Once back in Cairns, we had planned to do a dive on the Reef and also the Train / Skyrail trip to Kuranda which is a little town up on the tablelands from Cairns. Unfortunately, the caravan park we had wanted to stay in was $56 per night because of peak season and school holidays, we worked out it was going to cost us about $1,000 to do all that we wanted and also it was raining so a dive wouldn't have been that great, ditto for the scenic train and skyrail. We decided to just hang out in a free camp for a few days and drive to Kuranda and some other spots we wanted to see around Cairns and then head west! We camped at Mount Molloy at the Rifle Creek free campsite. Mount Molloy is about 40 minutes drive from Mossman, Kuranda and a bit further to Cairns but it is the only free campsite within coo-ee of Cairns so was very popular.
Rifle Creek camping ground at Mount Molloy
The police had literally blocked off the road from Cooktown after the weekends festivities, they were breathalysing both ways. We ran into our Canadian friend, Don, also on the way back from Cooktown, he had been up there for the weekend and was heading back to Gordonvale to catch up with some people he had met along the way. He was pretty happy that he got through the roadblock.
When we arrived at Mount Molloy, Jesse was asleep and it was still early so we wanted to drive down to the Mossman Gorge to have a look. We unhitched the van, made sure it was all locked up, left some fellow campers in charge and headed down the range to Mossman.
The Mossman Gorge section of the Daintree National Park is just stunning. It is postcard picture perfect rainforest with large boulders and creek running through, and a great swimming spot! Unfortunately it started to rain quite heavily while we were there so we did not get to enjoy it for long or get as many photos as I would have liked.
Mossman Gorge
Suspension bridge at Mossman Gorge
We fueled up at Mossman, I was quite amused to see the toilet keyring of choice at this petrol station was a toilet brush.
The next day we set out to have a look at Kuranda which is a town NW of Cairns up on the tablelands. A beautiful spot with great markets and shopping and lots of indigenous artwork, most people take the train or skyrail up to Kuranda from Cairns but as we were coming from the other way, we decided to drive, it was very cloudy and wouldn't have been able to see much anyway.
We drove down to the Barron Gorge which is spectacular, but both of us thinking how good it would be to see some of these places in the wet season.
Barron Gorge
We met a fabulous didge player 'Jimmy' who played for us (before the train crowd hit the streets).
Jimmy and Jesse
After lunch we headed down to Cairns as we had to collect our mail from the post office and we decided to go to the Casino Wildlife Dome which has a tropical bird and animal park at the top (used to be the high rollers area). Hutchy wanted to have a flutter on roulette at the Casino, he seems to have a goal of playing roulette in every Casino in Australia. Anyway the Dome was good, Jesse was very excited to see his first real crocodile 'Goliath' who weighs is over 4m long, and Hutchy won $150 on the tables, a good afternoon all round.
Goliath
After some food shopping back up the range to our campsite, we met some lovely people at this campsite. Some who have settled in there for a few weeks even have nightly get togethers around the campfire, talk around the campfire at these free spots seems to centre on how many grandchildren you have, I reckon my Grandpa would be the king of the free camps with 27 of us (with me being the oldest and Jodi's little boy Ethan who is only three months old being the youngest). Also, everyone is keen to share information on the good spots to camp and places to see. Hutchy and I agreed that we both like the free campsites better as caravan parks just don't seem to have the same communal feeling.
On Wednesday we packed up and headed off again, we planned to stay at Babinda again and from there head out on the Savannah Way through Ravenshoe to Innot Hot Springs and then onto the Undara Lava Tubes.
On our way we dropped into the Golden Drop Mango Winery, did some tasting, and picked up a bottle of Mango Cello mmmmm. We pulled in to Atherton for lunch and had a look at the Crystal Caves. We cracked a Mexican Geode to send to Nellie for her birthday.
Cracking the Geode
The inside of the Mexican Geode, 44 million years old.
From Atherthon we headed down to Gordonvale and Babinda, dropping in to see the Curtain Fig which is just an amazing tree.
Curtain Fig
We were blown away by the Cairns area, there is so much to do and see and it is all just beautiful, and we didn't even see the reef....
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