What a few weeks we have had since we left Undara and the lava tubes. It really has been filled with wonders and surprises.

To start with, our first night out of Undara we made it to Ravenshoe, stopping on the way to marvel at Millstream Falls (our first waterfalls of our trip), and as we browsed around the little supermarket we suddenly heard our name called out and there were Hilary (& Peter) whom we had met in Longreach weeks before and become firm friends with over our 5 nights camped next to each other. What a lovely surprise and the next 2 nights and day were spent catching up with them. As much as we love travelling and seeing new things all the time it is still lovely to meet up with friends - even very new ones.

We had one beautiful day filled with misty rain cruising the Waterfall Way and going to no less than 4 different falls and such lovely green, green meadows and real rainforest too. Such a change from the 'outback' we have known for the last 3 or 4 months.

The rain only lasted a couple of days and on our first Sunday on the Tablelands we headed to the Ravenshoe Railway station after church and caught the Tumoulin Express!

A gorgeous little old blue train that took an hour and a half to take us a 10 minute drive and back again but soooo much better than driving. A real steam train so lots of smoke and noise which kept Jude very happy and when we got to Tumoulin and they had turned the engine around we were all invited up into the engine to pull the whistle - I don't know who had more fun doing this, Jude or me!

We had to say goodbye to Peter & Hilary as they headed to Undara and we took a couple of days just to cruise around the tablelands and see the little towns that we haven't seen on previous visits (well obviously I mean that I haven't seen them - forgive the use of the royal 'we'). Herberton was a cute little town where Jude and I enjoyed morning tea at the little playground enveloped under the branches of many Jacarandas in full bloom and this is possibly where Jude decided that they are his favourite tree ('and yours Mum!') I wish I could describe to you exactly how enthused and excited he is every time we see one alongside the road (and there are lots!) - 'Jacaranda mum, jacaranda! I like those trees. And you do too.' Just precious and of course impossible to capture on video.

After a couple of days we headed into Atherton where we booked and paid for our big train trip down to the Gold Coast for Christmas ('Will we be going on Thomas mum?' 'No darling, Thomas is too small to travel that far')

And then as we pulled in to the Rocky Creek Memorial Park to camp for the next night or two we see Kerry and Peter who were at Karumba at the same time as us and whom we have camped with on and off ever since. In fact they are here in Cooktown at the same caravan park with us now! Jude has adopted them as his firm friends and can't wait for them to exit their caravan in the morning so he can rush over and play in their camp.

Of course the tablelands are also famous for their BIG trees and in one day we saw the Cathedral Fig, the Curtain Fig and the twin Kauri Pines - all amazing examples of God's work and much, much too big to capture adequately with a camera.

On the same day tho' we lucked out even further in the nature department by seeing 2 Tree Kangaroos in the forest around the Curtain Fig tree (look up high and look for the tails, they hang down like a monkey's) and then because I had been so lucky I decided to duck into the 'platypus hide' at Yungaburra and had only just got Jude settled at the peep-hole and told him not to expect to see any because it was totally the wrong time of the day when out popped Mr Platypus himself and swam along leisurely in front of us - WOW! We saw 2 more platypus (platypi??) as we walked along the creek that afternoon and left feeling completely blessed. I have to note here that Jude really did think that just the one platypus was enough and couldn't understand why I wanted to sit quietly and look into the water nor why I wouldn't let him throw stones in (tho he did anyway). He got much more excited by the sight of the turtle sunbaking that we saw further down the creek!

Our next adventure was a couple of nights at the Granite Gorge Nature Park about 16kms inland from Mareeba and the type of bush camp that I really like with heaps of space for Jude to run around and half the price of a regular caravan park. This is where we had the privilege to meet the Daly family and sit around their campfire with them (Hello Les, Sharon, Caleb, Elisha and Shekinah!) and where we went through a whole pack of rolled oats feeding the cutest little rock wallabies you have ever seen. Jude had a terrific time because the older kids took him about and let him play with them and he felt he was a proper little man.

From Granite Gorge it was off to Chillagoe and the caves - I am a lover of caves, even tho' I admit to a bit of claustrophobia, and a 150km drive to get to see some seemed like a fair deal to me. The drive out there was pleasant and bitumen nearly the whole way and we arrived late afternoon for me to be perplexed by the drunkenness of the fellows falling out of the pub (and into their 4WDs) and the sight of women wearing extravagant hats - that is until I realised it was Melbourne Cup day and then all made sense. We checked into the Eco Park where the lovely Rhonda was a treat to deal with and the fruit bats were numberless.

As we had neared Chillagoe we had begun to see the most fantastic limestone formations in the black rocks and I must say that these alone would make a trip out there worth the drive however we had come to see caves and caves we would see. Our first foray was into the Royal Arch system and this was different to any other caves I have visited purely on the basis that the caves themselves are not 'lit' but rather we are handed a torch each and we light our own way through - what a difference it makes to the experience. A longer walk than I expected but Jude managed the 1.5 hours pretty well and even when he wanted me to carry him he had to walk a lot of the time because of the low and/or narrow passages.

After the caves we went out to a local Aboriginal Art site (Jude fell asleep within minutes of getting into the car so missed all this) and I loved seeing the art but even better was when I walked around the edge of the rock and into a little grotto filled with trees and startled a whole heap of butterflies into flight - magical. I proceeded to wander along startling different groups and then letting them settle and then walking in again for the next 10 minutes - childish perhaps but just magical every time.

The next morning we headed out to the Donna Caves which where 'lit' and totally different to the caves of the previous day and started with a VERY steep climb down LOTS and LOTS of steps and Jude did just marvellously. We then continued to climb up through a series of different passages until we reached ground level again and left the system through a different exit (Do you remember something like this happening in some caves on our trip Wens??)

A really lovely little town as long as you don't mind road trains from the mines cruising down your main street! Oh and the most cane toads it has been my misfortune to see.

Back to Mareeba and on to Mount Molloy to start the northward trip to Cooktown.

We spent the night at Mount Molloy where I picked out 2 houses I would like to buy before heading north for the last couple of hundred kilometres to our most northerly destination in Queensland and one that I had really been looking forward to.

And Cooktown lives up to my (very minimal) expectations. It is tropical - check. It is small - check. The terrain northward looks impassable - check. It is on the sea - check. There are crocodiles - check.

Its amazing what a difference perspective can make - we met this lovely couple in Mt Molloy who had just come from here and they basically said it wasn't worth coming except to tick it off your list and you wouldn't waste more than a day here (tho they did say the people were friendly and helpful). I've been here a week already and still haven't seen everything! And I am hanging for the Saturday markets so I can get another Tropical Fruit Frappe cos they were DELICIOUS!

Toodle-pip