We headed into Airlie Beach for some breakfast after our last night in the holiday park, finding a nice cafe where we had a massive breakfast to set us up for another day of driving.

Lucy took the first turn driving, as we made our way out of town and back towards the Highway, before heading north again.

The first town we passed was Bowen, where Baz Luhrmann's Australia was filmed, then we reached Townsville in the early afternoon. We had originally planned to stop here for the night, but we decided instead to continue north, to try and see as much as we could before we dropped the van off. We did like the look of Townsville though, with its long promenade and the pretty-looking Magnetic Island out in the water, as well as some cool buildings which fit very well in a tropical, colonial town.

We stopped at a cafe near the promenade and sat under a strangler-fig covered tree to gorge ourselves on some ice cream and cake before hopping back in the van and continuing north, this time with me at the wheel.

We drove on through the fields of sugar cane lining the road, crossing the numerous narrow-gauge railways used to transport the harvested cane, and through some small and sleepy towns. On our left we started to get views of tall, rainforest-covered hills which provided a pretty backdrop.

In the early evening we left the highway again and turned towards the coast, following a winding road out to Mission Beach. Despite numerous signs warning us of cassowaries crossing, we didn't see any of the big, weird-looking birds as we drove through the tropical rainforest to the beach.

We managed to find a spot at a very busy campsite in Mission Beach, with our spot backing onto dense jungle which came alive with the noise of insects as the sun went down. We really knew we were in the tropics once we had reached Mission Beach, with the jungle and the tall, swaying palm trees lining the beach. However, the weather while were there was windy resulting in a choppy grey sea and overcast look, which didn't show the area in its best light. Additionally, Mission Beach had been at the eye of Cyclone Yasi which had devastated much of the area and there were numerous damaged houses, missing trees and closed businesses in the area.

Lucy had a craving for Indian food that evening, so we drove to a strip mall a few kilomtres from our campsite to get a takeaway, and took it back to the camp kitchen. It was quite disappointing meal but we were hungry so still ate plenty, saving some for the next day.

After dinner we managed to get some wifi at the campsite, and tried unsuccessfully to upload some photos but did manage to catch up with rest of the world. Lucy got all our laundry done from our sailing trip, and then we retired for the night.

The following morning I headed out and got some supplies for breakfast and lunch, then we ate breakfast at the camp and drove down to the beach again. The grey, windy weather and slightly abandoned feel were quite offputting though, so we left town and got back on the road.

We took the Bruce Highway through Innisfail, and more sugar cane fields, then through Cairns, and continued north, onto the Captain Cook Highway. By this point we were starting to get a bit sick of the number of things named after Captain Cook, as we'd had nothing but Cook this and Cook that since arriving in Nez Zealand.

Once through Cairns, the road became narrow and winding, clinging to the coast between dense tropical rainforest and long, sandy beaches lined with palm trees. We stopped at one of these beaches to make some rolls for lunch, and I sat under a palm tree with mine, enjoying the long beach despite the strong wind blowing.

We carried on north through the rainforest, with views of stunning rainforest covered mountains inland and views down the coast of the rainforest coming all the way down to the beaches.

In the afternoon we reached the Daintree river, which cut from west to east across the road. We pulled off the road here to check out the offers of cruises on the river, and opted to go for one leaving in 15 minutes in the hope of seeing crocodiles in the wild.


We hopped on the small, solar-powered boat with a free mug of tea in hand, and sat down as we cruised up the wide, muddy river and into a narrow creek. The mangroves along the banks of the creek were incredible, with their long tangled roots sitting high out of the water, and spiky snorkels sticking up from the shallows on the banks.

It wasn't long before we saw our first crocodile, a small one basking in the sun on the bank, completely still and well camouflaged against the tangled roots. We cruised as far up the creek as the boat could go, in the hope of seeing one of the bigger, regular crocs, but we didn't see any more. We then made our way back down the creek and into the main river, turning to head upstream.

We saw three or four more crocodiles as we moved up along the banks, including a beautiful 4 metre long female and a large male with incredible colourings. I really enjoyed seeing these amazing creatures in the wild, and we also got to see some interesting frogs clinging to tree branches and an amazing Papuan frogmouth bird perched in a tree. We returned to the dock from the cruise feeling it was well worth the money.

Our next step was to drive up to the river and get on the rope-pulled barge to get across. Once on the other side, we had a twisty, turning 30-odd kilometre drive through the jungle, over numerous speed bumps and signs warning of cassowaries crossing. Once again, we didn't see any cassowaries, but the drive through the ancient jungle was great. It wasn't hard to imagine being in the forest millions of years ago during the era of the dinosaurs, as it wouldn't have been much different back then.

Eventually we reached the end of the paved road at Cape Tribulation, and parked up to check out one beach on the north side of the cape, a forested headland sticking out into the sea. With the grey skies and choppy water, we once again didn't see the beach at its best, but it was still an incredible setting, with the tropical rainforest thick with mangroves and incredible palms and ferns coming right down to the sandy beach, between two tall headlands.

From the beach we drove back down the road a short distance to a campsite, and managed to get one of the last few spots available. We parked up and then went to the camp kitchen where I had our reheated Indian food and Lucy had some soup for dinner.

After dinner I managed to write some blog entries as we were quite far behind, then took a beer over to the campfire which had been lit near the kitchen. Lucy opted to stay in the van and slept, while I chatted to a really nice French couple at the fire, and caught a glimpse of an incredible shooting star which streaked across the sky leaving a bright trail, and a flying fox silhouetted in the sky by the camp's lights. Eventually it was time to call it a night and I went back to the van to sleep.

The next morning we got up early and went for a walk on the beach just through the jungle in front of the campsite. The grey, windy weather remained but the beach was still great. We walked up to one end where the previous day crocodiles had been seen basking on the bank of a creek, but we didn't see any. From there, we walked quite far down the beach in the other direction, then into the jungle on a boardwalk which circled through the dense forest. The boardwalk through the jungle was incredible, taking us past trees being suffocated by tangled strangler figs, creepers hanging down from the branches, huge ferns and umbrella-shaped palms above us, and across creeks with densely packed mangrove roots emerging from the water.

After looping around the boardwalk we made our way back up the beach to the campsite, packed up the rest of our stuff and left the campsite. We had hoped to go to a nearby bat centre to see flying foxes and fruit bats but unfortunately it was closed, so we drove back down the winding road, across the Daintree on the barge again, and back down the road to Cairns. Along the way we stopped at a rocky beach to look for shells, only finding one rather poor example of a cowrie, and made another stop at the little town of Port Douglas. Whilst quite pretty, this town centred around tons of huge, fancy resorts and was a bit commercialised for our tastes. It even had a shop in town specialising in 'resortwear' whatever that is. We grabbed some fish and chips here for lunch before continuing on our way to Cairns.

We came back into Cairns down the long, commercially-lined Bruce Highway and continued through town to a holiday park to the south of the centre. We got ourselves a spot there and relaxed for the evening, nipping out to get a delicious Thai takeaway which we ate back at the campsite. We got quite an early night as we were going to have a busy day the next day, packing up our stuff and returning the van.