Cardwell, Queensland

Took the road north from Ravenswood on Monday morning. We had been contemplating retracing our steps to Charters Towers and heading North towards Greenvale. On the way back to the highway I asked Sandra "East or West?". So as a last minute decision we headed East towards Townsville with a final intended destination of Cardwell. Had an uneventful trip to Townsville and via the new ring road to the Bruce Highway heading North. We stopped for an early lunch/break at Bluewater Reserve just North of Townsville. Was a lovely place where you can stay 48 hours along a creek. Had drinking water and toilet/shower amenities. We will keep it in mind for our next trip this way.

We continued up through Ingham before arriving in Cardwell about 2PM. Checked into the Beachcomber Tourist Park where we had stayed 4 years ago. A bit on the expensive side at $38/night before the Top Tourist discount but lovely. Lots of shade and a lovely pool area. We got settled in and enjoyed the swimming pool as was very hot/humid. The amenities are quite good but could be cleaner. I'll give them a 3 Star rating. The park itself would be at least a 4 Star. We did a roast beef dinner on the BBQ in the evening which was great!

We (mostly Sandra) gave the caravan a clean with a bucket and soap in the afternoon. Quite a mess of red dirt and probably some cow patties from Carnarvon. The van finished off looking a lot better!

Tuesday morning we enjoyed a bit of an easy morning with a late breakfast. Had a nice morning swim to keep cool before going for a drive back towards Ingham. During our last visit in 2012 we had done the same trip with the Ransleys to the Wallaman Falls via Ingham. Unfortunately we had been thwarted by low cloud/rain on that occasion and could only hear the falls. The sun was out with a nice blue sky so we decided to try again. The drive from Ingham is quite winding and slow with many parts only allowing 20-40Km/Hr on tight corners. We had to laugh because they had 80 & 100 Km signs up in a few areas. You would have had a death wish to do those speeds! We arrived at the Wallaman Falls lookout about 11:30 and luck was on our side. Got a beautiful look at the falls this time and they really are quite spectacular. They have a drop of 268 M with a 20 M deep pool at the bottom. Definitely worth the return visit.

We met a bit more traffic on our trip back down the mountain and some of them were driving a bit faster than I would recommend. Luckily we avoided contact with all of them and made it safely back to Ingham by 12:30. In another Deja Vue moment we revisited the same Chinese restaurant the four of us had gone to 4 years ago. They still did Gluten Free dishes and Sandra was able to enjoy all but 3 of the smorgasbord dishes. Even included a chow mien noodle dish and some rice rolls.

Topped up the Jeep with diesel before returning to Cardwell mid afternoon. I gave the car a bit of a clean to get rid of some dirt/cow that we had collected on the drive, while Sandra gave the caravan a vacuum/floor wash. Cooled off again in the pool before a quiet night with leftovers. On the road again tomorrow to Mareeba where we plan on riding out the Easter Weekend.

When we were here in 2012 the area was still recovering from Hurricane Yasi with a lot of damage done in Cardwell. The area now looks wonderful again with a beautiful walkway all along the coast with memorials/picnic areas, benches, exercise equipment. Beautiful views out towards Hinchinbrook Island as well. Unfortunately being Northern Queensland you can't use the beach because of Crocodiles and Box Jelly fish amongst other deadly creatures.