Judy & Brian Tour Oz

Townsville Qld July 30 2015 Just a transport day today: Palm Cove to Townsville down the fabulous Bruce. I suppose I shouldn't keep slagging it off, but really, considering the sheer volume of traffic, not to mention the numerous tiny towns and cane-train crossings, its just downright dangerous. From Palm Cove its a 75km run in 1 hour, and that’s taking the back-way off the bypass. And then it was traffic as usual, anything from 70 to 90kph all the way down to Cardwell, about a 150km, where we, and 10,000 other caravans stopped for lunch. The Bruce runs right through Cardwell and is right on the beach. It’s a small, nice town and strangely, while we sat there feeding our faces, the Bruce was eerily quiet, except for a few odd trucks cruising through. Cardwell Qld Cardwell Qld  Cardwell Qld After lunch we noticed that most of the caravans had left, so we set of expecting the worst - but wait - a minor miracle happened and the road was clear ahead of us and we hi...

Kuranda Qld. July 29, 2015 Up and away early this morning to catch the 845am train from Freshwater to Kuranda. This is an historic train ride, the line was established in 1891 to provide a reliable supply link from the port of Cairns to the gold fields and farmlands on top of the mountain range. It's 32km long and rises 300 metres, has 106 cuttings, 15 tunnels and 55 bridges and is literally carved into the edge of the mountain. One step the wrong way and its a long way straight down. If you keep in mind that the whole enterprise was undertaken using pick & shovel and man power and that they dug and gouged over 2.3 million tonnes of rock out by hand, you can start to appreciate the significance of the finished product. We have been on it before, back in 2004, and so were able to relax more and take in the experience rather than trying to get snaps from every possible angle of the train, the view, the rocks, the waterfalls, the tunnels, the bridges etc. Kuranda Scenic Ra...

Cairns Qld. July 28, 2015 We started off on a lazy sort of day. It's not cold, nor is it hot. Nor is it bright and sunny, but threatening rain all day, not that there's much difference between 99% humidity and actual rain. We thought we'd go and take the skyrail ride through the treetops up to Kuranda and visit the butterfly house. We arrived at the terminus at exactly the same time as 27 busloads of pre-booked tourists from the Pacific Dawn cruise ship arrived, and so naturally enough, we decided that it would be better tomorrow. Undaunted we were sort of heading toward town when we got side-tracked up to a previously unheard of place called Crystal Cascades. It's yet another walk along a gorge through rainforest, but this one is rather pleasant. You are walking on a wide smooth concrete driveway, well above the rushing rapids and inviting swimming holes. There are well made viewing platforms and stairs and people are encouraged to go swimming, which would be mig...

Palm Cove, Cairns Qld. July 27, 2015 One hundred and seventy kilometres in three-and-a-half hours. That’s the mighty Bruce for you, especially up this far. Actually, I exaggerate a tad, we stopped at the sugar museum in Innisfail because it was a more enticing option than trundling along the goat-track, but still, it was ‘tedious’, to say the least. Here are some snaps from the museum, just for fun: Sugar Museum. Innisfail Qld Sugar Museum. Innisfail Qld Sugar Museum. Innisfail Qld Sugar Museum. Innisfail Qld We finally made it into Palm Cove, which is the last suburb of Cairns, about 20k north of the city centre. The van park is OK, at least we can swing a cat on this site, it’s rather nice actually. Some snaps from along the boardwalk : Palm Cove Qld Palm Cove Qld Palm Cove Qld Palm Cove Qld Palm Cove Qld Palm Cove Qld

South Mission Beach Qld. July 26, 2015 If half the state of Queensland can have a holiday because the Tully Show is on, I can have a day off from Blog-writing! Over the last two days we travelled around a bit. We went up to the Murdering Point Winery just north of Mission Beach, at a place called Silkwood, although you'd be hard pressed to spot the actual township. The wine was 'interesting', but we bought some fortified brew because we thought they needed our help! Just down the road from Silkwood, on the coast is a town called Kurrimine, which doesn't feature in any of the tourist brochures but is quite pleasant and judging by the number of boats in the water and around the van park, it has some good fishing grounds. We then found ourselves back out on the Bruce, at a town called El Arish, which is in the brochures. It's claim to brochuredom is that it is a reasonably intact example of the soldier settlement, a scheme introduced after WWI whereby returned ...