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Chilli Beach
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After our quick visit to Portland Roads we decided make the very short journey down to Chilli Beach for a couple of days. Arriving at Chilli Beach we hit the sand and drove up the beach towards Cape Weymouth for a few minutes before finding a nice sheltered camp just off the beach. Chilli Beach is a stunning piece Palm Tree lined white sand and this camp turned out to be one of our favourites on the whole trip. Being tucked in behind the first row of trees we were sheltered from any strong wind but at the same time we still got a pleasant cooling breeze coming through, the trees also keeping us shaded for the majority of the day.
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Leaving Portland Roads we had a short drive over to Chilli Beach.
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Chilli Beach
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We had a beautiful camp just beyond the line of Palm Trees lining the beach.
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Who knew Brushturkeys like coconuts...?
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Our time at Chilli Beach was spent lazing around swimming, reading, sleeping and occasionally beach combing. We were definitely still in Saltwater Crocodile territory, so any swimming was kept to the shallows with one eye on the water, the other thing at the back of our mind was that the Box Jellyfish season was also upon us and getting stung by one of those deadly creatures would of put a real dampener on our trip! At low tide we are able to explore a rocky reef just off shore and substitute our diet a little bit with Oysters and Mud Crabs, yes were were really struggling!
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Sunset on Chilli Beach.
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At low tide we were able to wade out and explore this reef.
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There is no shortage of bush tucker up here.
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Dinners arrived.
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We enjoyed a couple of wonderful days at Chilli Beach however eventually we decided that it was time to move on again. Today ended up being a fairly long day as we motored south back down the dusty Peninsula Development Road through the tropical heat. My main recollections of today were of fixing a flat tire in the red dirt on the side of the road just out off Laura and then heading the last few minutes into the Laura pub and washing the dust from my throat with one of the most enjoyable ice cold beers that I've ever enjoyed. After leaving Laura we continued down the red dirt road before hitting the bitumen at Lakeland and heading for the bright lights of Cairns, still quite a few hours away. By the time we dropped down to the coast from Mareeba bright lights were indeed all we could see of Cairns as it was well after dark when we arrived today.
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Heading off Chilli Beach, things can get a little skinny here at high tide.
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Back on the Peninsula Development Road heading south.
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Just what I wanted to be doing in the middle of another stinking hot day.
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One of the joys of running split rims is that the tubes tend to get a lot more punctures....the benefit is that it's relatively easy to pull everything to bits and fit a new tube.
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Sam and I set up base at the Il Palazzo Hotel again, while Lana and Ollie headed to a caravan park just north of town. In between sorting everything out for our up coming journey (yes, we'd decided to head west next across the top of the Gulf of Carpentaria), we spent some enjoyable days doing the normal tourist things. Probably the highlight of our stay in Cairns was riding on the newly completed Kuranda Skyrail, the gondola taking us soaring through the world heritage rainforest as it whisked us silently up onto the top of the range at Kuranda, over seven kilometres away.
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Bobs Lookout
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A group photo before we dropped down from Bobs Lookout and headed for Cairns.
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Back in Cairns we took a trip up to Kuranda on the relatively new Kuranda Skyrail.
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The Dirt.
After the excitement of the Old Telegraph Track and Frenchmans Track today was little bit uneventful I suppose, although having said that we still had a couple of creek crossings to deal with as well as many kilometres of red dirt roads to negotiate. Chilli Beach can get a little skinny around high tide so we had to keep that in mind too. There was a very dodgy looking well at Chilli Beach back in the days, although I'd highly recommend bringing your own supply of water as we did. Once again we were mostly using Hema paper maps on this journey.
Relevant Posts.
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Alright, this is very indulgent so maybe skip the last few photos unless you are friends or family. These shot's were taken near the pool at Il Palazzo Hotel in Cairns.
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Sam and Lana
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Me and Ollie.
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| The honeymoon couple, Lana and Ollie. They look happy don't they:) |
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