Well we were due to leave on Sunday and Sunday came and went and we didn’t! The weather wasn’t great and we had heard it was windy down the coast so we decided better the devil ……. So we’re still here.
However the weather has improved markedly now and the sun is shining so we made the right decision and haven’t had trouble filling in our time at all.
We’ve been going for long walks along the beach at low tide when the sand is firm and easy to walk. We’ve been for dinner at Babinda to a lovely Thai restaurant, reading and listening to the radio where we heard of a basketball carnival in Cairns which began on Thursday night and runs over the weekend as part of the Cairns festival. So we rang and booked tickets and for the princely sum of $24 we watched two NBL matches from the front row directly behind the Cairns Taipans bench. What incredible luck! We had a great night, although getting back to the van at 11.30pm was a bit of a rude shock! Never mind we didn’t have any pressing engagements for the morning anyway.
We did however make the most of the lovely morning and go for a walk through Eubenangee Swamp National Park which we had driven past many times. The walk begins at a lovely rail line which is one of the many cane train lines and winds its way through a tropical forest for about 1km. The tropical forest then gives way to a clearing with a steep walk up a hill from where you overlook a magnificent natural swamp which is teeming with life including birds and as we looked along the bank we noticed what looked like a log but in fact was a crocodile which validates all the warnings we saw posted along the way. The water lilies and other plants covered much of the surface of the Swamp and looked truly beautiful.
On our last day (we have really decided to go this time!) we went for a walk through Palmerston National Park to the North Johnstone River Lookout which is 1.5km from the road. It certainly was a challenge and we returned to our mountain goat ways again with the added interest of high humidity this time. The path was a very natural one over tree roots through the forest with some rudimentary steps provided along the way. The view was worth all the ‘are we there yets’ and something else to remember from our stay here.
Now we’re really going after two weeks which started at four nights!
However the weather has improved markedly now and the sun is shining so we made the right decision and haven’t had trouble filling in our time at all.
We’ve been going for long walks along the beach at low tide when the sand is firm and easy to walk. We’ve been for dinner at Babinda to a lovely Thai restaurant, reading and listening to the radio where we heard of a basketball carnival in Cairns which began on Thursday night and runs over the weekend as part of the Cairns festival. So we rang and booked tickets and for the princely sum of $24 we watched two NBL matches from the front row directly behind the Cairns Taipans bench. What incredible luck! We had a great night, although getting back to the van at 11.30pm was a bit of a rude shock! Never mind we didn’t have any pressing engagements for the morning anyway.
We did however make the most of the lovely morning and go for a walk through Eubenangee Swamp National Park which we had driven past many times. The walk begins at a lovely rail line which is one of the many cane train lines and winds its way through a tropical forest for about 1km. The tropical forest then gives way to a clearing with a steep walk up a hill from where you overlook a magnificent natural swamp which is teeming with life including birds and as we looked along the bank we noticed what looked like a log but in fact was a crocodile which validates all the warnings we saw posted along the way. The water lilies and other plants covered much of the surface of the Swamp and looked truly beautiful.
On our last day (we have really decided to go this time!) we went for a walk through Palmerston National Park to the North Johnstone River Lookout which is 1.5km from the road. It certainly was a challenge and we returned to our mountain goat ways again with the added interest of high humidity this time. The path was a very natural one over tree roots through the forest with some rudimentary steps provided along the way. The view was worth all the ‘are we there yets’ and something else to remember from our stay here.
Now we’re really going after two weeks which started at four nights!
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