Stirling to Palm Cove Day 11

August 14th 2022

This morning once again brings a glorious sunrise to start the day in Townsville. A few more photo’s are irresistible.

The view from the tenth floor of our hotel is a big plus, whereas the unloading and loading of the car from this altitude is a definite minus. After our homemade breakfast of fruit and granola in our room we start the packing ready for an early take off. The hotel is pretty well fully automated, we haven’t seen a single employee for the two day stay. Someone crept in and serviced the room during the day and we drop our key into the human contact free checkout box as we depart. The last leg of our journey north is 375 kilometres, with an estimated arrival about 1.30pm in Palm Cove. The terrain becomes more and more tropical with rainforest that covers any areas not cultivated with sugar cane, mountains that always remind me of Hawaii, green and lush telling a story of increased rainfall and humidity. We pass through the Paluma Range National Park to the west whilst the Coral sea is to our east. The towns are neat and tidy, the first, Ingham a reasonably large community of 4500 people founded around 1870 as a most suitable place to grow sugar cane, the first mill established in 1872. In those early days the work force consisted of south sea islanders contracted for 3 years, paid just 6 pounds a year.

Another National Park looms ahead to our west as we travel on towards Cardwell, the Girringun National Park, is one of this areas wet tropics world heritage parks and is an official World Heritage Site. Hinchinbrook Island is just off the coast to the east forming part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, the island is the largest on the Great Barrier Reef also the largest Island National Park in Australia. By the time we reach Cardwell a comfort stop beckons, we spot a small park with public facilities but when we drive in it is much bigger than first anticipated. And very popular, with hardly a car parking space available. The park is right on the ocean front with a narrow sandy beach with waves lapping at the shoreline. Hinchinbrook Island visible across the strait. The reason for the parks popularity is soon evident, there are several pop up food vans one selling coffee and muffins, one selling various hot foods and one specialising in pies, Queenslanders it seems love savoury pies. since arriving in the sunshine state we have increasingly noticed the abundance of pie shops or bakeries advertising pies of assorted ingredients. Even the United Fuel Stations are called “Pie Face” followed by the town name. A curiosity that had us wondering up until now. Our stop involves the bare minimum with us soon on the road again. Cardwell is indeed a beautiful little township with a definite holiday vibe about it. Population about 1300 the town sits on the edge of the Cardwell State Forest. Amanda notices a street market along the town beach front, Can we, can we she asks pleadingly can we stop to take a look a little closer on our return trip. Our next town is Tully that has the distinction of having the highest rainfall in Australia 4000mm per year, compared to Stirling’s 1100mm. One of the contributing factors towards the high rainfall is the towns location between two Mountains Mt. Tyson and Mt. Mackay.

Sugar cane, sugar cane, sugar cane, the cane fields completely dominate the landscape for this part of the journey along the Cassowary Coast. A Cassowary is a large flightless rain forest bird found only in the northern parts of Queensland.

As we approach Innisfail banana plantations start to appear, also extensive, spreading out over hectares, with the fruit ripening under covers with aluminium foil tops and colourful fabric bottoms that are open to the air beneath. A colourful site as we head relentlessly north. Once we arrive at Innisfail we are in familiar territory. Innisfail is the largest town on the Cassowary Coast (Pop. 7250) and also is a high rainfall area. The town received world wide news coverage when cyclone Larry devastated the town and banana plantations in 2006. Leaving many homes destroyed and crops ruined. Innisfail is as far south as we have travelled from Palm Cove on any of our previous trips. At 116km south a round trip is a full day of sightseeing especially if travelling a loop through the Atherton Tablelands and returning via the coast on the Bruce highway where we are today.

After Innisfail we continue along the Bruce Highway passing through the town of Babinda, Mount Bartle Frere, the tallest mountain in Queensland at 1611 metres (5285ft) sits in the Wooroonooran National Park off to the west on the eastern edge of the Atherton Tablelands, a vast elevated plateau with a considerably cooler climate than down on the coast. From here we pass through the familiar town of Gordonvale before taking the ring route around Cairns to the Northern Beaches and our destination Palm Cove. We stop off to do a little shopping along the way, enough to tide us over for a few days to settle in, but arrive in good time. We unpack and settle into our accommodation here for our month long stay. The journey behind us, we can put our feet up and celebrate having made the journey without too many hiccups. Will sign off for now and settle on some plans for our adventures in Paradise, 28C and clear skies. Helen and Howard will join us on a few excursions, with Kylie, Grandkids with partners and Great Grandson Lincoln to arrive in two weeks for some great family fun in the sun time. To be continued…….