Day 1
We had a spot of trouble leaving Cairns. And by a spot of trouble, I mean that we are terrible at packing and keeping to a schedule. So it was roughly 3 o'clock by the time we pulled out of Cairns City Motel and began our great road trip here in Oz. However, the first part of the trip lasted about 3 minutes, after which we arrived at our first stop of the day: the Lagoon. If you ever have the opportunity to travel to Cairns (or read my upcoming post about why I loved it so much), you’ll understand why I love the Lagoon so much. Needless to say: it needed a proper goodbye. We had one last swim, took several photos, and and then walked the city to pick up a late lunch and some last minute souvenirs. Finally, (after delicious burgers and seafood at a small local cafe) we headed out of the city.
Our goal for the first leg of the trip was to explore the Atherton Tablelands, so we looped Kuranda and made our way along the road to Mareeba. At this stage the sun began setting and we focused our sights on a free campsite between Kuranda and Mareeba. The campsite was a gravel pit just off the side of the highway, and finding it proved… difficult. Our first problem is that Ol’ Bessie is too damn fat to stop suddenly, and the second being that all side-roads look the same. Finally, after roughly an hour of passing several potential sites we pulled into what we thought looked like the aforementioned gravel pit. Spoiler Alert: it wasn’t. However, as we attempted to discern the location of the campsite, another car pulled in. There we met Martin, a friendly German backpacker looking for the same site. We drove separate ways planning to divide and conquer, and through incredible levels of teamwork and cooperation (we wove flashlights to signal him in and felt pretty badass.) we finally found our site. It was a perfect spot for our first night on the road, and it felt good to be sleeping under the stars again.
And then the rain began.
Day 2
In pouring rain we cooked a hardy camp-stove breakfast. Speaking of camp-stoves: I forgot to mention an adventure from the night before. While setting up the stove (in the dark) for our first supper, I inserted the gas cartridge incorrectly resulting in gas streaming out of the canister for several minutes unnoticed. I then attempted to light it, resulting in a very large explosion. But hey, I didn’t need those nose-hairs!
Anyways, this morning’s camp-stove fun resulted in a pleasantly cooked breakfast shared with the lovely Martin, who made delicious fried beans to compliment our eggs. We were on our way shortly thereafter, parting ways with our new friend. Driving through Mareeba, we visited a lovely museum outlining the history of the region’s settlement, and then landed at CoffeeWorks.
We had heard about CoffeeWorks on our trip to the Daintree, and were excited to visit the farm/store/restaraunt/heaven. Mareeba grows 90% of Australia’s coffee, so as a wanna-be coffee-nut (coffee connoisseur?), I couldn't resist the temptation. Oh, and did I mention they also make chocolate? So for a solid 3-4 hours we sat in the tasting room, consumed various flavours of coffee (almost more than I could handle), and induldged in the unlimited chocolate. Oh, and there was coffe liquer. Did I mention heaven? (There was also a museum. But like, the highlight was clearly the aforementioned delectables.)
From CoffeeWorks we headed towards Lake Tinaroo, spent the remaining minutes of daylight walking the shoreline of this beautiful holiday destination, and then headed to our next campground for a quick game of soccer. After living in the tropical rainforest of Cairns for nearly two months, it was strikingly different to be in an area with more normal trees and scenery. It both looked and smelled like Alberta. Caroline was thrilled. I missed Cairns.
Day 3
Today we traveled to the small, quaint village of Yungaburra: a beautiful tourist destination surrounded by volcanic crater-lakes. Essentially old craters that filled with rain, these volcanic lakes are almost perfectly round, with a pristine blue-green water that you can see right through. We decided to visit Lake Eacham, the smallest and most crater-esque of the lakes. The day was spent frollicing on this beautiful lake among the fish and turtles.
That afternoon we headed back to the town of Yungaburra to explore a couple of the boutique shops, and then went to the Avenue of Heroes, a memorial to celebrate the deaths of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. It was an incredibly beautiful memorial, placed right beside a calm lake framed with the setting sun. I have visited a large number of memorials for both the world wars, but it was sobering to visit a memorial commemerating loss that happened in my lifetime. I appreciate the person who set it up, as it provided a perfect moment for reflection and gratitude.
That evening as the sun set we visited Peterson creek, a slow moving body of water that is home to several platypi. As we walked along in a slight drizzle, we spotted a splash and the tip of a brown tail. After waiting at that spot anxiously searching for the creature for quite some time, we gave up and continued walking along the river. Suddenly, another splash! Before long we got our first good look at a platypus: a solitary brown log-like fellow drifting casually down the river before disappearing with a flick of his tail. A platypus, to me at least, has always been some mythical beast, like old Nessy, that I assumed I would never get to see. As well, I have met hundreds of travellers who didn't get the opportunity we did to witness the odd creature. But guess what? WE SAW A PLATYPI!
Day 4
This morning we hung around camp for several hours before heading off to the waterfall circuit. The waterfall circuit is composed of a couple dozen waterfalls in the southern Tablelands region, and is supposedly incredibly beautiful. The only problem was the weather; it was raining. Pouring. Cats, dogs, the whole shebang! Now waterfalls perform quite well under heavy rainfall, however our attitudes and desire to see more definitely takes a hit the longer the rain comes down. Still, we managed to see several before I slipped on a rock and impaled myself. With an 8 inch long cut in my chest, we decided to call it a day, give up on the waterfalls, and head to our camp for the evening in Innisfail.
Days 5-7
For those who don’t know, I am supporting my travels in Australia through web design, and I have a couple projects on the go right now. So, unfortunately the next few days became quite a bore, filled with coffeeshops, work, and more work. In classic adventure books they tend to skip over several of the less exciting details, like most of the walking bits in the Hobbit, or like 90% of the semester in Harry Potter. Books get to jump to the exciting bits. I, however, do not. The days spent in Innisfail weren’t entirely boring though, and even if I don’t have enough material to fill several paragraphs with, I thought I might tell a few stories:
Remember a couple days ago when we met a lovely fellow named Martin, and cooked a delicious breakfast with him? When we parted ways we discussed the potential of seeing each other again and came to the conclusion that the chances were nil. We headed in completely different directions, and knew we would never see each there again, which made it that much more surprising when he walked up to say “Hi!” our first morning in Innisfail. Plans had changed on both ends, and despite saying our heartfelt goodbyes several days prior, we were able to spend a couple more evenings together. Funny how life works!
In the Great North A.K.A Canada, you have a summer season and a winter season, the latter of which drops down to below freezing. While this has it’s downsides, it has one large upside: it kills all the bugs. Meanwhile, here in Australia, there is no such thing as freezing cold winter, and the bugs have a much longer life-span. Forget the poisonous spiders, after a while even just a simple ant running up your leg for the millionth time, or fly landing on your face while you’re trying to write gets incredibly irritating. I am so sick of bugs.
On the topic of pests, we had a mouse. In the van. Eating and pooping on everything. Lovely, huh? The Mouse (hearby referred to as Stuart) was a troublesome little fella who was very good at not being caught. We waited for hours with buckets ready to catch the little beast, only for him to appear right after we gave up and sat for a rest. It took several nights, but Stuart was finally caught when he climbed into the cooler for a snack only to have it shut on his head. After a night in his cooler cell, Stuart was finally released to the wild. Also, he literally ate all our bread.
The Northern Queensland region is famous for it’s sugar cane, and we finally got to try some in the form of fresh cane juice. Get this: they take a stick, put it into a squisher (yes, that’s the technical term for it), and out comes this amazing, sweet, delicious sugary drink! Mind blown!
Finally, on day 7 I completed my allotted work and we left that afternoon heading farther south down the coast. We stopped in Kurrimine Beach for a lovely swim, saw a couple red-tailed cockatoos, and then camped in a lovely spot by the road.
Random Pictures:
