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Fancying a change of scenery (can you get tired of beautiful beaches?) we heard about a place called Paronella Park, a ruined house in the rainforest at a small town called Mena Creek, about 45 minutes drive inland. We set off along a single track and some unpaved roads, muddy in the rain, towards Mena.
Paronella Park was built to realise the dream of one random Spaniard, Jose Paronella. He came to Australia in 1913 and made his fortune in sugar cane farming. He then decided to use his fortune to buy land and build his own castle in the jungle. This took 20+ years (much of it built by his own hand) and was then opened to the public. In its heyday, there was a ballroom, theatre and cinema.
Today it is a ruin after several fires and cyclones, and the fact that Jose was not an engineer so used the 'wrong sand' in his cement, allowing water seepage through the walls, in what is quite a wet place afterall. Paronella Park is now run as a tourist attraction showcasing the ruins in the jungle, along with the waterfall, gardens and all the animals and birds there too!
We stayed overnight (included in the entry fee). Highlights were the waterfall and gardens. Brenda was particularly dotty about feeding the turtles (they are cute though) and on the night tour we saw bats, spiders and huge eels. No swimming in the creek though- a salt water croc was spotted a few days ago! Have a look at our pics and see what you think.
The following day we drove 580km to the Whitsunday islands at Airlie beach, stopping on the way at the Billabong sanctuary to see some furry and scaly critters! We missed koala-hugging (Brenda was very distressed) but got to hand-feed some kangaroos and watch the croc feeding show.
That's all for now, next stop Whitsunday islands!
ps we have updated some videos and photos, take a look.
- comments
Paul The turtles are weirdly cute aren't they? I can see Dave's fave were the kangaroos though - were you not tempted to sneak one in the back of Nemo and see how far you'd get?