Tully, Mission Beach and Lacey Creek

We spent a night at the Tully Gorge National Park campground and went for a drive up to the end of the road. When researching the area I saw a recommendation and instructions for finding Ponytail Falls, which turned out to be really pretty.

We were about half way back up to the car when we thought we heard some voices. We assumed it was someone coming down the track, but when the voices got louder we realised they were coming from the river - rafters! We turned around and ran back down to the river just in time to see them at the waterfalls.

On our way up the road we had stopped at the Cardstone Weir Lookout. We knew that's where the rafters would be heading, so we raced back to the car and drove back down to the lookout. By the time we walked down there they were approaching the weir.

After that excitement we went back to the camp where the Tully River is a little more sedate.

Next day we did the short Butterfly Walk... but there were no butterflies. We did really like this palm tree, though.

Varied Triller (female) 

Forest Kingfisher

On the way back to Tully we saw our first cassowary... It was quite a way up the road, and by the time I grabbed my phone it had mostly disappeared.

The Golden Gumboot - almost 8 metres high, the level of the highest annual rainfall ever recorded in an Australian town (in 1950).

The following day we drove out to Mission Beach. It was overcast and windy - not quite providing the postcard view of the palms along the beach.

It was clearer out to the north.

Beach Stone-curlew

The sea was calmer at the next beach to the north (Narragon Beach) and the view from the Perry Harvey Jetty was a little closer to the idyllic tropical beach/rainforest/island vista.

On the way back we stopped at Lacey Creek for a walk through the rainforest. It was really pretty and there were a few birds.

Rufous Fantail

Macleay's Honeyeater - We were particularly excited when we identified this one as it is only found in a small area from Paluma Range up to Cooktown!

Spectacled Monarch

Our final stop for the day was Alligator's Nest near Tully (apparently named after the local Scout group, not for any large lizards!).

Cardwell and Murray Falls

We had a lunch stop and walk along the beach at Cardwell.

There were more Red-tailed Black Cockatoos.

The Bar-tailed Godwit was a new one for our list.

Since we weren't in a hurry to travel north I started looking at the National Parks the had camping grounds, rather than just doing day visits. Murray Falls turned out to be an excellent find, and is a place we could easily come back to.

The falls are pretty even though they aren't very big.

There's a walk through the rainforest to the lookout at the top of the falls.

The highlight was definitely the swimming pools a little further below the waterfall. They also provided the perfect opportunity to start experimenting with my Osmo.

Forest Kingfisher 

Bordered Rustic Butterfly

Wallaman Falls

After some overcast days where we could see the mist on the mountains, we were hoping the forecast for mostly sunny would be accurate for our day up at Wallaman Falls. When we left in the morning there was still some mist about but the cloud was clearing by the time we reached the top of the falls.

The lady in the Visitor Information Centre said to take walking poles if we had them, and we were glad we did. It was wet all the way down, and would have been a lot more slippery without the poles for extra balance. As we descended the rainforest grew thicker.

It was beautiful at the bottom, and the changing sun through the clouds and mist created some lovely rainbows.

It was only about 3.2km return, which was around half the distance of the Bluff Knoll walk we did in WA last year, and the gradient wasn't quite as steep, but the humidity was high with all the mist from the waterfall, so it was hard work getting back up to the top! 

Australasian Figbird

Common Myna

Common Mynas have a bit of a brawl!

Ulysses Butterfly

The view from part way down the range on the way home.

Masked Lapwings often appear in pairs or with their young, but there was a large flock of them on the road back to Ingham. We've never seen so many of them together!