F
rom
Cairns we headed south . We had heard so many people talk about
Paranella Park and how good it was so we decided to pop in there before
going down to Townsville. The park was an interesting place. The castle
was built by a European gentleman who had a dream of owning a castle.
Every so often he would add a wing or develop a themed area. It is now
in ruins but at one stage was used by European settlers in the Cairns
area as a weekend retreat to get away from the city. There was a cafe
for them and they would swim in the pools beneath the waterfall. We
stayed a couple of nights and had a good look round as well as doing the
guided night tour. It is a popular place for weddings.
Moving south we stopped at Tully for a few hours to do the Sugar Mill Tour. That was well worth doing. We saw the whole process and learned a lot about the sugar growing industry in the area and Australia wide. Apparently all the sugar grown and processed in Northern Queensland is exported. We got to sample some of the warm raw sugar, straight out of the vat.
Townsville copped a lot of the dust storm that hit the east during the
last month and it was still lingering. It was very hard on your eyes if
you went outside and visibility was very limited. The annual Townsville
airshow was scheduled for the weekend that we were there. As you will
see from the photos, we could see very little of what should have been
spectacular views from the lookout. The helicopters and planes were
rehearsing for the air show in very low visibility. We had jets and
planes flying over all weekend so the show obviously went ahead. We
would have stayed a lot longer and explored the area but the dust was
just too much to cope with so we moved on.
We had stops in Bowen, Cardwell and Mackay which were all lovely seaside spots. Then from Mackay we turned inland towards the gem fields. We decided to base ourselves in Emerald. The first night there Paj got called to Thailand to deal with some business matters so I gem fossicking went out the window. We had a night there then made our way towards Rockingham and down to Brisbane only stopping at free roadside camps on the way. Once in Brisbane Paj flew to Thailand for a week and rather than me stay on my own for a week I flew home to Perth for a few days.
O
nce we
had both landed in Brisbane again we left the caravan and went
across to visit friends on North Stradbroke Island. We crossed on the
car ferry from Cleveland Marina. We met Helen and Tony in Shady Camp,
near Kakadu and they had invited us to visit when we were in the
Brisbane region. We stayed with them and were given a grand tour of the
island. They took us out in the boat up to Moreton Island and round the
wreck off Tanglooma Resort. The water was so clear. We had turtles and
Dugongs swimming alongside the boat. Tony owns an oyster bed so we
stopped to collect some oysters on the way back home. It was a great few
days and hopefully we will be able to return their hospitality in the
not too distant future.
Next on the itinerary was a holiday back in New Zealand to visit family. Only a hop skip and jump across the ditch! We had a week with the family then returned to Brisbane, collected the caravan and continued south.
Northern New South Wales was a lovely area. We really liked what we saw. We had a good few days at Darlington beach with the boxing kangaroos. I wouldn't want to be in between 2 male kangaroos at the wrong time! Anyone who doesn't believe that Kangaroos can stand on their tails alone should take a good look at the photos! Forecast was for rain so we moved on and were very glad we did because that afternoon the place was cut off and there was flooding in the area. We would have been stuck there.
Next stop was Port Stephens north of Sydney. We had a caravan site right on the waterfront. The Hunter Valley was close enough to go for a day trip so we explored some of the food and wine outlets in the area. There was a wine and food festival at the Port Stephens marina while we were there.
Unfortunately this is where our trip came to a halt. I had a call to say that my brother Shawn, who had been ill for sometime, was deteriorating so I made the decision to go back to New Zealand. We stored the caravan in Sydney and flew over. My brother Darren and our younger son Pera also flew over. Paj and Pera spent a few days with us then flew back. Our older son Arun met Paj in Sydney and took a couple of weeks to drive back to Perth (with a few fishing stops on the way!). Shawn passed away at the end of November and I stayed with Mum and Dad for another week before flying back to Perth.
We now have an excuse to go on the road again. We missed out on a lot of what we had planned to do and more so stay tuned for our next adventure.
Heading East 2009
Part Eight - South to Sydney
