Isabella Falls, Cape York

posted in: Queensland

Cooktown is as far north as we are travelling on Cape York.  While it would be an adventure to go all the way to the tip it would also be quite a journey.  A dusty one, requiring a 4WD that we’d have to hire along with camping gear.  Or pay for a tour, but finding a tour for a family of six is difficult and pricey.  We’ve heard the trip takes something like twenty hours.  That’s a long journey to get to the sign that says you are at the northernmost point on the Australian mainland.  So, it won’t be happening on this trip. At the visitor centre in Cooktown we asked about waterfalls in the area.  This far north you have to be careful of crocodiles, but there are some falls that it is safe to swim at.  About half an hour or so northwest of Cooktown are the Isabella Falls.  Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? The creek runs right across the road.  There were no crocodile warning signs here and they’d told us at the visitor centre that we could swim here.  We decided to play it safe and stick close to the falls just in case. Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? There was plenty of climbing to do and all the kids ventured onto the ledge at the top of the falls.  They stayed well back from the edge and didn’t freak mama out too much. Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? JitterBug lost his second tooth, right before his eighth birthday!  The adult tooth from the first tooth he lost has already grown up into the empty spot.  Still can’t believe that both my boys have been over seven and a half before they lost their first tooth.  The dentist is happy, though, since it gives their jaws more time to grow which means more room for adult teeth.  Here’s hoping at least some of them won’t need braces.  But back to the waterfall… Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? Does anything make a toddler happier than playing in water? Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? They all had turns in the various cracks and crevices and mini waterfalls… Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? This was just over the road and the water moved so swiftly, crossing the road and into the falls.  Much leaf racing and then shoe racing commenced. (Shoes were rescued before going over the edge!) Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? We didn’t venture in here.  No crocodile warning sign at the road, but who knows how far up the creek you’d need to go before you see one.  We saw quite a few vehicles crossing this creek headed in both directions, some towing caravans. Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? One happy kid after all that water play! Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? Here’s one of those crocodile warning signs, this one at a different point on the road.  ‘Crocodiles inhabit this area – attacks may cause injury or death.’  Nice. Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes? And…a tattered American flag at the side of the road.  Not a current one, but one with only thirteen stars for the original colonies.  Weird and random.  Isabella Fals, Cape York | How Many More Minutes?  We did try to see other waterfalls in the area and we were hoping to swim in some waterholes, but our plans were foiled by rain and closed roads and a lack of signage on really long dirt roads.  The kids didn’t mind and were happy to go to the pool instead.  Honestly they’d be happy to go from the pool at one caravan park straight to the pool at another one, but their terrible parents make them actually leave the park at times and see all the things there are to see in this country.  😉

Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse

posted in: Queensland

After Mulambin we drove several days in a row to get all the way up to Cooktown.  It was tiring, driving for several hours and staying for just one night at our stops along the way.  Cooktown is as far north as the sealed road goes, so this is as far north as we will be going on this trip.  The plan is to make our way back down the coast as far as Mackay, then we’ll head inland all the way to Uluru before going north to Darwin. How Many More Minutes? | Welcome to Cooktown! Cooktown is where Captain Cook came ashore after his boat hit the reef and needed repair.  They ended up spending seven weeks in the area.  Lots of history here.  We drove up Grassy Hill to the lighthouse.  You can walk up, too, and do a walk around town to visit all the historic sites.  We opted to drive up this hill.  This is the view from one side of the hill, looking down on the town.  It’s not a huge place, that road you can see with the buildings is the main road in the town.  How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse The lighthouse was very small, one of the smallest we’ve seen! How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse The area was revamped at one point with help from the community.  There are signs and plaques all over the place.  Including this seemingly random rock with a dedication to Captain Cook. How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse And this compass marker pointing out what lies in various directions.  I told the kids to point to their favourite.  SkeeterBug chose the Coral Sea, LadyBug chose Melbourne, JitterBug chose Tokyo. How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse TurboBug felt left out and needed a turn too.  🙂 How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse The community did well to make the area surrounding the lighthouse an attractive feature for the town.  The design on the walkway followed the circular path, making it look like a giant snake was painted on the path.  How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown LighthouseHow Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse Captain Cook himself climbed this hill, hoping to see a way out of the harbour without damaging his ship on the reef again. How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse Insert lovely random kid pics! How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown LighthouseHow Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse Mt. Cook is not too far away.  We stayed near the base of the mountain.  We didn’t do the hike since it was a four hour return.  With our four kids it would have been more like six or seven! How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse There were several signs like this around the area with journal excerpts from both Cook and Banks. How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown LighthouseHow Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse How Many More Minutes? | Grassy Hill & The Cooktown Lighthouse Joseph Banks journal 14th June: The Captain and myself went ashore to view the Harbour and found it indeed beyond our most sanguine wishes: it was the mouth of a river. 18th July: Indians were over with us today and seemed to have lost all fear of us and become quite familiar; one of them at our desire threw his lance; it flew with a degree of swiftness and steadiness that really surprised me, never being above 4 feet from the ground and stuck deep in at a distance of 50 paces.  After this they ventured on board the ship and soon became our very good friends.

Town of 1770

posted in: Life in a Caravan

On the way to Mulambin we made a quick stop in the town 1770.  I’ve always been curious about the town but it has always been soooo far away on the map.  But suddenly we were nearby!  We decided to stop in for a quick look.  The town is called 1770 after the year that Captain Cook landed there.  It was the first place he landed in Queensland.   It turned out to be a holiday spot.  A beautiful one.  If you ever visit and choose to stay in a caravan park, choose the one furthest up the peninsula. (If you zoom in on the map, you’ll see 1770 is at the end of a small peninsula.)  It’s right on the beach.  Right on the beach.  As we made our way along the beach to the cairn we were walking right past campers.  It looked lovely. How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 It wasn’t far to the cairn marking where Captain Cook landed on the 24th of May 1770. How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 Such a simple monument for such a momentous occasion.  So momentous they named the town after the date it happened! How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770  How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 I’m not even sure Cook came ashore here, it just says he landed here.  One of the signs above says Joseph Banks came ashore, though, and collected various plant species.  Can you imagine how fun that must have been for him?  As a botanist, to see all these new plants would have been so exciting. How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 Such a peaceful spot, it looked like a great place for a holiday.  We were here in winter and all the caravan parks were full.  Mostly Victorians trying to escape the cold, probably! How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 See the name on the ‘ship’ in the playground?  🙂 How Many More Minutes? | Town of 1770 After a good play we were back in the car.  Since we had a long car ride that day (we’d started near Bundaberg) we let the kids watch a movie in the car.  That’s a rare treat for them, though we have a dvd player in the car we don’t use it much.  We want them to look out he window occasionally.   TurboBug does exceptionally well in the car so we are able to do four hours a day or so without too much trouble.  Four hours doesn’t sound like much, but include packing up the van at the beginning of the day and setting up at the end and it makes for a long day.  Nothing like when I was at uni and my roommate and I drove more than twenty hours across America all at once!

Bluff Point Walk in Mulambin, QLD

posted in: Queensland

Is this not the prettiest kookaburra ever?  He looks so soft and fluffy.  🙂 Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? While in Mulambin we did the Bluff Point walk.   We’d read you could get a 360 degree view of the area and see turtles swimming in the ocean.  Sounds good! Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? The trail does a circuit and we soon found out it’s one of those popular fitness tracks.  You can choose your direction and do the steep part first or last.  We opted to do the steep part first.  See all the steps?  During our walk we were lapped more than once by various people doing their workouts. Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Doing the steep part first meant that turtle lookout was our first stop.  Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? The lookout has a really beautiful view.  Breathtaking. Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? The sign said the turtles are there year-round so we had our eyes peeled. Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? It didn’t take long!  Look, there’s a turtle!  Really, that speck that looks like a floating rock is a turtle. Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? See?  All zoomed in and you can see him.  We saw a few turtles and watched for awhile as they rode the waves. Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Well, most of us were watching the turtles.  Some of us were more interested in sticks. Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? One last look at that beautiful view… Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Then on to the next lookout.  Or outlook as the case may be.  (Why was the first one a lookout and this one an outlook???) Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? (You just scrolled back up to check the picture of the turtle lookout sign, right?  I had to.)  😀 Here’s a view of the beach, looking back the way we’d come.  It was interesting to see how different the landscape was on the other side of the road.  So dry, and there were even people riding dirt bikes over there. Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? The view from the summit.  That’s the beach where we rode our bikes! Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? From the summit you could see the caravan park we were staying in, tucked in behind the housing subdivision.  Our caravan is almost smack in the middle of this picture.  We enjoyed this park, it was really packed but we had an unpowered site out the back where it wasn’t as crowded.  They had an outdoor cinema where they played family movies each night, great fun to get our jackets and winter hats on and brave the cold.  Those Queensland winters, you know. Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? It was all downhill from there.  (I’m terrible, aren’t I?) Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? We saw this lovely green ant nest in a tree.  So cool how they stick the leaves together. Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes?Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? And, um, a log.  I thought it looked pretty and I have the camera.  😉 Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? We saw a few termite mounds in trees.  We read that birds will use old ones as nests. Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? This guy just turned two.  He looks closer to three in this picture, doesn’t he?  Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? When we got back this little guy had a fall into a bicycle wheel.  He tripped and slammed his forehead against part of the tyre, not sure whether it was a spoke or the centre.  Never fear, after a cuddle he was ready to accompany the others to the front desk for some ice cream.  He did have to be locked out of the van until he was finished.  He didn’t mind. Bluff Point Walk, Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes?

A Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD

posted in: Queensland

Jumping ahead again! Emu crossing!  Yay!  We soon found out why… Emu Crossing in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? The caravan park had its own resident emu!  He was not shy and often came over when he saw us outside.  He wasn’t afraid of the kids at all, he probably knew they were likely to have food. Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? This is officially my favourite kind of palm.  It’s like the branches are in 3D.  I think it’s a foxtail palm. Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? We went across the road to have a bike ride on the beach.  I know.  We’re horrible, horrible people.  Bike riding on the beach while everyone else endured the whole Antarctic vortex thing.  We did have our jackets on, see? Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes?Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? To get from one end of the beach to the other is a much longer ride than you’d think.  I know, poor us.  The kids took a break and did some exploring. Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes?Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? At least they had their helmets on! Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Look at that cute bike!  I wonder who that belongs to?  😉 Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Those little specks down the beach are my children.  It was a big beach. Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? When we got to the other end there was more exploring to be done. Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes? And when we returned we were greeted by our new friend! Bike Ride on the Beach in Mulambin, QLD | How Many More Minutes?

Hello, Queensland! Nice to Meet you.

posted in: Queensland

I’ve always wanted to visit beautiful, sunny Queensland.  After more than six months in our caravan, here we are!  Suddenly it feels all official, we are headed north!  There is so much of Australia still to see.  But now we are one step closer.  Hello, Queensland! | How Many More Minutes? Hello, Queensland! | How Many More Minutes?  First stop, the Gold Coast!  Of course.  We could get away with not visiting the theme parks if our kids were younger.  But they have this inconvenient awareness of these things.  😉

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