Port Douglas is a short 70km drive north of Cairns along the picturesque Captain Cook Highway (hasn’t been renamed yet?) and we got there in good time to scout around the caravan parks before booking in. There are a couple of parks on the road into the Port township but they resembled sardine tins with every one packed in tightly, so we retraced our steps and stayed at the Big 4 out on the highway. Nice spot, plenty of room on our site among green surrounds, and about a 10km drive into town.

Our site in the Big 4 just outside Port Douglas.

Hemingway’s Tasting Paddle

Red curry chicken wings, but washed down with a Hemingway Endeavour IPA.

Port Douglas is an interesting place, of itself there is not a lot to in the town except sit around and eat. A couple of wildlife places nearby to see if you are into crocodiles or perhaps an international tourist stopping in for a quick rainforest experience. It is though a big base for trips out to the reef for fishing, diving etc as well as day tours north for those who are without the right transport. We are only doing land things on this trip so the reef is not on our agenda, could be different next time if we get up here again in the future. So we sat around a bit and ate. The Sunday markets were an interesting collection of stalls, a lot of local stuff rather than China imports being recycled. Nice photography and art work, plenty of fruit and veg, soap and candles, woodwork etc. A couple of Taro card readers were not seeming to do much business, nor was a ‘spiritual’ advisor. What was missing were second books and CDs! No old junk either! Plenty of social distancing (sic).

Sunday Markets

Yacht sailing out of the Port

4 Mile Beach from Flagstaff Hill

Did though have a look around at the scenery and views from Flagstaff Hill which looks south down 4 Mile Beach, most of the high end resorts front this beach where there is a netted swimming enclosure to hopefully protect from Box jellyfish, which are most unpleasant and lethal. The much feared  Irukandji jelly fish can get through the netting but, apparently, there have only been 3 deaths worldwide from this creature in the last 100 years. November to May is peak season. I don’t know if crocs can get in but they have been seen on 4 Mile, they are around all the time.

Port Douglas Inlet

Wangetti Beach, about 20 km south of Port Douglas

Did a short trip back down the coast to Wangetti Beach. This place a little news worthy last Saturday night. Police disrupted 300 or so revelers  enjoying a music concert here on the beach. They were offending COVID restrictions. Things got a little nasty with some arrests. Not much evidence of the frivolity, apart from some empty coconut shells scattered around the foreshore.

The weather has been a bit unsettled for us , cool and cloudy in the morning, fines up in the afternoon with a warm sun. Seems as though it wants to rain at times but doesn’t, maybe it is getting ready early for the wet? Hope it holds off for a month.

Off to get a vanilla slice!

Day 2 has seen us in the city again for lunch aboard the Prawn Star, very pleasant setting and the prawns and bugs were very fresh and tasty. Slight downside was the waitress kept calling Allthego “darlin,” (he knows he is one and doesn’t need to be told) which makes the hair on the back of his neck curl. She was OK though despite having peeled a few prawns in her time. Then, so has Allthego.  It was then off on a drive along the northern Cairns beaches and a short stop at Palm Cove. Nice spot.

Plate of prawns and bugs , lunch for two.

All gone.

The boats bar, great painting on the wall.

Our last day in the city was devoted to a visit to the Cairns Aquarium. Very impressive presentation. Not just a lot of tanks filled with fish. It was set up as a story. The layout followed water from where it falls in the highlands of the Great Dividing Range down to the sea, through the creeks, streams and mangroves out to the Reef. Along the way the fish and land creatures in each of the environments were on display. The first fresh water fish we saw at the Aquarium was the Jungle Perch. At our Big Crystal Creek stopover we had seen a number of these in the creek, a couple of ‘experts’ had told us then they were Jungle Perch.  Plenty of snakes, frogs and some juvenile salt water crocs also on display. Not a lot of writing to read and get lost in, visually informing!

Jungle Perch

Clown fish

Saw fish

Back to the van for a late lunch of ham and cheese bagels. Allthego had got these from the local Artisan Bakery near the Big 4. But they did not bake humble vanilla slices! Just some fancy lemon and ginger slices. Allthego has two vanilla slices in review and is awaiting a third to report on. Hopefully, it will be found in Port Douglas, our next stop north.

After lunch and feet up it was back into town for a cruise and dinner out on the harbour aboard the Spirit of Darwin, a big catamaran. This was an interesting experience in the COVID world.  About 40%  capacity and 60% of the usual price, only for Queenslanders though! The standard seafood buffet gone, allocated seating, social distancing. The three course meal was pre selected when you booked, choice of 2 entrees and 2 mains. Very tasty meal, prepared and served with style and a smile.

Spirit of Cairns at dock.

Not a great sunset, but some good city lights.

Walking the gang plank

Captain told us things were pretty tough, many boats had just been tied up until it was all over. Smaller boats couldn’t take enough customers to make it economic.

The car is through there. Somewhere!

So, we are now off north to Port Douglas for a few days.

Now in Cairns staying at the Big 4 for four nights a few km from the city centre. We are staying an extra night here, so now a day behind the schedule but who cares! Getting a bit slow as the years go by and not wanting to rush around. The worrying thing though about this Big 4 is that there is clear evidence of the existence of Big Foot in these parts. Tracks everywhere and I have seen quite a few big feet wandering around this place. So we are a bit wary at night. It seems though that if you follow the Big Feet they all lead to the same place! Yes, the ablutions block! Quite tricky.

Big 4 Cairns

Esplanade Water Park

Big Foot tracks in the caravan park. There were some big feet getting around too.

Have had a wander around the city waterfront and boat harbour, not a lot of people around and many of the boats are in dock rather than out somewhere which would be the normal. Allthego was rather keen to go on a jet ski croc spotting tour, but Homealone was not keen on doing a double with him. This was despite the fact that the jet skis go faster than the crocs! So, we agreed to have some prawns the next day aboard the Prawn Star which consists of three boats moored up beside the wharf. Settled for lunch at the Pier Hotel, plenty of social distancing going on for sure.

Allthego was keen to book one of these tours.

Not content with a 3 by 110g steaks it’s now a Chicken Parmie for lunch!

This is the boat that does prawns and the like for the lunch right on the water.

But guess who is in town?  NED KELLY. Or more correctly the National Gallery has a tour of Sidney Nolan’s series of Ned Kelly paintings on the road. All 26 of them and they are here in Cairns!

Sidney Nolan’s Ned Kelly series at Cairns Art Gallery

Now, my readers will know that our last trip before this COVID 19 thing was down to north east Victoria for a trip around Kelly country. During that journey we dropped into the National Gallery, where the paintings normally are, to see the series. BUT they had gone off on this national tour. So we missed them and thought we would need to return to Canberra in the future to see them. No, they came to us in Cairns! So, we will need some other reason to return to Canberra and north east Victoria in the future. Not hard to find one.

The exhibition

Kelly’s trial scene

Ned Kelly’s death mask.

Quite an impressive exhibition. The paintings were laid out in a semi historical time sequence and illustrated the Kelly story, overlaid with Nolan’s own interpretations of environment and violence taking place in apparently peaceful and calm settings. Can recommend seeing them.

More to do tomorrow, back to the van for happy hour!

We are now away from Bowen on Highway 1 headed for Cairns. Planning to stop overnight at Big Crystal Creek NP about 45k north of Townsville. There was a fair bit of roadworks along this stretch, indeed the trip from north of Bundaberg has numerous stretches being widened and overtaking lanes built, a few bridges as well. Red lights pull you up and after a 5 minute wait off you go. The stop go people no longer have to stand beside the road and twist their poles, walkie talkies are in use and buttons are pushed that seem to change the red to green. Ladies seem to do a lot of this work, diversity and gender balance in action I suppose!

At Big Crystal Creek camping area

Big Crystal Creek

Big Crystal Creek fire place

Big Crystal Creek a great layover. No squeezy sites here plenty of air in the great outdoors. We had our first camp fire and had some pork sausages over the flames. A  number of bush turkeys roamed around looking for leftovers. The creek very picturesque and only a short stroll from the campground. A little highlight was seeing some quite large jungle perch lurking around the edges of the rocks.  Could have spent another night here relaxing but had to move on.

The jungle perch! Can you see them?

Frosty mango, just had to stop for Mango ice!

A local

Listening to the radio, ABC only thing we could get, there was a segment on the 100th anniversary on 2 August of a small town called El Arish, named after a battle in Egypt. Lo and behold we were a few short kilometres from the town. So pulled in to have a look. The town originated as a soldier settlement after WW1, cane farms cut by hand from the tropical jungle. Tough life. The town’s war memorial had undergone a revamp and a 2 metre wide ‘replica’ of the Australian ‘Rising Sun’ Army Badge installed. The State Governor had been up for the celebrations. Must have been an occasion, one of the town’s residents said there was quite a lot of bureaucracy involved in getting it done! What’s new! We devoured our crab roll obtained on the waterfront at Cardwell in the nearby park.

The ‘Rising Sun’ at El Arish

The Cardwell crab roll, very tasty!

The old pub

The stopover at El Arish had held us up a bit and Allthego was stretched time wise now to complete the climb of Mt Bartle Freere, Queensland tallest mountain at around 1600m or so. Apparently, you need something like 15 hrs  to go up and down and camp overnight so it was going to be a bit of a challenge in the 2 hrs we had available. But he was going to give it a go! Came down smiling. Apparently, the mountain is generally shrouded in cloud and mist. Allthego wondered how did anyone know how high the mountain really was! It would remain a mystery.

Allthego Leaving on the Mt Bartle Freere walk.

Allthego returning from the Mt Bartle Freere walk.

The Mt Bartle Freere track

Mt Bartle Freere shrouded in cloud.

After the walk we charged off into Cairns to the Big 4 just out of town for a few days.

We stopped over in Bowen for a couple of nights at a van park overlooking Queens Bay.  It seems the van park mounted a campaign some time ago to hold back the ocean and has a 3m wall that drops straight onto the beach and into a metre or so of water at high tide. Either side of this wall the sea has moved inland and there is a much more sedate stroll onto the beach from the parkland. The van park is winning at the moment but it’s time will come. There is a big yellow line along the edge of the wall that stops people falling in. Park a bit squeezy space wise but clean and tidy. The owner, the NRMA, has introduced ‘surge pricing’, like Uber, and catches you out in popular times. The manager did some on the spot averaging to not make it quite so price aggressive. Allthego asked him whether that meant staying overnight would be free in slack times, a sly smile from the manager. No! Still a nasty pricing development for Nomads on the road.

The water tower murals

This was one panel of three illustrating the role of the town’s old coach builder and blacksmith.

Bowen Courthouse, seemingly one of the few old buildings left in town, maybe the others have been knocked around by cyclones over the years.

Had a pleasant day driving around town looking at the murals. Bowen is another one of those places that has them all over town on the sides of buildings, illustrating the town’s history. The two big water towers are adorned with murals also.  Had some tasty Fish n Chips for lunch at the Nth Queensland Cruising Yacht Club overlooking Boat Harbour, very laid back place. Very conscious of Covid here, social distancing  etc.

North Head Lighthouse, very hazy day.

Battered Spanish Mackerel

Later in the afternoon it was back to Queens Bay and a climb up to the lookout over Horseshoe Bay. Weather was a bit cloudy and hazy, Bowen was also living up to its windy reputation. So the sea surface was ruffled and the water was not showing off the translucent bluey green that Horseshoe Bay is famous for. Still a great view down from the lookout.

Horseshoe Bay from the lookout

Horseshoe Bay Beach

Now heading for Cairns with a stopover at Big Crystal Creek NP, north of Townsville, for the night.

And we have lobbed into Bowen in North Queensland.

Finally, after several months of COVID-19 lockdown we have escaped Brisbane and the confines of our cave and departed for North Queensland. As have a few others it seems. We have started a trek to Cape York and ‘The ‘Tip’, will be away for about 7 weeks subject to the dreaded coronavirus.

Calliope free camp

A steady trip up to Cairns, along Highway 1, from where the trip in earnest will start. We stopped off for the night in free camps at Gympie and Calliope (near Gladstone) and then after 1000 km or so from Brisbane, the Palms Caravan Park in Sarina. The Palms was almost full and we were put on a small site overlooking a semi permanent van that had a sign out  ‘beware of the dog’, it was a rather miserable looking small dog tied to a leash attached to the van. The sign was questionable, but the dog may have been hungry. Allthego did not tempt fate.

Sarina Palms Caravan Park, this local resident just sat here all day long.

Sugar Mill at Sarina.

Homealone’s 110g grilled steak special at the Sarina Hotel.

Entertained ourselves that night at the Sarina Hotel. Steaks in the bar, we were the only ones in the bar area for dinner. Social distancing was not threatened. Homealone decided to order the 110g grilled steak special, with salad and chips. An enormous plate of meat arrived, 3 steaks to the plate, you felt full looking at it! Allthego’s 300g rib filet was modest in comparison. The waitress later explained that a new Spanish chef had arrived and he was wanting to please. We bagged two of the excess steaks and had them the next night with some grilled onions and salad. Waste not want not! The dining room was not available for dinner as there was a conference in town and it had been booked out. A mob of accountants! No doubt discussing ways to make a buck from their clients out of the coronavirus.

My dear readers will know that Allthego likes to have a culinary challenge on these wanderings around the country. On this occasion we are on the lookout for the best vanilla slice sourced from bakeries in the towns along the way. Why vanilla slices? Well a week or so before we left Brisbane we had the most delightful vanilla slice from the Springfield Lakes GB artisan bakery. Here it is, a standout. The filling had a lovely creamy texture, pastry a bit on the crisp side but OK! Classic! Well done daughter Gillian! A benchmark for the journey ahead!

Springfield Lakes GB Artisan Bakery

Bakery at Rockhampton a double decker slice, different.

Childers Bakery effort.

But what makes a good vanilla slice, probably 3 things. A pastry base that is firm but not too flakey, a filling that is creamy, not too sweet, and doesn’t ooze out the sides when one bites through the pastry. And the a layer of white icing on top with a swirl of chocolate to top it off. A major failing is a filling that is a slab of yellow gelatinous custard. We had our first taste test from one of the bakeries in Childers. Not bad, icing a bit thick, filling not creamy enough. The second effort was from a bakery on the way out of Rockhampton. This was from an enterprising baker, a DOUBLE DECKER. Quite good, a little oozy, but not too sweet either. Good effort. The GB artisan bakery is still in front!

Further entrants are eagerly awaited.