Day 237 / 2016 - Townsville Back to Walkamin

We took our time packing up to leave Townsville we must be returning to easy going travel mode. Shoud we go today or should we stay. We had already extended our stay by an additional day but we now have decided to move onto or next destination where ever that may be. 

Leaving Townsville we headed North along the Bruce Hwy towards Cairns and the Tablelands. Over the last few times we have been through the Townsville area we have just driven straight through to the next major centre further north. This time we decided to visit some of the lesser known spots along the way.

Saunders beach was our first stop it is a small free camp spot there right on the beach with enough room for about five or six caravans on one side and a smattering of backpacker and campers on the opposite side closer to the beach. The parking area is behind a hill giving protection from the wind. It looked like to be an excellent spot to stop if you wanted to be next to the beach especially if the weather was good. When we arrived it was sprinkling with rain and full of campers so decided to mark it in the databanks and move on.

Next stop was Toomulla Beach the Free Camp spot is located at the end of the road in a park with had plenty of room for caravans. When we arrived there was already a dozen vans but we managed to score a large spot closer to the road. There was room for other vans but we hoped being closer to the road nobody would want to park next to us.  The park has BBQ's a flushing toilet with taps providing fresh town water. Your not as close to the beach as with Saunders but you can still walk there. With plenty of shade from trees we decided to spend the night here only 20 Km from our starting point... gee we travelled a long way. Walking some of the streets we could see the mountains not to far int the west all covered in cloud looking very dark and foreboding.

The night was quiet and restfull with no traffic noise being a good distance away from the main highway. We could hear the ocean waves in the distance and the other campers in the park iwere also quiet. During breakfast next morning one of the other campers mentioned if we had seen the park closed sign at the entrance. Reading the sign it seemed the park would be closed for a fishing event held over the weekend and would be closed from 3pm Friday until 12:30pm Sunday. This didn't affect us as we were leaving that morning anyway. 

Heading off our next destination was to be Balgal Beach about 20km further down the road unfortunately we didn't see the turn off. There was a lot of road works so it would have been easy to miss. We continued on and though about stopping in Cardwell but we kept going and decided finally to stop in Tully. Our previous experiences with Tully is everytime we have been here it was raining pouring actually. This time the sun was shining and we wanted to see what Tully looked like in the sunshine. We obtained a camping permit from the Information centre then pulled into the camp area just inside the entrance to the Showgrounds.

Tully is considered the wettest town in Queensland though Innisfail also claims the same title. We did a few walks into town as well as some exersise around the oval but that was about the extent of our activity. Our first night the camping area was packed but the second night we were completely on our own. We could see the steam and smoke pouring from the chimney's of the sugar mill across the road from us. Watching the smoke spin and twist around itself was at times mesmerising.

At the end of two nights we left Tully and headed up to the Tablelands via the Palmerston Hwy. Climbing through the hills we eventually reached Millaa Millaa then followed the road back through Malanda finally arriving in Walkamin.