365 KM1 September 2011

I find Australia's country side I have experianced so far simily reminds me of American Horrors - niaeve kids driving in the middle of nowhere, and all of a sudden the mad man appears on the road .... urgh.God I can hardly write it without creaping myself out.This evening we arrived into Kurunda, with the advise from the book that its such a nice place after the tourists go home.We have since found that is incorrect.We arrived about 4pm and everything was shut.I found out from a local, that when the tourists go home, the town shuts down.They also informed me that we wouldn't be able to park up on the streets overnight without recieving a hefty fine... so they directed us towards 2 possible free camping sites.

The one with the best facilites was up the main road, take a left to Speewah and camp in the National Park - cool, fine, all sounds easy right?!We had joined up with a French couple with limited English so we said we would lead them to the park.My imagination flew as we drove down the deserted roads, rainforest lined each side, mangled trees overhanging the roads.Picturing that we could be working to take them to the mad man in the cabin... urgh!!Much scarier if you were inside my head I promise!!Alert on Kangaroo watch we drove farily slowly... I had locked my door within minutes.We kept driving and driving, the roads got darker and windier.My cardinal rule of never driving at night had been broken.

But right now I am tucked up in the van, avidly typing away so I can capture the evenings excitement for you all.The campsite is calm, with a fair few vans parked up.The dark just makes everything seem more forboding and horror film-esque!

The morning light washed away all preconcieved notions of scary movies and mad men! A speedy drive back into town we found ourselves at the Barron Falls. Yet another walk down the rainforests, obvioulsy natural, wheelchair accessible routes - we arrived at the falls. My breath was taken away.The steep, cliff faces of jagged rock that towered above us were broken with ferocious water.The sheer power of the waterfall truely made me understand how the rock had been erroded away - and made us lustful for the plung pool below.

Before I knew it we were embarking on 3 walks around the town of Kuranda through the rainforest.Much to our dissapointment the paths, were once again, neetly laid out with no room for tripping or futher exploration - we will hunt out a more rugged route!The _________________________________, Jungle walk and River Walk led us back into the locus-tourist filled depths of the shops and market.A good browes through the Kangaroo related products.... kanga skin rugs, kanga scrotum keyrings and bottle openers, kanga claw back scratchers and kanga baby shoes were tucked into egg sarnies back at the van.A speedy drive skillfully executed by Samuel down the windy, twisty, cliff-droppy roads, we arrived back in Cairns in no time.