Cairns – 360 km

We have made our way back to Cairns to turn in the 4X4 vehicle and will pick up the more luxurious motorhome tomorrow. We have covered a total of 3,278 km in the past two weeks with the majority of it being on unpaved, corrugated, very dusty and occasionally muddy roads. We spent significant time in four wheel drive (deep sand, mud and steep terrain) and even a bit in low range. In some ways we are going to miss the adventure but in other ways it is going to be nice to get into a clean vehicle and have the extra space.

Most of last night we were hearing what we think was the kookaburras calling each other. At times it sounded like a bunch of monkeys. They were pretty loud.

We hadn’t mentioned that they had the cutest white fluffy chickens at the Endeavor Falls campground. They are called Silkies. One of them had been dyed blue and pink. They kept coming around hoping for a hand out so this morning as we were finishing packing up and getting rid of stuff they were treated to some left over dry oatmeal. It was quite comical as the male (rooster) kept calling all his girls to come for a treat. Most trees in the campground had bromeliads growing on them.

The start of our drive this morning was through an agricultural area – banana trees, coffee and mangos. Also through some eucalyptus scrubland.

As we got closer to Cairns we found ourselves going over a mountain pass that was VERY WINDING. They have very few passing areas so you just needed to follow the line and make the turns. Must be hard for all the big rigs and they did have a call ahead system for them to warn other big rigs in case they might meet them on a corner. Attached is a view from the top of the pass.

We have been seeing some varied mobile accommodation. One of the vehicles was this “hippie van” we think they had painted themselves. They had outfitted the inside as well and were busy in there cooking up a meal.

When we got back to the rental place there were two young girls returning their vehicle as well. It was pretty comical watching them washing dishes, sorting their stuff and generally doing what we had done last night and this morning. They looked like they had been at it for a while when we got there and were still there when we left. As Alan Jackson sings: “no plans, just livin’ for the minute”.

We just came back from a very good East Indian dinner. It is absolutely pouring out there right now – welcome back to the rainforest!