Author: Gary

Within 20 minutes of Ayr we are set up off grid between cane fields for a couple of days. Property owner, the gregarious Greg, meets us on our arrival in his modified dune buggy. Very friendly guy who is a 3rd generation farmer. We are invited to his “common” campfire for a chat with other campers. Very interesting information about cane farming over the years with a parting offer to show us around the farm tomorrow.

Booked in for 7 nights. Very peaceful despite being a large caravan park and probably popular with Townsville residents (we are about 60 kms north). We will have the car serviced after it’s 2,000+ kms dirt road journey to the Cape; pick up a replacement set of side mirrors (Driver’s side lost due to a huge gust of wind from a passing truck) and food shopping) in Townsville.

Regular afternoon visitors in the trees surrounding and above our caravan…

Visited Little Crystal Creek again. The water temperature was quite cold but refreshing and so clean & clear. Enjoyed putting a newly acquired 10 stop filter to use to capture the scenes below (long exposure up to 30 seconds).

Slow motion (8x) added some interest in capturing such beauty, water fall and underwater scenes.

A touring sort of day. Departing from our Elysium Palms base we drove south. 1st stop was Tully for a coffee to view the sugar refinery in full production. Visitors climb an internal staircase to get to the top of the boot for the view.

Onto Alligators Nest for a swim… absolutely perfect swimming conditions with a sandy river bed and crystal clear water.

Driving further south to Cardwell headed up to the lookout in the State Forest

…then a drive through the Cardwell State Forest visiting a number a swimming holes but none looked that enticing compared to Alligators Nest.

Our next stopover for 2 nights was a “paddock” at the rear of a passion fruit farm (unfortunately there was no ripe fruit)! Good bunch of fellow travellers made the evening around campfires really entertaining. Elysium Palms is only 5 kms from Mission Beach. Mission Beach appeared to have seen much better days, probably due to COVID and Dunk Islands closure. A bonus was to see a cassowary wandering through our grass paddock.

Not suitable to be walking or venturing too far outdoors due to the wet weather, so we drove to Bramston Beach from the farm. So off we went with the beach address entered in the car’s navigation. Unfortunately, this video is an example of the car’s poor navigation system. The chosen route to Bramston beach might have been the most direct BUT you may have needed a 4WD!

And the rain, unsurprisingly in a rainforest region, continues to fall!

The route off and down from the Tablelands via route 52 was a very long and winding road. The Babinda Bakery was too busy, with a queue out the entrance door. We decided not to buy their famous meat pies for lunch and made lunch at the side of the local oval. Detailed directions made for an easy drive to the farmstay.

Just an overnight stay. The return flight was delayed but we were still able retrieve the car from longterm airport parking, drive up to Mareeba & relocate the caravan all before dark. Temperatures were much warmer than Sydney 😀, even on the Atherton Tablelands.

Spent just over 3 weeks back home visiting family and friends. Loved this time particularly meeting our new grandson Levi and celebrating Adam’s 40th birthday.