September 2023 School Holidays

As Isaiah and Toby turned 16 in August, we now have 200 hours of supervised driving to complete. We figured the fastest way to rack up the hours would be a family holiday to Cairns and surrounds. We packed up, ready to roll out right after breakfast on Saturday morning. The twins “rock, paper, scissor”-ed for first driving rights and we were off! 

 

We left home at about 9am, and the plan on big trips like this is usually to get as far away as fast a possible, so we drove to Taroom before stopping to make sandwiches, use the facilities and top up the car with diesel. We pulled up at Rolleston to make dinner, and then drove a bit further until we were just North of Clermont. Isaiah racked up his second significant animal encounter when a suicidal roo decided to headbutt our bullbar, no damage to car, praise the Lord. He did a great job of holding the car straight and was calmer than his supervising mother after the fact. All up, 12 hours from home, 9 hours of driving. We did diligently stop every two hours to swap drivers, which resulted in quite a few emails for us to approve hours for our learners. 

 

We woke a lot later than I expected (no alarms set – woo, holidays!) but were on the road around 8 on Sunday. Tim drove the first leg, to Belyando Crossing where we stopped for caffeination, then it was into the most roadwork-heavy portion of the drive. Lots of the road between here and Charters Towers is in the process of being upgraded. Lots of of lovely new bits which are awaiting lines. Some manned and unmanned stops for the boys to practice.We also clicked over 200000km for the MUX.

We arrived in Townsville around 1pm and stopped at the Fairfield shopping centre for a bit of lunch and a leg stretch. After a delicious bit of fast food and donuts, we got back in the car for the last 45 minute stretch to the Big Crystal Creek camping area. We snagged a couple of spots and spread out our stuff to save room for cousins, set up our gear and then went to explore the water.

Oh my, it is a beautiful spot. The water was clear and just warm enough for an evening dip. Those who wanted to rinse off did so, splashing around and enjoying the golden hour before dusk. 

 

Grateful I had planned ahead for simple dinner of wraps with pre-roasted chicken, we ate while we awaited the arrival of the rest of the family. Everyone pitched in and we had them set up and fed pretty quickly, and then we settled in for a few days of much needed unwinding in nature with family.

Enjoying the delicacy that is chocolate slice in a tortilla chip sandwich.

We explored The Rockslides, where there was rockpool after rockpool connected by naturally smooth slides, some with water and some dry. Much climbing and exploring. 

 

On our last day, after pack up, we drove the steep and twisting track up to Little Crystal Creek. The water here was freezing, but still beautifully clear, and the brave spent a while jumping off the cliff into the water while the Mama's tried not to think about all the potential injuries. (No photos, I was too busy not looking).

Then on to Cairns, to catch up on washing, enjoy having a full kitchen set up and nearby supermarket and just chill with family. We learned a new game “Telestrations” which we highly recommend. Don’t sit next to Jed though. 😉

We celebrated Seth’s 16 birthday with his choice of Auntie Sami cake, as is tradition. He chose caramel cheesecake, and it was excellent, even if I do say so myself.

The boys enjoyed having a pool in the backyard, and swam at least once every day.

We sadly cancelled our second planned camping at Blackdown Tablelands National Park. There were bushfires in the area, and that along with now needing to be home on Friday instead of Saturday, meant we decided to stay in Cairns an extra night and take the boys to Defy Gravity, a trampoline and indoor rock-climbing park in Cairns city (thanks Grandma Sue!). Much fun was had testing our skills. I successfully got to the top of one wall, but discovered I am not as young as I’d like to think on the trampolines. Thankfully none of our crew were too sore the following day. 

Cairns city driving gave the boys practice at getting out of the way of fire engines with lights and sirens, and a day trip to Babinda Boulders was a first taste at driving in a tropical downpour.

The road home always feels longer than the road North. Tears from the small ones as we departed. Lots of reminders that we will all be together again soon for Pa’s 70^th, which is now only weeks away. We broke up the driving into two nights to try and avoid getting home too tired and needing a second holiday.

 

 We arrived home at lunch time on Friday, thanked our house sitter, who did a terrific job, unpacked, threw on a load of washing and pulled out the dinner I pre-made out of the freezer (best plan ever!). We very much enjoyed being back in our own beds.

As I said, we had to be home on Saturday, because Saturday night was the Eva’s Place black tie ball. Toby escorted me, looking dashing. It was a great evening with good food, great music, lots of dancing. Lots of fun was had supporting a great cause. 

 

Thanks for following along. We are looking forward to having 4 drivers for our next big family holiday!

Cape Trip 2021: Part Three - Weipa to Cairns

 

Day 9, Tuesday 29th June, 2021

We have no plans beyond a vague desire to go fishing and a need to do some washing. We attempted again to book a fishing charter but everyone can only take 4 people at a time or are booked until July next year. We rig the rods and head down to Mission Bridge to try our luck. No bites. We move to Rocky Point where we witness others having minimal success but still no joy for our crew. Isaiah managed to feed half a soft plastic lure to some sea creature, but we never saw it. We head back to camp for some lunch, and then the boys all jump in the pool for the rest of the afternoon. There is a massive game of Marco Polo going on, involving kids and adults alike. We fish them out at 4 pm to get cleaned up and go out for dinner. We take them to the sports bar as The Deck restaurant doesn't have any tables available until 7.30pm. We pick 6 dishes which sound good and set about sharing. The beef ribs are easily the best Tim or I have ever had. And according to the menu, sourced from the Darling Downs! Also an interesting and delicious dish was the peking duck pizza with pickled ginger. We eat until we cannot fit another mouthful. We collect our leftovers in a take home box and head back to camp. After brushing our teeth, Levi reminds me that the lady had said the meals came with ice cream for the kids for dessert. We had forgotten because we were so full. Sad boy was comforted with the promise of ice cream from Woolworths for morning tea. We collapsed into bed and slept pretty solidly.

Day 10, Wednesday 30th June, 2021

Despite everything else in Weipa being booked out, I managed to secure us a spot on an eco-tour in the harbour at 11.30. We had to be out of the camp-site by 10 am, so this left plenty of time for the promised ice cream. We also bought bread and milk. Again.

Then we headed down to the wharf to await our tour time. We sat in the car in the air conditioning and listened to our next audiobook - Flight of the Dragon Kyn.

The cruise commenced at 11.30, with a description of how the bauxite mine and Rio Tinto and Weipa are managed. Then we went up the river with our guide describing the sea creatures which are often spotted in the harbour - dolphins and sharks and turtles and crocodiles. Every kind of shark except Great White are native to this region. He also pointed out bird life, and we watched Jabiru herding fish along the mudflats.

As the tide went out, we were able to spot 2 crocodiles sunning themselves on the exposed bank. Our tour guide also passed around some crocodile leather and taught us that you can identify individual crocodiles by their “scoots,” which is the bumps and ridges down their spine. He had a real crocodile skull too, which we got to hold. It’s teeth were still very sharp! 

We came back into the harbour a little late and finally made it to the car at 2pm. As it is about 4.5 hours from Weipa to Musgrave, we decided to free camp near Coen instead, setting up before it got dark. It was then that we discovered someone had raided our camper while we were on the boat. They stole our toilet paper, a hand towel and all our small buckets. Thankfully they were just empty yoghurt tubs, and our big good bucket was left. They also didn't take our hand soap, which is just as well, I had only just replaced it on Monday.

There are some lovely campsites here down by the river, but there were heaps of people already down there, so we ended up at the top of the hill, closer to the road. This was ok, not too much traffic over night. There was a small dog which showed up in the early hours of the morning and whined and pawed at the mesh, wanting to come in. Tim had to get up and rouse on it to make it go away. Everyone did go back to sleep, but it didn't seem like long before the sun was up and the day begun.

Day 11, Thursday 1st July, 2021

We packed up after breakfast and made our way east to Lakefield National Park. Almost all the traffic we saw was heading north. We drove in to check out Sweetwater Lake, and were the only ones there. We went for a walk to try and catch a better view of the lake, but there were trees right up to the water’s edge for as far as we could see. We did see a swarm of stripy dragonflies, a kangaroo, and Tim almost stood on a snake. We didn't hang around to find out what kind.

We stopped at Red Lily lagoon, where most of the flowers had finished, but the few blooms we saw were very pretty. Then over the road to White Lily lagoon. More flowers here, but no viewing platform, so hard to get a good photo.

We got to our campsite at Kalpowar Crossing in time for lunch. There are hybrid toilets and cold showers here. I recommend setting up, and then heading for a shower in the heat of the day. The river is beautiful, but salt water and contains crocodiles. All the sites are very generously sized, and we are in the back corner on our own. This is probably a very good thing as tiredness is making fuses short. The swing from silly to cranky is rapid and often.

It has been a restful afternoon of exploring and watching the bird life. There are some big birds of prey (kites of some kind) riding the thermals above the river, and a flock of black cockatoos flitting about the campsite. We accidentally startled them when we came back from a walk and they took off and flew around right above us, showing off the colours of their tails and wings. So pretty. Early dinner again tonight, and in bed about to do stories. Sadly, the library app is not cooperating, even though I downloaded a book it won’t let us play it as we have no signal. Shame, as we had planned to start The Hobbit tonight. Hopefully we will have signal tomorrow at Hope Vale.

Day 12, Friday 2nd July, 2021.

Up and breakfasted, we packed up and left Lakefield National Park, heading east toward Cooktown. The plan was to stop at Isabella Falls for some morning tea and a swim, but the signage was too poor, we had driven past it before we realised. Continuing on toward Cooktown we began to debate whether or not to turn north toward Hope Vale like we had planned or if we should just go back to Cairns a day early. As I had really wanted to go to Elim Beach and see the coloured sands, we pressed on and boy are we glad we did. Eddie’s Camp Ground at Elim Beach is rustic and friendly. Once we were set up, we lost Levi to the pull of the tyre swing by the beach. Once we had rested for a bit, we hopped back in the car and drove the two km to the car park for the coloured sands. At low tide, you can drive along the beach all the way to the walk up the cliffs. The tide was on its way in when we arrived, so we decided it would be safer to walk rather than risk losing too much beach to get back. The walk out was lovely, so many pretty patches of cliffs. Then you reach the point where a natural spring seeps out of the rocks to the beach. Here, you can walk into a chasm and climb up the cliff to the top, which has a stunning view of the bay and the surrounding hills. As you walk, the sand keeps changing colour beneath your feet. The boys loved climbing and exploring this area and I think it was a favourite spot for all of us. Definitely recommend checking it out if you are planning a trip up north. 

Day 13, Saturday 3rd July, 2021.

Up earlyish, we packed up and hit the road with our hearts longing for Cairns. Almost the whole road was bitumen which made it seem like a much shorter drive than it is. Back into civilisation, we had to readjust to things like traffic lights and road works. We are seeing so many people heading north now. It appears we have timed our whole adventure perfectly – having so many spots almost completely to ourselves, including when we walked out to the sign at the tip. It has been a wonderful adventure, but we are ready to settle into Cairns for a week of holiday and relaxing with cousins. I am looking forward to having access to an oven and a washing machine that doesn't need coins to operate, as well as not having to move every couple of days. We have a birthday in a few days too, so am looking forward to celebrating with family. It has been a whirlwind of a trip this time, but we are very glad to have done it. We have learned a lot, met some great people and ticked a milestone off our travel bucket list.

Thanks for following along on our adventure. I hope you have enjoyed our story and photos. If you are planning a trip, we’d love to hear about it. Next on our list is either Tasmania or Western Australia. Dreaming big dreams, even if it will for certain be a couple of years before we can hit the road for any decent length of time again.