7th June – 14th June 2011.
Don’t believe all you read – Telstra will tell you they cover Australia wide with their internet. I just cannot understand why they can’t provide me with wireless internet access EVERYWHERE!
The things we packed for our holiday was the topic of much discussion leading up to our departure date. There were lists galore (I love a good list) many, many debates over pushbikes, surfboards, kids – to bring or not to bring. It was all narrowed down to….’If it doesn’t have three uses, then it can’t come’ Lucky Geoff makes a mean omelette, likes driving and can reverse the trailer. One thing that we probably packed too much of is clothing, so when we arrived at a dinky little town called Mt Molloy in the QLD hinterland, we did a bit of a repack and re organisation and decided to post some clothes home that we had not worn. You can imagine the excitement on the post mistress’s face in the Mt Molloy post office when she had to help me configure the best way to send the stuff home. I think I made her week.
Can you imagine the excitement on the Smith tour when our vehicle rounded the bend above Mosman and we had first sight of the ocean since we left home on the 1st May!!! There were cheers of joy that was until we broke the news that you weren’t allowed to swim in the ocean up here. Well that went down like a lead balloon. But the consolation was that we could let the sand go between our toes, gee it was a nice feeling. We gave Cairns a miss and headed straight to The Daintree. Popped the camper up at Noah Beach and spent a few days in the rainforest. Man it was humid. What a beautiful place, so tempting to get into the water but we weren’t going to risk the chance of a close encounter with a Saltwater Croc thankyou very much.
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| First Croc sighting! |
From the Daintree we made the trek along ‘The Bloomfield Track’ it takes you from Cape Tribulation to Cooktown , the track had just been opened for the dry season. Not for the feint hearted (well so far) this being the first bit of real 4WD’ing we had done. The track took you over these huge mountain ranges with some of the hills having a gradient of 33%. For quite a few km, pretty steep. I think if some of the passengers could have gotten out and walked some of it they would have been happy. None the less we made it safely to the Wujul Wujul community and visited the Bloomfield Falls which were quite spectacular and were treated to our first croc sighting. It still didn’t stop Matty asking to go for a swim.
We landed in Cooktown for our last stop before the big trip up north. Can anyone remember their history lessons at school and seeing pictures of The Endeavour being repaired at Cooktown? Well Cooktown looks exactly the same as the pictures….. Massive mountains meeting the sea with the Endeavour River winding it’s way in the background. We went to the Cooktown Museum to soak in some more history, got to see the Endeavours anchor and cannon, which had both been salvaged from the spot where the ship hit the reef. (Geoff and I are pretty passionate about Captain Cook and his ship, as we had just both completed a year 3 and 4 school project on the very subject before coming away).
Does anyone remember this little poem about Captain Cook?
“Captain Cook chased a chook all around Australia, lost his pants in the middle of France and found them in Tasmania”
The kids thought that was hilarious.
‘On On’
Cape York here we come…….
Dragon Flies the colour of Jaffa’s – Butterflies the brightest yellow you have ever seen – Ants in every shape, size and colour you can imagine – Birds that sound pre historic in the middle of the night – Wild Boars as black as night the same size as a small sedan!
We have named a new species of bird… It’s called the ‘Corduroy Bird’ it makes the same sound as Corduroy clad legs rubbing together as you walk….”Vvvt Vvvvt Vvvt’ too funny. Straight out of the ‘70’s.
We are not sure how many bugs, insect or little critters we have consumed this holiday, nor how many we have cooked up in our meals, nor how many of the poor things have come to a sudden death at the hands of our bulbar and driving lights. Can I just say that the ‘three second rule’ is out the door whilst camping in the bush. Purely because the law of averages states that you are sure to drop that knife in the dirt or that piece of bread on the ground and something’s gunna stick, and sure as eggs… you are gunna eat it with your meal or drink it in your cuppa. But gee we love camping.
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| Ummm...yep we all need a shower |
Where else would we be? No ‘Big4’ fancy shmanzy Caravan Park for us thanks! We are in the OUTBACK. Yep we have hit the bush big time. At the moment we are in the Lakefield NP which is North West of Cooktown. We have spent a couple of nights camping beside the Normanby River and a few waterholes. Now don’t get too excited with the picture of HOT weather and camping beside a river. Don’t even think about dangling your big toe in the water or even going close to the edge!! We are in serious CROC territory. I have never felt so anxious whilst camping. Keeping one eye on the location of your children whilst keeping the other eye on the water. As if I know the habits of a fresh water Croc! Anyway, we managed to come away from the Lakefield NP with all our kids and limbs. The Lakefield NP is the second biggest in Australia (out done by the Simpson Dessert NP) we were quite worried about our timing of our arrival at the park being the long weekend and if it might be difficult to get ourselves a camping spot. Let me just say, we need not have been concerned. Plenty of room for everyone, this place is huge ( I did say that everything is BIG in QLD didn’t I?)
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| Our camp next to a water hole Lakefield NP |
No luck on the infamous Barramundi front, we did however catch us some more of those Red Claw and we were also introduced to the massive prawn looking thing called a Marin ( not sure if I spelt it correctly) but these were tasty oversized prawns that we boiled up and ate with delight. It is so hard to describe this place.. It is so full of Australian history and many stories. The wet season is something I will never fully understand. All we did was make sure that we were travelling in the dry season when all the roads were open. But the seasons up here are something else. There is evidence of the water that rushes through here in the wet, the trees have a tide mark of mud higher than our vehicle, and as the water evaporates it’s amazing to see the massive eagles and other birds come down and clean up all the fish and other animals that are not quick enough to get out of the water holes.
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| crossing Isabella Falls QLD |
Geoff and I were starting to think that there were a lot of New Zealand expats living in North QLD. Every local person we came across talked with a feint Kiwi twang. But we have since realised (doh) that it’s the way they speak up here.
Roool Occa, too funny. The kids are also finding it amusing the different names that they have for certain things, like Toggs, flip flops, pluggers, zippy ties and others that I can’t remember. But they too think that people are speaking a different language.
A couple of things that we wished we had brought away with us, I will leave it up to you to figure out who wished what………
A boat
An Au Pair/Nanny/Baby sitter
Thermometer
Large Tonka tip truck
Small radio
Compass
Push Bikes
Chain Saw
Hope you enjoy the photos, they only tell half the story but we are glad we can share them with you.
Don’t mind me I could write all day about what we have done and seen, and have taken lot’s of photos – feedback is welcome….less writing more photos – or more writing less photos.
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| Ahhh we love the beach - but only stayed in for a minute - up to our ankles Daintree NP |
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