Day 1

After spending longer at Adels Grove than we had originally planned we had to hurry across Queensland and get to Cairns in time for Paj’s service that we had booked in to prepare for our journey to Cape York.

Our first stop was at Normanton. There are two ‘big things’ in this town. The big barramundi outside a hotel and the big crocodile outside the shire offices. The big crocodile is actually a life size replica of the largest crocodile ever recorded, a massive 8.63 meters in length.

We had a wander around town before deciding that the Central Hotel looked like our best option for dinner. We grabbed ourselves a table on the veranda. The meals were a little slow to come out but more than made up for themselves in value for money. We had both ordered the chicken parmigana. The chicken was HUGE and came with a healthy serving of chips and nice fresh salad.

We didn’t over do it and were back in camp for an early night and another big drive the following day.

Normanton’s purple pub

The big crocodile, Normanton QLD

The Big Crocodile

A lot of driving

Day 2

We decided to get an early start and headed off without breakfast. We stopped at a roadhouse and grabbed something to eat. While we were there Emma used their bathroom. Craig was mildly concerned when he heard her startled screech emanating from the bathroom. She emerged shortly after to explain that a green tree frog was using the toilet bowl as a home and had emerged when she flushed the toilet, somewhat startling her. Craig was still laughing and the roadhouse manager was smirking away in the back as we left.

The rest of the day was uneventful as we made our way across the state. We noticed the landscape become greener as the land grew more fertile. We called it a day after eight hours of solid driving we pulled up at Ravenshoe in the Atherton Tablelands.

The weather was noticeably cooler at this altitude (920mtrs above sea level). We grabbed a pizza and sat rugged up inside the tent and watched some telly on the laptop.

Day 3

We drove the descending winding roads through the Great Dividing Range landing at our destination two hours later. We were in Cairns, back on the east coast of Australia again.