Drying out from the Daintree and heading west young man (Granite Gorge Wallaby Park)

B is fed up of rain again, for me it’s not the rain so much as the mud underfoot that is the problem! However…..!

Awoke with the rain, but hey off for showers anyway, I got back to the van, so sitting wearing little more than a towel, and passed the door come the three cassowary, greeted with a casual “good morning” and on their way, still a lovely wake up call, shame B always takes longer in the shower than I do!

Doris with her keeper

Off to feed Doris (who used to be Boris till she laid some eggs) it wasn’t just us, so B didn’t dare ask if he could go in, the answer would probably have been no anyway, although it’s cold which makes them a bit lethargic, she still had a good snap at her breakfast. Most of the Ozzies then wandered off – handfeeding the ‘roos obviously too prosaic for them! Good, so 5 of us went to feed the two old grey kangaroo and the three wallaby with slices of sweet potato. 

Wallaby feeding at the Lync Haven Caravan Park

So ‘animal fixed’ for the day off back to Mossman for a ‘w/end market’ fix! Nothing special, but a few cheap veges so a success. In our bid to head west we went down the coast nearly to Cairns, there was a quicker way, but this bit of coast road actually went by the coast which is unusual, and was very pretty, and we could then turn inland to Kuranda, for more markets! It reminded me of Camden Lock market in London, some lovely clothes and nick-nacks really all aimed at the tourist market (probably Japanese as most of the signs again were in Japanese too) but lovely to wander around. Strangely it all shut up bang on 15.30, oh well we’ll go back in the morning. 

And kangaroo feeding...

Lovely vibe to the place, very hippy and laid back, though still after your money – Bird world, Koala park and venom zoo all of which we gave a miss to (if Wombat feeding had been sooner we may have had to go and do that!) B was tempted by the many signs for Devonshire cream tea (no clotted cream!) so if we were going to succumb it had to be in the Scottish café and fudge shop! (Thinking of you Alex xx)

Saw this in a museum in Kuranda, its exactly the same as the sewing machine Brians mum had. It was really nostalgic!

The Scottish cafe and fudge shop

Tea and scones with jam and cream - at 11:00am!

the Granite Gorge Park. As usual B puts in a request and I do my best to oblige - new glasses, fallen off someones nose on the Kuranda railway and ended up on the track!

Don't know what he is, but he could do with a good nights sleep

Finally headed off and still didn’t get very far, Granite Canyon Park, had put us off as there was a charge, which somehow seems wrong for a bit of countryside, but on further investigation, camping included park entrance, and there were some very rare localised rock wallabies. Absolutely fantastic (ok the amenities leave a little to be desired) but a great set of walks, marked by white spots, over some great granite boulders, and then the wallabies! A little bag of food and a very happy time with some of the cutest things imaginable! So tame, so friendly, lovely! Obviously B didn’t enjoy it at all, being as hard as he is!

Whale Rock

Jackie decided this was Rhino Rock

Dinner was all planned for after wallaby feeding, so that was easy, we’d been invited to the campfire of Des and Anna, the couple from the Daintree who had been photographing the cassowary so alerting me to their presence. (Well Des anyway, Anna appeared later looking slightly out of sorts as the third cassowary had pecked at ‘something in a tree’, right by their van! ‘Something in a tree’ had turned out to be a paper wasps nest, who had chased off the cassowary, and then picked Anna as a new target!) So lovely evening planned. 

Is this a rare dragonfly? Helen will understand the humour in this statement!

Dino Rock (not sure who that arrows pointing to!)

Just eating though when our neighbours on the other side, originally from Fiji, both went to Uni in the UK, and lived in Oz for 35+ years, announced they were making scones for us! (when did we last have a scone? Somewhere with Mother, so two in one day?!) Impressively though he was making them in a cast-iron billy can on an open fire! Nestled in the charcoal with charcoal on the lid, they cooked beautifully! The jam and cream were the ‘topping on the scones’ obviously! How does this happen – two invites on the same day? 

It does look like a giant turtle!

Still as the ‘social butterflies’ we obviously are we had a lovely evening! Des and Anna are really interesting to us (and us to them I think) as they too have retired early (not quite as early as us) and are enjoying the world of travel. Stopping talking was the problem, both last night and this morning when we finally had to leave! It’s good to not have to explain why you can’t afford to do everything though, if only that lottery win would come up…..

Look at the little joey peeping out!

"What's going on mum?"

Just give me the bag!

Sunset on wallaby rock

Cooking dinner outside in the evening sun

I’ve just had to take a break – I’d already commented to B about the empty Whiskers tin in the bin, so on seeing a cutie grey tabby I had to go and say hi, there are actually 5 cats (of which I met three) 2 dogs and a very talkative owner! Just as well B is on dinner duty!

Saw this rhino beetle today - he's a handsome chap!

 

Millsteam Falls near Ravenshoe. Ravenshoe is the highest town in Queensland (920m ASL) & Millstream Falls are the widest single drop falls in Australia