All good things . . .

It rained through the night but the morning broke bright and sunny – so bright that the white boats out on the Endeavour River were almost too white to look at! We showered and packed and handed our keys back to Reception before driving up the road a short way to the Kiosk where we had eaten breakfast the day before.

The food and the location could not be bettered so we chose it for breakfast on our last day in Cooktown.

I think that we had managed to see and photograph just about everything there was to see and photograph without getting onto a boat, so we slammed the doors shut on the little white hire car and drove off into the sunset – well maybe not – but in that direction!

WE passed a few signs to scenic lookouts – but we had called in to most of them on the way north so did not stop this time around. High on a hill we did let the wheel turn us onto a tiny track up a rise. There were two other vehicles up there when we arrived and the view, although magnificent, was directly east so we were looking straight into the sun. 

Fortunately there was a spindly tree offering a bit of shade so I stood under that to take my photograph. Sunlight on the lens makes a very disappointing job of a great picture! I recommend that when you are faced with a similar situation that you either get someone to hold their hat to put shade on the lens or else look for a shady spot as I did. Since there was nothing else to see except for rolling hills and dazzling sunshine, our stop at the James Earl lookout was very short (I have no idea who James Earl was! Maybe a local councilor?)

After a couple of hours of driving I felt in need of a pick-me-up so we drove into the roadhouse at Mt Carbine and bought coffees (once I had established that there was indeed a coffee machine! I don’t like instant coffee!)

Colin chose to take a photo of his very weary wife – it really shows!

I did feel a lot brighter after the coffee though. The drive changed at Mr Molloy where we had to drive down a steep and very windy road through amazing rainforest. It was so beautiful that I felt very wide awake! What a great road! I asked Colin to take lots of photos as we drove down but his style of shooting is not mine and unfortunately none of them are good enough to share. The sun was dappling through the canopy all the time and the brightness on the windscreen seemed to have coincided with each of his shutter snaps. But they are a memory for us of how beautiful it was.

Then we were driving along the coast. WE stopped for a couple of shots. Its funny but we both felt that we had “stopped here before” and wanted to keep driving. When I did stop the view that was so tantalizing from the moving car did not seem to be as lovely as expected!

Yes, the sea was gorgeous, the rocks gave character and the vegetation along the beach was green and bright – but somehow it looked even more special from the moving car! Crazy!

But I did find one spot where the beach looked even better from out of the car.

If I had driven past I would not have seen the palm tree leaning over the sands, somehow that one palm gives a very tropical look!

As we drove closer to Cairns I realized that it was lunch time so rather than go directly to our motel I turned the car to Trinity Beach, picked up food for lunch and took it down to a park near the sands. Although it was quite a hot day we found a lovely shady spot in a little garden on the Esplanade. A few people wandered past us as we sat there. It was a relaxed and very pleasant ambience.

We were using the cups that we had purchased on the train tour and I remembered the challenge that had been issued by the train driver to take photographs of the mugs in different locations, so I set my mug on a fence with the sands of Trinity Beach behind and here it is.

Our travels in North Queensland are over. Tomorrow all I have to do is take the car back to the hire car firm and fly back home to the Gold Coast. All good things must come to an end!

AJ

Don't forget! Click on one of the pictures and you will be able to see each of them much larger and clearer - its worth doing! Also, to contact me send an email to joanren AT gmail.com

Cooktown's splendors

Almost the entire morning was spent remembering James Cook, the seafaring explorer, cartographer and the man responsible for putting Australia on the map. Down on the river bank there are monuments to where the bark "Endeavour" was pulled up to the shore and repaired. The people of Cooktown have gone out of their way to make sure that every item that could be saved of that time has been preserved or even returned to Cooktown. A canon that was on board the ship was sent to them from where-ever it had been found.

Colin is standing on the top of "Grassy Hill" which is reputed to be the place that Cook stood and looked out to see the pattern of the river and coast so that he could plan his next moves. The water below Colin is that of the Endeavour River and Cook would have been anchored just below the trees in front of him.
The Botanic Gardens also had plenty of reminders of Captain Cook. I love looking through Botanic Gardens - but I am not good at remembering the names of plants! I want to share with you a couple of the pictures I took.

There were a few very large Malaleuca trees commonly known as Paperbark. The bark is soft and takes on many shade of gold and has been used artistically to make "bark paintings" which are very clever - tiny pieces of bark are stuck down to give a painted effect.

Bamboo was introduced to Australia and loves the conditions here! Colin helped to show the size of the bunch.

A pretty butterfly obliged by keeping fairly still for me, it was morning so there was still plenty of nectar in the flowers so the butterfly was having quite a feast.

One place that every visitor to this town MUST go is to the James Cook Museum. As the name suggests this museum is mostly about the man who captained the ship that landed here in 1770. I was amused that the stump of the tree to which the "Endeavour" was tied was preserved in the museum!

A very large anchor that is believed to be that of the "Endeavour" is housed behind glass along with a canon that was on board too. The anchor looks to be far too big for the size of the ship that Cook sailed in, it must have been very heavy hanging from the back of the ship - or maybe it was hauled on board. I shall have to investigate further!

A special treat for me was an outing in the company of this man, Wilfred Gordon. He takes people on tours of his country and shows off the ancient artwork that is hidden under rocky overhangs and helps his customers to understand a bit more about the Aboriginal culture of this area.We learned about some of the plants that were important to the Aborigines, about the edible ones and the toxic ones that once treated in a certain way, could be eaten. There was so much I learned and lots more I still want to know!

The artworks under the rocky shelves were almost in the dark and quite difficult to see until your eyes became accustomed to the light (or lack of it!). This picture was taken with the camera on "automatic" which meant that the pop up flash sprang into action. Although a false image because of its brightness it serves to show how much activity has gone on in this small area of about two meters. Red ochre is the crushed rock that was used for the illustrations in this area.
I shall recommend to anyone who is planning a trip to Cooktown to include a "Guurrbi Tour" by Willie Gordon. Everyone needs to learn more about the culture that many Aborigines have lost.
AJ
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From Cairns to Cooktown

After picking up the hire car we “hit the road” and were soon at Port Douglas. This is a place that has blossomed so much since we first visited in the 1980s – so much so that we can hardly find anything that is the same – but we did! The little Church has not been moved or changed and we came across it just as the morning Sunday Service was starting.

 We could here the congregation singing one of the old, old hymns I remember from my childhood! “There is a green hill far away without a city wall” Remember it?

Only inches away from the little church the Sunday market was in full swing and I enjoyed our wander through the stalls and was quite tempted by one of the paintings by one of the artists – until I saw several others EXACTLY the same in different sizes! That put me off! If I am to buy an oil painting I want it to be unique!

The drive to Cooktown had me worried – we seemed to be heading South when I thought we should be going North. It is a horrible feeling not knowing if you are on the right road or not and there are no road signs to help and reassure! Fortunately there was a map in the glovebox and Colin told me that we were heading in the right direction and to stop worrying! I wasn’t happy until we reached Lakeland. Our son, Steven had told us to drive off the highway and find the coffee house.

 It is a place you wouldn’t find unless someone had told you where to look. We bought a coffee  there – locally grown and prepared and enjoyed it while sitting under the shade of the veranda.

Refreshed and alert again we continued on our long trek to Cooktown. The sight of a heap of black stones made us pull up to see what this was all about! 

 We had come across “Black Mountain” and the black stones are the solidified magma from a small volcano that had pushed up into a cone, the weather had caused the cooled material to crack and decompose between the cracks so forming lots of boulders. The black is a layer of lichen that has adhered to the rocks over hundreds of years.

From there it was only a few more minutes before we were in the famous landing place of the Explorer James Cook and the motel in which were are to stay for the next two nights. What a view we have from our window!

 Feeling as though we had been sitting down all day (well we had!) we walked the length of Charlotte Street taking photographs as we went – there are many old buildings and interesting things to see on that one street! 

 Now we shall take the car and drive to where we shall have a meal. I think I have made Colin walk far enough for one day!

AJ

By the way - If you click on any one of the pictures you can see all of them much larger and clearer - there will be an arrow that will allow you to scroll through them. Should you need to comment and find the process too difficult, drop me a line - joanren AT gmail.com (written that way so the address is not "clickable!")

Train to Cairns

It was a very long day of train travel today. Although we didn’t have to get up quite so early as the previous two days it was still an early start. The first four hours were actually quite “boring” so I was quite glad that I had not packed the cross-word book in my case. I managed to complete two puzzles and catch up on a bit of sleep!

 There were a couple of short stops of ten minutes so we were able to stretch our legs but what was a treat was to pull in to Armadan – a “one horse town” – in time to watch the leaders of the “wheelbarrow Race” arrive to great cheers and lots of camera clicking! This Wheelbarrow race is quite a marathon that takes three days to run – the distance can be covered by one runner, a couple of runners or a team of up to ten runners. Teams take it in turns to leap out of the support vehicle and take over the running. The race is 140 klm, from Mareeba to Chillagoe and is in remembrance of the pioneer gold miners who walked that distance taking their tools and basic needs with them in a barrow.

The Great Wheelbarrow Race is becoming greater year by year. This year 700 runners registered! What was a shame was that the radio station that had set up to cheer the runners as they arrived fell silent just as the first barrow racers appeared on the home straight. 

 For some reason technical problems (gremlins) ruined the arrival of the winners and they ran through the winning arch in silence. 

Same for the second couple who arrived only minutes behind the first couple. How disappointing! We were so lucky to see these two pairs of runners arrive though. The tiny town of Armadan (population 70) swelled in numbers quite dramatically with tents and caravans littered all over the main area between the hotel and the rail line! 

The crowd off the Savannahlander (us) helped to increase those numbers even more.

 Oh yes! The train was “held up” by a couple of highway men! 

 These two young “Ned Kelly” characters are raising money for a holiday! How enterprising is that!

The next really exciting thing to happen today was on the final run down from Kuranda, 

We stopped at Barron Falls for a few minutes to take a few photographs of the almost non-existent flow of water over the falls – but we stopped again soon after at the Stony Creek Falls, climbed out onto the tracks and walked across the viaduct to wait for the train to cross so that we could take a photograph.

 I don’t know how often this happens, there must have been about a dozen of us who took this opportunity. We were warned to stay with the train driver and not step onto the tracks at all but stay by the rail and then on the grass at the end of the viaduct.

 This photograph of the train is by Colin as I was taking video of the train coming over the viaduct.

Another highlight! We all felt so privileged to have been given the chance to do this. Spirits were very high as we all climbed back on board.

Names and addresses were exchanged before we pulled in to Cairns station and it looks like many friendships were made on this trip.

Tonight we sleep in Cairns and lie in a bit longer in the morning!

AJ

Stepping back through time

Today I have crossed two things off my bucket list! I had set my heart on seeing the incredible shapes of the Cobbold Gorge and the second desire was to see the Undara lava tubes for myself. My tour guide son has taken some wonderful photographs of both places and I have seen them on different “Getaway” type programs but they both looked to be so unique that I wanted to go there myself. Now I have done it!

To begin the day we crawled out of a bed that was in the Forsayth Tourist Park at the unearthly hour of five in the morning and climbed aboard a mini bus that bounced us along unsealed roads to the Cobbold Gorge. Just walking down the new aluminum walkway was a treat – at every step the savannah scrub changed to a very different well watered riverside vegetation of strong majestic trees and smaller leafy bushes. 

 The walkway down to the little punts

The lushness of the gorge.

We only had to wait a few minutes for the earlier tour to return, two small electric powered punts pulled up and we climbed aboard.

 I thought I had made a mistake by being the last in line but no, I found myself at the very front of the second punt and I was able to attach my tiny Panasonic video camera with a “gorilla-pod” grip to the railing which allowed me to take photographs with the D90 without having to struggle with two cameras. I was in heaven! 

The Gorge was even better than I anticipated. The guide who piloted the punt was a very quiet country fellow so did not bombard us with commentary and our six fellow passengers were as quiet as I was – in fact I think I was the noisiest because of the loud click my camera makes! There was hardly any conversation or sound of exclamations at all! Today the sun was not strong so we had fairly soft light which meant that we didn’t have to fight with strong shadows and extra bright highlights. I still had to be careful not to include too much sky because it was so white with clouds that the automatic adjustments made the cliff faces too dark. Having less of that bright sky allowed a more even balance of light.

The people who show us the wonderful sights of the Savannahland are just so passionate about where they live it is infectious! The two drivers on our train (The Savannahlander) are the same, they really enjoy what they do and love showing off the features we pass and telling the stories of the different towns, their explorers and the special characters that make them the place they are.

We hear the same stories with variations – but that’s the way with story telling, the story changes a little each time it is re-told.

We were picked up from the train in Mt Surprise by a bubbly lad with a strong New Zealand accent and a Dutch name! He first took us to our accommodation at the Bedrock Tourist Park (Free standing cabins with en-suite and mini kitchen) and then out to the lava tubes.

 Our guide explaining the lava tubes and the area they cover

I was not disappointed! The sight of these huge arches of black basalt made my heart race! To imagine the phenomena that create these and the weathering that had revealed them so we could enter them is mind blowing. (well it is for me!) I had to be careful not to get left behind – I wanted not only to photograph every nook and cranny but to stand and gaze at the majesty of the place. The trees and plants that have grown in the rich soil of the decayed volcanic tubes are like a garden and to stand in the entrance of the black tunnel and gaze out at this display of greens and golds is so beautiful.

 From inside one of the tunnels looking out. (Very slow shutter speed!)

When we went into the second tunnel I was playing around with trying to get slow shutter speed photos – without a tripod this was proving really difficult! Anyway our guide enthusiastically suggested painting with light and he recommended the settings I should try. It would have worked if I had brought a tripod! But this is the best I could do with eight seconds. Jahn painted himself too – and he moved so there are three of him! Sort of!

 The bright bits are Jahn!

This time the camera is on a tiny little tripod - much better!

What a wonderful day. I shall dream of this trip!

We did so much more than this but those two I have told you are the highlights.

AJ

On the rails

This is our second day of train travel and today we have traversed some amazing country. We did enjoy our stay at Chillagoe, country people are so welcoming – maybe because we were originally country people ourselves, I don’t know, but we have found people we would chose as friends in every stop we have made on this trip!

The train trip is in quite long stretches and the Savannah country is very similar for much of the distance except for the occasional creek crossing or river bed. I have my camera set on a high shutter speed to enable me to capture the beauty within the river beds with little or (hopefully!) no blur to indicate that the picture was taken while on the move! Each of the creeks is different – some are dry and either rocky or else quite sandy or a few have remnants of water still in narrow bands within the wide river bed. The trees that grow in these river beds or along the sides are much healthier than their cousins on the open plains and there are a few different varieties that stand out.

For many miles we see no animals and we forget that we are traveling through huge cattle stations, then we find patches where the cattle are close to the train tracks. The cattle up here are all Brahman, floppy eared creatures with a pendulous dewlap.

They are a tough breed of cattle that are tick resistant, the traditional European breeds of cattle are completely unsuitable for either the ticks that suck the creatures blood and inject a poison or the extremes of temperature in this part of Australia. At one place where the track traveled between a high cutting and a steep drop-away, the cattle were all over the tracks and our train had to creep quite slowly to avoid hitting any - the noise and movement of the train did encourage them to get out of our way. The front seats of the first carriage were jammed with people with cameras set on “video” mode. The people in the second carriage could see nothing of the entertainment going on at the front of the train!

Another fun thing that happened today was the promise of a stop at a siding where the locals would be waiting at Bullock Creek Café with tea coffee and cakes and a souvenir mug that we could purchase. When we arrived at the Bullock Creek siding there was nothing to be seen except for old timber cattle yards and a tiny tin shed with the name “Bullock Creek” written on the top. “We shall have to make a phone call and hurry them up” said our driver over the PA and marched down to the back of the train. Within minutes the two drivers had put up a beach umbrella and set up tables on which were cakes and cups of tea and coffee. Sure enough the mugs were for sale! We shall make good use of ours!

If it were not for this tourist train chugging through this hungry country and stopping at the places it does the life would be drained from these tiny communities. Once a week the train and its load of tourist passengers pass through and then back again. Places like Einasleigh with its handful of houses and one large hotel would fade away if it were not for the Savannahlander.

I love the sign work on the front of the pub – a play on words!

This evening as we made our way to where we were to have our meal in Forsayth I realized that the sun was setting and so far I had not taken any pictures of an outback sunset. Leaving my exhausted husband to wait I trotted off to take my picture without road signs or power poles! It was a beautiful evening sky, not the most dramatic I have ever seen but beautiful all the same and the temperature was perfect. The heat of the day had dissipated and the flies had stopped being overly friendly. (where there are cattle there are flies) It was quiet and there was no wind at all.

I should have taken a photo of our meal – try as I could I could not eat more than half of it! I had forgotten that country people serve country sized meals! Colin even managed to have a dessert afterwards! I think I am letting the side down! And that was after I had piled my unwanted potatoes onto his plate too!

It’s another early start tomorrow. so I should end here. No internet or phone connections available in this part of the world so I will have to try to post this tomorrow night.

AJ

A train to the outback

After and early start - up at five and out dragging our suitcase down the empty streets  of Cairns by five thirty, we met up with our fellow travellers at the Cairns rail station and waited for the arrival of our home for the next four days. Actually we shall not be sleeping on the train, lodgings have been arranged in three different outback towns - the last day of travel will end in Cairns
The train is called the Savannahlander since it is used solely for the run from Cairns into the Savannahlands of Queensland. it comprises of only two carriages and had two engineers who take it i turns to drive and give commentary.

The first leg of our trip was up the mountains to the pretty little station at Kuranda the views on this run are quite spectacular and almost everyone had their cameras clicking madly at eery vantage point. Most of the time photos had to be taken from the moving train but at Baron Falls the train did stop and allow us all out for ten minutes.

I have been on the usual tourist train that does this run - it is a very long train with lots of carriages and hundreds of passengers, in this photo you can see the sum total of the travellers on our train - and the majority of them are on a day trip to - they left us at Mareeba to board a coach for the rest of their tour.

And these are the not really so spectacular falls that the train stops to let us see! No one really minds though, it is such a thrill to get out and look across such a tree clad gorge and see the landscape. The water  is held back for a hydro electric plant but we can see that at one time those falls would have been quite huge.
Our next stop was the prize winning garden station Kuranda.

By this time it was about eight thirty and although the sun is up and the sky blue, the trees and vegetation make this picture look rather dark! Or maybe it is the light on the front of the Savannahlander that does that!
Once we had dropped the day trippers off at Mareeba the train clattered on through the rainforest for a while and then quite suddenly it was out of it and into the savannah country - short scrubby trees thinly scattered over rough grassland. For most of our trip the countryside will look like this - and among the trees termite castles! I loved the amazing shapes of some of them.

I do apologise for the dreadful quality of the photograph but although I wasn't moving in the train those termite mounds were racing past! But you can see that anyone with an imagination could see strange creatures! (Yep! I have imagination!)
Our day was so busy, I could go one and give you lots of stories but I will miss most of the trip out and show you the inside of one of the caves at Chillagoe. This cave may not be as dramatic or as ornamental as some of the limestone caves I have visited but it was still fascinating - and I enjoyed the challenge of taking photos in a place where the only light was the torch each of us carried. This photo was a slow shutter speed photo with no flash. The guide was pointing out creatures created by the stalactites and stalagmites.

Everyone was so tired by this time they were quite happy to sit still!
The people of the outback need a story about them - they are so different from city folk! But maybe not! More of our travels tomeorrow!
AJ