Around the World in 8000 days: North Queensland

Welcome to our travel blog. We are Tabitha and Nic. In 2011 we 'retired' in our early 40s and set off to travel the world. We spent our first year in South America and have been lucky enough to make two trips to Antarctica.

Our blog is a record of our travels, thoughts and experiences. It is not a guide book, but we do include some tips and information, so we hope that you may find it useful if you are planning to visit somewhere we have been. Or you may just find it interesting as a bit of armchair travel.

Showing posts with label North Queensland. Show all posts

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Magnetic Island

From Townsville, we took a ferry out to Magnetic Island, which is about 8km offshore. It was named by Cook, when he explored the area, but to me it sound like something out of a Marvel comic strip.

Magnetic Island

The island has around 2500 people living on it, but the visitors who go are probably more interested in the populations of koalas and rock wallabies. Having just been to see the koalas in Kuranda, we didn't bother with the koala sanctuary, and we didn't spot any of the wild ones, despite it being the largest colony.

Magnetic Island

We got the bus around to Horseshoe Bay, and took a look around the market. It wasn't as large as we had expected, but it was quite pleasant. There were some nice little cafes nearby too.

Magnetic Island

Two thirds of the island is national park, and it is home to 166 species of animal. I think you would have to spend more time than we did to see many of them though. We did make our way around to see the rock wallabies.

Rock wallabies, Magnetic Island

People here used to feed them, so they still tend to congregate in that area at the same time. They didn't do too much, but were quite nice to watch for a while.

Rock wallabies, Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island

Rock wallabies, Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Townsville

We arrived in Townsville on the Greyhound at around 6am, and our hostel didn't open for a couple of hours. Nic had checked out a place that opened early, so we had somewhere we could sit and have a nice breakfast. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we discovered that that place had closed down.

Townsville

The only place that we found open was a pie shop, called Pie Face, that had a takeaway counter open during the night to cater for the clubbers. The guy was mid clean-up, but kindly let us come in and sit at the counter area. So breakfast that morning was a pie - which was a first for us. It was a very nice pie though.

After our pie, and having reached the magical opening time of other places, we found a nice little coffee shop to while away another hour.

Townsville

Townsville is the unofficial capital of North Queensland, is apparently the only city in the world to refine three different base metals, zinc, copper and nickel, and is the hometown of Greg Norman and, perhaps more dubiously, Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.

I wasn't very keen to see the huge spider, sitting above the street as we arrived, and we didn't bother with the Museum of Tropical Queensland, but we did go along to the Reef Aquarium.

Reef HQ, Townsville

That was pretty good and there was a nice little feeding tour, where they showed the incredibly fast and quite violent move of the barramundi when it feeds, and the similarly quick snap of the little crocodile.

We also took a tour of the turtle hospital, where they treat and care for rescued turtles that have been injured. Some have had they shells damaged when struck by the propeller of a boat, but some have either injested, or become entangled in our rubbish.

Reef HQ, Townsville

Carrier bags in the sea are a huge problem; one of the turtles here got a bag wrapped around it when it was young, and as the turtle grew, the bag tightened and restricted the proper growth of the shell, causing it to be badly misshapen.

We can, and must, do much more to both reduce and properly dispose of our waste, so that we stop causing needless suffering to our wildlife.

Aside from the aquarium, we took a look at - but didn't go up - Castle Hill, and went for a wonder around Flinders Street, including trying out the beers in Townsville Brewery, and the foodie area of Palmer Street

Townsville

Reef HQ, Townsville

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Cairns - Kuranda, and cuddling a Koala

Skyrail to Kuranda

Cairns may be almost all about the Great Barrier Reef, but not quite. We didn't make it to the Daintree rainforest in the very north, or the bounteous Atherton Tablelands, but we did get out to Kuranda.

Skyrail to Kuranda

We took the Skyrail cable car out, gliding over the tops of the huge cycads and rainforest trees. We stopped off at Red Peak Station, and took a wander through the rainforest, and we paused at the Barron Falls Station to get a view of the gorge and waterfalls.

Skyrail to Kuranda

Kuranda

But our destination was Kuranda, which is a village whose residents are largely artisans who were attracted to the setting, and decided to make this their home, making their goods and selling them at the arts and crafts markets.

As visitor numbers increased, the village is perhaps a little more touristy than is once was, but it does still retain a nice feel to it, despite that.

It was pleasant to stroll around the shops and stalls, and there are some nice things available, including a few of the edible goodies from the tablelands, like a multitude of macadamia nuts, and locally made ice creams.

We had a nice lunch at the creperie too.

Kangaroo Scrotum products, Kuranda

The main market has some interesting stalls, with some First Nations People selling, what they assured us were, authentic boomerangs, paintings and didgeridoos. But of course that stall that most caught Nic's interest, was the one selling items made from kangaroo. I wouldn't have minded if it was the little hide wallets that he wanted, but I had to draw the line at buying a kangaroo scrotum corkscrew.

Kuranda Koala Gardens

Anyhow, interesting as the shopping was, that wasn't our main purpose in coming to Kuranda. We wanted to visit the Koala Gardens, where you can hold a koala bear.

Kuranda Koala Gardens

We briefly distracted ourselves with the freshwater crocodiles and lizards first. It amused us to see a wild lizard from the surrounding rainforest popping in to take a look at those in the enclosure.

Kuranda Koala Gardens

But we were soon over at the koalas, and being introduced to the female that we were going to be holding. She seemed pretty content - they swap them over regularly so that they don't get fed up with it - and was quite happy to take up position as we pretended to be a tree perch.

She was heavier than I'd expected, and whilst they do still seem quite cute and cuddly, you really wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of those claws.

Kuranda Koala Gardens

After looking at the rest of the koalas, and unfortunately not being able to catch a glimpse of the little baby one, we continued over to the kangaroo and wallaby walk through area, with a handful of pellets to feed to them. Some were completely disinterested, so we left them alone, but we soon had a couple who fancied something to eat.

Kuranda Koala Gardens

Up close, it is easy to see how powerful these creatures are. The kangaroos' hind legs and tails are solid, and incredibly strong. I certainly would not want to get kicked by even one of the little ones.

Kuranda Koala Gardens

Instead of going back on the Skyrail, we had decided to take the Scenic Railway, which was built between 1887 and 1891, as a supply route for the gold rush.

Kuranda Scenic Railway

The two locomotives, (1720 class, for anyone interested,) date from 1966 and 1970, and are decorated with images of the Buda-Dji, the carpet snake that aboriginal Dreamtime stories say carved out the Barron Gorge.

The carriages are from the early 1900s.

Kuranda Scenic Railway

We had treated ourselves to gold class, so we had lovely comfortable seats in a beautiful carriage, and were treated to drinks and nibbles during the journey back. We did stop off at the Barron Falls for a closer look, and we crossed the Stoney Creek Falls iron lattice bridge, built in the 1890s.