Our life in Tropical North Queensland

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that we have a real soft spot for the Atherton Tablelands. Well, last Sunday was such a beautiful day that we couldnt; resist the idea of a little road trip. First stop was Granite Gorge, just outside Mareeba, where we can hand feed gorgeous little rock wallabies.

Then as we had promised Nicholas an adventure, we headed south to take a swim under a waterfall. We were bound for the famous ‘waterfall circuit’ around Malanda and Millaa Millaa but in fact before we even reached Malanda we saw Malanda Falls in full flow and decided that would be the prefect spot for Nico’s waterfall swimming adventure.

The water was chilly and refreshing, and Nico thought it was very exciting to be able to swim under a waterfall. Until next time…

Maria and I always look forward to hosting visitors, and we relish the opportunity to show friends around our tropical paradise. Last week, we welcomed great friends of our from Tennessee, Glenn and Shirley. We stocked the fridge with Tooheys Extra Dry, Tooheys Old and Coopers Sparkling, and enjoyed many an hour trading stories and catching up on each others’ lives over a couple of stubbies.

But Glenn and Shirley didn’t travel all this way to chug beer. We made sure they experienced the best that Tropical North Queensland has to offer before sending them on their way. The weather conditions were PERFECT, so Maria took them scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. I’m sure she will write about that when she gets the chance.

We sent them on a 4WD tour to Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

And it had been a couple of years since I had travelled on Skyrail and Kuranda Scenic Railway, so I used Glenn and Shirley as an excuse to visit Kuranda. We had a great day…

Kuranda is home to some of the best  Tropical North Queensland zoos, and we visited the famous Kuranda Butterfly Sanctuary. It was hot and humid in the massive glasshouse, but worth the visit for the thousands of colourful butterflies that were flitting around andlending on us. In the hatching room, we saw a recently hatched Hercules moth. With a wingspan of up to forty centimetres (do I still need to convert metric for you Americans?) the Hercules is the world’s biggest moth. But the star of the showwasundoubtedly the brilliant blue Ulysses butterfly. Infamously difficult to photograph, the Ulysses flutters its wings at a frantic pace. I was lucky to get this - albeit blurry - show of two Ulysses in flight. When they are stationary and have their wings closed, the striking blue colour is no longer visible and they blend in with the forest with the outside of their wings a mottly brown and grey.

We had the pleasure of having Helene and Yesica, sister in law and niece, from France, spending a few days with us last week. As Helene said, their visit was short but memorable.

We couldn’t let them visit us without showing them one of our gems, the Great Barrier Reef so we booked with one of the many Great Barrier Reef cruises available and off we went. The trip to the reef was a bit rough but we all got there safe and sound. Little Nicholas was the one who probably enjoyed the trip most, with so much motion, he spent most of the trip happily asleep.

Three of us decided to go diving and only one wasn’t brave enough, sorry, wasn’t in the mood, for diving, so he went snorkelling. Can you guess who??????

The day was beautiful, we had a great time and the French girls were extremely impressed with the corals.

And the day after we took off again, this time to visit Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Forest. By the way, did you know that we help to save the Daintree Rainforest? Every month, Cairns Unlimited buys back five square metres of Daintree Rainforest.

Port Douglas was only a short stop to have breakfast in our favourite cafe, although this time we were all a bit dissapointed with the food, which had been fabulous before. The markets were on, so Steve, Nicholas, Helene and Yesi went to have a bit of a walk while I just waited for them sitting on a bench. I had taken some car sickness pill which hadn’t agreed with me and I was feeling a bit “drunk”. I even had to make my way to the car on my own, since I was falling asleep on the bench and I was a bit embarrased about it. I sent Steve a text to let them know where I was going, and when he showed it to me, it didn’t make any sense at all.

But I felt much better after the delicious hand made ice cream that we had at Floravilla. The flavours were all very exotic. Steve went for the Chilli Chocolate and I tried the Goji Berry with Rainforest Honey Yoghurt. I cannot remember what the girls had, but they were also very excited about them.

We also had time to do a Daintree River Cruise aboard Solar Whisper, where we spotted a few crocodiles, snakes, frogs and birds. It is definetely one of the most beautiful places in the world.

It was already late afternoon by the time we made it to our accomodation in Cape Tribulation Cape Tribulation Beach House. We had two lovely cabins only a couple of minutes from the beach but, most importantly, from the bar. The girls and Steve, after a very early dinner, since we all forgot to each lunch, joined Mason’s Tours for a crocodile spotting night walk. And I, very happily, put the little one to sleep and went to bed as well at 8pm. I know, very very unSpanish but it felt like heaven.

The explorers had a good time although there was no croc to be spotted. However, they came back talking about cane toads, spiders, native mice, white tail rats, sleeping kingfishers, other birds, fish in the crystal clear bubbling brook, wood frogs and even fresh cassowary poo.

The plan for the morning after was to go jungle surfing but someone didn’t plan ahead and the tour was booked out. So instead, we started to make our own way back to Cairns, stopping at Mossman Gorge. There has been talks about a road being built in Mossman Gorge but when we got there we couldn’t see much happening. There are a few massive blocks of concrete which are the base for a boardwalk that will eventually go through the rainforest to the gorge. But up to day, everything is just as it was before and you still have to walk through the rainforest to get there. It was a cool and misty morning and we know that the water in Mossman Gorge is freezing. However, there were still a few brave people having a swin. None of us, though.

All the way back to Cairns, about 60 kilometres, little Nicholas was crying. We tried everything to make him stop and go to sleep. Will you believe he fell asleep only one block away from home? Our little prince!

Helene and Yesi are now back to Stanthorpe, Steve’s home town. And Yesi will be back in France very soon. It was great to have you over, girls. Now it is time for the two rascals, Flynn and Joseph, to come and visit. We look forward to seeing you two.

And everyone, keep tuned. There are lots of news coming up very soon. That’s all I can say for now.