The Tropical North Queensland

This is the second part of the vacation trip to Queensland. If you haven’t yet read the first part covering the first six and half days of the trip, check it out here.

Day 7 – Tropical enough in Townsville

The destination for my middle of the trip flight was Townsville, which is about 1100 km away from Brisbane further north. It is approximately the same distance as Finland from the southern tip to the northern tip, so flying was a logical form of travel. Two hours later I arrived in Townsville and as soon as I stepped outside of the plane, I felt the tropical humidity. My accommodation for the next two nights was only about 3 km away from the airport and the host kindly came to pick me up from the airport.

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After dropping my bags and putting the dirty laundry to the washing machine, I headed to the shore, which was only under a kilometer away. From there I continued along the shoreline to an old coastal defense fort The Kissing Point. The sun was already setting at that point and I had to read some historical info signs with the flashlight. The site and Townsville, in general, had a big role in the Second World War. It functioned as an anti-aircraft battery and as a major supply and deployment center. After that history lesson, I continued along Strand Park, which is a 2-kilometer long beach promenade. Quite soon I noticed a warning sign about all sorts of stingers, or jellyfish, you could encounter while swimming in these tropical waters. All the controlled beaches have vinegar bottles available as it works as an alleviate remedy for some of the stings. But it’s not that easy as with stings of some species you definitely should not use vinegar. First, you must recognize the type of jellyfish that stung you and then apply the appropriate remedy. Some beaches also have a fenced area that lessens the chance of the jellyfish getting in with the swimmers, but they aren’t 100% guarantee.

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About midway along the Strand, I met with my Finnish colleague and her Finnish friend and we went to eat dinner at one of the restaurants. After the good meal and ice cream to top it off, we drove around the center and we also went to check outside the local casino and the pier where I should go the next day. Then we drove up to Castle Hill, which is quite close to the beach and rises to 286 meters above sea level dominating the city skyline. In the darkness of the evening, the narrow road up was very quiet, but they said that it’s a whole different story during daylight. The views from up there were great and you could with a short walk see both sides. Then it was time to call it a night and my colleague drove me back to my accommodation.

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The host family was already sleeping when I arrived around 11 pm. Before getting to sleep I had to go and get my clothes out of the washing machine and hang them up to dry in the basement. I had my doubts that how much would the clothes dry in one night without a drier with such humid air. My room had only a ceiling fan but no air conditioning. It didn’t feel too hot and humid though and I didn’t have trouble sleeping.

Day 8 – Magnetic Island pulled me in

In the room that I was sleeping in, the whole wall, or I guess it was two walls, had just a mosquito net for windows. I guess I haven’t gotten used to tropical nature sounds that much that I woke a few times during the night from the soundscape. I did have a decent sleep though as it wasn’t too hot and humid even without air conditioning. I think I have easily had more sweaty nights back in Finland in apartments during occasional hot summer days. The first thing I did was to go check the laundry in the basement/garage. The lightest fabric shirts had dried but the cotton ones unsurprisingly had not. As an exception, I didn’t go to a café for breakfast but instead had it at the host’s house. That was because my friend back in Bundaberg had given me a few slices of rye bread. The husband of the host also kindly made some coffee for me, which I enjoyed on the back patio.

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The first thing I had to do was to get my rental car from a rental place that was close to the airport. I asked a favor from the host to drive me the five minutes journey there and of course, he agreed. This time I had a car that had the letters MG in the front grill. Before that, I hadn’t even heard of that car brand and apparently, it’s originally a British car company. Of course, now that model is produced by a Chinese company. When I got going, it felt comfortable car to drive.

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The main attraction that I wanted to visit, was Magnetic Island that is situated about 8 km offshore from Townsville. I punched the pier to my navigation and drove a little past it to take advance of free parking near the casino. It was a short walk to the pier and soon after I converted my online ticket to a paper one, the ferry arrived. After about 20 minutes ferry ride, we docked at the island and the first thing I did was to walk to a car rental place. Even if the island has only about 12 kilometers of paved road, I had to go check a rental place out that I had heard and read. They have these very small underpowered convertible cars, which came in blue or pink. The pink one is more commonly referred to as the Barbie car. Of course, I rented the pink car. 😁

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There was also a practical reason to choose the pink over the blue cars. The blue ones had a manual gearbox and the pink had automatic. Also, if I hadn’t rented the car, I would have had to rely on the bus that runs every 40-60 minutes. I had more freedom on the schedule with the cool vehicle. I learned from the rental place that the main attraction, the Forts walk, was closed because they had construction going on in the parking lot. There would have been some World War 2 forts, some nice views, and possible to spot wild koalas along the trail. That was a bit disappointing, but then I decided to first go and check out Hawkins Point Lookout, which was just a short drive away south of the rental place. It was a short but uphill walk from the car and the views were great towards Nelly Bay, where the ferry arrived.

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The barbie car was only allowed to be driven along the paved roads and as this lookout was at the southern end of the paved road network, I had to turn back. I drove to the other end of the paved roads about 10 km away and had lunch in a café overlooking Horseshoe Bay. Close by there was a walking trail that headed towards a couple of beaches. The trail there had some steeper sections and the day started to be at its hottest time. Luckily, many sections had good tree cover so that the sun didn’t shine directly the whole time. There weren’t many people on those trails and the beaches were beautiful with coconut palm trees on the edge of the sand. During the walk, there were a lot of butterflies and some dragonflies. After checking both beaches along the trail, I returned to the car. The first lookout walk was about one kilometer and this trail to beaches a little over 3 kilometers return, but because of the tropical heat, that was about enough of walking trails.

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On my way back towards the rental place, I wanted to visit one more place. It was a small side road into a peninsula next to Geoffrey Bay. I had read that there are rock-wallabies there and there are also guidelines of what people can feed them. Well, I didn’t have anything suitable with me, so I just grabbed my camera and started walking this trail among huge rocks near the shoreline. After a short walk, I was at the dead-end of the trail, but I hadn’t seen a single wallaby-looking animal. After I turned back, I saw a girl with her mother. The girl was squatting near some rocks and she told me that if you are still, they may come out. When I checked that same crevice, I saw a rock-wallaby that had a little joey in the sack. I stayed put squatting there and the wallaby came forward probably thinking that maybe this dude has some treats with him. Sadly, I didn’t come through for the little rock wallaby. After it came out to the trail, I saw also another rock-wallaby coming out. Those two didn’t get along very well. After taking a few pictures I walked back to the car. When I looked back, there was also a third wallaby in the trail.

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Then it was time to go and drop off the barbie car and walk back to the ferry terminal. After a short wait, the ferry arrived and took me back to the mainland. As I had been interested to visit Castle Hill and I had only seen it after sunset, I wanted to go check it out during the daytime. As soon as I arrived at the start of the road that goes up there, I saw that indeed this seems like a very popular exercise place for the locals. There wasn’t much driving normally in the narrow road with people constantly walking up or down. After arriving at the top, I walked around it visiting several lookout points looking in almost all directions. I drove back to the Airbnb place and soon my colleague arrived to pick me up.

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We went to their place that was adjoined to a golf course. After the tour around the house, having some snacks and wine, my colleague’s friend also joined us and brought takeaway Thai food. The entertainment for the evening was the two about three-month-old kittens. After the enjoyable evening, it was time to head back to the accommodation and the friend of my colleague kindly drove me back there.

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Day 9 – North towards Cairns

Again, it was time to say goodbyes to another lovely host and get on the road. I even remembered to get the rest of my laundry from the garage that had dried during the previous day. After about two and half hours I turned to a smaller road that took me through small villages and surrounding fields. There were banana crops, pineapple, and most prominent, sugar canes. The latter was also the reason for the big amount of rail crossings along the road and generally on the whole Queensland coast. There is about 4000 km of sugar cane railroads and during the season the trains are a common sight. What was interesting about those tracks that the width was exceptionally narrow with only 61 cm between tracks. The season runs from June to December, which means that I didn’t see any of those trains in action.

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The reason I took the smaller road was my next stop, Paronella Park. In the middle of the rainforest along Mena creek, Paronella Park was built by hand by a Spanish immigrant José Paronella back in the 1930s, as a gift to his wife of course. The area consists of a castle and other supporting structures and a garden of over 7000 tropical trees and palms. Next to the castle in the creek, there is also a 15-meter waterfall and Paronella built there in 1933 the first hydroelectric plant in Queensland, and the first electricity-producing plant. It gave the castle all the electricity it needed before anybody else had electricity in the state. Even nowadays it’s completely carbon neutral.

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The entry price included a guided tour and coincidentally as I walked in, one was just starting. It was a very interesting tour along the grounds to hear about the history. Because of the rudimentary building techniques and a few bad floods in the past, the castle was in a pretty bad state in parts. It was quite beautiful with the attaching nature making the ruins partly green. One interesting detail also was fountains where the streams of water were powered only by gravity. That meant that during floods it can shoot the water over the pools.

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After the tour was done, I walked the rest of the points of interest in the park grounds. When entering the park, everybody gets a small jar filled with treats for fish and turtles. The first spot was to go and check them out. There were huge amounts of fish and snapping turtles. Whenever the treats were thrown in the water there were swarming from the fish. The turtles were mostly gathered in the shoreline partly on top of each other. I also saw a lot of butterflies with some easier to photograph than others and one quite big eel along a small creek. After a while of going around the park, I exited the park and went to check the suspension bridge going to the other side of the Mena Creek on top of the waterfalls. There finally I caught a nice big butterfly with my camera. It was a male Cairns Birdwing that can grow up to 12,5 cm of the wingspan, with females even a bit bigger with a 15 cm wingspan.

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Then it was again time to hit the road. I had one other attraction I wanted to check out that wasn’t too far off the main highway. It was another waterfall called Josephine Falls. On the way there very dark clouds hung in the sky where I was headed. I was quite certain that it wasn’t going to be a dry walk through the rainforest to the falls, but it still hadn’t hit me when I arrived at the parking lot. Just in case I took my umbrella with me. The walk there was very interesting as the soundscape was so different from all my previous walks in the forest. Lots of interesting sounds of birds singing and loud crickets chirping. The falls were multi-layered with several smaller falls and the lowest pool even had a safe swimming spot. It had a measure label on the other side that showed the water level, that when it’s dangerously high. Also, the conditions can change there quickly as flash floods are a possibility. I didn’t have time to go and try the waters as it was getting late. When I got back to the car, it rained a bit but during my walk nothing, so I did manage without the umbrella.

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After that, it was only about an hour-long drive to Cairns and my next accommodation for two days. It was already dark when I arrived, and I had to use the phone light to recognize what entryway I use to walk up to the house. The apartment was a big one space plus the bathroom and there was a small swimming pool next to the front patio. On the way there I stopped at a supermarket to get something for breakfast as I had an early start the next day.

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Day 10 – Great Barrier Reef

As my trip was close to one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites the Great Barrier Reef, of course, I had to have a tour that would take me snorkeling there. The cruise vessel was going to depart at 8 am and the check-in time at the pier started at 7 am, which meant that I had to leave early. I drove 15 minutes to a parking garage of a shopping center near the pier, which had a special price for the reef tour customers. It just meant that whoever parked before 9 am and left after 5 pm had a fixed price for the parking. After parking the car, I went to the only café that was open at that time and got myself a breakfast roll as I only ate lightly back at the accommodation. After the check-in, it started to rain a little while walking to the cruise vessel and I hoped that it was just a morning shower.

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The vessel was a big catamaran type of vessel with two indoor floors and the possibility to walk around the boat in the open air. They gave the snorkel equipment after I climbed aboard, and I went inside to reserve a spot. This tour also had the option to try scuba diving as a first-timer, but I had decided to stick with snorkeling. It of course would have cost a little more, but it wasn’t about the money. I’ll probably try scuba diving at some point, but I wanted to stick with the familiar method. During the about 3 hours it took to sail to the reef just next to my sitting spot they had an introductory session to prepare the first-time divers. At that point, that experience started to tempt me, and they did offer the chance to switch over during the way to the reef. I still stuck to my decision. During the first dive, it wouldn’t have been possible to carry any camera with you anyway, so it would have been less photographing and taking video and more taking in the experience. Although the divers had some time to also do the snorkeling as there were three separate dive groups with separate dives.

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As we were closing to the Hastings Reef, our location for snorkeling, they distributed the summer sunsuits. They served the double purpose as in addition to protecting the skin from the sun, they also protected the skin from possible jellyfish burns. The jellyfish are more commonly found near the shores than in the reefs far from shore, so it was safer there. The suit was a one-piece dive suit reaching from the ankles to the head with a hood to pull over your head and with long sleeves. I only added my tube scarf to cover the rest of the head that the hood didn’t reach. In the last snorkeling, I suffered from my facial hair as the mustache part causes the mask not to make a watertight seal. It meant that gradually the bottom of my mask gathered seawater and I had to empty it at regular intervals. When I asked about it from this crew, they had a couple of suggestions. Either shave the upper part of the mustache or apply some vaseline to it before putting the mask on. As I didn’t have the equipment or even wanted to make this new look, I chose to try the vaseline. The crew also squirted some anti-fog liquid, which is just dilute soap water.

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The first snorkeling session took about an hour before we were called back to the boat. When comparing to the previous snorkeling near Moreton Island that was offshore from Brisbane, these waters were much clearer but of course, it also had a positive effect that the sun was shining this time. I also didn’t have to worry about getting cold when climbing out of the water as the tropical air ensured that. Underwater there were all sorts of fish and beautiful corals. This reef has also suffered from coral bleaching, but if the bleaching caused by too warm seawater doesn’t last too long, the corals will recover. Now looking at the corals through the snorkel mask I couldn’t have guessed that at some point the corals were just all white. The tips from the crew appeared to work great compared to the previous snorkeling. The anti-fog almost completely prevented the mask from fogging and the Vaseline in my mustache sealed the mask much better.

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While we were sailing to the next spot in the same reef, the crew served a delicious lunch. After a little over an hour, we were in the water again about one kilometer away from the first spot. During the second snorkel session the I spotted the biggest fish during all my snorkeling. It was roughly 1.5 meters long and based on some research (googling) I think it was a Giant Grouper. They can live to over 2.5 meters long, so this was quite small within the species. The second session like the first one was one hour. It was just the right amount of time, as just before we were called back to the boat, the battery in my underwater camera was out of juice.

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Before my time down under, the previous snorkeling I did was in the Maldives. Of course, you have to compare that which one was better as both of the locations are famous for the diving and snorkeling opportunities. For the variety of the sealife Maldives probably took the first position as during that trip I spotted reef sharks, a turtle, and rays. The experience in the Great Barrier Reef wasn’t bad but sometimes it’s up to luck that what marine species you spot out.

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On the way back one of the crew members had a very interesting presentation about the reefs and what have they done with researching the rehabilitation of the corals. After we got back to the pier, I walked a bit around the city center and went to eat before heading to pick up the car. Since I already had a fixed price for the parking, there wasn’t that much hurry to pick up the car. Then I went back to the accommodation to wind down for the day.

Day 11 – Kuranda Rainforest on 4 wheels

For the second day in Cairns, I had a couple of choices on what to do. The other one contained passively riding two different modes of transportation and the other one contained one active riding of a vehicle. Those attractions were quite close to each other, but the timing didn’t allow me to choose both choices for one day. The one that I didn’t choose would have been a one-way ride in a Skyrail, which is 1.5 hours of sitting in a gondola that goes above the rainforest along a cableway, and for the other direction, it would have been also 1.5 hours of sitting but in an old train. The scenic railway journey would have been a nice experience. It would have fit with the other choice, but it would have meant that I would have had to get an uber to the starting point to get my car. I wanted to arrive at my next accommodation in daylight, so I decided to skip the train ride.

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The tour I picked instead of the Skyrail and the Scenic Railway in Kuranda was a rainforest tour with an ATV. The tour was starting at 10 am and it was only about half an hour away so this time I didn’t have as early a wakeup as the previous day. After a bit of a highway started another nice twisty uphill road as the rainforest was at about 400 meters higher than the highway. The last bit after turning away from the main road was a very narrow unpaved forest road with only a few places to fit two cars side by side. Luckily no cars came the other way, so I just had to watch out for any cassowaries crossing the road.

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When I arrived at the destination, I didn’t see any other car there. I was met by one of the guides there and another went to the nearby Skyrail station as another party for that tour was arriving with the cableway. After filling in some paperwork and waiting for the other group, the other guide got a call that they were running late. One reason was that the group had an autistic child that didn’t like the heights in the cableway. The guide asked me that would it be ok if he did the tour just with me and the other guide would wait for the other group. Well, how could I not agree to a private tour?

I never had driven a quad bike and the only similar vehicle I had experience with was a snowmobile. Oh well, that experience is only one safari that ended up with me crashing the snowmobile resulting in me flying away from the snowmobile with a somersault helmet first to a small wooden post. Before we headed out for the tour, I had a little practice run with the powerful (250cc if I remember correctly) quad bike. The speed was limited and the gear was locked to the first, so I was quite safe with it. It took a little time to get hang of the sensitivity of the throttle as it was a lever that you push with a thumb instead of turning the handle like with a motorbike.

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The tour was very interesting where I got to taste different exotic fruits, like rambutan and coffee. Even if the coffee as a product is very familiar, I hadn’t seen a coffee plant before. There were also very old trees with buttress roots, huge bamboos, and a narrow forest road that John Wayne had gone along during World War 2. Back then he was in Australia entertaining the US and Australian troops stationed there. I also got a chance to taste one of the water sources in a rainforest, a certain type of vine with water inside. I got the hang of the quad bike and the ride was very comfortable even over some high roots or stones. A good suspension and a lot of torque carry a long way. The guide even filmed a slow-motion video of me driving over a shallow creek with opening the throttle midway across it.

Cassowaries are a common sight during the tour, but we went a long time without seeing one. Then the guide got a call that one cassowary is spotted near their house. We headed straight there and after going around the house we spotted it. Regardless of the size of the bird and some misconceptions about them being an aggressive species, this one had gotten used to the guide and his family here. The guide threw some fruit in the bushes for the cassowary, and it got pretty close to me. It does have very powerful legs so it could do a lot of damage to defend itself. The guide showed very nasty marks on the side of his car, which was caused by the legs of the cassowary after it had seen a reflection of itself in the side mirror. After that, we had a couple of places to drive to before the 2-hour tour was over.

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After leaving the quad bikes behind me, I went to check out the mountain village of Kuranda. It had a quaint Heritage Market where people sold local craftsmanship products and local fresh produce. I ate lunch there and went to see the nearby Barron Falls, which also has one of the Scenic Railway stations. From the falls I drove to Davies creek that was a bit off from the main road. After about 8 kilometers of gravel road, I arrived at the parking place, which was very crowded with cars. I had to park on the side of the road but it was wide enough so cars could go past. I had heard about the place during my ATV tour as just before the falls there is a popular spot and an infinity pool, where you can hang out quite close to the drop. Again, I didn’t bring my swim gear and I also wanted to get going after taking my photos. It did require some rock hopping to manage with dry shoes.

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Before driving to my next accommodation, I went to Mossman Gorge, which is another natural attraction. When I arrived there, it was about one hour before the place was going to close for the day. It also would have required a paid bus ride to get to the lookouts from the visitor center. I decided that it was not worth it to pay for the bus ride and just visit it for ten to twenty minutes tops. I arrived at the Airbnb place well before sunset and the host took me for a tour around the big garden with all sorts of plants, flowers, and herbs. She had so much knowledge about them and passionately told me about them. The place included a dinner with the hosts, and it was a delicious one that contained the herbs grown there. After dark, she took me again to the artificially made pond to see if we’ll see any nocturnal animals there and we saw and heard some frogs talking to each other.

Day 12

For the last full day of the trip, I had another early wakeup as I had to start driving at 7 towards the Daintree rainforest. The Airbnb host usually makes breakfast for the guest, but as I had so early start, she made me a takeaway breakfast the previous evening to just grab it from the fridge when I got going. The drive was a little over an hour and it included a ferry crossing the Daintree River, which took about 5 minutes to get across. At that early hour before 8 am there were just a couple of other cars in the same ride. After some more driving in the middle of the rainforest and over one hill on a twisty road, I arrived at the Daintree Rainforest visitors center.

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The Daintree Rainforest is the world’s oldest rainforest with its history reaching back 180 million years. It’s also the third-largest tropical rainforest in the world and the largest in Australia with an area of 1200 square kilometers. There are most of the animal population of the entire country, like 30 % of the frogs and 65 % of butterflies and bats. Some animals also are not found anywhere else in the world than here. So, it’s a very important piece of land because of the biodiversity. And not just animals but also plants are a big part of it. There are over 3000 plant species with the oldest ones thrived when dinosaurs roamed the planet. No wonder this place is on the World Heritage List, which makes this part of North Queensland the only place where you have two World Heritage Sites so close to each other. The other one is of course the Great Barrier Reef that I visited two days before.

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After arriving at the visitor center, while waiting for the tour to start I enjoyed my excellent breakfast consisting of bread and some yogurt with berries and some granola. It’s a family business here that organizes these walking tours in the rainforest. Then we started the 4-hour tour and ventured into the rainforest. The guide was very passionate about the protection of the rainforest and he was very knowledgeable about the plants and wildlife. At one point he showed the place where he got married and another spot where his kids took their first steps after leaning to the roots of a very old tree.

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One good example that why it was a good idea to take a guided tour instead of just wandering yourself. Well, it might be that wandering yourself is not even allowed there but anyway. The guide showed us a plant called Dendrocnide moroides, which is also known as Gympie-Gympie or a ‘suicide plant’. Why is it called a suicide plant, you might ask. There is a story that during World War 2 an officer used the leaves of this plant to wipe his “down under” after doing his business and resulted in killing himself. Every part of the plant is covered in microscopic hairs that release a neurotoxin when touched. The pain the toxin causes is something else. First, you feel extreme pain from several hours to a couple of days. Then it might lessen a bit but every time the stung section of the skin is touched or gets wet, the pain intensifies. This part can last for maybe six months (or even a couple of years) as the needle gets stuck in your skin reminding you about your mistake. Even dead and for decades dried up, Gympie-Gympie retains this feature. So, if you are in a rainforest and find an opening in there where the sunlight reaches the ground, watch out for heart-shaped about half a meter-sized bush and keep your distance.

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One other interesting plant that I came across there was Mimosa pudica or sensitive weed, which has leaves that as a defense mechanism fold them shut if you touch or shake them. There were also some ancient ferns and trees and a lot of fan palms. Another rarity is Idiospermum australiense, also called ribbonwood or idiot fruit. The lineage of that species of trees dates back 120 million years. The problem with that 20-40 meter tall tree is that the fruits are about the size of an adult fist and weighs a little over 200 grams. Thus, the only way they move from the tree is gravity, which would then need some external method of transportation unless the tree grows on a side of a hill. The most common animal believed to have formerly dispersed the seed has been now-extinct large marsupial. The fruit itself is so toxic that most animals can’t eat it without getting poisoned.

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The guide was so passionate to talk about rainforest nature during the tour that at some point he realized that we weren’t going to make the track by the four-hour mark. But after four and a half hours we made it to the starting point after walking whopping 2.3 kilometers. This tour was a combination of the walking tour and a mangrove river cruise. I hadn’t planned it originally, but I had to take it because for a while the tour wasn’t even going to start as I was the only customer who had booked a tour for that day. The mangrove river cruise was one hour long and from all the crocodiles we spotted only one on the bank of the river and another in the water with only eyes on the surface.

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Then it was time to head back south to Cairns to my last Airbnb place. I’m not going to write a separate chapter about the last day, as I just returned the car at 10 am and then took an Uber to the airport. And I guess this post is long enough as it is. But thanks if you had the endurance to read all the way here to the end. It sure took some time to write. 😊