We stayed two nights in Cairns at the Lake Placid caravan park. Not free or even budget but nice. The actual lake is beautiful and it sure is placid. From there we headed up to Crystal Cascades but the multitude of steep steps precluded me getting down to the water. Helena went down but she said the water was freezing so she didn’t go in. We had Devonshire tea at Edmonton just down the road (the shop where we had done similar a couple of years ago) then onto Babinda where we stayed in the incredibly crowded free camping grounds. It rained in the night but the hot showers were superb.
On Wednesday night we took a punt and drove in to Hull Heads for a look and found this great free camping site run by the local coastal patrol/Lions Club.
Across the road was the ocean with spectacular views of Dunk Island. And the sunset that night was wonderful.
Good thing we put the awning back because it blew up really windy during the night. In the morning we managed to get in a good day, through Cardwell, Ingham, Townsville and Ayr and ended up at Home Hill at the showground. The last part of the trip was completed through rain that ranged from light to torrential and setting up camp in the showery rain wasn’t fun. However, the Minibago is waterproof and we managed a good night’s sleep awaking to still more heavy rain.
By yesterday the lack of sun for the last three days had depleted the batteries and so no solar power. However, phones charge off the car battery and we took off to spend nearly all the day being rained upon. We took the detour down to Airlie Beach which is rather too over-commercialised for my liking. Back out onto the highway we pulled in mid-afternoon at Proserpine vowing to not put in another wet night. So we’re tucked up in a motel watching TV and worrying about the fact that the weather forecast is predicting 100-150mm of rain for Mackay tomorrow. We may have to stay another night!
Regardless, our trip is continuing to be an outstanding success. We have seen some wonderful country and the memories are everlasting. Talking to another camper this morning he remarked that he can’t understand people who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on RVs. “After all,” he said, “They still only see the same country that we see.” I do believe that he is right.