David and Enid's Travels

Driving through the flooding creek at Marlborough

It rained most of the night, but was only sprinkling as we left at about 8 am.  However, there was a lot of water in the fields.  As we passed through Mackay I put the radio on and we listened to the 9 o’clock news.  The leadoff story was “There has been torrential rain in central Queensland …” and then the announcer started listing off the roads that are closed.  There was no mention of this highway so on we travelled, and then it really started to pour.

Unfortunately one of the problems with this motorhome is its front window.  It’s huge, and flat, and every stone that is thrown up hits us.  Today we got a big stone right in front of Enid, but the worst was one that hit in front of me, right at the edge of the window.  It has now spread and there is a huge, and growing pair of cracks on my side of the window, so we will have to get it replaced sometime soon.  The pavement is breaking up from the rain, and is full of potholes, and every semi-trailer we meet throws up a lot of stones.

When we reached the small town of Marlborough there was a sign that said “Water over the road” and then a highway truck with flashing lights, and a flagman.  We followed the highway truck through the water, and it was pretty deep – more than 30 cm of water running over the road for at least 100 metres.  We pulled in to the service station right at the end of the water, and were going to fill up with diesel, but the pump was busy with two large trucks.  So we decided to go eat our lunch, which we did in the gravelled parking area by the garage.  As we were finishing a highway truck pulled up, and I asked if the road to Rockhampton was OK.  “It was,” she replied, “when we came up this morning, and it might still be open, but the road to Marlborough is now closed.”  We were the last vehicle to go through before they closed it (shades of Chicken, Alaska this summer, but a bit more lucky).

After we’d filled up with diesel I asked the clerk in the service station if we could get through to Rockhampton.  “I’d leave right away,” she said, “because the water’s rising in the creek.”  I asked how far it was to the creek, and she said about 20 km south.

Sure enough, when we got to that spot there was more water coming over the road, though not as much as at Marlborough.  We did get through ok, and are now checked in to the Big 4 campsite in Rockhampton.  We’re parked on a concrete drive, so there won’t be any problem with getting stuck.  As Enid’s umbrella has broken we went shopping and got a new and much bigger one.  It continued to rain, and just about half an hour ago there was a heavy wind.  It must have broken some branches from the palm trees, as something landed on our roof with a thud.

Now it has stopped raining, and the sky is actually lighter in the west.  We were actually cool enough in the motorhome that we have the heat on, so that is a real change from the last few days.  The top story on the television news tonight was also the flooding.  It’s interesting how our stereotypes affect us.  When planning for this trip I was always concerned about the fires in Australia, since that is virtually the only weather story about Australia that we have heard for years.  It turns out that it’s actually the rain here that’s come early that is bothering us.  And as for stereotypes, well today we heard an advertisement for the Calgary Stampede, and a tour through Banff.  So I guess that’s what Australians think of when they think of Canada.

We appear to have left the sun behind.  We stopped in Townsville to get diesel, and a few groceries.  We couldn’t find a service station and when we tried to use our bank card, it was refused.  So we asked where we could find a bank branch, and a service station.  The customer service clerk explained how we would need to go back about 5 km from where we had come to find a mall with these items.  Since the highway is under construction, we’d missed the turn to the main part of town.

We ate lunch at Ayr, and it was still sunny, but then it started to rain as we got past Proserpine.  The fields had looked nice and dry but as we got closer and closer to this area things began to look very wet.  Just before our destination for the night (a caravan park at Calen) we ran into a very heavy rainstorm.  It continued to rain as we pulled in.  They showed us where we should park, but when we backed in the ground was so soft we sank and were stuck.  I don’t think the campsites realize how heavy this vehicle is.  Anyway, they had to tow us out with a 4×4 and put us in a different spot.  It’s got lots of gravel, so we should be ok, but it’s like we’re on a tiny island with water surrounding our motorhome on all sides.  By the time we got the motorhome moved I was soaked.  All the windows are shut to keep the rain out, so it’s good we’ve got air conditioning.  To get out of the motorhome you have to walk through several inches of water.  It is exactly two weeks ago that we were here for our camping trip into the Whitsundays, and it looks as if the weather hasn’t changed a bit.

You know, I think I prefer cold and dry to hot and soggy.

Rainbow lorikeets

Last night’s storm didn’t last long, and today was mostly clear and hot.  We were however awoken much too early by the obnoxious cockatoos stripping beech nuts from the trees over our motorhome, and raining them down on us.  It wasn’t just the nuts, but complete branches that were falling, so when one landed with a loud thud on top of our solar panels we decided to get up and move.  So at about 5:30 this morning we backed the motorhome out from under the tree and put it on the other side of the campsite.  It was sunnier there all day, no shade, but at least we didn’t have to deal with the bird droppings.

By shortly after 7 am we’d had breakfast and gone for a walk along the beach.  It was already very warm out, so when we got back I set up the computer outside under the awning and edited as many of my Great Barrier Reef pictures as I could, until the battery ran down.  Then I moved indoors and finished them while letting the battery in the computer charge from the solar panel.  It didn’t get too warm inside before I finished.  I’ve posted those pictures at www.digipac.ca/pictures.  There are lots of pictures of fish and coral there for anyone that wants to view them.

Enid read the newspaper for much of the morning, and then we both read our books.  We continued reading until mid-afternoon, when we both had a shower in the outdoor beach shower.  Today we didn’t bother to swim, as the ocean is just too hot.  A couple, not too much different in age than us, pulled in with their caravan and truck just before lunch.  The woman came by and chatted in the morning, and after lunch Enid went over and visited them.  She’s not sure she got everything they said straight – the Aussie dialect is still pretty hard to translate for us.  They were happy the weather was so nice and warm.  We’re not quite so certain that this isn’t really hotter than we need right now!

By late afternoon the lorrikeets were back, and so I took more pictures of them.  There were some other birds, a couple of which I can’t identify from my bird book.  The rainbow lorrikeets though are easy to identify, and spectacularly colored.

Coral Sea north of Cairns along the Captain Cook Highway

This morning we left Port Douglas and started on our trip back towards New South Wales. We aren’t sure yet how circuitous the route will be. We only know for sure we plan to be in Araluen the week before Christmas.

It was another very nice day. We stopped along the Coral Sea north of Cairns to take some pictures of the ocean, then stopped in Cairns to stock up on supplies for the next few days. We bought a small (30 cm) table fan that we can run off the inverter, since it only takes 40W. The ceiling fan and air conditioner work great, but they require 240 volts, and we have been free camping along the ocean.

We decided to stop again at Balgal Beach since it is such a nice free campsite. When we got here there were no other campers on site, though one more campervan showed up just before supper. There are even more birds here now than when we were last here a week ago. The red-tailed black-cockatoos have pretty much stripped all the figs from the tree, and most of them are on the ground. Now they are taking the nuts from the beech trees, and since we are parked under one of them, mostly they are dropping them onto our awning. It is a good thing the awning is up, as the nuts hurt when they land on you. The lorrikeets are having a feast of the nuts from the ground where they have landed. There were about 50 or more of them here eating when we arrived this afternoon.

Lorrikeets at Balgal Beach

It was very warm so we decided to go for a swim in the ocean. That didn’t really cool us off much, as the water is probably the warmest we’ve ever swum in. It was almost like swimming in a very salty bathtub. We barbecued some chicken for supper, and then I walked over to the store to buy a pineapple for $2. It was spoiled when Enid cut into it, so she took it back and got another. It was better, and very sweet and joicy.

We could see a very large thunderstorm building over the hills (the Australian’s call them mountains, but really they are only about 1000 m high) to the west. Now it has reached us, and it is starting to rain heavily, and there some lightning. We are indoors, and very glad we have the fan, or it would be rather warm in here.

Fish on the Great Barrier Reef

Today was the highlight of our trip so far.  We spent the day snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef outside of Port Douglas.  The weather was warm, the sea was quite calm, and the coral and tropical fish displays were spectacular. 

We chose to go snorkeling with Wavelength, as they only do snorkel tours.  They have a maximum of 30 on the boat (today there were 22 of us) and go to three different sites on the outer reef.  It is about a 1.5 hour trip from Port Douglas to the first site – a little longer today as we stopped twice to fish garbage out of the ocean – once a large plastic water bottle, and the second time a soccer ball.  The ball was a lot harder for the crew to pick up, but the guide managed to snag it with his feet while hanging onto the rail with his arms.

Corals of the Great Barrier Reef

Each of the three sites was slightly different.  At the first there were both turtles and white-tipped reef sharks, but neither Enid nor I saw them.  We had gone off in a slightly different direction than the bulk of the group and saw a lot of nice coral and fish.  By the time we got back to the main group the turtle was not visible.  At the second site there was a lot of coral spawn in the water.  It looked a lot like pink algae.  At this site the marine biologist pointed out a number of the different kinds of coral.  The final site, after dinner, was probably the best in terms of varieties of coral and fish, but by this time it was slightly windy, so there were small swells.  This made it harder to keep the fish in view, but overall it was excellent snorkelling, and we both had a great time.  However, we’re also both pretty tired tonight, since we were in the water swimming for over three hours today.

Yearling saltwater crocodile

We managed to get out of Babinda about two o’clock yesterday.  The town workers came by and said the road was open, so we packed up the motorhome and headed north.  When we drove across the bridge it was obvious what had happened.  They were repairing the bridge and the washout had removed some of the temporary supports.  We drove through Cairns and north to Port Douglas.  The views out over the ocean are very nice as you follow the Captain Cook highway north along the Coral Sea.

Yesterday while stuck in Babinda Enid picked up a tour brochure about crocodile tours on the Daintree River, and a self guided driving tour through the tropical rain forest with several suggested sites to see.  We decided to go there this morning, as it was a very nice and very warm day.  First we drove in to Mossman Gorge and spent a bit over an hour walking through the tropical rain forest.  There were many very interesting plants and trees.  Huge trees tower overhead supported by large buttressing root systems.  Vines and many other epiphytes cling to the trees.  It wasn’t raining but warm enough and humid enough that we were drenched with perspiration by the time we finished.

We then continued on north to the tiny town of Daintree Village.  Here is where the crocodile boat tour takes place.  We checked in with the tour booth, and the clerk said they weren’t very busy, so the next tour would be in about half an hour.  We decided to eat our lunch, and so after that went back and bought our tickets.  When we boarded the boat we were the only two aboard.  We waited for about 15 minutes, then the boat left the dock.  No sooner had we crossed the river than several more people showed up at the dock, so we returned and picked them up as well.

We travelled around the river for about an hour.  We saw a few saltwater crocodiles.  At this time of year they are mostly in the water or deep in the undergrowth keeping cool, so they are very hard to spot.  We did see a lot of birds and butterflies, and a number of different kinds of tropical vegetation.

Next we drove about 15 minutes back towards Port Douglas, to a spot close to where the ferry crosses the Daintree River.  Here was the second stage of our tour, and we took another boat cruise out on the lower part of the river.  Here the river is much wider.  We saw a few more crocodiles, again very well hidden in the bush, and a tree snake, but many fewer birds.  The only crocodile we got a really good view of was a young one the guide indicated would be a bit over a year old.

It was an enjoyable day on the water even though we didn’t see a lot of wildlife.  Tomorrow morning we will be leaving early for a snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef.

Getting a haircut in Babinda

When we awoke this morning the rain had almost stopped.  We packed up, then walked the short trail to the Boulders, which is a set of rapids and falls along the creek.  Normally there is a swimming hole above the rapids, but because of all the rain the river is really flooding, and it would be very unsafe to swim.  The current would be too strong and you could easily be swept over the rapids.  By the time we’d walked to the end of the trail (600 m) it had stopped raining and the sun was starting to break through the clouds.

We drove north along the highway (it’s the main highway to Cairns) and got to the town of Deeral ahout 25 km north of here.  That’s as far as we got, because the bridge was washed out.  They were working on the road, dumping rock into the river.  I asked how long it would be until the road reopened, and the highway worker said “12:30 at a mininum, mate” so we turned around and drove back into the town of Babinda.  There we pulled in to the sports grounds, which are marked with an RV parking sign.

This is not really the campground, as we found when we got here and spoke to a woman travelling in her van which she has parked under a rain shelter (our motorhome would be too tall).  It turned out she is a hairdresser, just living out of her van and free camping.   She cut my hair for $10.  It’s the first time I can recall ever getting my hair cut in the outdoors.  While cutting my hair she told us that she was camped on the other side of the road last night, and a worker from the council told her she’d have to move, as the creek was flooding.  She said by this morning the water would have been half way up her van.

It was nice and sunny when we came in here, and we set up the awning and hung stuff out to dry.  It is very damp and humid though.  Now it has clouded over again, and will doubtless rain more this afternoon.

Josephine Falls

Once again tonight we are in a free campsite.  This one is much more deserted than that of last night, in fact we are the only ones here.  It has nice level sites, though each site is marked for two spaces, and that would be a pretty tight squeeze.  Two sites fits our motorhome nicely.  There is no Internet access here though, so this won’t get posted until tomorrow.

Along the way this morning we stopped at Ingham and got the windscreen patched.  It’s not perfect, but at least looks somewhat less likely to spread and crack all over.   We also got some fly swatters, a pack of three for $2, in a bargain store.  And I bought a pair of flip-flops there, since I am getting tired of getting in and out of my sandals (and keeping them constantly wet in the bargain).  Much as I hate flip-flops, they are a lot more handy especially in the shower.

There is a cold shower here, and I used it when we got in (cold is a relative term as the water is as warm as air temperature, so is around 25 degrees).  I was already pretty soaked anyway, as along the way we drove in to Josephine Falls.  As we got there it started to pour rain just when we were setting out.  Though we had our umbrellas it was definitely wet.  This area has the reputation as the wettest in Australia with an annual rainfall of over four metres.  That is a lot of rain!  The falls were very nice and as wet as it is today they were really running. 

We also passed by many large sugar and banana plantations along the way.  We stopped in a farmer’s yard where they had a fruit stand and bought a pineapple for $3 and four bananas for $1.  I had one of the bananas, and they are quite good.  The farmer’s wife was complaining about all the rain, so I guess it really is abnormally wet for this time of year.

Just before supper it started to rain.  And did it ever rain.  It was actually a thunderstorm, though there wasn’t much in the way of lightning.  The rain came down in sheets, for several hours.  After supper I went out to open the drain on the waste water, since it was raining so hard, our little bit of grey water wasn’t going to add much to the load.  However the cap was stuck, and I couldn’t get it open.  I was out for about two minutes, under the umbrella, and got thoroughly soaked, so that I had to strip off and change my clothes when I got back in.  It continued to rain until long after we’d gone to bed.  But did taper off by morning.

Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo

Today is the first day since we left Sydney that there hasn’t been a major rain.  It was warm and sunny this morning, and we walked along the beach for about an hour, then I took pictures of both a gecko and the red-tailed black-cockatoos that are here.  We have gotten careless and haven’t been putting on sunscreen (there’s been no need in the rain) and today I should have, as for the first time here I’ve sunburned my legs, not bad, but they are a bit pink.

There are quite a few  red-tailed black-cockatoos here.  A large fig tree is right in front of our motorhome, and the birds sit in it and eat the seeds out of the figs.  Yesterday when we arrived the ground was littered with figs and fig leaves, and I thought that they must have blown off in the wind.  It turns out that it is the cockatoos eating them.  They cut a fig from the tree, and in the process generally break off several more with a branch attached.  Then they proceed to rip open the fig in their claws and beaks, discarding all the flesh, and cracking the central nut and eating the seed.  They must have incredibly powerful beaks, as Enid tried to cut one with her pocket knife and found it almost impossible to do so.

The birds are very black, but have a bit of gold speckling their feathers, and an orange barred tail.  During flight they spread their tail feathers and have two large red bars on either side.  These are not often exposed when they sit in the trees, and are hard to photograph well.  They also make a loud croaking noise, almost like the caw of a crow.  In fact this morning when we awoke and I saw the black shapes high in the trees, I thought they were just crows.

It was very windy all day, and the wind got stronger as the day progressed, so we didn’t get out into the ocean.  However we did shower in an outdoor shower, which really was quite nice and warm.  We sat out on the grass under the fig tree in the sunshine to dry off.  I guyed down the awning of the motorhome this afternoon.  At suppertime the wind got very strong as a storm passed over, so we took the awning down.  It then sprinkled rain, but only very lightly.

Yesterday our windscreen (windshield) got hit by a large stone that flew off a semi-trailer.  It was big enough that I could see it coming.  It may have been a bolt.  In any case it made a good crack in our windshield, and we are going to try and get it sealed tomorrow morning as we drive north through Ingham.

Stinger net, Balgal Beach, Queensland

Once again it started raining during the night.  Though the rain had nearly stopped by the time we finished breakfast, the ground was very soggy as we packed up.  We drove north through the major centre of Townsville, which is almost completely bypassed by a motorway.  There was a service station as y0u approached town, and then we saw nothing more.  We did have enough fuel to go on, but I really wanted to fill up before getting back out into the countryside.  Finally we did come to a major service centre on the outskirts of the town.  However, there are few choices on the highway for fuel.

Driving north today the cane fields around Airlie Beach and Prosperine are absolutely flooded.  They look more like rice paddies that sugar cane fields.  However as we got farther north it did seem to dry up some, and though there was still a lot of water not as much as farther south.  We did drive through a very intense rainstorm for a while today.  It was the heaviest rain we’ve driven through, though we might have had some just as heavy while we were camped on Whitsunday Island.

We left the main highway about 40 km from Townsville at the turn into Balgal Beach, which is about 6 km east towards the ocean.  This is a free campsite, supported by the Townsville City Council.  There are several other camper units – a couple of caravans and a few smaller campervans – parked here tonight.  The beach is very long, and looks like it would be nice (it even has a stinger net enclosure) if the weather were nicer.  Unfortunately, while it’s not cold, it was very, very windy today when we arrived here.  The ocean is very rough, and the sand is churned up in the water so that it’s brown out almost a kilometre to sea. 

We tried to walk along the beach this afternoon, but the wind made it miserable, and then it started to spit rain.  So instead of walking we came inside and played a game of scrabble.  I got a 50 point bonus on my second play for using all my tiles.  That gave me a very big lead, but Enid clawed her way back to the front.  On the next to last play of the game she made a mistake, didn’t see that she could have spelled “quiz” by using her “u” and “i” with the “q” and “z” that were already on the board.  I went out on the next turn, and beat her by just 6 points.  She could have won!  It’s amazing but I’ve beaten her all three times we’ve played since we started this trip (those who know Enid’s scrabble prowess know this is truely surprising)!