A Birthday, A Castle and A Green Sea Turtle!

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Can you believe our Mighty Quinn has turned 5! To celebrate, we decided to go Paronella Park, a castle built by a Spaniard immigrant, Jose Paronella, because, quite simply, it had always been his dream to build one! While initially we thought it would be quite kitsch, it actually turned out to be a wonderful experience, I think more so for Paul and I than for the birthday boy. The castle is located by a waterfall and is hidden within a lush green rainforest. While today the castle lies in ruin, due to a massive electrical fire, flash floods and cyclones, it was charming, and very peaceful. We went on two tours (a day and night tour) and our guide, Luke, was quite a character, and you could see he really loved the castle as well. But I think it was also the history of the castle which was so intriguing, and made the experience all that more special. Jose came out to Australia in his early 20s, and saved up to build his Spanish Castillo by firstly working on the sugar cane fields, and later buying and selling sugar cane farms. He built in Queensland because he believed it was the most beautiful part of the world, and he designed and built it largely by himself, but not for himself: instead, he incorporated the area’s first movie theatre, a ballroom, tennis courts etc for the people around Innisfail to enjoy. You could also tell he loved nature, and he planted more than 7,000 trees, including some magnificent Kauri Pines. Amazingly, he also built Queensland’s first private hydroelectric power scheme and it is this system which still powers the park today.

We went for walks through the wonderfully meandering paths, and were taken through the Tunnel of Love where we saw micro-bats huddled on the ceiling. The boys very excitedly fed fish and turtles, as well as the occasional eel. Then, I think one of the highlights for Paul and Oliver, was a swim under the waterfall. Nobody else was swimming, but the guide said it could be done. Later, when I asked Luke whether he ever swam in there, he told me he would never swim in there, because there were so many eels (just check out the photos!) Paul also discovered a rope swing in the river, and he and Oliver had a lot of fun with that as well.

What I also liked was the story about the current owners, a couple who were taking a sabbatical from their jobs in the IT industry to caravan around Australia. They arrived at Paronella Park, and discovered it was for sale: Jose had died of a heart attack in the 1940s, and his son, who had taken over the park, died of a heart attack not many years later. As a result it had been neglected, the grounds overgrown, and the buildings collapsing. They too fell in love with the idea of Jose’s dream, and promptly bought it and are restoring it. Paul and I are keeping our eyes open now - never know what we may find in Outback Australia, just waiting to receive some love and care!!!! {Dream on, Alexa... - Ed}

Anyway, back to reality. We are now in Cairns, and are looking forward to a boat trip tomorrow out to the reefs. As for our time at Mission Beach, it too was lovely. Paul’s kayak trip was unfortunately cancelled at the last minute, so instead, Paul went sky diving, from 14,000ft. As we were waiting for him to jump, we watched a fighter jet zip through the sky, exactly in the drop zone of the sky divers. Fortunately, Paul’s pilot was well aware of this, and had spent an extra 10 minutes circling above the clouds before dropping his load! Paul said the jump was exhilarating, but over way too soon. We also went for a hike through the rain forest in the hope of spotting the rare cassowary. Though overcast, this hike was very hot, and not at all what we had expected. We thought a hike in the rainforest would be a walk under thick canopies of lush green trees, traipsing through overgrown paths. This it was not. Rather, most of the 7km hike was on a wide track (big enough for a small car to drive on, though it was not a road), it was rocky, and there was no canopy overhead. It is only now that we are in Cairns that we can fully appreciate the devastation Cyclone Yasi wreaked on Mission Beach and the environs. This time last year, the rainforest was verdant and the tree canopy thick. The strong winds have basically decapitated all the trees, as well as uprooting a large number of big and small trees. It was a hot and very long walk, and we did not spot a cassowary.

Otherwise, Mission Beach was quiet, with days spent by the beach, and by the pool. On the Tuesday there was an art and craft meet, and I was surprised to see William become very excited about this. He earnestly gathered up all his drawings and other craft work, and joined the group of four elderly ladies. He shyly, but proudly, showed his artwork, and the ladies were suitably impressed. Then, instead of slinking away, he took out his drawing book, and began drawing. It was a beautiful thing to watch. I also did a massive clean out of the caravan, spraying every nook and cranny because of my incessant bites; I was convinced I was getting bitten inside as well as outside the caravan. By the way, thank you to for all the advice about what to do about the bites. The bites are no longer looking raw and weepy, and I no longer hate the tropics so much! (amongst other things, a chemist advised me to take Vitamin B1 tablets, and I think they have helped quite a bit, as well as tea tree oil ointment). There was one interesting thing. On a couple of evenings, after the boys went to bed, Paul and I went for a short walk along the beach and we spotted these phosphorescent little creatures along the water’s edge on the beach. They were blue, but minuscule, and when we looked at them closely, they were translucent little creatures. No idea what they were, very curious though.

…..A few days have now passed since I wrote this, as we have had no internet reception. We have travelled up north and back, ie we were in Cape Tribulation, before rain drove us out, and we find ourselves back within internet range in the Atherton Tablelands. So as not to inundate you with photos (I have A LOT of photos of rain forest!) I will not add to the blog here, except to include our day in Cairns when we went out - finally - to the Great Barrier Reef. What a day, though its start was not so auspicious. It was raining, and it was windy, and as we boarded our boat, we all had flashbacks of our Sydney whaling tour disaster. Things did not improve as we travelled the 90 minutes out to the reef; so many of the passengers were vomiting, but thankfully, we had spent the $4.00 to purchase sea sickness tablets, which worked like a bomb! We arrived at our Marine World Platform (we decided to spend a bit extra and chose a tour which had a pontoon moored on the reef, so that Quinton at least had an opportunity to see the fish from the glass bottom boat and the underwater viewing deck). Things here did not look much better, though admittedly, it was slightly less rocky on the pontoon. But then we got into the water. Wow! It was wonderful, the numbers of fish we saw. Snorkelling was not easy going, as the waters were very choppy, but we could see everything, and Oliver and William also did well. A giant wrasse followed us, and at one stage swam - though it felt more like slithered - through me. It was amazingly slimy and smooth. Later, Paul and I decided to go on an Adventure Snorkel with a marine biologist, who would take us to the outer reef. I am so glad we did this, as this was our highlight (and for both Paul and I, one of the high points of our trip so far!) We saw schools and schools of fish, and swam over them, schools of barracuda, surgeon fish, trevally and countless others.


We even saw a reef shark, but it was far enough below us not to be of any concern (in fact, I never felt at all anxious during the whole diving experience). Then we were taken to the outer reef to swim through channels teaming with fish, and over reef drops, an indescribable experience: seeing the reef drop deep into the ocean’s depths, and then, swimming over it into the blue empty waters of the rest of the ocean. But even more wonderful, was when we saw a sea turtle swimming leisurely along. I forgot about everything else, and just swam above the sea turtle, away from the reef and into the ocean proper. The turtle looked so serene, so magical, I just did not want to let it go. Finally I reluctantly came to my senses and turned around. While Paul had stuck by me sharing the experience, the other two divers and the biologist were still by the reef, calling us back. I was very sad to say good bye to the turtle, and to the reef experience.

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