The drive to Cairns was a beautiful surprise. The road wove around the edge of the coast through small, pretty beachside towns. The ocean literally sparkled on our left and the mountains were lush and green on our right. We checked out a possible place to stay called Palm Cove which is now on the list of places to come back to, it was absolutely glorious. However, we decided to push on to be in Cairns itself. We decided on the Coconut Cairns Big 4, which was hu...

Ben and Jack got up just before sunrise, I missed it by about 10 minutes but it was gorgeous. There were tree loppers coming early anyway and we wanted to get going so it was a great way to start the day. We drove to the nearby Daintree river and caught the ferry across to head up into the Daintree Rainforest. It was such a beautiful morning and we drove along the roads with the windows down, so we could smell and feel and hear everything. We headed straight...

We really should have stayed in Atherton for one more night as the next morning we dilly-dallied around for nearly TWO hours doing jobs we should've done the afternoon before, but anyway, we didn't have far to go to get closer to the Daintree NP. We eventually left town and made our way slowly down off the tableland, dropping down about 500 metres over about ___kilometres. As we came into Mossman we were stunned by the bulky surrounding mountains and their high...

We had a quick lunch before departing and heading to Atherton. I had a nap on the way, which has been really unusual for me to do, so when I woke and we were getting closer to Atherton, it was as if we had arrived on a different planet! We had left the Savannah behind and the landscape had changed dramatically. It was not only green, but hilly, and, in fact, as we came into Ravenshoe, we discovered it was the highest town in Queensland! We stopped for a look ar...

Monday, Public Holiday, saw us hitting the road again, trying to cover as many k’s as possible to get to Mt Surprise, so as to head to the Undara Lava Tubes the next day. We passed through Croydon and Georgetown; both small, quiet, remote, historic towns. It was a pleasure to come into Mt Surprise, also a small, quiet town but the van park had cool, shady, foresty type sites which easily healed and refreshed the weary Foley travellers. The trees were full of ...