Cassowary Coast - Far North Queensland - Home

 Wed 30 June – It rained all night and I packed up from Mission Beach in a downpour. Dried off and shopped for LPG and groceries including some face masks, as Townsville is in lockdown, (not us
fortunately) before a very short drive up the coast to Kurramine Beach. Torrential rain the whole way! Set up in more rain and raced down for very quick look at the beach between downpours.

Thurs 1 July – It stopped raining in the night, and we had breakfast outside. We went for a long walk along the beach and back to “Andy” for more rain around lunchtime. We went for another walk on the beach in the opposite direction before drinks outside. We are getting a bit sick of this unseasonal rain. It is still very hot and humid, and everything is feeling a bit damp.

Fri 2 July – A lovely fine day! Another short drive to Innisfail and out to the coast at Flying Fish Point. We have a great site in a garden setting. There is a small beach at the mouth of the Johnstone River. Because of the rain the rivers are in flood the sea is brown and the stingers may arrive early. We dried our towels etc, and Val did laundry. Good to be in the sun again. We had a couple of great swims in the camp pool. Hopefully, this may be the end of the rain.

Sat 3 July – We biked along the waterfront and around the corner to the Johnstone River. This river is wide and goes up to Innisfail. It would have been a busy port years ago. In the afternoon we went back to the camp pool. We seem to be the only ones using it!

Sun 4 July – Another mostly cloudy day. We rode in the opposite direction to Ella Bay. Very isolated on a gravel road. We were hoping to see a Cassowary, common in this area, but none seen.  In the afternoon we walked along the waterfront. The sea is still very muddy coloured. I removed the extra spare tyre we have had strapped to the bike rack since we crossed the Nullarbor to Western Australia but not needed on the east coast.

Mon 5 July – We left Flying Fish Point and dropped off the spare, spare tyre, drove 90kms up the Bruce Highway to a camp in Cairns.  A swim in the pool after a late lunch.

Tues 6 July – After much debating we decided to drive “Andy” closer to the centre of Cairns for a bike ride. The ride was great along 6kms of the Esplanade with the sea on one side and the shops, restaurants, and apartments on the other. Unfortunately, Cairns is very tidal, and the seaward side is mud flats 90% of the time. We now must get a pre-flight covid check before flying home. Val spent some time getting our heads around what this entails.

Wed 7 July – Raining this morning! This is meant to be the dry season! We shopped in Cairns and then a short drive on the Coral Coast Highway to Palm Cove. This is one of the tourist destinations north of Cairns. Our expensive site in the only camp is not the greatest, but beggars cannot be choosers. The rain stopped in the afternoon, so we walked along the beach front with all the shops, restaurants, and apartments. Lots of people swimming the sea. We took our chairs over the road to the beach, for a sit and a read in a little bit of sun. Rain set in at night. Val was back on the case for our return trip (old flights have been rescheduled). She was on hold at 9:00pm for over an hour! But we have now got it sorted at this stage. A private covid test no longer than 72 hours before departure that take 48 hours to process leaves a very fine window for flights. We will now be hopefully coming home on 5 August.

Thurs 8 July – Woke to rain again this morning. We had breakfast outside in a break and tried to go for a walk but scampered back in more rain. In the early afternoon we managed a walk, in drizzle, around the town. More private homes than we had expected. An ice-cream at the beach on the way back. Sick of this rain in what is meant to be the dry season!

Fri 9 July – A beautiful morning with no rain. Down to the beach with our chairs for a read in the sun. Back after lunch for swims and more sun. This is a great beach on the Coral Sea as the swimming is good regardless of the tides. We walked down to the town in the evening, with its many restaurants for dinner. A great ending to our Palm Cove visit.

Sat 10 July – We left Palm Cove and drove north on the Captain Cook Highway towards Port Douglas. This is a beautiful drive along the coast, a bit like around Kaikoura but 20 degrees warmer! We turned inland just before Mossman and climbed the steep road up Mt Malloy over the Great Divide to the Atherton Tablelands. We turned right up the Cape York Peninsula towards Cooktown 200kms north. It was a lovely drive on a road that was only sealed 20 odd years ago. The country was lush outback bush, Gum and Wattle trees, on rolling country with a few banana plantations on the flat ground. 

We stopped for the night at the Palmer River Roadhouse on a plateau overlooking the Palmer River. In the evening we walked over to the beer garden and sat with a couple from NSW swapping stories of our travels. Lots of off-road campers in, as most of the roads from Cooktown north are dirt.

Sun 11 July – A beautiful morning. We watched the red dusted off-road campers depart and we drove on for another 100kms to Cooktown where we joined about 40 other caravans at the racecourse for two days of cheap camping. We rode our bikes into the small village and along the waterfront. Cooktown is situated at the mouth of the Endeavour River. Captain Cook brought the Endeavour here when it was holed on the Great Barrier Reef. He stayed here for 48 days making repairs. Co-incidentally, we were at his only other landing place in Aussie 3 years ago to the day.

Mon 12 July - In the morning we walked around the racecourse. In the afternoon, we went back into Cooktown to visit the museum. It was in an old convent but, surprisingly, had very little regarding Captain Cook. 

We walked up a steep hill with a lighthouse at the top for a great view of the river mouth and the town.
At the botanical gardens we had an ice-cream and walked around the tropical plantings.

Tues 13 July – We left the racecourse and Cooktown and drove south back along the Mulligan Highway for 200kms to a little farm camp we spied on the way up. It was in a great setting on the Mary Creek in beautiful gum trees and palms. A very cool restful place.

Wed 14 July – It was a short drive off the Tablelands down into Mossman. As soon as we got near the coast a thick drizzle set in. We shopped and drove 7kms out to the coast and to a small beach camp at Newell Beach. Unfortunately, the camp had no dump station, so we had to go back to Mossman to dump. Back to the camp where we had a nice site under the tropical trees. The clouds lifted and we walked down to the lovely beach which we will not be able to swim in as there are crocodiles around. The camp had a nice small swimming pool which we made good use of.

Thurs 15 July – A beautiful morning. We walked the beach for 3kms until we came to a river. We are north of Port Douglas, which we can see across the bay. In the afternoon we cooled off in the pool and read. At drinks time we joined some of the campers for happy hour. Most of them are from Victoria and NSW up here for the winter months.

Fri 16 July – Another sunny day. We walked the beach in the opposite direction until we came to the Mossman River. These rivers have many crocs in them thus the no ocean swimming. We took our chairs down to a shady spot on the beach and had a read. After cutting Val’s hair, we went back to our loungers by the pool for swims and a read. We seem to be the only campers that use the loungers, just as well is there is only two! Most people just have a quick dip.

Sat 17 July – We have been becoming increasingly concerned with the spreading covid situation over here and decided to move our flights forward two weeks and come home on 22 July in case the travel bubble is halted between Queensland and NZ. We got up early and Val spent 1 ½ hours waiting to get the changes done with Air NZ. Eventually, all sorted with quite an increase in fares! We have booked our Covid test for Monday in Cairns and will drive down to Townsville, store “Andy” and fly home to Christchurch via Brisbane. Spent some time at Newell Beach in the shade and swam in the pool in the afternoon.

Sun 18 July - We left the lovely Newell Beach and drove out to Mossman for a small shop then on to Port Douglas where we were going to spend 5 nights. We will only stay 1 night, however. Unexpectedly the camp refunded us! Before checking into the camp, we parked at 4 Mile Beach, walked along the beach and into the main street. We came here for about 4 years and stayed in apartments. The beach now has hired loungers all over it. The town was chocker and we really did not enjoy our walk thru the shopping area with people crowding around. Not the Port Douglas we remembered.

 In the afternoon we walked to the Marina with its bars and restaurants flat out. Back to the camp for a swim and a cool off. It was overcast, humid and warm (29C). We had pre-dinner drinks with the couple from next door.

Mon 19 July – Our covid test in Cairns was at 12:45 so we left the camp and spent some time back at 4 Mile Beach before driving the great Captain Cook Highway to Cairns. We found a carpark outside the Pathology Lab for our test which was OK. Back out of Cairns for the 400 km drive to Townsville. We stopped for the night at a CMCA club park at Innisfail.

Tues 20 July – We drove south out of Innisfail on the Bruce Highway for 190 kms to a camp we stayed in on our way north, at Crystal Creek. In the afternoon we did most of the jobs required when we store “Andy”, mainly cleaning. We are now only 50kms from our storage place, slightly north of Townsville. This will be our last blog unless we run into travel problems! Our covid tests both came back negative. Tomorrow we will store “Andy” before catching an Uber to a cheap hotel in Townsville for the night. Our flight to Brisbane leaves at 5:55am on Thursday and we arrive in Christchurch at 5:50pm all going well. We had intended to explore the Atherton Tableland before changing our travel plans. Oh well, we will just have to do that on another trip. It has been a great trip, despite some wet weather, but we still have lots more to see in Australia.