Day 41. Friday 3rd August. Cairns

Up early to drop off the car for its service and get started on the mountains of washing we had accumulated. Girls enjoyed not having to go anywhere and made some new friends in the park. They took part in the snorkelling intro class and after a slow start they liked it.  In the afternoon Margie and Leanne had some retail therapy at DFO whilst Keith and Jason did car maintenance. 

Day 40. Thursday 2nd August. Lions Den Hotel – Cairns

Packed up our camping gear with Margie and Keith and left the Lions Den then stopped at Bloomfield Falls for a coffee, headed onto the Bloomfield Track which is a gravel track that runs along the coast through the Daintree to Cape Tribulation where it becomes a sealed road . We crossed a couple of shallow river beds but decided it was far from the challenge of the OTT  in the Cape!! Stopped for lunch in Cape Tribulation, then made our way slowly back through the Daintree via Wonga Beach, Mossman, and Port Douglas where we found no vaccancies in two caravan Parks so decided to book for 4 nights in Cairns and do a day trip to Port Douglas and Palm Cove instead. We picked up our van from Trish’s house then checked into Coconut Beach once again. It was nice to be back in our luxurious van again!!!!

 Bloomfield Falls

 Some road signs along the Bloomfield Track

 Cape Tribulation

Where else would you find a dead lobster washed up on the beach. This was bigger than anything you can buy in Melbourne. What a waste!!

 Where the rain forest meets the sea! We saw another Cassowary on this drive.

 A lookout looking towards Port Douglas.

 Daintree River

Back in Cairns after the Cape York trip. It knocked the car around but the kids enjoyed this more than the theme parks on the Goldcoast!

Day 39 Wednesday 1st August. Endeavour Falls – Lions Den Hotel

Left Endeavour Falls at 9.30am after our pancake breakfast. Made our way to Cooktown where we had a coffee and ran into Margie and Keith!! We went up to the old lighthouse, and looked around the many Cook monuments as well as the beautiful houses up on the hill.  After driving around looking for Hidden Falls for almost half an hour we called into a lodge who told us they had been newly handed from the original owners to the government so they were badly signposted, so they really were “hidden” We hiked up into the falls which was quite steep in some places, but well worth the 1 hour it took get there. Beautiful. We left the falls and made our way to the Lions Den Hotel where Margie and Keith were holding our spot for us, we all then enjoyed a meal at the pub. 

 

 Cooks Lookout

 The parks in Queensland are something else, this boat had all music aspects about it that the kids were able to play with.

Hidden Falls

Day 38. Tuesday 31 st July . Archer River Roadhouse - Endevour Falls

Early pack up & on our way at 8.45. Morning tea at Musgrave Station, refuel at $1.73 L lunch on road after saying farewell to Margie & Keith at Laura as they headed on bitchumen track to Lakefield. We will both meet again in Lions Den in 1 day! We headed toward Endevour Falls on the battle camp road which was very pretty, & included 2 small river crossings!! Arrived at Endevour Falls Tourist Park at 3.30pm. After set we enjoyed a quick swim in pool, then went down to falls which is accessed through our park. We're told up untill 18 months ago you were able to swim there but due to recent croc sightings this is no longer possible. 

 At the park they had one Barramundi in a tank, his name was chips! He was about 600mm long.

 The camp

 The girls feeding some geese

 The girls playing in the pool

 Long horn cattle which they had, the horns were over 700mm long.

Endeavour Falls

Day 37. Monday 30th July. Punsand Bay - Archer River Roadhouse

Jason & Leanne were up early to pack up & head to Bamaga to repair flat tyre. Our neighbour pointed out to everyones great surprise some croc/ turtle  track marks on the beach in front of our site!!!!!!!Unsure of origin. Jason  put on his happy face at the tyre repair at Bamaga & it must have been our lucky day as they said 1 hour!!!!!! After a coffee and restock at Bamaga we returned to pick up our tyre then headed for the Jardine river ferry, which we needed to be at before the  12pm lunch break!!!!! Boarded ferry at 11.45am, lunch at Bramwell Junction then arrived at Archer River Roadhouse at 5pm. Lovely clean amenities and grassy campsites. 

 Everthing is big up here, we woke to find these tracks in the sand just out from our camp site. We are not certain to what made the tracks, initially we thought it was a croc, but then some other people thought it may have been a turtle. What ever it was it was big!!! Our campsite is just behind Leanne in the picture where you can see the green roof.

 Bramwell Junction Roadhouse

Archer River

Day 36 Sunday 29th July. Punsand Bay

Nice easy morning, Margie & Leanne did a small wash in a bucket by hand, & water turned out red, even after rinse cycle.....!The Deans walked up to Cable Beach along the rocks & collected some interesting shells, while Margie & Keith had a bit of R & R. Swim in afternoon then dinner around our camp fire. 

The girls collecting shells.

The Beach was fantastic, pity you can't swim in the water!!

The sunsets are fantastic up here.

 A 2m cat fish caught off the beach just down from where we camped.

Day 35 Saturday 28th July. Seisia - Punsand Bay

Jason & Keith went on a fishing charter in am while Margie & Leanne packed up camp. Refuel at $2.13 L Lunch at Seisia before heading for Punsand Bay to set up for 2 nights. Swim in afternoon in pool!!!!! Lovely. Jason discovered a flat tyre & made a phone call to Bamaga tyre repair to be told they could not look at it untill Monday & even then they  had 6 other cars to be done and put on barge on Monday before they could look at our car!!!! We may have to spend an extra night in Seisia whilst waiting for the repair.     :(

 The red dirt gets everywhere.

 They don't believe in fences up here, wondering horses!, The was a hazard in the Seisia caravan park Park in the early hours of the morning.

This picture does not do justice to how big some of the corrugations are! You can't escape them.