We headed to the Mareeba Tourist Information centre to get some info on the area. We decided we'd camp around Tinaroo Dam and headed there after a stop for devonshire tea at the Mt Uncle Distillery and supplies in Atherton. The Tablelands were a lovely area and we went off on a scenic tour taking in Lake Tinaroo, Lakes Barine and Eacham, Malanda falls, Gallo Dairyland (where we tasted and purchased some delicious cheese) and Yungburra. We stopped for lunch at ...

Continuing down the Cape we had hoped that one of the tracks would be open to the west so we could take a shortcut to Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria. We stopped at Musgrave Station for lunch and advice on the roads and the guy there pretty much advised against it unless we could carry about 800km worth of fuel - something we could not do. This guy then suggest a route we take whereby we would take in the Atherton Tablelands and Undara Lava Tubes. He also s...

Our return down the Cape was much quicker than up. We thought about going to Weipa but the shortcut road wasn't great. We met a guy at Bramwell Junction were we had stopped for lunch who just got stuck in a muddy creek crossing on this road to Weipa. We decided not to chance our setup so continued to Archer River Roadhouse to set up camp for the night. We met a nice guy, Denis, from Tasmania, travelling with his kelpie, Molly. We spent a fair amount of time ...

We continued the drive north crossing the Jardine River with the Ferry before arriving in Bamaga. We had not decided where to stay so drove to Seisa to check out the caravan park there. We decided against it and chose Punsand Bay Campground instead. We got some petrol and groceries and headed further north. Punsand Bay sits just west of the Tip. We set up camp and after lunch went for a swim in the pool - definitely no swimming in the lovely ocean 40 metres ...

When we left Archer River I had my first real go at driving the track. I drove 123km to the Moreton Telegraph Station before I handed the car back to David who has been doing pretty much all the driving since we left Cooktown. The road hasn't been too bad to this point. So much more bitumen than we expected, sometimes wide and open, other times quite narrow. One thing there has not been a lack of is dust. The car is filthy. We will wait and clean it once w...