Babinda Boulders No.2 and an unexpected beachside stopover

Babinda Boulders and Trinity Beach

Monday 11^th and Tuesday 12^th July

We were lucky enough to coincide our journey north with Kate and Matt’s trip south, so we met up again, this time at the free camp at Babinda Boulders.  Kate and Matt arrived early and saved us a spot and it was great camping next to each other. We spent the afternoon swimming and catching up on each other’s adventures since we parted ways at Cairns 2 weeks ago.

The next day we needed to spend some time in Cairns- Daniel shopping for some things for the trip to Cape York, and me preparing our tax returns (boring!). Kate had 2 spare wristbands from the caravan park we’d all stayed at in Cairns and we came up with the ingenious idea of spending the afternoon there so the kids could utilise the fabulous pools and water slides whilst I worked. Our plan was a success and we even snuck in a hot shower afterwards! As an added bonus there was a wildlife display on at the park and Jackson got to hold a python! We didn’t have anywhere booked to stay that night (I’d rang heaps of different parks from Cairns to Mossman and everywhere was booked out) so we left Cairns hoping for a side track somewhere on the way so we could set up camp.

It was starting to get dark and we still hadn’t found anything so we headed towards Trinity Beach hoping to get lucky. Wow- what a gorgeous beach and esplanade, white sand and palms leaning over the beach- it was idyllic. We decided to take a chance and do a sneaky camp in a side street. We parked, had dinner on the beach then tried discreetly to get into the caravan. With the blinds closed you couldn’t even tell we were in there, and we tiptoed around to make sure we didn’t move the van. We got up by 7am and moved the van onto the main street (just in time as a police car was cruising the area), then we had coffee and breakfast on the beach. It was so lovely that we stayed for a few hours and even had a swim. On our way towards the Daintree we also stopped off at Palm Cove (another lovely beach) and Mossman before taking the car ferry over the Daintree River to immerse ourselves in the rainforest for a few days.

Curlews trying to camouflage themselves as pieces of wood!

Matt found a great swimming hole where the kids could bomb off the boulders

Well the dads couldn't let the kids have all the fun!

Jackson and Logan spent hours playing swords with the stems of pandanus plants - trying to work out who found the strongest one!

Goodbye squishes.....

...Emilia tried to get out of the squishy cuddle but they chased her down....

.....then got her in a headlock!

Nearly full moon on Trinity Beach

Enjoying a sunrise walk on the beach.

We had coffee and breakfast on the beach after enjoying the sunrise.

View of Trinity Beach from the rocks at the headland.

We all enjoyed a morning swim (the locals were swimming too even though there were signs saying there could be crocodiles. They had a lifeguard and flags set up so we felt safe)

The kids enjoyed making sand angels before bolting into the sea to rinse off.