We wound our way down the mountains to the lowlands of Innisfail where the sugarcane started again. We headed up the highway to Babinda hoping for a swim at The Boulders which is a great Creekside recreation area.
The main swimming hole is nice and refreshing and there are some walks that take you to some spectacular lookouts over the gorges and waterfalls which were pretty tame at the moment but would be raging when the rains and storms come.
We camped at a small free camping area within walking distance of the creek and there was also a good playground for the boys to have some fun on as well. For some reason we broke one of our rules of not staying in these highly promoted, easy-access, free-camping sites and the area quickly went from about six campers to about 25.
The permanent residents were the bush stone curlews, this time instead of eggs mum and dad were looking after a (very cute) baby curlew which seemed to be hanging around our camp. It was great for the boys to see.
For all our dislike of backpackers and their disrespectful , space-invading and loud behaviour, it was Australian campers who managed to ruin the whole camp for everyone – two blokes in a commodore – absolute loonies who looked like they’d just escaped from jail. We couldn’t pack up fast enough and we weren’t the only ones who were glad to be leaving the next morning!
JALC-OZ-2018 