Aussirose Travel and Photography: 2009

Following our great VT Whitsundays meet and a few days on Hamilton Island, I left the others and flew into Cairns.

~~oOo~~

TROPIC DAYS

Hubby and Zig headed back to the mainland and drove in Zig's car to Cardwell as they had planned to head on over to Hinchinbrook Island for a big hike.

Not me. I was going to experience my first backpacker stay in Cairns.

To this day I have fun memories of staying in tropic days. There were so many great activities at the backpackers, they had a free little bus service into town, they gave us
discount vouchers for meals in town and, they had a pool!

I totally recommend Tropic Days.

~~oOo~~

THE ESPLANADE

The esplanade runs right the way along the beach front in Cairns. This is a great place for an early morning or dusk walk with the scent of tropical flowers and soft sea breeze.

The beach itself is just mud flats. You need to go further north to see beaches with lovely white sand.

Cairns does however have a free pool on the beach front and on the esplanade. It's very popular with locals and tourists.

~~oOo~~

BOTANICAL GARDENS

Cairns botanical gardens is a lovely place to visit with its shady paths and colourful tropical flowers. They have a little café as well where you can enjoy a light lunch and glass of wine or beer.

I caught up with good friends Dorrise and Anne who held the first big VT Meet in Melbourne whilst in Cairns and took a leisurely stroll through the gardens.

~~oOo~~

KURANDA

This is a must do when in cairns - the train up to Kuranda and Skyrail back down or visa versa.

We didn't do it this time because Anne had her car so we drove up to Kuranda instead and had a wander around the quaint gift shops and nice pub lunch on the shady verandah.

Dorrise did a jump for jumpingnorman.

Do check out the 3 second video below.

DORRISE JUMPS FOR JUMPING NORMAN VIDEO

~~oOo~~

HIGHEST ROAD TO THE HIGHEST PUB

More about that later. But first…..

MILLAA MILLAA FALLS

This place is magical!! I loved it.

Millaa Millaa falls rightly earns the reputation of being the most photographed falls in Queensland.

And Dorrise and I were there.... yea!!

MILLAA MILLAA FALLS VIDEO

~~oOo~~

CURTAIN AND CATHEDRAL FIG

Dorrise took me for a day out into the hills south west of Cairns and I am most grateful! We had an amazing day and covered a ton of miles.

There's so much to see and do here and the scenery is terrific. We visited the curtain fig and cathedral fig in which I did a jump for jumpingnorman. Please see the 2 second video below.

This is basically a strangler vine that attaches itself to a tree and takes over. The weight of the vine can make the tree lean over thus creating a curtain effect as the strangler cascades to the ground.

An amazing sight!

AUSSIROSE JUMPS FOR JUMPING NORMAN VIDEO

~~oOo~~

LAKE BARRINE

We had a short stop at Lake Barrine, a lovely place for coffee and toast topped with homemade jam or Devonshire tea. Yuuum.

Lake Barrine is one of a few volcanic craters in the area now filled with fresh water and home for a wide variety of wildlife including numerous birds, a twitter haven.

~~oOo~~

LAKE EACHAM

Lake Eacham was nice as well.

All of these places are not far from each other.

~~oOo~~

YUNGABARRA

Cute name hey.

😊

Yungabarra is a quaint town with little stores and tiny craft and gift shops. We visited a woodwork gift shop, gem shop and had a taste of the local dessert wines at the winery next door.

One thing about Queensland, is we don't beat around the bush with our names. "whistle stop café" says it all.

Yes, I am a Queenslander and proud of it!

😜

~~oOo~~

THE HIGHEST ROAD

I am just going to back track to when we left Cairns on our way to Millaa Millaa falls.

Well this was when it all got exciting!! We took the high road to the highest town and pub in QLD, all the way to the Atherton Tablelands.

The small windy road had an elevation of 1162 metres. We even saw a few utes to which Dorrise commented, peak hour traffic lol. And finally arrived at the Tully Falls hotel, now called the Ravenshoe Hotel, the highest pub at an elevation of 916 metres.

PEAK HOUR ON THE HIGHEST ROAD VIDEO

The highest town Ravenshoe as you may have guessed is not pronounced 'raven shoe' as I first thought haha. But 'ravens hoe'.

The Tully looked a bit dingy, so we held our hunger for a bit longer and continued on.

Ravenshoe is not much to talk about, the highest pub certainly wasn't much to talk about. But the journey there was definitely a talking point!! Fantastic views!!! And great conversation with Dorrise.

So, finally we arrived at Millaa Millaa and after visiting the falls, we were starving!! Lunch at the pub had just finished so not to be deterred, we hit the local cafe and had an amazing huge burger!!

This was a trip forever in my memory! Great company and lovely countryside. I can't thank Dorrise enough for such a wonderful day out.

Luv ya sis!! xx

❤

~~oOo~~

THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN

Howie and Zig had been a few days hiking on Hinchinbrook Island and had arrived in Cairns. The plan was to drive along the Savannah Way across the top end of Australia up to Darwin where Zig lives.

The boys had an interesting story to tell. They didn't finish the hike. Instead they had to be rescued after poor hubby slipped and fell into the water, big camera case and all. We couldn't rescue the camera and lenses but luckily the card with photos survived. So it was off to the canon shop in cairns to purchase a new camera for hubby.

I couldn't help but boast about the wonderful time I had in cairns with Dorrise and fun at the backpackers.

Zig chose for us to stay at the Hides Hotel in town. Good choice. I loved having breakfast on the big verandah and people watching.

Being right in town is perfect for public transport, shopping and restaurants.

There was also an Irish Pub PJ O'Briens below Hides on the street which put on a good feed and reasonably priced drinks.

Picture taken from Yamsafer.com

~~oOo~~

BEACHES

Cairns does have beaches with white sand. You need to go north to Palm Cove, trinity and Yorkeys Knob.

Zig wanted to show us Nobby beach where he lived for some time when young.

My favourite was Trinity beach.

There are buses in town near the Hides Hotel that go here.

Trekki's Nobby was still with us.

I got his little passport stamped

at the Yorkeys Knob Post Office :)

~~oOo~~

FETTA’S GREEK TAVERNA

Cairns is fairly small but has a huge selection of cafes and restaurants and markets. Foodies are spoilt with choice here. Our favourite was Fetta’s Greek Taverna.

~~oOo~~

DAY TRIP TO THE DAINTREE

I was excited to see the top end of Australia. This was my first trip to the Daintree. The scenery along the way was beautiful, driving so close to the coastline.

We had a lovely lunch on the verandah of a restaurant at the end of the main street overlooking a waterfall. And after we took a croc spotting cruise which was amazing!