Hi, we arrived in Townsville late this afternoon. Well, 16kms north of Townsville anyway. We didn't leave Cairns until 11:30 after a slow morning pack up, and an even slower sitting in the car until the women came out of the craft shop!
We drove south with only a couple of detours. the first was to Mission Beach. K wanted to see where his parents used to take their van on holidays.
The second was to drive through Tully to see the remaining damage after cyclone Yasi. There were still a lot of houses and buildings with tarps on them, and a lot of buildings that have been left for ruin. Most of the damage was to old buildings of corrugated iron or weatherboard.
The surrounding forests, even at Mission Beach, had obviously been stripped of most of their foliage as the trees were like dead trunks with blobs of new branches and leaves. It was different to what they would be like if a fire had gone through, as they still had their normal trunk colourings. It was very odd to see. A lot of the palm trees which lined the 3km or so Mission Beach were also still lying on their sides.
Apart from those little detours, it was an uneventful trip down here. I took a couple of photos at Mission Beach but haven't downloaded them as yet. I may download them tomorrow with the things we see tomorrow, then post them.
Hope you all are having a good time at home. We are up here... :)

Well, the pressure is on to finally write something in here, rather than let Mark do it all. Like Mark and Wendy, we were last in Cairns and Kuranda etc, in 1975. What a vast change the area has undergone - not necessarily for the better, in my opinion. We stayed at Palm Cove way back then and it contained a caravan park and a general store. Now there are resorts and hordes of people at every turn. Prices and goods/services are all aimed at the tourist, so we pay a premium in these popular locations. Port Douglas was just unbelievable, with the literally hundreds of cafes, restaurants, eateries and resorts crammed in to every available space. Must say though, that dinner at the Tin Shed was marvellous. Cairns today was more of the same - high rise resorts and many kilometres of industrial and retail sprawl. A real dsiappointment.
We had lunch at Kuranda's German sausage haus today and I enjoyed mine - not as good as Mum makes (or me for that matter) but it was yummy. Writing this to the background of country AND western live music from next door. A freebie performance by a C/W singer, for the park guests. Off tomorrow to drop in and see the Booker's at YWAM Townsville. Hopefully get some fishing done there. That's it from me, for now.

Its me again....I will do a quick update and then K may even put up a post.
We are still in Cairns for tonight, and leaving for tomorrow for Townsville. K has a friend to meet so we will prob stay there. Not much happened for us men today. We dropped the 3 girls into town at Central Station. They caught the train up to Kuranda. Us men hung around by going to Cash Converters, then BCF, then we drove up ther eto meet them and to see the sights! The town has grown by about 6000 times. It was nothing  when we were here last, but now it is a huge tourist place. We were there just in time for the girls to arrive in the train, along with 5 million other people. It was crazy. Thirteen carriages of tourists from all countries.
On the way home, we dropped Wendy and Beryl into town to do some 'shopping'. I am just going in to ge tthem in a few mins.
Here are some photos from today:

 On the way up...

 Barron Falls....apparently they control the flow now to bypass water for drinking. Not what it used to be!

 The 3 girls...

 arriving in Kuranda

 Lunch at the german tucker shop...

We had Kaseknacker!

Hi again. We are in Cairns now, arriving here yeaterday afternoon. From Port Douglas we visited Mossman Gorge, then down to here, then going out to see the Crystal Cascades late in the afternoon. This whole area has grown 50-fold since we were here 30 years ago. It is like Surfer's Paradise, without the skyscrapers. It is a real shame in my opinion. Anyway, here are some more photos of last 2 days. Maybe I should create a new blog of just sunrise/sets and water falls!

 Finally, no more dust. Here I am trying to clean off the camper cover, without much success!

 Crossing the Daintree River

 Dinner a the 'Tin Shed' combined club in Port Douglas. It was packed!

 The view from our table as the sun sets over the mountains.

 A rearely seen Cassawary in the bush. We wer very lucky.

 We ran into Dame Edna at Mossman Gorge.

 Cutting sugar cane.....no more burning the cane first.

  Part of the Crystal Cascades just west of Cairns.....beautiful!

Hey! We are now in Port Douglas - well near it. The first time for 4 days we have had internet. In those 4 days we have travelled from Cooktown, down the Bloomfield Track to Cape Tribulation, where we stayed for 3 nights, and then this morning we landed here, via Daintree, in Craiglie, just south of Port Douglas. The Bloomfield Track was in good nick, so no real problems. Of course there were the very steep parts that would have been near impossible in the rain, but we still have not seen rain since Glenhaven. We did have a slight shower overnight about 2 weeks ago, but we didn't see it!
Here are some pics from the past 4 days....hope you enjoy them...

 What a rough, feral head!

 Trevethan Falls

  Trevethan Falls

 Klaus going all 2WD-like!

 and Klaus being himself!

 Bloomfield Falls

 Bottle Brush and Bloomfield Falls

  Bloomfield Falls and downstream

Part of the Bloomfield River taken from the track (of the same name)

 The Bloomfield Track

 Sunrise at Cape Tribulation

 and again...

 ....and again

 ....still more.....

 the loneliness of the early mornings...

 early morning low tides...with sunrise

Camp kitchen brekkie eating... 

 The 'Funky Bunch' at their best....

 a mid morning 5km stroll along ghe beach

 Sacred Kingfisher watching the crocs

 the crocs watching back....

Azure Kingfisher....beautiful !!

ok....bit more of an update...
Today we saw most of the sights of Cooktown.....there isn't a huge lot! Being Beryl's birthday, she got to choose what we did, so we started off the day by doing the washing, then about 11:30 we headed to the information centre which is in the Botanic Gardens. The reason we went there because in the same location, is a cafe called Vera's which does devonshire tea! That ended up being out lunch. From there we went out to the Captain Cook museum, then came home to take the washing in,and then to Grassy Hill for views over all Cooktown. It was a spectacuar view, but was very windy. From there it was tothe Arts and Crafts store (where else?), and then to the Croc Shop for a sticky beak. We called in to the spot where Jimmy Cook repaired the Endeavour on the shore of the river. Home again to get changed, then out to dinner. I am sure Beryl had a good day, in fact, she just said she did.
We are off tomorrow to do the Bloomfield Track, and ending up for a night or two at Cape Tribulation. I expect we may not have internet service there..
Keep those comments coming...
Here are some photos from today:

 A couple of butterflys at the Botanic Gardens.

 It is amazing how many butterflys we have seen in the last week or so. K can tell you the names of these butterflys, but seeing he has gone to bed, I cannot ask him.

 The James Cook museum. It was quite interesting.

 The view from grassy Hill. I do have a 360 deg view if you want to see it!

 On top of the hill!

 Jimmy boy..

 Beryl's b'day dinner out down by the water. Eye fillet (K & I), Rack of Lamb (Marg), Thai Coral trout (Wendy), and Grilled Coral Trout (Beryl). All very nice, but the service was useless! Good thing we made up 80% of the diners!

This guy landed 3m from us at our tent. Our tent is tied to the fence he is sitting on. The wildlife has been great this week.