This is a big post because Cairns is a big city and we were there for a while. It is the gateway to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the Tableland country and the World Heritage rainforests surrounding it. We enjoyed the city and took good advantage of its surrounding beauty, nestled uniquely between the mountains of the Great Dividing Range and the ocean. So much to enjoy!
Kerry’s snippets are in fuchsia.
Getting there
Atherton > Mareeba > Kurunda > Cairns (80km)
Its a straight-forward drive to the top of the escarpment but got a bit tight on the descent to the coastal flats. A combination of steep descents and very tight corners, and loads of traffic, made it all a wee bit stressful. I have to say, Des did remarkably well, kept to a reasonable speed, changed down gears etc.
History of Cairns
Archaeological evidence shows Aboriginal peoples living in rainforest in the Cairns area for at least 5,100 years, and possibly for much of the often suggested 40,000-year period. Tribal groups speaking the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji language and dialects of the Djabugay language predominated.
While Aboriginal inhabitants had lived well in the rainforest and from the sea, the initial white settlers found the land harsh and ungiving. The dangerous reefs, dense vegetation, debilitating climate and advent of disease took their toll. It was not until gold fever lured hundreds of thousands of fortune hunters – after the discovery of gold at Palmer River in 1872 – that the region started to develop.
The first white officials arrived by boat in 1876, and on 1 November the township was inaugurated on board the Government ship, SS Victoria. This is regarded as the official birth date of Cairns. Cairns was named for Sir William Wellington Cairns, a British colonial administrator appointed Governor of Queensland in January 1875.
After years of competition from the already established town of Port Douglas and the nearby settlement of Smithfield, Cairns became secure as the prominent town with a series of successful agricultural ventures by Chinese businessmen and labourers frustrated with the overworked goldfields. Thousands of acres of plantations were developed around the Cairns settlement. By 1885, there were sufficient local population base for it to be declared a municipality.
Construction of a railway line from Cairns to Herberton in 1886 brought many immigrant workers (predominantly Italian and Irish). These new residents, in turn, generated demand for agricultural products – sugar cane on the lowlands, and fruit and dairy on the tableland. This increased the importance of Cairns as a regional centre such that in 1903, Cairns was officially declared a town, with a registered population of 3,500.
The city remained a low-key place until after World War II, when tourists started arriving. After 1984, with the opening of the international airport and the subsequent listing of World Heritage areas, tourism quickly became the town’s major industry.
Today, Cairns has come a long way since its beginnings as a boggy swamp and rollicking goldfields port, and is the gateway to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, to the Tableland country and to the World Heritage rainforests. It supports countless resorts, tour agencies, souvenir shops and a million reminders of its proximity to natural world heritage wonders. It is unabashedly geared to tourism.
The Cairns region had a population of 161,932 as at June 2016, and is the fifth-most-populous place in Queensland.
The van park
We are at Cairns Coconut Holiday Park, a large Big4 park with many cabins, villas, van sites and camping sites. It is set in 28 acres, lush with palms, rainforests and tropical gardens. It is situated on the southern side of Cairns, abut 10-15 minutes from the city centre. There are courtesy buses.
It is certainly family orientated and there is an incredible range of options for kids – like a mini theme park. Even though we were there during the Qld school holidays, this does not impact on us as the park is only about a third full. Concerns over extreme weather seems to have scared many away.
We have a good sized site in a block with sites all angled for easy parking. We drive in and wait for the man that is going to help us get Mobi in. But while waiting we give it a go, and have her just about perfect up against a slab when the man arrived. We did well, our first real effort at reverse parking (in 8 weeks!). Amazing how well it goes when Des actually listens to what I am telling him. We are both getting much better at this.
Looking around, there are 2 large kidney shaped pools with spa pools, and various smaller options for kids. There is a shop/kiosk/restaurant, a camp kitchen and numerous BBQs scattered around the park. There is a high quality central shower/toilet block with a big laundry, but we think there could be more ablution facilities through the park. It would be a bit manic if it were full.
There is a dump point.
Day 0 – arrival day
On the way to the van park we stopped at a the refrigeration workshop where our freezer is going to be fixed – we hope. This has been organised through the van dealer Hinterland Caravans. We were frustrated with the response I must say. They didn’t have the parts and had to order them in, despite being provided with the model and serial numbers. We left, with serious doubts of a good outcome.
After setting up we went into the city to have a look around. The Commonwealth Games was a big thing at the time with road closures, special information booths and people to assist. We found our way to the Esplanade and Lagoon area.
The ocean in front of the Esplanade is just mudflats and not at all attractive – must have been low tide. Old photos show that Cairns used to have a beach but thanks to dredging it became covered in silt and mud.
The landscaped boardwalk and lagoon areas of the Esplanade are meant to make up for the lack of beach.
We walked around town to get a feel for it. Lots of big old pubs on street corners – that’s gotta be a good thing.
The Bolands Centre is the most attractive building we saw.
It is a modern city with lots of shopping opportunities and tourist operators everywhere. These all claim to be “tourist information centres” but they really want to just sell you a tour.
Day 1
Today is beach day. Cairns waterfront is not a beach but rather silt and mud during mid to low tides. Today, we wanted to see the real thing.
There are nine beaches in Cairns (or 10 if you count the newly developing Half Moon Bay), located to the north of the city in a string of coastal suburbs.
Machans Beach is the closest to Cairns.
This is a quiet little place where the local community have resisted development in order to protect their tranquil beachside lifestyle.
There is a nice beachfront but very little actual beach. The waterfront is heavily protected from erosion by a massive rock wall. Not sure where you would swim.
There is very little tourist development here, just a nice a cafe on the corner of the main street and the beach street.
Holloways Beach is the the next one along, which is another quiet suburb with a strong community feel. There is a real beach here, with real sand.
It feels more modern that Machans, with some very modern houses and small scale development. There is also a restaurant and café on the beachfront.
Once you’ve got over the very funny name of Yorkeys Knob (named after a rocky outcrop we think) there is a really nice beach there.
We first get to the northern end of the beach where we found a rocky outcrop (is this the Knob?) and a nice beach and park.
On the top of the headland we can see some very large buildings perched on the edge of the cliff. We drove up to look at the real estate and it is impressive.
We then drove around to the large marina and boating club. And we did hear that there is also a golf course.
Back on the Hwy, we drove into another road that headed East but with no sign indicating a beach. As we pulled up at a car park at the beach, a man pulled up beside us to explain where we were. He had seen our NSW number plate and thought we might have been either totally bewildered or looking for Trinity Beach.
We were actually at Half Moon Bay, where new developments are quickly turning this area into another suburb. The beach is as good as any we saw. But we also saw a few new housing estates, one at least on a canal development. This place is going somewhere!
Reputedly one of Australia’s foremost wedding destinations, we read in the guide, the village of Palm Cove is “chic and upmarket with several 4-5 star hotels and good restaurants”. Perhaps that is a tad over stated, but it does look like an interesting place, certainly much more developed that the other beaches, with lots of apartments and cafes/restaurants along the water front. There is also a nice beachfront walkway.
We arrived at the northern end of the beach where there is a rocky headland and a large jetty going out about 50m into the ocean. It would be a really nice place to swim except for the stingers!
We had lunch on the waterfront which was ok – it is often hard to find a place offering a simple lunch, rather than a gourmet dinner, at lunchtime. Des had scrambled eggs on toast (such an adventurous little lamb) and I had eggs benedict. I couldn’t believe they charged an extra $2.50 or something for a bit of ham. As I said to the lady: “how is it eggs benedict without ham”? The iced chocolate was divine.
The huge Melaleuca trees (Paperbark Gums) are said to be part of the attraction of Palm Cove. They look great and provide excellent shade all along the esplanade. These trees are protected so all the resorts have to build around them which sometimes makes for some interesting designs.
Trinity Beach is a good sand beach and it has quite extensive 3/4 story development along the waterfront.
There are also cafes and restaurants so we can see why it appears to be so popular.
We skipped a few beaches as we wanted to get to Ellis Beach, but pulled into a roadside/beachside carpark that turned out to be Buchans Point. It was deserted when we called in there, but we later found out that it is the only nudist beach in Cairns.
A little further along we came to the last beach in the chain, Ellis Beach. We had heard much about this beach from a friend of ours.
It is different from the others in that you don’t turn off from the Hwy to drive out to it – the Hwy passes right through the middle.
It is a lovely beach and so quiet compared to the others. probably our favourite.
There is very little there apart from a Surf Life Saving Club, Boat Club, campground and the Ellis Beach oceanfront cabins. There was also a casual looking restaurant, but right on the highway. But a truely lovely place.
Day 2
Today we took the Skytrain, which was excellent. This is is a 7.5 km scenic cableway running above the Barron Gorge National Park.
But we were very disappointed to hear that the Kuranda Scenic Railway was closed as there had been a few landslides during all the heavy rains in March. We will have to come back for that as everyone tells us it is really special.
For the Skyrail we had to book a departure time and a return time, which we found odd having ridden many gondolas in many countries. But we did that via our Park office who booked it – $160 for us both.
We arrives at the base station at Smithfield (about 25min from the Park) before our departure time of 8.45 and they put us straight on to a carriage.
There are 2 stations on on trip, and we are advised to stop at these on the way up: Red Peak Rainforest Station, where you have to exit the gondola as it loops around for the return trip down; and Barron Falls Rainforest Station, where you can remain on the gondola if you wish (as we did on the return journey).
The rainforest walk is a short broadwalk through the rainforest to a lookout over the valley. There are interpretive signs, and there is also a ranger guided tour which we missed.
The Barren Falls station provides great views of the falls from on high. we were looking down on the falls so we could see it all. It is quite a long falls. Quite spectacular, but we hear that it was simply awesome after the heavy March rains.
The trip up to Kuranda took about an hour or more maybe. First thing we did was to have a look at the railway station – a lovely old building. Ah, if only we could have used it.
We got to Kuranda just as many of the shop are opening. I bought a new hat as the very expensive leather one I had bought for the trip was marking badly from contact with perspiration – large black stains. How can an Aussie had not cope with a bit of sweat?
The shops were all geared to foreign tourists so we did not take long to wander through the town. But some of the trees look great with their hanging roots.
Then we went to the butterfly aviary and did a free tour inside, which was excellent. The life cycle of the butterflies was explained and we viewed the enclosure where the eggs were laid, the hatchery, and rest areas where the young butterflies prepare for their very short lives.
There were so many spectacular butterflies there – flitting around our heads and all the flowers. The Cairns Birdwing Butterflies were by far the most spectacular – such colours.
There is something very peaceful about watching butterflies getting on with their short little lives and pollinating plants. They also had some Monarch Butterflies – unusual for Australia… I take a personal interest in these, having raised one from an egg in San Francisco with my grand-daughters.
Then we returned to the main aviary to watch and photograph these amazing and beautiful little creatures.
They did not have any Ulysses butterflies as the seasons have been out of kilter this year, which throws out all their breeding. Luckily we had seen these up on the Tablelands. The pic is from the web – not one of mine.
After we visited the Heritage Markets – more of the same – we walked down along the Barron River back to the station for our return trip. The downward ride took about 40min.
We stopped at the big shopping centre at Smithfield to top up, before heading back to the park and a swim or two.
Day 3
Today we went our seperate ways – me to walk a steep gorge and Kerry to learn snorkelling. Kerry reacted badly to the description of the gorge track as being “very steep”.
I drove about 30min south looking for Behana Gorge, having been told that the turnoff is hard to find. I did find it easily as I put “Behana Gorge Rd” in my Sat Nav, but the signage is a tiny little sign to Behana Gorge tacked onto a post. I only saw that sign as I turned the corner. But, in any event the turn off is not far past Gordonvale, and about 5km past the turn-off to the Gillies Highway.
The track in is a good but narrow road, through some lovely countryside. Very nice drive.
After about 7km I arrived at a carpark and checked with a couple of people who confirmed this is it. I see lots of signs proclaiming the area as a water supply source for Cairns. The track is not marked as such. There is a locked gate and a pedestrian entry way to the left.
The track is actually a narrow concrete road paralleling a large water pipe. This took me up through the rainforest over some quite steep hills. Up and down, following the contours.
The total length is about 3.5km each way. About half way along, the track meets the river and there is a lovely little cascade and water hole.
From here on up, the increasing sound of the falls provides increasing promise, and I could occasionally see the raging river through the trees.
Close to the top, the river is right next to the track and I started to see the falls. First, I saw the river raging below the falls, then a length of racing water taking a sharp right turn downhill.
I could also see the falls further up and I climbed the last hill (steep) to get there. At this point there is a large locked gate across the road.
The falls are brilliant – my son Daniel had recommended that I must get there and I was delighted that I had. There are a number of cascading falls to rock pools, above the long race.
Above these is the main pool with a divided set of falls into that. Quite lovely!
There is a rough track to the the falls and there I met 3 ladies I had seen at the carpark. They are local women who every now and again go for a bush walk and sit and have a natter.
I thought the water was too powerful to get in the pool, but they had found a sheltered corner and I joined them there, as much as anything to cool down. It was chilly getting in but oh so refreshing. However, the rocks underneath were very slippery and it was difficult clamouring out.
After that it was more photos and the return walk. On the drive out to the Hwy I had a lovely view of Pyramid Mountain (that is what the 3 woman called it) rising above the cane fields. A wonderful way to spend a morning.
A video of the falls can be seen here.
As a background, I have never been properly able to snorkel. I get totally freaked out when I cannot breathe and the mask draws into my face – despite knowing that I have to breathe through my mouth only. So, when I saw on the activities sheet for the Coconut Resort, that they give snorkelling lessons on Friday morning, I thought – I should do this as we are going to the outer reef overnight on Monday and snorkelling will most definitely be involved.
I registered, then turned up at the pool for the 10am lesson. So many people were there and the nice instructor came with lots of fins, snorkels and masks. I had my own. Eventually, everyone supposedly understood her 3 rules: (i) do not walk when you have fins on; (ii) no running around the pool (iii) do not swim near the slippery dip. 25 minutes later, we found out some basics (with more interruptions from late comers): (i) spit in the mask to stop fogging; (ii) don’t make the mask too tight; (iii) to hold the snorkel, make a mouth like you are going to give a puckered kiss.
So, we got in the pool. I explained that I panicked when I couldn’t breathe and I felt water in the snorkel. She told everyone that if you get water out of the snorkel to shout “TWO” loudly into the snorkel. The snorkel I have, and most had, has a non-return valve that holds a small amount of water. Yelling something like “2” into it will cause the water to spurt out and what doesn’t go out of the lower valve, should come out of the top valve.
I felt a little more confident after that and tried it out a few times. I also asked her about swimming totally under water with the top of the snorkel under too….. Just hold your breath and don’t breathe at all was the fairly obvious answer.
So there I was, feeling like a complete idiot (but I wasn’t alone – there were quite a few adults there learning too). I tried a duck dive, and actually swam under-water with no “leaks” – sneaking right along the bottom of the pool. I DID IT!!!!!
After that success I returned to a recurring problem. The broken door of the freezer in Mobi has been driving me insane. I phoned the repair factory and was told “no parts yet – they do take a long time to do things under warranty”. I explained that we had to leave Cairns on Wednesday. “I’ll see what I can do and call you back” was the response. To my utter amazement – she called back at lunchtime. The distributor for Dometic in Brisbane is going to hurry the parts along. YIPPEE! But I won’t be holding my breath.
Reading the fridge manual, the freezer front panel has to be removed to get to the innards where the catch is broken. “This cannot be done while the fridge is upright” it says – so looks like the whole fridge will have to come out….. What an absolutely STUPID DESIGN.
In the meantime, I decide to defrost the freezer the quick way…. Get a big tray, and put it in front of the door, get a rice-cooker scraper (plastic), a chux and my hair-dryer. 5 minutes later, the whole thing is clear of ice, dried off and repacked. How easy is that?
Day 4
Again we have a split day – me to take a very physical adventure and Kerry to do a bit of shopping.
But first we had a few things to do. Some food shopping (including more prawns) and also to go to a place to talk about our car fridge. This is a Kings 60L fridge which is made by Waeco. The latch on this had broken, but it still worked all ok, but Kerry had seen a large Waeco sign on a workshop near the airport.
We found the repair shop and went in and explained that we had a Kings fridge (Waeco) and the spring on the latch appeared to have disappeared. The owner came out with a knife. I expressed surprise that he could look at it so quickly. He laughed and said “I will fix it just as quickly”. That was it. He snapped the mechanism out with his knife, put it back in again another way around and hey presto. All working again. Profuse thanks from us.
I did a half day whitewater rafting trip with Raging Thunder Adventures – just the name gets the adrenalin going. This was on the Barron River below the Falls and ending up in Lake Placid (where there are crocodiles).
I got picked up at 1.45 and after collecting some more adventurers we drove to meet up with the others. There were 4 boats with 6 passengers in each, plus a guide.
First we had to prepare ourselves but I was already ready in a rash vest, swimming shorts and wet shoes that I used for kayaking. But others came in jeans and were told they needed to change. The booking notes said come in swimwear.
Up at the launch point we put on lifejackets and helmets and were given our introductory lessons on rafting. This continued after we split into teams and got going in a practice pool in the river to get used to it all. A man from England and myself were up front on our boat – the most important positions we were told.
We practiced everything from “Stop” – where we rested with our paddles safe – to “Get Down” – where we had to scramble to the bottom of the boat but not resting our bums on the bottom, and holding our paddles inboard and straight up. The reason for not putting our bums on the bottom, as we quickly found out, is that in areas where we needed to get down there are a lot of rocks which hit the bottom of the boat hard.
Then we were off. Quickly over a few warm up riffles before hitting the Face Wash. We had our first “Get Down” and did indeed get our faces well and truely washed.
We continued this for a good while and it was actually quite hard work. We often had to paddle hard to line up a rapid, then back paddle to get straight, then go hard again, then get down as we tethered over the top, then back up again at the bottom to position us for the next one.
I absolutely loved it! At first I dreaded the “get downs” as they were steep drops, but then I started to look for them as they were the most exciting.
At all of the major rapids the guides stopped to set things up – including waiting for Izzy the camera lady. They always had a long rope out in case someone came off a boat.
At the mid point we came to a big beautiful waterhole and all got out of our boats to drift along with the current. Really lovely.
At the last big drop, the guides explained that we would try surfing – we did not have to do it, but it was an option. This involved paddling back across the river just below the fall, then turning in so that the boat was under the fall and “locked in” by the pressure of the water. All in the boat were in the get down position and trying to lean away form the fall – which was difficult as the boat was getting tossed around in every direction and everyone was feeling the full force of the water.
When the first boat went in I was thinking no way am I doing this, as it was clear that the guide had no control over when the boat came unstuck. The river held the boat in until some change came about that freed it.
The 3rd boat actually got held in there for ages – this boat had a few non-english speaking Asian people in it who were clearly unhappy. Nothing the guide did could free the boat. He even got out and tried to pull it away but no luck with that. But then suddenly it just popped out.
We were the last boat in and we had seen all of this, and seen 2 people fall out of their boats. They were swept away floating in their life jackets and managed to get hold of a rope. In any event they would have quickly landed in a large calm pool.
So in we went and it was manic. The boat was going everywhere as if in a washing machine, totally under the river’s control. We were in the get down position and getting pummelled by the water cascading through the boat. We were holding on for dear life. But fortunately our boat broke away fairly quickly. We were mightily relieved.
We then had a leisurely paddle along Lake Placid back to base without seeing any trace of crocs. But we knew they are there.
Back at base camp we helped carry the boats up to the bus and trailer, put on our dry clothes and went to see the photos. I had brought our underwater camera with me but was told that I could not take it on the boat. I, and a couple of others, were quite peeved at this. But by then I realised that it would have been pointless to take the camera. We had so much work to do that it would only have gotten in the way and been a distraction.
Tho photos cost $40, which was on top of the base cost of $115 plus a $30 land management levy, which I guess goes to the National Park people.
I finally got back to the Park at 6.30 feeling tired but on a real high. What a hoot!
While Des was rafting, I took myself off to the DFO centre in Cairns. Looked through many, many shops but just purchased a couple of tops. They were doing building works all around the place and the biggest challenge was actually finding the correct exit to find the car again. I have to say, Cairns traffic is so totally different to Sydney’s Northern Beaches – it’s a pleasure to drive here.
To see photos related to this post, click here
To see a video of the beautiful Behana Falls, click here