July 24 -
30, 2007
July 24,
2007
We moved early in the morning to
a beach parking lot next to the water and the town lagoon.
Airlie Beach has a very nice walkway connecting several local
communities and we walked along it for a while. We ended up at
the marina where the tour boats go out and enjoyed watching
their preparations.
After walking back, we spent some
time updating the website and then ran some errands at the Big
W. The W stands for Woolworths, which is one of the large
grocery chains. But the store is patterned exactly after
WalMart, down to the employee name tags and the price signs. We
thought they must be connected somehow, but the employee we
asked denied it.
Heading north, we stopped at
another beach for lunch and saw Red Tailed Black Cockatoos for
the first time. They are huge and impressive birds, very black
in color – the red is only visible when they fly.
|
 |
Along the highway, we stopped at
one of the fruit and vegetable stands that we saw and found a
great deal on produce, so we stocked up on tomatoes and some
mandarins. Most vegies that we have seen in the
supermarkets are priced much higher than we have been used to,
even more than in New Zealand. We also drove through an
area "known" for their mangos, we didn't buy any as it was too
early in the season, but we did get a photo of Don with a rather
large mango. |
Hoping to get close to Townsville
for the night, we camped at a Roadhouse/gas station a few kms
outside of town that had a very nice, grassy spot for free.
An interesting phenomenon that we
have found in Australia and New Zealand, is that the local
governments have set aside areas where you can camp for a
limited time for free! In this case, I think it was a private
enterprise that allowed the camping with the hope that you will
pay to eat at their restaurant, purchase gas or use their
Laundromat. Either way, free camping is very appreciated and is
used by a huge number of people. There are even lists available
at the information sites that show where these sites are!
Amazing.
July 25, 2007
We got an early start and went
into Townsville to have our refrigerator looked at. The
repairman was completely unfamiliar with our model, even though
he is a certified Dometic repair guy. After giving us
contradictory info than what Dometic had told us, we decided to
go elsewhere for service. We spoke with our contact at Dometic
who provided us with yet another service technician, this one in
Cairns.
| Looking to make camp a bit
earlier in the day, we found another free camping spot on a
river in the town of Rollingstone that was packed with other
campers, all of them very nice. We met Brendon and Maryann, the
first people we’ve met in Australia using a 4x4 Mitsubishi, this
one built by Amesz Campers. We exchanged info and hope to run
into each other somewhere along the way. Here, also, a
neighboring camper gave us her copy of a list showing names and
locations of budget/free campsites, very helpful. |
 |
July 26, 2007
| We spent the morning cleaning and
installing our new bike rack so that we can use our bicycles
more easily. It’s a beautiful thing, thanks to our Kiwi friends
Murray and Shona! |
 |
We seem to be getting into a new
routine, departing later and stopping earlier in the day. We
finally pulled out of Rollingstone near lunch time and made it
to Ingham where we explored the recently opened Tyto Wetlands.
We saw a lot of birds including the crimson finch, ibis,
kingfisher and we managed to mutually scare up a kangaroo. We
jumped up and it jumped away.
We also visited a very
interesting old cemetery in Ingham filled with the early
settlers from Italy. The tombs were impressive, made from
granite and covered with porcelain flowers.
We decided it was time to try to
find a beach to camp at, but many municipalities (here called
Shires) prohibit any overnight parking or camping. We ended up
at Hull Heads Recreational Area run by the local Shire, a very
cheap camping option, steps from the beach. We set up camp then
took our chairs and sundowners down to the sand to watch the sun
set.
July 27, 2007
We decided to spend the day at
Hull Heads, so we got the bikes down for the first time on this
trip. The road was surprisingly level and the streets had very
little traffic, which made riding more relaxing. We peddled
down to the next beach community at Tully Heads where they also
had a very nice beach and picnic area. We were unable to find a
restaurant on the beach, however, so we rode back to a very
large caravan park and got takeaway fish and chips. We then
took that back to the beach for a picnic. We also saw our first
crocodile warning signs. Guess that rules out kayaking!
July 28, 2007
Rain. Our first real rain of the
expedition started first thing in the morning, so we took our
time getting ready to leave as we still needed to cover the
bikes (kind of late, huh) mostly for road grime, and to fill up
with water. While we were waiting, our Amesz friends drove in,
so we chatted a while.
| Continuing north, we stopped in
Innisfail for errands (internet and groceries) and lunch.
Innisfail is Australia’s main town for Art Deco buildings, the
town having been rebuilt during the craze after being wiped off
the map by a cyclone. The buildings have a lot of potential,
but most of them still need more than a little renovating and
paint. They also have a strange statue dedicated to the
sugarcane worker. |
 |
We turned away from the ocean and
headed inland to visit the Atherton Tablelands. We stopped at
Wooroonooran National Park to camp and started a hike to a
waterfall, but we turned around before reaching our final goal
because it started raining. Fortunately we didn’t get soaked
too badly. On the trail though, we passed some magnificent
fig trees with fins that wrapped around them making great
designs. There was also a sign warning about stinging
trees! We looked for one but (luckily?) didn't find any.
July 29, 2007
The Tablelands is a mountainous
area that has a range of regions that support everything from
vegetables, tropical fruit and coffee farms to tropical
rainforests and numerous waterfalls. The area has a number of
parks and reserves that are included in the Tropical North
Queensland Wet Tropics World Heritage Area (quite a mouthful to
say).
We completed a circuit where we
visited 3 waterfalls and several very small towns.
We also
explored Mt. Hypipamee NP to view its diatrime crater and
waterfalls, and on the way back to the trailhead we got to see
our first cassowary. This was an immature bird but still large,
colorful and impressive. The cassowary is a large flightless
bird, similar to, but smaller than an ostrich, much more
colorful and aggressive. This one didn’t even move away from
the path even though several people came by.
| We continued on to visit Curtain
Fig National Park. Here a strangler fig tree had long ago
covered its host tree, when the host tree tipped over and fell
into another tree. The second tree kept the host and the fig
up, but they were then growing on a 45 degree angle. The fig
continued to send down its roots along the length of the angled
host tree, creating what is now a “curtain” of roots some 60
feet long! Very impressive. |
 |
We ended the day camped at Rocky
Creek War Memorial Park, another cheapie where the fee is a
“gold coin donation”. In Australia, the one and two dollar
coins are gold, so that is what they are requesting per night.
We did a night hike, but didn’t spot any animals. There were
large things flying around however, either bats or owls and
noises in the bush that we couldn’t identify.
July 30, 2007
|
The war memorial is set up to
commemorate the many units that helped build or were treated at
the field hospital that had been established here during World
War II. We walked around the numerous plaques set on boulders
placed around the park and talked about the awful wars that have
been fought in the last century.
|
 |
We continued our exploring of the
Tablelands and visited the Granite Gorge Nature Park, where the
setting was so peaceful, we decided to avail ourselves of their
campground and laundry facilities and make it an early travel
day. The park is privately owned and protects a river
gorge with running water and huge granite boulders. There
is even a large group of rock wallabies that have been
habituated to humans, and we were provided food to hand feed
them. Oh boy, were they cute.
