Last weekend’s storm scuppered our plans to finish our holiday in style, so we’re making up for it today.
A train to Central and a stroll down to a new establishment on Eagle street is the beginning of the plan.
…and on to the next stop.
Final update: transport options started looking dodgy, what with rail engineering and so forth. Consequently we decided to skip the Regatta in favour of an ABF at the Pig in Indooroopilly.
Voyager of the Seas, 64,000t displacement, 134,000 GT. She turned and came alongside with a bit of help from the tugs but mostly on her thrusters.
(note the wash from the stern thruster)
Also, a Beechcraft twin captured in a work of art.
And now to the Fortune of War.
No tropical holiday would be complete without a swamp. Just by Cairns airport there are a couple of boardwalks through the mangroves. We stopped by to visit the fiddler crabs, mudskippers and estuarine crocodiles. Spoiler: no crocodiles.
We did see a few mudskippers. Other people have pictures of those.
A perfect end to our holiday.
While we were waiting for our flight at Cairns, Brisbane was clobbered by storms. We’re in a taxi heading back to discover what state our house is in. If the roof is still there, we’ll be happy. Electrical power would be a bonus.
UPDATE: House is fine, power is on, deck is astonishingly clean, courgettes have had it. Next wave of storms approaching.
Babinda is the wettest place in Australia. We took a road trip to see its attraction (singular), The Boulders.
The Boulders are huge. Some of them must be 10 meters across. The stream was barely moving the sand today, but when some of the annual eight meters of rainfall falls on the mountain, you can imagine the torrents that move these rocks. There are lots of signs warning of death and worse if you enter the rapids.
We finished up with a ice cream in Babinda. It’s a small farm town. We felt we’d entered a time warp to 1955.
It didn’t rain.
We took the Captain Cook Highway north from Trinity Beach, headed for Port Douglas and Mossman. The Great Dividing Range meets the Coal Sea, and the road snakes along the margin. The views are stunning.
After dropping by Port Douglas for a drive-by sneer (failed – it’s actually a lovely little tourist town. Braunton in the tropics), we drove on to Mossman Gorge. This is a river valley in lush tropical rainforest. Lots of well-constructed trails through verdant jungle. We loved it.
Hang gliders were making good use of ridge lift by a viewing point on the way home. High guts/brain ratio needed.
A perfect day out in the tropical north. Much beer deserved.
Up at 0520, coffee, total solar eclipse, drive to the Atherton Tablelands, 16kms of unsealed roads, tramp through the bush, home in time for beer and bangers. Good day.
