Travelled a bit around the local area today, mainly the coastal beaches that are famous in this region.

I have mentioned Sugarcane in past blogs but I haven’t really explained the extant of the industry here in Queensland, although it does extend into the northern part of NSW but in a small way. The sugarcane industry is huge in QLD & NSW, combined it makes Australia the second largest producer of raw sugar in the world, just behind Brazil. When I was growing up its was the legends of the cane cutters in the north and shearer’s in the southern areas of Australia that was the “true Australia”, how things have changed since then. Now its mining that holds that status!

Sugarcane in QLD extends from Mossman (just north of Port Douglas) to the QLD/NSW border. We have spent the last few weeks driving thru continual fields of sugarcane which is being harvested now. There is over 4,000 k’s of rail track specifically for transporting sugarcane from the farms to the mills. Sugarcane has to be processed in the mills within 16 hours of harvesting, so its a just in time effort, not unlike the car plants requiring the vehicle components on the line at a certain or the line would stop.

Nowadays its all mechanical harvesting but it wasn’t all that long ago that is was manual work and the “canecutters” had a very hard job, no wonder their life expectancy was the early 40’s. Also I can remember the films of the cane fields being burnt before harvesting but that is now a thing of the past.

Today we went to Paronella Park, which is located in Mena Creek, about 25 k’s from Cowley Bay. It was so unique that I’ve dedicated a whole blog to this one place. I can’t do it justice here so I suggest you “google” it, you won’t be disappointed.

So to give you a quick overview, Jose Paronella emigrated to Australia in 1913 from Spain and made his money in the cane fields here in FNQ. He decided to build his own place or park on 13 acres of rainforest at Mena Creek, about 25 k’s south of Innisfail. He even built Queensland’s first Hydro Electric system in 1933 to power his park, which was highly successful. The system went into disrepair over 40 years ago when the property was sold but in 2009, it was refurbished and now the whole property is powered by Hydro Electric power generated from the Mena Creek Falls on a 90 year old generator, it even puts power back into the grid.

Jose’s first building was a grand staircase to enable the materials for his house to be brought up from the water’s edge. He built his own house and a castle, then built refreshment rooms, tennis courts, even a grand ballroom that became a picture theatre on the weekends. Also, picnic grounds, Kauri forest, a tunnel thru to Falls named in honour of his daughter along with other buildings. He opened his park to the public in 1935 to enjoy. Jose died in 1948, at a relatively young age of 60 and left his wife and 2 children to continue his dream.

Unfortunately many Floods and Cyclones from 1946 to the late 70’s took terrible toll on the property and it was sold off to its current owners who have spent many years re-building Jose’s dream after Mother Nature and the elements have tried their hardest to destroy.

The photos below show a glimpse of the park but as “Molly” used to say, do yourself a favour and get up here and see it!

The Grand Staircase.

Not a big day today, just 120 k’s down the road to Cowley Beach but weather wise it was big! We had to drive thru the biggest rain storm yet on our trip. The coast is experiencing some un-seasonal weather over the next 5 days with plenty of rain. Unfortunately our planned stay on the beach fishing looks like going awry.

We stopped off in Innisfail for lunch at a cafe on the Esplanade and it was excellent and after Fitzroy Island, extremely good value. During the meal we were hit by another rain storm. Funny thing was there were more Victorians in the Cafe than locals.

We’re here for 3 nights and will be touring the area over the next few days before heading down towards Townsville.

Back “home” in Cairns to the van today. Left Fitzroy Island at the right time as the rain came down early this morning and has been basically raining on and off all day. About a bit of a sleep I, we finally managed to have a hot breakie this morning and then it was a bit of relaxation waiting for the ferry trip back to Cairns. Fortunately we were travelling with the waves on the return journey and the trip was quite comfortable for all.

I mentioned home above and it was funny but that’s what it felt like when we got back to the park. I suppose after living in the van for 9 months it is home. A bit of shopping in preparation for our departure tomorrow was the extant of our activities this afternoon but we did have some rain showers and hopefully the result of the showers (see the photo below) brings us good luck in our future travels.

We have enjoyed our time here in Cairns. The main thing that has stood out is the lack of people about. We got off the ferry at lunch time and there was basically no one at the restaurants on the wharf. FNQ is not under COVID lockdown and whilst the van parks are reasonably busy, the rest of the tourist and hospitality industries are certainly in a bad way. All the large yachts used for dive and snorkel tours were tied up and look like they have not been out for months and this is their busy season. Unfortunately the immediate future for a lot of businesses is looking rather dim.

So long Cairns, hope we get to return some other time in more prosperous circumstances.

We have been on Fitzroy Island since Thursday morning, travelling back to Cairns tomorrow. We did enjoy our time away from the van and the Island was nice although rather rundown. Overall we did enjoy our time there but we had some reservations as well. We were told there was to be no alcohol taken to the Island nor food. We understood this as it was the Resorts way of making a quid out of us. To our utter disappointment our fellow passengers on the ferry were loaded up with grog and food, so our demeanour was not ideal even before we hit the Island.

The trip started off with a 45 minute ferry ride to the Island which turned quite rough, half way across. A fair portion of the passengers on the bottom deck, grabbed a sick bag and headed out back but I don’t believe any were actually sick. I liked the bumps, it was a bit like a ride in a aerobatic plane, although I was able to have a Bundy on this ride, not something that comes in a plane when doing aeros!

Our rooms were very nice with excellent views, although it was easy to see little maintenance was occurring. We had cockroaches in our room, so did Andrew & Sue but they had the added experience of a large Gecko in their room as well. We had an excellent meal in the restaurant the first night but next morning breakfast turned up after 50 minutes and it was cold, so we sent it back and gave it a miss. I know I’m having a whinge but when your paying top dollar at a supposedly high end resort you expect a decent level of service and it was far from that on Fitzroy. Additionally we didn’t know that backpackers and day guests were allowed to frequent the Resort, so there they are sitting drinking their BYO whilst we’ve been forced to pay an exhorbinant amount for ours. It was very disappointing and there were a number of other issues which I won’t go into but lets say that was our one and only time on Fitzroy. I would not recommend it.

That being said we did get to snorkel, swim in the pool, do bushwalks and eat and drink heaps. These are the normal things you do on a holiday, so we managed to do the things we wanted. I do sound ungrateful but it was still nice to be van free for a few days and the views on the Island were great. Certainly we’ll remember that side of our trip with fondness and my experience with the Hen’s party will live long in my memory (see the photo below).

We have been out of internet reception the past 4 days so I’m posting the next 2 posts in retrospect.

We spent the past 2 days having a general look around Cairns as well as some shopping and getting ready for our trip over to Fitzroy Island. Yesterday was Andrew’s birthday so we had dinner down on Marlin Wharf in Cairns to celebrate.

The weather has been consistent, around 29 top temp with an overnight low of 19/20. There has been the odd shower so it does get a bit steamy when the sun comes out straight after the rain but its the tropics and that’s what you get.

Yesterday we took the Train on the Kuranda Scenic Railway up the mountain to Kuranda village. Then Skyrail (basically) an enclosed chairlift back down the mountain.

Kuranda is a lovely village high up in the mountain range above Cairns and is serviced by the tourist railway and Skyrail. Kuranda has many shops and 2 major markets that cater for the tourists that visit the village, predominantly by the rail network but tourists travel up by cars as well. We caught up with Janine and Earl again for lunch and visited their home. Whilst it looks like suburban street its basically in the rainforest and you can’t see any of the surrounding homes. Certainly a different life to when they lived in Emerald.

The original rail line was put into Kuranda to help with the gold mining boom in the 1800’s. It took thousands of men over 2 years to build the line and many a number lost their lives doing so. The line also served the military well during WW2 as many Defence establishments were located in the mountains above Cairns.

Kuranda is a lovely village, although it seems very structured for the tourists and is no doubt feeling the pinch during these COVID times.

The train trip up the range was very good but the Skyrail back was equally if not better. There is something about hanging off a line hundreds of feet above the ground that gets your juices flowing and some of the views coming back down off the range were outstanding. It was certainly an enjoyable day.

It’s Saturday and there is a golf course and competition somewhere. So Andrew and I headed off to Half Moon Bay Golf Club to play in their Saturday comp, another Monthly Medal playing stroke!

We were hoping to play the Cairns Golf Club but they would not allow us to play in their comp, in case we gave their members COVID. There has been very little COVID up here but the paranoia by some places, ie shops, cafes, restaurants and the golf clubs is hard to comprehend. What has been mystifying is the way the clubs differ in their rules and management re COVID. The clubs state they are following QLD Golf rules but so far every club we have played in QLD has been different. Very frustrating to say the least!

In the end we were very glad that Cairns Golf Club turned us away, otherwise we would not have played at Half Moon Bay today. We really enjoyed the course and the club, so here is CRAPP review of the course:

Design – 15 out of 20 (very interesting layout with a couple of unique holes, particularly one of the par 3’s. Water and Crocs on the left and right of basically a walkway, not a fairway)

Condition – 14 out of 20 (the course was in good nick, although the tee boxes needed work but that’s understanding considering they have just had 5 straight rounds of stroke competition)

Cost – 15 out of 20 (competitive pricing but maybe just a touch high)

Visual Appeal – 18 out of 20 (some great vistas on the course)

Facilities – 6 out of 10 (probably the only real disappointment of the course)

Ambience/Appeal – 9 out of 10 (both Andrew and I enjoyed the course and would love to play it again)

The final score came to 77, which makes Half Moon Bay Golf Club the current CRAPP Clubhouse leader. With a bit more effort into the conditioning, I’m sure HMBGC would break thru the 80 mark. The members and visitors have a very good course to play on.

More CRAPP to come!

Been in Cairns for a few days now and very surprised at the size of the town, its much bigger than I thought. We’ve managed to do a bit of shopping and caught up with Janine and Earl, who we haven’t seen in nearly 3 years after they shifted to Kuranda from Emerald in the Dandenongs.

Also done a bit of sight seeing. Cairns seems to be surrounded by mountains, everywhere we look you can see the hills and we’re looking forward to doing the train trip up to Kuranda in the hills, then back down on the Skyrail. Skyrail is basically closed in gondolas and it should be good fun.

We enjoyed walking around the CBD. Cairns has a rather unique mall, its more like a park. The Tank museum was also very interesting even for this “flyboy”. It’s amazing the number of WW2 Tanks and vehicles they have. I’ve never a seen a German Tiger or Panzer before but I have now.

I had a very pleasant surprise from my girls tonight, with a Father’s Day eve cake and balloons. The cake was very nice and of course it would not be a celebration without the Black and Yellow ballons!

We have a few activities planned over the next 4 days before we leave the vans and cars behind and head over to Fitzroy Island for 3 days of R & R. Looking forward to the snorkelling and “serenity”!

Our last day here in Port Douglas and we started it off in style, heading off to Thala Beach Resort for breakie. This is a lovely place south of Port Douglas on top of a hill overlooking the water. Susan and I came here on our previous visit and were keen to return.

After breakfast it was back into town for the Wednesday markets at the marina. Not a large market but it did give us an opportunity to stop for a drink and enjoy the nautical ambience, even admire some of local colours!

Pack up is planned for the afternoon, although we might squeeze a quick dip in the pool a bit later.

Of to Cairns tomorrow morning, there for 8 days in the caravan park before leaving our cars and vans at the park and head over to Fitzroy Island for a few days of R & R.

Really enjoyed our time back here, pity its such a long way to come, if your not flying. Bring on Cairns!