Hitting the Road - Cairns to Proserpine

Tuesday 18 to Thursday 20 April

Today marked a departure from the norm in our travels; no more hostels for a while - time to hit the Aussie roads in our campervan!

Naturally we thought it best to hire something subtle and discrete, so as not to draw attention to a couple of Pommie tourists.

Note the first appearance of my rather fetching 'Squashie' hat which Sharon bought me at Uluru.

Anyway, all fuelled up and raring to go we set off north from Cairns to the Atherton Tablelands. We had planned a number of walks and activities for this beautiful region. First up was a scenic cable-car ride at Karunda. No chance. An earlier tourist train failure had caused a huge backlog of visitors awaiting the cable-car ride and we were told that we would not be able to get on that day. Bit of Singapore cable-car deja-vu here...

We continued onward to the Barron Gorge, with the promise of a spectacular waterfall and here, thankfully, we were not disappointed:

We managed to grab some great snaps before the heavens suddenly opened; the downpour was torrential and relentless. Taking our chances during brief lull we sped back to the van and made our way to our very first overnight camp spot at Granite Gorge.

On Wednesday morning it became clear that the severe weather conditions were going to dash our plans of doing some walking around the Gorge (we were getting a foretaste of Cyclone Monica, which was to make landfall to the north of us two days later).

We left the campsite early with the notion of outrunning the atrocious weather by heading south. A brief respite from the rain allowed us to enjoy the scenic route through the mountains from Atherton to Gordonvale, but we didn't stop that day before reaching Townsville. A notable stop for me as the Townsville Brewing Company helped slake my thirst for a decent pint of non-lagerish beer.

We camped that night at a BP truckstop; cost free and with all facilities on hand!

We just couldn't resist the opportunity to get up close and personal with some Australian wildlife on Thursday morning, and so spent an enjoyable few hours at the Billabong Nature Sanctuary just south of Townsville.

Of course, we saw the usual suspects

and even got to feed a few

But we weren't prepared for the breathtaking cuteness of one-year-old Nugget (he's the Wombat, not the keeper):

Less cute were the snakes; whilst I was happy to stroke them Sharon exhibited a previously repressed, but total, phobia of snakes. Could be a bit of a problem if you plan to go bushwalking in Oz...

Camping just south of the small town of Proserpine was vastly improved via the partial consumption of a three-litre wine box of a decent (and exceptionally reasonably priced) Merlot. Well, it'd be rude not to...