Normanton to Mareeba 23/24th May 2014.
Left Normanton wasn’t the tropical paradise we had expected.
Pretty uneventful drive to Mt Surprise. Stayed at Planet Earth Caravan Pk. Big expanse of land and only $17 for a
powered site. Local Gem stones and museum as well as the owner puts on reptile
shows. Didn’t go there and don’t know if there is charge or not. Very foggy in
the morning but cleared quickly.
Drive from Mt Surprise through the Atherton Table Lands was
very enjoyable and more like what we had been expecting. Beautiful scenery with
a huge variety of flora on the road side. Some sections were almost like
rainforest. Very narrow road, and no where really to stop for photos.
Stopped at Ravensall for a coffee and a bit of a feed. Nice
bakery and nice clean town.
Arrived in Mareeba and booked into the Rodeo Ground. $15 per
night for singles $20 for cpl. Huge area with larger powered sites.
Balloon landing at Rodeo ground.
25/5/2014
Today we drove from Mareeba into Cairns. Beautiful drive through the mountains, again with almost rainforest type vegetation around the road. Found a photo look out with a view down of the outskirts of Cairns. Cairns I thought was very commercialised. Nice place but very orientated toward the younger tourists and families. The tide was out and the esplanade seafront was all mud, no sand on the beach at all. Don't know where Qld got the reputation of golden beaches so far everyone I have seen is more rock and mud than a fine sandy beach. The Train to Kuranda was running but the Sky Rail was closed for annual maintenance so our plan to do that trip went out the window.
We did travel by road to Kuranda on the way back to Mareeba. The railway station and the surroundings are something to see. Well worth the drive and the time to really have a look at. All very well presented and in a very beautiful location.
From the hill coming into Cairns.
Cairns Marina.
Not my idea of a nice beach.
Kuranda Railway and Skyrail Station.
