A 45 minute drive, 65km north-east from Hughenden is the enchanting Porcupine Gorge National Park. Overnight camping available at Pyramid Campground. An easily accessible lookout provides a view from the top of the gorge but the hike down to the bottom of the gorge is worth doing. The landscape at the bottom is varied and geologically interesting. Cool off with a swim at the waterhole at the bottom or just relax. Then walk around the bottom of the gorge to look at the bizarre rock formations and the many colours in the rock.

When passing through Hughenden, either to or from Porcupine Gorge, stop for a break at the historic Coolabah tree. This tree is part of the Burke and Wills story. These explorers were the first to traverse from the bottom of Australia to the top but died trying to head south for home. This tree was “blazed” i.e. marked by a couple of the rescue expeditions sent to find Burke and Wills. Their deaths were not in vain because the detailed notes Wills took along the journey which contributed to an understanding of what grazing land was available and assisted in opening up the country.

Around 100 to 115 million years ago, current day outback Queenland, was dominated by a vast inland sea teeming with life. It seems quite improbable when looking at the sparse, dusty landscape in the area today. In Richmond, a tiny town of only 650 residents, there is a fabulous museum called Kronosaurus Korner. Despite being only a small town museum, most of the fossils are world class! Upon entering the museum, you are introduced to the world as it was 100 million years ago with an animated video showing the strange and wonderful creatures that lived in the water at the time. This video really helped contextualise the fossil displays and brought these amazing animals to life!

Another marvelous aspect of this museum is that they allow ordinary people to purchase permits, at only $5, to dig for fossils at a couple of nearby sites. It is easy to assume that this is a tourism gimmick until you peruse the museum and see that a number of the most complete and interesting fossils have come in recent years from the free dig site and were found by ordinary people and tourists having a go!

The highlight of Richmond, Queensland is undoubtedly, Kronosaurus Korner. Despite that, do not leave without an easy stroll around the artifical Lake Fred Tritton. The path around the lake is well lit at night and wheelchair accessible. If you circumnavigate the lake clockwise, you will come across small brass plaques set into the walking path detailing the history of Richmond in chronological order. A lovely touch for visitors and a beautiful example of Richmond community pride. The lake is also stocked with fish for recreational fishing.

The commercial and population hub in outback, north Queensland is Mount Isa. The heart of this town is the Mount Isa Mines which mines for copper, lead, zinc and silver.

The town of Mount Isa is dominated by the imposing smoke stacks a short distance away in the mineral processing site now run by Glencore. There are three stacks, the largest of which is for the lead smelter. It was increased to it’s present tremendous height (270 m) in response to concerns about lead pollution of the town. This town is not unlike Karratha or Gladstone. Industry forms the beating heart of the town, it’s not traditionally pretty but plenty of people live and work here.

Around the back of the mines is a pretty, tidy and green suburban area. It seems more well off that other areas of Mount Isa. (Was that a gardener we spied as we cruised around for our quick tour?) In this area, there is also a heritage listed building called Casa Grande. This home was built in 1949 for the general manager of the mine. At the time, this was the largest house in outback Queensland and reflects a period when the mine finally became profitable after years of struggle which includes the depression and World War 2 years. The pretty suburb around Casa Grande is where the current managers and executives of the Mount Isa Mines have their homes.

Encourage those of you who are interested to read the Wikipedia article on the story of the Mount Isa Mine and the very significant adversities that were overcome as it developed into the very profitable and extensive operation it is today. Included, are some great stories of the world-class innovations that the miners pioneered at the plant. These innovations have since been employed elsewhere in the world under license.

Driving 17km north of Mount Isa, will bring you to Lake Moondarra. This serene, artificial lake was made to provide water for the town and the mine. It has recreational areas on it’s banks and is used by locals for canoeing, boating, fishing, BBQs and picnics.

Loitering at the recreational areas on the banks of the lakes are a number of peacocks. These birds are clearly used to being fed as they will approach any soft hearted candidates with enthusiasm and hope!

The annual highlight in Mount Isa is the Mount Isa Rodeo. This is the biggest rodeo event in the southern hemisphere and is a well run and highly entertaining few days. Surprisingly, the music being played by the resident DJ was a real highlight and was sufficiently up-beat and intense to add to the frenetic performances from the competitors. Thankfully, country music was kept to a minimum.

The rodeo is also a great opportunity for people-watching country style with ‘fashions on the field’ consisting of cowboy hats and jeans plus well heeled boots.

The various bucking animals are induced to perform so spectacularly by the use of a so-called ‘flank strap’. This drives them crazy and induces the crazy twisting and jumping motion. The rodeo guide explained that the flank strap is not actually in contact with the beast’s genitals as happened in the past or perhaps still goes on with less scrupulous operators. It was remarkable how the animal calmed in a matter of moments once the flank strap was removed.

The bare-back bronc event consists of the same process, but with the absence of a saddle, it makes for wild ride indeed. The unfortunate rider makes a convincing impersonation of a rag doll as the horse tries to remove him from it’s back. Suspicions are that the competitors brains will be adversely affected from all the impact.

Sideshow alley wasn’t drawing many customers when we were there, COVID no doubt wasn’t helping.

Burke and his faithful Wills are a celebrated tragedy and perhaps an example of the courageous amateur biting off more than they can chew. This duo were the first to travel from Melbourne, in the bottom of Australia to the Gulf of Carpentaria at the top but died not long after starting their journey back down. Nevertheless, hats off to these and others who opened up this vast, brown land. Whilst ruminating on the experience these men and their unfortunate followers went through as they suffered and died, we couldn’t help but wonder if the whole trip would have been easier with some participation from the Aborigines (even if not from the local area). It’s also not clear why the didn’t send through another party by ship to meet them at the Gulf of Carpentaria.

From lush tropical rainforests to the sparse, desolate, dusty outback, this journey took us through very contrasting landscapes. The buzzy tourist filled city of Cairns to the small fishing town of Karumba, and a number of interesting stops in between.

Cairns is one of the best cities in Australia in the cold months of the year (in my opinion). The weather in July is perfection! The roads around Cairns is flat with plenty of infrastructure to make cycling very safe. There are free Zumba classes around town paid for by the Cairns council. The lagoon(free beachside public swimming pool) is gorgeous and there are lots of restaurants reflecting the multicultural communities that call Cairns home. Around Cairns is the Great Barrier Reef and a whole bunch of waterfalls and other verdant natural sights.

Not far outside of Cairns is the Atherton tableland regions. This is considered tropical dairy country. The countryside is fertile and lush. There are plenty of waterfalls, waterholes and walks to visit. Only two waterfalls are mentioned here but there are plenty more! We camped beside Lake Tinnaroo and beside a pretty creek out the back of the Tall Timbers Caravan Park near Ravenshoe. Ravenshoe is the highest town in Queensland so the overnight temperature was much cooler than in Cairns!

From the Atherton tablelands, we headed to the Undara Volcanic National Park. A “must-do” on the way there is to stop at a town called Innot Hot Springs. You can either experience the hot springs at the natural creek outside the caravan park or you can pay $10 per person to enjoy the hot mineral waters inside the park where it is directed into 6 different temperature controlled pools. We found the natural creek to be very shallow, muddy and mossy. The water can be scalding in areas so be careful! People get their shovel and make pools which mix some hot and cooler water to get a place to soak at the right temperature.

We headed inside the caravan park and found a good facility with pools ranging in temperatures up to 45C. You can soak outdoors or indoors and it was incredibly relaxing. It’s also a good place for a chat with other travelers.

Feeling relaxed, we continued our journey to the Undara Experience Caravan Park. The scenery is now much more dusty and sandy. The lava tube tour at Undara Experience was interesting and there are some underwhelming walks nearby to do.

Driving to Croydon from Undara, feels like we are truly in the outback. There is not even a sniff of mobile signal and the major highway often annoying reduces to a single lane.

Croydon is an interesting tiny town of 250 with an interesting gold rush history. Gold was discovered in the later 1800s causing the town to boom as people rushed to mine the gold. There is an informative video at the information centre which details the history. Amongst the people who rushed to find wealth were Chinese people. Due to racism, the Chinese were unable to mine for gold till the lease had been mined for 3 years. Instead, many of the Chinese people started market gardens. Nurturing a profitable market garden in this inhospitable climate which is either desperately bone dry or much too wet is no easy feat. The Chinese supplied the town with their fresh fruit and vegetables but it was due to much hard work hand carrying water and hand watering their plants with just the most meagre ration of water required to survive.

Onwards to Karumba, the town on the Gulf of Carpentaria. This is a sleepy, fishing obsessed town. There were a lot of locusts about when we visited so correspondingly, there were a number of birds enjoying a feast! There is absolutely no Optus network signal in Karumba but in Normanton, an hour inland, there is a mobile tower and super strong Optus mobile signal!

Don’t forget to visit Krys the 8.6m crocodile replica in Normanton. This is supposed to be a replica of the largest crocodile shot in the area by a Polish lady named Krys in 1957. Unfortunately, the measurement was not verified. The largest officially verified crocodile (as per the Guinness Book of Records) is 6.17m.

The Norman River runs past the town of Normanton. There is a double lane vehicle bridge that spans the river. There is also a separate bridge specifically for fishing!! It comes with many useful things for an enjoyable fishing day like rod holders, shade structures, BBQs, picnic tables and running water!! What an amazing piece of infrastructure for this tiny town of 1200 people!

The lush rainforest region of the Daintree is very beautiful. Catch the ferry across the Daintree River and tour this charming region around Cape Tribulation. This area is accessible by 2WD until just north of Cape Tribulation. Despite this, there is plenty to see with a 2WD and it is worth taking a few days or a long day trip to check it out. The ferry is very quick and runs frequently during daylight hours. This whole area is beautiful enough to be a national park but it also includes commercial businesses like accommodation, stores, restaurants and caravan parks. There area also private residences, schools and farmland e.g. tropical fruit orchards.

Prior to our visit to Cape Tribulation, we were warned online about the lack of mobile data in the region. This proved not to be true. Whilst patchy in some parts, there was plenty of reliable (Optus) mobile data in the region. We had no issues whilst staying at Cape Tribulation Camping with mobile data. The highlight of this caravan park was the private walking trail from the back of our campsite to Myall Beach. From there, it was only a short walk up the beach to reach the Dubuji Boardwalk.

A must visit location in the area is the Daintree Ice Cream Company. They make ice cream from the locally grown tropical fruits. We had a yummy taster of 4 flavours – wattleseed, black sapote, mango and coconut for $7.50. The best part of the visit however is the self guided walking tour you can do around their property to view about 25 different fruiting trees and plants. It’s particularly fascinating because these fruits are not the usual supermarket offerings!

Mossman Gorge is a must visit if you are in the vicinity. It’s the premier attraction of the region as evidenced by the large carpark. There is a large building with a souvenir shop, cafe and shuttle buses. All this infrastructure is located about 3kms from the start of the Mossman Gorge trails. All visitors are strongly encouraged to pay for tickets and catch the shuttle bus. We chose to walk the 3km instead. It’s a straightforward and quite lovely walk along the road and an easy way to save some money. There are several well trodden trails in the Mossman Gorge area as well as a few safe swimming areas. Be warned however that the water temperature is almost uncomfortably cold for swimming despite the warm humidity of the day. The whole area is magical in it’s beauty as you will see in these photos.

Close to the town of Mossman is a tiny one street, waterfront town of Newell Beach, population 336. It’s a relaxing location with a delightful beach.

Cooktown is the northern-most town that is accessible by 2WD vehicles on the east coast of Australia. Cooktown is about 4 hours north of Cairns via in the inland route. If you have a 4WD, you can also access Cooktown via the coastal route via Bloomfield. There is plenty in and around Cooktown to pleasantly occupy a visitor for a 3 night stay. This is our itinerary!

Day 1 – Drive up to Cooktown and Orient Yourself

On the drive up to Cooktown via the inland route via Mulligan Highway, there are a couple of lookouts worth stopping at to stretch your legs. Stop at Bob’s Lookout near Desailly and at the Black Mountain National Park lookout.

When you get to Cooktown, orient yourself by heading up to the Grassy Hill Lookout. The 360 degree view is spectacular!!

Day 2 – Visit Sights South of Cooktown

Start the day with a visit to Keating’s Lagoon Conservation Park which is only 10 minutes south of Cooktown. It’s a very pretty area and has a structure for birdwatching.

After that, head further south to the Home Rule Rainforest Lodge and Camping. There are clear signage and trail markers from behind this property for walking to Home Rule Falls. The hike to Home Rule Falls is a bit strenuous and tricky in parts but the reward at the end is definitely worth it. The falls are magical and to have time at such a spectacular sight without any other visitors is really special. The pictures does not do it justice at all!

Drive further south past Bloomfield to the dry (alcohol free) town of Wujal Wujal. The jewel of this town is the magnificent Wujal Wujal Falls. There are supposed to be areas in this town where crocodiles can be spotted sunning themselves on the riverbank at low tide but we were unable to spot any!

Head north home via the famous Lion’s Den Pub. This is a classic outback pub reminiscent of the Daly Waters pub in the Northern Territory.

Day 3 – Visit Sights North and around Cooktown

Start the day by driving about 30 minutes north to the Endeavour Falls Tourist Park. The delightful Endeavour Falls is a short walk from behind this park.

Only 10 minutes north from Endeavour Falls is Isabella Falls. This location is a safe swimming hole (i.e. no crocodiles!) It’s a good spot for a refreshing albeit chilly dip!

Make your way back to Cooktown to spend sometime at the Cooktown Museum. Stroll through the small but charming Cooktown Botanic Gardens. Don’t forget to drive through the botanic gardens to see Finch Bay. A splendid looking beach but as with most water bodies in this region, swimming is prohibited due to the risk of crocodiles.

Whilst in Cooktown, the markets are worth a quick walk if you are there on a Saturday morning. It’s held down by the waterfront. Even if the markets are not running, the waterfront area is worth a stroll as there are many public artworks documenting the history of the region. A local’s secret in Cooktown is an unassuming, low key cafe on the waterfront next to the laundromat. Head to the Riverside Cafe in the morning to pick up a reasonably priced French patisserie style sweet treat!

An interesting (and perhaps worrying) thing to note is that when we visited, we noticed a lot of “for sale” signs. Many businesses, plots of land and residential properties had “for sale” signs displayed. It is not clear why. Potentially, these may be a profitable purchase if the Bloomfield track is made accessible for 2WD allowing greater volumes of visitors (and attracting more residents) up to Cooktown.

Granite Gorge Nature Park is a bit of a hidden gem. Its only 16 minutes outside of Mareeba or 70 minutes from Cairns in Northern Queensland. The landscape and vegetation around here is much drier than the lush wet tropics of Cairns. The caravan park is lovely but the highlights of this park are the gorge walk, the tiny, cute Mareeba Rock Wallabies and the huge number of animals at the park.

Visitors at this park are allowed to feed the wallabies with pellets purchased from reception. We didn’t feed them but as they are so used to being fed, they are quite tame and will approach closely to any humans with expectant looks on their little faces. We therefore managed to get many good photos.

There are huge number of animals around the park. It would be great for kids but also fascinating for us adults! There are noisy geese and fluffy, fancy chickens wandering about loose, a pig, ponies, lizards, water dragons, guinea pigs, snakes and lots of colourful birds. The lady at reception offered us several times the opportunity to hold these animals if we wanted. We also chanced upon the feeding of the snakes with mice and chicks. These were dead before feeding the snake but warmed to tempt the snakes to eat!

The walking tracks that go from behind the reception building are a little tricky in places but worth doing for the spectacular and unusual boulder filled scenery. The shorter, yellow marked walk is easier and takes you to a pretty water body for swimming. The much harder, red marked walk involves a fair amount of clambering over rocks but you can see dinosaur footprints and a pretty gorge lookout!

If you are in the vicinity of Mareeba, Skybury Coffee is worth a visit. It has a cafe on a high balcony overlooking the pretty vista and free tastings of coffee, papayas and papaya jam at the shop. The most fascinating part of this operation is how they double crop papaya trees and coffee trees. There is a small movie theater and signage with information about this method of farming.

The papaya trees are planted and these produce fruit for sale between 8 months and 2.5 years. When the tree gets to a certain height, young coffee trees are planted under the papaya trees. The papaya trees protect and shade the young coffee trees while they mature to a productive age. Coffee trees planted under papaya trees mature to productivity much faster than those planted alone. Once the coffee trees are ready for harvest, the papaya trees will have passed their useful age and have been removed. This method increases the yield from the same bit of land with only a marginal increase in water and fertilizers. Fascinating stuff!!

This part of the North Queensland is dominated by sugar cane fields. The soil is rich and dark and the sugar cane often grows higher than 2m. This fertile soil also grows mango trees and bananas. The mango trees in the plantations are pruned to keep them short and more manageable for picking. Colourful plastic bags cover the developing combs of bananas to protect them from pests and improve the yield. There are cane train tracks to carry the cane to the sugar mills.

Wallaman falls, about 50 minutes inland from the town of Ingham is really spectacular. Potentially, it was particularly stunning and swollen when we were there as there were a few days of rain prior. The water falls a great distance of 268m making it the highest, permanent, single drop waterfall in Australia. The power of the waterfall creates huge plumes of spray. There is a hike from the lookout at the top to the bottom of the falls. It’s not the easiest hike but worth the effort to feel the power of the falling water at the bottom lookout and the spray of it on your face.

Driving north from Ingham to Cardwell, you will pass the Hinchinbrook Lookout. This stunning lookout must have cost the local government a fortune to build as it consists of a highway offramp and a vehicle bridge that goes over the major Bruce Highway. Throughout our journeys, we have been astounded at the quality therefore cost of public infrastructure in Australia. Is this the best way to spend money? Could the same outcome be achieved with less money and the remaining money used for something else or left in the taxpayer’s pocket? The view from the lookout is pretty spectacular.

We overnighted in Cardwell. One of Cardwell’s claim to fame is it’s resident, massive crocodile named Bismarck. In Australia, crocodiles are a protected species (as are all native animals), so ‘taking care of it’ would be a crime. However, it’s common practice in the Northern Territory where a crocodile has encroached into populated areas, to ‘re-locate’ it to a remote stretch of river. The interesting thing then is what happens to the re-located croc? Since saltwater crocodiles are intensely territorial, the new kid on the block is likely to be on another croc’s turf and a a fight to the death then ensues. Nevertheless, despite being a waterfront-centric, tourist town, locals do not want this big crocodile relocated. The lady at the tourist centre said that “The Bismarck” loves publicity and would wave at you if it could! Google Cardwell croc to get some videos of what this croc has been up to! It seems to be a matter of time before an ignorant tourist gets chomped and then the local authorities will be forced to decide that something needs to be done!

On the way north from Cardwell is a cool and refreshing (and safe) swimming hole called Alligator’s Nest. It is a really great place to stop for a picnic and a swim. Just look out for the Bullrout fish (like a stonefish) which has dangerous spines that will get you if you step on one. Of course these fish are cunningly camouflaged in the river sand, so maybe “watch out” is the wrong thing to do, since you won’t spot one until it’s too late. Just another way that Australia’s natural wonders get their own back from time to time.

The lady at the tourist information centre at Cardwell was delightfully biased towards Cardwell. She told us that the (famous) Mission Beach was “boring”. We got to Mission Beach and was pleasantly greeted by a stunning, broad, world class, white sand beaches fringed by coconut trees. Idyllic! The main street has a very touristy feel.

Just inland of Mission Beach is Djiru National Park. The Licuala Rainforest Circuit is worth finding for the beautiful Fan Palm Rainforest Walk. These massive palm leaves are really beautiful.

About 20 minutes south of Innisfail, Paronella Park is touted as the Number 1 tourist attraction in Queensland. That’s a big call! Together with the $50 per adult entry fee, my expectations were extremely high! It’s pretty enough as the photos attest but you can actually access the highlight of the park for free. The Mena Creek Falls can accessed for free from the suspension bridge just down the street from the park entrance. From the bridge, you can see some of the old castle structures. It could be then suggested that perhaps it isn’t worth paying the $50 steep entry fee. The real star of Paronella Park was the 1m long eel which hangs around a fast flowing creek hoping the tourists will feed it!

Note: If you have the Entertainment discount, there is a 2 for 1 discount at Paronella Park.

This is a beautiful part of the world, especially in July when the temperature is perfect and a welcome escape from the Australian winter down south. The ground is fertile and the landscape is lush and green.