We left our mission beach early for the long hot drive to Paluma. On the way we stopped at the 'frosty mango café' for a frosty mango icecream mmmmm. Just after the turn off to Paluma National Park in the mountains we took a side trip to Paradise Creek watering hole. It was a lovely cooling clear water oasis. After checking that the locals used it and weren't afraid of crocks we jumped in to cool off. To our amusement some local kids were having a bomb dive competion with full commentry by the chubby girl who didn't join in but was a natural comedian. It was getting late in the afternoon by the time we got to the top at Paluma and there were no campsites without going off-road so we did a 3km walk to the lookout point which was spectacular, rainforrest down to the ocean. We raced back down to the main road and decided against staying at the cheap National Park campground because our torch bulb blew the night before and we were in the bush....no more said. We stayed at a fancy florida golf course-style campsite with a great pool. It was suprisingly cheap maybe because of the possibility of the crocs in the lagoon.