Dreams on water falling

In all this newfound freedom, we haven’t completely forgotten about cycling, and found an excellent bit of muddy rainforest to bomb through and scare any wildlife.
Tam O’Shanter was an explorer. He didn’t reach his destination, his expedition lost ten men and was himself killed by aborigines; to celebrate this achievement he has a Rainforest named after him near Mission Beach. (And you thought it was too easy to become famous now!)
Anyway, Mission Beach was devastated by a cyclone 6 months ago, and their lovely easy forest walks are now muddy potholed tree strewn tracks! Perfect for a bit bunny hopping fun! After a couple of hours of that we headed down through the hills and back to the beach. We were able to cycle on the compacted sand, flanked by the Pacific Ocean and palm trees all the way back to camp!


Paronella Park. This is one place that needs to be seen, to be believed. Forget your panoramic views and stunning sunsets! This is one man’s dream, built on passion, sweat and tears; against the odds and having absolutely no idea of architectural or understanding construction.

Quick version: Spanish bloke fantasises of building a Castle. Comes to Australia, lives the dream and becomes rich. He buys a plot of land and starts building his castle. For a few years people come and play tennis on the lawns and attend grand evenings in the ballroom and everything is very decadent.

Unfortunately the entire structure was made out of porous concrete and the supports were rusty bits of railway track. Also the land is a flood plane and there are almost annual cyclones. Still, the buildings now look Medieval!









Oh, and we’ve arrived in Cairns.