. From here we had a great journey through the Barron Valley Gorge, passing through 15 tunnels. We had a picnic lunch in Kuranda and wandered around the markets (dodging the showers). The journey down was on the Sky Rail. The view over the rainforest was awesome and the rain even managed to hold out for a while. Jack had
Cairns
I am a big 5 year old now the “best birthday ever” and finished it by eating a load of chocolate cake. The boys and I braved the Cairns public transport the next day and headed to the Esplanade on the bus. We enjoyed a few hours of sunshine at ‘Muddies’ - a playground and water park. We left Cairns not knowing where we would be staying that night. The coastal drive north was fantastic with the weather clearing to provide a great view out to sea. We arrived at Port Douglas and after a look around town we had a picnic at Anzac Park. As the kids played on the playground we sat back and enjoyed the view over Dickson’s inlet. Ah, the serenity. We stayed 3 nights. The palm fringed 4-mile beach was divine, with the sand hard enough for Jack to ride his bike, so we could go for a long walk. We took a drive out to Mossman Gorge and walked through the Daintree Rainforest. A bush turkey raced by us as we wandered along and stole the cracker that Jack was eating. How rude! The following day, after a pancake breakfast for Father’s Day we packed up and commenced our journey into the
Cairns
Yummy cake Daintree Rainforest. We had decided to take the coast drive, involving a 4-wheel drive track - the Bloomfield Track. We caught a vehicle ferry over the Daintree River and moved onto Noah Beach. Here we stayed in the rainforest on the beach. It was quite overcast and rained a far bit while we were here but it was still amazing. At night there were so many animal/reptile/bird and insect noises to be heard. It was also very dark. Even though it was raining we spent the days on the beach. We met another family here with 2 kids and they were keen to travel together along the track to Cooktown. We thought that was a good idea as the track was very steep. It was a slow journey, spending a lot of time in 2nd gear. The track was in good condition and the scenery once again spectacular. We had lunch at the massive Bloomfield Falls and then continued on to stay at The Lions Den Hotel. It was great to be dry again, as everything stayed damp in the Daintree. After a terrific pizza and a few beers at the pub, we settled the kids for the night and
Port Douglas
4 mile beach were pleased to only have 30km to drive the next day. Cooktown here we come!
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Claire
non-member comment
Seriously I think Finn has doubled in sized since you left!