On the way north

We are driving now through mango orchards and banana farms. The caravan parks we share with many traveling fruit pickers. Some detours more inland take us through National Parks with impressive waterfalls and refreshing rock pools. Here we see the funny platypus and the shimmering Ulysses butterflies.
At the Wallaman waterfall, the highest in Australia, we do a speed hike down the canyon to the bottom of the fall and up again. The German couple we meet first on the way down and later halfway up just shake their amazed heads.
The last stop we make before reaching our goal, Cairns, is at Paronella Park. A dream made real by a Spanish immigrant in the 1920's. He build a whole castle next to a waterfall, surrounded by beautiful gardens, a tunnel of love, filled with tiny micro-bats and a lane with good luck bringing Kauri trees. We get a tour by an aboriginal girl, who explains how they used all the different trees and plants. After the tour we get a little show of traditional dance and music. It's all part of a special project sponsored by Paronella Park. Here the aboriginal kids can learn and practice the skills of their ancestors. It's inspiring to see how passionate they search for this knowledge and share it with the audience.