Our Journey Up The Queensland Coast of Australia. Part #2

From St Lawrence, our next stop was Airlie Beach but not before we drove along the coastline near Carmila with stunning views. Airlie Beach is a massive tourist destination and gateway to the Whitsunday Islands which is known for its crystal blue water and heart shaped reef.

Source: www.airliebeach.com

Airlie's main strip has non stop life flowing through it from Live music, cheap food and people from every nation. Walking down the street, I couldn't help but sense a busy Phuket style of atmosphere.

Our next stop is into Townsville, which is home to my NRL team the North Queensland Cowboys. Being an NRL fanatic, I was pretty excited to see their home ground and get a photo out the front of the stadium.

After seeing the stadium we went down to the Esplanade to have some lunch before heading back off. Amazing weather, amazing views and amazing food while we were there. The photos only share a glimpse of the scenery and beauty that we have in Australia. I know we are blessed to have such places to enjoy and soak in.

Once we had finished looking through Townsville we got back in the car for another long stint of driving. Bound for the Daintree Forest, which was my favourite destination on our trip. But before we could get there we had to travel along the coastline and stop at Rex Lookout. I can't remember how much time we spent just looking into the didtance just trying to soak in where we were. So many places and so much nature just seemed so surreal...

Before we could get to the Daintree we had to go via Port Douglas. Port Douglas is a small bay town that has a very beach styled feel and fashion about it. The type my wife seems to froth over so I had to make this one a quick stop to save myself some money.

The Daintree Rainforest is the oldest continuously surviving tropical rainforest in the world, with some saying it dates back 165 million years. It is full of natural beauty and overhanging trees, plus the iconic giant bird of the Daintree is the endangered Cassowary.

Cape Tribulation or "Cape Trib" for short is a small cape in the heart of the Daintree. It's known for is sparkling sand and glass like blue water... and a croc or two...
Unfortunately my camera can't pick up the sparkle in the sand it it just has to be seen to be believed.

Next up, The Bloomfield Track has multiple river crossings and two serious climb and descents (20% and 33%) which require some 4x4 knowledge and guts. The expected time to do this track is just over 2hrs at a safe speed.

After we made it out the other side of the Bloomfield decided to detour left to the Wujal Wujal falls instead of right to Cooktown. Once we park, it's a short stroll to the falls where we were not disappointed...

We make our way back to the main highway and find ourselves stopped at a mountain made completely of volcanic rock. Again something you can never expect to see but we had realized by now that we should know better than to try to guess what around every corner.

Home stretch to Cooktown...

Soon after, we find ourselves pulling into Cooktown and being excited that we had done it.

We sealed our trip up here with a lock at the lighthouse stamped with our initials and family name. A great accomplishment of our journey.

We made it to Cooktown! We saw the true beauty of Queensland and we still have the 3000km trip back home. What else could be waiting for us as we head back South but take the inland highway...

If you enjoyed reading this please upvote and follow me. I will be posting one more post with our return trip.

Thanks for taking the time to check out our trip :)