Karumba to Forrest Beach

We stayed in Karumba for 2 nights. That was enough, the place was very empty as all the tourists had left already. The largest Caravan Park has 170 sites and only 32 were taken! Two weeks ago, you couldn't get a site.

We headed to Mt Surprise and Bedrock Caravan Park. A bit quirky with some Flintstone themed things around the place.  The owners created the park back in the 1990's and have put in place everything a grey nomad could possibly want.  All drive through sites, free Wi-Fi, entertainment around the fire, cooked meals, swimming pool, cafe etc etc.

Bedrock Caravan Park

This was a big drive for us, Karumba to Mt Surprise is about 466kms, we don't want to do that too many times! This was our 4th longest drive since February.

Paronella Park

If you haven't heard of Paronella Park then you're really missing something. I'd never heard of it, so on the way from Bedrock, Jayne played me an ABC Richard Fidler interview with the current owners Mark and Judy. They discovered Paronella Park when they were searching for a new lifestyle and in 1993 bought the rundown castle.By this time it had all but disappeared beneath the rainforest, similar to Angkor Wat in Siem Reap Cambodia.

José Paronella came out from Spain to build his dream Spanish Castle starting in 1929. To make money he cleared land and grew sugar cane fields which he sold for a profit.  He even built his own hydro-electric scheme in 1933. Sounds like a great idea which was, and still is something special. However he built it in a Topical Rainforest, right next to a rather large waterfall.

Typical in tropical rainforests are floods and cyclones. Both of these (and the occasional fire) have hindered all the owners of Paronella Park including the current ones. 

The Castle at night

Lower Refreshment Rooms

Complete with gravity feed fountains

The grounds are extensive and would have been even more amazing in their day

Mena Creek Falls, source of most disasters here. Jayne is standing in front of the Hydro Scheme

The lower refreshment rooms, with what used to be tennis courts in front

The entrance fee is valid for 2 years, and came with a free night's camping with power. With so few camping sites its rather booked out all the time. We managed to secure the Bus Parking Bay for the night, their last site, unofficial as it is.  Mark has plans for a caravan park with 60 sites, he won't have any trouble filling them either.

Bus Bay Camping

We had a good discussion with Mark and his enthusiasm about Paronella Park was infectious. Cyclone Larry and Cyclone Yasi have tested them to the limit, but somehow they just dust themselves off and keep going.  He has a great team of staff, including Japanese, Korean and Chinese tour guides.

Paronella Park is an amazing piece of Australian history and we can't wait to return to see how work is progressing. Mark and Judy have done an incredible amount of work and we have our fingers crossed that Mother Nature will leave them alone.

They even provide free dog sitting for when you're in the park. Did they fuss over Bailey! Just a bit :)

Mark also owns the pub which is just across the suspension bridge and the dinner there was exceptionally good and large. One meal would have been more than enough for the two of us, but we managed two.

Mission Beach

After having to change our plans so drastically because of closed roads etc, we headed for the coast and landed at Mission Beach, just south of Cairns. A very nice place for two nights. Bailey especially loved the flat hard beach for running on and chasing his soccer ball. We had to curtail his activities as he's not as young as he used to be, and even then he was all stiff that afternoon.

Dunk Island in the background

We headed south passing through Cardwell at morning tea time. What a nice place. We'll have to remember it for next time we're up this way.

You come across some strange things at times

In looking for a place to stay we checked out Forrest Beach Hotel, but the camping there was ordinary to say the least. Nearby is Forrest Beach RV Site, a new trial camping area run by the council. $10/night with a view of the beach. That'll do us. We can still walk to the pub for drinks and dinner.

Forrest Beach RV Site