9/7/2015
Driving the Tourist Route
called the Cane Cutter way, I came to famous Paronella Park. This
place was built some time in the 1930s, by somebody who had a dream.
A bit crumling at the moment but cool architecture none the less.
Very nice waterfall too. But it was starting to rain so I opted not
to pay the $45 to visit the park and instead drive on.
Stopped at Stevo's
Chocolates and Fruit shop, only a few minutes away from Paronella
Park. It was a self serving shop and I purchased some of the dark
chocolate and some fresh fruits. In this area of northern Queensland
you see lots of sugar cane, a sugar cane mill every other town and
now heaps of banana farms. Very colorful with the bags over the
bananas. Small train tracks laid out for the trains to carry the
harvested sugar cane to the mill, can be seen everywhere up here.
I've spotted some harvesting too, as the cane is now in season.
From a corner of my eye I
saw an organic shop with a cafe while idling through a small village.
Stopped there, saw the sign about the coffee (see below) and grabbed
a flat white, some Camu Camu and organic free range eggs.
I continued on to
Innisfail and selected the camp site at Flying Fish Point a few
kilometers outside of town. It was very cloudy and looked like it
might start to rain any minute, hence I went for a walk instead of
going to the beach. In addition, there are crocodile warning signs
everywhere and a small fresh water creek flowing into the sea close
by. Made it back dry after an hours walk, phone calls and taking some
photos. But as soon as I sat down in my van to research what to do in
Cairns, there were several short showers in the afternoon.
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| ... and I drove my Ford along there nonetheless... |
Interesting and long chat
with a couple from New Zealand over dinner at the camp site. Agreed
on many things about current circumstances in life and business,
however they were very catholic. Richard and his wife are very well
traveled and had a lot of thoughts to share. They are photographers
in retirement but sill working a bit in their own business. Amazing
stories and an unbelievable photograph he brought back from Nepal,
taken with a Rolleifelx 2.8 Planar with incredible 12h exposure on
ISO 100 film! Stars in the sky and the tiniest bit of moon light from
the other side, shining on Annapurna. Absolutely incredible. Once in
a lifetime shot!
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| Holy smokes. What a photo! Taken and developed by Richard the New Zealander |
We spoke about paying it
forward, the uncertainty in the globalized market place, localized
business, sustainability and a lot more.
Richard invited me to
visit them in New Zealand, they are living 16km away from the glow
worm cave, not far from Auckland. Should ask for Richard the
photographer and people will point me in the right direction.
I was struggling to get an
internet connection happening at the camp site – it is one of the
things that annoy me when camping as everything like updating the
blog, doing some online banking, emailing etc depends on a stable
internet connection with enough bandwidth to make it workable.
Tested Stevo's chocolate
in the evening. Nice cacao notes from the beans grown here in
Queensland, but too sweet for me, about 35% sugar content.
Distance traveled: 79km
10/7/2015
Rain started in the early
morning, and continued until late morning.
Spoke to a French family
at breakfast, they are currently exploring the east coast with their
kids. Last time they have been to Australia was on honeymoon, 15
years ago and without kids. They were loving the trip but not too
happy with the weather the last few days here. We spoke about the
Grey Nomads in Australia, and a lot about some beautiful places in
France and Europe. They are living 20km outside Paris but have seen
quite a bit of their own country.
As the showers continued,
I was in no rush to get moving. Packed up my gear and drove to
Babinda, to visit the information center. Timing was not too good as
they had their annual meeting. But I just grabbed some brochures and
sat down for a coffee in the local bakery. I wont loose any words
about the coffee...
Babinda is another very
wet place, judging from their charts.
Moved on to Cairns and
parked downtown to check out the best rated coffee shop called Black
Bird. Awesome coffee, very nice staff and super fast, free wifi.
Cairns has grown quite a lot over the 9 years (at least compared to
my memories from back then) and it was the first time since Brisbane
that I had to pay for parking.
Put in another phone call
to the PADI office about my certification. No news from the
Philippines, despite their efforts to contact the dive school there
as well. I even put in a phone call with Willi, but it didn't shed
any new light on it except that Marie is a persona non grata.
The visitor center in
Cairns, just around the corner, offered me a lot of information and I
had a long, awesome chat with the clerk there. He used to be a dive
instructor himself and I explained him my situation and that I
probably need to get re-certified. I booked an open water and
advanced open water dive course with 4 days live on board included to
explore the Great Barrier Reef again. The whole thing will start on
Wednesday next week. :-)
Hence I got some time up
my sleeves to explore the north a bit more before heading back to
Cairns. Bought some awesome organic fresh produce at a nearby market
and continued on to Port Douglas.
Very nice and windy road
along the coast line.
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| Bought some coffee from 'Coffee Works', they are roasting locally here in Northern Qld, will visit them next week! |
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| Bought the Queensland Blue, coffee grown here locally and ground for my Aero Press |
Checked into one of the
two campgrounds in Port Douglas and got the last spot available for
tonight. The other one was full too. Port Douglas is extremely
touristy and hence priced up accordingly. I went for a run on the
beach and was quite happy with my performance. The 7kms I did were
the longest run since I broke my foot and while I'm still relatively
slow, compared to before, I can definitely see an upward trend. I
missed the turnoff from the beach to the main road and accidentally
ended up in the middle of the huge Sheraton Resort. Posh place to
stay I suppose. After a good stretching session I jumped into the
cold pool to get rid of the excess heat in my body.
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| Taken with iPhone while running - Port Douglas Beach |
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| Taken with iPhone while running - Port Douglas Beach |
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| Taken with iPhone while running - Port Douglas Beach |
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| Taken with iPhone while running - Port Douglas Beach |
The grass fed steak was
very nice and so were all the organic vegetables that I threw into my
salad. Need to visit this shop again when back in Perth. Due to the
bad weather yesterday, I read the results from my DNA analysis again
from last year the recommendations given by the naturopath, TaniaFlack, that did the consultation with me on it. It is really
important for me to watch my nutrition carefully and I feel so much
better when I eat like I do at the moment and avoid alcohol.
Especially compared to how I felt in Austria or on my last holiday in
Iceland. Worth remembering for later, hence this short note here!
On my way to the camp
kitchen, just when it was getting dark, I saw many hundreds of small
bats flying silently through the air, maybe 20 meters above the camp
site. Amazing, their body shape and flight style looks quite
different to most birds that I know and nobody that I could see took
any notice of them.
Distance traveled: 166km
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