Ryan’s Journal: Days 73 – 75

Day 73

Distance travelled: 7km (by car)

Our little boat is the black one - that somehow accommodated 13 of us!

Our cruise left at 2 so we had a relaxed pack up. We parked the car and went to the shops and had a look around, getting some lunch and a haircut before we walked to a wharf where Silent Night, our boat, was. We were taken onto the small yacht by our captain Sam and deckhand Mike (or Taylor).  At about 2 we motored out onto the calm waters of the Whitsundays. Here was no wind so we couldn’t sail, instead we went out to part of the reef and snorkelled, where the reef was really colourful and there were a few fish. We anchored in between two islands and tried to sleep on the rocking boat.

Day 74

A view of Whitehaven Beach from the lookout

Today the wind was up, so we woke up and after breakfast, went for a sail. We went to Whitehaven beach where we swam, played soccer on the flour-like sand and went up to the lookout and looked out over the Whitsundays. It was amazing! We saw lots of stingrays in the water from the beach as well as a few baby sharks.

We went back to the boat and sailed to another snorkelling spot, the best we’ve been to. There were thousands of fish surrounding everyone in the water. There were some that were colourful, some that were huge and some were just weird. We spent a while snorkelling and feeding the fish, then anchoring in a bay where we spent our last night on the boat, Silent Night.

Day 75

Distance travelled: 148km (by car)

We woke up, after another long night and ate breakfast for the last time on Silent Night. Sadly we had to go back to shore and continue our trip. We set sail again, and we all had a steer of the boat before we made it back to shore. On our way back, Sam, the captain, had a ‘play’ with our boat and another, the Boomerang. Sailing parallel and ‘360ing’! But when we saw whales it all stopped and we watched two whales, mother and calf swim past the boat. It was an amazing ending to the trip.

When we were back on land, we went straight to the car and hit the road again; we got back to the car at about 11 and got our standard lunch from Woollies, 12 cheese and bacon rolls. We drove out to Cape Hillsborough, near Mackay, where we set up camp for the night.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and playing cricket.

Ryan’s Journal: Days 68 – 72

Day 68

Distance travelled: 203 (plus 8km on ferry!)

Today, we wanted to get to an island, Magnetic Island, so we packed up and headed for Townsville. But before we left, we had to do the walk down to the bottom of Australia’s longest falls. So for an early morning walk we went down the 2km track to the base of the falls. The falls were huge, and the spray incredible! But, sadly, we couldn’t swim, so we headed back up the steep track.

We drove to Ingham, another sugar town that in the old days, was an Italian town. We went to the cemetery where all the Mausoleums are. Some of them were huge, and colourful!

Our next stop was at Little Crystal Creek, where there are a few rock holes. We all went for a swim there and jumped off a few rocks. Even Mum joined in!! After lunch and a swim, we got to Townsville where we drove straight for the Ferry terminal to see if we could get a ferry over to Magnetic Island. We booked a ferry across with the car. Magnetic Island is a big island that is mostly inaccessible national park. We stayed at the one campsite on the island and booked for three nights.

Day 69

Distance travelled: 39km

We were exploring the island and drove out to West Point on a 4WD track. We walked along the beach there, but didn’t swim because it was too windy.

We drove to Picnic Bay, one of the many bays on the Island and went in search of a drink, but we were unsuccessful because everything was closed on a Monday!

We had lunch at Nelly Bay were we bought pies. We were going to keep looking around but decided we wanted a relaxed afternoon so we went back to camp and relaxed!

Day 70

Distance travelled: 38km

Today we decided we would check out the bays along a different rough track. We also hired snorkels because there is a big reef of coral around the Island.

Our first stop was Florence Bay, where we started to snorkel but the visibility was very poor and instead we decided to catch the biggest (and only) waves on the Island!! We stayed there all morning but did leave eventually to Radical Bay, the last bay on the road. It was a nice, sheltered bay, but it was really windy when you weren’t in the water and there were many waves. So we moved on and headed back the way we came to try and find Arthur Bay, which we had missed on the way in. We did find it after a little bit of walking. We didn’t swim here either but we climbed up the rocks and sat down for a while.

It was a late lunch, but we got pies again and went to Nelly Bay and got the snorkels out again. We snorkelled for a while but there wasn’t a huge amount to see in the shallow water and we couldn’t see much in the deep. So we went to the pub and played pool.

After relaxing again in the afternoon, we went up to the Forts, old forts built in WW2 to protect Townsville. The views are great, IF you get there before dark. Dads plan was to walk up and get there for sunset. So we left camp just before sundown, but the thing Dad didn’t know was the walk was a steep 2k. So we made it to the top and it was already dark. The walk home was fun though....

Day 71

Distance travelled: 42km (plus 8k on ferry)

After three nights on Magnetic, we packed up and headed for the ferry. We were really early though so we went and got a drink. We got back to Townsville and wanted to look around the interesting city, so we made it to the Museum which has a huge replica of the HMS Pandora that sank after hitting the reef out from North QLD. It also had an exhibition on Illusions and North QLD in general.

We got lunch from a bakery and went to the beach where we ate. Then we went to the Aquarium. The Aquarium has coral, as well as lots of coral fish!  And a croc! We went on a couple of free tours, fish feeding, and dangerous creatures and turtle hospital. The turtle hospital is where the aquarium cares for injured or sick turtles. They had three turtles there, two huge turtles, one that came in very recently and another that was almost better, and a small turtle that they were going to release soon.

We drove up to Castle Hill that gave us a great view of Townsville.

We then drove out to a service station that had free camping and Nick, Jackson and I couldn’t be bothered setting up the tent so we set up out sleeping mats and bags on the tarp and slept under the stars!

Day 72

Distance travelled: 396km

We all woke early, Mum and Dad at their usual early times and Nick, Jackson and I woke at sunrise, because we were sleeping under the sun, and it was bright. So we were all up at about 6:30 and packed up by about 7:30.

We drove to Airlie Beach and looked around town. It had everything. We went to an information centre and asked about the Whitsunday Islands, and booked a 2 night sailing trip around them!!!!! We then drove out to Dingo Beach and looked around the beach there, and walked out onto the beach and around for a while.

Hydeaway Bay was our next stop, all in the same area around Airlie Beach, and got a drink at the pub there. They also had a pool table that was free, so we played a few games, and, again, I beat Dad...

We went back to Airlie Beach and set up camp at a caravan park there. We’re all excited about leaving for a cruise tomorrow.

Sugar Country

For some weeks now we’ve been driving through sugar country. As we’ve made our way south from Cooktown, in the areas of flat land that lie between the ocean beaches and the spectacular jagged peaks of the Great Dividing Range, lie square mile after square mile of cane fields. Alongside these fields are networks of narrow gauge rail lines that link the fields with the nearest sugar mills. The mills can be viewed from vast distances across the horizon as they spew remarkable quantities of steam and smoke into the air.

The first mill we came across was in Mossman. We followed the train tracks (which run along the main roads of the town) towards the mill, hoping there might be a way of seeing inside its imposing steel walls. There wasn’t. It was at this stage that I began to wonder about the processes that produce the sickly sweet substance we call sugar from the many hectares of cane fields we were passing each day.

It is harvesting season. The cane fields are either fully grown, or have already been harvested and are either lying fallow or sprouting shoots from the cane that has been replanted in them. The days of burning the fields before harvesting are, for the most part, long gone. Mechanical harvesters have eliminated the need to clear the fields of snakes, rodents and other dangers to generations of cane cutters.

At South Mission Beach we spotted a notice advertising ‘sugar factory tours’ at nearby Tully. I finally had the opportunity to satisfy my own curiosity, and build an “educational experience” into this part of the journey (otherwise dominated by ocean beaches and tropical islands)!

The eight-hour journey from the arrival of sugar cane at the factory – where it is tipped into a shredder – to the production of raw sugar is a fascinating one. It involves rolling the cane to extract liquid, followed by a crystallisation process and then the centrifugal separation of the sugar crystals from liquid (which produces molasses). What was even more fascinating was the manner in which every by-product in the process is recycled or renewed. The fibrous material left from the sugar cane is burned in the boilers to power the factory (and feed back additional power into the electricity grid). The ash is given back to the cane farmers to fertilise their fields. Most of the molasses is exported, but about 30 percent is also used as fertiliser. Interestingly, the Tully factory is wholly owned by a Chinese company, and all of the raw sugar it produces is exported to Asia. We feel very fortunate to have, in our possession, exclusive little parcels of freshly produced “Tully sugar” – used one teaspoon per day for my morning coffee!  

Had Ryan been attending school this term, he would have been completing a major assignment on sustainability. My hope is that the lived experience of a production process such as this will hold at least equal educational value for him and his brothers. One of the unquantifiable questions of our trip is how much the boys are learning through each of the many new experiences they are having, and how this compares with the learning they are missing through being absent from school for a term.

This part of the boys’ education is over, and it’s time to get back to the ocean beaches and tropical islands. Tomorrow we embark on a three-day cruise on the yacht “Silent Night” for a tour of the Whitsunday Islands!

Amazing Places

“Why are we visiting a cemetery?”

Ryan’s question (asked more than once) was an understandable one. Why were we driving six kilometres out of Ingham to visit the “New Ingham Cemetery”?

The answer to the question has its source in a book that was given to us by my sister Monica as we prepared for our trip – “Australia’s Most Amazing Places”. It became an important source of information as we planned our route, and was one of only three trip-related books we brought with us (the other two being “Camps Australia Wide” and “Explore Australia’s National Parks”). Up until this final part of our journey, we had followed a reasonably strict schedule to meet campsite and travel bookings we had made prior to the trip. Now that we are on the journey south, the only deadline we have to meet is to be home in time to return to work/school at the start of Term 4. Now each day is flexible and much of our decision making is “spur-of-the-moment”.

Our quest has become one of visiting as many amazing places as possible, with the book being our guide. Today we have visited three already. We camped last night at Wallaman Falls (“the highest waterfall in Australia”). This morning we walked two kilometres to the base of the falls (before embarking on the long trek back up!). We have just had a swim in some amazing rock pools of the Little Crystal River in the Paluma Range (“rainforest clad hills, swimming holes and superb walking trails”), under the shadow of an old stone bridge built to provide employment during the 1930s depression era. And, of course, we visited the New Ingham Cemetery (“miniature city of marble mausoleums reflects sugar town’s Italian heritage”).

Another of the “amazing places” was Paronella Park (“tropical pleasure gardens and turret-topped Moorish castle”), which was a wonderland for Jackson to explore and continue exercising his fertile imagination. Yesterday we took a detour to Lucinda Jetty (“the world’s longest sugar-loading jetty”), which is used to load sugar from two local mills; and happens to be 5.76km long! Most of these places we had never heard of, and would have most likely driven past, completely ignorant of their existence.

For the next three nights we will camp on Magnetic Island (“wildlife abounds on this picturesque, easily accessed island”), achieving another of our many goals – to call one of the hundreds of coastal islands “home” for a few days.

It’s fair to say that the start of our journey south was initially tinged with a little sadness – an awareness that we were entering the last stage of our adventure together and leaving the remoteness of “The Outback” for more heavily populated parts of the country. The sadness was short-lived as we have travelled between the coastline and mountains of North Queensland visiting amazing place after amazing place.

Paronella Park (Jackson)

A castle in Australia, at Paronella Park, which we are going to! The castle, built by José Paronella, has quite a history.  José had a dream. He found a beautiful rainforest property by the side of a waterfall and wanted to build a castle that was similar to those back in Spain. He had made a fortune buying and selling sugarcane properties. He worked by hand to create an amazing castle with a ballroom (which was also used as a movie theatre), refreshment rooms, a tennis court, fountains and other buildings. He also created lanes through the rainforest and planted lots of exotic plants.

  José built the first hydro electric power station in north Queensland, giving power to the castle 20 years before the rest of the town had access to power. Lots of people would come to the castle to watch movies, dance and enjoy the lake and waterfall. There was a section called “Lovers’ Lane” which led to a tunnel that was called the “Tunnel of Love”. This lead out to another waterfall called Theresa Falls, named after José’s daughter.

Of course, there is a sad side to it. What José didn’t know was that the materials he put in expanded during the wet season, therefore making the castle slowly fall apart. The worst event however was a massive flood in 1946 that destroyed lots of the buildings and gardens. José rebuilt as much as he could, but some people have said the place was never the same. He died of stomach cancer and after his death the property gradually became a ruin.

More recently the ballroom’s roof burnt down after a wedding and the walls were knocked down during Cyclone Larry and Cyclone Yasi.

Paronella Park was bought by a couple in 1993 who are gradually recreating José’s dream. They have stabilised the remaining walls and are about to rebuild the ballroom. They have restored the original paths and gardens, and have even rebuilt the old hydro-electric system.

The castle was great, with fish feeding, turtle viewing, crocodile watching (a croc was recently found there so we couldn’t swim!) and endless tracks. I found it very good and I wish I could do it again.

Ryan’s Journal: Days 63 – 67

Day 63

Distance travelled: 62km

Today we woke early. I was incredibly excited. We had booked a snorkelling trip at Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef.

We drove out to the wharf where the ferry ‘Big Cat’ was waiting. We spent about an hour and a half on the ferry in choppy water and the boat was heavily rocking. Mum even threw up from motion sickness! But we all made it to Green Island where we collected our snorkelling equipment and went out on the beach. We swam out through the choppy water and above the reef. The reef was incredible! It wasn’t as colourful as the pictures you see but the fish were amazing! Some of the fish were fluoro green, rainbow fish and sawfish, but most we didn’t know.  We spent all day, about five hours at Green Island, exploring different parts of the reef.

We got back on the ferry at about three and got back to Cairns at about five.

I had an amazing day swimming over the reef looking at all the fish and coral. We all slept well that night.

Day 64

Distance travelled: 24km

We decided to spend another night in Kuranda, our fourth. This was our longest stop since Darwin. We went back into Kuranda and everything was open because the Ski Rail was running again. Nick and I went to the Venom Zoo, while Dad and Jackson went to the Birdhouse. The Venom Zoo had lots of different venomous snakes, spiders, scorpions, and (non-venomous) turtles and lizards. We got a little tour of the spiders, scorpions, lizards and some snakes. We got to hold different lizards and even a snake! The Birdhouse was a huge enclosure where there were dozens of species of birds.

We had lunch in town and then went back to camp, where we had a relaxed afternoon doing schoolwork and blogging.

Day 65

Distance travelled: 221km

After four nights, we could have stayed longer but we packed up and drove, our goal to get to Paronella Park, an old castle. But we stopped a lot on the way, first at Atherton, where we stocked up on clothes, food and cricket bats. Our second stop was at Mount Hypipamee crater. We had lunch there and walked to the crater. It was a massive hole in the ground with water in it. It was at least eighty meters deep! Our third and final stop was at Malanda Falls. We had a quick look there and wished we had our bathers.

We arrived at Paronella and set up. At four we went on a tour of the park, where we learnt about the history of José, who built the castle. The castle was very old and partly destroyed by cyclones and fire.

We went on another tour, after looking around the park, a night tour this time and we walked through the park being taught by the guide. We went down to the pool under the water fall and saw a croc!

Day 66

Distance travelled: 129km

We had another walk around Paronella Park in the morning, before we packed up and had breakfast in Innisfail. We drove to Mission Beach, which was destroyed by the two recent cyclones, Larry and Yasi. We thought about setting up camp there, but, we had a look around and decided to keep going. We did set up on South Mission Beach at a Caravan Park, which was luxury! It had everything! A pool and air hockey table, swimming pool with a waterslide and tennis & basketball courts.

We decided to spend the night there and I set up quickly so I could use the games/pool.

Day 67

Distance travelled: 211km

Although we loved South Mission Beach, we packed up and moved on. We weren’t sure where we were going to stay but we drove out towards Tully. Tully was a sugar town; its only industry was making sugar. Tully’s Factory is one of the few factories that give tours, so we went on a tour. The tour took us through the factory and showed us how sugar is produced. I didn’t like it. It was hot, really loud and smelt very bad, which made me feel sick. It was interesting to find out how something I love, sugar, is made.

We didn’t stay at Tully though, we kept moving. We went to Lucinda where there is a 5.76km wharf where the sugar is exported to other countries. Then, headed up into the mountains and set up camp at Wallaman Falls, which are longest falls in Australia.

Snorkelling at Green Island (Nicholas)

On Tuesday we went on a ferry to Green Island to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef. From Cairns it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there but even to begin with the day was looking great. The clouds that covered Cairns didn’t last the journey and we got to Green Island with only a few scattered clouds in the sky.

On the way to the island we saw the ocean change from one amazing colour to another as we went through various water depths and coral formations. And in the deepest part there were two humped back whales that swam under us. We carried our snorkelling gear on to the island, then set up on secluded beach and headed out to see if the Great Barrier Reef was as good as the pictures say it is.

Initially as I went out there was loads of sea grass and very few fish, but as I got to the coral fields I saw fish that were black, neon green and every other colour of the rainbow, star fish that were amazingly bright blue and hundreds of sea cucumbers. After the first period in the water we decided to move to a different spot in the water that was less choppy as Dad needed to teach Jackson how to use the snorkels and that is difficult when you have to deal with waves as well. The next place we snorkelled in was on the  side of the island that faced away from the wind so the sea was much calmer and there was a life guard and squares made of piping that you could hold onto and fix any minor problems with the snorkels. Here the sea was significantly deeper than what it was on the other side of the island so I got bored and took out my snorkel and dived under to swim with the fish. The rest of the day was spent snorkelling and relaxing on your own schedule as snorkelling is something that you generally do by yourself, and when I tried swimming with Ryan I quickly lost him when I went off chasing fish.

In the last bit of snorkelling I did I couldn’t find any areas with lots of coral and the fish that come with them but I did swim with a sea turtle for a while.

It was an absolutely stunning day and worth every cent to go and see the Great Barrier Reef up as close as we were.