Northern Qeensland

So finally we have our home, it’s called Toyota Hiace, no more planes, morning wake up ( I wish ), tent set up, etc. for at least 2,5 months. Just an easy life. We started from Cairns and decided to go north to the Cap Tribulation called by Cap Cook due to the problems with his ship faced on the reef and Daintree National Park must see destinations among Australia’s premier attractions. It’s the only place ( it’s what local says ) where the rainforest meets reef. In addition it’s the oldest rainforest in the Earth – something like 140 million years. Forest like a forest , mess like a hell , one tree can support two or three different types, you don’t see the sky almost at all and strangers walking around, nice. We also did some hiking there, but as the highest mountain Mt. Sorrow is about 750m above the sea level… it’s probably better not to mention about it. Cap Tribulation, the place where the asphalt road ends and you can meet couple of real travelers using 4x4 V8, sleeping on the car’s roof, eating strangers so we have decided to start our south way from there. I forgot to mention that the most popular information table there is about crocks ( Danger Crocodiles ) so in all places locals don’t want to see any tourists you can find it, easy and very effective !
Driving though the Atherton plateau region incorporating towns like Millaa Millaa ( nice small camping ), Ravenshoe ( beautiful waterfalls ), Herberton ( old mining city, superb, but 22$ entrance fee/person to see what left from the old good times ), coffee plantations and wineries ( by the way can you imagine that they are doing wine from mango - dry, sweet and sparkling ) we finally landed at Mission Beach. Yep, it’s what we like, 14km by 300m gold sand beach, assuming that Queensland is 4 times bigger than Poland and population is around 20 times less we don’t need to wake up at 6 to book our beach chairs at all. No people almost at all, how is it possible ? In addition it’s home to more than 60% of Australia’s butterflies, cassowaries – the largest flightless bird, only 1500 left in Australia and we are unlikely to see it so far and of course The Great Reef is just around the corner. The Great Reef is just great, we spent 2 hours in the relatively small boat ( windy day, waves , etc … you can imagine ) to reach the right point in the middle of the ocean. The Crew member said : it’s the most beautiful reef around ( we see only the blue sea ), no big sharks, just please jump to the water and watch…. honestly I haven’t seen much enthusiasm, but when we tried they could not call us back. Please have a look at some pictures and use Photoshop to add colors to really get impression how it looks like.
We continue south today, let’s believe it will be easier to find the place with internet on our way.