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. The first one was a board walk called the Madja walk where mangrove ecosystem meets rainforest ecosystem! It was truly amazing! So much diversity ! More tomorrow!it’s too late too finish tonight!
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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 board works 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 Brow...
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...
26th June 2026: we had a slowish start to the day and changed plans to go to Daintree not Mount Carbine next. Nic reinflated all our tyres from 29psi in the Prado to 39psi in front tyres and 42psi in the back tyres and from 35psi to 45 psi in the caravan as we expect bitumen from now on. We also filled up with water We went to say goodbye to Stuart only to find he had gone fishing in Lakefield National Park.We chatted to the new owners of the Peninsula Hotel up from Canberra ( Waramanga) We travelled along the Peninsula Development Road until we reached the Mulligan Highway route 81 at Lakeland where we never did find the BP servo..We stopped for diesel at Palmer River and continued through Mount Carbine turning off the highway before Mt Molloy and going via Julatten to Mossman descending down some very windy curves in the road with a lot of roadworks repairing erosions on the down side of the road. We then went to Daintree Village where we wer...
25th June: visited Roy Banjo at the Cultural centre and he told us that the access road to the 2nd lot of cave paintings was still impassable, so we headed to the first day of the Laura Rodeo, a huge affair with 5000 visitors expected all camping in the show grounds. We strolled around chatting to various people, some of whom approached us. The Rodeo has been happening since 1977 with the Laura Races component since 1887! The Campdraft has been happening along with the Rodeo since 1977. This consists of riders mustering one cow from a herd and mustering her around poles and through a gate in a certain order! We met one man who said he used to take part in the Rodeo when he was young but still comes every year from Ravenshoe to be part of it and see his mates. This year he bought a bus for $2000 to sleep in! We met another organiser of the event who has been coming since age 15 years. He told us this year the Musgrave River flooded the racecourse and a lot of the infrastructu...