23 - 06 - 2003. We picked up our campervan round 2.30; we couldn't stop laughing at first. Down one side was a huge 'looking down the barrel of a gun' painting form the opening scene of all the James Bond movies, on the other was a picture of James Bond and 'License to Thrill' in huge letters! The van was pretty worn inside, the roof lining had gone, it drove like a pig and the horn didn't work. The latter may not sound important but when you're confronted with a Kangaroo at 90kmh - you want your bloody horn to work!
We left Cairns straight away and headed north towards Cape Tribulation, we made Port Douglas by nightfall but couldn't find anywhere to park up the van for free - everywhere had 'NO CAMPING OR SLEEPING IN VEHICLES' signs - we hoped this wasn't going to be a regular thing. We ended up paying for the night to stay on a campsite, but vowed never again. Naturally now we were camping it rained all night; great. You should have heard it thundering down on the roof of the van, it sounded like there was a rugby match going on up there! With it being north of the Tropic of Capricorn it was sticky too, with all that moisture around the van, but nevertheless our first night in the van was pretty good!
From Port Douglas we continued all day north on the Cook Highway until the road ran out, this was as far north as you can get on the east coast of Australia without a 4x4. We’d hoped to go on to Cooktown but the road was just a mud track through the jungle, we considered it, but with the rain being so heavy we guessed there was a very good chance we’d get stuck. We decided to spend the night in the rainforest at Cape Tribulation and found a good spot in a clearing for the van before nightfall. I now presume that ‘rainforest’ is called rainforest because all it ever does is rain when you’re in it – right? I thought the rain was bad the previous night, but it would seem that was nothing. It absolutely hammered it down, to the point we thought we were going to have to move the van onto the Highway as there were puddles developing rapidly around the van, some up to six inches deep! As night fell it got pitch black under the jungle canopy; you literally couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. The noise of the rain on the roof also got that bad we had to shout inside the van to hear each other! During the night Sarah ventured out to use some toilets we’d spotted in a lay-by not too far away along a forest track. I decided to go with her as it was so dark and there are all kinds of nasties hiding out in the forest as you can imagine - we weren’t disappointed! As Sarah opened the door to the toilet and shone in the torch, there was a huge rat, or rat-like marsupial, sat on the toilet seat staring back at us! Sarah screamed which scared it, which in turn scared the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life out from under the toilet seat, I think I may have screamed too! We both legged it back to the van and decided to wait until morning. We stuck the rain out, by next morning it had stopped and the puddles had disappeared, the whole area was shrouded in low-lying cloud and looked beautiful, so quiet and peaceful. We literally walked twenty meters through the forest and came onto the beach, the view was stunning, rolling green rainforest coming down from the mountains and fringing the iridescent blue ocean. Incidentally one of the few places left remaining in the world where this occurs. We realized we were overlooking the reef area where Captain Cook had run the Endeavor aground, and subsequently named the area Cape Tribulation, as it seemed the start of all his troubles. He eventually had to beach the ship a little further north around the Cape at ‘Cooktown’. Being keen on history it was incredible to be here, possibly standing where Cook had come ashore in 1780 to try and spot a route through the shoals.
From Cape Tribulation we headed back south, towards Kuranda. After a tricky drive we located the Barron Falls but were fairly disappointed as they’d been dammed and reduced to a trickle – what a shame. Our route continued through Mareeba, where we stopped overnight at a truck stop – free, and with showers for just $2, this was more like it! We decided from here to head inland once we’d passed through Cairns and drive through the Atherton tablelands. We noticed a definite change in the flora and topography, from lush secondary rainforest to rolling savannah grassland. Before doing so we stopped off at a Crocodile farm which was quite good, they had one monster who’d been moved there after trying to eat a small girl, he was called Chinaman and was around five meters in length. Highway 52 took us towards Yungaburra through the Wooroonooran National Park, the views from here back over Cairns are simply breathtaking, as is the twisty road that winds it’s way up the edge of the mountain – great fun when you’re driving a vehicle with the handling characteristics of a Panzer! Highway 52 is called the Falls route as it passes so many waterfalls, it took us a few days to do the loop taking in Milaa Milaa falls, Dinner falls and ‘The Crater’, an immense sheer sided hole ripped in the mountainside by a volcanic vent. We also visited the Curtain Fig tree, which is a huge 500-year-old fig tree, left standing after it’s host tree died beneath it. The effect is of a curtain of roots rising 20 meters into the air. We were now on the Palmerston Highway headed for Innisfail, home to a lot of Italian immigrants, the place certainly had a European style to the architecture around the town. Eventually we came into Mission Bay where we intended to stay for the night. The local council seemed to be wise to this kind of thing and there were more ‘NO CAMPING’ signs everywhere, worse still, even the proper campsites were full. We decided to cook where we were next to the beach, then head of in the dark towards the highway; maybe we’d find a spot there. Luckily we parked along the beach next to another campervan owned by an old Aussie guy, he told us about a place called El Arish, back the way we’d come and also gave us a shortcut to get there – result! En-route to El Arish we decided to check out Garners beach for tomorrow, light was just fading as we rumbled down a dusty track towards the beach. We’d been looking for Cassowaries ever since being this far north; they’re a rare flightless bird about the size of an Emu, but with vivid blue and red coloration on their head and neck. Unfortunately we hadn’t seen any, but we weren’t surprised as there are only supposed to be around 50 left in the area. I just happened to look ahead and there walking across the road caught in the headlights was a Cassowary, we couldn’t believe it! It came right up to the van, took a good luck at us then slowly waked off – amazing! We spent the next few days around Mission Beach, catching some sunshine and even chancing a swim. This far north it’s risky due to the Box and Irukanji Jellyfish, on each beach are huge yellow warning signs and 2 litre bottles of vinegar in holders to douse any stings – why does everything in Australia seem to want to kill you!
It was about this point that we realized our camper was drinking a lot of oil, yet we seemed to have no oil leak – hmmmm strange. We kept a close eye on it as we continued south towards Ingham.
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