Mission Beach to Airlie Beach

Heading south through the big wet along the tropical coast of North Queensland.

Mission Beach - Penny taking it easy and being careful to avoid the failing coconuts as the water is still too dangerous to go in (stingers and crocodiles). A rare break in the rain along this stretch of the trip.

The Cassowary Coast - just because swimming in the sea is not dangerous enough the birds on the land can pick on you just when you think you may be safe in the car. We never actually saw a cassowary in the wild, there may be more road signs warning of these birds crossing the road than there are birds.

Tully - The Big Golden Gum Boot. The height of the gumboot represents the amount of rainfall recorded in Tully in the year of 1950 - 7.9 metres which is the Australian record. As the sign says "Tully - A pretty wet place". Some rainfall facts about Tully; average yearly rainfall 4490mm; average number of days per year rain falls 150; highest daily rainfall 1140mm in March 1967. No wonder it rained on us, although ironically not actually whilst we were in the gumboot in Tully.  

Townsville - On top of Castle Hill a 286m high pink granite monolith standing in the heart of the city overlooking the town and Magnetic Island. We went to the Aquarium and wandered along the foreshore as well as meeting up with some of Fleur and Ellie's school friends who are also doing the big lap but in the opposite direction.

Bowen - the latest  in the series of big things The Big Mango. 10 metres high and made of fibreglass. Built in 2002 at the cost of $90,000 some $60,000 over budget, no mention of why they got it so wrong. It was stolen in February2014 but quickly recovered.

On top of Mount Rooper overlooking the Whitsunday Islands, white sands, crystal blue waters though none of which we saw due to the weather. We had plans to hire a yacht and spend 3 nights cruising the island but the 40 knot winds, driving rain and 5 metre seas where perhaps wisely decided to be beyond our sailing ability.

 June 11th our 6 month anniversary since leaving home so we celebrated with a meal out at the Rockhampton Leagues Club. All you could eat roast carvary and ice creams.  

Back on the East Coast

Back on the East Coast of Australia for the first time since we left Eden back in December 2013. 

Cooktown - the Northernmost town on the east coast of Australia at the mouth of the Endeavour River.  Named after Captain James Cook who beached his ship the Endeavour here in 1770 after sustaining serious damage to its wooden hull on the Endeavour Reef, south of Cooktown whilst heading north from Sydney.

Fleur in front of  'The Big Barramundi' at Daintree Village. The Daintree Rainforest has the most complete record in the world of the evolution of plant life dating back to the beginning of life on Earth, some 3.5 billion years ago.

Searching for saltwater crocodiles on the Daintree Rive one of the longest rivers on the East coast. After spotting a few crocs on the banks and in the river we went back and enjoyed a crocodile burger which if you are wondering tastes very similar to pork.

Cairns the regional city in far north Queensland a popular centre for visiting the Great Barrier Reef. Here Fleur and Ellie are at water park on the foreshore.

Snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef the World Heritage listed Marine structure stretching 2300km along the coast and considered the largest living organism on Earth. Magic Reef home to Wally the wrass a giant fish who was happy to be patted and stroked.

Kuranda Scenic Railway between Cairns and the Village of Kuranda situated 300m above Cairns in the World Heritage listed rainforest.

Kurrimine Beach or rather the swimming pool in the caravan Park at Kurrimine Beach which Fleur and Ellie think was rather good. 

Accross the top of Queensland

After crossing into Queensland and staying at Mount Isa we headed north to pick up and follow the Savannah Way which runs in total 3699km from Broome in Western Australia to Cairns in Queensland.

Mount Isa town established in the 1924's to support the Mount Isa Mine which mines one of the worlds largest deposits of lead, zinc, silver and copper. Fleur and Ellie are posing with the  miners statue erected to acknowledge the fact that without mining there would be no town. We stayed 6 nights in Mount Isa whilst the brains at Toyota worked out what was wrong with and then fixed Larry. 

Normanton established on the Norman River by William Landsborough as a port for the Croydon gold rush. Home to the largest ever recorded salt water crocodile in the world named Krys who measured 8.63m when he was shot dead in 1957. This is a life size replica in the main street. The locals believe there is currently a bigger one alive in the river. 

Croydon a Historic Gold rush town in the Gulf Savannah. Established in 1885 following the discovery of gold. At the height of the rush there were 36 hotels and 122 liquor licences issued to the town. The gold soon ran out now the town has a number of interesting sculptures and a heritage area showing the buildings of the time.

Mount Surprise and what a surprised we only stopped for coffee and ice cream and ended up close and personnel with Clancy a 19 year old, 2m long black headed python. Turns out the guy running the café has a collecting of snakes which he was extremely keen to show us.

Millstream Falls - Plunging over the edge of a columnar basalt lava flow, Big Millstream Falls is reputedly the widest single-drop waterfall in Australia. It started to rain here...

Ravenshoe, Queensland highest town at 920m high and the highest point in the Misty Mountains. The place was extremely green after all the different shades of brown we have been seeing for the last 100+ days up to now. It carried on raining here....

At Australia's largest grower and producer of tea, Nerada, where over 1,000 acres of tea is grown on the Atherton Tablelands. Here we are doing what we do best, taking tea and scones. It was still raining.....

Artherton the regional centre of the tablelands - Fleur and Ellie inside the Worlds biggest Amethyst which came from Uruguay called the 'Empress of Uruguay'. Standing 3.5m tall and weighing 2.7t, it is in side a shop made to look like a cave in the high street of Artherton, for some reason. Still raining

Northern Territory - outback

The Northern Territory Outback - an awful lot of not a lot with vast distances between the nothing.

Mataranka thermal springs - swimming through the crystal clear warm water (34C) surrounded by lush palms. Capital of the Never Never so named because it was the home of Jeannie Gunn the author of the Australian Novel, "We of the Never Never" which was set around this area. 

Fleur and Ellie beside Australia's most remote traffic lights at the Daly Water Pub. Daly Waters was the site of Australia's first international Airport. Built in 1930, the airfield was a strategic destination for planes that had a limited fuel range. On the day we were here we were treated to a low level flyby by 6 RAAF jets practising bombing runs on the main street whilst the whole pub stood in the middle of the road and cheered. Extremely low, loud and pretty awe inspiring.

At the bar in the Daly Water Pub, the oldest living pub in the Territory, where people leave all sorts of calling cards. The walls were full of cards, shirts, scarf, underpants and allsorts of other things which apparently after travelling thousands of km's to get here the owner suddenly decides they no longer need. We are under the bar where all the bra's that are left are hung. 

Hanging around inside one of the broken Devils Marbles, 110km south of Tennant Creek and near to nowhere else. A collecting of impressive boulders which lay scattered precariously balanced on top of one another. It was here that Larry started to develop his nasty habit of not starting. 

Another boarder crossing this time leaving Northern Territory and crossing into our latest state - Queensland.

Camooweal the first place in Queensland after leaving NT. Note the sign "Adjust watches ahead by 5 years and 30 minutes". We stopped here to fill up with fuel and couldn't get going again so had to be jump started by some kind people passing and then drove all day to Mount Isa to avoid stopping again. As Camooweal is classed as a suburb of Mount Isa the 188km long Barkly Highway between the two is the longest main street in the World. 

The Top End - Northern Territory

The Top End in the Northern Territory, home to the Saltwater Crocodile, Box Jellyfish, Mosquitoes, Snakes, Other Harmful Wildlife, Melioidosis, High Temperatures, Cyclone and Storms all according to the first page warning in the brochure 'Essential Top End Holiday Guide 2014-2015

Katherine - in the natural thermal springs which bubble out of he ground at a constant 32 degrees situated just behind the town and caravan park. A nice warm bath for all.

Katherine Gorge in the Nitmiluk National Park. Penny standing above one of the 13 gorges in the Katherine River system. The area was the spirituel foundation tor the first inhabitants of the area the Jawoyn and Dagomen people. 

Litchfield National Park at the Burley Rockhole a series of cascading waterfalls and rock pools with nice warm water again. We dropped in meaning to have a quick look and ended up staying 4 hours playing in the water. Highly recommended.

Litchfield National Park Florence Falls. Just down stream from the Burley Rockhole the river dives off the edge into a plunge pool set in a monsoon forest. Another swim in the warm water plunge pool over to the waterfall for a full on hair rinsing - for those with hair.

Litchfield National Park - Beside the Magnetic Termite Mounds, one of the many thousand which stand up to 5 metres high. The mounds thin edges point north-south minimising their exposure to the sun to keep them cool. Hence the name magnetic due their orientation, they don't attract spoons, we tried.

Darwin - outside the NT Parliament Building. Another spectacular Australian Government Building built to house those necessary to govern a Territory with a population of 235,000 people. Perhaps the idea is that the entire NT population can all turn up at once and fit in the Parliament Building for tea.

Darwin - Fleur and Ellie inside the World War 2 Oil Storage Tunnels constructed to protect the Navy's oil supplies from bombardment during WWII. The five steel lined storage tunnels extend under the City but where never used as construction was not completed before the end of the war.

Kakadu - despite our plan to do the loop to see the National Park, extensive wet season rain meant that nearly all the sights were closed due to high water flow and also saltwater crocodiles so we gave it a missed and moved south to get some relief from the humidity.

The last bit of WA

Kimberley to the Western Australian/Northern Territory Boarder.

April 23 - St Georges Day, celebrated by the family in the Mirima Valley National Park near Kununurra. Fleur and Ellie's school work for the day was a project on St. George.

Lake Argyle - created by the damming of the Ord River with a 98m high dam wall to create Australia's second largest reservoir. Lake Argyle has a surface area of 1000 square kilometres and a shore line of over 900 km and holds 18 times more water than Sydney Harbour. Built to irrigate a vast area of land for farming.

Lake Argyle Caravan Park's infinity pool on the side of the hill overlooking the lake. Unanimously agreed by all to be by far the best swimming pool so far on the trip.

April 25 - Anzac Day. The Dawn Service on the Dam Wall at lake Argyle. We had to get up at 4:30am to attend the service which was undertaken as the sun came up. Fleur and Ellie were chosen to lay the wreath during the service. A simple but moving service followed by a sausage sizzle served on the dam wall.

Crossing the boarder from Western Australia to Northern Territory. Our 6th boarder crossing on the trip. We have spent 75 days and travelled over 9000km in WA alone as it is by far the largest state in Australia, covering the western third of the continent. It is bigger in size than Western Europe and the second largest state/province/national region in the world.

Our Helicopter Trip

Fleur and Ellie's helicopter adventure. At the Purnululu National Park in Western Australia we went in a helicopter over the Bungle Bungles.

 Our Helicopter as it came in to land to pick us up.

Ellie and I sat in the back with Dad, Mum sat in the front with the pilot to take all the photos. We had to sit where the pilot said to balance the helicopter.   

 There were no doors but we had a seat belt. The pilot said that due to the way the helicopter works we would be pushed down into our seats. He also said that no one had ever fallen out. Even so it was scary at first but after a minute I was no longer scared. 

 Ellie had to sit on my seat because there was only 4 seats including the pilots seat.

 Look no hands!

 Back safetly on land after our fabulous flight.

Love Fleur xx