Blogs from Paluma National Park, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Paluma National Park, another stunning Queensland national park. I have never seen such well kept and tidy national parks than i have here in Queensland, great places to stay and visit, they somewhat put our national parks in victoria to shame. The boys finally got to ride on some 4wd tracks and when they met up with myself and Amy their bikes were looking very muddy indeed, apparently Darren fell off once and laid the bike down once, so he is catching up with Bens spills, which currently stands at about 4, one of which was a biggie but he came out of it unharmed which is the main thing. So the boys met up with us at the Big Crystal Creek camp grounds, a national park camp ground at a mere $20 a night, we ... read more

Before leaving Townsville, we had a couple of things to take care of. After putting the rest of our things in the van and having brekkie with Jason, we visited our agency to say goodbye and drove over to Kirwan to walk Toro for a last time. After a bit of a growling display, he took to Dean like a duck to water and all three of us enjoyed our stroll through the fields. I think Toro sensed that I wouldn’t be back – he sulked more than usual when we left – and I’m really going to miss that little fellow. We travelled northbound, stopping at the famous Frosty Mango for a snack. They make icecream from every imaginable tropical fruit and Dean had some jackfruit icecream while I chose a slice of almond & ... read more

Today we departed from the beautiful Rollingstone Beach for an adventure in the bush. We hadn’t taken our caravan off the grid before, and wondered how the family would handle a night without power. Our adventure started in the Paluma Range National Park, in the ranges behind the mango plantations of the coastal plains. Before we climbed into the ranges, we treated ourselves to sweet treats at the world famous ‘Frosty Mango’. And yes, the mango ice cream was delicious. The road into Jourama Falls included 2 creek crossings and we set up camp in the corner of the campsite. We ventured forth into the walking tracks to see what wonders awaited. Similar to Carnarvon Gorge, the track wound and criss-crossed across the creek bed. We climbed up the hillside and were rewarded with a view ... read more

Day 2: Mission Beach to Paluma National Park After our first camp breakfast, and before leaving Mission Beach, we climbed to a lookout at the end of the peninsula which provided sweeping views over the bay and across to Dunk Island, albeit with some continued cloud cover. We then continued south which took us through Tully, a town which claims the record as the wettest location in Australia. It even has a giant gumboot (a wellington for any English readers) measuring 7.92 metres, a tribute to its highest annual rainfall record which occurred in 1950. We were recommended to do the white water rafting in Tully, some of the best in Australia, but we arrived a little too late in the day and decided to continue south instead... maybe next time! Our next destination was Paluma ... read more

DAY 353 It was a beautiful cool start to the day, but that would soon change once the sun came up. I could hear Andy start the truck up and move it away from the trailer, I was not concerned I knew he wasn’t running away, I figured that there must be a problem that he was trying to sort out as he left the engine running, unperturbed I went back to sleep, it was too early for me. I was up early this morning, for no reason except that i was just another gorgeous spring day. Except that I found that our pesky fridge had defrosted in the night, but fortunately our rations are down to bread and jam anyway so it was not going to cause too much of a problem. I fully understand ... read more