Today we planned to do the cruise near the ferry terminal and then some walks and things on our way up to Cape Tribulation. We left the van park about 9.15 and drove the 15 mins to the ferry terminal. We booked our places on the 10am boat cruise. It was quite a sunny day, so we found some shade to wait.

This cruise was quite different to the one yesterday, both because of the different location and because of the different tour guide. This tour guide was a mangrove expert and loved the flora on the river, but didn’t seem to be as interested in the fauna (except for crocs). We saw about 3 crocs again on this cruise – 2 of them well known by the tour guides and given names, the other one too small to yet be given a name (apparently there is a 90 percent mortality rate with the baby crocs – eaten by bull sharks or larger fish etc.) He told us there have been only 35 recorded cases of humans dying from croc attacks since European history in in Australia – 2 of them have been on the Daintree River (didn’t find out when).  He gave us quite a talk about the mangroves – the adaptations they have in their systems to be able to thrive in salt water. There were quite a lot more mangroves here because it was closer upstream and so more salty. I enjoyed the cruise again for the different information we learnt this time.

We then went across on the vehicular ferry. It was not a very wide river, so this didn’t take long. Then we were driving thought he rainforest up the Cape Tribulation Road. From as soon as we drove off the ferry, this road was under a continual canopy of rainforest, with only the occasional glimpse of sky and occasional glimpse of sea. It was not at all what I had expected, but it was so different to any other region I had driven through previously. It was a slow winding road and we averaged around 50km per hour. There were a few stops along the way on our detailed map that we had. The first one, which was a lookout, we couldn’t stop at as they didn’t allow caravans on that section of the road. The next one was the discovery centre where there were a few walks. It was a narrow road into there, but we managed it and then had a walk along a boardwalk in the rainforest, once again with some informative signs. We found out how the scrub turkeys would build a mound for their nests and from then on Hannah and Beth would point out the scrub turkey mounds whenever we went on walks. 

There were a couple more places we could have stopped but we decided to get to our caravan park first which was right up the top of this road near Cape Trib itself. We had rung ahead that morning and they only had unpowered sites for 2 nights (we could have had a powered for one night but then have had to move to an unpowered the next day). The unpowered sites couldn’t be reserved so the lady I spoke to on the phone suggested we get there no later than 3pm. It was 1.30 by now and we thought we should go straight there. We arrived around 2pm and spoke to the lady at reception. Because we were planning on doing a day trip to Cooktown the next day, we wanted to be able to leave our camp fridge on power with refridgable things  in it. We wanted to ask the lady if we might be able to leave it with them plugged in to a power point. It turned out she had a couple of ’emergency’ powered areas up her sleeve which she said we could check out. One was right next to one of the amenities blocks which had a power point on the outside of it. Michael had a look at this and thought it would be suitable. So, as it turned out, we ended up with the equivalent of a powered site for the 2 nights. And the amenities block was not the main one – it was a smaller one down one end, out of the way a bit. We set up and the kids went to check out the beach – the campsite was right on the beach, like it had been at Armstrong Beach. The tide was right out again and lots of people had taken their camp chairs out onto the hard sand to sit and read or relax. There seemed to be a bit group of young foreign tourists there – German I think. Anyway, the kids enjoyed some time on the beach, swinging on a tree rope they found, while Michael and I did some tidying up and odd jobs.

One of the other places we had planned to stop was a swimming hole (croc safe). So we drove a little way back to that spot, called Mason’s Creek, and walked to the swimming area. To the delight of the kids there was a rope on a tree to swing into the water. The 3 older ones did this, but Bethany was not quite confident enough. She enjoyed just splashing in the water though. It was a nice end to a nice day. We went back to the van park, had showers and then had dinner (spag bol from the frozen meals). We hoped to get an earlyish start tomorrow for the day trip to Cooktown.

The camp ground and just the area itself was so nice, we thought we might even stay an extra night here and have a day to enjoy the area after our visit to Cooktown.

We decided to have a slow day today, just doing things around Daintree Village and perhaps a bit further afield on the south side of the river. This was because there was a vehicular ferry that crossed the Daintree which was $32 return and so we didn’t want to go onto the other side of the river until we were ready to go with the van.

We bought tickets for the cruise which was just near our van park and went on the 9am cruise which went for an hour. One advantage of the cruise company we choose was that it gave you a multi-pass voucher, so you could go on the cruise as many times as you wanted in a period of about 5 days. And the cruise departed from 2 different areas – from Daintree Village where we were and also from near the ferry terminal further upstream where there were more mangroves. We thought we would do the one near the ferry terminal either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

The cruise in the morning was almost a private tour – there was our family and one other older couple on the boat. The tour guide, Lex, was a local guy who actually grew up only just across the river on a farm with cattle and pretty much spent all his life in Daintree. I couldn’t imagine growing up on a river where crocs were prevalent.Lex was very much a small town guy with such a slang accent, it was sometimes hard to understand him. We saw the big croc again that we’d seen the day before on the river bank – apparently he was the ‘big daddy’ of this part of the river – there were some other smaller crocs in this area too and we saw another 2 on this cruise. Lex was amazing at being able to spot birds and wildlife in the trees beside the river. We would just see trees, but he would suddenly stop the boat and point out a tree snake or a frog-mouth bird (both of which were camouflaged on the tree and quite hard to see, even up close). He also knew the plants around there very well. He went close enough to an hibiscus tree for us all to pick a flower and then showed us how to pull it apart to eat the bottom part of the flower. I enjoyed the tour very much. We got off the boat just after 10am and walked the 50m back to our van and had some morning tea.

The kids played outside for a little while and then we had an early lunch, because I wanted everyone to have a rest after lunch today. Bethany and Hannah seemed to be getting tired a lot – we were having fairly full days. We all lay down and put on an audio CD to listen to for a while – I ended up having a bit of a sleep, but Hannah and Beth didn’t – they had a quiet time at least. 

Around 3.30 we headed off in the car to have a bit of a scenic drive. We followed the road which ran beside the river downstream a bit. There was quite a bit of cattle around in the pastures – they were Brahman cows are Brahman crosses – they looked a bit more like bullocks than cows. We drove past some hills which the kids called ‘tiny wings’ hills (after the game on the iPhone/iPad) – they were smooth rolling hills with lots of little humps. We drove south again past Wonga beach and to an area just north of Mossman which had a scenic drive. There was also a WW2 historic site where a bomb had been dropped by the Japanese. On the way back towards Daintree we stopped at one of the beaches beside the road and went for a walk along it. Then back to the car and back to the van park. It was shower time for the younger girls while Lauren and Sam did dinner (BBQ meat and salad and bread). Usual night-time routine.

The next morning we packed up and headed out of the van park. We stopped at a nearby shopping centre for me to restock on groceries. The kids did some schoolwork in the car while I did this. Then we continued north along the Captain Cook Hwy. There were turnoffs along the way to several of the ‘northern beaches’ of Cairns, but we decided not to stop at these – it was not recommended to swim up here (due to stingers and possible crocs) so it would have been looking only anyway. However the highway met the coast at a place called Ellis Beach and it was a beautiful sight to behold – such azure blue sea. The highway followed the coastline for quite a few kms and is known as one of the most beautiful drives in Australia – I can see why. 

About 15mins along this lovely stretch, we came to Port Douglas. Having heard so much about it ( as the place for the rich and famous), we wanted to have a drive around. So we drove along Port Douglas Rd towards the beach area. There were many 5 star resorts all the way along this road. The beach itself was unusually normal and natural. Then we drove along the main shopping precinct and saw all the fairly upmarket shops. I jumped out to take a few photos but otherwise we didn’t stop. We got back onto the highway and continued north.

About another 15 mins further along, we came to Mossman. We had read about the walks at Mossman Gorge so wanted to stop and do 1 or 2 of those. We thought it would be like most NP walks – just driving to the carpark and going on the walk, but visitors to this area had been increasing so much, that the authorities had decided to protect access a bit. They had built a visitors centre where you had to park your car/van/motorhome etc and then take a shuttle bus in to the walking areas – at a cost of course. We had our lunch in the van before we left to go buy our tickets for the shuttle bus. It was a very short wait and then a 5 min drive in – the aboriginal community was still setup within this area, so we drove past their houses etc. We hopped out at the start of the walking area. The 2 smaller walks were still accessible, but the longer walk was closed due to damage to the suspension bridge. We had only planned on doing the shorter walks anyway, but it meant that these walks were probably a lot busier that they otherwise would have been – there were lots of people on the track. The walks were through lovely rainforest with informative signs along the way. The river walk ended at a vantage point overlooking the Mossman River. A few people were swimming in the river, although the signs said it was dangerous to swim there due to strong currents. We sat beside the river for a few minutes and enjoyed the surroundings and watched the goings on of other people. Then we walked back to the start area a different way. We took the shuttle bus back to the visitor centre carpark and got back in the car.

We were still trying to work out where we were staying that night. There were a few options – Wonga Beach (just south of Daintree River), a van park on the southside of the river, or a few van parks on the north side of the river or closer towards Cape Tribulation. Powered sites for 2 nights seemed to be limited, so this affected our choice. I would have liked to stay at Wonga Beach as I knew how much the kids enjoyed being right near the beach, but it was full. So we ended up deciding to stay at Daintree Riverview Caravan Park, right in Daintree Village (only 30 mins from Mossman). As it suggested, it really was right on the river, and one of the river cruise companies departed right from beside the van park. It was quite a basic van park, but it was all we needed and fairly good value. Not long after we’d arrived and set up, I was supervising the younger girls outside for a little while and a lady called us over to where she was standing near the fenced area which overlooked the boat ramp. She had binoculars and had been looking at a croc that was lying on the riverbank on the other side of the river and downstream a bit from where we were. We had a look too. Apparently he is one of the several resident crocs on the river. It was another reminder for Hannah (who is always asking when we can swim) why we can’t go swimming in the rivers and beaches this far up north!

I was feeling a bit headachy that afternoon, so Michael got dinner ready and I went to bed early.

We left the campground around 9.30 – a bit later than we planned to, but everyone had slept in a bit. It was about an hour to Mareeba up a steep, windy road. We passed Kuranda on the way and decided we would stop there on the way back for afternoon tea. 

We got to the rodeo about 10.30 or so. The Boldens were already there and had texted us to say they had saved us seats in the stands. We found them there and sat to watch the events for a while. We enjoyed the experience of watching the rodeo events – the first rodeo we had all been to. There were some events that were fun to watch and others (like the bucking bulls) where we squirmed a bit as some of the cowboys were getting hurt by coming off the bull badly. One guy had to be taken away on a stretcher in the ambulance, and another guy also went away in the ambulance but was able to walk in. The Boldens, who had been to 3 rodeos previously said it was the most accidents they had seen at a rodeo. We ate our morning tea and then lunch in the stands. We stayed for about 4 hours. Lauren was quite happy sitting next to Caitlin the whole time and chatting with her as they watched. Sam wanted to have a look around at the other stands and exhibitions a couple of times. Hannah and Beth also needed to go do other things every now and then. I took them looking at the other stalls for a while, and then later Michael took them for an icecream and a type of jumping castle ride. I enjoyed being able to sit and chat with Karen for quite a while when Michael took the younger girls for a walk. 

We all headed off around 3pm. The Boldens had planned to go and look at a horse near Mareeba which Caitlin was interested in buying as a better beginner rider horse than her current horse. She had saved up money from working at McDonalds. She invited Lauren to come along with her to look at it, and we said this was OK. Ryan wasn’t keen on looking at horses so he asked if he could come with us instead – we said that was fine – then Karen said she might come with us also. So Stephen, Caitlin and Lauren headed off to look at the horse, while the rest of us headed towards Kuranda. It was only 10-15mins there. We went for a walk along the couple of main streets but unfortunately all the eatery shops were closed (or closing) – the last train and skyway had left so the shops mostly shut. There were some souvenir shops open which we looked at, and then the kids had a play at the playground there. Then we headed back to Cairns. 

We got back to our caravan around 5.15, Karen and Ryan joining us there as Karen didn’t have keys to her house. We had a drink and a snack. It turned out that Stephen and the older girls were not going to be back until about 6.15, and the Boldens were planning to go to church again at 7pm (special speakers on). So we suggested we order in pizza and all have a pizza dinner at our caravan before they headed off to church. Michael went to the nearest pizza store and got the pizzas. He arrived back about 5 mins after Stephen and the girls arrived at the van. We were all hungry. We stood or sat outside and ate pizza from the box – saved on washing up! Then the Boldens had to leave. We had all really enjoyed reconnecting again after so many years. The older kids discussed getting together again soon – we decided maybe Caitlin and Ryan could visit us one holidays, and then Lauren and Sam visit them – we’ll keep that in mind. Us Branches then did our usual nighttime routine and got ready to leave Cairns tomorrow.

What a wonderful day we had today at Green Island.  The weather was great after our previous 2 days of rain. I had actually been hoping for a ‘catch up’ day, but when we checked the weather forecast for our 3 days in Cairns, today was the only one which indicated no rain. So last night, we decided we should make the effort to have an early start and full day out. It was worth it, because it was a lovely day.

We went over on a fast catamaran with a company called ‘Great Adventures’. It was a 45min trip. Once on the island, we went to check out the day visitor facilities – there was a pool, a dive shop, several eatery options, lockers for hire etc. We made use of the locker facilities. Part of our tour package was a half hour glass bottom boat trip, which we did at 10.00. I was surprised at how much we all enjoyed this. We saw quite a lot of different things. It was close to low tide when we went out and so the coral was less than a metre below the bottom of the boat. We saw lots of different types of coral, quite a few different types of fish, sea cucumbers, and a couple of sea turtles. There were usually 2-3 boats out at the same time, and towards the end of the half hour, the boats congregate around a ‘fish feeding” area – someone provides the food and many of the larger trevally which feed near the surface of the water come flocking in for a feed. You can see them splashing around on top of the water, but you also see a lot through the glass at the bottom of the boat.

After this we decided to find a table near the pool to have some morning tea. On the way to do this we passed the dive shop and went in to make enquiries about an introductory dive. When discussing Green Island the previous night, Sam had expressed a very strong desire to try scuba diving. He said it was something he had always wanted to do since he was about 3 yrs old and found out about it. He qualified for the minimum age which was 12. Sam’s ideal holiday would be quite expensive as he is interested in all the adventurous sports and activities. He has quite a few on his wish list. He knows he won’t be doing all of them this holiday, but we would pick a couple he could try. Scuba diving seemed to be high up on the list. It didn’t really overly interest any of the rest of us, but he didn’t want to go on his own. Out of Michael, Lauren and myself, I seemed to be the one with the next highest level of interest. So, despite a slight nervousness about it, I found myself booking in to do an introductory dive along with Sam. It was scheduled for 12.00 and would take 2 hrs (including the briefing and training in the pool). Having booked in and so on, we had our morning tea and headed to the patrolled beach area, as the 2 younger girls were keen for a swim. Michael, Lauren, Hannah and Bethany were going to go for a snorkel off the beach while Sam and I were diving. 

Sam and I had an early lunch at about 11.45 and then bid goodbye to the others and headed for the dive area. We had our briefing for about 20-30 mins – discussing how to equalise and you descend, how to breathe normally in the regulator, what to do if the regulator gets knocked out of your mouth, the different hand signals that the instructor might use and that we, the participants, might want to use. We then suited up in our full length lycra suits (to protect against possible stingers) and then in our wetsuits. We got our masks and fins ( I was able to get prescription ones which was great) and then our weight belts. Then our instructors helped us on with our flotation vest with the air tank and other equipment attached. It was heavier than I expected. We headed to the pool for our ‘drills’ with our instructor. We had to practice putting our head under to start with and breathing normally with the regulator, then going down and equalising, then practicing taking the regulators out of our mouth (as if knocked out) and how to recover them and return to normal breathing. Sam and I both passed the test and so we  headed out to the dive boat anchored just off the beach. As it turned out the ratio of instructors to participants was 1:2, so Sam and I had an instructor for just the 2 of us. She was very nice. We were told that she would be linking arms with us the whole time we were down there, which gave me some comfort. We motored to a spot about 5 mins away from the beach. We were told it was going to be about 2m down to the seabed here. Sam and I were the first ones in the water – we walked down some steps that had been lowered into the water at the back of the boat, then had to hang on to a length of rope each once we were in the water.  I think Sam was feeling really excited this whole time, while I was still feeling a bit apprehensive. But I kept telling myself all would be OK. We had to move our hands down the rope – equalising after each 2 hand movements down – this was about 5-6 equalisations before the instructor indicated to link arms with her and move away from the rope. I had quite a bit of pressure in my left ear and, during our briefing, the instructor had said to make sure we indicate a problem rather than thinking it will get better and go away. So I indicated to the instructor. She was very good at keeping me calm and indicating through sign language that I needed to pinch my nose and blow gently to build pressure while holding my breath (I had been breathing out through my mouth at the same time as exerting pressure through the nose). I felt the equalisation then. So we were able to continue on. I didn’t have any more problems with equalisation after this. The only other minor problem was that I felt like water was coming into the mask around the nose area. I signaled the instructor again and she showed me how to purse my lips more and this helped. Once these were sorted out started to relax more and enjoy it. It really was amazing the sights we saw. We swam around coral bommies and saw large schools of fish darting in and out. A lot of the time they didn’t even seem to notice us. We would have seen about 50 different species of fish. We saw a green turtle – twice. The first time, it was hiding behind some coral. This instructor took us right up close to the coral. We could have touched it if we were allowed to. It then swam away gracefully. We saw a stingray, and we saw a couple of giant clams. Once again the instructor took us close to the giant clam and we were allowed to touch the side of it – this made it close up quickly. We also picked up a sea cucumber and felt it. I kept looking over at Sam every now and then to see how he was going. I’d do the ‘are you OK?’ sign to him, and he would signal back that he was OK. Apparently we were down for about 30mins although it didn’t seem that long. We came up slowly – Sam first and then me and walked back onto the boat. Sam had a grin from ear to ear for the rest of the day – he had absolutely loved it.

We went back to the patrolled beach where the others had been swimming. They were still there, although they’d had a break for lunch. All 4 of them had done some snorkelling off the beach – even Bethany and apparently she had done very well. Lauren had gone out a bit deeper on her own (although there were quite a few people around and the lifeguard on the beach) and she said she had seen lots of coral and quite a few colorful fish. She was happy with this experience. We all stayed on the beach for a bit longer – it was such a beautiful day and the water was a nice temperature. We had some of the afternoon tea we’d brought with us. A bit after 3.00 I took Hannah and Beth up to the pool area as they wanted another swim in the pool. We then went and had showers and changed. 

We started heading back to the jetty, but first went and checked the photos that were taken of Sam and I diving – both underwater and on the boat. We chose a photo of the 2 of us on the boat and bought that.

Then it was along the jetty and a bit of a wait to get on the catamaran back to the mainland. Quiet trip back again and Bethany nearly fell asleep. Back to the caravan then, very thankful for a great day.

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.

We had a slower start this morning which was nice. We wanted to visit Reef HQ and learn lots about the Great Barrier Reef, the coral and the sea creatures etc. This aquarium is new since I lived here, and boasts as being a living coral reef on dry ground. The tanks are open to the weather and they have wave making technology to mimic the affect the waves have on the coral formation and so on. We got there about 10am and spent about 3 hrs there. I really enjoyed it – I always learn interesting new things at those places. We participated in 4 different talks or tours during our time there: 1) Predator Dive show – a scuba diver in the tank with some of the types of reef sharks and large fish joined in a live conversation with the guide in the theatre. We learnt there are about 130 different species of sharks, but only 3 of them are considered dangerous to humans – tiger, great white and ?(I forgot). We saw specimens of shark’s jaws, of which the kids had photos of their heads inside. 2) Creatures of the shallow reef – this was a talk at the tank where there were stingray, starfish, young leopard sharks and a few others. We learnt to do the stingray shuffle when walking in shallow areas of the reef – in case any stingrays are resting and hidden under the sand – shuffling feet disturbs them in a way they will swim away, but stepping feet might stomp on them and they might react with a sting of their tail. The children got to touch a starfish and a leopard shark. 3) Coral talk – we learnt that coral is an animal, not a plant, and learnt how each coral animal had both male and female parts, and they release the egg and sperm at a certain time of the lunar calendar, which float to the surface and ‘spawn’ – and polyps are formed. Once they are attached to something, they grow by cloning themselves – interesting. 4) A Visit to the turtle hospital – 3 yrs located here in Townsville and they retrieve sick/injured turtles which have been reported and nurse them back to health. We saw some of the current ‘patients’ and learnt about their treatment. The kids seemed to find all these talks quite interesting, but eventually Hannah and Beth (who were very tired today) had had enough. We came across a play areas for kids at the last section we were looking at – and they loved it – finally they could release some energy and not just have to look and listen.

We’d taken our own morning tea which we’d had during the morning, but had decided to have lunch out today. I wanted to have a look at Flinders Street Mall, so we decided to walk down there from Reef HQ and find a cafe to eat at. We walked a few blocks and I was saying “we should be there soon – there is a pedestrian only section”. Finally we looked up the map and found we had walked the length of the mall – it was now drive through, not just pedestrian. We were now on the corner of Stanley Street and Flinders Street, and there was a cafe on the corner called Stanley Cafe with a nice tables and chairs indoors out of the wind. We had a very nice and very filling lunch. We then walked back to the car and looked up the route to drive up Castle Hill.

We drove through ‘the cutting’ on Stanley Street and the road up the hill started on Stanley Street West. The view from the top was great. You could see 360 degrees if you walked up different summits. We could see the jetty at Picnic Bay on Magnetic Island to the east, and the Townsville Port and then the Strand. Off to the north we could see Rowes Bay and Pallerenda, Belgian Gardens Cemetery and industrial areas. Out to the west and south-west were most of the suburbs. I could make out the 3 ways and then Ross River Road continuing down south, all the way to the Harvey Ranges. Hannah remarked that “Townsville is very big” – I guess in comparison to other towns/cities we’ve been to lately it is. Out to the south-east was the city centre, Railway Estate and then mangroves.

We drove back down the hill and headed towards Ross River Road to go exploring my childhood suburbs and school. Even just driving south along Ross River Road brought back certain memories – I used to ride my bike along here many days when I was in high school. We went past St Anne’s school where I went to preschool. When we came to the intersection at Stocklands Shopping Centre was where I noticed the most difference – it was very developed. We continued along Ross River Road past this intersection and went past Ignatius Park school and then Holy Spirit Church where my family attended church as I was growing up – not too much change there. We then turned left into Hatchett Street to go past Holy Spirit Primary School which I attended for my primary years. It looked completely different. Instead of a large dirt u-shaped carpark out the front and large undeveloped fields, there was building almost to the road side, with a main administrative building and then a small concrete carpark. The ‘paddocks’ off to the right which I used to walk along to go home were all developed fields and playground areas and there was a tall see-through fence all around these areas. We drove further along Hatchett Street and came to North West Cres which is the street where I used to live (since I was about 4 anyway). We drove along to number 6. It didn’t look very different at all, which was kind of nice. I took a photo of course. We drove around the crescent and most of the houses still had the same feel about them as I remembered. We drove past my friend Lisa’s house just one street away. I then decided I’d put the kids through enough driving around (although they hadn’t complained to date – but I didn’t want to push it). It was late afternoon by then anyway, so we drove back to the caravan park. It was fish wrapped in alfoil and cooked on the BarB tonight.

Even though it was overcast, it hadn’t rained for our 2 days in Townsville. But it started to rain tonight, just after dinner which was good timing. It rained continuously most of the night and quite hard at times, making for puddles on the road when we woke up in the morning.

I had spoken about Magnetic Island and the kids saw the brochures about it and wanted to go there, so we decided to make a day of it today. We had checked out the ferry timetable last night and decided we wanted to try to get the 8.45am ferry, which was going to mean leaving the caravan park by around 8.15am. It was going to be like getting everyone ready on a school morning. So I’d set my alarm for 6.30am and last night had written a list of what we needed to take. We wanted to take most of our food for the day, swimmers and towels, snorkelling gear (we were being hopeful that the weather  might improve) and a change of warm clothes for after a swim. Michael asked how we were going to carry it all on and off the ferry to the mini more hire place. I said that was one of the advantages of having 4 children! Anyway, we managed to get away on time. The ferry terminal was only 10 mins away at the other end of the Strand.  We even got on the ferry with a few minutes to spare – impressive for us:).

The ferry ride was only about 25mins, but was quite rolly – something we were quite familiar with from the last 3 days of our yacht sailing. At least this time we were in a big stable boat. But I knew then our chances of snorkelling were pretty thin – and swimming was going to be cold.

The first change I noticed from my childhood times on Maggie Island was that the ferry now docks at Nellie Bay, not Picnic Bay as it used to. We motored past Picnic Bay and the old jetty is still there, but obviously not in use anymore. Nellie Bay now has a protected harbour ( like a marina) where the ferry docks. We walked off the ferry and then the 100m to the mini moke hire place. I remembered these mini mokes as a kid – they are a great mode of transport for that sort of island. We knew we going to have to hire 2 mokes for our family as they only seat 5 people max. We had checked out prices etc and it was going to be pretty reasonable. However, as it turned out, they must have a lot less mokes these days than they used to – there were none available – the only vehicles available were the ‘topless cars’ – old Diahatsu Charades with their bodies altered. They were painted all sorts of bright colours. They were a bit more expensive than the mokes unfortunately, but if we wanted to get around the island we didn’t have much option. Then when the lady drove the first one out from behind the building for us, we all nearly died with surprise – it was bright pink and looked like Barbie’s car! “This one is for the girls” she said (she was a lady with a sense of humour). Then she went and got the other car – it was bright green like a Kermit the Frog car! Sam let out a huge sigh of relief that he didn’t have to sit in a bright pink car:).  Well then there was not much negotiating over who was going in which car. Hannah and Beth wanted to be in the pink car – and Dad couldn’t be in that one, so I was driving it. Michael, Lauren and Sam were happy to be in the Kermie car. I think it was almost the highlight of our trip to Maggie Island to be buzzing around in those cars.

Michael said he would follow me. “You know the island” he said, “so lead on”. And we were off – with the wind in our hair – lots of wind. We drove first to Picnic Bay, only 5 mins south of Nellie Bay. It was very quiet – so different from my memories of it. This was probably partly to do with the unfortunate weather (and being a southern bay, it was copping the brunt of the wind) and partly to do with the fact it was no longer the entry point for visitors. There was a bit of a mall along the front and the tavern on the corner near the jetty was still there (and spruced up a bit). Now being closer to the jetty, we could see the signs which indicated that it was being restored as a heritage jetty. The kids had a bit of a play on the beach and the climbing trees on the edge of the beach and we had some morning tea. As we wandered on the foreshores of Picnic Bay, someone took a photo of our pink car – it was obviously a sight to be remembered!

Michael and I discussed where to go next – we’d seen a brochure outlining some of the walks on the island. Since it was not going to be a nice day for swimming we decided to do one of the walks next. There was one that was not too long going from Horeshoe Bay to Balding Bay next door, both on the north side of the island. We hoped thatnit would be less windy on the north side. So we got back in the cars and headed north, back through Nellie Bay, past Arcadia, over the mountainous area and down into Horseshoe Bay. This had changed quite a bit since my childhood also, but for the better. I had remembered this bay as a bit unattractive and boring and not as popular as the other bays. But it now had quite a lovely atmosphere about it. The foreshore had nice picnic areas and playgrounds (and markets on today, being Sunday) and the street had attractive landscaping and outdoor eating areas. And it was buzzing with people, although not overcrowded. There was a fair-like atmosphere with reggae type music coming from the markets. We parked our cars and got ourselves ready with lunch and drink bottles in backpacks, then started along the eastern end of the bay to where the walk commenced. We met quite a few other people doing the walk as well. It took about 20mins one way to get to Balding Bay. It was a lovely spot. There are no roads to it so fairly secluded. We stayed there for about half an hour, eating our lunch and watching the kids play on the water’s edge or explore the rocks at the side. There was not much wind on this side of the island thankfully. We then walked back to Horseshoe Bay where we’d said the kids could put on swimmers and go further in the water if they wanted – Hannah and Beth wanted to – Lauren and Sam were not quite as keen to get cold. I ended up getting in with H &B as the bottom dropped off quite suddenly and it got deepish quickly. The water was warmer than I thought, and we weren’t the only people swimming. There were some water sports happening a bit further west along the bay – some tube rides (floatation tubes people sat in and got pulled along behind a boat). Sam had read where there was jetski hire at Horseshoe Bay and had hoped to do that. However we found out they weren’t operating this week for some reason. But we said Lauren and Sam could do a tube ride. Michael was able to go in the boat to take some photos and video. They both really enjoyed it and walked up the beach at the end with huge smiles on their faces. Everyone dried off and changed into warm clothes and then we had some hot chips whilst sitting on the foreshore. We had ended up spending about 4 hrs on this side of the island and really enjoyed it. It was now 3pm and we were planning to get the 4.45pm ferry back to the mainland. So we decided to drive back to Arcadia for a bit of a look (but no more swimming).

Arcadia was the name of the suburb/locality but it incorporates 2 bays – Alma Bay and Geoffrey Bay. Alma Bay was one of the main swimming bays when I was a child, and had the stinger net. But today it was blustery and no one was swimming. The kids played at the playground (or trees or the older ones) for a while and then we walked over to the Arcadia Tavern, which I remember was always buzzing on my previous visits as a child. Once again, not so much today, but probably due to the weather. The old ‘bikini tree’ was still there but not so prominent and some parts had fallen off. They still advertised Cane Toad races there, which I remember viewing as a child. I also remembered staying at an A-frame house a couple of years running over Easter, and was pretty sure this was at Arcadia. I had images of it in my mind and asked the others if we could explore the streets to see if I could find it. I think I did. The place looked familiar, but I couldn’t go too close as there were people either living or staying there. I took a photo.

Then we decided to pickup a snack for afternoon tea and eat it at the other end of Picnic Bay. There were no bakeries open (being Sunday afternoon I guess) so we stopped at an IGA and bought biscuits and chips. The children ( and us) seem to always be hungry – I guess because we are doing so much. We found a sheltered area at Picnic Bay to have our afternoon tea, and then headed back to Nellie Bay to return the cars and get on the ferry.

The ride back was quiet as everyone was tired. I managed to do some typing my blog on the iPad. We loaded into the car and back to the caravan park, picking up a few supplies on the way. We had one of the frozen meals out of the camping freezer that night, did all our swimmer rinsing and hanging up, I showered the girls and washed hair and then everyone was ready for an earlyish night.

We packed up and were underway by about 9am, having rung the Rowes Bay Caravan Park and finding out they could fit us in – yay. We headed north along the Bruce Hwy, past quite a few mango plantations and also tomato crops. Apparently Bowen is the largest producer of tomatoes on the eastern seaboard. We stopped at a side of the road fruit and veg van to buy some extra fruit.

 It was only an hour drive to Homehill, a place I remember going to a couple of times to compete in Highland dancing competitions. The venue for them was just off the main Hwy and I recognised it as we drove past. I also remembered the big sugar cane mill there, right near the Burdekin River, and I remembered the long steel bridge over the river. The area is surrounded by sugar cane farms and we had to stop at a crossing as a sugar cane train went across with its load. It all brought back memories. Just 10 mins further north was Ayr, another place where I competed in dancing Eisteddfodds. It is slightly more built up than Homehill and the centre of town is nicely done with an attractive looking mall. We didn’t stop there, but just looked as we drove through. We continued on towards Townsville.

The maps showed a place named Alligator Creek about 28km south of Townsville. I recognised the name as somewhere our family used to go for day outings and I think sometimes with people from my Dad’s work. It is within the Bowling Green National Park (I don’t remember this name, so perhaps it’s been made a national park since i lived there). Reading up on it in the car (iPads are great devices:)) there is the day picnic area and overnight camping area near the creek, just 5km in from the Hwy, and this area is surrounded by a rural residential area. We decided to have a drive in there since I remembered it. We went to the day picnic area and went down to the creek – the kids loved the look of it and would have loved a swim if we’d had a bit more time. We did a short walk to a lookout area and saw how the creek had lots of great swimming holes. It was nice to see it again.

We went back out onto the hwy and continued along into town. I didn’t recognise the area we first came into as it was the south-east, where I didn’t go much as a child (we lived in the south-west). Once we got to the 3ways intersection of Bowen Rd, Ross River Rd and Charters Towers Rd, I recognised the area. Charters Towers Rd is where my Dad’s business, NBE, was located for most of the time we were up there. It is also where I road my bike along for many years to and from high school. Michael wanted to stop at a Supercheap Auto store which we had looked up as being on Charters Towers Rd. when we got there, I realised it was just across the road from my high school, St Margaret Mary’s. So after Michael finished at the store, I hoped across the road with my camera and took some photos of the school – some parts had changed and some hadn’t. While walking around there, I heard loud engine noises. I wondered what it was for a minute or two, and then remembered we had read that the V8 Supercars were in Townsville this weekend. The circuit was obviously close by. I rejoined the family in the car, and we continued out to Rowes Bay to settle in to the caravan park. Hannah and Bethany are always keen to get straight on their bikes once we stop somewhere. Sam goes on his bike a bit, but also likes to find a tree to climb if possible. Lauren will often just stretch her legs and explore the van park for a bit. Rowes Bay van park turned out to be quite nice with lots of trees around. It wasn’t long before the kids had found a large Moreton Bay Fig Tree to climb and swing on the hanging roots. 

After a cuppa and a short rest, I new I needed to go to the grocery store again (going through lots of fresh food). This time Hannah came with me. We went to Castletown shopping centre, which I remember was only a few years old before we left Townsville. We did our shopping and then I took a bit of a drive to an area close by (at Pimlico) where my ballet school was – Croft-Gilchrist School of Dance.  I had looked it up on Google Maps and found out it was still there. It hadn’t changed that much on the outside, but there was now a dancewear shop right next door in a house, and the car parking area was now sealed and had security gates on it. I took a photo and then Hannah and I drove back to the van park. Michael and Sam had been watching the end of the V8 Supercar race on the TV. They were then on dinner duty (another quick packet meal) while I sat down for a while – yay. I think we all did separate reading that night before bedtime.

We knew there wasn’t a lot to see in Bowen, but wanted some time to visit some of the beautiful beaches and just have a general look over the town. We also needed to catch up on lots of washing which we hadn’t done for about a week. So I started early with the washing at about 8am, which was just as well, because not long after there was a queue waiting for the washing machines. Michael spent some time trying to fix the small keyboard we had brought which wasn’t working (it was a very old one given to us by Lauren and Hannah’s piano teacher – she didn’t want it anymore). He had no luck in fixing it – will maybe try again later. But by 10am we needed to move to the other site – a bit of a pain but it wasn’t a full pack up to move about 20m down the lane.  We also wanted to try to book a place at Townsville, our next stop – had difficulty again. The one we were keen to go to (Rowes Bay Caravan Park) had a system where you couldn’t book ahead. You could only book on the day you were first going to stay there and could then stay as long a s you liked. So we wouldn’t know if we could in there until ringing up the next morning. We found an alternative (but less favorable one) and tentatively booked in there. The kids had been riding bikes and exploring the beach again. They also had a half hour on the go-karts offered for hire by the caravan park. We had lunch, brought in all our clean clothes, which were now dry, and headed off for a bit of an explore of Bowen and its beaches.

We decided to go to the beaches first while it was still in the warm part of the day (the south-easterly winds that we’d experienced on the yacht were still around and making it a bit cold at times). We went to Horseshoe Bay, where I remembered snorkelling as a child with my Dad. I recognised the beach and would have liked to have snorkelled there with the kids, but the SE winds were causing a lot of choppiness in the water and it would have been too dangerous to swim near the rocks where the reef was.  We drove the 2mins around to Grays Beach which was a more north-facing beach and it was certainly calmer. Lauren, Sam, Hannah and I did try snorkelling there, but the water was a bit murky (possibly from the swell) and it wasn’t the best reef to try to see. I’m sure any locals who might have seen us would have thought we were mad, as the water was quite cold. We dried off and put on our warmer clothes to go for a drive.

 Our first visit was to drive past the house where Michael’s brother Richard lived when he was a policeman posted to Bowen. We took a photo on our mobile phone and sent it to him. He said it hadn’t changed a bit. Then we drove up Flagstaff Hill which had 360 degree views over Bowen and the islands at the top of the Whitsundays. Then we drove along the foreshore area which apparently has been done up over the last few years. We didn’t get out as the kids were still cold from their swim and it was windy outside. We drove through the centre of town and saw where the set had been for the movie ‘Australia’ (with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman etc) which was filmed in Bowen during 2 months of 2007. Because of this movie fame, the water reservoir tank on the hill near the centre of town now has a sign on it which says ‘Bowenwood’. We explained to the kids about the movie and thought we might try to watch it that night (although not the younger 2 girls) – but a technical hitch got in the way of that idea – will have to save it for another time.

We then headed back to the caravan park – had warm showers – had a BBQ dinner and a few card games and off to bed.