So, yesterday was fun and all. Since we weren’t able to extend our stay at the Treehouse Airbnb we had to get everything loaded up into the car before we headed out. All good. Here is a picture of the place we were staying at – it was very pretty. The shower and hot water sucked, but it was pretty.
We headed to the Skyrail. This was the thing we were able to move from our lost Monday to this Wednesday. The Skyrail takes you up and over a rainforest and leaves you at the town of Kuranda. On the way up you can get off and walk around some as well. We stopped and walked to the viewpoints for the big waterfall in the area – Barron Falls. It doesn’t flow much in the winter but was still cool to see. This is another thing “B” and I did on our honeymoon so we wanted the girls to experience it too. Once in Kuranda we went to the butterfly sanctuary there. It was a nice little place. They had the largest moth in the world there. It is about 12” from tip to tail. It takes up to 2 years to grow in its chrysalis, and then it only lives for 2-10 days. It just mates and then dies basically. Not much of a life after 2 years getting ready for it. Then we went to Rainforestation. This is an aboriginal area where they teach you about the traditions of the native peoples. We got to have a walkabout with a native person that told us about the plants and how they were used: the Lemon Myrtle leaves smelled great. We got to see a red bellied black snake (yes it is venomous) a few feet from us while we were on the walkabout. Then we threw boomerangs. That was hard, it is all in the wrist. After that we took a train down the mountain. It is the original train still that was used to access the area when it was first developed a long time ago. It is a fun run down the mountain. You go through something like 15 tunnels, and you see the waterfall again (from the other side of the waterfall).
Once down we got back to our car and headed to Townsville. That was the place we had booked along the way as we headed towards the town of Noosa Heads. We stopped along the way at a random town that had an open restaurant and had some Italian food. We got in to Townsville around midnight and crashed.
We got up the next morning with the only real plan to drive to Rockhampton which was about 8 hours away. But before we left Townsville “B” wanted to take the girl across the street to the beach. So, we spent some time on the beach and the girls collected shells. I did some walking while they did this. I am not into the shell picking thing, or the beach thing in general. I find that beaches have a smell that I don’t care for. After over an hour there we loaded up and headed out. It was a fine 8-hour drive (without stops). There was some frustration about colored pencils that went all over the place in the car for a little bit, but we got past that am moved on. We stopped in Mackay for dinner. We had burgers. I had beets on my burger, and it was pretty good. I was surprised and it is something that came up at other times during the trip. I am planning to make it at home as well. We messaged the place we were staying letting them know we wouldn’t have cell coverage, but were running late. When we got to the place we were staying, a hotel type place, it was almost 10pm. The placed looked closed. The same happened the night before and they left the key under the mat and so I went to check my email assuming something like that would happen again. NOPE! I had am email saying, “Sorry, but since you are after 8pm you can’t check in. You should find somewhere else to stay.” I was so confused and frustrated. I emailed and then found an after hours phone number on the door to call. So I called and the owner answered right away. She told me what she had emailed me and blamed me for not letting her know we were going to be that late, even though I had (yes on the same day only 4 hours earlier). But since she was up she said she would let us check in anyways. But warned me that, “Most places like hers operate the same way and close by 8pm.” Thankfully we weren’t staying in any other places like hers on the trip. The place was a nice furnished apartment, and we did laundry and then got to bed. Another late night where we didn’t get the girls to sleep until after 11pm and I didn’t get to sleep until after midnight.
The next day was another drive day down to Noosa Heads. Nothing really special happened this day at all that I can remember. Except that we were staying at an Airbnb that was in an apartment complex and we happened to meet the only couple that actually lived in the complex when we were heading in for the night. They were super nice and we had a long conversation with them (adults only). It was our first adult conversation on the trip I think, and I think it ended up being the only adult conversation we had on the trip. Then it was off to bed. We had a REALLY early day planned the next day…