We took 2 days to travel from Townsville to Cairns. Unfortunately it rained for a lot of this time. So we didn’t get to have walks or plays on some of the beaches along the way.

Some of what we did was:
– stopped at Lucinda to see the 6km long jetty. It’s the world’s longest bulk sugar-loading jetty, allowing enormous carrier ships to dock. Built in 1979, it dips 2m to follow the curvature of the earth and is cyclone-proof. Sugar takes 22mins to travel along the conveyor. We had lunch here and it had stopped raining enough for the kids to run around and have a play.
– very brief stop at Tully, which has the reputation of being the wettest place in Australia – it certainly had lots of puddles the day we drove through. We stopped at the big gumboot monument just off the main highway for a photo.
– stayed at Mission beach overnight. Saw a cassowary as we drove through the rainforest area on our way to the caravan park – proved to be the only cassowary we would see while there.
– went for a bit of a drive along the esplanade of Mission Beach, but the cloud was so low that we couldn’t even see Dunk Island off the mainland.
– went for a half hour walk in part of the rainforest the next morning – called the Licuana Palms walk – lots of these bright green palms with very broad leaves. It was a very pretty walk and it was only spitting very lightly, so with rain jackets on, it was fine.
– stopped at Innisfail for lunch – parked beside the Johnstone River and reheated sausages on the gas cooker. Innisfail seems quite an attractive town in the city centre.
– then kept driving towards Cairns. We actually started to see the sun about half an hour from Cairns – how nice. We took a little. It of a drive through the city centre before ending up at our caravan park – Cool Waters Van Park in the western suburb of Brinsmead. Set up for the night and gathered a few brochures from the office regarding Outer Reef and Green Island day tours. We booked to stay 4 nights and have 3 full days in Cairns, one of them planning to be a day trip to the reef. We were hoping the weather would make it worth the money.