Leaving Magnetic Island pretty relaxed we really started to feel a lot less like newbies. The trip up to Cairns was pretty uneventful, with a stop to pick up some vegies at a random shop that was attached to an old disused barn. When you went inside it looked like a gourmet Fruit and Veg store set up in a style you'd probably see at Fortnum & Masons on Piccadilly in London. We picked up some fruit and a coffee and made our way to the Big 4 Caravan Park that we had booked on the recommendation that the kids would love it. That recommendation was correct, however what was not explained was that it was not a place Fiona and I would enjoy. From the moment we pulled in and turned off the engine it was so frighteningly opposite to everything we wanted from our trip we both started hyperventilating. The entire place was packed, teeth to jowl with sparkling 4WD that has never seen dirt and carrying caravans, camper trailers and 5th wheelers all parked up on bays that were accessed by perfectly tarmacked roads lined by professionally landscape placed palm trees. The ladies at the front desk, in their bright pink uniforms and pure white smiles, ushered us into a golf cart with a giant turtle on the roof to give a tour of the park. Catering for up to 1,300 people, with 45 full time residents, some having "lived" permanently at the caravan park for over 25 years, 3 pools, Australia's largest jumping pillow and camp toilets that wouldn't have looked out of place in the 4 seasons New York, this was commercialised camping at its zenith!! The place was some people's vision of heaven, it was our camping apocalypse. When we finished our tour we manoeuvred our kit to spot 192 of 500 and got ourselves sorted. When we met our neighbours, Brian and Christine from Adelaide, who told us with much pride and a somewhat rehearsed script that this was the best caravan park in Australia. I was gobsmacked. When the second group of people we met (whilst Fi and I were hiding in the laundry) repeated this claim verbatim with a somewhat scared look in their eyes I took a quick look around and saw some of the staff following us from a distance. It reminded me of an Uber happy version of what Pyongyang would be like to live in. We left the kids to it and tried to keep out of everyone's way, especially the maniacally smiling and overly happy staff, and counted the hours until we were out of there.

We did escape the compound for a day to catch some crocodile action at Hartley's crocodile park, which was absolutely fantastic. The information from the staff and the park itself were top notch. The boys and us loved it, with Bailey and Harry asking loads of great questions and really getting into all the attractions. They got to feed some kangaroos, wallabies, see a crocodile attack show, a live snake show, crocodile farm tour and fed a cassowary. This part of the tour was really exciting as we weren't aware that these creatures, part of the Ratite family (emus, moas, ostrich, kiwi) are actually on the decline and are considered a "Keystone" animal for the Rainforest region. This is because a lot of the flora requires the cassowary to eat its seeds and then poo them out before they will germinate properly. For example, one species of plant's seed has a 92% chance of germination if the seed has passed through a cassowary's digestive system and a 4% chance if not. Amazing!! We did the whole park end-to-end finishing with the opportunity to pat and cuddle a koala. Everyone lined up with the very cute and fit koala keeper, Jessy, who gave us some facts and figures about koalas and then let us have a cuddle. When it was Fiona turn she started cuddling Jessy instead of the Koala, so it was lucky that was the last part of the tour as we made a quick exit. She said it was worth it…During our last evening we took in the sights of Cairns to watch the Cairns festival. An odd experience and one which ended up with us in Nandos as we couldn't find a Fish & Chip shop anywhere despite being on the coast. Enough said. We left Cairns early the next day without being imprisoned for political malfeasance against the culture of the Big 4 Coconut Caravan Park and headed North to Cape Tribulation and some real camping.

Fi, the boys and I breathed a sigh of relief after taking the ferry over the Daintree river and we arrived at Cape Tribulation Camp ground which was well tucked into the Daintree Rainforest and right on the beach front. Despite the threat of crocodiles eating you off that same beach, it was a wonderful place to relax. Our first night was all a bit hot and bothered and the boys, being exhausted from their Big 4 experience (i.e non-stop playing with other kids, movies at night and zero down time), pushed the final buttons that Fi and I had and we lost it. They went to bed early with no pudding and we staggered up to the bar and ordered a cold glass of Chardonnay for Fi and a wonderfully chilled bottle of Little Creatures Ale for me…aahhhhhh… The next morning we woke to a paradise that you only really see on TV. The waves gently lapping the white sands, with animals scurrying through the bushes, coconut palms everywhere and pristine blue sea right up to the trees. Big 4 Coconut Caravan Compound and live Truman Show experience, this was NOT. It was our spot to finally catch some fish so we got the old bait out from the bag, rigged up and took to the beach. After some hours of reeling and casting we finally did it…we caught a fish that we could take home…!!!! The little Gar Fish, within the size limit by a mere 0.5cm, was our greatest achievement of the trip so far and as calculated earlier, worth about $800 to catch based on all the tackle, bait, missing trailer parts and fishing paraphernalia that we'd spent trying to get him. We dined that night on our "Gardie" with great gusto…. then had the Roast Chicken as half a mouthful of small bony fish wasn't going to keep the blood sugar levels up…. Next day we woke to the waves breaking in the distance and got ourselves up to one of our more commercial activities, Jungle Surfing. This was a zip wire tour of the Daintree. It was a blast and we all had a great time flying from tree to tree, some up to 20 meters off the ground. Apparently the Daintree is the oldest rainforest in the world, at over 20 million years old and 12 of the 19 flowering plants that the world originally had are still growing in the valleys in the region. I.e. it was what the planet would have looked like when the dinosaurs were around. We were oohing and ahhing for the entire trip, and Bailey and Harry even ate a green tree ant each..…. So Oz… The afternoon was spent untangling fishing lines from snags on the reef where we actually managed to continue our catching streak and the boys and I each picked up a fish or two. They weren't very big so we threw them back but they gave a good fight. Bailey caught 3; Harry 1 and I bagged 3. All looked a bit like Red Bass, which are protected here in Queensland and also very poisonous if you eat them. The day was topped off when we headed back across the reef to our campsite and saw 3 Cassowarys walk out of the rainforest onto the beach. Quite an amazing sight considering these birds are endangered. With our vegetables stolen from the camp fridge we were forced to order some of the famous wood fired pizzas and I fell off the wagon again and sank 6 wonderful beers in the fading sunlight with Neils and Vilma from the Netherlands..…The next day we woke early to get ready for one of the highlights of the tour; A Great Barrier Reef trip. Suncreened up and watered properly we made our way to Ocean Safari where Cam and Jason, through thoroughly bloodshot eyes and cannabis smiles treated us to one of the most incredible days we've had. The water was flat as a pancake and the sun was out when we got onto the 35ft RIB and headed the 25 minutes out to the reef with about 20 other people. Conditions and visibility couldn't have been any better and once we were given our safety briefing and a quick explanation of where to go and how far from the boat we could snorkel they left us to it. Within 30 seconds we were surrounded by the most colourful fish and wonderful corals that it looked almost fake. Harry suddenly let out a squeal and not 2 metres from us there was a Sea Turtle foraging amongst the coral. Harry was beside himself as these creatures are his single biggest obsession and all of us were so excited to actually see one in the wild. The turtle was very calm swimming amongst us as we tried to get some photos with our overpriced underwater disposable camera we bought and he even stopped and stared at the boys and Fi a number of times, almost as though he was posing for a photo. The next couple of hours were spent exploring the reef and we managed to see another 5 or 6 turtles, tonnes of other fish and giant clams of various sizes with beautiful iridescent spots of blue and green covering them and all sorts of corals and other sea creatures and plants. The overall trip was one of the best I've done in terms of a nature experience and to be able to see the rainforest from the reef and the dolphin show we saw on the way back it will stick in the memory for many years. Incredible stuff and the boys, who will only remember snippets of the trip, are just so lucky to have seen this wonderful place before it becomes a memory for so many of us if we don't look after it…..ohhh aren't we getting all Eco-friendly and Greenie!!! Later that day we played a game of Cluedo, which Daddy won, and finished the night with meat and potatoes for dinner, ex-vegetables and drifted to sleep with the thoughts of scurvy on my mind as our food had run out and we were 24 hours from the nearest convenience store and somewhere we could get some fruit. At least we had Weetbix.

A day of chilling out and some swinging from the rope at the local water hole, which the boys loved, was followed by a few too many beers with Helen and Matt, a couple we met who were camping next to us. The beers made the early start to our next stop, Cooktown, a bit slow and painful but we got everything sorted out, left Mog at the campsite and took Meg by herself and headed up to Cooktown along the famous Bloomfield Track. This is a 100km stretch of dirt road that is only open in the dry season that runs along the coast through the rainforest and through a number of aboriginal communities on its way up to Cooktown. It was a real test and we passed with flying colours although had some scary moments as the descents and ascents on some sections made the stomach drop and had us holding on to the car nice and tight. The views however were spectacular through the forest and out to the Great Barrier Reef. We stopped at a famous pub called the Lion's Den, about 25 km out of Cooktown, booked in then went straight on to the town to do some sightseeing. The plan was the museum, a long walk and various other things. We made it to the James Cook museum as Cooktown was where the Endeavour captained by James Cook in June of 1770, was holed by a reef and limped into shore for repairs. The ship and all the crew were stranded here for 47 days whilst they fixed the boat and it was also where Europeans first sighted a kangaroo and met with the locals. We took a photo of the original anchor and cannon which James Cook threw overboard to save the ship after it got holed and was retrieved in 1974. We then headed to the wharf where we net Nav and his girlfriend Lily. Nav was a proper hard core Aussie who had been fishing on the wharf from 7am that morning with his girlfriend Lily, about 5 fishing rods and an esky full to the brim of beers and Bundaberg and coke cans. What a character, he recounted to us tales of the 6 foot shark he caught earlier in the day and was really helpful with the boys by teaching them a thing or two about fishing that only a local would know. We ended up staying for about 4 hours watching blokes trying to haul in some big fish, which all ended up snapping lines or escaping right at the last minute. We were rewarded for our wait when we saw one of the local aboriginal elders stroll down to the pier with his crappy old hand line, spend about 39 seconds pulling up 4-5 pike which he used as live bait fish, chucked the line out again using the pike as bait and hauled in a 60cm Barramundi. Total time was about 5 minutes. He looked at all us "white fellahs", gave a grunt and then left us to our $500 fishing rods, flashy lures and empty buckets...ha ha…it was a classic. Nav and Fi got chatting and they decided to go thirds in a 5kg pack of fresh prawns from a trawler that had just pulled up to the jetty. Apparently his mate, who only had about 4 teeth, (2 less than Nav) did the deal and we dined on fresh cooked prawns on white bread & mayonnaise for dinner...mmmm. The night was spent at the Lion's Den pub in an outdoor safari hut built on stilts so crocodiles don't get into your tent. When we woke up the boys had found some mates next door and trotted down to the creek and started playing in the water…hmmmm...we were told it was safe but no one else was swimming so maybe the crocs weren't hungry that day as everyone we have told since just whistled between their teeth and looked at us like we were German tourists….. The trip back to pick up the trailer was as beautiful as the drive up and we even managed to see a cassowary crossing the road in front of us. The whole experience up here was so nice that it will be hard to beat, but then we said that about Cape Hillsborough……