Bramston Beach

Our friends Robin and Geoff have bought a house at Palm Cove and are re-modelling it. Palm Cove is close to Cairns so we thought we would take a visit to Palm Cove and catch up with Robin's brother, Ray who was staying on the blck with his Winnebago.
The house is going to be sensational when finished with beautiful large living spaces, pool and lovely guest quarters.
The beach at Palm Cove is clean and the water clear and sparling. There are "stinger nets" to protect people from the deadly Box Jelly Fish as well as the nasty tiny Irukanji Jelly Fish. Surf life savers patrol the beach, year round. We saw very few people in the water or on the beach despite these precautions.
Having never really explored this northern beaches area of North Queensland, we thought we would see as much as we could whilst the weather remained favourable. So it was our intention to try to go in to as many beach lcalities as possible.
The beachside towns just below Palm Cove are not nearly so picturesque. They have high rise buildings and shopping centres.
After Cairns there are few beaches. We had been told that there were two beautiful places on the way to Bramston Beach that we really should see. These were, Babinda Boulders and Josephine Falls. We only stopped at Babinda Boulders, but were determined to visit them an Josephine Falls later.
We arrived at Bramston Beach on a school holiday long weekend to find only one site available to us and the we would have to move to another site. This is a beautiful and sleepy beach village with one cafe/shop and the Council run caravan park.
We also took the opportunity to visit Russell River NP just above Bramston Beach. Very sand fly prone with lots of running creeks and mangroves.

We had an absolute beach frontage site, but were hemmed in by lots of other campers; families, mostly from Cairns. The place was packed for three days!
We found the other campers to be very friendly and their kids were delightful!
Because of the long weekend/ school holiday period, we thought it was best if we stayed put until everyone went home as we couln't be sure of getting in anywhere else.
So this was our opportunity to go back to visit Babinda Boulders and Josephine Falls.

Above two photos are of Babinda Boulders. There is a lovely free camping area, provided by the local council, just nearby that has toilet facilities. It only has six sites as is on a first-come first-served basis. Obviously full this time but a great option on another occasion.
A swim here was very cold, but refreshing.
The creek runs through a tight ravine and has carved amazing dhapes into the rocks. It would be very treacherous during the rains as the water level would be very high and the current very swift and swirling through the waterfalls and cascades. The lcals told us that many people had been drowned here as the warning signs and barricades are ignored by mostly young international tourists. This time, Babinda was declared "very dry" by the locals. The area around Babinda normally gets the highest rainfall per year, after Tully.
Next stop, Josephine Falls, which were even more beautiful and spectacular than Babinda Boulders.

Josephine Falls is on the same road as Golden Hole and Bartle Frere.