Townsville – Atherton

20 January – 24 January

Thursday

After a night of rain the morning is thankfully dry, so we can get a quick load of washing done and get everything packed away.  We’re heading for Townsville, which isn’t far to go, so we can take things a bit easy.  Just before we arrive in Townsville we detour to Alligator Creek for a picnic lunch.  There are wallabies kicking about in the carpark and turtles to watch from the boardwalk, which leads to the swimming hole.  Although it looks fairly inviting, we decide to give it a skip.  With the rain that’s been falling the currents are pretty strong, and we still don’t understand what makes some northern swimming holes safe and others croc infested.

We’re not expecting much from Townsville – it’s just a stopover – but we both really like it.  There’s a lovely long esplanade featuring a manmade rock pool and two stinger enclosures for safe(ish) swimming.  There’s also a hill (only metres shy of being officially a mountain) in the middle of town.  We take a drive up to the lookout and are put to shame by the steady stream of locals walking, jogging and cycling up.  The views from the top are gorgeous, featuring coast, mountain ranges and Magnetic Island. 

After a little explore and a trip to the supermarket we settle into a cabin for the night: dark, ominous storm clouds are looming on the horizon.  They don’t look very tent friendly. 

Of course as soon as we get into our cabin the clouds retreat and the sun makes an appearance.  We’re actively willing it to chuck it down, just so we can feel justified.  We’re not disappointed, and the rain does come.

Friday:

We’re heading for Mission Beach today.  Again, it’s a short drive so we have time for a few detours.  Detour 1 is a trip to the Frosty Mango for a massive selection of ice creams and a whole range of tropical fruits.  I get myself an Abiu (which I eat later and is weird, but delicious).  It’s good timing: we stop just in time to sit out the massive downpour.  As the locals keep saying: it is the wet season.

Then we head towards Big Crystal Creek.  There’s a picnic spot and a swimming hole, but again the strong currents persuade us to remain spectators.  We try to drive on to some natural rock slides, but a creek has come up over the road.  We’d possibly make it in our car, but we’re not taking the chance, so we’re forced to reverse down the single track road until we can find a suitable spot to turn around. 

We take the winding, nerve-wracking drive to Paluma, high up in the rainforest.  We stop at a lookout point where we get a beautiful view of cloud (and nothing else), then take a short rainforest walk, during which Nick encounters his first leech.  Urgh. 

On the way back to the highway we stop at pretty Little Crystal Creek

We arrive in Ingham at about 4pm.  We were planning to stop and see Wallaman Falls – the highest in Australia - and then head on, but the day has somehow disappeared.  The road to the falls is closed with water over it and we’re still over an hour and a half from Mission Beach. 

We decide instead to stay in Ingham for the night and find ourselves a cabin on a campsite (with the rain we’ve had today we’re not even thinking about camping).  It’s brilliant: there are huge cockatoos in the tree

and tiny frogs hanging out outside. 

Some wagtails have nested on the washing line – you can see the nest and little chicks.  Mum and Dad are small, but fierce.  I’m soon chased off.  I persuade Nick to go for a look, but he’s beaten back by a swift peck to the head.  They even have a go at the car when we cruise past on the way to the shops. 

Nick adds: can’t believe I fell for the ‘just go and have a look at the baby wagtails’.

Saturday:

There is a phenomenal amount of rain through the night, so there’s pretty much no chance of us getting through to Wallaman Falls this morning.  It’s a pity, but we crack on. 

Our first detour is to Murray Falls.  It’s looking promising and we get within 2km of the falls, when this blocks our way:

We head on to Tully gorge instead.  This is a popular white water rafting spot and we’d hoped to see some rafters, but our timing isn’t quite right.  It’s a beautiful spot though.

After lunch we head into Mission Beach where we’re staying tonight.  We find ourselves a lovely little cabin in a campsite overlooking South Mission Beach.  We can’t resist taking advantage of the swimming pool + water slide but minus the kids.  It’s great fun. 

Once we’ve dried off we head out on short rainforest walk.   This is Cassowary country and we’re hoping to catch sight of one.  We don’t have any luck, but the forest is still beautiful, if you can see past the swarms of killer mosquitoes that sneer in the face of our double-layered, tropical strength mosquito repellent. 

Then it’s beer and relaxing time.

Sunday:

The sun is out this morning and the beach looks a little cheerier in the sparkling light. 

Nick has gone off for a shower and I’m lured over for a closer look by a cheeky little wallaby.  I spot a flock of red-tailed cockatoos, which lead me further up the road.  Then the local lifeguard asks me if I’d like to see a baby cassowary.  No, this isn’t some weird pick-up line.  There’s a little fella wandering about someone’s backyard a few houses down.  I get a quick glimpse of him, but unfortunately no photo (of the bird or the lifeguard).

We have a quick tour around the town and try our luck on another rainforest walk, but the cassowaries are very wary and there are no further sightings.

Leaving town I persuade Nick to drive me to Murdering Point winery.  I never did find out the story behind the name, but they make wines out of tropical and local fruit.  After a good old tasting, I get a good deal on some wine made with lemon aspen.

We head inland towards the tablelands.  This is fertile, mountainous country.  We drive the waterfall circuit, stopping off at the Ellinjaa, Zillie and Millaa Millaa falls. 

Then we go to Mt Hypipamee for a look at the eerie volcanic crater.  There are a lot of Ulysses butterflies about – brilliant blue against the forest foliage, but a bit too quick for the camera.   There are some more waterfalls to see on the way back to the car. 

It’s a short drive into Atherton where we’re stopping for the night.  We call into the supermarket and I’m blown away by the huge range of local fruit and veg.  I can’t help myself and come away with passion fruit, papaya, butternut squash, chokos (which I have to google to find out how to cook) and salted roasted pumpkin seeds like my mother used to make. 

We find ourselves a cabin and sit out to watch the sunset.  It’s a nice surprise to find Ali and Andrew on skype and we have a good old chat.

Janet adds: Found my dream spot today: a plot of land in South Mission Beach looking over the sea and surrounded on two sides by rainforest.  Perfect.

Monday:

We have plenty of time again today, so we’ve planned a circuitous route to Port Douglas that crosses the Great Dividing Range 3 times.  We head towards Yungaburra and stop to see the curtain fig tree.  Pictures don’t do it justice, with aerial roots dropping down 15m from the canopy to the ground.  

In Yungaburra itself there’s a creek with a platypus viewing area.  We arrive at completely the wrong time of day: platypuses are usually seen round dawn and dusk.  Nevertheless, before I’ve even had time to read the information boards Nick has spotted one in the water.  We can’t quite believe our luck, but there he is, swimming across the creek.  We sit there for the next half hour or so and don’t spot a thing – we’ve been lucky.

(he's there, I promise!)

We drive on to Lake Eacham, a clear blue volcanic lake surrounded by rainforest.  It’s an excellent place for a swim.

The rest of the day is spent on our scenic drive: bypassing Cairns then taking in Kuranda and Mareeba before finally heading into Port Douglas.

Nick adds: Seeing a Platypus in the wild is the coolest animal I’ve seen so far, and that includes seeing Rhinos, Giraffes and Hippos in South Africa.