Big 4 - Big Bucks

Our R&R continued in Airlie Beach – the gateway to the beautiful Whitsunday Islands. We stayed at our first (and most probably last) Big 4 caravan park. Big 4’s are supposedly renowned for being the ultimate in family friendly caravan parks with big pools, playgrounds, mini golf etc. and we always said that w would stay at a few along the way to give our kids some play time of their own from time to time. Up until now we (and they) hadn’t really missed this sort of thing however the photo’s of the Airlie Beach Big 4’s water slides, jumping castle, and mini golf in our trusty guide book sold us. Once I made the booking I thought I might have to sell my right leg, or at least one of the kids to pay for it!! $77 per night is beyond a bit steep, it was bordering on mountainous!!!

The CP was certainly very nice, with the best amenities that we’d had on our whole trip. The playground, pool and especially the water slid were all terrific fun and we made the most of our stay. As we did in Townsville’s (free) water park, we didn’t get past he CP’s pool for the first two days however we did manage to venture into town on our final day and I was amazed how much Airlie Beach has changed. I was first up here in the early 1980’s on a family holiday and I have fond memories of Mum and Dad and my brother venturing out on charter yachts each day, sailing, swimming, snorkelling and even doing a scuba dive around the reefs and islands of the Whitsundays. I was next up here in 1993 with Leanne on our honeymoon (sailing on our own this time) and I remember Airlie to be a quiet town with no beach and lots of palm trees. Fast forward 16 years and how things have changed. The place has obviously been a developer’s paradise with resorts and hotels everywhere. Every second shop of the main street is either a bar, a clothes shop or an internet café and the mangrove swamp that was the “beach” that I remember has been replaced by a huge man made lagoon and promenade. We kind of knew all this before we came but I still couldn’t believe how completely everything (and I mean everything) had changed.

As we were to go out to the Great Barrier Reef when we reached the town of 1770 in a week or so’s time and with the hip pocket still smarting slightly from our last three nights’ accommodation, we bid farewell to Airlie and went looking for Billy’s spoon!

Lazy Days in Townsville

Our journey down the east coast was always going to be a bit of R&R after seeing and doing so much up through the Red Centre. I didn’t really thing we’d hit veg-out mode so hard once we arrived in Townsville though!! After dropping the two caravan wheels off at the local Bob Janes for new tyres, we found our way down to The Strand and the super impressive water park. This thing was great! It had fountains squirting water in all directions, water cannons (the boy’s favourite) and the piece de resistance – a huge bucket that filled with water and then tipped out onto to screaming kids (both young and old) below. And all for free – who needs Wet ’n’ Wild Water World? After spending our second day at the same place, we were feeling that perhaps Townsville had more to offer than a free council water park so with roars of protest from the kids, we trundled off to the Townsville Tropical Museum.

The museum turned out to be so good that even the kids enjoyed it. It had an exhibition dedicated to the HMS Pandora, the ill fated ship that was sent by the British Navy in 1791 to arrest and bring to justice the mutineers of the Bounty. The expedition found 14 of the 19 in Tahiti (the remainder were living on Pitcairn Island after scuttling the Bounty) and on its return journey, ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef and sank. The exhibition displayed artefacts recovered from the wreck and shows what life would have been like aboard the Pandora. They even had a reconstruction of a 6 pound cannon together with daily firing demonstrations which myself and three other (press ganged) volunteers participated. The boys thought it was very funny that my job was that of powder monkey!!

Apart from the Pandora exhibit, the museum had a hands-on science section which was great fun and also scientifically proved that Leanne is tone deaf (there goes her Idol aspirations!!), a marine life section showing a variety of corals and sea life, including some very strange looking fish from the inky depths. Of course the kids instantly recognised the Angler fish from Finding Nemo – who says cartoons aren’t educational!! There were also sections on dinosaurs, rainforests and mangrove habitats (all very interesting). The small crabs with the large orange claw that we saw in Cairns we learnt were Fiddler crabs.

After a late lunch I took the boys to the showground next door to the caravan park to see a Ford car show that was on. There were about 80 cars on display and whilst I’m certainly no car enthusiast (hence why I don’t insure with Shannons) they all looked pretty impressive. The boys liked the Hot Rods the best but I had a soft spot for the 1970 V6 Capri (I once owned a ’69 V6).

Forgetting that Queensland shuts down on a Saturday afternoon, we tried in vain to find a souvenir shop that was open so we drove up to the top of Castle Hill for a spectacular 360 degree view of the city and nearby Magnetic Island instead.

Townsville or Bust

After the wide open spaces and long stretching roads of the red centre, driving on the windy undulating roads of Far North Queensland has been rather harrowing at times. It’s much more difficult for cars and trucks to overtake us bothersome caravaners which leads people to become very impatient and sometimes downright dangerous! I had to slow down several times when trucks were passing me to let them back in before creating another statistic with a car coming the other way. Road lunatics aside, the countryside is very beautiful and lush. The drive between Cairns and Townsville takes you through many tens of kilometres of sugar cane and banana plantations and we even a few places where the harvesters and cane trains were operating.

About 20km out of Townsville, one of my greatest concerns became a reality as a tyre on the caravan suddenly blew out. Fortunately we were on a stretch of highway with a very wide shoulder and I was able to quickly pull over and stop before things got any worse. The remains of my tyre was lying slap bang in the middle of the road and was posing a bit of a hazard so I went back to collect it and dispose of properly when I got into town. I now know why no-one ever bothers to do this and why you see so many shredded tyres on the side of the road. Firstly they are stinking hot and secondly they stink!! Burnt rubber was not a smell I was going to put up with in the car so tinged with guilt, I left the shredded remains with all the others to be (hopefully) picked up by a good Samaritan on some future clean up Australia day. It seems as though the good people at Jayco did not foresee the need to change a wheel that has no tyre on it (why would you?) because the jack wouldn’t fit under the jacking point. After a few cool and calm word with no-one in particular (the kids were out of earshot), and with the aid of several blocks of timber, I eventually managed to get the spare tyre on. Concerned that the same fate would befall the other tyre I was relieved to finally set up camp in the Town and Country Caravan Park. My concerns were well founded when I got round to checking the other tyre out as I found a whole section of side wall ballooning out like an appendix ready to burst!! First job in the morning – tyre shopping!!!

Paradise in the Sun

Ellis Beach Campground was an idyllic spot to stop and recharge the batteries. The CP itself was nothing really to write home about (yet I am) however only a line of coconut palms separate the park from the beach itself. As I mentioned before, my Mum and Dad had flown up to be with us for the week and the outlook from their beachfront bungalow was to die for. Our van site was on the road side of the park but who cared when we spent most of our time on M&D’s veranda when we were “home”!

We quickly made ourselves at home, replacing their 4 seater outdoor setting with the 8 seater fold up table and chairs we had from the van – who could have asked for a better place to enjoy happy hour and dinner?

Our first whole day in Ellis Beach was spent frolicking in the calm waters of the beach, building sand castles and watching the pippies (small clam like shellfish) frantically burying themselves back in the sand after being uncovered by the odd large wave.

Having the 7 seats in the car proved its usefulness yet again as we were all able to pile into the Territory to get about and see the sites. Friday we moseyed on up the coast to Mosman Gorge and then onto the Daintree National Park. This was a bit of a trip down memory lane for us as we had done the same thing 8 years ago when we were last up here. Our exploration of Mosman Gorge was a cut short by the fact that half of the walking trails were inaccessible (much to the boys’ relief) as the rope bridge over the gorge was closed due to structural concerns! We decided not to go for a swim; partly because the signs said it was extremely dangerous and that deaths due to flash flooding had occurred in the past, but mainly because it was so busy with all the tourists swimming there wasn’t any room! We settled for a photo of the five of us by the river when Leanne’s hat decided it was too hot and went for a swim on its own! We watched in dismay as it drifted down the river a short way before it decided finally that it couldn’t swim and promptly sank! Lea said “leave it” but I was having none of it – I wasn’t going to be responsible for polluting a world heritage area so off I went to retrieve it! There were cheers all round when I triumphantly returned – soggy hat in hand.

After the Mosman Gorge we continued up the Cook Highway to the Daintree National Park. Crossing the Daintree River by ferry you plunge into dense tropical rainforest and it’s just as the ad says – were the Rainforest meets the Reef. We stopped off at the Daintree Ice-cream factory for ice-creams (naturally) then continued on as far as the road would take us, ending our journey with a refreshing swim at beautiful Cape Tribulation – so named by Captain Cook way back in 1770 following the tribulations he suffered beaching the Endeavour here to repair damage sustained when hitting a nearby reef.

The next morning we took the Kuranda Scenic Railway up into the hills to the market town of Kuranda. The town has become much more commercialised since our last visit 8 years ago but the old charm we liked so much could still be found if you made your way past the newer commercial (read tacky touristy) centre to the original “old markets” on the other side of the town. After buying a few souvenirs and some yummy lollies from the Kuranda Candy Kitchen for the kids (thanks Grandma and Papa), it was back down via the Skyrail cable car.

As we’d travelled nearly 13,000km since leaving Sydney, the car was due for a service. Of course it had to be the major (read expensive) one which was going to take most of the day so we spent the day walking around the Esplanade and shops in Cairns. Queensland sure knows how to build kids parks. There was a fantastic water park with fountains and water jests of all descriptions to keep the kids amused whilst we sat and chatted with Mum and Dad. After the water park, we walked along the Esplanade to the large man made lagoon at the end for a swim.
As they say, all good things must come to an end, and unfortunately our week in tropical paradise with Mum and Dad was no exception. We’d had a fantastic time together and although the temptation to stay longer was great, we said our goodbyes’ to M&D as they boarded the shuttle bus to the airport and it was not long after that we too were heading south – next stop Townsville.

Fires and Brimstone

The Undara Lava Tubes are a unique geological feature in North Queensland that I had read about quite early on when planning this trip and it sounded like an interesting place to visit. The lava tubes (or “chubes” as Ash tried to write in her diary) were formed around 190,000 years ago and consist of 100’s of kilometres of underground tunnels formed by rivers of lava that solidified on the outer edges and then drained in the centre. It was only by chance that I rang up the camp site the day before we arrived to book as the CP was full and we had to be put in an overflow area. No power and water (again!) but we were located right next to a camp kitchen so it didn’t really matter (except that the woes of our fridge were continuing with it not working at all off the gas). We had booked in for a 2hr tour the following morning so the rest of the day was spent veging out and the kids catching up on their diaries and a bit of school work (including a few extra spelling words for Ash for her previous indiscretion!)

Part of the Undara Experience (as the resort is called) includes nightly entertainment around the campfire. That night was “Star gazing with Mal”. Once everyone had got comfortable around the campfire, Mal then proceeded to move us all to a large open area well away from it so that the light from the fire and nearby buildings wouldn’t impede our vision. Why we didn’t just do away with the fire and meet at the viewing area in the first place is beyond me!! Although the stars weren’t quite as bright as they were when we star gazed at the Devil’s Marbles, it was much warmer and we spent a very nice evening as Mal pointed out the various constellations and planets (Jupiter and Saturn). We even saw a couple of shooting stars and a satellite.

I found our 2 hour tour of the lava tubes the next day to be a little disappointing. The guide was very good and quite knowledgeable but the tubes themselves were dark (the only light being from the guide’s torch) and did not present very well – certainly not as well as the glossy brochure showed them to be!! That night we had our own fire and finally got to toast the marshmallows that we had been carrying since Port Augusta!! It was a beautiful night and with the wood being so dry, the fire was one of the best I’ve ever lit (if I don’t say so myself!) – 10 smoky bear points!!
We were keen to leave for the beaches of Ellis Beach (north of Cairns) the next day as we were meeting up with my Mum and Dad who were flying up for the week after themselves spending 6 weeks in Europe!! It was a bit hairy negotiating the narrow winding roads between Atherton and the coast but after pulling over several times to let the traffic that was banking up behind us pass, we eventually arrived safely and the kids had hardly waited for the car to stop before jumping out and racing over to Grandma and Papa’s beachfront cabin to announce our arrival to them (and the rest of the caravan park too!)