North Queensland

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Jenny: Well, where to start? We don't usually leave it this long, but the internet is more expensive here, and computers less common in hostels etc.

Well we picked up the car in Cairns, headed up to Port Douglas for a night, we spent the afternoon in the pool and just had a quick peek round the town in the rain the next day. From there we drove up to the Daintree National Park. First stop (of course) was a tropical fruit winery, to provide lunch for the mozzies! Seriously, I've never seen so many mozzies (well except maybe in Peru in the jungle). We tried 13 different types of wine, actually some were very nice and they weren't all sweet either. We particularly liked the passionfruit wine, but they also had a good black sapote port and two mango wines that were pretty good.

After the winery and some lunch we went up to the Mossman Gorge, our first taste of walking through tropical rainforest, and water hole it was safe to swim in! Well relatively safe, in that it was free of box jelly fish (which can give you a heart attack, and are thoughout the sea at the moment) and free of crocodiles (which can also probably give you a heart attack, but are more likely to bite off a limb), nevertheless, there were signs warning that people havce drowned, the rocks are slippy, and the currents very strong. In fact given the recent rain (the end of a cyclone has been passing this way, and it is the rainy season after all), the currents were strong, so we stuck to the edges and had a paddle/swim.

We continues north and soon got to the Daintree River which you have to cross on a ferry. We had planned to do a croc spotting tour here, but it was raining so much we decided to leave it till our return trip. It was a slighly hairy drive after we'd crossed the river, very windy roads and heavy rain so very wet roads, and in some places creeks to drive through. It's a strange sensation driving along with pouring rain outside, but the aircon on, you forget how hot it is outside, and many times my glasses steamed up when we went outside. Also the windscreen kept fogging up, but the condensation was on the outside - how weird is that?! So anyway, we made it to out a B&B, a very secluded spot in the rainforest, powered by solar panels (and a generator for days like this, when there's not much sun), rainwater tanks and an evaporative septic system (fascinating stuff!). It was called Epiphyte which we later learned is a type of vegetation that grows in other trees. The best bit about Epiphytes was Ernie, he was looking after the place and was really generous, offering us wine and beer, and always keen to chat.

Despite the pouring rain, I managed to convince Jamie to go horse riding again the next day. We had to set off early to reach the point we were being picked up from, and when we got there (5 mins late) there was no sign of life. We didn't know if we'd missed out, or if they assumed we weren't coming because of the weather or what. We were just about to give up, when half an hour late they turned up, with a jeep full of people...it seemed we weren't the only suckers up for riding in the rain. In the end, it actually didn't rain that much, we had a great ride along the beach and through the rainforest (which actually goes up to the beach in Daintree, which is the only place in the world that happens). My horse was a bit of a brute and kept trying to kick the other horses which made life interesting, but Jamie's horse (who's name was Neddy!) was much better behaved. The funniest bit happened on the beach when a guy's who'd never riden before in his life horse decided to roll in the sand with him and the saddle on it!

That afternoon we did several boardwalks exploring the mangroves and went tropical ice-cream tasting (where the black sapote made another appearance). The next day we had to say goodbye to Epiphyte and their excelent tropical fruit breakfasts, and head back across the Daintree and back down to Northern Cairns. We did a croc spotting tour along the way which was excelent. We only saw a couple of crocs, but we saw lots of other wildlife too.

......... I'm afraid we've run out of time for now and need to go find some food. You've got photos for the rest of our time, but you'll have to wait for the rest of the text........use your imagination!

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Jamie: We are now several days behind. I'm afraid our campervan doesn't come equipped with internet, so these entries aren't going to appear often.

Where were we?

We planned to stay in a beach town north of Cairns, but it was difficult to find somewhere that would put us up for just one night. Eventually we found somewhere. That evening we went out to a show at Tjapukai, where local aborigines perform some of there dances and ceremonies. Very interesting but very brief, and we were unsure whether or not the show had actually ended.

The next day we drove up into the Atherton Tablelands, the highlands above (and to the west of) Cairns where much of the forest had been cleared and farmed. First stop was Kuranda, and the Barron falls. This was the best time to see it after so much rain. In the winter (dry season) it is little more than a trickle. From here we drove on to Mareeba and to the nearby Golden Drop winery. The main business of this place is mango growing, but they make some of it into mango wine, again quite nice and not sweet and sticky as you'd expect. They lady serving us had spent most of her life in Argentina and we got chatting about where we'd been.

After lunch in Mareeba, we headed to Granite Gorge, where the Granite river flows through some enormous granite boulders. We went for a swim to cool off, and as we were drying off beside the river, we could see turtles popping up for air. From headed to Mt Quincan where we were going to spend the next couple of nights. Months ago, we decided to add a treat into our itinerary and booked this place. So we stayed for two nights in a secluded cabin in the treetops inside the rim of an extinct volcano, from where we could observe the wildlife. Apparently, it is possible to see tree kangaroos from the cabin. No luck for us, however we did discover another lodger - a possum spending the day in a plant pot on the balcony before heading out after nightfall to forage for food. We cooked for ourselves so we wouldn't have to go out. This was our couple of days of luxury.

No lie in on the first morning, however, as we had to return to Mareeba before dawn to go on a balloon flight. It was quite expensive for a half hour flight, and I'm not sure I'd do it again as it was far too brief. Nice views, though, and it was fun packing the balloon away again with all the other passengers. We spent the rest of the morning in our cabin chilling out. When we finally emerged in the afternoon, we went first to the Curtain Fig Tree. The strangler fig grows from a seedling in the canopy of a host tree, and sends it's roots down to the ground. Eventually, the roots surround the host tree, cutting off the light, and eventually killing it. In this case, the host tree fell and leant against another tree, the result was what you see in the photo. Amazing.

After this, we went to taste some cheese in a tropical dairy, then for a walk around Lake Eacham, in the crater of another extinct volcano. The region was volcanic about 25000 years ago, and as a result the soil is very fertile. So there is a lot of agricultural activity around here.

The next day, we left our luxury accommodation and headed down to Innisfail, south of Cairns. On the way, we stopped at a numbre of waterfalls. At Millaa Millaa falls we stopped for lunch and for a swim. More cheese tasting at another tropical dairy, and more waterfalls before we left the tablelands and arrived in Innisfail, where we wrote the first part of this blog. The next morning we headed straight to Cairns airport for our flight to Brisbane, where we spent the night with Paula and Graeme (Jen's aunt and uncle - thanks again, guys). That was three days ago, and since then we have been making out way down the coast towards Sydney. We'll describe our adventures in our "Hippie Camper" in another blog.

See you later!

Jamie and Jenny

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