Mission Beach

The beaches of North Queensland are the palm fringed, white sand, clear blue water type beaches you see on a postcard. That’s why it is impossible to find an uninhabited one unless you have a boat.

Cairns and Port Douglas have grown incredibly in the 10 years since we were here. All tourism based and very busy.

US Navy ship - Cairns

There were two awsome looking US warships visiting Cairns while we were there. 3,500 US sailors wandering around town having a great time.

US Troops sailing out of Cairns

We visited Green Island and on the way back one of the US ships was sailing out.  What a neat sight as the sun was going down. The other ship had to wait till high tide as it only had 27 inches of water under the keel.

Green Island Rail

These little birds were all over Green Island. They are some kind of Rail but I couldn’t find out any details.

If you don’t want to wait for the ferry back to the mainland you can opt for the $300 Chopper

Green Island Chopper

After a few days in Cairns we decided to head west rather than going on up to Cooktown. The Coast was busy with school holidays we figured it would be slower and more relaxed over the mountains.