Fondly saying goodbye to Mission Beach, we headed north again.
After some significant research and a little luck, we happened across a rare bush camping spot 50km south of Cairns, just past Innisfail, called Russell River National Park. The park had no signage to get there, and only a little bit of information online, but enough for us to find our way. To access it, you go through a very lovely, small seaside town called Bramston Beach. Looks a lot like a holiday house location, with perfectly kept lawns and gardens, and sensational views of the ocean. With a lot of these places, we often wonder what it was like to be there when cyclone Yasi was bearing down on them. We’re sure it wouldn’t all seem so idyllic then
The camp at Russell River National Park was lovely. It is limited to 5 secluded spots dotted along the road, each with access to a seemingly private beach. This was in the Wet Tropics Heritiage area, and the beach and ocean was equally impressive.
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| The view of 'our' beach from our campsite at Russell River NP |
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| Our campsite at Russell River NP |
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| Our private beach at sunset |
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| How could you get sick of this? |
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| Another sunset shot |
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| Relaxing at camp at Russell River NP |
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| Our camp set up at Russell River NP |
For those cursing and swearing our names whilst reading this, we will give you some ironic sweet justice to make you feel better. When we arrived, there was a lovely onshore breeze, a little chilli, but nice and fresh. At about 6pm when this started to die down, a strange, but foul stench started to invade out camp. The wind turned to a light offshore, as is usual over night, and the stench got significantly worse!!!. The onshore breeze had been masking the smell of some dead, rotting animal in the bush behind us. Sitting out after the kids went to bed wasn’t an option, although Amy did have the benefit of a blocked nose most of the time!!! We prayed for the breeze to start each morning, even though it didn’t really start up until 10-11amish. I guess paradise has it’s price as well!!!
The other consideration was whether there were crocs around. Given we had a creek near us, and a big long beach, we decided not to test the waters (so to speak), and stayed right away from the waters edge. The kids did enjoy playing in the sand with buckets and spades though, which saw a few hours go by. The rest of the time was spent relaxing around camp, cooking a beautiful roast dinner, having pikelets for morning tea, (thanks Bernie for the camping recipe book, it’s coming in handing again) and watching the kids ride their bikes down the slight slope into our camp.
Glenn did also enjoy the fact that whenever he seemed to need to go for a shovel walk, he invariably found himself with one or more little ‘poo partners’. That in itself isn’t too bad, although as most would know, if you wait too long (sorting out your little partners) sometimes your business can go back in. The things we have to deal with.
After spending 3 nights enduring the bitter / sweetness of ‘stench camp’, we decided it was time to move on. Given our decision to join the MySwag group for the first part of the Cape trip, who leave on the 23rd June, we had a little bit of time to enjoy the surroundings. We decided to head to Lake TInaroo, in the Atherton Tablelands. We headed up a very very steep and windy road from Gordonvale, which climbed up onto the highlands. Lake TInaroo is a lovely spot, with a number of campgrounds surrounding it. The campground we were at was a lovely, well kept, peaceful spot looking over the water. We did get inundated on the Saturday night however. Sheesh, these weekend campers interrupting out 8 month holiday... the cheek!!!
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| Lake Tinaroo |
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| Somewhat off-putting.... |
The other challenge we had to deal with was the sign on the toilet door advising us of the native “Giant White Tailed Rats” that were active in the area, and they can chew through cans, car wiring, eskys......... eeerr.. WHAT?? After previous experience with rodent trouble in our car, we decided to put everything possible away in the car, and follow the advice on leaving lights on as well. We did note that we were the only ones to do this however. Either we fell for it, or the other campers were ‘lucky’.
Tomorrow we head off to Port Douglas for a few days (awwwww, bummer huh) before finally heading back to Cairns for the final checks and restock prior to going to the Cape. We will enjoy getting back to the coast, this ‘mountain’ air is a little on the cool side!!
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