Day 29 - Cairns (8 January)

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It won't surprise you to know that we didn't get an early start to the day! Don went out for our morning coffee (as he does every morning) and we set off south from Cairns to visit a rain forest.

En route we stopped at Bebinda to visit the Boulders. This is a spectacular waterfall. It is an Aborigine sacred place. The story (in brief) behind this rock formation is that a young girl fell in love with a young boy from a different trible and when they weren't allowed to marry she threw herself into the water and the boulders were thrown up and the waterfall was formed.

To drive through to the Boulders you have to drive through the town of Bebinda. This is just like the town in Neighbours (for those of you old enough to remember). The houses are all together, there is a hospital, a parade of shops (including a bank) and you can just imagine that everybody knows everybody else and who does what (and with whom!).

From there we continued along the highway. All the way along we passed over fast running creeks which in the rainy season have a habit of overflowing. The roads can be flooded up to a depth of four meters. Well to be honest it was raining but not hard enough to panic. We also crossed dozens of railway tracks. These are obviously used to transport the harvest during the harvest season. No trains crossed our path - but in the distance we saw what looked like a passenger train. All around us were mountains densely forested and deep shades of green.

Our objective was to visit a Spanish castle in the rain forest - Paronella Park. This land was purchased by Jose Paronella in the 1930s. He was a baker from Catalonia who saw an advert to come to Australia, and who made a bundle of money which enabled him to purchase 13 acres of rainforest. In the park he built himself a house, and a palace. The palace was not for him to live in but to enable people to enjoy the park. The top storey housed his and his wife's memorabilia from their travels (you will have to go there to find out the full version of his story) and the bottom was a huge ballroom where the public could enjoy parties, and celebrate weddings and barmitzvahs etc. Everything on the estate has been built from materials found in the park. Very little of the rain forest was pulled down except to make walking paths. There is a beautiful waterfall and he built a hydro electric plant and today the excess electricity generated is sold to the national grid. The fountains use gravity to flow, the water is pure and is drinkable. The park has tennis courts and terraces where he set up cafeterias so that the public could benefit from the forest. Every penny he raised went into maintaining the property.

When he died in 1948 his wife and children tried to run the estate. He died after a flood ruined the ballroom and a great deal of the estate and although he officially died from stomach cancer it was thought that he died from the stress of looking after the place. When his wife died some timje later their son tried to keep the estate going but he died at an early age probably from the stress of keeping the park in its natural state. Then in the 1960s his daughter and daughter in law were forced to sell the park. Although the new owners loved the place they were forced to walk away as there was so much work involved and the cyclones caused havoc with the place. When they walked away the place returned to a rain forest and then in the 1990s new owners bought the place. The government gave them money to plant trees which are carefully and strategically placed as once they are planted they may never be cut down. Definitely a place to visit to get a rain forest experience (including the rain). As well as seeing the plants and the trees and the fishes and eels we also saw a colony of micro bats (Fleidermaus). They feed off mosquitos and keep the mosquitos in check. The one thing we didn't see was a crocodile which has been seen lurking in the water.

Then back to Cairns just in time to see the fruit bats flying off. The noise was amazing.

This country is full of surprises.

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Photos

Spanish Castle in the Rainforest
Jose Paronella realised his dream

Waterfall at Paronella Park
first hydroelectric power in Queensland