15th July

We finally got on the road around11am (we never start early) with our first stop being the rock slides at Big Crystal Creek.There was a small rock slide that led into a beautiful rock pool.It was warming up and the rock pool was too inviting for Matt so he stripped down to his undies and jumped in!

Next stop was little Crystal Creek where we had lunch and then walked down to the waterfall and rock pools which were too cold for a swim as they didn't get much sun.

Our next destination was Wallaman Falls - the highest sheer drop waterfall in Australia - we decided to continue on to Paluma and then take the back road as it didn't appear to be much further than the main road - well that was a mistake!As the roads were more like farm tracks and it took us hours to get there!It was getting late by the time we got to the falls so we decided to camp there for the night and we made some new friends - Les & Sandra from Cardwell who were camped next to us.

16th July

Up we got, packed up and drove to the falls lookout - Wow! Pretty Impressive waterfall!We were set to do the hike down to the bottom of the falls but Mel was feeling unenthusiastic so we piked out and hit the road.We made a few quick stops in Ingham for fruit and veg and bread - and maybe a pie and sausage roll!Then we drove to Mission Beach where it was really windy so the beach wasn't very appealing.We drove to a small campsite at Bingal Bay just north of Mission Beach but it was full so we decided to head to Paronella Park where we given a muddy patch of grass next to the road.It was free so we decided to stay.

AS soon as we set up camp Matt was on the phone to Les (the bloke we met last night), who is a commercial fisherman and had offered to take Matt fishing on Sunday.Matt stewed over it all day and decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up on - so now we had a couple of days to kill.Tonight we did a night tour of Paronella Park before cooking up some chops on the caravan park bbq.

17th July

Paronella Park is the remains of a Spanish castle built by a Spanish guy - Jose' Paronella back in the 1930's.The castle was built next to Mena Falls and is surrounded by rain forest.In the 1940's it was the place to be, everyone went there for swimming, tennis, balls and theatre.Today the place is mainly ruins that look much older than they are due to the growth of moss and surrounding rain forest.Interesting history and nice place for a walk.

Now it was time to head south as we had some time to kill before fishing tomorrow.We pulled in to a small place called Hull Heads just south of Tully where the Volunteer Coast Guard runs a small campground.It was nice and it wasn't full! And we managed to get ourselves a nice shady and well grassed spot! Yay!We went for a walk along the beach - watching out for crocodiles as we went - before spending the arvo relaxing.

That night the Coast Guard was holding its monthly fish and chip night and they had been there all arvo cutting chips and battering fish.At about 5pm the cars started rolling in, we went over at 5.30pm and nearly all of the tables were full - about 300 people were there!It was a yummy dinner but it was all over by 7pm!And Matt was just starting to settle in J_

18th July

We had some time to kill as we didn't have to be at Les & Sandra's until 2pm.It was raining so we chilled in the camper for a bit and then packed up.We drove to Cardwell where we had yummy Barra Burgers for lunch.Gee they tasted good!Then we headed out to Les & Sandra's which was about 10 minutes out of town.Les & Sandra have a lovely house on 50 acres with great views of the surrounding ranges.So after a quick pat of Les' cows the boys started to get organised for the night ahead.We all left at about 4pm - the boys to go fishing for the night and Mel & Sandra to go for a walk to a waterfall with Sandra's friend Judy.That night Mel went out to dinner with Sandra and some of her friends for a $15 three course roast dinner - Bargain!It was a great night with lovely, genuine, friendly people.

19th July

Matt & Les arrived home at about 5.30am and had a couple of hours sleep before it was time for us to get up & pack up.Matt had a great time fishing with Les & couldn't wait to show Mel the photo of the big croc that had been tangled in the fishing net - thankfully it got itself out!

The boys caught a few fish -some barra, grunter & salmon - and Les was generous enough to give us a barra.

Thank you Les & Sandra for your wonderful hospitality and taking in a pair of strangers.We had a great time!

Now we had a bit of driving ahead of us as we had organised to meet Mel's cousins Debbie & her friend Richard on a station a couple of hours north-west of Mareeba.We chugged up the hills of the Atherton table land - vowing to come back for a look around after we've been to the cape - and eventually arrived at the campsite at Karma Waters Station about 5pm.It was a lovely camp spot on the banks of the Mitchell River.Mel hadn't seen Debbie in over 10 years so it was really great to see her and we spent the night catching up - with Matt & Deb getting stuck in to a bottle of rum in the process!

20th July

What a view!We can lie in bed and see the river flowing past the rear window of the camper.

Matt & Richard decided that they wanted to paddle the kayaks down the river so Deb & I set off in the car to meet them down stream.We met them easily at the designated point but the boys wanted to keep paddling so sent us to the next camp site down river.So Deb & I set off, found the spot and sat down to wait - about 2 1/5 hours later we heard Matt on the UHF - the boys thought they had missed us and were getting worried - we told them to keep paddling and finally they got to us!They hadn't realised how far the next camp was - 7kms downstream - but they had a great paddle none the less!

It was a quiet night & early dinner as the boys were a bit stuffed from their river adventure - Matt told us that fell out on one lot of rapids and lost his fishing rod!Thankfully the river is quite shallow & very clear so he managed to find!We are having such a good time we have decided to stay another day.

21st July

Today we jumped in Richard's car and went for a drive to check out the other campsites in the area.About 4 hours later we were back at camp and ready for a beer.

Since it was our last dinner together we decided to cook up the big Mitchell Rivers Prawns (Chreubins) that we had been catching.Richard cooked the prawns in a curry for dinner which was quite nice.The prawns weren't as nice as ocean prawns but they were still very edible.Matt cooked up an entree of fresh barra which was also very yummy.

We hit the sack reasonably early as our day time drive had worn us out.

22nd July

We packed up camp, farewelled Deb and Richard and started the trek north to Cape York.Today we would hit the dirt and farewell the bitumen for the next few weeks.We made a quick stop at the Laura Store - an old tin building with about 4 shelves of stock - for a few small supplies, and then we were back on the road headed to Musgrave Roadhouse our camp spot for the night.The road was a bit corrugated and rough but not too bad.We arrived at Musgrave at about 1.30pm, set up camp, put the washing on and sat down and had a couple of beers.The Musgrave homestead was formally a telegraph station and is high set with a lovely beer garden underneath.We had a couple of beers and headed back to camp to be informed by our neighbour that we had a broken shock absorber on the camper.On closer inspection Matt discovered that the bracket holding the shocker to the chassis had broken away.Uh Oh!What do we do now?After receiving input from everyone in camp Matt came up with a solution......

23rd July

Up early to pack up and perform some repairs to the camper.Matt had decided the best solution was to attach a length of chain to the chassis to restrict the movement in the suspension and prevent the spring from popping out.Thankfully a fellow camper had a high lift jack and a length of chain that we could use.NOTE: Maybe a high lift jack could be handy after all!Perhaps we should get one!

We have decided to keep travelling north and head to Weipa which is about 360km's away!It could be a very long day as we may need to travel very slowly.The road from Musgrave Roadhouse to Coen was very corrugated but north of Coen the dirt was like a bitumen highway.The trailer was travelling really well so we were able to go a lot faster than we originally thought and we got to Weipa mid-afternoon - and found out it was a public holiday so would have to wait until Monday to take the trailer in for repairs.So we set up camp and headed to the pub for a couple of beers and then we went to the bowls club for dinner where we won two $30.00 meat vouchers.

24th July

Quiet day at camp.Went for a quick look at the school fete and then back to camp.Quiet night at camp.

25th July

Another quiet day in Weipa.Did some fishing in the arvo off the Evans Landing Jetty.Lots of bites but only managed to land one bream.Had some really BIG bites and lost a few hooks.Matt set his rod up with a surf rig and had some of his hooks straightened.There big fish under that jetty!

26th July

We had to pack up camp this morning to take the camper to get repaired.Matt was on the phone early calling welding places and thankfully we could get it fixed straight away.So we dropped off the camper and spent the next few hours driving around town trying to get some new shockers.We had no luck though and had to get some flown in from Cairns and we would have to wait a couple of days for them to arrive.

Thankfully RACV covered our accommodation whilst the camper was getting repaired so we checked in to The Lodge at the Weipa Camping Ground.We cranked up the air-con, settled in and admired the view - it was absolute water front!A big thanks to RACV!Then we walked out to the veranda and had quick dip in the spa.We finished the day with a bbq on the veranda watching the sunset over the water.

27th July

We had to check out of our room today as it is booked out tonight and because our trailer 'could' be ready today.So we killed time by going on a fishing charter for a few hours.We caught heaps of fish and had a really good time.We caught so many bream we started throwing them back - we only wanted enough for a feed.We caught a barra each - Matts was a keeper but Mel's was undersize so she had to throw it back.Matt also caught a grunter.