Saturday 2nd January 2010 – Cairns to Ingham

Breakfast Fruit Platter, Abbey's Guesthouse

When we got up Abbey had prepared a lovely fruit platter – it looked and tasted great (checkout the photo) and set us up till lunchtime. We also had fresh fruit smoothies and toast with tomato jam – which was delicious!

We had a visitor at breakfast too…

Green Whizzer Cicada

Green Whizzer Cicada

Green Whizzer Cicada make the high pitched buzzing noises, often in the heat of the day that can be heard in rainforests. Sometimes with the larger sizes the pitch is so high that it reaches the limits of pain that the human ear can tolerate. In fact, some Cicadas we can’t hear at all because they are beyond our range of hearing. Quite amazing really.

Green Whizzer Cicada wing

They also, for a reason I can’t seem to find, shed their wings and grow back new ones…I think it must have something to do with how clumsy they are as they seem to ‘whizz’ around hitting everything in their path!

After breakfast it was time to pack the car again and, as if it had been waiting, the heavens opened and soaked Andrew as he took all the bags out! I took a video and Abbey has insisted that we report this as a sun shower (see video below!). As we were in the wet tropics Abbey said we would have to see a proper downpour to call it rain!

Sugar Cane field

Pretty soon we were in the car and on our way to Ingham. The weather was hot, humid and overcast. Plenty of low lying cloud which I assumed was something to do with the rainforests…oh, and, we got our first glimpse of sugar cane fields (if only it had been the last as well!)

First stop, Babinda Boulders.

I was expecting loads of large (and boring) rocks but was pleasantly surprised to get my first experience of a rainforest (Tropical World in Roundhay Park doesnt count!).

The noise from the various things living in there was deafening at times. We walked to Devils Pool which was about 600m from the car and by the time we got there I was absolutely soaked with sweat! Nice (not)! The only consolation was that Andrew was too!

Babinda Creek

Click to view larger

The Boulders are a large collection of rocks surrounded by water and the two together make lots of small waterfalls. I think we stayed there about half an hour but in the heat that felt more like 5 hours!

The Babinda Boulders holds great significance for local Aboriginal people.

According to legend a beautiful girl named Oolana, from the Yidinji people, married a respected elder from her tribe named Waroonoo. Shortly after their union another tribe moved into the area and a handsome young man came into her life. His name was Dyga and the pair soon fell in love. Realising the adulterous crime they were committing, the young lovers escaped their tribes and fled into the valleys. The elders captured them, but Oolana broke free from her captors and threw herself into the still waters of what is now known as Babinda Boulders, calling for Dyga to follow her. As Dyga hit the waters, her anguished cries for her lost lover turned the still waters into a rushing torrent and the land shook with sorrow. Huge boulders were scattered around the creek and the crying Oolana disappeared among them.

Aboriginal legend says her spirit still guards the boulders and that her calls for her lost lover can still be heard.

I don’t know about that but I do know the place has a lot of warning signs about jumping in…

Once we got past all the spiders and back to the car it was straight on with the air con and an attempt to return to some sort of normal temperature!

Next stop – Josephine Falls

The Josephine waterfalls are ranked among the most beautiful in the Tropical North Queensland, and have been used in many television commercials.

Josephine Falls - by Andrew

A short walk through another section of rainforest took us to the falls which had two ‘swimming pools’ with waterfalls above both.

Josephine Falls - by Natalya

Josephine Falls - by Andrew

Ictinogomphus Australis

Whilst we were there I saw a few geckos and a very big dragonfly (see photo) which I would try to identify later!

When we got back to the car it was 3pm and 31 degrees celcius…a tad warmer than the UK!

Back on with the air con and headed for our destination for the evening, Lee’s Hotel in Ingham.

There is just one way to descibe this place – SHIT HOLE! You can read our review here.

In an attempt to forget about the disgusting room we’d have to sleep in we decided to go out and find something for dinner…too long in that room and goodness knows how many bites we’d have or what creatures we might see!

A very short stroll away was a lovely chinese restaurant, it was pretty busy and the food was nice One thing I do remember from this meal was not being able to get up out of my chair on the first go…before you say anything, it was nothing to do with drink! Just as I made my second attempt with the aid of Andrew a gentleman came over and offered to help…stubborn and independent me tried to do it Andrew’s help but ended up with the both of them…I was having a wobbly moment

Andrew managed to capture another downpour whilst out on the ‘balcony’  having his last cigarette of the day…

Bedtime…yuck! No way was I getting in that bed so I put a towel on top and a towel over me, closed my eyes and hoped I wouldn’t feel anything crawling on me during the night!