Brisbane to Cairns
Trip Start
Dec 02, 2007
1
22
55
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Where I stayed
Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Saturday, April 12, 2008
After the a lengthy drive and an overnight stopover in a nondescript motel, we arrived at the first of our retreats from the tourist trail. The Eungella National Park lies around fifty kilometres inland form the Capricorn Coast and has two distinct areas to visit, the low lying Finch Hatton Gorge and Broken River which sits close to the Eungella township overlooking the surrounding rainforest. The rainforest at Eungella is the oldest and longest stretch of subtropical rainforest in Australia. Being cut off from the rest of Queensland's rainforests means Eungella is home to some unique fauna, including the gastric brooding frog, which incubates its eggs internally and spits out its tadpoles, a phenomena that we sadly did not witness! We did, however, catch a glimpse of one of the park's most famous residents. Although not unique to this area of Australia, Eungella is said to be one of the best places to spot platypus. These creatures are extremely sensitive, making spotting them quite a trial of patience. We stood in near silence for almost an hour at Broken River before spotting a lone platypus, which was made all the more exciting by the long wait and false alarms when several turtles (pretty cool creatures in themselves) swam up to the surface.
Having had a small taste of rainforest we had a further few hundred kilometres to drive to Misssion Beach and our next dose of getting back to nature. The long drive meant a stopover in Townsville, which was one of the strangest places we have visited to date and about as exciting as a town called Geraldton, on the West Coast of Australia, which we used as a stopover during our holiday last year- we recommend you avoid both.
Stating that our next stop meant getting 'back to nature' may be slightly misleading, as although we were staying in the heart of the rainforest, our accommodation at Mission Beach, was called the Sanctuary for a good reason. The resort is so isolated that cars have to be left a ten minute 4WD trip away from the cabins, to ensure total tranquillity. The ethos of the whole place was fairly hippy, emphasised by the somewhat intimidating yoga guru who runs the resort and the whole food restaurant where we had a meal in honour of my parents' 30th wedding anniversary- a far cry from where we celebrated last year in Mayfair! We had a very relaxing few days, walking in the rainforest and planning the Northern Territory leg of our journey. Our R&R was hindered only by having to chase geckos out of our room every evening, and the very noisy rainforest at night. Why people buy those CDs of rainforest noise to help them sleep, I will never know...
Our final stop in Queensland was Cairns and my first opportunity to visit the Great Barrier Reef. We took a day long tour out to the reef using a company which transports visitors by boat out to a large platform, from where you can dive, snorkel or take a look at the marine life from an underwater observatory or semi-submersible boat trip. I took a short dive (unfortunately for the first time since we left London Piet had a cold so was not allowed to dive), and we both really enjoyed snorkelling around the reef and seeing some truly amazing wildlife. Unfortunately most of our photos are winging their way back to England on a disposable underwater camera, however you can get a little taste of the reef in the photos we took from the subaqua boat.
