The dream continues...

Leaving the charms of Cardwell, we carried on our travels until we found ourselves at Mission Beach.

This little town is in a tiny bubble of calm. Seemingly entirely populated by hippies, and they were holding a Sunday market when we arrived.

All very interesting, and we saw a lady singing and playing the guitar who had a deeper voice than most men I know!

Through the market we went, on into the trees and suddenly we were out on the beach. This is where Cyclone Yasi made landfall in 2011, and I could believe it - the whole place still feels battered and rugged, yet still holds that overall image of a typical aussie beach - miles of unspoilt golden sand with forest coming right down to the sea front. It all felt quite wild and natural.

Out to see the sky was black as night. Literally.

A band of blackness on the horizon, which we later found out, was the beginnings of another possible Cyclone, but which fortunately went east, not west!

I was actually quite sad to leave here - the laid back vibes really got hold of me in the short time we had to explore the place. But next up, was Paranella Park.

Where?

Paranella Park. Billed in the leaflet we picked up as Australia's only castle!

The photos made it look like some long lost ancient temple in the rain forest, so we had to check this out!

Access to the park was via a very wet and bouncy rope bridge which spanned the top of the waterfalls in today's blip, and on the other side we were welcomed by a slightly larger than life man who turned out to own the place!

'Castle' might be stretching it a bit... it's more of a Wendy house.

Built by a Spaniard who had a dream to build a castle and wanted it to be enjoyed by as many people as possible, so he built his castle, with a ball room, tennis courts, skating rink, and gardens.... there was just one snag.

This Spaniard was a baker, not an engineer. And this castle which looks like some ancient long forgotten wonder of the world was made from crap concrete only 80 years ago!

After it was built and used and loved, it unfortunately burnt down.

3 times.

And then it was hit by a cyclone.

After years of neglect, it is now being restored - including the original 1930s hydro electric power station at the base of the waterfall!

So a really interesting place and it had an adjoining campsite which was useful. While we were there we also saw a wild crocodile in the water at the base of these falls!

We were standing in a group of 5 plus a guide, and while we were standing on the waters edge looking out for the croc, one of the group turned around and went:

"Oh... is that a snake?"

We turned round and there was an Eastern Brown snake (google it!) slithering up behind Sophie for a bit of a sniff!

The same lady who'd spotted the snake asked:

"So... is it a poisonous one?"

To which our guide said:

"We're in Australia. They're ALL poisonous!

With a (very) deadly stake in front and a crocodile behind, we decided it was time to move on and bravely ran away to higher ground!

Oh. Also, we saw a turkey up a tree.