The incredible journey was almost complete, we had completed 4,500km up Australia's east coast and a tiny 700km lay between us and Cairns our final destination. Unfortunately we had been swayed by all the fellow travelers who swore that the outback was fantastic so the direct route wasn't for us and we decided to swing inland by a couple of hundred km to see what it was all about. Of course inland had been mostly flooded for the last couple of weeks and could only be crossed by a couple of single track roads that were generally under water. Not to be easily put off by mother nature we decided to stop for the night in Townsville only 350km short of Cairns where we could make our final decision about outback or coast the following morning once we were up to date with road closures.

This worked out brilliantly for me as it gave us the opportunity to visit a wildlife sanctuary to see all the native wildlife of Northern Queensland. The photos show the various beasts in all their glory but the top marks have to go to the Koalas for ridiculous cuteness, the Crocs for sheer brainless evil and to the Aussie keeper who teased Rachelle all afternoon after he startled her by putting a baby Croc on her shoulder. We cruised into Townsville (which was much nicer than I remembered) and managed to catch a bite to eat and scuttle back to our room just in time for a massive thunderstorm to hit, not a good omen for the next day.

Cut to the car, 10am the next day and at the junction where we had to choose between the 750km inland drive or the 350km coastal drive to Cairns. The weather reports had been inconclusive and the roads were currently drivable with caution, we were paralysed with indecision so we flipped a coin and thirty seconds later were cruising inland where men are men and kangaroos are scared. We shouldn't have worried really, the drive was smooth if very long, the road was entirely dry and we saw a roo, wild pig and a couple gigantic cattle trucks as they took turns to make us swerve to avoid them. To avoid driving all the way to Cairns we stopped 100km short in a small town called Yungaburra and felt chilled out almost immediately. The hostel was incredibly friendly and within a couple of hours and a similar number of beers we had decided to ditch Cairns and stay in the town for two nights exploring and relaxing.

The morning after our arrival (and a failed attempt to spot a platypus in the local stream) I signed up for a bike ride round the local area which is about 700m above sea level so a little bit cooler. The bike ride ended at a lake where Rachelle met us after a relaxing morning and we all went for a swim in an extinct volcanic crater called Lake Eacham. The afternoon comprised us driving around the tablelands looking at and swimming under waterfalls, which is fantastic fun and relatively croc free. That evening after a good dinner a plan started to hatch, we were due to leave for Daintree the next day but the lake was calling us back. My bike guide had told us it was only 900m across so we decided to swim there and back again. For full details of our Herculean effort see the video on the website, suffice to say Rachelle was much more comfortable than me and made it back with a lot still in the tank, I was running on empty but the prospect of a big burger at the end dragged me to the finishing post. Time to leave Yungaburra now and head to our final road trip destination but we both agreed that it was probably our favourite place on the road trip, and we might never have gone there at all. The coin had done us proud.

So next stop Daintree national park North of Cairns for a week in a lovely cabin and some rainforest adventures hopefully not featuring too much rain.

Until next time

Love A & R