The "Tablelands - Wet Tropics Beaches - Tablelands" Yoyo

The locals tell us that it seems as if the wet season has arrived a bit early, after returning to Cairns to have my vehicle serviced, re-fill my German Beer supply and also having the other front wheel bearing replaced, I again head for higher ground, meaning, to drive buck up into the Tablelands as Cairns is very hot and very humid, even though the sun seems to be mostly hiding behind heavy clouds.  This time I drive to the other, the northern shore of Tinneroo Lake and stop at a Scout Camp, right at the shore of the lake.  The sky is blue once more so the decision to drive back up here seems to have been a good one!?

A great spot right on the lake front

Beautiful local tree blossoms

By the following morning the rain has started up here as well and after another night, I decide to drive back to the coast, this time a little south of Innisfail, a place called Mission Beach.  A wonderful spot I remember well from my visit there last year.  Beautiful sweeping views along a palm line beach front, looking out to Dunk Island, just off shore.

 Dunk Island as seen from Mission Beach

 Works of Art formed by the thousands of small 

Sand Crabs when they clean out their burrows before the next tide.
The small hole in the centre is where one of them lives.

It does rain overnight again but stays nice during the day.  It is still warm and humid but there is a lovely cool breeze coming from the ocean front that makes for a much more pleasant experience than the hot-and-sticky ambience at Cairns.  Well, I stay for 4 nights, sharing two in the company of my friends Eck and Suki who have also arrived.
more about Mission Beach..
We are definitely in the Wet Tropics, as a reminder, the towns of Babinda and Tully along the coast record an annual rainfall of about 4200mm.  Water certainly is not in any shortage in this part of Australia, naturally a great part of the county to grow Sugar Cane, most of the land seems to be covered with it, apart from many Banana and Papaya plantations.

Is this really the "Dry Season"?

The sunny weather at Etty Bay did not last, quite wet with a lot of drizzle overnight, the Flying Foxes in the tree above my Motorhome did not improve the quality of my sleep either. They were at it for most of my last night, eating the plum-sized purple fruits, then dropping the walnut sized kernel on my roof with quite a bang.  In the morning I have to climb onto my roof with a garden hose to remove a heap of leaves, fruit kernels and bat shit from the roof and the top of my awning.

Clouds rolling in at Etty Bay

Lots of heavy tropical rain clouds are moving in from the ocean with plenty more rain.  When I drive out I 
head for the Tablelands again as the low clouds probably get stuck against the mountain range.  By the time I get to Yungaburra, about 720m above sea level, the sky has turned blue once again and I can see heavy clouds hanging all around the mountaintops.  Looks like my plan has worked for me.

View from my backwindow

Morning light at Yungaburra campground

It is a lot less humid up here with rather pleasant temperatures that come with the altitude.  I make my campsite close to the side of Lake Tinnaroo, just beautiful!

From the Tablelands back to the coast

After a lazy week at Mareeba Rodeo Grounds its time to get back on the road.  My Laptop had died on me some weeks ago, leaving me with only my small screen stand-by machine.  One of the big suppliers had been advertising a new machine for a quite reasonable price, so I had driven down from Mareeba to Cairns to buy one of these Laptops.  Naturally, a new Operating System (Windows 7) as against the old and trusted "Windows XP" I have been using for several years now.  As a consequence of the new OP System my broadband unit does not work on the new machine (yet) so for my Internet work I am still relying on my little toy machine until the problem has been solved.

When we leave Mareeba, Eck and Suki have decided to drive north again to Cooktown, while I want to head south toward the coast.  Mareeba was about 420m above sea level and I am surprised to see that when I arrive at Atherton, about 45km away, I am at an altitude of 750m even though I did not realise that I must have been going steadily uphill.  From Atherton I drive through Yungaburra, close to Lake Tinaroo.  It is a truly wonderful landscape along the lakeshores.  Too bad the weather is still on the wet side and due to the altitude I find myself near the prevailing cloudbase, accompanied by light drizzle of rain.

 Skydivers landing at Etty Bay

The road that takes me through Gordonvale onto the Captain Cook Highway which connects the towns along the eastcoast.  I had planned to stop at a rest area at Babinda but find the place after all the rain during the previous week, wet and soggy, drive a little further to Bramston Beach where I stop for the night at the beach.

 A big Goanna roaming the campground at Etty Bay

The sky looks as if it will be clearing during the day so I look forward to stopping at a place I remember from my last visit, last October, Etty Bay, another small campground, right on the beach, a little south of Innisfail.  I am allocated site no.6, directly opposite where I stopped last year.  It is still agreat spot, the Cassowaries and a couple of large Goannas still roaming around the campground, just like last year.