2WD drive around oz

6^th July.2010.  A new view from our window.

Yes this is our view this morning, and yes we are just two metres from the beach. No, they are not rocks on the beach, they are coconuts.

This tropical beach, which we have to share with about ten other people from this small campsite, comfortably squeezed between the beach and the rainforest, would look well on any tourist brochure.

We are just north of Mission Beach (Bingil Bay) and those twin peaks shrouded in mist are the peaks of Dunk Island. The weather is still not much chop, but compared with the misery you are suffering in Sydney, we are not complaining. As you can see from the photo, it’s cool enough for the kids to have clothes on, rather than just cosies. It dropped right down to 22 degrees yesterday but should be up around 28 today.

Yesterday, we detoured just north of Townsville into a wet tropical national park area and walked to waterfall where Rolf had a quick dip. Saw a variety of birds, including the grey fantail. It is quite wonderful to be in a place where there is absolutely no man made noise intruding on the peace.

The wonderful things you see along the way are usually too fleeting to capture with a camera; a Shetland pony nuzzling a water bird; a Monet waterlily pond of gorgeous lilies, with a tiny, black, red-beaked Jesus bird hopping from pad to pad, followed closely by it’s two, miniscule chicks; a Zali sized child disappearing among the columned roots of a giant fig and then climbing up and up to be embraced by its branches, far higher than a Sydney parent or OH&S would allow; a cassowary foraging beside the road close to a sign that says not to feed the cassowary’s

Queensland certainly has a feeling of freedom which has long since disappeared with all the over regulation in NSW. I guess there is just a lot less litigation here. People are enjoying life too much to be bothered. I notice that some of the Qld travel brochures that advertise eco-forest cabins or resorts boast that as an added bonus their venues have “absolutely no mobile phone coverage,” which I guess exemplifies the difference in attitude of the two states.

Will turn off at Gordonvale to Atherton and then on to Cooktown.

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Staying tonight at a busy freebee camp, Rocky Creek War Memorial Park, about 10 km north of Atherton. The park has been designed as a memorial to some 300,000 Australians who trained on the tablelands during the War years before being sent overseas. There are dozens of standing granite stones each with a plaque commemorating the various battalions. Quite a moving place. The area also housed the 2/2^nd AGH malaria experimental ward, where research was done on volunteers. This was apparently, the largest military base in Australia.

Hello, Emily, James, Zali, Lachlan and Koby.

Do you like the pictures of the children on their ponies? These children belonged to the local pony club and they brought their ponies down to the river for a swim, but the water was a bit too deep for the little boy on his Shetland pony. He had to scramble quickly back up the bank before he got washed down stream.