Showing posts with label Cairns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cairns. Show all posts

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Crystal Cascades

Today was a day of shopping, voting early in Australia's upcoming Federal Election and relaxing. But we thought we would drive the 10 minute drive to Crystal Cascades. Crystal Cascades is a series of small waterfalls that flow into large pools (salt water crocodile free) suitable for swimming. To enhance the beauty of the Freshwater River it is surrounded by large impressive granite boulders. At the end of the easy walk through the forest we were treated to the Cascade Waterfall.
Crystal Cascades

Crystal Cascade Falls
Unfortunately this area is not so beautiful for everyone who visits. In 2014 and 18 year old man drowned when he failed to resurface after slipping over the edge of the waterfall, while he was swimming in a restricted area. From what I could tell he was one of three people who have died in this location.
What the!!! Now I have to watch out for a Stinging Tree as well as spiders, snakes, crocs!!
OK I've found the plant..... No I wasn't tempted to touch it!!

What a way to finish my day. One of the best Garlic Prawn Pizzas I've ever had.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Relaxing in Cairns

After having a night in Myrtle in Laura and starting to get our possessions back into some sort of order we headed onto the town of Mareeba for a night before heading back into Cairns for a couple of weeks. I had heard some good reports about staying at the Mareeba Rodeo grounds so that was where we decided to lay our heads for the night. At $18 for the night and with very clean showers and toilets it was a very comfortable place to stay.
There were a few others joining me in this sunset tonight!!
But we certainly did get a surprise as we drove through the gates and saw over 100 caravans all set up. I asked the caretaker if this was unusually busy and his reply was "Oh no we only have 120 here, next month will be over 250". Certainly is a very popular place. Mareeba is situated in the northern part of the Atherton Tablelands and the countryside is extremely picturesque. 
The next morning our drive down into Cairns was an interesting one to say the least. The highway to Kuranda was great but then it got quite narrow and extremely windy as we descended down the mountain. As if that wasn't enough we also had to contend with drizzly rain and fog (or cloud cover) so thick you could only see a couple of metres in front of you. I am so so glad Shane was driving as I don't think I would have coped very well driving down there with Myrtle on the back. I wish I had taken some photos but my mind wasn't on my camera at the time. 
Cloudy Cairns
But in the end we arrived at our caravan park in Cairns safe and sound. I have now been in Cairns for 7 days and today is only the 2nd day it hasn't absolutely poured - but it's still drizzling. Shane is in Darwin for his annual boys week away. We won't be leaving here for another week, hopefully it stops raining so I can get out and take some photos. I think I'm getting a bit of cabin fever!