TRAVEL COAST AND COUNTRY IN QLD TROPICAL NORTH

SPECIAL NRMA Going loopy MEMBER OFFER Self Drive Package Like the look of this loop? in tropical QLD Sunlover Holidays has put together a special accommodation package so How far would you need to drive to see sandy beaches, you can live it for yourself!

mountainous rainforests and fertile tablelands? Inclusions: Not as far as you think… • One night at Australis Cairns Beach Resort + a late check Words KRIS ASHTON PHOTOS KRIS & KELLIE ASHTON out to 4pm • One night at Reef House Resort & Spa Palm Cove + continental breakfast for two, free Wi-Fi and late checkout to 12pm • Two nights at Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas + breakfast for two • Two nights at Rose Gums Wilderness Retreat + breakfast hamper

Price: $1563 (Apr 1–May 31, 2012) $1646 (June 1–Oct 31, 2012)

To book Call 13 88 33 or visit www.sunloverholidays.com.au Cairns CBD has a sandy-edged mention the ideal climate for al history about its construction and While the Captain Cook Highway goofy lycra stinger suit, you must MAIN: Not the sort pool just a few metres from the sea. fresco dining. eye-popping scenery. between Cairns and Palm Cove is do the Great Barrier Reef. of thing you expect to find in a coastal city. That might seem a strange place Our transport was a Subaru Unlike the overrated Cairns largely forgettable, between Palm Don’t like snorkelling or scuba ABOVE: Aloft in a to put a public pool, but between Liberty we picked up from Thrifty Night Markets (which is geared Cove and Port Douglas it’s anything diving? A Quicksilver ticket lets giant balloon over the tablelands Cheaper car hire mid-spring and mid-autumn the at Cairns Airport. I’ve clocked towards overseas tourists) but. Driving right beside the Coral you hop in one of its glass-walled (top); gorgeous with Thrifty waters in this region are home to serious kilometres in Liberties and Kuranda Markets has shop after Sea, we were almost disappointed semi-submersibles. Or, for an extra Mossman Gorge is a Thrifty is NRMA’s preferred car ‘stingers’: deadly jellyfish like the Outbacks, and of all the cars you shop stocked with locally made to arrive at our destination. fee, you can take a helicopter flight safe place to cool off; rental partner. Members can the Great Barrier Reef enjoy exclusive discounts off the sea wasp and the tiny irukandji. So don’t need to be a millionaire to products, everything from fine art That was until we checked in at and see green sea turtles and eagle doesn’t disappoint. best rate of the day as well as swimming pools are important. afford, I reckon they have the most to children’s toys. Be warned: you the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas. rays as they flap across the coral. year-round offers such as free On our first day in Cairns my comfortable seats for touring. will spend money. It doesn’t measure its pools in Tropical North Queensland isn’t weekend upgrades, free days wife Kellie and I checked in at the Our first trip in this one was a The ideal way to get back to sea metres but in hectares. Its Ocean just about the sea. Stay on the and free baby seat or booster Australis Cairns Beach Resort, quick 20 minutes from Cairns to level is the Skyrail. If the only Breeze swim-up bar closes at 8pm, Captain Cook Highway and it turns with each rental. which has a pool of its own. It’s Palm Cove. While Palm Cove is cableway you’ve travelled on is at which is just as well – in the tropics, inland, becoming the Mulligan and To book actually just north of Cairns, in a situated on a palm-fringed beach, Taronga Zoo, you’re in for a shock: no one gets out because it’s cold. then Kennedy Highway. They Call NRMA Travel on 1300 279 little town called Holloways Beach. I found its line of resorts and the Skyrail is huge. Suspended Port Douglas is a launch pad to thread through teeming rainforests 528 or visit thrifty.com.au We had lunch across the road at speed-humped main road a little over 7.5 kilometres of rainforest, the Great Barrier Reef. We boarded and lush tablelands filled with the Strait Beach Café, where we sat too ‘planned’ for my tastes. Like it stretches from Kuranda to the one of Quicksilver’s brushed-steel sugar cane and banana trees. Also, BELOW: Sheraton between two trees that framed an Cairns, however, its restaurant town of Caravonica at the base of Mirage Port Douglas boats for the 1.5-hour journey to its you can’t go 10km without finding a ocean view. A gentle breeze turned scene came alive in the evening. Red Peak. It has two stops along has 20,000 square pontoon on the Outer Reef. turn-off to something interesting metres of lagoons to down the temperature from hot to From our accommodation at Reef the way where you can learn more swim in and backs Having snorkelled the waters (see page 62). summer perfect. House Resort and Spa, we were in about the rainforest. onto Four Mile Beach. around Tahiti, I was sceptical that We joined Hot Air Cairns for a While in Cairns you should head walking distance to a dozen or our reef could match up. I needn’t balloon ride over the tablelands to the casino. Not to gamble away more eateries – everything from have worried. From the moment a near Mareeba. It’s no wonder the your hard-earned, but to visit its high-end seafood fare to pub grub. clownfish poked its head out of a hot air balloon didn’t catch on as GET MORE INFO rooftop Wildlife Dome. Hundreds Palm Cove is in close proximity crevice in the far-from-bleached commercial transport: you’re up at For more places to of birds native to this region fly (or to Kuranda Scenic Railway. You’ve coral, I understood how the reef got dawn and once aloft you’re at the stay and things to do in the Cairns region, walk) free within its geometric probably heard good things about its reputation. Even if you’re there mercy of the wind. But for a serene see our classifieds on walls. There is also an estuarine this train journey up a forested in the wet season and have to don a way to survey the countryside, a page 66. crocodile named Goliath, but for range, and they’re all true. If you obvious reasons he doesn’t have can stump up the extra 50 bucks, the run of the place. travel Gold Class – you get lounges, Pre-book with NRMA Travel and save! A ‘seaside city’ in the daytime, free drinks and snacks, and the Cairns really comes into its own chance to lord it over the peasants at night, with a fabulous selection in the regular carriages. Whatever www.ksr.com.au www.skyrail.com.au of restaurants and pubs, not to you pay, you’ll get some fascinating

60 openroad openroad 61 wk ? TRAVEL COAST AND COUNTRY IN QLD 2 Daintree National Park balloon is unbeatable. Our pilot INLAND LEG of the loop said Mareeba was the safest place Mossman in the world to take a balloon. It’s 1. MOSSMAN GORGE 1 Port Head north from Port Douglas and you’ll Douglas also one of the most photogenic, discover this beautiful rainforest waterway with mountains and crops – which you can actually swim in! providing a mural of shapes, colours and textures. 2. DAINTREE RIVER Venture north from Mossman and you’ll find Palm Cove We spent our last two nights this unspoiled mangrove environment. No east of Atherton at Rose Gums swimming though. This is croc central. Kuranda Wilderness Retreat, which has secluded cabins set in highland 3. Granite Gorge Not only can you clamber over its marvellous rainforest. Birdwatchers flock here rock formations, you can get up close and Cairns and entomologists will find plenty personal with wild rock wallabies. Mareeba to occupy them as well. Its creek is 3 a good place to spot wild platypus. 4. The Peanut Place It boasts local produce and you can get your Gordonvale Isolation is soothing until you photo taken with the giant peanut man. Cheesy (or rather, nutty) tourist heaven! feel like eating out. Then it’s a 4 pain. Not so at Rose Gums; it has 5 6 Atherton fine dining on site. ‘Reef and beef’ 5. Situated in national park near the town of tastes better when you’re watching Rose Gums , this astonishing freak of nature Wilderness Babinda the sun dip behind the horizon in is strikingly beautiful. Retreat the whirring Australian jungle. 7 We returned our car to Cairns 6. Flying Fish Point Take the boat tour around this crater lake. Millaa Millaa Airport. The main circuit proved a It’s chock full of wildlife including saw-shelled mere 375km, about five and a half turtles and Australia’s biggest snake – the Innisfail hours in the saddle. Across a week, amethystine python. that’s a languid pace indeed. And 7. Millaa Millaa Falls tropical NORTH yet that little loop contained the This waterfall doubles as a swimming hole QUEENSLAND best coast and country that tropical that’s croc and jellyfish free (although the catfish get niggly during breeding season). Queensland had to offer.

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