Lightening Online

I feel like I’ve been a rather bad blogger of late.  The thing is, we haven’t been doing much travelling which is when I’ve been writing my blog posts.  We’ve spent the last 3 weeks travelling around the Cairns area (Cairns, Wonga Beach, Port Douglas and Atherton Tablelands) and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.  There is so much to see and do that we feel like all we’ve done is gotten a taste of what there is on offer.

While I dearly LOVED Cairns, if I was going to move up here, I’d choose Atherton.   It’s not quite as wet (although wet enough) and while they do have cyclones come through, I don’t think there is quite as much risk of a serious cyclone like the coastal towns have.

Mind you, if I lived in Atherton, I think I’d be the size of a house!!!!  So many YUMMY things to eat up here!  We had awesome tea/coffee and cake at the Coffee Works in Mareeba, gourmet chocolates and cheese platters at the Gallo Dairy between Atherton and great scones with jam and REAL cream at The Falls Teahouse near Millaa Millaa.

The scenery around here is amazing too with waterfalls, craters and so much to take in.

After catching up on our sleep early in our trip, I’m feeling a little sleep deprived with nights of sitting up talking into the early hours of the morning.  We were staying with a very special friend of mine and her family in Atherton and time flies when you’re chatting.   We also met a lovely couple in Port Douglas (who are from Adelaide) and got along really well with them from the moment we met (so sat up late talking).

DAY SPA

While in Port Douglas, I booked myself in to a Day Spa.  I’ve never been to one before so promised myself I was going to treat myself while we were away.  I saved up all my birthday money to do it.  I booked in for a session called an “unwinder” which went for 2.5 hours and included a foot spa, swedish massage and facial.  According to my therapist I should go for a massage more often as I’m rather tense and tight across the top of my back.  Not sure it’s all that surprising travelling around with 3 kids!!!!  LOL.

CROCODILES

We were very lucky to actually see a couple of crocodiles in the wild (from a distance).  We chose not to take a boat ride down the river as we weren’t convinced we’d not lose a child overboard (and it was very expensive for 5 of us).  So, it was great to see these 2 sunning themselves below the bridge over the Mowbray River near Port Douglas.

We then spent a day at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures which was fantastic!!!!  It included a croc spotting boat ride and several feedings and shows.  We ended up spending 8 hours there and it went so quickly!  We even tried crocodile meat at the cafe there (bit chewy for me but Lleyton really enjoyed it).

INNOT HOT SPRINGS

From Atherton, we did a slight detour inland along the Great Savannah Way to Innot Hot Springs.  We all enjoyed the Moree Thermal Pools so we thought it would be worth the extra 40km each way to spend a night at Innot.  The park wasn’t quite as nice (a little “tired”) but was still more than adequate and we really enjoyed relaxing in the warm pools.  It was also interesting to get a little glimpse into some of inland Queensland.

HEADING SOUTH

The time has come for us to begin our descent South.  In another week we will be halfway through our time away.  We’ve covered a lot in the 6 weeks we’ve been gone so far.  Although time is passing reasonably quickly, it does feel like we’ve been away for a while now.

Today (Wednesday) we’re heading to Mission Beach.  Tomorrow we’re planning to be south of Townsville then will stop overnight somewhere in the Whitsundays and be in Mackay on the weekend.  Hopefully it doesn’t get cold as quickly as it got warm on the way up.  We’re hoping that as Spring approaches, the southern areas will be warming up enough that we have nice living weather the entire trip.  It’s certainly been lovely living weather up here.

Hopefully I’ll get some more photographs downloaded to the computer soon so I can show you some of what we’ve been seeing.