Who needs a beach

We had heard about the amazing swimming holes and waterfalls in Northern Queensland. After the threat of being killed by jelly fish and crocodiles as we headed north beyond the beef capital of Australia ( Rockhampton) , we were all pretty keen for a swim. The stretch between Townsville and Cairns has been a real highlight for us.

Murray Falls

Five Mile Swimming Hole near Cardwell

The Boulders near Babinda ( clearest water )

Josephine Falls

Despite swimming without the threat of imminent death from a deadly creature, Alison and Juliette discovered that when you are in Queensland, you need to be wary whether you are in or out of the water. They went close to treading on a brown coloured snake which thankfully thought as ill of them as they did of it and scurried off into the bush. No doubt it was one of those top ten in the world venomous snakes you see at Steve Irwin's place. You know the ones that have enough venom to kill a thousand strong young cane cutters. Why do they need so much venom? To make matters worse, a marsupial rat found its way into our portable BBQ. After her recent trauma, Alison was pretty sure that the tail poking out the end looked similar to what she had seen on the path. She has been a little jumpy since.

We dropped in at Paronella Park on the way to Cairns which was pretty amazing. An incredible vision by an inspirational Spanish fellow built back in the 1930's. Fascinating.

He used the force of this waterfall to create his own Hydroelectric plant which was  has been restored and provides all the park's power and feeds back into the grid. Pretty cool.

We are now in Cairns where we will be for a bit over a week as I return to G'gong for a few days and GaGa comes up to spend some time with the crew. Good times.