Cairns to Cooktown...and back again!

Cairns to Cape Tribulation was an enjoyable drive, with a stop at the Daintree Discovery Centre to walk on the high walkways through the canopy of the rainforest. Lots of information about flora and fauna of the Daintree and the Cape, as well as prehistoric Ripper Lizards and Giant Echidnas! Cape Trib offered welcomed relief to the driving and walks on the beach abound. A short walk south to the Myall Creek estuary gave us our first glimpse of a croc - a female, about 3 metres, sunning itself on the sandy bank. Carsten is determined to meet a croc face to face. Such a nature boy!

John and Carky saw turtles at sunset off the coral, and Vance and Carston had a great time snorkling off the reef. A bit too spooky for me, with all of those biting things around!

Rod at Cape Trib gave excellent advice for the drive North, and we set off Wednesday for Cooktown for supplies and then Elim Beach, East of Hope Vale. A flat tyre 20 mins from Elim brought us in quite late to this spectacular camping site. Right at the waters edge - our host Eddie telling us stories of how he dispatched the last 18 foot croc that made a nuisance of itself at Elim - a .30 through the brain, I believe! His dog, "Dog" was an excellent, if "frisky" companion and kept guard at Carsten and Walter's tent door for the whole night. The rising tide and dim light from half-moon early setting and starlight made for restlessness for me - I only managed to get rest after the tide had clearly turned. I dreamt of crocs and massive crabs battling in the nearby mangroves. Difficult to tell reality from dreaming....

Next morning, the inconvenience of a flat battery in the Pathfinder and discovering the serious design fault that if the battery is flat, one cannot open the back door! WTF??? Stupid. A jump start, and away we went to see the Coloured Sands of Elim. Beautiful at low tide.

An unexpected return to Cooktown to fix mechanical probs and buy new tyres offers some rest and opportunity to recharge our many devices. Looking forward to a swim in the pool! - SJC

Cairns at last

Rolled into Cairns at around 2pm. A long drive, but an enjoyable one. John and I drove to Tamworth on the first night and had the delightful company of Matt, Alex, Millie and Ivy to cheer our spririts for the long journey ahead. Thanks guys!

Day 2, we made it our of Tamworth and on to the Qld border at Goondiwindi. Classic town. Continued on to Roma via Miles. Mining trucks and types are in abundance in this town. the wonderful Lana at the Roma Motel ensured that we got a hot meal at the local even though we rolled in around 8.30pm.

Day 3, A good drive from Roma to the tiny town of Clermont, 20 km south of the Blair Athol Coal Mine. The motel room was possibly used as asett for Pricilla Queen of the Desert, and gave John flashbacks to family driving holidays in the 1960s. It would be fair to say there was little to hang around for, so we set off before 6 the next morning.

Day 4, big drive on some amazing Austrlian roads. We continued on the Great Inland Road, seeing our first real road trains and experiencing for the first time the one lane highway , where you have to drive two if your wheels on the shoulder when passing other vehicles. Exciting at times! Vry few stops on this way, although we had a couple of hours very fine detour into the Carnarvon Gorge National Park. Walked into the gorge, seeing amazing fauna, and Aboriginal rock art in the Baloon Cave. Superb. Continuing to Charters Towers for a well earned rest, once the second largest town in Qld after the gold rush, and then on to the Undara National Park, where we slept in old converted railway carriage! Fantastic. Great food and interesting walk around the lava tubes this morning.

Day 5, Sunday Undara to Cairns through the winding lush roads of the Atherton tablelands. Volcanic red soil from grass Savannah - quite a contrast!