Strands twined into the cord of a trip...

Looking back on the complete trip, it could be summarized as different themes, aspects or strands.  I will continue as a timeline strand, but perhaps you can pick out beach, points of interest, walks, wildlife and fauna, climate, lunch stops and other themes.

The last Australian state that I (Rebecca) visited was Queensland.  It started by flying from Sydney to Townsville, driving to Tully to visit the hometowns of a childhood distant cousin penpal that I had had.  Then it was inland to Undara Volcano Park and back to Townsville. The route from there to Sydney more or less followed the coast, which is divided into the Sunshine, Capricorn and Gold (surfers) Coasts.

The Townsville/Tully area is fairly north of the Tropic of Capricorn and is tropical wetlands.  This is a young sugarcane field and was as tall I am.  The bright greens and the vast fields were striking.

It was a long hike to the base of the tallest waterfalls of Australia.

Paronella Park - A Spanish immigrant made his fortune developing and selling properties and then built his "dream" or vision, a ballroom, gardens, tunnel of love, a grand staircase and the first Australian hydroelectric plant for electicity.  It was and is becoming again a place to hold dances, weddings, public bathing and so much more.  Jose Paronella hauled the mix and constructed all the concrete structures by hand as evidenced by his handprints embedded in all the structures.

Ravenshoe - Queensland's highest town.














Undara Volcano Park - I went walking until the dusk/evening tour departed from the campground.

As the bus tour went through the park, we saw 6 of the 7 species of kangeroo and other wildlife.  The highlight was the microbats and poisonous snakes in the lava tube.  Before going down into the lava tube, we watched as bats started to exit the tube at sunset and eagles swooped in to catch their supper of bat.  There are 200-400,000 bats in the lava tube and two types of poisonous snakes ; browns that have venomous fangs and the black/white striped snakes that have venomous tails.

The guide used a strobe light to enable us to photograph the bats.  He also watched the ground for the snakes and would ensure that they did not get too close to us as they made their way out of cracks in the walls and up the trees at the mouth of the tube.  The snakes then would dart out and capture bats as they passed by the tree branches to leave the cavern.

As the thousands of bats circled around, we could feel the breeze generated and hear their many wings.  They brushed our hair, faces and bodies as they passed by out of the tube.  We also felt as their droppings landed on our heads and bodies!  It was an incredible experience, many times better than watching similar events on a nature documentary.

Volcano rim walk- the next morning, before leaving the park I went on the volcano rim walk. It was neat to pick up lava rocks and be surprised at how unexpectedly light they were.

Back on the road.

Click on these to enlarge and read about the importance of paving the Hervey's Range Road to Townsville.

 Approaching Townsville, there were several small fires burning.  They were minor compared to the ones that have since burned in Tasmania and NSW.

 Down the coast from Townsville, Bowen has numerous beaches and a large jetty.  It was the site of the large outdoor film set for the film, Australia, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.

What is it making this track?

Area around Mackay:

The Capricorn Caves - I don't have a photo of the Cathedral cave which is a host to weddings and to which opera singers come back to sing in because of it's acoustics.  We listened to Hallelujah to a light show, which included moments of complete darkness during which, you could literally NOT see your hand in front of your face.  There was another cave that had a unique opening that only during the solstice, the sun shone a spot onto the cave floor.

Rainbow Beach - one of the beaches that you can drive on and take guided horseback rides.

Byron Bay- a collection of beaches, but besides being the "hippy" surfer beach it has the most easterly point of Australia.

From Byron Bay, the drive to Swansea was with fond memories of all the places that we had visited and the adventures that we had experienced.  The next day it was Sydney airport, a stopover at Dallas/Ft. Worth followed with landing in Calgary and the end of a very memorable trip.