Arriving in Mt Isa felt a little bit like "home", the first familiar place since Perth. We went on an underground mining tour, where we were able to see the old machinery that was used to blast, not very safe! Today's blasting can be felt everywhere in town at 8am and 8pm, it feels like a little earthquake, unbelievable!
Driving along the Barkly Highway, we got to Townsville. After many months in the outback, it took a bit time to get used to the busier east coast! We were welcomed by Judy and Paul, and enjoyed spending the weekend at their place.
Our trip took us north to Mission Beach, beautiful place where the rainforest meets the beach! In this area there is a lot of sugarcane, and after the red and dry centre, we couldn't get enough of looking at the lush green fields and farmland, as well as the rainforest and the white beaches. We enjoyed some relaxing days in Port Douglas, where we also went for a walk through Mossman Gorge.
To get to Cape Tribulation, we took the ferry-boat over the Daintree River, stopped at various lookouts and did another rainforest walk.
We drove the Bloomfield Track to Cooktown, which is a dirt track through the rainforest including steep in- & declines and several river crossings, but it was no problem for our Prado. We stopped at an aboriginal community to have a look at their art, saw the Bloomfield waterfall and of course couldn't miss out on a cold drink at the well known Lions Den Hotel.
From Cooktown, we headed inland to Mareeba which is known for coffee growing. At Granite Gorge we were able to feed the little rock wallabies, very cute!
We enjoyed the scenic drive to Chillagoe where we explored some caves. Out there, we were surprised how dry it was again, only about 300km from the coast which is so green!
At Lake Tinaroo we got a fantastic camp spot - high up on the hill overlooking the beautiful lake! We enjoyed another rainforest walk where we also saw two snakes and some hairy catterpillars.
That area is known for it's waterfalls, so we saw many and ended up being "waterfalled-out"! We took a tour through Paronella Park, an old castle before heading back to Mission Beach. At Etty Bay we finally saw some Cassowaries walking along the beach! We enjoyed a walk to the Wallaman Falls, the highest falls in QLD. That night, we stayed at Mungalla Station, a cattle farm run by indigenous, and had the whole paddock for ourselves.
On our way back to Townsville, we stopped in Paluma, where our car odometer turned to 200,000km! That weekend was the V8 car races in Townsville, so we decided to join the fun and saw a big crash at the Dunlop races!
As Silvan got some work, we once again flew back to Mt Isa to spend a week there. Feels like Mt Magnet, 3rd time there in 6 month!
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