We’ve been in Townsville for a few days, but I’ll update you on the last few weeks.
After The Tip we headed to Cooktown via Bramwell Roadhouse to pick up our bikes. We loved Cooktown and stayed 6 days using our bikes to get around. Had a few good meals and few good walks and just enjoyed the lovely relaxed feel of the town.
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| Cap'n Cook |
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| River Mouth Cooktown |
From there it was on to the Daintree – a bucket list destination for me. It did not disappoint. We spent about a week in the area from Cape Tribulation to Cow Bay to Daintree village. We had lovely beach walks, rainforest walks, a river cruise and good camping. A highlight was the Discovery Centre with a fantastic board walk through rainforest including a 23 metre tower to look over the canopy. We saw some lovely double eyed fig parrots up there on the second day having their breakfast.
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| Fan Palms |
Next up Wonga Beach in a low key camp site right on the beach, we had our 14th wedding anniversary there with champagne (Veuve Cliquot) and cassoulet with a lovely Rhone.
We then headed to Port Douglass for 2 nights and decided a second celebration was in order and had a wonderful Italian meal in town. I had carpaccio of Kangaroo – a first for me.
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| Port Douglas |
After a brief stop in Cairns, we headed back to the Atherton Tablelands. We loved it so much that felt the southern end need to explored in more depth. We did the Kurumba Scenic Railway – spectacular, and spent time in Millaa Millaa. Did loads more waterfalls – pics to follow. We stopped in Atherton on the way up with a mission to go the IGA as it has the best cheese selection I’ve seen outside of David Jones Foodhall in Sydney – very impressive range so we stocked up again.
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| Millaa Millaa Falls |
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| Kuranda |
Kuranda has a delightful hippy market set in the rainforest – a bit of maze on many different levels. We had a couple of really good Japanese lunches there.
Then it was back to Cairns to get lots of boring things done. We hired a car for few days so we could zip around to Bunnings, Jaycar, Clark Rubber, and so on. We left the bikes at bike shop for a good service after travelling through all those corrugations and dust. Lawrence’s gear thing was so clogged up the guy was surprised he could ride it at all. Also a new MacBook was purchased as the Mac expert declared it DOA. Another unexpected expense. We’d like those to stop.
From Cairns we stopped at Mission Beach/Wongaling Bay for a few nights. More lovely beach walks and plenty of R&R. Swimming is still a bit risky although some foolhardy souls don’t care and seem to survive. Think we’ll wait til we’re south of Townsville.
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| Mission Beach |
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| Meat Fest at Cloakey's pub inland from Ingham |
We did a magic day trip to Magnetic Island, spending the day touring all the small towns and had a great lunch at Horse Shoe Bay. The bus costs a dollar for a day pass!
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| Magnetic Island |
From here we’ll make our way Airlie Beach and check out the Whitsunday area.
