Two sisters visit the Three

The Blue mountains is our last stop for the trip in our camper trailer. When we arrived we were quite tired and had a lot of washing to catch up on so we didn’t plan to do too much. Worth a mention though was a delicious lunch at a vegan restaurant in Leura called “Ruby Fruit”, as well as the best Asian since Airlie Beach at Bamboo Box in Katoomba.

Our biggest highlight in the Blue Mountains was the visit to the famous Three Sisters and Scenic World. Scenic World was an amazing experience with the worlds steepest train, Australia’s biggest cableway, Australia’s highest Skyway and the Southern Hemisphere’s longest boardwalk. Our favourite was the worlds steepest railway where we had to literally clutch on to our seats at a 52 degree angle so we wouldn’t fall off with “Indiana Jones” music playing! What a hoot!

The other three rides were more relaxed, allowing us to view the Three Sisters and to learn about the history and landscape by standing and watching out the window instead of clinging to our seats. When we did the boardwalk I spotted a Lyre bird scratching on the rainforest floor, obscured by vines and tree trunks. I was really excited. So was Dad. Crossing the Skyway we saw Katoomba Falls trickling down the edge of the cliff. When we got off the Skyway we did a walk around to the lookout over to the Three Sisters where we got really close but it was really crowded. At the end of the day we probably did more than 20 rides including the very last steepest train ride of the day.

Heading to Very Merry Berry for a few days for a family catch to celebrate my Nanny’s 70th birthday before returning home.

DCIM100GOPRO

DCIM100GOPRO

Saturn, Neptune and Siding Spring

Coonabarabran is the bet place in Australia to view the stars. On our first day we went to the ANU’s Siding Spring Observatory and learned about the building, history, planets and gravity on different planets. We also went into one of the Observatories. It was large and cold inside but impressive with all the different parts shining at us through the glass window. After a salad sandwich picnic lunch Dad and I went on a short walk along a creek and up a huge boulder. Along the way we met two large male kangaroos less than a metre away and a young goat with its mother on the other side of the creek just before we started to climb the large boulder. When we were climbing the boulder we also met a lizard sun baking on a rock in front of us – a short walk but full of different animals.

Our last stop for the day was after dinner at the Warrambungle Observatory where we viewed the major planets, stars and star gatherings. In our solar system, Saturn and Neptune were awesome! We also saw the Milky Way, the Butterfly, the 1000 stars and so many more. My favourite was probably the star Antares which was a bright orange dot in the dark night sky. An awesome day to end our stay at Coonabarabran.

Black Opal Country

After another long drive we arrived at Black Opal Country, Lightning Ridge.

On our first full day we went to the Opal Museum where we learned a lot about the beautiful fossilised Opal made from plants and creatures that lived millions of years ago. We also booked tickets to “Spark”, an outdoor movie about Lightning Ridge which was very interesting. After the Opal Museum we headed to “Kangaroo Hill” run by a kind old lady who recounted her stories of her life in Lightning Ridge running an animal rescue sanctuary. Her other interesting stories included one about her grandmother and why she was married in a black dress! It was great, funny and again very interesting. We spent a few hours at Kangaroo Hill, went for dinner which we rated as the worst Chinese ever, then to watch “Spark” with a hot cup of Milo.

The next day we went to an Opal mine for a self guided tour but we didn’t last long in the small, carved, underground tunnels and emerged from them again to fossick for small pieces of Opal and …. Lilah was amazing at finding specks of Opal in rock – she would literally walk along and say “here’s one” then “I found another” while I could only find 2 in the whole time we were there. When it was time for lunch we went to Bruno’s pizza which was a deliscous Italian restaurant. In fact it was so good and we loved it so much we went back for dinner. A delicious meal to end our stay at Lightning Ridge.

Also, literally a minute from where we were staying, were natural hot springs. At 41° it was a very quick dip. Several quick dips in fact with a cool off in between under a cold shower. It would be great to have one in the Canberra winter!

The Gorgeous Gorge

We were welcomed by the lovely tourist guides of Takarakka tourist park to the Gorgeous Gorge of Carnovan Gorge where we spent three fantastic nights and days. Well informed, we set off the next day to do the Big 4 walk, approximately 13 km to four beautiful locations with in the park. We started at the art gallery, viewing aboriginal rock art. Next onto Ward’s Canyon, which was a spectacular waterfall and natural garden, and literally a very cool break from the heat. Last stop for the day was at the natural amphitheatre. After going up ladders and walking through a narrow tunnel we made it into an open natural amphitheatre. It reached the skies for metres, our voice echoed around us when we talked. We gazed up at the smooth open space for ages, as well as experimenting with different noises. Fortunately we had the place to ourselves!

We were too tired and had to get back to camp for a play date to visit the Moss Garden so we headed back with plans to return to the Moss Garden the following day, even though it is a 3km walk in. Well the next day we were too tired from a big walk the previous day so we did some small walks to Mickeys Creek and the Balloon Cave in the National Park as well as some spotlighting at night. It was our most successful spotlight yet, seeing numerous arboreal marsupials including gliders, brushtails, a beautiful frog and a large kangaroo up very close.

The next day we packed up to leave but not before heading back to the Gorge to trek into the Moss Garden, regretting that we had not done it on the first trip. It was so worth it though. A stunning place with natural evaporative cooling, a cool retreat from the heat once again. We had a picnic before heading off for an overnight stay in Roma.

DCIM100GOPRO

In search of Emeralds, Sapphires and Rubies

After a long day of driving we had a two night stop at Charters Towers. The highlights were swimming in the massive resort-style pool at the caravan park, taking the historical walk to watch the sun set from a hill overlooking the town, and a tasty Indian dinner.

From Charters Towers we drove to Emerald. At Emerald we took a short drive out to Sapphire and Rubyvale to fossick for precious gemstones. We toiled for two hours in the hot sun and dust with our bucket of wash and were rewarded with a good dozen sapphires. After the fossicking we were starving so we had a picnic lunch and were off again to tour a walk in mine – it was so much cooler in the mine and very interesting to learn about the early mining techniques. It is not for people who do not like the dark, dirt and confined spaced. After the mine tour we followed the signs to the “Strudel Haus” run by a German miner selling gems and strudels – either cherry or apple. Though there was no one else there they were the best strudels I had ever tasted, so good that we even ordered another cherry strudel. A yummy end to our day trip out to the mining fields.

Tubing along the Ground

Continuing our way down south we stopped at the ancient lava tubes of Undara.

Access to the lava tubes was only by a special guided tour to the national park. When we arrived we walked through a dry savannah then into a pocket of rain forest thicket to enter the tubes. Before we arrived at the mouth of the tube we noticed the drop in temperature. We came around a bend and the tube loomed before us – a large cylinder made out of ragged rock faces. It became darker and damper. As we went further into the lava tubes we spotted bats with our torch and saw the special “drawings” in the rocks made out of the silicon minerals like a heart, a polar bear without its left ear and a kangaroo.

After the tour we went on a walk around a crater rim. During the walk we stopped at a look out and saw a strip of darker trees snaking its way across the landscape, that was the lava tube we had been in that day and it was amazing that you could see it extending for kilometres. The Undara lava tubes was a very impressive natural feature and landscape which was definitely worth the visit.

A Table full of craters

We only had one full day at the Atherton Tablelands but still managed to fit in three walks, a visit to a dairy farm and two roadside stops at significant landmarks.

Our first stop was Lake Eacham, which was another one of mum’s childhood visits. It was a perfectly round crater full of cool crystal clear water. We waded around in the beautiful water and when we got out we realised that there was a croc living in the lake crater. Next we did a rainforest waterfall walk at Malanda’s information centre – it was so much cooler in the rainforest than at the Mungalli creek dairy farm where we had our cheesy mac and cheese lunch.

After our lunch in the middle of the paddocks we went back in to the cool of the rainforest for one last walk at the Hypippamee crater. Before we reached the crater however we were stopped by a Cassowary standing 2 metres from the path. It was amazing and we stood there for ages but than when we were finally ready to leave the cassowary wouldn’t let us go past it so we had to do a diversion and run strategy to make our way to the crater and waterfalls on the other side. After our awesome walk around the waterfalls we made our way back to the car – as we where driving out another cassowary stopped us, crossing the road in front of our car. We stopped and watched it for ages again until a baby cassowary came along and everyone’s attention turned to it, after another 20 minutes of watching cassowaries in the wild it was finally time to go back for dinner. Another great curry experience for those foodie readers.

DCIM100GOPRO

DCIM100GOPRO

DCIM100GOPRO

DCIM100GOPRO

The Big Coconut Stop

We have arrived at the Cairns Coconut Holiday Resort chosen especially by Lilah with it’s pools and waterpark, they call themselves the 1# caravan park in Australia. It was true the caravan park was huge and had two massive pools, two days of which we swam in the pool the whole day.

On the first of our six days we went out to Fitzroy Island, the last of our visits to the Great Barrier Reef. It was awesome because we got to swim with two turtles. We also did some stand up paddle boarding and we paddled out to a water trampoline and jumped off it. The beach was made out of coral and was beautiful until you had to take your thongs off and actually walk on it. Ouch! All together it was another great reef experience.

We also went to the Lagoon on the Cairns Esplanade which was beautiful and had a clean feel to it with nice tourquoise water.

We visited another place mum had gone to as a child, Crystal Cascades. As with Mossman Gorge it was very different. We walked to the end of the foot path, watched the waterfall cascade down then headed to a delicious Italian lunch at Trinity Beach, overlooking the water. It was so good we went back for dinner the night before we left.

Our time in Cairns was mostly spent swimming and re-visiting Mum’s favourite childhood places. Now we have to head back toward Canberra. We have chosen to travel along the Great Inland Way for a change of scenery and to experience the Outback

DCIM100GOPRO

DCIM100GOPRO

Port for Douglas and the Moss Man

We have arrived at the first of two caravan parks Lilah picked out because of the awesome water park and pool. The water park was huge. It had one really long slide at the front then other smaller slides in the park, with a huge water dunking bucket. There was also another smaller slide going in to a heated pool, but that slide made us swerve all around the place if we went too fast. We went to the pool everyday.

We also experienced the Port Douglas markets. We ate our way through the markets starting with coconut juice, then passionfruit juice, watermelon juice, Davidson plum juice, sugar cane juice, iced chai, Dutch pancakes, Poms Frits and then settled facing the sea with a delicous feast of Indian curry on roti.

We also visited Mossman Gorge, one of mum’s childhood swimming hole spots. Since then it has a new visitor centre and shuttlebus service run by the local Aboriginal community, a beautiful board walk made from recycled plastic bottles to all the swimming holes, waterfall and lookouts. We spent all morning doing a rainforest walk and wading around in the swimming holes, then finished with a delicious lunch of damper, honey and tea at the Aboriginal Centre café.

DCIM100GOPRO

DCIM100GOPRO

DCIM100GOPRO

Daintree: where rainforest meets the reef

We have made it to the northern most part of our trip, the Daintree rainforest, part of the world Heritage listed area. During the time we stayed there we had lots of ice cream including flavours like, Yellow Sapote, Black Sapote, Wattleseed and Soursop which were interestingly yummy.

On our first day we did a long walk along the beach and flew our kites. We also did a walk through the rainforest and caught a very brief glimpse of a cassowary through the trees. We learn about the different species of mangrove trees of how they survive. We ended the day by going to the Discovery Centre. On entry they gave us each an audio guide to do a self-guided tours through the rainforest. One walk included going up a 23 metre high canopy tower. Half way up Dad did not go any further because he didn’t like how high he was so we continued to the very top where we looked over the huge trees around us. Along the other walks were massive strangler trees and Kauri pines. There was a reptile room with snakes and lizards on display. It was fascinating to learn about the Wet Tropics rainforest, how old they are, some plants are over 350 million years old, and the incredible diversity of plants, animals and insects that exist.

Lilah, Mum and I went on a horse ride along the beach. On the way to the beach we saw a crocodile resting on the opposite bank in the mud. When we arrived at the beach Dad met us and took pictures of us. Lilah’s horse started to play in the water and was splashing water everywhere. It was a great way to explore the rainforest and the beach and was much better than walking.

Coconuts the perfect paradise fruit, heaps of trees along the beach full of coconuts, but how are we supposed to get them down? We found four on the ground which had water in them and Dad got one down from the tree by throwing dead washed up coral from along the beach. We gathered the coconuts and started for the coconut spike. Dad worked like a machine smashing away the husk so the nut was left, once we smashed the shell in half when the husk wasn’t off so we drank it and it was delicious.

Our one last stop was a crocodile cruise, we saw a juvenile crocodile, the dominate male Scarface and one of his eleven odd girlfriends, Elizabeth. Scarface is around 60-70 years old and because he was the dominant male in the territory he only had four teeth left because of all the fights and scars on his face hence his name. The boat was an electric boat powered by the sun. It was hot and cramped on the small boat full of plump middle aged Poms. But worth sweating it out to see crocodiles in the wild.