Cairns to Mareeba - July 2014

We left Cairns and headed over the mountain to Mareeba. Brad drove the bus over and I drove the car as we just weren’t sure how steep the mountain was and its much easier on the bus if the car isn’t behind it. Turns out it was a really good road and Bruce handled it nicely. We stopped at the top of the mountain at Kuranda and the kids had the best morning wondering around looking at all the stalls. I had told them they could look at all the shops and then decide on 1 thing to buy. It was a huge decision but in the end they both decided to get hair braids. 

Being silly at Kuranda

We did a rainforest walk to Barron Falls which was pretty impressive, but I would love to see it in the wet. The Kuranda scenic railway came while we where at the falls, Chloe was pretty happy about that! Lucy really wanted to go on the sky rail, but it was so much money and Chloe wasn’t too sure about it, I didn’t want to get halfway through and have her start screaming, so we gave it a miss, maybe next time!

Barron Falls

Funny little moment - We are in a carpark having lunch before heading off, Chloe is sitting in the gutter eating 2 minute noodles, watching the sky rail and out of the blue says ‘aaah this is the life’  

So glad she is enjoying herself!

Off we went to Mareeba before it got to late in the afternoon. We stopped at the information centre on the way past which has a fantastic and free museum, the kids surprised me by how interested they were in it. We stayed at the Mareeba Rodeo grounds, which they have set up for camping, $17 per night for power and water, and so many vans. This is such a great set up I can see why there were so many people there. So many base themselves here, because its so cheap and so close to so many places. Mareeba has a huge rodeo at the start of July and I would love to come back one year when its on.

Just some of the vans at Mareeba

We went for a short drive to Granite Gorge. You have to pay to go into Granite Gorge, which I was a bit unsure about, as we had been to lots of walks, gorge’s and waterfalls for free, it felt wrong having to pay for it. (yes I am pretty tight) But it was only $20 and the kids got a bag of feed for the rock wallabies so in we went. I’m so glad we did, it was beautiful. Chloe was so excited when a wallaby came straight up to her looking for food before we even got down the steps. 

We managed to pry the kids away from the rock wallabies to do one of the walks. 1 of the walks was closed so we really only had one option. The lady at the front desk told us that this one would not be suitable for the kids but we did it anyway, and they loved it, especially Lucy. I think I found it the most difficult because to make a long story short, Chloe forgot her socks, so I gave her mine and ended up doing the walk in my thongs which were way too slippery on the rocks, so most of the time I did it in bare feet. The photos really don't do this place justice.

Chloe woke up during the night with a high temp and stayed that way all the next day and night. So we had a very lazy day while Chloe slept nearly all day. Brad and Lucy did go for a drive to the Mareeba wetlands and Lucy did spend a lot of time making little get well soon cards for Chloe.