Author: Joel

Can’t say I have been overly impressed with Cairns. It seems to be a city full of nothing but restaurants, pubs, nightclubs, hotels, and tour operators. It doesn’t even have a beach – just a shallow public swimming pool surrounded by mud flats. Staff also seem a bit sour on tourists like they really don’t want to be working here. LOTS of tourists. Of all the cities in Australia with international airports, I would have to put Cairns at the bottom for lacking any real historical or cultural attractions. There are good restaurants, and I did discover a great coffee place that mixes beans for you that all the locals frequent (Cruze Coffee), but it really is just a party city for people spending their days on the reef. For me it was a good few days to catch up on my blog, videos, images, and shopping.

Cycling Around Cairns

Driving south back to Townsville

I saw a traffic light today! My first in about 2 weeks – since Townsville, anyway. It’s funny how you can travel that long in Australia and not really think about them. Then you suddenly see your first one in a long time and are a bit taken aback. The traffic light was near Cairns, where I have come for a few days. I enjoyed the Four Wheel Drive track so much on the drive up to Cooktown from Cape Tribulation (which was really quite quick and more direct) that I seriously considered taking it south, but I’m glad I chose to take the two-wheel-drive route instead because it turned out to be a very beautiful drive through many changing environments.

The drive from Cooktown to Cairns

I felt a little guilty leaving Cooktown this morning. It really is a tiny town (pop. ~2000), but it has a very rich history and sits in beautiful surroundings. I really felt I was probably missing out on something by leaving after only 24 hours. There is something special about standing on the same ground James Cook stood on, contemplating how he was going to get through the Great Barrier Reef while stuck there for 38 days (I think it was).

Historical connections seem to have a lot more impact when the environment has been preserved as it was (probably) at the time, and Cooktown never seemed to grow large enough to distract from the historical event. I think that is one of the special things about Australia. When you do reflect on its history, it seems a lot easier without shopping malls or suburban sprawl getting in the way.

I think I also find it a little hard to start heading south after working so hard to keep moving north. I think I had the same mixed feelings about leaving Darwin back in 2004.

So I ventured off to try out the Four Wheel Drive track up from Cape Tribulation to Cooktown. I did a lot of asking around about the water crossings to see if they might be a problem due to their depth, but everyone assured me that I would be okay in the current dry conditions.

It was a lot of fun, and the road was in pretty good shape, but I can see why it is limited to 4WD vehicles only. Some of the water crossings may have been as deep as 10 inches, and some of the hills you had to climb were among the steepest I have ever driven — requiring all four wheels to get up. Although the route was about 100 km in total, only about 30 km required a 4WD. The rest ran through Aboriginal communities with full power, police stations, supermarkets, and even fuel stations. I seriously considered returning to Cairns the same way, but decided to check out the interior road instead.

On my last day at Cape Tribulation, I decided to splurge a little on a few outings. It does seem that most activities require some form of payment here. I also discovered there was a petrol station on this side of the ferry near the Daintree Rainforest Discovery Centre, an interpretation centre I stumbled across on my way in on the first day. Planning on doing the Bloomington 4WD Track up to Cooktown, I knew it would be safer to fill my tank before I left – just in case I had to turn around and exit the area via ferry due to impassible roads. The interpretation centre was nice, but not that big. My feeling at the time was that it was probably overpriced, but they did give me a discount, and I did learn quite a bit when I was there.

I visited a nicer swimming hole in the afternoon that required a bit more effort to get into. It was definitely worth it, with deep, crystal-clear waters, big fish, and far fewer people. On the hike in, I came across several Cassowary dung piles (huge) – something I learned to recognise at the interpretation centre – which showed they really were in the area and not just folklore.

In the evening, I went on a night walk up in a jungle/rainforest in the hills, which turned out to be quite good. We saw lots of things that tested what I had learned at the interpretation centre earlier that morning. Lots of bats, a big bird, forest dragons large and small (a baby), a couple of frogs – big and a small one who devoured a spider while we watched, a mouse hiding in a tree hole to protect itself from snakes while eating, a small marsupial that was slightly larger that was also hiding in a tree hole, a Bandicoot, lots of giant spiders including the worlds largest web spider (huge, but not really interested in people), glow-in-the-dark fungi, and lots of interesting rainforest trees and plants.

Among the more amusing events of the day, I started out witnessing these strange green ants crawling all over the top of my car while I was putting my bike away. They looked potentially painful, so I paid close attention to the information presented on them at the interpretation centre. They were presented as poisonous to other animals (mainly insects) but only mildly painful to humans. When I asked about them on the night walk, the guide insisted on tracking some down to show that you could use them to make a tasty lemonade-like drink. So there I was with a bunch of others popping live green ants in our mouths to see what they tasted like. The same ones I feared earlier in the day.

Today’s Drive

The beach was initially intimidating to walk on due to all the crocodile warnings, but then you realise everyone is doing it and nobody seems too fearful. I even found a group of people sleeping on the beach and swimming in the ocean (which is also unwise at this time of year due to box jellyfish stings). I imagine crocodile sightings are anything but an everyday occurrence. Maybe not as rare as cassowaries (which are supposed to be up to two meters high), which were also supposed to be in the area, with endless road-crossing signs – but then I found a poster with a phone number to call to report any sightings, as though they really are hardly ever seen.

The box jellyfish may not have come out just yet this season due to the late arrival of the wet season, but hardly anyone would dare swim with them around. There were emergency bottles of vinegar at just about every path leading to the beach to use on any stings anyone may accidentally get. Urine is supposed to make an acceptable alternative if vinegar can’t be readily found.

Things found on Cape Tribulation Beach

I managed to get my mountain bike out for a bit of an exploration of the area first thing in the morning. It was a pretty good ride up and down Four Wheel Drive tracks, sealed roads, boardwalks (which were a bit too slippery to consider doing again) and a couple of long beaches. The sand on the beach was nicely compact enough to make for easy riding.

Afterwards, I took my car up Bloomington Road to find a fabled swimming hole far enough upstream to be safe from crocodiles. Thought I might be the only one there, but came across lots of cars parked everywhere. There was a river crossing there that appeared shallow enough to continue heading north to see what else was on the route. The road continues all the way to Cooktown, my next destination, but is reportedly impassable at times. I am considering it for my trip up there, but need to hear more from people who have done it. The other option is to return south via the ferry and drive around the other side of Daintree on sealed roads. Anyway, the swimming hole looked crowded and not too deep, so I opted for another one in the heart of Cape Tribulation, which was very nice.

Afterwards, I did the boardwalk circuit I had mountain biked that morning, except the way you were supposed to do it – on foot. Almost a mile in length, it was pretty impressive.

Boardwalk Circuit

Today’s Drive

Had an early morning start and explored some of the attractions of the Atherton Tablelands. It was a very impressively beautiful area with a nice drier climate due to its elevation. Visited a few national parks, including the Mount Hypipamee Crater, a deep volcanic crater surrounded by dense rainforest and tree kangaroos (they were around, but I couldn’t find any).

The Atherton Tablelands were a very beautiful countryside of mainly agricultural land and rainforests.

After a few hours driving, I found myself back down at sea level, waiting for a ferry to cross into Cape Tribulation and the Daintree National Park.

I made reservations to stay in an air-conditioned private room at a YHA and was feeling a little nervous about being the oldest one there – only to find plenty of people older than myself. And a brand new yuppie Range Rover sitting in the parking lot. Funny how YHA’s have changed over the years. This one was much like the kind you find in New Zealand that operated more like a hotel than a hostel. They had towels, soaps, shampoos, and conditioners on your bed; they changed your sheets and cleaned your room every day (sleeping bags are prohibited), and you could even charge your meals to your room! They had a variety of individual cabins sprinkled along a rainforest walk that led down to their swimming pool, bistro, bar, and, eventually, the beach. There was a mix of dorm rooms, private rooms with shared bathrooms, and family cabins with en-suites.

Today’s Drive

After spending a nice day taking dips at Tully Gorge, I decided I was dipped out and in need of a bit more variety – even though I had booked two nights there. Once again, I found myself to be the sole camper in the national park, even though it would be considered the busiest week if it were back in Perth. I decided to take a bit of a gamble and cruise up the coast to find somewhere in between Tully and where I needed to be on the 28th. I checked out a few campsites on the way up the coast and then decided to head for the hills/mountains outside of Cairns. After a potentially car-sick drive up some extensive and impressive switchbacks, I found myself in one of the most beautiful parts of Australia I’ve come across. In fact, it reminded me more of Wyoming than Australia due to its completely different look and feel of lush green vegetation, mountains, and abundant freshwater streams and lakes. Being at a higher elevation, it was also much less humid than the tropical coast. It reminded me a lot of Margaret River with all its things to see and do. There was even evidence of some good mountain bike tracks in the area, with all the impressive cycling gear piled on the back of cars.

I ended up finding a place near a crater lake named Lake Eacham and got lots of advice on things to see and do in the area on my way up to Daintree National Park tomorrow. Had a nice Austrian dinner in a local village, took a nice little hike through rainforest jungle around Lake Eacham, saw an absolutely amazingly huge fig tree canopy (in fact, several in different places), and had a nice cooling swim in Lake Eacham in the evening before bed.

Funny how I was just saying to someone how you often find yourself in a state of panic about certain logistical things to do with these trips (like finding last-minute accommodation in the middle of the Christmas-New Year’s holiday period when most Australians are on vacations), but everything always seems to fall perfectly in place at the last minute.

Lake Eacham Walk Circuit

Today’s Drive

Realising that I had erred in my itinerary calculations, I was forced to backtrack about 150km to reach a place I had made reservations for 2 nights at because it was supposed to be one of the top places to visit in Queensland. When I eventually found the place, I found it not really that special by world standards (where rain and rivers are normal). It was somewhat novel to have a freshwater stream year-round that was deep enough for swimming – which is somewhat unusual in desert Australia. I had a few swims but decided not to hang around for more than one night. I was the only camper there!

The area seems to be the heart of Australia’s banana-growing region. There are also plenty of sugar cane fields with the small gauged sugar train cars/rails crossing the road every so often (much like you find in Fiji) and quite an abundance of guava plantations. It is also a region that often finds itself in the path of big South Pacific cyclones. On a few occasions in the past 6 years, cyclones have more or less wiped out the banana crop for the country, which resulted in months and months of very high prices before the crops could be replanted and bananas replaced.

I popped into Innisfail to check out the tiny town. It is funny how you never seem to know how big a town will be. Towns are often much bigger or smaller than you expect. I often measure them by the number of traffic lights. This one had none. Very small but well presented with lush green tropical gardens and art deco (?) architecture. Politician Bob Katter’s office took precedence at the main intersection. Had a nice breakfast there, but have come to the conclusion that nobody in northern Queensland really knows how to make a proper flat white coffee.

Nice sunny day for a change! It seems as though either the heat or wet weather has been following me around since the start of this trip! Perhaps things are starting to change.

Before leaving Bramston Beach, I got up early to take a nice little 17km mountain bike ride through the town parks and down through the end of the National Park campsites 4WD track. Didn’t spot any campers, but did come across a temporary sign at the end stating a crocodile was recently sighted in the area. Decided it was best to peddle out of there asap! Ashame about the crocs, but I guess they were there first. The campsites were the most unique I’ve come across on this trip, and privately isolated, all next to gorgeous beaches. All nestled within beautiful dense rainforest and sandwiched between a gorgeous beach and a meandering back river.

Russell River National Park MTB Tour

Today’s Drive

Headed northward for a few hours to hit my next planned campsite. The only problem was that I had a hard time finding where it was! Most national parks have signs along the highway telling you where they are, but Russell River National Park did not and was also split up into different sections. Fortunately, I wasn’t too far south of Cairns and had excellent phone coverage, so I was able to look up specific instructions for getting to the campsite on my iPad. The campsites looked very cool and were well secluded from one another, but I was a bit put off by the crocodile warnings they had posted.

No one else seemed to be camping there, so I headed back into the local town of Bramston Beach, QLD and checked into their little caravan park on the beach. It included hot showers, minimal people and mosquitoes, and a place to swim that was protected by a net to keep box jellyfish and crocs out. Sounded good to me. The lifeguard said I would have been fine in the national park as long as I didn’t try sleeping on the actual beach. Oh well! I hope to mountain bike through the national park and all the camps tomorrow morning.

Today’s Drive