Hi all , we've been camping around the
Cairns area since
easter , just thought i would share some of our experiences and rate the camps. we are a couple with 3 kids , a dog and a conventional caravan which obviously restricts our movements so i can't comment about where we can't go .
we started
easter at Archers Creek near
Ravenshoe , now i'm slightly biased here because i love this place .
Free camping always a bonus , has
toilets rubbish
bins a tap , no showers , no power but you CAN have fires and dogs . Swimming is possible in the adjacent
millstream river , nice safe swimming , it's about 15 ks from
ravenshoe on the
Savannah Way , great spot Innot Hot springs is definitely worth a visit . Lots of indigineous people in the area , very nice they are as
well . the
Ravenshoe information centre is a beauty . Day trips we did were atherton/Herberton ,
Lake Eacham definitely an awesome swimming spot .
We went to
Cairns next and stayed at the
Lake Placid caravan park for a week $49 a night for a powered site for us phew . nice enough park , swimming
pool,
camp kitchen , don't really like caravan parks . We went to
mareeba next and stayed in the rodeo grounds , cost about $20 a night for us , no shade but spacious , good hot showers , power and a relaxed feel , heaps of kangaroos live there and come out often , another great
information centre , we did day trips to the Walsh river (
free camping by the
bridge 0 , Dimbulah ,
granite gorge ( careful , they charge about $ 7;50 per person we only wanted a swim so for 5 of us we backed out ), Davies creek on the way to
Kuranda was very nice . From there we stayed 4 nights at the
Babinda rest area ,
free camp , cold showers no
toilets , nice spot we visited the boulders 3 or 4 times for a beautiful swim , the town is good and friendly .
Then it was back to
cairns , we stayed at the Cool waters caravan park which was probably the best c/van park since we left
Adelaide in december . Has the Freshwater creek running through and we were lucky to get a spot right on the creek with a
swimming hole . Same as
Lake placid $49.00 a night , has
camp kitchen the only touble we had here was permanent residents who thought they owned the place , had a real dick next to us , when we parked in our designated spot he told us to move to another spot as we were setting up because it was too small , we explained that we had been directed here , he still said tell them no , so i then said no i like it here , after that he complained at any noise , his dog came in to
our camp and tore up rubbish , he came close to a punch in the nose i tell ya , but a good park overall , also has a massive park /
picnic area to walk dogs in next door .
then we went to the
Daintree region , camped at Lync-Haven , a massive $53 a night , nice park in the rainforest , some awesome swimming holes around and the day trips to cape trib etc. very nice . We went to a backpacker lodge for tea / internet it was called crocadylus on the
Cow Bay beach road , looked a viable option to stay , good meals and a very friendly down market atmosphere . Then we went up the
bloomfield track without the caravan and stayed 2 nights at the lions Den
camp ground in helen vale cost $36 a night for unpowered camping , rundown
camp ameneties block , no
camp Kitchen , nice
campground but reall quite dissapointing this one . we were in tents and it was wet so we ended up back down at
ayton at Hayles cabins and Camping , much better , we actually got a safari tent for the night $ 105 so expensive but we really loved the park and the people especially compared to the lions Den , the
Wujal Wujal falls were excellent and the local aboriginals very nice , saw our first croc on the banks of the bloomfield river ,
now back in
cairns at
Lake Placid again , nothing special but we didnt want to re-visit mr. Grumpy at cool Waters .
The only reson we've stayed this long in the region is so our 16 year old can play some AFL football here , now we're hoping to billet him out while we go to
cape York .
hope it might be helpfull to someone . cheers Dave and Michelle