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Cape York Trip

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 1st July 2026: got up early to take the caravan to Northern Wheel alignment for wheel aligning! We dropped it off in an awkwardly narrow street in a premises with the narrowest of drives and fortunately the technician offered to back it for us. We then headed to COFFii nearby for great coffee and toasties. I then posted Julia and Frances’ birthday presents from the Cairns Post office and bought some barramundi and yellowfin tuna from Seafood Express in Sheridan St. my old apartment is still there somewhat tarted up! We returned to Kewarra for lunch and then picked up the van late in the afternoon, where we were told we had a leaky shock absorber and Eric recommended Cairns Autoelectrical in Stratford. We headed straight there at 4 pm and saw Sam, the boss Brett’s wife who was extremely knowledgeable and booked us in the next morning based on the Nic’s research probe findings( VeePeak OnBoardDiagnostic scanner)! We headed back to Kewarra and I cooked Barramundi( over and rice and s...
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 30th June 2026. Nic started the day under the caravan doing an electronic test where he inserted a diagnostic probe that came with the caravan into somewhere he found lying on his back in the wet grass lying on our sun visor! Amazingly it came up with the diagnosis on Nic’s phone of a severed right brake cable! Another thing to be attended to in Cairns! Meanwhile we got an appointment with Northern wheel alignment for first thing Wednesday. We left Cape Tribulation in the rain and drove over the Desailley range being careful to take things easily re brake situation! It is such a beautiful drive along the coast! We drove through Mossman and stopped at Port Douglas, looking for a coffee- a great deal of development since our last visit, and full of beautiful mainly young people wearing resort wear! We stood out a little in our camping gear, walking boots and aged state! We could not find a coffee! Just lots of bars and licensed restaurants with outside eating along the street! ...
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 29th June2026: Yet more rain overnight and in the morning! Nic tried to look under the caravan and is concerned that one brake cable might be severed. We will try to sort it out in Cairns. We set out to do a couple of walks in the National Park. Along the way we saw 2 cassowaries on the road! The first one was a board walk called the Madja walk where mangrove ecosystem meets rainforest ecosystem! It was truly amazing! So much biodiversity amongst the ferns and tree ferns and palms! However, the mangrove ecosystem had a real  primordial feel! Several different types of mangroves with different patterns of root systems, and different types of pneumatopores were on display. We saw brightly coloured Fidler crabs and mudskippers amongst their roots.  Next we decided to do the Jindalba loop walk instead of an easier board walk! This took us along a very muddy path with tree roots constantly crisscrossing in front of us on the narrow path, plus a number of fallen trees which ne...
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 28th June 2026: More rain overnight and in the morning! We went to the Discovery Centre which exceeded all expectations! The boardwalks were at 3 levels of the canopy and then there was the canopy tower which was fantastic! I saw up close a double eyed fig parrot and a brown cuckoo-dove. We didn’t see the Bennett’s tree kangaroo or a Cassowary however, despite lots of hard looking! The audio guide was great as was the booklet provided- both referenced as we went along the boardwalk.  We called in at a grocery store for yogurt and I bought a black sapote - or chocolate pudding fruit. I made us a vegetable omelette with cheese and blue cheese on top ( I cooked outside with our awning providing protection from the rain), followed by black sapote and Davidson’s plum yogurt.  The rain continues!                    Coopers tree fern                     Black tree fern Brown...
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 27th June 2026: It rained a lot over night and we left Daintree  and headed for Cape Tribulations in light but steady rain! We caught the ferry across the Daintree -capable of taking 25 vehicles apparently! Everything is on a larger scale than I remember it! We made our way up then down a windy narrow road towards the Cape through beautiful rainforest, with a lot of hidden development along the way. Nic drove cautiously and well!  We wanted to visit the Daintree Discovery centre but there was nowhere we could park the caravan despite us doing an entire loop of the area. We will have to come back without the caravan. We made our way to the Cape Tribulation Camping Ground, where, fortunately because of the weather, we had booked a powered site. We set up the van and then travelled North to the beginning of the Bloomfield track where the road really began to deteriorate. We retired to Cape Tribulation, or rather Kulka parking area from where we walked to Cape Tribulation be...
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