This morning had all the promise of the world. There were no r___ c____s in the sky and the sun was shining down on us in all its blazing glory. So, we sauntered through our pack up regime and finally hit the road by about 10:30. We planned to make Cairns by nightfall but really had no agenda and didn’t mind where we ended up.
However, our first stop was planned. It was a swimming hole that we had read about in one of the tourist brochures located just north of Townsville in the Paluma Ranges National Park. A short detour from the Bruce Hwy and we were pulling up the caravan at Big Crystal Creek. (Little Crystal Creek does exist but that was another 7kms south of its bigger brother).
As we donned our swimming gear and started down the track towards the water, the cicadas were making such a racket. Had they kicked up their incredible cacophony in an urban centre they would have been seriously busted for noise disturbances.
However, once we neared the water their deafening roar disappeared almost entirely and was soon replaced by the babbling water over rocks. The tranquillity of this scene, with its crystal blue waters and smooth rocks that lined the bottom of the creek, was one that you would only expect in some tourist magazine. Nevertheless, it was real enough and we spent the next hour swimming and frolicking in its beautiful streams.
When we finally decided that we would continue on, and we weren’t going to camp here for the next two months, we saddled up and hit the Bruce again. Before refuelling at Ingham we stopped and bought some fresh, cold lychees at Toobanna, at a road-side stop, which satisfied some of us and gave others something else to turn their noses up at. It didn’t bother us – it just meant more to stuff our faces with.
Then we pulled into a lovely coastal park before Cardwell where we were joined by a few “wild” cockerels that seemed to scavenge everything that fell to the ground. We ate our lunch here surrounded by coconut palm trees, frangipanis and trees that were covered with staghorns up and down their trunks. It was a gorgeous rest spot.
From there it was a mild journey to Tully where our plans for the night became more concrete. I had mentioned to Deb that there was a place up this way that Fifi Box had featured on a Sunrise episode before we left Busselton and had made a mental note that we should visit it if we ever came close.
After explaining what we were looking for to the tourist information centre attendant in Tully, she finally understood and stated that it was Paronella Park we were looking for and was only 45 mins north via Silkwood. Remembering the name, we had her book us in for the free camping (which was included in the $120 family ticket to visit).
As it was only about 3pm, we trundled over to take photos at the Giant Gumboot, Tully’s tourist attraction, before scuttling back over to the coast to make a flying visit of Mission Beach. It was one of those spur of the moment decisions that in hindsight probably could have been missed, but we garnered a free coconut from one of their palms and scooted back west towards Mena Creek.
Once at Paronella Park, after driving along some goat track roads and trying to dodge the very heavy r___, we parked the van and then joined the throng of other tourists for the night tour of this magnificent park. As the r___ descended on us towards the end of the tour we dismissed ourselves prematurely and headed back to make some dinner, have showers and fight the bugs, moths and cane toads from entering our van.
* The family don’t want me talking about the r___ or c_____s anymore so I have resorted to leaving you to fill in the blanks.
