Day 6 – Cairns to Palmer River Roadhouse (Sun April 29^th)

We left Cairns by 9.30am and headed north via the Kuranda Range, which was a steep windy drive thru the rainforest up to the little village of Kuranda.  We were surprised at how quiet it was, being a Sunday, i thought it would of been busy for the markets etc, but that wasn’t the case.  After morning tea in the park we had a quick walk thru the original Kuranda Markets, which was also really quiet with not many stores open.  But it still had nice, quirky things for sale, and also a waft of something green  in the air.

Then it was onto Mareeba for a coffee at one of the many coffee plantations they have up here in the tablelands.  We stopped at The Coffee Works, only a few streets back from the main street of Mareeba. It was awesome, we loved it!   

Such a cool ambience about it, a fantastic gift shop, and the best Swiss Mocha ive ever had. They had a  bar b going that smelt divine, but we are now on a budget and opted for own turkey rolls at the Rotary Park rest stop on the outskirts of town.

We came across this sign on the way out of town.  

Which made us think of what our plans will be until the road opens for the start of The Cape.  We continued on north, thinking if we stop this arvo at Palmer River Road house we can sus the road conditions out tomorrow, and make plans. Maybe head into Cooktown until the road opens.  We were pretty happy to think that we will be one of the first people ‘Up the Cape’.

The Mitchell River ends in the Mitchell Lake just north of Mareeba, right by the side of the road!  We saw our first Jabiru along this stretch.  

The road from Mt Molloy to Palmer River which is the Mulligan Highway is fantastic! Its wide, smooth and travels thru grassland and gumtree savannah, with heaps of termite mounds. 

After arriving about 3.30pm we set up camp along the high river bank of the Palmer River (The Golden River) as it was known in the Gold Rush days.  The river hasn’t got a lot of water in it now, after the little wet they had up here this season. The sites are grassy and overlook the Palmer River, a cattle station and the mountain ranges.  

View from Camp

 

Our View

Taken from our bed

A nice spot to do some drawing

Only $15 per night with power, the amenities are pretty basic, but relatively clean.  Although the water smells like it comes from the river. The Roadhouse Generator was a bit noisy, until they turned it off at about 10pm.

The road house is steeped in history, we took the kids for a walk after dinner, and met the local gold miners. One gave me a commentary on a picture of the Gold Rush days, very interesting indeed!

We’ve seen the sun today for the first time since leaving Townsville, it was a lovely sunset behind the road house and we enjoyed a few rums overlooking our view! 

Our Rum supply should last a while

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First sunset over looking Palmer River Road House

It’s also the first clear night we’ve had, so we really enjoyed eating our dinner under the moon and stars. Although now, as i look up, some clouds have rolled in

Not sure what our day entails tomorrow, but we’re looking forward to finding out.