Gorgeous! Finch Hatton Gorge

Near Mackay we headed inland slightly to stay in Finch Hatton gorge.

Sadly, at the Platypus bush camp we didn't see any platypuses (platypi?)
The campground is worthy of it's own separate post.....so come back later for that one.

But we did walk up the road a couple of hundred metres, fording the creek

to reach a lovely bush cafe.

With organic chai and sugar-free treats -

Anne is the lovely owner of this delightful garden sanctuary.

 Further up the road (we drove, still not feeling the strongest after the flu-thingy) are waterfalls and swimming holes

....but the water was FREEZING!

Other things we did in Cairns.

We found some other beautiful colourful things apart from fish and coral.....
in the botanic gardens.

We rode our bikes as the car was being serviced and Cairns has a great network of bike paths, some of then lead to the precinct which includes the Flecker botanic gardens, Tanks art centre, rainforest boardwalk and wetlands.

All these taken in the botanic gardens.
There are two cafes - we chose the Wild Bean cafe at the information centre between the gardens and the tanks as it had the most interesting non-meat food. There is also a cafe in the heart of the botanic gardens in a lovely setting.

On the road again - another winter trip

"Let's go snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef" he said.
Sounds good to me!
So off we go!
Caravan in tow.

Stopping at a couple of overnighters along the way -

Just off the road at Bauple. Actually there are two free place at Bauple - one is right in the village and the other closer to the highway.

A couple of nights in the low-cost camp at Agnes Waters -

Getting stuck in the sand at Carmila Beach, but finding a gorgeous spot next to the water and being helped by lovely fellow campers.

A free camp in the sugar mill town of Giru - next to the railway line with sugar trains rattling through.

Then a few days at Cairns from where we went on a day tour on the reef. It was fabulous.

We went with Seastar cruises.
It was pretty good. They supplied the wetsuits and snorkelling gear. Plus lunch and morning and afternoon tea.
It takes about an hour and a half to get out to the reef and then we visited two reefs. The first one is off a small cay which is home to...um, birds....lots of birds.
The cruise people took these photos of us.

Oh, yes, we saw fish!
We saw lots of brightly coloured parrot fish, you can hear them munching the coral when you snorkel.
The cruise people found us a cute little clown (Nemo) fish, they are a bit tricky as they hide in the coral.
Some people saw turtles. They were lucky.
Angel fish. spotty fish, Stripey fish. Big fish.
All sorts of fish that I can't even remember now.
And coral.
Yeah, it was cool

On the way back to port we saw some whales! How lucky.
Unfortunately we didn't managed to get to the camera in time.

In Cairns we stayed in the Lake Placid caravan park which is a bit squashy but is in a nice location.
Just a few metres up the road is Lake Placid itself which is at the bottom of the Barron gorge and there is a very nice Italian restaurant there.

It was a great place to eat after a long day out on the water.