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Pre- and/or Post- IRG54 Activities Options
 

An insider’s suggestions for pre- or post-IRG54 recreational activities

by Michael Kennedy (long time IRG member and member of IRG54 LOC)

IRG54 will take us back to Australia for the third time. Members from far away who enjoyed their visits in 1983 or 2003 will realise that Queensland offers some wonderful destinations. But while our previous meetings have been held in the sub-tropical south of the State (Gold Coast and Brisbane), IRG54 will be held in the tropical paradise of Far North Queensland. With the meeting being held in early ‘winter’, we will avoid the summer excesses of tropical temperature, humidity and aerial and marine nasties, and have the opportunity to enjoy the region at its most attractive, in their sunny, short-sleeve type of winter. As in the tourism advertising blurb – Beautiful one day, Perfect the next!

Cairns is situated in a unique location, where a World Heritage listed tropical rainforest complex adjoins a World Heritage listed tropical reef complex, with the two ecospheres intersecting intimately in places. Here, it is quite wonderful to stand on the shoreline and gaze on the diversity of thick rainforest within a stones throw on one side and visible coral no further away on the other.

It would be tragic to visit this wonderful region only for the IRG annual meeting – as good as that will be! If you can possibly do so, we urge you bring the family and extend your stay for an additional week or three. There are more than enough beautiful and unique places in the region to fill such a period. Here are some suggestions from an old bloke who was born and raised there, and still enjoys returning regularly.

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Grand road tour from Cairns  

Rent a car in Cairns and drive this 470 km route over 3 – 10 days. Scenery varies from the beaches and coastal ranges through canefields to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of dense rainforests on the Bellenden Ker Range. Over the range, the rolling green hills of the Atherton Tablelands, with dairying, gazing and horticultural production (fruit, vegetables, nuts) and to the west, the edges of the great tropical savannah woodlands that extend right up to the tip of Cape York. Roads are good and there are plenty of accommodation choices. Highlights include:

The Companions page offers optional day trips for companions to some of these highlights, but the grand road tour includes much greater variety than we can fit into the Companions Program. Even if taking the full Companions Program, doing the Grand Road Tour would still be very worthwhile, skipping any spots otherwise being seen.

The map shows the Grand Tour using two of the four access roads from the coast to the Tablelands - the southernmost (Palmerston Highway) and the northernmost (Rex Range Road). The route can be shortened if desired by using either or both of the intermediate roads - the Gillies Highway (from Gordonvale to Lake Barrine) or the Kuranda Range Road (from Cairns to Mareeba).

 

Townsville to Cairns (or Cairns to Townsville)

You could fly into Townsville prior to IRG54 and take a one-way car rental for the drive to Cairns before the meeting (or vice versa, after the meeting). This would enable you to enjoy additional North Queensland coastal scenery including Mission Beach and the adjacent islands before starting the Grand Tour circuit at Innisfail. And starting this in Townsville is more interesting than starting from Brisbane, as it avoids having to traverse a lot of quite dry, flat and less interesting country in Central Queensland, between Bundaberg and Bowen.

 

Cape Tribulation Road Tour

This is a shorter alternative to the Grand Tour. Again renting a car from Cairns, ensuring that you are allowed to take it across the Daintree River Ferry, drive north along the Captain Cook Highway. Call in at as many of the Northern Beaches as you like, especially the delightful Palm Cove, as you proceed to Port Douglas. 'The Port' pre-dates Cairns, being the original Far North Queensland port and starting point for packhorse trains up the (now) Rex Range to the tinfields that drove the opening up of the Tablelands and adjacent coast.  Port Douglas is a great place to stay for a night or two (or more!), with it's Four Mile Beach and many tour options. Continue driving north through Mossman (sugar mill, cane trams, Mossman Gorge) to Daintree (Daintree River cruises, croc spotting). Cross using the ferry and proceed to the end of the sealed road at Cape Tribuation (140 km from Cairns). Beyond the ferry is like a step back in time to a less rushed, uncrowded locality where you will typically find rustic ecolodges, light footprint and B&B accommodation, a few 4 star, and a limited range of commercial tour-type activities, including local trips to lesser-visited reefs. Return to Cairns by the same 140 km route, or take a 60 km longer inland deviation south of Mossman, up the rainforested Rex Range to beef grazing country from Julatten and Mount Molloy to Mareeba, thence to Kuranda and down the Kuranda Range back to Cairns.

 

Bushwalking treks (for fit, experienced, well-equipped walkers)

  • 130 km of wilderness tracks comprise the Misty Mountains track complex, traversing rainforest and adjacent open forest of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area, between Mena Creek (near Innisfail) and Ravenshoe (on the Atherton tableland). There are four distinct tracks, for walking individually or contiguously.
  • The Bartle Frere trail up and over the summit of Mt Bartle Frere, Queensland’s highest mountain, from Josephine Falls (near Miriwinni, south of Cairns) to Topaz on the Atherton Tableland – 15 km of serious, challenging walking.
  •  The 32 km Thorsborne Trail on Hinchinbrook Island, 8km off the Queensland coast at Cardwell. The trail is not a graded or hardened walking track and, in some areas, is rough and difficult to traverse.
  • For those of us not quite up to tackling such strenuous or extended walks, many of the regions's National Parks have much more civilised, shorter and smoother graded walking tracks that often lead though pristine rainforest and allow close observation of the diverse range of fungal degradation processes dealing with the arboreal litter on the forest floor beside the track. For example, Lakes Eacham and Barrine can be circumnavigated in an hour or so by easy walking trails at lake's edge.

 

North Queensland's coastal National Parks

 Other outdoor activities

 

Cruise the beautiful turquoise waters of the Whitsunday Islands.

In North Queensland but quite a way from Cairns, the Whitsunday Islands are spectacular. Yachts and motor cruisers of various sizes are available for rent, either skippered or as a bareboat (for experienced sailors) from several operators operating out of Shute Harbour, near popular Airlie Beach and the airport in Proserpine, e.g. Whitsunday Rent A Yacht. The North Queensland winter is the ideal season and although the boat hire is far from cheap, bookings can be heavy and you may need to book your boat immediately to secure your preference. Similar rentals are available from Cairns, but in my opinion the cruising, scenery and abundance of sheltered anchorages are better in the Whitsundays.

 

Train Tour in North Queensland

Go west, and back in time, by catching the Wednesday morning (weekly) Savannahlander train from Cairns to Forsayth and return. This four-day return trip includes off-train overnight accommodation, most meals, and tours at Chillagoe Caves and Undara Lava Tubes (mentioned as possible road tour detour highlights in suggestion 1, above). As well as seeing these memorable formations and taking a dip in the Tallaroo Hot Springs, you will travel in both directions through the Kuranda Gorge and out into beef cattle savannah country.

 

Lizard Island

Treat yourself to an indulgent tropical island holiday with the rich and famous at Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef north-east of Cooktown, a one-hour flight from Cairns direct to the island. All-inclusive accommodation, meals, drinks and recreational activities included for upwards of A$2000 per night. Children under 10 not allowed. No, I haven’t visited it myself, but I hear its very nice!

 

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