Ingham to Julia Creek

Hello all
Before leaving the Ingham area, I went out to have a look at the 5.7 kilometre long Sugar loading jetty at Lucinda

5.7 km long jetty at Lucinda

I will come back and spend a few days in Townsville in a week or so. I headed West away from the coast and wet weather.

I was surprised at how quickly the country side dried out, Outback Queensland is in the grip of a severe drought at the moment. 

I feel for the farmers out here but to my favour, at least the sun is shining.

30c days and cool nights, lovely..........I am heading towards Mt Isa, then Winton and Longreach before doubling back towards Townsville.
Not much news this time................
Bye for now.

 
 

Mission Beach to Ingham

Hello all
I didn't think much of Mission Beach, so moved on pretty quickly. 

Mission Beach

The only plus was, as I was leaving I had to stop and give way to a Cassowary...................I was beginning to think they were imagined as I had not seen one yet. The downside was, I usually travel with my camera on the passenger seat...........don't you know it?........it was packed away in the camera case, so no photos.

 I took the road out to Tully Gorge, now you need to know that Tully has an average annual rainfall exceeding 4,000 millimetres (160 in), and the highest ever annual rainfall in a populated area of Australia (7,900 millimetres (310 in) in 1950), Tully is arguably the wettest town in Australia. I was not disappointed.................the rain has reappeared.

Tully River

Tully River

 I am not having a good run on the road at the moment..............yesterday I sat parked on the Bruce Highway above Cardwell for 45 minutes waiting on roadworks, then today crossing the Cardwell Range just North of Ingham, in pouring rain and fog was a 50 minute delay after a single vehicle rollover, with the Air Ambulance landing on the Highway.

The weather was touch and go but looked like clearing, and I didn't want to double back to see Wallaman Falls, so I took the chance.
Wallaman Falls are the tallest single drop waterfalls in Australia, with a single drop of 268 metres.

Wallaman Falls (yes, it was foggy and I couldn't see a thing)

another view, Wallaman Falls

I was not impressed, so I waited in the rain hoping the fog would lift a bit.

finally the Falls started to appear

Wallaman Falls, the best view I got

Last night I sat and studied my maps and weather forecasts, as I am a bit over the rain and cool 24c days. I have decided that once I reach Townsville I will head inland towards Winton and Longreach (Qantas Museum and Stockman's Hall of Fame) as the forecast for that area is 29-30c daytimes and 10-12c nights. I am missing the sun................
Bye for now.

Innisfail to Mission Beach (via Paronella Park)

Hello All
After a day or two doing laundry etc at Innisfail, I headed towards Paronella Park.

Paronella Park http://www.paronellapark.com.au/about/brief-history was built by Jose Paronella. The story is well worth the read, please click the link to discover the history of Paronella Park.

remains of The Grand Ballroom

Mena Falls

the Grand Staircase

the fountain

Lovers Lane

the Grand Boulevard

the old Tea Rooms

the old Tea Rooms

the old Tea Rooms

feeding the Eels in Mena Creek

Mena Falls

the Grand Ballroom

Jose Paronella's House with some random who wouldn't move so I could take a photo

the old Ballroom

The tour guide taught up a neat optical illusion, I will try to explain how it works..............standing below a waterfall, choose a tree on the opposite bank, select s spot in the middle of the waterfall and focus on that point for 20 seconds, now look back at the tree you chose and see it grow.............this really works and is amazing.
Paronella Park also run night Tours which was really good also.

the old Ballroom

Mena Falls

the old Tearooms

the old tearooms

Mena Falls

All up, Paronella Park was well worth the visit. I am now at Mission Beach, tomorrow I will head to Tully, and hopefully Tully Gorge if I can get this stupid Queensland Parks booking system working.
Bye for now
 

Cairns to Innisfail (includes Kuranda Skyrail and Millaa Millaa Falls)

Hello all
After a few days in Cairns waiting for mail, cleaning everything, and taking the camper off (to give the Ute a rest) I headed off again.

Cairns Foreshore free pool

Cairns Foreshore free pool

Before leaving Cairns I headed to the Kuranda Scenic Railway for the day. Arriving at Freshwater Station to board the train. The negative on this trip is they allocate seats............this meant I was on the wrong side of the train for photos and seated with parents that had no interest in controlling their 3 screaming uncontrollable monsters. The outcome was, no good photos and a headache by the time I arrived at Kuranda. While I had an enjoyable day otherwise I would not do this Train Ride again unless they could Guarantee me a window seat.

crossing Stony Creek Bridge

In 1882 the miners of Herberton were on the brink of starvation, unable to get supplies due to flooding. Dense jungle and cliffs with sheer drops of up to 327 metres and a slope as steep as 45 degrees were death traps for workers. Somehow, without modern equipment but simply fortitude, dynamite and bare hands the team eventually finished the job.
After removing 2.3 million metres of earthworks, creating 15 tunnels, 93 curves, dozens of bridges and 75 kilometres of track, marked the completion of Stoney Creek Bridge. Shortly after in June of 1891 the line was open for everyone to enjoy.

Stony Creek Falls

Stony Creek Bridge

A 10 minute stop at Baron Falls Station was made for a photo opportunity.

Baron Falls

Baron Station

A few hours were spent in Kuranda before heading to the Kuranda Skyrail Terminal for the return journey. The Skyrail is just as impressive as the Scenic Railway.

crossing the Baron River on Skyrail

gliding just above the rainforest

The statistics of the Skyrail are fairly impressive.......
7.5 kilometres long, all towers were lifted in to place by Helicopter to avoid disturbing the rainforest, the tallest tower is 40.5 metres high, there are 114 gondola cabins. The Skyrail was opened in 1995 and there are two stations where you can break your trip and go for a walk to a lookout or walk in the rainforest

looking towards Yorkies Knob

Crossing over the Kennedy Highway

Cairns in the distance

After all this, it was back on with the camper and head back up the hill to Atherton.

 This way a bit of a shock to the system............that night in Atherton got down to 7c...........i froze.

Millaa Millaa Falls

Millaa Millaa Falls

I wasn't ready for the cold nights so I have hightailed it back to the Coast to thaw out.

Babinda Rocks

 Seeing a rather non nondescript sign on the Highway, I decided to have a look at Babinda Rocks.

Babinda Rocks

There was a young guy swimming here when I arrived, and although this doesn't look deep, the sandy section you can see about half way was over chest deep. The Water was crystal clear.
The parcel I was waiting on in Cairns was a Solar Monitor I purchased online.
The display on my Solar Regulator is very hard to see in sunlight and gives very little information on what the Panel is doing.

  
This little gadget goes inline and gives 

 Current (Amps/A) at the present moment
 Voltage (Volts/V) at the present moment
 Power (Watts/W) at the present moment
 Total Amps (Amp hours/Ah) since device initialised
 Total Power (Watt hours/Wh) since device initialised
 Highest Voltage Maximum (Vm) since device initialised
 Highest Power Peak (Watt Peak/Wp) since device initialised
 Highest Current Peak (Amp Peak/Ap) since device initialised

This should make knowing what my Solar
Panels are actually doing a low simpler.

Another thing...............This site is fast approaching 10,000 hits and there are another few thousand hits from my older blogs. For this I thank you for taking an interest in my travels. Updating the blog is fairly time consuming, but knowing that people are interested spurs me on and makes it all worthwhile.
After a laundry day here tomorrow I will be heading to Paronella Park and Mission Beach, so stay tuned.
Bye for now........