Getting back onto the main road took the best part of a day, so we made a quick camp at Moreton Telegraph Station.
Another day's drive had us across (the ridiculously overpriced) Jardine River ferry and we pulled into Loyalty Beach just on sunset.
We used Loyalty Beach as a base for several days of explorations around the tip itself.
Despite the extensive rainforest on the cape, the campground itself proved to have the best bird spotting, the emerald dove and palm cockatoo being highlights.
We spent a day driving to the tip itself, and exploring the general area. The view from the tip is excellent, with bays and beaches in both directions and islands scattered offshore. Pajinka, the resort at the tip, was once the place to be, but it no longer operates and has been completely trashed. Not far from the tip are recent historical sites including the remnants of the first settlement at Somerset and assorted WW2 relics and downed aircraft.
It's hard to get the full flavour of the cape without a visit to Thursday Island, so of course we did. We took a ferry to Thursday and Horn Islands, and a bus tour on each. As much as we disparage tour busses, they are a reasonable way to get a taste of an area in a short space of time (especially when you leave your car on the mainland). Thursday and Horn Islands were important military bases for WW2, and Horn recorded the first WW2 death on Australian soil.
Having reached the top, there is only one way to go, south.
We left a few sights for the trip back, the first being the falls, Elliot, Twin and Fruit Bat.
They are some of the few waterholes on the cape that are croc-free, providing a welcome swim.
The very popular campground is large and well spaced, making it a pleasant stay despite the crowds.
The next stop was Captain Billy Landing, an easy drive off the main track. Unlike Chilli Beach, the landing is exposed camping just behind the beach. The disabled-access toilet in such a remote location had Ted somewhat bemused, but it has been said, "build it, and they will come". Like Chilli Beach, the wind was incessant. At low tide we explored the exposed headland, finding numerous small caves. While all of them had a couple of resident bats, one had thousands of them. A rare treat indeed. On the drive out, we spotted another cuscus.
Switching to the west coast, we headed to Weipa.
The only campground in town is noisy and crowded.
Add to that construction that begins at 6:30 on a Sunday morning, and you have a place to avoid.
While in Weipa, we took a tour of a mine on the richest bauxite deposit in the world.
Like the gypsum we saw earlier this year, it's surface mining.
The thin seam ensures that the mine face is moving constantly, and regeneration proceeds in concert.
Continuing south and returning to the inland savannah, we stopped a couple of nights in Mungkan Kandju National Park. Based on recommendations, we stayed at Pandanus Lagoon without exploring the rest of the park. It was a perfect camp. Along with the usual waterbirds, there were thousands of magpie geese on the lagoon. On a couple of occasions they all took to the air, the masses of flapping wings dramatically disrupting the tranquil setting. At Mungkan Kandju there were more mosquitoes than we've encountered anywhere. We even had a couple of white lipped green tree frogs making a home in the dew laden folds of our tent.
Back on the east coast, we stopped a night in Cooktown on the mouth of the Endeavour River. Grassy Hill provides fabulous views of the hinterland, bay and ocean. Captain Cook used it to find a way out past sand bars and reefs after repairing his ship. (He ran aground on the reef on the way north, after claiming Botany Bay for The Queen.) The small town charm of Cooktown will soon vanish, with the sealed road due to reach there in the next year or two.
After a lunch stop at Bloomfield Falls, we headed down the Bloomfield Track.
The track was cut through the rainforest about twenty years ago despite major protests.
When it's dry it's an easy drive, but the steep climbs/descents become treacherous with even minor rain.
There are numerous places to stop and explore, but it's hard to find information about what each place offers.
With campsites booked further south and an overheating companion vehicle, we made few stops.
In Daintree National Park we camped a couple of nights at Noahs Beach, a nice campground with well spaced sites set back from the beach amongst the trees. There was lots of wildlife in the campground, and some are quite precocious. A resident goanna got into the back of the car while our backs were turned, and a marsupial mouse ran up Steve's leg while we were sitting around camp. There are several mangrove and rainforest boardwalks in the area, providing easy access to oddities such as strangler figs and enormous epiphytes. There are also plenty of picturesque beaches and headlands.
In general the signage for trails and points of interest in northern Queensland is reasonable. On one mangrove boardwalk, the information boards were molded metal boards. The one explaining the upward reaching mangrove roots, Steve instantly recognised the resonance potential and delighted us with a mini jam session. Unfortunately, they seem to leave out some crucial signs, so invariably we've ended up back tracking both in the car and on foot. Luckily, we enjoy exploring.
We returned to Cairns via Mossman Gorge.
Like Mount Warning, the car park at Mossman Gorge is woefully inadequate for the usage.
Just a hundred metres down the hiking trail, we stopped at a point where there was intense bird activity.
In under five minutes, we spotted heaps of birds including three species we'd never seen before, the yellow breasted boatbill among them.
After leaving that spot, we did not see another bird, and by the time we returned all the activity in that one spot had ceased.
Timing is everything.
For Steve's last day in Australia, we took the Skyrail to Kuranda, returning on the scenic railway. Despite the expense, the Skyrail provides a unique view of the rainforest from above. Kuranda is a huge tourist trap. Endless shops mostly selling useless Chinese made trinkets to Japanese tourists. As if Cairns itself doesn't have enough of that. Kuranda is also home to a butterfly sanctuary which Steve, the entomologist, enjoyed. The train ride down is an interesting trip through history (despite the diesel locos).
After putting Steve on his plane, we took the car in for a major service. Ignoring local advice, we took the cruiser to the local Cairns Toyota dealer. Pacific Toyota did a dreadful job, ignoring critical tasks while doing work that was unnecessary. We can attest that they fully deserve the bad reputation they have earned.
In the pursuit of work opportunities, we attended a very interesting meeting. Of interest were maps of recent fires on the cape showing clearly the balance between rainforest and savannah (less fire prone rainforest fringing the east coast). The aerial photos at various resolutions and in different frequencies provide an excellent insight into the landscape on the cape. Perhaps we might be lucky enough to work with these people sometime in the future.
After repacking the car with the gear we stored, we parted company with Jo and Ted and headed into the Atherton Tablelands. We made camp at Lake Tinaroo again, in incessant wind and rain. (King tides and gale force winds caused major flooding and beach erosion in Cairns that night.) Visiting the small patches of rainforest on the tablelands not cleared for farming, we saw Cathedral and Curtain figs. Each is a strangler fig that has managed to grow into massive and unusual shapes.
Since we been on the east coast, it has rained most of the time.
One downside of all the rainforest we've been seeing is RAIN.
We're beginning to wonder what happened to the sunny Queensland shown in all the advertising?
Wet tents are no fun, so we took a cabin for a couple of nights, and used the opportunity to do a little work for a Sydney customer.
The rain and the mountains combine to create plenty of waterfalls. With the rain finally easing, we began exploring those the Atherton Tablelands has to offer. Mt Hypipamee National Park has not only a waterfall, it is also home to The Crater. It is a volcanic vent, small but deep, smooth sided and half full of water. Of course all this is set in rainforest, so there are plenty of vines and buttressed roots along the trails.
Descending to the coast and heading south, we stopped in at Mission Beach.
It's one of the many towns we'd heard of, but not seen.
They say it's the easiest place to spot a cassowary, but not for us.
Continuing south, we start to pass the first of the islands that fringe this part of the coast.
Dunk, Bedarra, and the biggie, Hinchinbrook.
It would be really nice to be able to explore some of them.
Instead, we explored (the more readily accessible) Edmund Kennedy National Park.
Along the lengthy mangrove boardwalk, mosquitoes shadowed our every move.
At one point we spotted three rufous owls resting the day away peacefully, untroubled by the mossies that were eating us alive.
As we continued down the coast, we sidetracked repeatedly back into the mountains. Murray Falls has an excellent campground, and like many along this stretch of coast has a (cold) shower. Passing through Ingham, we explored the Tyto Wetlands. Its position beside a garbage dump ensures that the sky is full of kites, ravens, and ibis. The wetland itself has the usual waterbirds, along with a few red backed fairy wrens and heaps of crimson finches. The real treat for us though was a horsfelds cuckoo.
The next diversion was via a long winding climb to Wallaman Falls in Girringun National Park. At 260 metres, it is the tallest permanent waterfall in Australia. The park has a nice campground, and some excellent hikes. On one of the rainforest hikes we spotted a pied monarch, and in the campground we used our mammals book to identify a red legged pademelon. (Pademelon seems such a strange name for an animal!)
Back on the coast (again) we stopped at Lucinda for lunch. The claim to fame here is the wharf, the longest sugar loading facility in Australia. At six kilometres, they it is long enough that the design is affected by the curvature of the earth. With no public access, we could not verify that claim. Why is it that every tourist attraction is the largest/tallest/longest whatever, and has a monster list of qualifiers to rule out the competition?
In a piece of Paluma Range National Park not far off the highway, we stopped at Jourama Falls.
Another nice campground, another cold shower, and another waterfall.
At the waterfall we spotted a pair of juvenile raptors, but we could not decide if they were brown goshawks or collared sparrowhawks.
Paluma Range National Park continues further south, and another excellent winding mountain road leads to some great lookouts.
On the hike through the rainforest to Witts lookout, we spotted riflebirds and chowchillas.
On the way back down to the coast we stopped at the historic bridge over Little Crystal Creek for lunch.
When we parted company with Jo and Ted in Cairns, they were planning a faster trip than us. We caught up with them again in Townsville, where the Disco was awaiting further repair, having arrived there under tow. After getting an overview of Townsville from Castle Hill, a lookout on a substantial hill on the edge of the CBD, we visited a few of the sights. The local council has done a great job with the foreshore, and Reef HQ does a reasonable job of bringing the reef indoors. Our camp on Rowes Bay was home to a pair of barking owls, but we couldn't figure out which bird was being torn to pieces for the fledgling. A walk around nearby Cape Pallarenda gave us a quick look at the old quarantine station and some old gun emplacements.
We've made it a fair way south already. Townsville and the surrounding hills are dry. The wet rainforest occurs only on the higher elevations. On the beaches of the cape we had frigate birds gliding past. Now the soaring birds along the beach are brahminy kites. Unfortunately, we are now outside the range of the cassowary, and have not had a sighting.