Visited Mareeba Wetlands this morning. Great bird watching if peaceful surrounds. Area catches drainage from the irrigation area and has been preserved. Still plenty of things to do in this area. Off to Kuranda tomorrow.

We have arrived in Mareeba after 2 great nights at Innot Springs (a hot spring pool complex about 120 km south of here). There are 6 pools ranging up to 40 degrees and you can walk down to the creek, dig a hole in the sand and have water too hot to sit in. Met a German family out here for 5 weeks and had lots of laughs. Maybe finishing the Port bottle last night helped. Its good to meet up with old friends from last year. The weather is great but a little cloud...

Travelled via Normanton and the east. Interesting trip across the gulf country and then into gravelly ridges. All the wattle and grevillias are in flower. Plenty of wildlife and great birdlife. Stopped for lunch at Croydon (old gold mine area). Will stay for longer next time as there is a fair bit of history with the mining. On to Georgetown which is half way across the cape to Mareeba. Roads got a bit narrower but there is heaps of work being done. Good to see ...

Went on a dinner cruise up the river and then out into the gulf last night. Great scenery and birdlife. The river is about 1 km wide in places but only fairly shallow. At low tide the channel goes out 7 km through mud flats. More prawns for dinner (tough life). Today we start packing for the trip east to Mareeba so will be out of phone range for tthe next couple of days.

One of the parks features is a free fish bar b q every Saturday night. They do a great job serving about 150 people at their tables with fresh fish. The talent show after was a good laugh. The weather is very windy at the moment with very few fishermen going anywhere.