beaches, rainforests, waterfalls and Spanish castles

It has been an interesting few days (not that any of them haven't been from the beginning).  We chose to go to Rollingstone after Airlie Beach.  This is a very little town and all we saw of it was the caravan park which was directly on the palm lined beach.  It was the perfect place to spend Mother's Day when I was served breakfast in bed, looking out to the sun coming up over the water, then spent the rest of the day reading and swimming.  The most relaxing day of the trip so far.

the sun rising over Rollingstone

 From Rollingstone we opted for a night at Paronella Park near the Atherton Tablelands.  This was an amazing place created by Jose Paranella back in the 1930s, a man with unbelievable vision, passion and businesss sense.  He built a spanish castle amongst rainforest, next to a beautiful waterfall which powers the whole area - the first hydropower in QLD, and landscaped the area to perfection.  The admission price also covered site fees for 1 night in the adjoining van park so we stayed overnight, went on a day tour, then another at night with all the buildings lit up, then wandered into the park at around 7am the next morning, almost having the place to ourselves.  The current owners were as inspiring as the original with all sorts of plans for restoration and have dealt with numerous floods and two severe cyclones and spoke of the benefits of these cyclones.  Taking 100 truckloads of debris from the park after cyclone Larry vistas were revealed to them that Jose had created but the rainforest had obscured.

Ulysses butterfly

the original Cafe, waterfall in background, fountain and tennis court in front

by night

Mena falls and the original picnic ground, fish, eels and turtles abound in the river

Water lilies - my favourite

Butterflies everywhere

  

 The drive from Rollingstone to Paranella park was interesting in itself, we drove through the towns of Tully, Cardwell, Mission Beach all severely affected by Cyclone Yasi and even after all this time you could see the affects on the trees and in the shiny new roofs.  It was obviously a disastrous experience but it was great to see the recovery of all these places. 

Our drive from Paranella Park led us through the Atherton Tablelands, checking out more waterfalls and gorgeous rolling hills and creeks and great views.  Our destination was (as usual) undecided and on arrival at Cairns led to the most indecision yet.  We ended up half an hour up the road at Palm Cove and loved it and its central location to this area so we have booked in for a whole week!