Jon & Annett 2024 Travels

Jon & Annett 2024 Travels Follow us through Thailand and Australia

Greetings from the international departures lounge in Cairns. Our last post from this holiday.Two days ago we went on a ...
08/05/2024

Greetings from the international departures lounge in Cairns. Our last post from this holiday.
Two days ago we went on a trip to the Great Barrier Reef, to the Low Isles, which was the most picture perfect little island. The catamaran took an hour to get there, and after some briefings we were let lose with the snorkeling gear, wearing stinger suits (no photos). The reef was somewhat silted up by the December cyclonic rains, but still clearly visible and vibrant in places. We saw lots of little fish and a fair few turtles, those mostly from a boat. A wonderful, blue sky day.
Yesterday we had a last beach walk in Port Douglas, and today one more rainforest visit at the excellent Cairns botanic gardens.
We've spent the last money, handed back the hire car, and finally! saw a cassowary.

We have been to the most notherly point of our Australian adventure - Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland, a gliste...
06/05/2024

We have been to the most notherly point of our Australian adventure - Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland, a glistening white, mangrove fringed beach. Of course, like all beaches in the region you cannot swim here as there is a choice of crocodile, stinger (jellyfish) and in some places rip currents - all, to put it bluntly, keen on taking your life.
We travelled to 'Cape Trib' on an organised tour, and also ticked off the must sees of Mossman gorge, Daintree river and the ancient Daintree rainforest. We saw for ourselves the damage caused by cyclone Jasper rain falls last December. In one week they had as much rain as we get in Hampshire in three years, resulting in many landslides and rockslides. Main roads are passable again, but in many places are single track only, part eroded, with some precarious situations on the cliff top roads.
This being our last visit to the rainforest, we looked extra hard for the cassowary, but still no luck. Fruit bats (flying foxes), a golden orb spider and a crocodile named 'Scarface' were more obliging. Not to mention the many trees and plants with their vines, buttress roots, dense overhead foliage, seeds and fruits, curtain figs, ferns and mosses ....
We're not normally tour bus people, but this was a fantastic day with a small group and enthusiastic guide. Not to forget the local tea we drank (yes, they grow tea here and also coffee), the local fish we had for lunch and the wattle and yellow sapote ice cream we tried. Oh, and the refreshing swim in a croc free creek. Exhausted now!

We've spent the last few days in the Atherton tablelands, a bit inland from Cairns and much higher, so significantly coo...
05/05/2024

We've spent the last few days in the Atherton tablelands, a bit inland from Cairns and much higher, so significantly cooler (and somewhat wetter). The area used to be rainforest but a lot of it was cleared for dairy farming so the landscape now is largely rolling hills similar to the West country but with pockets of remaining forest and some sugar cane. We seem to have visited many water features - Hypipamee lake at the bottom of a huge and deep ancient lava tube, lake Barrine in an extinct crater, waterfalls at Millaa Millaa, the Johnstone river, Tinaroo Dam, and the Barron falls at Kuranda. Lots of Ulysses butterflies, brilliant iridescent blue but impossible to photograph! Our car got colonised by green ants at Mission beach and we've been trying to get rid of them ever since. Luckily they seem to restrict themselves to the outside - we ping off any we see and the numbers are gradually decreasing! The gastronomic highlight of this section has to be the Feelgood Banana, a frozen banana on a stick, dipped in chocolate. Tasty!

Still heading north, we've now crossed into the wet rainforest region. Rain and humidity have increased, while temperatu...
30/04/2024

Still heading north, we've now crossed into the wet rainforest region. Rain and humidity have increased, while temperatures are still in the high twenties every day.

We spent two not-doing-much days in Mission Beach and then moved on to the town of Innisfail on the Johnstone river. Here they celebrate their art deco architectural gems, as well as the Johnstone river freshwater crocodile (or, the 'freshie' of course).

The whole region is called the Cassowary Coast, after the flightless bird of that name. Imagine an animal with the silhouette of an emu, the colour of a peacock and the temperament of a grizzly bear. Their images are everywhere - on murals, warning signs, information posters, cartoons. Even on a pavement tile. Apparently they should be easy to spot if you look in the right place, but sadly no such luck for us.

Well, we're back from Hinchinbrook Island! What an experience! Four days hiking and three nights camping on an uninhabit...
28/04/2024

Well, we're back from Hinchinbrook Island! What an experience! Four days hiking and three nights camping on an uninhabited island, with no infrastructure except a tiny jetty at the Northern drop-off point, a trail, and a few very basic camping areas, some with a 'long drop'.

The walk involved boulder-scrambling, wading through mud, bogs, and many rivers (often with crocodile warnings), climbing up cliffs, ascents and descents over headlands - and we were rewarded with rainforests, waterfalls, swimming holes, grass tree heathlands, rocky outcrops with amazing views, mountainous backdrops, and huge beaches.

The rain came mostly at night, so we were lucky in that respect (although it didn't necessarily feel that way at the time!)

It's surprising how quickly you get used to wading through creeks, welcoming the next river crossing as a chance to clean the mud off your shoes from the previous swamp! Creeks, waterfalls and pools also meant somewhere to refill our water bottles.

We usually went to bed around 7 as it was properly dark by 6.30, and we normally got up at 6 or so when it got light. The final day involved waiting for the tide to go out far enough for us to wade thigh-deep through an estuary at a safe enough distance from any potential crocodile hangouts, then a 3km walk along a sandy beach to the pickup point where we waded out to the boat back to Lucinda. There we had a very welcome shower and pub meal!

All in all, it was a brilliant experience - tougher and a lot muddier than I remember it being when I did it 35 years ago (!) - but a great challenge with lots of amazing memories.

We had a fantastic day in Townsville yesterday. In the morning we caught the ferry from Maggie Island back to Townsville...
23/04/2024

We had a fantastic day in Townsville yesterday. In the morning we caught the ferry from Maggie Island back to Townsville and called in at the local museum. It had an interesting gallery about HMS Pandora (it has links to the Bounty mutiny, sank, raised 200 years later - a story well told if it's your kind of thing).
Then we met up with nephew Ben who lives in Townsville and together walked/climbed up the local landmark that is Castle Hill. Beautiful views. We went out for a Thai meal and camped in the garden of Ben's student house.Thank you Ben!
I am writing this as we are preparing for our four-day hike on Hinchinbrook Island, something we have both been looking forward to for weeks if not months.
Earlier today we bought all the food we will need on the trail. Water will come from creeks and waterfalls.
Our hotel room is overlooking the island; it is shrouded in moody clouds right now, and rain is drumming down on on the hotel roof. The forecast for the next few days is sunshine. Let's hope it's right.

On our second day at Cape Hillsborough we got up pre-dawn to see the 'roos that come down the beach to eat mangrove seed...
21/04/2024

On our second day at Cape Hillsborough we got up pre-dawn to see the 'roos that come down the beach to eat mangrove seed pods (and piles of food left by the rangers) - chance to get close to a 'roo but felt a bit artificial. Then on to Proserpine where we did an excellent croc-spotting river trip. Scary, primitive animals! Also got to sample the some billy tea and damper, tasty! Currently on Magnetic Island, off Townsville, where we watched kookaburras being fed on a balcony, and today visited a colony of koalas, who were mostly sleeping in the heat of the day. Plus various birds and butterflies 🙂

Some more wildlife, or semi-wildlife, pics :)Our neighbour at Sarina had a pet cockatoo which perched on Annett's arm. N...
16/04/2024

Some more wildlife, or semi-wildlife, pics :)
Our neighbour at Sarina had a pet cockatoo which perched on Annett's arm. Not sure about the ethics, but it was nice to see one so close.
In Eungella we saw platypus, turtles, leeches (ugh! So many leeches!), fruit bats, and a brolga (crane-like bird) which chased me up the road when I was photographing it, and gave another photographer a peck on the bottom before chasing her car. Grumpy thing!
We're now at Cape Hillsborough - as we move North it gets more tropical and the butterflies more exotic. Mostly too fluttery to photograph but a few cooperate. Saw an amazing iridescent blue Ulysses but no photo! And a giant spider.

Next stop was Eungella national park for two nights. Day one we woke up to rain and set off on the 16km Crediton Creek w...
16/04/2024

Next stop was Eungella national park for two nights. Day one we woke up to rain and set off on the 16km Crediton Creek walk. We will forever remember this as the 'Leech Walk'. We were absolutely beseeched by the things and had to constantly pull them off shoes, socks and skin. One even made it onto my tummy 😨 More positive were the encounters with the platypus and saw-shelled turtles we could watch in Broken River. After the second wet night we cut our losses and found ourselves a nice, dry cabin close to the beach in Seaforth where we are staying tonight.
A couple of days ago we stopped at the lookout over tne huge Hay Point coal port. Coal from Queensland's many coal mines is transported here by rail, sorted and graded, and loaded onto bulk carrier vessels which moore at the end of two far out at sea wharves. People have different opinions about coal mining, but it's fascinating to see the operation and the photo is worth zooming into.
Sugar cane is the dominant, if not only, crop around here. The fields are neverending, criss crossed by rail tracks for transporting the harvested cane and dormant processing plants - all waiting for June when the harvest and processing season begins.
Today we called in at Hillsborough Cape national park, a small headland back on the east coast, where we spent a happy few hours following tracks through a mangrove forest and over a headland, beach combing and wildlife spotting.

At the eco-lodge there was a giant stick insect on the fly screen! Next stop was a camp site at Childers, a very dark si...
13/04/2024

At the eco-lodge there was a giant stick insect on the fly screen! Next stop was a camp site at Childers, a very dark site. When waking with a head torch there were lots of little shiny lights on the ground, which turned out to be spider eyes reflecting like cats eyes on the road. Creepy! On to Yeppoon where the evening sky filled with thousands of lorikeets - beautiful birds but a terrible din! Today we arrived at Sarina and did a tour of a sugar factory, tasting the product at various stages from cane to syrup to alcoholic beverage 🙂 Across the road were trees filled with roosting fruit bats. We're now camping next to the beach, and moving on again tomorrow. Australia is a big country!

The place we stayed in the Glasshouse Mountains had this beautiful, lovingly maintained exotic garden. Lots of edible pl...
11/04/2024

The place we stayed in the Glasshouse Mountains had this beautiful, lovingly maintained exotic garden. Lots of edible plants (I've finally worked out how to label the photos).

We managed to stop and get a picture of an emu from a long straight highway in the middle of nowhere. (A concerned drive...
10/04/2024

We managed to stop and get a picture of an emu from a long straight highway in the middle of nowhere. (A concerned driver pulled up to check we were ok after we stopped the car, which was thoughtful and reassuring - it would have been a very long way to the next garage if we'd needed it!) We arrived at the glass house mountains yesterday, staying in a very nice 'eco-lodge' for a couple of nights. The mountains are all that remains of very ancient volcanoes, and have very strange shapes. We've climbed one, circumnavigated another, viewed them from afar, visited waterfalls, and walked through our first 'proper' sub-tropical rainforest. We've seen a dragon, kookaburras, and giant spiders. (And driven our poor little hire car down some horrible dirt tracks thanks to bad directions from Google!) It's been a really good place to stay! 🙂

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Port Douglas, QLD

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