Far North Queensland:

Our last holiday was in May 1999, Mischa & I went to Tropical North Queensland for 2 weeks. We flew directly from Melbourne to Cairns (3 hour Flight) using Anset.  We stayed in Cairns the first night then took a 2 day, 4WD tour to Cooktown, on return we again stayed in Cairns.  From there we went to the Mossman area (P&O Silky Oaks Lodge), then on to the Tablelands (Mt Eachham, Chambers Rainforest & Wildlife Lodge) and finally the last few days in Palm Cove (Meleukea Lodge).  This trip the weather was quite average as there was a late Wet season, our 2 Snokeling days were the roughest ever with over 30 cm waves at the dive sites, 1.5 m swells beyond the reef. This trip we discovered some walks we could take unlike previous trips where we could only find the Tourist routes around the area.

So what did we see, take a look below for some pics!

 

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 The lovely Botanical Gardens in Central Cairns, This is a must-see place!  Their is a great board-walk, taking you through a good stretch of Rainforest, you don't need to go further to see what its all about.
Our Cooktown trip was interesting, but at times a tad wet. Here we are at the famous Grassy Hill where you get a good view on a good day of Cooktown, the Sea, Endevour River and all the bush.  Cooktown is the last real city on the East coast, its small but lively. Take a few days to explore

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 Does it matter if its raining when you SCUBA Dive? I think not so off we went down, down and down further!

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 Yes, those cheap camera's do work down to 3-4 meters and even diving instructors can use them, I'm sure we weren't the first to ask.
On a bad day its still good - the Great Barrier Reef.   This was a real bad day, but even so we saw lots of new things below.  This green plant was very bright and a joy to see.  On this trip we saw fairly close, a Turtle.

 

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The birds are part of the Port Douglas Rainforest Habitat, this is a great place to have breakfast and watch the birds watching you.

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Mossman Gorge walk is another "must do".   Mischa is demonstrating how big these tree roots are.  Below are some scenes from the 1 hour easy walk

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 At Eachham we stayed in a isolated retreat and the wildlife came to you, thanks to the owners providing only a small amount of encouragement.   This is a Sugar Glider coming down to see us.  If we made a sudden move he just glidered off to another tree, but returned a few minutes latter.
We got to know some of the better walks this trip, the forest was great the streams clear and pure.  This combo of course meant their were lots to see as well as keep an eye on, like Leaches. Some creeks we had to wade across, they were so fresh, but on the other side when you had to put your boats and socks back on, the leaches abounded.

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 I've seen vines growing, going way up into the tree canopy, but this vine was HUGE! around 30cm across at the base.

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Updated on  July 15, 2005