Road to Cairns

After Magnetic Island, we were only a short distance from the road trip’s final destination: Cairns.

We made some stops along the way, fully enjoying the drive.

First stop was Wallaman Falls. At 268m, it’s the highest permanent single drop waterfall in Australia (gotta love those titles)….:  

There was a rainbow forming with the mist and sunshine at the base of the falls. As the water moved, the colour would move fluidly with it:

Some beautiful cows in the lowlands near Wallaman Falls:

Scenic overlook of Hinchinbrook Island National Park:

This overlook spot celebrated the Wet Tropics World Heritage area, parts of which stretched from Townsville to beyond Cairns. Much of this area is rainforest, and it’s home to more than half of Australia’s butterfly species, a third of Australia’s 315 mammal species (13 of them endemic – found only in this area), and, best of all, almost half of Australia’s birds! (The area is home to over 370 species – a bird lover’s paradise!)

We free camped one night at a rest area off the road near Mission Beach. The rest area was bordered on one side by the highway and on the other by a train track, but it was surrounded by trees and somehow was very quiet.

Best of all, I made friends with another camper’s dog, Muttly. I think he kind of looks like a dingo… I’ve noticed quite a few dogs in Australia that look like their ancestors were probably domesticated dingos:

The next day we did a short hike to see Josephine Falls:

After that, Karin drove the car the last stretch of the way for me (I was a bit tired). I got to enjoy relaxing in the backseat, taking in the scenery. Some of my favourite scenes along this trip have been the valleys, full of sugar cane fields, and the mountains rising up on the sides:

Finally, after leaving Sydney in July, spending 45 days living out of my car, picking up two friends, convoying with four other cars, meeting countless people, and travelling over 3100 kilometres – we arrived, that evening, in Cairns.