Campervan of Courage: Part 2

Australia is a large, vast country. Most of us probably will never see all of it’s glory. If you have to start somewhere, go to Tropical North Queensland. There are so many hidden gems in this country that I was introduced on my campervan adventure.

My boyfriend grew up in Townsville so he had done this trip before and had seen many of the places we were visiting but because it had been years and years since he had visited North Queensland we got to discover it together.

Darryl knew of a lot of places to take me, so we had a bit of knowledge about what we could see but mostly we spent every day driving in a new direction and veering off on new paths whenever something interesting caught our eye. One of those paths took us through the Misty Mountains. Our van, George Best, was old and probably wasn’t the best car to take on a off the beaten track adventure but he managed our spontaneous 4wd trip.

We stopped at almost every look out or walking track and got to see some beautiful sights. My favourites were always the waterfalls. We went swimming at the Millaa Millaa falls in the Atherton Tablelands. It was freezing but worth it. A local told as to swim all the way under the waterfall and look up. It was amazing. We had the 18.3 meter high falls dropping onto us. We sat on the rocks under the falls and let the water spray onto us until our fingers got wrinkly and limbs were frozen.

Millaa Millaa Falls

My favourite place that we visited was Paronella Park. Paronella Park is heritage listed tourist attraction in Mena Creek and became Queenslands first hyrdo electric plant in 1933. Paronella Park was a dream. A man named Jose Paronella came to Australia to earn enough money to create an amazing love for him and the woman he was in love with. He bought the park in 1929 and it took him years to create the most picturesque place you will ever visit. It’s like a huge secret garden, with waterfalls, tunnels, staircases, a movie theatre and a ballroom. Unfortunately, the park suffered a lot of damage from floods, Cyclone Winifred and Cyclone Larry, and was deserted for years until Mark and Judy Evans discovered the park in 1993. Since they purchased the park they have been trying to return it to all its glory and have opened it as a tourist attraction, with all the proceeds going to up keep and restoration of the park. They have done a remarkable job, you can absolutely feel the romance when you are there. The park runs day and night tours and you can camp there for free, you just have to get in early to get the spots with power. Your ticket lasts you a whole year so you can come and spend as much time there as you please.

Paronella Park

It was hard to say goodbye to George after our trip was over, we even offered to buy the van and drive it back to Melbourne so we could go on more adventures. I will say though, I was glad after it was over to have a comfy bed and a hot shower!