Like all travelers, we love a freebie, and today we were in luck. It will be a couple of hundred years at Port Douglas before you can give this ago, but it could be worth the wait if you are able. Today there was a total eclipse of the sun at Port Douglas, right on the beach next to the Tropic Breeze Van Park. The last few days at P D have been cloudy and showery, but Tuesday Evening was reasonably clear and gave us some hope of seeing the eclipse. I checked the weather radar at 4.30 am and no showers were showing so off to the beach a little after 5.00am. To our delight, the cloud was broken, breeze low, rain miles away and we settled down to enjoy one of natures freebies. Mind ... read more

Part 3 of our adventure was with Brett's half day tour to Kuranda. Most travelers go up the sky rail and down on the train. As we had been on the Kuranda Rail Gold Class previously, we arranged for Brett to pick us up at 4.00pm at Kuranda opposite the Butterfly Sanctuary. If you love nature and challenging photography, put aside an hour or more for the sanctuary, and have one of the sanctuary guided tours which includes the breeding nursery etc. Very informative and you will see some less common moths there as well. We have visited numerous museums where there are drawers of dead bugs - this is over 2000 living butterflys, and there lies the challenge for photo buffs. Butterflies rarely fly straight, glide to a rest as do birds, and the prettier ... read more

There's a bunch of reasons to come to Port Douglas in far north Queensland. There are two wWorld heritage listed reserves at Port douglas, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rain Forest. Then there's the great food! Oh, the people are really friendly and very helpful as a bonus. In our case we headed north for the full eclipse of the sun on next Wednesday, so what can we do for a week? We opted for more walk, less fabulous food and have been excited everyday with what we have found. We have visited Mossman Gorge, The Habitat Sanctuary, Sky Rail and the Kuranda Butterfly Sanctuary. Now, if you are pregnant, I'm sorry to say that delivery of your baby will surely be delayed a few weeks as Mrs Black Stork has 3 week old ... read more

Marg and Rob have just spent a few days at Undara, and will certainly visit again in the future. The savannah wilderness is such an interesting environment with great seasonal variations affecting the grasslands, birdlife and wildlife in general. If you haven't added Undara to your bucket list yet, then look through the photos and make a booking for 2013. Undara could be seen as remote, but the access roads right to the lodge are main sealed highways, and very well formed roads. The attached pictures tell the story better than I can write, but behind the pictures is a very dedicated team of eco tourist operators who go out of their way to assist in every way they can. There is a great variety of accomadation or camping sites for every type of camper. We ... read more

Nanango is around 2.5 hours drive north west of Brisbane and worth a stop. The town has a long history combining logging and pastoral industries. Then a huge coal field was discovered and the Tarong Power Station feeds off this long valley of coal. The drag line that feeds the powerstation is huge! We have stopped overnight in Nanango a couple of times and found much of interest. The town has a number of chainsaw sculptures, an interactive energy centre combined with an excellent visitors information centre. We found the retail shops looked after senior citizens very well, many having seniors discounts. Then there is the Peanut Man, on the south side of town. We stockup every time we go past. There are about 15 flavours to make the mouth water! The Nanango Historical Society is ... read more