29/8/17 Davies Creek

 A short drive from Mareeba is Davies creek Rd , which leads to Dinden State Forest and National Park , and there's also Davies Creek Falls . The road lead us up into the valley , climbing as we went , more gravel road but this was a cinch compared to the Cape . It was only 6klms in to the carpark , we loaded up and headed down the track to the falls and another lookout .
 The lookout showed us back toward Mareeba and Davies Creek down below .

  Further down the track we arrived at the falls lookout , the falls go down a fair distance , cascading over water worn granite rocks . Fortunately today I had the drone with us , it gave us a great view of the falls that you can't get from the lookout .

 Here's a treat - some video .

 After playing with the drone for a while , we headed on the circuit track that leads back to the carpark the long way . The track follows the creek for about 500m and is beautiful , stunning cascades , reflections , and plants .

 Tea trees are flowering .

 Spotted a fern we hadn't seen before .

 And while we're on ferns , here's a massive block of ferns sitting on top of a rather large granite rock.

 Trees formed a canopy over the creek , making a tranquil scene , great reflections as well .

 The track stopped at a sandy beach and a couple of large pools that you can swim in - needs to be a lot hotter than today , and today was 28 degrees , the water is very cold !!

 At the end of the pool was another small cascade .

   We made our way back to the ute and headed further up Davies Creek Rd to the camping section , finding a convenient log to sit at for lunch . There are several walks that you can do here - a 9.6klm one and a 12.2klm one , and an 8klm one - we'll stick to what we've done !!
 After lunch we headed further up the road , our GPS showed you could get through to Tinaroo Dam , shame the road has been closed off as it would have been an epic drive through the dry forest and sections of rainforest . This part was through a stand of Blue Gums .

 Another kilometre down and that's where the road stopped , down in amongst the rainforest .
It's also the start of another walk .

 There are many very tall tree ferns , some topping 10m high .

  With that we headed back to the van , here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Fmt4SlLKBUZQGvQSyc7xJpGYe2M&usp=sharing

27/8/17 What's that Skip

  Today we travel out of town to Granite Gorge - a camping area with a gorge walk and some very friendly rock wallabies . It's not far out of Mareeba , but may as well be a million miles from anywhere - nice and peaceful till all the terrorists , oops sorry , tourists arrive .
 We arrive and pay our admission - $12 each - to be able to access the walk and feed the wallabies , and possibly go for a swim after the walk . After signing indemnity forms and getting the information  about the walk , we head off . The area just below the reception area is the feeding area , the wallabies are very used to it , and will come out to greet you , looking for some food . The food is also included in the price - you get a little paper bag of pellets to feed them with - they eat out of your hand !

After feeding about 6 or 7 of them , we were out of food - the wallabies weren't worried , they stayed around till someone else arrived . They are that used to people that you can pat them !
 Down the track further is a creek and a bridge , it then goes up to the swimming area where we sat and looked around .

 We sat up on one of the granite boulders while trying to get the drone sorted out - it's a pain in the backside when you can't remember the password required for the wifi connection !! Needless to say , the drone didn't fly today !!
 The time had slipped away and it was nearly lunchtime , we had an appointment for lunch with Chris & Tony - who we'd met at Burrill Lake in February this year - it turned out to be a pleasant couple of hours .
  Back to the gorge walk , we started back to the track , starting to rock hop and manoeuvre our way down the rocks . I spotted a damsel fly and dragonfly , then a butterfly and a lizard .

 As we went down the gorge , we noticed shiny patches on the rocks , interesting , we thought it was mica to start with , then we got up close and found it was some sort of insects web or sheeting .

 There's plenty of rocks here all in various conditions .

 The granite on the track is a little dangerous in places , being very slippery , yet other spots it is the complete opposite - very grippy . Some spots you go down on your backside and slide down , the track is a grade 3 track , then there's the red track which is a grade 4 track - lot's more rock hopping , climbing over rocks & tree trunks . Then there's the creek that runs through a lot of the rocks .

  After crossing the creek you arrive at the lookout and whale rock .

 Making our way back up the track , I spotted a spider - similar size to the Golden Orb spider from Mossman Gorge - this one is a Huntsman Spider - it also is about 5 " or 125mm across !!

 An interesting sight was the dinosaur footprints in the rock .

 The track could be a little bit better marked , so we ended up going off track a little , but our little friend , Skip , arrived to guide us in the right direction - showing us the way and following to make sure we were back on track . Here he/she is .

 There's also some cycads growing around the gorge .

 Another creek crossing was up ahead , so we stopped and dangled some hot feet in the water - not for long mind you , it was cool . The water was flowing down into cracks in the granite then turning 90degrees and flowing along the crack down into other spots , forming little waterfalls along the way.

 The sun was in the right spot to create an interesting effect with the rocks & water .

 AS we left this area , there was a lonely little flower with a couple of leaves poking out of a crack in the rock .

 And that was the end of our walk , we signed out and headed back to the van - a good day has been had . Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1g596uVZ1hiF6KSbBcsF_W-QoO7o&usp=sharing

24/8/17 Mossy Gorge

 After being awake early courtesy of the light , we were all sorted early , so headed out to Mossman Gorge . It has all changed since our last visit some 25 years ago , now you go to the gorge information centre & bus transfer . It costs $9.50 each for a return trip into the gorge , you can also do an organised tour or 2 , but we chose to walk at our pace rather than someone else's .
  Arriving at the gorge , we took the track with lookout's over the river  and weren't disappointed at all. It was as I remembered , large boulders strewn around the river bed , crystal clear cool water and fish swimming around .

Here I am checking the results .

 This is the main pool people usually swim in , today there was no swimming - didn't stop a Japanese family or a group of backpackers though !!

 From here we went across the suspension bridge and did a 2.4klm walk through the rainforest . It was a good walk taking us through a lot of different area's in the forest , drier sections, wetter sections and all with different plants & trees & ferns & moss . Here's some photo's of all that .

 After wandering around for a bit over 3.5 hrs , we headed back to the visitors centre where one of the staff pointed out a couple of Golden Orb Spiders on the outside of the building . Now we'e seen some big spiders before , but these took the cake , they were huge !!! we are talking 5" or 125mm across , and the yellow colour on all the joints of the legs , stunning !!!

 These of course are the female of the species , the male being much smaller . What a way to finish our visit .
  Off to Port Douglas for lunch , before going back to Cairns , Smithfield to be precise to do some shopping , then head for home .
 Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CQFnl6yqEFVs8SQNrKpixbtb6x8&usp=sharing


 25/8/17    Clean up day


 It took us most of the day to catch up on washing and cleaning everything , red & brown dust coming out of everywhere , time for a beer or 2 and relax .
 Just for the numbers people , we did 2,886 kilometres in the last 2 weeks , with fuel consumption of 13.6 litres per 100 klms - pretty good considering the roads and using 4wd for quite a bit of that !!!
 The ute never missed a beat , can't complain about that !!
 Cheers everyone