Cape York–Laura – 26 July 2011

When we drove the Gibb River Road we had a nice itinerary provided for us by the Western Australian Tourist Bureau. Trish couldn't find anything like this for Cape York so this and the following posts give our driving itinerary, both up and back. We kept our mileage down to beneath 250 kilometres a day and this gave us a relaxing days driving and time to enjoy the route.

Our caravan and car will not do steep sided river crossings so the route through Daintree is inaccessible to us.

 
We took the Mulligan Highway and the Peninsula Development Road to Laura, our first campsite. This is a nice grassy site behind the Laura Hotel. There is limited water and power.

The road house has closed so one must provide ones own food. The Hotel is not excessively noisy but runs till late and by the time they have shut up the roosters are crowing, so Tricia did not get a very good sleep.

Laura was founded as a result of the discovery of gold on the Palmer River, but there is very little left of that now. Cyclones and Termites have a way of destroying history in the Far North. There is a little regional Park opposite the Hotel and a very good information centre at the Quinkan Regional Cultural Centre detailing the history of the area.

Cairns–19 to 26 July 2011

The drive up the coast to Cairns is magnificent with the sea on one side and the blue Mountains of the Great Dividing range on the other. Sugarcane is a lovely green crop to drive through.

We stayed at the Cairns Coconut Caravan Resort, one of the nicest facilities in Australia. We enjoyed one of Tricia's favorite Restaurants Hanuman. Hanuman melds different Asian cuisines.

This was our time to prepare for traveling North to the Tip of Mainland Australia.  Tricia was unsure what to expect so we looked up a good butcher on the net and did a big shop.

 
Our Engel car freezer where we store the meat stopped freezing. We are so glad it broke in Cairns as even though it started working again in the repair shop, Engel replaced the compressor unit under warranty so we would not have any difficulties up the Cape. The caravan park stored the meat for us.

 

It seems silly to clean before going into the dirt but we cleaned and washed everything.  We also went to the Cairns Show which was on for two days only.

On our last day we enjoyed a walk along the waterfront.   We saw a stunning ship called Vertigo, 63 metres long and powered by two masts over 60 metres each with a backup of 2 Caterpillar v12 1400HP motors.  Not your ordinary yacht!!

We learned on Thursday Island that it belonged to Leonardo di Caprio, who came ashore on Thursday Island for lunch at the local pub.  It was the talk of the town when we visited next day.

 
We like Cairns, it is a centre for the Cape and Northern Peninsula Area and has a great tropical feel.

 

Townsville–18 July 2011

Townsville is a lovely town with a strong military and educational presence and a busy port.

It is a great town to visit with lots of young people, a nice restaurant scene and a beautiful foreshore. We stayed in Rowes Bay.   It was named after Captain Robert Towns a Sydney businessmen who provided financial assistance to establish the town.  John thinks it should be called Townstown.

For us its defining feature is the Castle Rock a huge rock, overlooking  the centre of town.  The locals, who must be extremely fit, walk up in the evening around sunset for a magnificent view. We drove up and walked to the various vantage points.

Town of 1770, Emu Park and Midge Point–12 to 17 July

Having perfected the art of time travel our first stop was  The Town of 1770.  This is one of our favourite destinations and one can spend a whole day there  and wonder where it went.  We walked into Agnes Waters on the bike path and then along  the beach.  This was a lovely walk.  There is a nice Restaurant called  The Tree in 1770.   One can meet the locals and find out what’s going on.

From the Town of 1770 we drove to Emu Park, also on a lovely beach.  There is a singing sculpture of Captain Cook’s ship on the headland.  Even in a light breeze it sings.  The emus are long gone.

Tricia was rather put off  Midge Point by its name.  She expected masses of small biting insects.  However Midge Point is named because the original survey ship The Fly had a longboat which became known as The Midge.   Midge Point was named after The Midge.     This is a lovely camp set amongst the trees.  The tide goes out a long way here and on a falling tide it is great fun to walk along the sandbars for miles.  There is a bay that almost completely empties at full low tide.       One needs to concentrate as the rising tide rises fast.      

 

Mooloolaba–18 to 29 June and 5 to 11 July 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After furiously working to get cleaned up in the US we returned to Mooloolaba.  We spent a couple of days with Geoff and Susanne and then returned to our caravan and Mooloolaba Beach. 

Our friend Bill visited for the weekend.  He took  us on a Helicopter ride over the coast, down to Bribie Island and across to the Glasshouse Mountains.  Trish thinks this is such a romantic name but Captain Cook was reminded of the slag heaps from glass factories.   In fact they are volcanic plugs.  

We went with Bill to Noosa.  We have been all over the world but not to Noosa, an icon destination in Australia for it beaches and Restaurants.    Bill also helped us discover Fish on Parkyn which is a great addition to our other favorite Restaurant M@Mooloolaba. 

 

While we were in Mooloolaba it was arranged for Gilly to be christened. This is a milestone that couldn’t be missed and so we flew down to Melbourne to be there for the Christening. It was a great pleasure to see her and the rest of the family.

 

 

 

 

It is cold at this time of year for swimming but great for walking so we did a lot of walks.  We  visited with our friend Kathy.  We did part of the Blackall Ranges Drive visiting Maleny and Montville lovely little towns on the escarpment and hiking to the Kondalilla Falls.

John’s Aunty Joan visited Maroochydore and we spent some time with her which we thoroughly enjoy.

After a busy social time we finally packed up with some sadness to be leaving a place we enjoyed and some excitement --and apprehension on Tricia’s part -- to be on the road again and headed North to the Tip.

Canada–26 April to 7 May and 20 May to 4 June 2011

We visited our children and grand children in the USA and decided to spend some time exploring Canada, which we did in two visits.
In April/May we visited Kingston the first capital of Canada, Montreal, Gananoque on the St. Lawrence Seaway near the Thousand Islands then Niagara on the Lake.
The St. Lawrence was the superhighway of its era, so much of it is dotted with forts to give control of the waterway.  Kingston has Fort Henry and is also home to Royal Military College of Canada. The Wolfe Island Ferry provides a free trip into the St. Lawrence across to Wolfe Island, the largest of the Thousand Islands which stretch North East in the St. Lawrence from Kingston.
Our next stop was Montreal, where we wandered to the top of Mont Royal and then took the magnificent Metro to St. Joseph’s Oratory, an amazing church, the result of one humble father of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, who started with a simple chapel which over time grew to the magnificent Basilica it is today.  We saw the Black Watch Regiment on its annual May Day parade through Montreal.

We wandered through the old town, and the city with its many fine buildings and sculptures and then toured the Notre Dame de Montreal Basilica.

From Montreal we followed the St. Lawrence to Gananoque, staying off season at the Gananoque Inn, located right on the St. Lawrence.  We discovered the Socialist Pig coffee lounge, with some of the best coffee we have had in North America, even a flat white.

We visited Jones Lock on the Rideau Canal.

We took a Thousand Island cruise through the many magnificent mansions, and past the smallest border bridge between a house on a Canadian island with its boat shed on an American island.

The largest of the mansions is Boldt Castle built on what became a heart shaped island by George Boldt the manager of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel as a gift for his wife, who unfortunately died before its completion.  On her death work stopped and it was not until it was purchased by the Thousand Island Bridge Authority for $1 that it was restored and opened to the public.

We met Chris, Monica and Jeremy at Niagra on the Lake for a holiday weekend and then returned to the USA for Katharine’s graduation.

In May/June we returned to Canada to see Ottawa, Quebec, Taddoussac where the whales are and Arowhon Pines, a resort in the Algonquin National Park.

We spent the holiday weekend in Ottowa.  Victoria Day celebrates Queen Victoria’s birthday.  It is amazing how every Australian State and Canada have a Queen’s Birthday on a different date, but always on a Monday.  We toured Parliament and the excellent Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Next stop was Quebec with its still walled city, the beautiful Chateau de Frontenac and its Citadel, built after the French defeat in 1759 to prevent the same back door attack used by Wolfe to defeat Montcalm at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.  The Citadel is home to the Canadian 22e Regiment [the vingt-deuxieme or Van Doos] and we watched them rehearse for summer’s Changing of the Guard ceremony, and had a tour of the Quebec home of the Governor General.  We enjoyed the many fine French restaurants in Quebec City.  We had a fine lunch in the Quebec Parliament House dining room, now open to the public, but we think a still undiscovered treat.



Further North is Tadousac where we stayed in the historic Tadousac Hotel and on a bitterly cold and windy day went out into the Saguenay Bay to spot Beluga and Minke Whales.


We then moved to Arowhon Pines Lodge in the Algonquin National Park for several days of walking through the glacial lakes, followed with dinners in the lodge by a warm fire.



We finished by spending the night in Niagara Falls where we saw the falls from the Maid of the Mist and generally enjoyed being tourists.  From Niagara we returned to Washington then on to Brisbane to pick up our caravan from storage and move to our pit stop of choice at Mooloolaba.