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.
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
Rufous Fantail
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!).
